Lords of War Incursion Tournament Recap

 

Really should have played with my Paladin sooner as Reaper chainswording things in melee is WAY TOO MUCH FUN!

Atlantic City Open Recap

 

We're back baby!

Nurgle's covid pestilence be damned! The vaccinated be baccinated for super major grand tournaments in the States 😎 There really aren't words yet to describe what it feels like to be on this side of things... so lets start with some ACO pictures!

NOVA Kill Team Tournament Recap

I'm excited to talk about 40k Kill Team and recap my experiences from the world's first major event hosted at this year's NOVA Open. Let's jump right in!

Gaming: Age of Sigmar Malign Portents

Last Thursday, I was able to participate in the kick off of the Malign Portents global campaign.

Blood Bowl: Darkness Fouls Recap

OK, time to wrap things up from my NOVA 2017 experience... on to the main event I played in this year, Darkness Fouls!

Warhammer AoS Battle Report: Stormcasts vs Brayherd

Today, I bring you pictures and some thoughts from my friendly 2000pt AoS pickup game from NOVA 2017, Stormcast Eternals vs Brayherd!

March Huzzah 1850 RTT

It's time to start playing more games again.

Highlander RTT Recap

Last week was the annual MWC holiday event, Slay Ride!, the final tournament in their 6 event circuit where the best general with the highest amount of battle points, accumulated over the course of the year, gets to take home the highly coveted Slay Belle trophy!

Slay Ride RTT - Part 2

Before we get into the final match of the tournament, I wanted to briefly mention and share some photos of some of the armies in attendance. Here you can see my buddy's awesome looking Nurgle army:

Slay Ride RTT - Part 1

This past weekend I was able to try out the new Space Marines codex at 'Slay Ride', an annual tournament event run by one of the local game clubs, the Maryland Wargaming Collective -- this is the second MWC event I've attended and it was an absolute blast! They are a great group of gamers so if you're local you should definitely check them out. This was a 3 round, 2250pt tournament with double Force Org and Forge World permitted. What really made this event unique were the special stratagem cards (which were earned the first time an objective was claimed & held for 1 player turn); these cards varied in ability and duration but just to give you an idea, some granted +1/-1 to reserves for a turn, or Skyfire/Interceptor to a unit for the entire game, OR in rare but extremely awesome circumstances you could earn a card that grants Special Issue Ammunition to a unit for the duration of the Tournament! This definitely added some flavor to the games and encouraged players to factor in potentially game-changing abilities into their strategies -- hiding/castle-ing in a corner was far more risky as your opponent could end up snagging all those valuable stratagems. This led to much more active and exciting matches.

NOVA 2013 Recap - Part 2

Time to finish up my NOVA matches and final thoughts. This will be a quick one since I really didn't get pictures from my last couple of games.

NOVA 2013 Recap - Part 1

I'm fully recovered from NOVA and figured I should do this recap sooner than later before I forget everything. I didn't really take notes and didn't take a lot of pictures during each game but I remember enough to at least give a brief rundown of my matches. Before I get into all of that, here's my army list so you know what I'm working with:

1500pt Local Tournament

There was a small 3 round 1500pt tournament over the weekend at one of the local shops I frequent. Since I have recently been working on converting my marines into a Raptors army, I decided I should take them out for a spin. This was my list:

Battle Report: Necrons vs Tau

Last night I finally made my way down to the new Battle Bunker in Bowie for a 1000pt game against John's Tau. It was my first time playing with the new Necrons. The hardest part was coming up with a 1000pt list. I actually haven't played a game at this low a point level since returning to 40k a couple years ago. But after much deliberation, my list looked like this:


Overlord w/ Command barge Warscythe; Mindshackle scarabs 195
Court x1 Harbinger of Destruction w/ solar pulse                         55

Warriors x5                                                                                  65
Warriors x5                                                                                  65
Immortals x5                                                                                85

Wraiths x4 Whip coils x3; Particle caster x1                               175
Scarabs x6                                                                                    90
Destroyers x2 Heavy gauss cannon x2                                        120

Spyders x3                                                                                  150

We rolled up Dawn of War deployment and a Seize Ground mission with 4 objectives. John won the roll off and elected to go second, so I deployed my Overlord and two Warrior squads on the two objectives in my half, with the rest of my force walking & running on turn 1. John didn't deploy anything and put his Fire Warriors and Kroot into reserves.

Turn 2 I press the Scarabs, Wraiths, and Command barge forward.

John shoots a lot of missiles and downs 5 Scarab bases and puts a wound on a Wraith.

The Fire warriors and Kroot come on for John's turn 2, also when I drop the Solar pulse.

Turn 3, my Barge swipes his commander with battle suit squad; the wraiths assault the Pathfinders, and the scarabs take on a squad suits, which end up running off the board.

John's Kroot and Fire warriors close in on an objective.

By turn 4, the store is close to closing and the Tau right flank was starting to fall. But John's Fire warriors were able to kill my Destroyers and the Kroot dispelled the warriors, to claim the Tau's first objective.

But it was too late to take away the two objectives I had been sitting on since turn 1.

Overall, I really like the way Necrons played. The Scarab / Spyder combo is excellent, and so are the Wraiths. I wasn't as impressed with the Heavy Destroyers, so I'm thinking I'll free that spot for more Scarabs or Wraiths. I'm also tempted to pick up a second Command Barge, as those have a lot to offer. I think the next game will be 1500 - 2000 pts so I'll get to try out a C'tan and probably the Stormlord. As far as the first game with Necrons, I'm impressed and can't wait to try out more lists.

Battle Report: Crimson Fists vs Raven Guard

Last weekend I was able to get in a 2000 pt game against Alex's Crimson Fists. He was running Pedro and assault terminators in a godhammer pattern LR, a captain on bike, bike squad, 2 tac squads in las-backs, devastators w/ 4 lascannons, and a large sternguard squad in drop pod. I was running a slightly different list, one that I put together with the premise that I was going to use every space marine scout model that I own. Some of these models hadn't seen play in a long time and others (scout bikes) hadn't ever been used. I thought it would be fun to return to more of a 'Raven Guard' themed list before I start playing with my other armies. My list included Shrike, a captain on bike w/ close-combat tooled command squad on bikes, a full-sized bike squad, 2 half-sized bike squads, 6 scout bikes (3 w/ grenade launchers), 10 sniper scouts led by Telion, and 8 close-combat scouts.

We rolled up Annihilation with a Spearhead deployment. My plan was pretty straightforward; hope to win the roll off to go first then infiltrate / deploy aggressively to pull off an alpha strike. Everything was going according to plan until Alex reached for his dice to seize the initiative (see picture above).

Rats! There it is, that insidious six! Ah well, this is exactly why you shouldn't build a list that's dependent on going first. You never know what is going to happen! My plan would have been to fleet the close-combat scouts forward to multi-assault, power fist sgt. on the razorback and the other half engaging the devastators.

On the right side, my scout bikes would have gone after the second razorback with the Sgt's combi-melta and grenade launchers, while the captains and command squad move to deal with the land raider.

But none of that matters now, haha :)
Moving on to turn 1...

Alex drops his sternguard near my large bike squad then moves his bike squad and captain up to deal with my cc scouts. Pedro and the termies hop out in attempt to grant the bikes the +1 attack from his Inspiring Presence.

When the dust settled, my bikes were reduced to half and my 3 remaining scouts were falling back.

On my turn, I moved the weakened bike squad up to engage Alex's bikes, then moved my 2 other bike squads over to deal with the sternguard.

Shrike broke away from his bikes to fleet into the devastators with a lucky roll of 6 to assault into cover.

My command squad failed to hit the land raider with their meltas and the scout bikes failed to do anything to the razorback. But my assault phase was pretty effective. Shrike took out 3 but failed to catch the remaining 2 lascannons. My power fist touting bike sgt landed a fatal blow to Alex's bike captain before being wiped out, while the other bike squad locked up the sternguard in close combat.

Turn 2, Alex moves his remaining bikes to bail out his sternguard.

He also moved his LR and razorback on the right side out of harms way from my melta command squad. The tacticals in the razor hop out into cover. His other razorback moves up to discharge a tac squad then insta-kills Shrike with its twin linked lascannon. The tac squads runs towards my scouts to keep them running.

On my turn 2, I move the 3rd bike squad up to join the ongoing sternguard/bike conflict. Telion takes aim and headshots the power fist sgt in the tac squad directly in front of the snipers, pinning the squad.

My command squad attempts to damage the razorback but can't land a hit. The scout bikes move up to rapid fire their grenade launchers onto the clumped up terminators. With some decent dice rolls, I land a ton of hits that end up killing a terminator and wounding Pedro.

Turn 3, Alex moves his terminators to charge the scout bikes, wiping them out with ease. The rest of his army guns down the remaining cc scouts to secure the kill point.

On my turn 3, the sternguard/bike conflict finally resolves with only 2 of my bikes and attack bike remaining. On the other side, my command squad and captain charge in to wreck all but 1 terminator.

Turn 4, Alex charges his tacticals and Pedro into the command squad/terminator conflict. Lots of wounds were exchanged on both sides, and at the end this was all that was left:

Alex's tac squad moved to engage the sniper scouts in the ruins, while his tanks continue to move at least 6".

On my turn, I finish off the last marine and move toward the remaining 2 lascannons from the devastator squad, the kill point that got away. My bikes forgo shooting the multimelta at his armor in hopes to bail out my wavering scout squad.

The following turn, Alex hits a string of unlucky dice rolls, failing to finish off my 2 remaining bikes from the command squad, only killing 1 after shooting 5 lascannons at them (3 of which were twin-linked). My scouts and attack bike finish off the tactical marines, with the scouts consolidating back into the ruins as the attack bike heads for the LR.

On my turn, the apothecary finishes off the last of the devastators. The multi-melta attack bike shakes the LR and the missile launcher scout fails to damage a razorback.

Alex rolls but the game ends there. What a blood bath! All that remained was an apothecary (ironically, the only one in the command squad without an invulnerable save), an attack bike, and half of my sniper squad to Alex's LR, 2 razors, and drop pod -- 6 killpoints to my 8, but I wouldn't call this a win. I like to employ Nova's 3 KP margin to determine annihilation results, as I feel it's much more representative of the true outcome. And it definitely is in regards to this game. At the end, we both barely have anything left, but had the game continued both have things that can hurt the remaining units on the other side. That's a draw in my book, and I'll take it! It was an awesome game, full of surprises from the very first roll to seize all the way to the end. Great game, Alex!

1st Game of 2012

Over the weekend, I played my first game of the new year against John's Iron Hands list. I was able to try out two new units (really only one since they were taken together), Assault Terminators mounted in a Land Raider Crusader. I made room for them by dropping the biker command squad and a few other things. I kept the 5 man Sternguard with 2 lascannons and a Razorback with TL lascannon from my last game as the extra fire support they provided was solid. Basically, my list looked like this:

Khan - moondrakkan

8x Bikes + AB - 2x meltas; multi-melta; power fist
4x Bikes + AB - 2x meltas; multi-melta; melta bombs
5x Scouts - sniper rifles; Telion

Dreadnought - 2x TL autocannons
5x Sternguard - 2x lascannons; Razorback w/ TL LC
5x Assault Terminators - 2x LC's; 3x TH/SS; Land Raider Crusader w/ MM, EA

Thunderfire Cannon
2x Vindicators - Dozer blades

We rolled up Annihilation and a Pitched Battle deployment again. I won the roll off but elected to go second -- lately I've been feeling like going second is way more advantageous, at least for an army with mobility and outflank options. On one hand, I now have a few things that can shoot long range but the bulk of my list is still medium ranged, so I feel it's better for my army to be placed knowing where my opponents' biggest threats are on the board. I knew with bringing the LRC that I'd have a few high armored targets to hide behind and the rest of my stuff hid in the bolstered terrain, minus the large outflanking bike squad. I basically castled up in the corner; here's the board after both sides have been deployed:

With everything in the one corner, I avoided some exposure from John's army and didn't have to endure the full weight of his army's shooting on turn 1.

I did lose the Thunderfire that first turn though :(
But my return fire was still pretty effective. I was able to knock out one his Dreadnoughts, 2 Typhoons, and an empty Rhino, all while pushing my LRC and Vindi's forward.

By turn 2, it was clear the main encounter would happen smack dab in the middle of the board. My fire support in the ruins had done a good job neutralizing the ranged threats on that side of the board and I wanted to make sure I positioned my units so they could still be in play for future turns, but John was cunning and kept blocking LOS terrain between them and the rest of his army really well. It was cat and mouse with my vindicators chasing after his terminators each round; I never did manage to get a single shot off on them the entire game!

The main event began on turn 3. John had moved a razorback and rhino up to block the path between the two center terrain pieces. For my turn 3, my melta bikes whipped around the building to explode the razorback, while Khan broke off from them to join the assault terminators as they jumped out of the LRC and prepared to charge the rhino and crew. The multimelta on the raider didn't hit anything this game so I had to rely on the close combat. I managed to wreck the rhino but the tacticals hopped out in prime position to lay a lot of shooting down the next turn.

Turn 4, John moved his other full sized tac squad that was hiding in terrain up on top of that large green/white cylinder to add even more shots to the fray. I don't know how my terminators survived, but they pulled through against 2 full tac squads rapid firing at them as well as the storm bolters from the terminators and shots from the remaining typoon -- I lost 2 TH/SS termies and Khan took a wound.

On my turn 4, the remaining terminators got back on board the LRC which then backed away from the meltas which had gotten too close. Khan hid behind the tank while one of my vindicators got in position to fire a shell at the exposed squad atop the terrain. The other vindi moved flat out to round that corner to set up a shot on his backfield termies the next round. Also, this was the turn my large bike squad came in from reserves; then ended up coming in from the side with the rest of my army and moved into position to fire some bolters into the tacticals as well. Between them, the demolisher, the LRC, and anything else in my backfield that could see the enemy on top of that terrain, I shot everything I could at that squad, but only managed to do 9 wounds. The remaining heavy bolter marine from that squad prevented me from claiming that kill point!

Meanwhile, I really should have done something with this squad, as they ended up eating a well placed plasma cannon blast and some krak missiles the next turn to get wiped out.

By turn 5, we had both brought the full strength of our armies' shooting to bear on each other and not much remained out in the open, but John's Lysander had been making his way through terrain towards my LRC and finally was in position to assault it this turn. I thankfully kept that thing moving, even if just a few inches each turn to avoid the auto hits in cc, and as luck would have it my tank survived the fist of dorn that round. In all of the games I've played against John when he's had Lysander in his list, I've been worried with how to deal with such a tough character -- 4 wounds, eternal warrior, 3++. So I did the only thing I could... surrounded him with my entire force and shot EVERYTHING at him, and even got my termies and Khan ready to charge in if the shooting wasn't enough.

Thankfully, by the time I had gotten to my last shooting unit, the LRC, I was able to score the last wound on him!

Then the game ended right then and there on turn 5. I was fortunate enough to have claimed a couple more kill points from that first round of shooting, and this list still didn't offer very many kp's overall to begin with; annihilation/kill point missions definitely favor the smaller # of units in a bike army. It was a  really fun game and I think I'm really going to enjoy the addition of a LRC and termies to my main bike list.

There's a local tournament coming up in a couple weeks and I'm not sure if this is exactly the list I'll use or not. It'll really boil down to whether or not I get those Forge World doors in time to actually build the LRC and get it painted up with the terminators (as you can see, the LRC was held together by a rubber band and a hair tie -- thanks hon!). But it's a fantastic kit and I can't wait to have it be the center piece for my Raven Guard.