Come the Zombie Apocalypse!

Codex Inquisition @ Faeit 212

Well this definitely explains the lack of Inquisitors with the Adepta Sororitas. I always thought the Hereticus were missing in the WD edition of their codex glad to see them back. The question then is are they taken as allies or as part of the army? Follow the link for the article.


Codex Inquisition @ Faeit 212

Tau Codex Review: Kroot @ 3++

This is a pretty good article on the Kroot and since our Tau player for some reason has a issue with the naked bird people I figured I would re-post it here so that he could read it for himself. I have been trying to explain to him that the Kroot can fill some gaps in his list that he is currently having issue with. So here it is.

Tau Codex Review: Kroot @ 3++

Eldar POV: Eldar vs. Tau w/ Blood Angel Allies

The confusion of others leave me happy. In this case, I was going for points, basically the win. The objective for me was in pushing the enemy army to the objectives with fewer points.  It helped that they stayed away from the trees where the high point count objective were and simply my weakest side. I used the cover provided by trees and ruins to assist in protecting the weakest side of my force. It also helped that the Tau troops and 2 Blood Marine armored units clogged up in the middle of their table edge making movement to the side they needed to be on next to impossible.  

Once I took out the tank on the high point side and cut the one troop unit in half with the explosion caused by the destruction, that side was mine. All I had to do was hold it and concentrate my forces on the opposite side. That all happened on the first turn which I started. It also set their mindset as it really ruined their communication.  Note to other players, play against a team who have familial ties.  Its fun to watch when they start blaming one another for inevitable results.
 
Anyways, this all worked well as my Fire Prism, Vyper and 2 Wraithlords drew much of the ire from the enormous firepower of the Tau and Blood Angels. The fact the they took it well is what surprised me.  I lost the Fire Prism but it took three rounds for that to happen.  Once again, the Fireprism is an awesome weapon, only its useless.  The odds of hitting are minimal.  The awesomeness comes in by the sheer amount of wrath it draws from the enemy.  Its like a freaken magnet and the fact is,  it was cheaper than the waveserpent and the two wraitlords.  

The first tactical error I made came from the deployment of my wave serpent from reserves on turn 2.  The intention was to use it to cut the table in half and get to the enemy table edge on that turn and flank a troop unit.  The problem that I immediately saw with this strategy, but after deployment, was that my rear end would be left wide open for a half of a troop unit of Tau.  Their firepower, though not strong since they were reduced, is massive at close range and I did not want to make that move.  I hated to do it but I had to flank them on the far side of the table from where I entered.  This made the Wave Serpent useless for a round and susceptible to attack.  Ultimately the battle showed this to be a good choice, but also questionable as well.

The goal at this point was to unload the Wraithblades and SpiritSeer on the far table edge for a pincer move.  This initially appeared to be a bad idea as the Tau brought in reserves on that exact table edge and drilled the mess out of my unit.  At that point I knew they were a loss and this proved to be tactical error number two, though once again, I was able to recover.  
I felt they would be able to handle the firepower of the Tau. I found out that they simply cannot at close range unless something else absorbs those hits.  I moved them into HTH and though they won the battle with the Tau, it was costly in both time and point value in a troop unit that was lost in a highly objective based game.  That said, the fact that they did live for a time left me better poised to win the game on turn 5 since most of the enemy was on the low point side of the table.

On turn 5, my tactics proved out to be tried and true as I had the potential to walk away with between 8 and 10 points. Unbelievably though my Vyper wrecked out entering the ruins for the 4 point objective.  My jetbikes, full unit of 5, got taken out in a mass of Tau firepower from a pretty good distance and while in a ton of tree cover for worthless cover saves.  

Disheartened but still winning we went another round.  I wiped the last of their troops on the one objective they had with a Wraithlord loaded with flamers.  He did his job and flamed them to death.  The Waveserpent, advanced behind enemy lines and took on the last remaining troop unit available to the enemy.  

The remaining turn had them running for an objective and having to take down one of my other my wraithlords which was also my warlord which for some reason was ignored the entire game. They needed both to win.

They tied me up on the last round by advancing into a 2 point objective. But being unable to take down the wraithlord who got deny the witch +1 from his warlord trait which saved him from the Librarian.  

So once again.  My Eldar are good enough to win but dice gods hate me just enough to force balance into my world as my forces tie yet again.  

I mean seriously, at this point, I am hating jetbikes.  They cant take a hit on a small space and they are worthless in the way of offensive capabilities.  My Vyper and Waveserpent adds proved themselves worth the points.  My Wraithlords, are downright awesome and simply need to be considered walking tanks. I used them slightly improperly but this was my first battle with them so I live and learn. They will be great back line support. Finally, my Wraithblades. They are great in HTH, they are not so great at getting there. The idea of Waveserpent Wraitblade combo was key, and in a slightly different scenario, they would be awesome, and they will be seen again. All in all, I am happy with my force and feel that with some very slight adjustment on luck on turn 5, I would have annihilated the enemy in concern to points.



George

Arbiter POV: Eldar vs. Tau w/ Blood Angel Allies

Firstly, I am sorry that I don't haven't he battle report up as of yet. I kind of lost track of the camera. So hopefully I will be able to upload the pictures tomorrow and get the report out sometime this week.

Secondly, since I don't currently have the battle report up I decided to give a POV of the battle. I must say that for the entirety of the seven turn game I had no clue what so ever the two side were doing. I couldn't figure out if a battle plan was even thought up. It looked like there may have been something on turn two but if there was it completely fell apart by turn three. Not sure what was up with the Deployment but that may have been due to space restrictions. The table we are playing on currently is a bit undersized for 1000 point games. I am planning of fixing the issue over the next month so larger battles should be coming soon.We had our first turn 1 vehicle kill and that was mostly due to a pair of Bright Lances and a clear lane of fire.

It appeared that luck and reactionary movement was the name of the game and while the game was down to the last movement of the final turn before we knew who won it wasn't the most enjoyable game to watch. Lots and lots of shooting with nothing happening or single wound hits. Large amounts of static fire due to being boxed in. I think some of it was my fault as I got a bit carried away with the scenery. Next time I think I will try for something with a little more openness. Couple more clear fire lanes and maybe a way for vehicles to easily cross the field.

Battle: Eldar vs. Tau w/ Blood Angel Allies - Tau/Blood Angel List

So here is the list for the allied side of this battle. I am taking a new tank this time around just to change some things up. I don't actually have the model yet but I will in the near future. We are hoping to take the Eldar down without loosing to many units but then again neither of our armies have played against them before.

Tau (Primary attachment)

HQ - Cadre Fireblade w/ Shield Drone

Elite - 2 XV8 Crisis Team w/ Plasma Rifles, Missile Pod and 2 Shield Drones

T1 - 8 Fire Warriors w/ Pulse Rifles

       1 Shas'ui w/ Shield Drone

T2 - 8 Fire Warriors w/ Pulse Rifles

Fast Attack - 7 Pathfinders 3 w/ Ion Rifles

                    1 Recon Drone

Blood Angels (Allied detachment)

HQ - Librarian w/ The Blood Lance and Blood Boil

T1 - 5 Tactical Marines w/ Sergeant w/ Standard weapons

          Rhino w/ standard weapons

Fast Attack - Baal Predator w/ Twin-linked assault cannon

Heavy Support - Vindicator



I Want Some Ogryn!

It is true, I do want some Ogryn and I want to put them in a Chimera and on turn two have them pop out of said Chimera as close to my opponents front line and unload with their Ripper Guns. I do not care is they survive to see turn three since they will be what most Elite options are to me, a distraction. That is right, I use elites and for the most part all non-scoring troops as a way to distract my opponent from what is really important in most 6e missions, my scoring units.

So take 5 Ogryn add a Priest and place them in a Chimera with a hull mounted Heavy Flamer and send it on its way. You can also add a unit of veterans with flamers and such for support also in a Heavy Flamer Chimera. Not sure how effective it would be but I am pretty sure it will get someones attention. Which is the point of this whole thing to begin with.

My plan has a problem though, the GW Ogryn figs are hideous. Yeah I hate the look of the figs. On top of that the things are $23 a pop and still metal. None of which I want to deal with so I needed an alternative, something cheaper, less ugly, and hopefully not weighing so much. So I started looking and since I didn't want Attila the Ogre and since I am lazy don't want to convert any thing to overly much I left the GW site for other options. That led me to what I found below.

So my plan was 5 Ogryn and the box above gives me 5 Ogrun that have guns similar to Rippers and are on the appropriate sized bases. They are also not hideous and could fit the roles nicely. The best part is that you get 5 for the price of only 3 Ogryn. I think I could live with that.

Upcoming Battle: Eldar vs. Tau w/ Blood Angel Allies - 1000 Points

This Fridays game will be between George's Eldar and Austin's Tau with Scott's Blood Angels as Allies. The Mission is The Scouring on a Dawn of War battlefield. I was actually hoping for a different battlefield but it was not to be. We will be using all the rules as per the Mission. So there is a chance of Night Fight and all the objectives are Mysterious.

It looks like Austin and Scott are going to split their points at 500 point a piece and Austin will be the Warlord. This should be very interesting to say the least and I am actually looking forward this game.I am hoping to get the Army List pretty soon so as soon as I get them I will post them.

Imperial Guard POV: Tau vs Imperial Guard

Let me start off by saying that this was a training game and I was being friendly. So since I was teaching and focusing more on what Austin was doing than remembering what I should have been doing I did forget some stuff. Namely that I could have rerolled the scatter on my griffon. On several occasions, especially in the first turn, it would have come in handy to re-roll the complete misses. I also should have left out the Master of Ordnance. Not that he didn't do his job, just that he would have been better against an army with more troops. Having wide open areas of table for him to scatter into made for a couple of complete misses. My only other complaint is that I screwed up on my deployment of the Chimera. I still believe I should have placed it on the other side of that hill in order to get a better line of movement past the ruins in the center of the board. Other than that i was pretty happy with what I did in this battle.

Battle Report: Tau vs. Imperial Guard - 500 point

This battle was all about Scott and myself teaching his son Austin how to play 40k more competitively, how to think strategically and how minimize making the little mistakes that can lose you the battle. First things first though, Austin did indeed change his list for the game as we expected. The list looked a little like this.

HQ1 - Cadre Fireblade w/ Shield Drone

E1 - 2x Crisis Suits w/ TW Missile Pods, Flamers, Stim Injectors

E2 - 3x Stealth Suits w/ Shas'vre

T1 -  6x Fire Warriors w/ Shas'ui and Shield Drone

T2 -  6x Fire Warriors w/ Shas'ui and Shield Drone

T3 -  6x Fire Warriors


There isn't really anything wrong with the list as far as I can tell other than the Crisis Suits, I would have dropped the flamers and Stim Injectors for Burst cannons but Austin wanted to try out the flamers so we went with it. I can say that the Flamers were only used once in the late game and while they successfully toasted some Imperial Guard they really were ineffective the rest of the game. He would do better taking them against assaulting armies such as his father's Blood Angels.

This is the battlefield we were playing on, as normal the white squares are what will be forest in the future (I am still trying to get trees). There were three objectives; they are straight down the center of the board. Austin took the right side of the table and won first deployment.

And here is his deployment. Actually this is his redeployment, seeing that we were using this as a training session for him we spent a pretty good amount of time talking about deployment. His original deployment had the Crisis Suits and center Fire Warriors swapped and in the open. After a short discussion he ended up with the deployment you see. Also he has his Stealth Suits in reserves.

Below is my deployment and shortly after I failed to seize the initiative and gave Austin is first turn I realized that I made a mistake. I guess that paying more attention to his deployment made me forget what I was supposed to be doing. So the nice pretty pink tank which happens to be my daughters almost finished Immolator just happens to play my Chimera for this game and it carries within it my Veteran Squad. I should have put it on the other side of that hill instead of squishing it in besides my command squad. This would have given me a better line to run through the middle of the board. The headless Leman Russ is acting as my Griffon.

Tau Turn 1 - Turn 1 saw the Tau move! Yeah it doesn't sound overly spectacular but one of the biggest problems that Austin has had with his Tau is sitting on the back line, taking 25% casualties in the shooting phase and then losing the entire unit to routing off the board. So to see him actually move in turn 1 is a great thing. We also see that he isn't bunching up and in the past his bunching up has lost him twice as many figs to blast markers than were necessary. For the most part he moves into a situation where he was only presented by return fire from one unit while still being able to fire. The exception was the unit at the bottom that we though should have moved more in line with the rocks but seeing that all shooting would be through Forest we let him go with what he decided.

After much Tau pulse fire and missiles, the Imperial Guard take only 2 casualties mostly because both of the Infantry units went to ground and I had some lucky cover saves.

The Crisis Suits then decide they didn't want to be fired upon and ducked behind cover. There they are hiding behind the rocks.

Imperial Guard Turn 1 - MY TURN! And the pink tank move forward and drops off some Veterans while my Platoon Command moves up from around the hill to get some shots at the top Fire Warrior squad through the forest. I spread my Company Command out a bit but don't move them in order to use my Master of Ordnance.

Here come my Veterans, just as a note they sucked this game.

My Colonel gave the "Get Back in the Fight" command to the closest Infantry Squad and the Autocannon destroyed the Shield Drone for the lower Fire Warrior squad. Both the Master of Ordnance and the Griffon fire across the table at the two Fire Warrior squads on the far side of the table and both scatter into the open areas. My Platoon command orders "First Rank, Second Rank" and the order is failed. Both the command and the infantry unit that went to ground shoot the hill hiding the furthest most Fire Warrior squad. My Chimera fired off its Multi-laser at the Fire Warriors at the close end of the table but they saved everything. So my turn was over and I was upset at the way my guys were shooting.

Tau Turn 2 - Austin didn't quite move as much as I had hoped going for a wait and see approach to taking the Objectives (moving on turn 4 or 5 to claim them). The crisis suits do pop out of cover again and the Fire Warriors on the close side head towards the next hill. All in all not a lot happens in the movement phase.

Shooting is a bit more interesting though. Pulse rounds and Missiles pound the hell out of my Veterans and see them running for the hills for the first of two times in this game. The Fire Warriors on the far table edge with the help of the Cadre Fireblade felt the need to kill two of my Guardsmen in the far infantry squad and the Crisis Suits return to their camp site for the rest of the turn. Not before putting two glances on my Chimera and sending my Daughter into a rage for nearly destroying her pink tank.

Imperial Guard Turn 2 - Movement was a short affair this turn. I moved my center infantry squad out of the way of the still fleeing veterans and I spread out my Command squad a bit more to see if I could get some shots around the terrain. It took an Order to get the Veterans to turn around and head back to the center of the board. My Chimera also decided to hop across the board in order to scare the Crisis Suits out of cover with its Heavy Flamer.

This was the only turn that my artillery was actually useful. Back across the field and the Fire Warriors crouching behind the building lost 4 of their fellows. Only took both the Master of Ordnance and the Griffon to do it (sigh - I just now remembered that I could have rerolled the Griffons hits). Unfortunately for me they stayed behind that building. The Chimera made a bunch of hits but either no wounds or a bunch of saves, but at least the Crisis Suits had to pull up camp next turn.

Tau Turn 3 - The Crisis Suits popped out of cover and on to the Chimera's Flank for a better chance of penetration with their missile pods.

The Fireblade lead Fire Warriors on the far side of the table moved into a better firing position.

And the Stealth Suits finally made an appearance and flanked my Griffon.

The Fire Warriors unleash a hail of pulse rounds and not an Imperial Guardsmen is left standing, not even going to ground helped me with this one. Tau gain First Blood! 12 Shots later with the Stealth Suits doesn't even see the paint scratched on my Griffon though. I am going to predict that those Stealth Suits are in for a bad day.

Imperial Guard Turn 3 (1 - 0): My Platoon Command moves into the forest to get line up a better shot on the Fire Warriors and to remove a possible cover save from the Forest. The Veterans move back into cover of the center ruins and take the objective once again and my Company Command turn to face the Stealth Suits. The Chimera finally takes the turn around the forest and rocks to get behind the fire warriors on the close table edge and then we unleash hell.

First up, combined fire from the Griffon's mortar and the Company command wipes out the Stealth Suits. My Chimera unleashes a torrent of flame into the back of the close edge Fire warrior team killing off 4 with the help of a single kill from the Multi-laser.

The First rank, Second rank order on my Platoon Command squad with supporting fire from the neighboring Infantry Squad sends the Fireblade Fire Warrior squad into a route.

Tau Turn 4 (1 - 7): The Tau are hurting at this point, with the loss of their commander who routed off the board at the beginning of this turn and two very under strength scoring units one the wings. The crisis suits head for the center objective and use their missile to finally glance the chimera to death (my Daughter was devastated and threw hatred at Austin for this). The close side Fire Warriors consolidate into cover but not much else happens.

Imperial Guard Turn 4 (1 - 4): Most of my units head toward the closest objective marker at this point. My Veterans try sneaking around the edge of the ruins in order to get their meltagun in LoS of the crisis suits.

The veterans are successful in dropping one of the Crisis Suits with the meltagun and combined fire from my Infantry squad and Company Command took out the close side Fire Warriors. The crisis suit passed its morale test.

Tau Turn 5 (1 - 4): The Tau only had a couple of shots in them from the remaining Fire Warriors but the sole surviving crisis suit finally got a chance to use that flamer and toasted two of my veterans. Being the cowardly troops that they were they once again fled.

Imperial Guard Turn 5 (1 - 4): I consolidated my Infantry squad on the center objective but failed to kill the Crisis suit. My Veterans were ordered to halt once again and did so without complaint. I could have moves my company command or griffon up to take the last objective but since i had already won I didn't see any reason to go any further and ended my turn.

Austin had a string of bad luck in the second half of the game that Scott and myself blame on him for making some comments that offended the Dice Gods. The fact that he lost his Stealth Suits in the first turn they showed up didn't help any and if they had survived he could have walked down my back line reaping guardsmen with very little I could do about it. The choice of Flamers on his Crisis Suits also didn't help him out much. In the end it really came down to the luck of the roll than anything. If he had rolled better in the mid to late game he could have easily taken the game.

Painting Vehicles: My Daughters Immolator - part 2

So if you remember a while back I started painting a pink tank for my Daughter. well these are the pictures from the first painting session that I did back then. Now I did find time to do a bit more painting over this last weekend and did a good bit of detail work which I am hoping to get some pictures of very soon.

So here it is in all of its pink. Yes that is an old model Immolator and it is indeed pink and black.

So far so good. There isn't really much to say other than it is mostly all base coating at this point. Thus far though my daughter seems happy with it.

Extra Life - Play Games, Heal Kids

I am asking Jeff to post this in hopes of helping me raise more money for Extra Life.  

My local Children's Miracle Network Hospital treats thousands of children each year, regardless of their family's ability to pay. These kids are facing scary stuff like cancer, cystic fibrosis, and injuries from accidents to name just a few.

On November 2nd, 2013, I'll be participating in this huge worldwide celebration of the social impact of gamers of all kinds from video games to board games and tabletop RPG's! It's my sincere hope that you'll find it in your heart to support my efforts with a monthly pledge or one-time gift that will go directly to my hospital.

Your donation is tax-deductible and ALL PROCEEDS go to help kids.

Last year, Extra Life raised more than 2 million dollars to save kids, but in 2013 our goals, just like the needs of the kids we serve, are much, much higher. I can't do this without your help. Donating online is safe and easy! To make an online donation please click the "Support This Participant" button on this page from the link below. Thank you for caring for our kids!

As an added note, if I do get any donations from people who have read his blog, I will add Dawn of War/ Dawn of War 2 to the list of games I will be playing during the 25 hours.   

http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=46570

Forge World: The Ashen Circle

So if you haven't heard yet, the Ashen Circle are up for pre-order now. These guys and the up coming Lorgar figure are what pushed me over the edge when it came down to deciding whether I was going to finally pursue a Word Bearer army. Unfortunately it will be a while before I can actually start getting anything for them. See I have this horrible problem. I am broke. Yeah it sucks and the simple fact is that I need to buy or know someone that owns (and will let me borrow) the two Horus Heresy rule books just to see what i can take. Now i have read over the first book and it is pretty straight forward and has a load of nice stuff but all the first launch Word Bearer stuff is in the second book which was only just released.

So I will be picking up a couple of these guys at some point but for now I just get to sit here and look at the pretty pictures.

Upcoming Battle: Tau vs Imperial Guard - Tau list

So I am going to present Austin's list for this weekends training battle. Now I did give his father the list I was most likely going to use on Monday, whether or not Austin saw it or referenced it for this list is beyond me. I made only minor changes to the list I gave him and I must say I will be out numbering him by a substantial amount. So here is Austin's list

HQ1 - Cadre Fireblade w/ Shield Drone

E1 - 3x Crisis Team w/ 2x Twin Missile Pods, Burst Cannon, and Stim Injector, 1x Shas-ui with the same

E2 - 3x Stealth Team w/ Shas'vre

T1 - 6x Fire Warriors

T2 - 6x Fire Warriors w/ Shas'ui and Shield Drone


Well we cannot say he didn't bring some fire power but he is also limited on the scoring units. With this list he isn't going to be able to make any mistakes, needs to deploy properly and pretty much needs first shot. Sure he could win with this list but it is not going to be forgiving. Against a army like Space Marines I may think different but against IG I just think this list is going to be difficult to win with. I have been wrong in the past, I said that there was very little chance of my last IG build win and will I did lose it was a very close run. So we will sit down with him before the game and make sure this is what he wants to take and find out what the plan is. If he is happy with it we will let the battle decide if it was the correct choice. Personally I think he needs to get another unit of Fire Warriors on the field or take some Kroot as fodder.

Blood Angels POV: Blood Angels vs Imperial Guard

 

 

 

So walking into this battle I didn't think I was going to roll over the IG but I sure didn't expect to have my butt almost handed to me like I did in the first two rounds. The main issue I figured was due to my bad deployment on one side of the table while the other side was well hidden. This left one of my heavy hitting troops very exposed and losing them caused me a lot of issues.

 

Well losing the deployment toss didn't help to much either seeing how IG can pound the crap out of you in the first turn and leave you open mouthed thinking "WTF!".

 

 

After the first two rounds I was on the verge of giving up but then it slowly started coming back around my way. I ended up having a BIG lucky roll at the end which everyone was shocked over especially me.

 

All in all I think what I took was fine for what I was going up against. I do have to watch my deployment with my troops especially my heavy hitters. Next time I go up against his IG I will be taking a much different approach using Drop Pods and a Rhino to get across the field much faster.



Upcoming Battle: Tau vs Imperial Guard - Imperial Guard list

Here is my list for this Friday's game. While it still isn't exactly what I am looking for it is less restrictive than my previous list.

HQ1 - Company Command Squad w/ Missile Launcher and Master of Ordnance

Troop 1 - Platoon Command Squad w/ Flamer and 2x Infantry Squad with Flamer and Autocannon

Troop 2 - Veteran Squad w/ Meltagun and Flamer, Sergeant w/ Plasma Pistol. Chimera w/ Hull Heavy Flamer

Heavy Support 1 - Griffon w/ Hull Heavy Flamer

This is my test of the barrage rules. While I was going to take a Plasma Gun in the Company Command Squad I decided to go back to my Missile Launcher since the MoO cannot move and then use his Barrage. So in turn 1 I will probably move them away from the table edge and then see what happens. Of course the MoO and the Griffon are the Barrage test and i am hoping to get both LoS and non-LoS shots in just to figure out how bad the accuracy really is and to give my self an idea of how they will fall. You can read about it all you want but until you actually see it in battle it really is hard to judge.

Since this really is a training battle for Austin I will be trying out some tactics that I wouldn't normally try. Since this is technically only my second game with the Imperial Guard, I felt this was the best time to screw up if I am going to do so.

I do have a copy of the first draft list that Austin is going to take against me but we are still going over it and if all is well I will post it tomorrow when it will most likely be finalized. Failing that I will have it up Friday.

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.