Tanks!

I like tanks and it is one of the reason that I had started to pick up Imperial Guard way back in the day. Today I am playing the IG and I have a couple of tanks and after a few games I have realized that I need to take a better looks at what the IG have to offer in the various tanks they can field. Normally I run with a standard Leman Russ and a Exterminator as well as a Chimera for my Veterans. Now I have had a very high success rate with my Chimera typically by dropping the vets off in the center of the board and then play havok in my opponents back line, its a very good way to get your opponent to spend a turn or two ignoring your Leman Russ. It is pretty difficult to take aim on the battle tanks when you are being tank shocked by a transport. So my Chimera isn't so much of an issue, I run with a turreted Heavy Bolter and a Hull Heavy Flamer and most of my problems go away. My problem though sits with the Battle Tanks.

So like I said, I run with a standard and an Exterminator variant Leman Russ. Both do their jobs well when they hit and when they don't they are so so. I believe I am getting my monies worth with both tanks but I have started wondering if there was a better variant that I could use.

Now I use my Standard for a tank hunter and run a Hull Lascannon and sponson Heavy Bolters which gives me two anti-armor weapons and some close support. I will tell you right here and now that my main issue has been armor penetration and as of two games ago I had forgotten that I get to roll two dice to penetrate and pick the highest (this is what happens when you don't write down the important stuff). In my mind this tank is probably the best all around of the variants to take but I need a tank hunter because I just want a tank hunter which give me a couple of options. I can take the Vanquisher which gives me much better penetration and in theory this is damn good 50% of the time because that is how often I am going to hit. Now I only typically hit about 50% of the time with the pie plate as well but I have also scatter so bad on at least two occasions that I have hit my own guys. There is also the Executioner, 3 tea cups means I can hit up to 3 times but the penetration is worse and it is more expensive. If I am expecting a large number of lighter vehicles this may be the way to go. And lastly there is the Annihilator and yes I do own a copy of the Imperial Armor that contains this variant. Gone is the ordnance but we get Twin-Linked! So I guess I will be trying these three out and seeing how they play. I have already taken the Executioner once but it never really had a chance to engage the enemy, though I did evaporate a couple of Tau Stealth Suits with it. I was thinking of running a Vanquisher in the next battle that I am sure I will see tanks and maybe the Executioner if not.
 
Conversely I use my Exterminator for anti-infantry and anti-light armor. I know I probably just go with two standard Leman Russ and be done with it but what fun is that? First off I am not sure the Punisher is worth 30 more points in order to get 20 shots that even IG can save against. I guess if I was going to play against an opponent with a ton of infantry this would be great but my opponents are all typically medium to heavy infantry that use transports. Then there is the Eradicator, not sure I like this either but i will probably give it a try since it ignores cover and that is always handy since we run loads of scenery. So I am pretty sure the Punisher is out for my needs but I may just have to give the Eradicator a try.

So if you are still with me than you probably came to the realization that this was all just a way for me to put on paper my thoughts on the subject and help me come to a couple of decisions on what my buddies may be seeing from me in the next couple of games. Hopefully I will be seeing a game tonight and tomorrow but then I have never been that lucky.

Not how I wanted it to be...

So I had two weeks off from work but it seemed more like I was still at it. Between cleaning for guest, cooking meals, and doing stuff for Christmas I sort of missed a good portion of being on vacation. Fortunately I did get something out of it, I walked away with the Kill Team and Cypher dataslates, a Chimera, a Sentinel, and a Valkyrie. We only had one game and it lasted three turns before we had to call it for reasons of Family. We have a brand new gaming table that I hope to get some pictures of sometime soon and I have been working on a piece of scenery to add to the scenery that I have yet to finish. I kind of decided to wait until I get a compressor to finish most of it. Hopefully we will get a pretty good game in pretty soon. I would like to actually use some of my new stuff.

Oh as a note, the Vendetta will take out a Wraith Lord pretty quickly so I was happy that my daughter bought it for me.

I am back and I found a Datslate

So the last 2 weeks were a bit rough. The holidays are here and I seemed to have more work than necessary both at work and at home. I also finally received the new laptop and I think I have it configured that way I want it so hopefully I will be able to get more posting done, but this isn't why I am here.

Today is about Dataslates since I had a chance to take a look at both the Tau and Eldar slates. I don't care so much about the formations them selves but for the rules that allow you to take them. So from what I take away from this the dataslate formations work like this.

They are a specific detachment from the Codex they are listed as. The Tau Firebase Support Cadre is a Detachment from Codex: Tau.

They are an Allied Detachment that does not use up you Allied Detachment Option. So if you can ally with do then you can take the Tau Firebase Support Cadre but still take another Allied Detachment.

You can take any number of these Dataslate Formations. So if you want to take 2 tau Firebase Support Cadres then go ahead. One Tau and then some Eldar Ghost Warriors, go ahead. Oh and you still get your Allied Detachment if you wish.

Thus far though I don't really see a reason to take the current dataslate formations unless you are already going to take the models to begin with. I can see Austin pulling out the Tau formation when playing me since I tend to run a bit heavy on the Armor. George doesn't have a reason to take the Eldar formation at all since he runs Iyanden and gets to take Wraithblades and such as scoring units. I am very interested in the dataslate for Cyper though since I have fielded my Dark Angels as Fallen in the past.

"Space Wolf" the Game

As in Video Game and not our loved table top miniature game that we so love to play. If you haven't heard yet then this is news to you, yes they are making a video game featuring the Spaces Wolves. I am not here to talk about what has already been revealed about the game so much as well the hell is the game mechanics. Yes I have never heard of a "Turn Based Tactical CCG" before so when I saw that I pulled a "Huh!?!?!" with a confused expression. This was followed by intrigue since I am a huge fan of Turn Based Tactical and Strategy" based games, Warhammer 40k is one if you weren't sure. I have also been known to play the occasional CCG so to have the two combined peaked my interest to say the least. Unfortunately I had know idea how the two would be combined so I did a little research (actually I hit up PCGamer to see if they had an article, which they did). The article didn't really tell me much but it did link to the youtube video and there was this.


"Card Hunter is a free-to-play tactical card game that you can play right now. It's great: beautifully blending turn-based tactical planning with the randomised element of card games. Your deck is tied to the armour and weapons you equip, which makes it an instantly understandable process if - like me - you've never really clicked with CCGs. And the upside is that the random card draws force you to adapt and plan encounters based on the hand you're dealt."


 So i clicked on that link! played a bit of the single player campaign and I seem to be addicted to it at least for the time. If you are like me and had no idea what Space Marine may be like and may possibly be interested in picking up the game when it is released then by all means go try out Card Hunter.

Weekend Battle - Blood Angels vs Eldar - 1000 points

This weekend saw a battle between a heavy assault build of Blood Angels vs a Iyanden Craftworld Eldar build. I would love to say this was a great game because it had the potential, but the Dice Gods had other plans. Scott had a horrible run on bad luck with the dice while George had a normal session. Tactically the game had everything you would want from to players that have a clue about whats going on and the flow was there, but the one sided dice ruined the entertainment value by quiet a bit.

The game was a "The Emperor's Will" mission on a "Vanguard Strike" Battlefield. The terrain was basically the same for both sides with hills, 1 ruin and then a line of forest in the center field. I placed the objective there. Deployment with as usual with half of the Blood Angels in reserves and all of the Iyanden on the field. Now I don't have the list used but hopefully the guys will post them in the comment section at some point.The Game ended 3 points to 2 in the favor of Iyanden in Turn 5 with the Blood Angels giving up the game due to only having 4 models on the field and nothing that could remove a Wraithlord from the objective.