Here are some pics of my current projects:
The Vanguard Veterans have been a work in progress for the longest time. Never really got round to finishing them, since they really have no place outside of a focused DoA list.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Friday, February 24, 2012
All hail the Crimson King!
Been a while since I posted anything, what with work and stuff getting in my way. Here's a couple of pics of what I've been up to...
Sunday, January 29, 2012
The Necrons march!
Saturday, December 24, 2011
NECROOOONS!!!
Just a little update in between Apocalypse posts. Will get round to finishing the 2nd half, promise.
Anyway, I've gotten my grubby paws on a few more Warriors...

I think I'm definitely going to kitbash myself some plastic Crypteks. I got the resin one, and I can't say I'm impressed.
So, 24 Warriors, more or less done. About 36 more to go...
Anyway, I've gotten my grubby paws on a few more Warriors...

I think I'm definitely going to kitbash myself some plastic Crypteks. I got the resin one, and I can't say I'm impressed.
So, 24 Warriors, more or less done. About 36 more to go...
Sunday, December 18, 2011
APOCALYPSE!!!111!! Part 1 of 2
Played my first game of Apocalypse on Sunday. I've never seen all my painted Angels in one place before, let alone in battle, so I figured I'd give it a whirl.
I've no idea how many points we put on the board in total, but if I had to guess, I'd say:
Wong's Blood Angels: ~8,000pts
Yee How's Imperial Guard: ~5,000pts (nice pic unavailable)
Syaz's Ultramarines: ~6,000pts
My Blood Angels: ~4,800pts
Yeah, that's all ~4,800pts in that picture. Ones to watch:
- the Stormraven with a Reclusiarch, 5 Death Company marines and a DC Dreadnought; and
- the Land Raider Redeemer with Librarian, Sanguinary Priest and 5 Assault Terminators.
Now, I'm pretty sure there was some kind of backstory to this game, but hell, at that table were gathered the kind of player who gives not a toss about fluff and is just out to bring forth their armies and kick ass.
Attackers: Blood Angels
Attackers' Objectives:
- Primary - Blow up the big statue on the hill. AV14, 2 structure points, 2 void shields.
- Secondary - Kill all the Ultramarine HQ choices: Marneus Calgar in power armour, 2 Chaplains, Chaplain Cassius, and 1 Librarian.
Strategic Assets: Flank March, Careful Planning.
Defenders: The Imperium (Ultramarines + Imperial Guard).
Defenders' Objectives:
- Primary - Don't let the defenders achieve their primary objective.
- Secondary - At least 1 Baal Predator or Furioso Dreadnought must survive to the end of the battle.
Strategic Assets: Disruptor Beacon, Shield Generator
The board

Pretty much anything on the board which isn't an AV14 bastion/bunker or a ruin is an AV12 building. The big golden statue is the primary objective, and here we see the Ultramarines forces in mid-deployment...
The Setup:

Here we can see the Imperial forces have deployed to fend off a frontal assault. Guardsmen in the bastions, huge guns poised to blast apart anything that gets past the bastions, and horrifying amounts of demolisher and plasma cannons placed to cover any open areas within the compound. And just for extra safety, the disruption beacon was placed in the middle of it all, covering the bastions and most of the central compound. Clearly, the Imperials rightly feared the brutal precision of the Blood Angel's deep strike tactics. What they didn't realize, however, was exactly what strategic assets we had chosen...

Uhuh. You read that right. Half the Blood Angels would be coming in from BEHIND the Imperial lines. And the Imperials were so worried about Stormravens dropping from the sky, they'd placed the disruption beacon too far forward. The first turn would be a very nasty surprise indeed...
By the way, for the purpose of the Careful Planning card, we counted one transport and its contents as a single unit. So, a Stormraven, carrying a chaplain, 5 Death Company marines and a Death Company Dreadnought = 1 unit.
Rolling off, the Blood Angels took the first turn.
Turn 1
Summary: Against the Imperials expectations, the Blood Angels turned up from behind, unleashing the might of multiple Stormravens and Land Raiders and their lethal cargoes!
Blood Angels:
Luckily for the Imperials, some abyssmally bad luck meant the Angels didn't quite do as much damage as anticipated. All the Stormravens released their payloads of Bloodstrike missiles, knocking down the statue's void shields and shredding a Tactical squad that happened to be between my Assault Terminators and Marneus Calgar. Meanwhile, squads of black-clad Terminators piled out of Landraider Crusaders and Redeemers and tore into the vulnerable rear armour of whatever hapless vehicle happened to be in range. In addition to all this carnage, a pair of krak missile streaked out to strike down the Disruption Beacon in preparation for a drop pod assault in Turn 2.
Imperials:
The Imperial response was swift but lacklustre. Most of the Imperial Guard elements were manning the walls, far from the surprise onslaught. Quite importantly, 3 Vindicators were out of position and swung round to meet the threat, chugging away at top speed so those demolisher cannons don't go to waste. That having been said, the firepower they could bring to bear was still quite formidable, since a lot of the Blood Angel's shooting went into the statue, to minimal effect. As a result, the Imperials had quite a bit of gunishment to wield, damaging several vehicles, notably immobilizing my Stormraven carrying the Sternguard Veterans, which could have quite easily caused quite a lot of damage if I put a volley from their combi-weapons in the right place.
Highlights
None shall stay my wrath!!! I let loose the Death Company Dreadnought from my Stormraven and it didn't disappoint, quickly shredding a nearby 5-man assault squad and killing the attached Chaplain with combat resolution.

3 Chimeras, a Tactical combat squad and 2 multimelta attack bikes all converged on my Death Company Dreadnought, but in an uncharacteristic string of truly remarkable luck, a total of 6 melta weapons (all in melta range, mind you), 3 plasmaguns and 2 multilasers blazed away at the deranged dreadnought, causing 3 penetrating hits, all of which got either a crew shaken or stunned result, which, of course, a Death Company Dreadnought, simply DOES NOT CARE ABOUT. As a side note, one plasmagunner even roasted himself trying to fire his gun, which was probably a mercy, given what happened next...
Kill Calgar! My Assault Terminators comprise 4 Terminators with Lightning Claws and 1 with a Thunder Hammer, accompanied by a Librarian and Sanguinary Priest. Assuming a good psychic check, that means 16 S5 I5 power weapon attacks, with rerolls to hit and wound. That's quite enough to put the hurt on damn near anything it charges, and plain vanilla Terminators without Storm Shields should have been a walk in the park... Alas, it wasn't to be...
I rolled fairly below average with my claws, and he made an absurd number of 5+ invulnerable saves. What started with this...
... ended with this...
But it wasn't all bad news. During the Imperial turn, the dice gods smiled on me. Chaplain Cassius joined the combat and failed to do anything. I made a few lucky invulnerable saves, and by the end of the Imperial turn, Calgar found himself surrounded by 2 Terminators with Lightning Claws, a Librarian and a Sanguinary Priest. Meanwhile, thanks to horrible failures of combat resolution, Chaplain Cassius went down! How sad is that? The one guy in the vaunted Ultramarines chapter who gets to address Marneus Calgar as 'young Calgar' rushes to his aid, only to achieve buggerall and get himself killed, right in front of Calgar's face!
Anyway, that's it for now. Stay tuned for Turns 2 and 3...
I've no idea how many points we put on the board in total, but if I had to guess, I'd say:
Wong's Blood Angels: ~8,000pts
Not pictured: The horde of power armoured marines on the other table.
Yee How's Imperial Guard: ~5,000pts (nice pic unavailable)
Syaz's Ultramarines: ~6,000pts
Not pictured: A shit-tonne more Smurfs on the other table and in carry cases.
My Blood Angels: ~4,800pts
- the Stormraven with a Reclusiarch, 5 Death Company marines and a DC Dreadnought; and
- the Land Raider Redeemer with Librarian, Sanguinary Priest and 5 Assault Terminators.
Now, I'm pretty sure there was some kind of backstory to this game, but hell, at that table were gathered the kind of player who gives not a toss about fluff and is just out to bring forth their armies and kick ass.
Attackers: Blood Angels
Attackers' Objectives:
- Primary - Blow up the big statue on the hill. AV14, 2 structure points, 2 void shields.
- Secondary - Kill all the Ultramarine HQ choices: Marneus Calgar in power armour, 2 Chaplains, Chaplain Cassius, and 1 Librarian.
Strategic Assets: Flank March, Careful Planning.
Defenders: The Imperium (Ultramarines + Imperial Guard).
Defenders' Objectives:
- Primary - Don't let the defenders achieve their primary objective.
- Secondary - At least 1 Baal Predator or Furioso Dreadnought must survive to the end of the battle.
Strategic Assets: Disruptor Beacon, Shield Generator
The board

Pretty much anything on the board which isn't an AV14 bastion/bunker or a ruin is an AV12 building. The big golden statue is the primary objective, and here we see the Ultramarines forces in mid-deployment...
The Setup:

Here we can see the Imperial forces have deployed to fend off a frontal assault. Guardsmen in the bastions, huge guns poised to blast apart anything that gets past the bastions, and horrifying amounts of demolisher and plasma cannons placed to cover any open areas within the compound. And just for extra safety, the disruption beacon was placed in the middle of it all, covering the bastions and most of the central compound. Clearly, the Imperials rightly feared the brutal precision of the Blood Angel's deep strike tactics. What they didn't realize, however, was exactly what strategic assets we had chosen...

Uhuh. You read that right. Half the Blood Angels would be coming in from BEHIND the Imperial lines. And the Imperials were so worried about Stormravens dropping from the sky, they'd placed the disruption beacon too far forward. The first turn would be a very nasty surprise indeed...
By the way, for the purpose of the Careful Planning card, we counted one transport and its contents as a single unit. So, a Stormraven, carrying a chaplain, 5 Death Company marines and a Death Company Dreadnought = 1 unit.
Rolling off, the Blood Angels took the first turn.
Turn 1
Summary: Against the Imperials expectations, the Blood Angels turned up from behind, unleashing the might of multiple Stormravens and Land Raiders and their lethal cargoes!
End of Blood Angel's movement phase. This is going to get messy...
Blood Angels:
Luckily for the Imperials, some abyssmally bad luck meant the Angels didn't quite do as much damage as anticipated. All the Stormravens released their payloads of Bloodstrike missiles, knocking down the statue's void shields and shredding a Tactical squad that happened to be between my Assault Terminators and Marneus Calgar. Meanwhile, squads of black-clad Terminators piled out of Landraider Crusaders and Redeemers and tore into the vulnerable rear armour of whatever hapless vehicle happened to be in range. In addition to all this carnage, a pair of krak missile streaked out to strike down the Disruption Beacon in preparation for a drop pod assault in Turn 2.
Imperials:
The Imperial response was swift but lacklustre. Most of the Imperial Guard elements were manning the walls, far from the surprise onslaught. Quite importantly, 3 Vindicators were out of position and swung round to meet the threat, chugging away at top speed so those demolisher cannons don't go to waste. That having been said, the firepower they could bring to bear was still quite formidable, since a lot of the Blood Angel's shooting went into the statue, to minimal effect. As a result, the Imperials had quite a bit of gunishment to wield, damaging several vehicles, notably immobilizing my Stormraven carrying the Sternguard Veterans, which could have quite easily caused quite a lot of damage if I put a volley from their combi-weapons in the right place.
Highlights
None shall stay my wrath!!! I let loose the Death Company Dreadnought from my Stormraven and it didn't disappoint, quickly shredding a nearby 5-man assault squad and killing the attached Chaplain with combat resolution.
3 Chimeras, a Tactical combat squad and 2 multimelta attack bikes all converged on my Death Company Dreadnought, but in an uncharacteristic string of truly remarkable luck, a total of 6 melta weapons (all in melta range, mind you), 3 plasmaguns and 2 multilasers blazed away at the deranged dreadnought, causing 3 penetrating hits, all of which got either a crew shaken or stunned result, which, of course, a Death Company Dreadnought, simply DOES NOT CARE ABOUT. As a side note, one plasmagunner even roasted himself trying to fire his gun, which was probably a mercy, given what happened next...
Kill Calgar! My Assault Terminators comprise 4 Terminators with Lightning Claws and 1 with a Thunder Hammer, accompanied by a Librarian and Sanguinary Priest. Assuming a good psychic check, that means 16 S5 I5 power weapon attacks, with rerolls to hit and wound. That's quite enough to put the hurt on damn near anything it charges, and plain vanilla Terminators without Storm Shields should have been a walk in the park... Alas, it wasn't to be...
I rolled fairly below average with my claws, and he made an absurd number of 5+ invulnerable saves. What started with this...
GRAAAAAARRGGGHHH!!!
... ended with this...
Anyway, that's it for now. Stay tuned for Turns 2 and 3...
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Batrep: Back to the Angels!
Just got in a good 1750pt scrap yesterday with a new BA list I've been working on - Double Death Star!
HQ
Librarian
Elites
Chaplain
Sanguinary Priest
5 Assault terminators - 4 with Lightning claws, 1 with hammer and shield, in a Land Raider Redeemer with multimelta and extra armour
Troops
5 Assault marines with Sgt power weapon and a meltagun, in a Lasplas Razorback
5 Assault marines with Sgt power weapon and a meltagun, in a Lasplas Razorback
5 Death Company, 2 with power weapons, 1 with power fist
Death company Dreadnought with Blood talons and magna grapple
Heavy Support
Stormraven with TL assault cannon, Typhoon launchers and extra armour
Predator with autocannon and lascannon sponsons
The Land Raider Redeemer holds the Assault Terminators, Sanguinary Priest and Librarian. The Stormraven delivers the Death Company, chaplain and the DC Dreadnought. The idea is generally to use the Stormraven to deposit a lot of Death Company Anger right in the middle of the enemy to cause as much havoc as possible, then smash whatever's left with the Terminators.
Edwin's Unholy Nidzilla list
HQ
Swarm Lord
Winged hive tyrant with 2 pairs of scything talons and Hive commander
Elites
The Doom of Malantai in a Mycetic Spore
3 Zoanthropes in a Mycentic Spore
Troops
12 Termagants
11 Termagants
Heavy Support
3 Trygon Primes with adrenal glands
Mission: Capture and Control (1 objective in each deployment zone)
Deployment: Spearhead (table quarters)
Tyranids have the first turn.
Terrain is mostly clear with a few buildings and bits of area terrain here and there.
Tyranids reserve everything, I put my whole army on the board to wait for the onslaught...
Turn 1
Tyranids - Nothing. Everyone's in reserve!
Blood Angels - I scoot the bulk of my army forward 12", with one Razorback hanging behind to camp on the objective. The Predator sits behind my LR Redeemer, with it's rear armour firmly placed against the Redeemer's back, in case those Trygons pop up behind me...
Turn 2
Tyranids - Between the winged tyrant and the Swarmlord, everything came in on a 2+, so the WHOLE Nid army came in, Termagants from each flank, Trygons burst from the ground, 2 behind the Blood Angels and one in the middle, the Doom of Malantai, the Zoanthropes and the Winged Tyrant to the front and throughout this stunning assault, the Swarmlord, strode in from the Nid table edge. A horrific deluge of fire from the Trygon Primes' containment spines wrecked one Razorback and exploded another. The Zoanthropes attempted to fire their Warp Lances, but the Librarian managed to use his psychic hood and dispel all three shots.
Blood Angels - The Storm Raven swung back round to deliver the Death Company and the Dreadnought into the Trygons behind me. One assault squad made for a brood of Termagants that strayed too close beside the 2 Trygons, the other backed away together with the LR Redeemer to make use of the 6" Feel No Pain + Furious Charge bubble afforded by the Sanguinary Priest within to attack the middle Trygon in concert with the Terminators and Librarian. The Predator moved to take pot shots at the Doom.
Shooting mostly did nothing but the Stormraven and DC Dread managed to knock a couple of wounds off one of the rear Trygons. Assault was much more satisfying. One Assault squad charged the Termagants to my right, the DC Dread charged one Trygon Prime, the Death Company charged another and the other assault squad charged another together with the Terminators. All the Trygons and the termagants were wiped out a the cost of only 3 Death Company marines! That's 800 points of Nids wiped off the board in 1 assault phase!
Turn 3 to End
The rest of the game, not so interesting. What else happened?
- The Winged Tyrant cast Paroxysm on the Terminators and wiped them out over 3 rounds of combat, then blew up the LR Redeemer, before succumbing to concentrated firepower from the Stormraven and Predator.
- The Doom of Malantai fell to a shot from the DC Dread's magnagrapple (yay, instakill!). The DC Dread then immobilized itself on difficult terrain and spent the rest of the game raging.
- The Zoanthropes fell to abuse from the Redeemer, Stormraven and Predator.
This left me with one measly assault squad to camp on my objective together with an angry immobile Dreadnought nearby, and he had a Swarmlord to babysit the Termagants on his objective. If the game could go on ad infinitum, I suppose I could have picked away at the remnants of his army with my Stormraven and Predator, but the game ended and it was a hard-fought draw, with laurels nudged in the general direction of the Blood Angels for having more points left alive on the table than the Nids.
Afterthoughts
This was my first game against a very experienced and truly vicious Nidzilla player, so I was pretty chuffed with how things turned out, but more than anything else, I was well impressed with the sheer amount of damage my list could dish out with a good, mass charge. 3 Trygon Primes in one assault! That's just insane!
Were there any major mistakes by either player? For me, I don't really think so, though perhaps I could have kept my Razorbacks back-to-back in Turn 1. That would have seriously upped my chances of surviving the initial onslaught of Tyranid Turn 2 and who knows? Maybe I could have gotten in a shot or 2 with my Razorbacks... On his part, I'm not sure what he could have done. Having his first Zoanthrope salvo shut down by the Librarian was plain unlucky. I think his big mistake was not being more aggressive with the Swarmlord. That thing is a monster in close combat and I think he could have tabled me if he just continued to march it straight into my army and pop a can of whupass.
Just before this game I had another one with a significantly less experienced Nid player. Even then, it was quite enlightening to find out the limits of what 5 Assault Terminators could do, exactly. The lesson was this: Just stay the hell away from Tyranid HQ choices. Between Paroxysm, Lash Whips and all the other monstrous nastiness they have, Assault Terminators (as I'm playing them, with 4 claws and 1 hammer) are just better used elsewhere, like shredding Nid tank-beasts, such as Trygons, Carnifexes, Tervigons, and Tyrannofexes. And even then, that's only IF I can charge them with the influence of the Sanguinary Priest.
Would I change anything about this list? Right now, I'm thinking of keeping the 2 Death Stars (Stormraven full of DC, Redeemer full of Terminators) and fiddling about with the rest of the list. But what to do? More staying power? More dakka? Scouts? Dakkapreds? Assault marines? I dunno. For the moment, I'd like a couple more games against some other opponents before I figure out what this army needs. Until then, there's painting to be done!
HQ
Librarian
Elites
Chaplain
Sanguinary Priest
5 Assault terminators - 4 with Lightning claws, 1 with hammer and shield, in a Land Raider Redeemer with multimelta and extra armour
Troops
5 Assault marines with Sgt power weapon and a meltagun, in a Lasplas Razorback
5 Assault marines with Sgt power weapon and a meltagun, in a Lasplas Razorback
5 Death Company, 2 with power weapons, 1 with power fist
Death company Dreadnought with Blood talons and magna grapple
Heavy Support
Stormraven with TL assault cannon, Typhoon launchers and extra armour
Predator with autocannon and lascannon sponsons
The Land Raider Redeemer holds the Assault Terminators, Sanguinary Priest and Librarian. The Stormraven delivers the Death Company, chaplain and the DC Dreadnought. The idea is generally to use the Stormraven to deposit a lot of Death Company Anger right in the middle of the enemy to cause as much havoc as possible, then smash whatever's left with the Terminators.
Edwin's Unholy Nidzilla list
HQ
Swarm Lord
Winged hive tyrant with 2 pairs of scything talons and Hive commander
Elites
The Doom of Malantai in a Mycetic Spore
3 Zoanthropes in a Mycentic Spore
Troops
12 Termagants
11 Termagants
Heavy Support
3 Trygon Primes with adrenal glands
Mission: Capture and Control (1 objective in each deployment zone)
Deployment: Spearhead (table quarters)
Tyranids have the first turn.
Terrain is mostly clear with a few buildings and bits of area terrain here and there.
Tyranids reserve everything, I put my whole army on the board to wait for the onslaught...
Turn 1
Tyranids - Nothing. Everyone's in reserve!
Blood Angels - I scoot the bulk of my army forward 12", with one Razorback hanging behind to camp on the objective. The Predator sits behind my LR Redeemer, with it's rear armour firmly placed against the Redeemer's back, in case those Trygons pop up behind me...
Turn 2
Tyranids - Between the winged tyrant and the Swarmlord, everything came in on a 2+, so the WHOLE Nid army came in, Termagants from each flank, Trygons burst from the ground, 2 behind the Blood Angels and one in the middle, the Doom of Malantai, the Zoanthropes and the Winged Tyrant to the front and throughout this stunning assault, the Swarmlord, strode in from the Nid table edge. A horrific deluge of fire from the Trygon Primes' containment spines wrecked one Razorback and exploded another. The Zoanthropes attempted to fire their Warp Lances, but the Librarian managed to use his psychic hood and dispel all three shots.
Blood Angels - The Storm Raven swung back round to deliver the Death Company and the Dreadnought into the Trygons behind me. One assault squad made for a brood of Termagants that strayed too close beside the 2 Trygons, the other backed away together with the LR Redeemer to make use of the 6" Feel No Pain + Furious Charge bubble afforded by the Sanguinary Priest within to attack the middle Trygon in concert with the Terminators and Librarian. The Predator moved to take pot shots at the Doom.
Shooting mostly did nothing but the Stormraven and DC Dread managed to knock a couple of wounds off one of the rear Trygons. Assault was much more satisfying. One Assault squad charged the Termagants to my right, the DC Dread charged one Trygon Prime, the Death Company charged another and the other assault squad charged another together with the Terminators. All the Trygons and the termagants were wiped out a the cost of only 3 Death Company marines! That's 800 points of Nids wiped off the board in 1 assault phase!
Turn 3 to End
The rest of the game, not so interesting. What else happened?
- The Winged Tyrant cast Paroxysm on the Terminators and wiped them out over 3 rounds of combat, then blew up the LR Redeemer, before succumbing to concentrated firepower from the Stormraven and Predator.
- The Doom of Malantai fell to a shot from the DC Dread's magnagrapple (yay, instakill!). The DC Dread then immobilized itself on difficult terrain and spent the rest of the game raging.
- The Zoanthropes fell to abuse from the Redeemer, Stormraven and Predator.
This left me with one measly assault squad to camp on my objective together with an angry immobile Dreadnought nearby, and he had a Swarmlord to babysit the Termagants on his objective. If the game could go on ad infinitum, I suppose I could have picked away at the remnants of his army with my Stormraven and Predator, but the game ended and it was a hard-fought draw, with laurels nudged in the general direction of the Blood Angels for having more points left alive on the table than the Nids.
Afterthoughts
This was my first game against a very experienced and truly vicious Nidzilla player, so I was pretty chuffed with how things turned out, but more than anything else, I was well impressed with the sheer amount of damage my list could dish out with a good, mass charge. 3 Trygon Primes in one assault! That's just insane!
Were there any major mistakes by either player? For me, I don't really think so, though perhaps I could have kept my Razorbacks back-to-back in Turn 1. That would have seriously upped my chances of surviving the initial onslaught of Tyranid Turn 2 and who knows? Maybe I could have gotten in a shot or 2 with my Razorbacks... On his part, I'm not sure what he could have done. Having his first Zoanthrope salvo shut down by the Librarian was plain unlucky. I think his big mistake was not being more aggressive with the Swarmlord. That thing is a monster in close combat and I think he could have tabled me if he just continued to march it straight into my army and pop a can of whupass.
Just before this game I had another one with a significantly less experienced Nid player. Even then, it was quite enlightening to find out the limits of what 5 Assault Terminators could do, exactly. The lesson was this: Just stay the hell away from Tyranid HQ choices. Between Paroxysm, Lash Whips and all the other monstrous nastiness they have, Assault Terminators (as I'm playing them, with 4 claws and 1 hammer) are just better used elsewhere, like shredding Nid tank-beasts, such as Trygons, Carnifexes, Tervigons, and Tyrannofexes. And even then, that's only IF I can charge them with the influence of the Sanguinary Priest.
Would I change anything about this list? Right now, I'm thinking of keeping the 2 Death Stars (Stormraven full of DC, Redeemer full of Terminators) and fiddling about with the rest of the list. But what to do? More staying power? More dakka? Scouts? Dakkapreds? Assault marines? I dunno. For the moment, I'd like a couple more games against some other opponents before I figure out what this army needs. Until then, there's painting to be done!
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Current projects
Okay, it's been a while since I've had the time to post. Here's what's going on with the armies I play:
Blood Angels

The Angels took a backseat to Necron enthusiasm for a while. Now it's the Necrons which are on hold, I'll be looking at 2 more ways to play my Angels. For those who've forgotten, I usually run a mechanized list, with 4 Razorbacks, 2 combiPreds and 2 Baal Preds as the core of the army. Now I'm looking to try out 2 completely different playstyles:
1) Jump army! Yep, a Descent of Angels list. I've already got 2 full Assault Squads, a Librarian with a jump pack, and 2 jumping Priests, so I figured it would be fun to try. I'll be looking to field Sanguinary Guard, too, coz I just love the models!
2) Death Star! 5 Assault Termies (4 claws, 1 hammer) riding in a Redeemer with a Librarian and a Priest. Pass the psychic check for Unleash Rage and that's 16 S5 I5 power weapons attacks, with rerolls to hit and wound. And the squad has Feel No Pain, to boot. Outside of Grey Knights, there's really not much which can stand up to that...
3) Something with Stormravens! I dunno, I still haven't quite figured this one out yet, but I've got 2 nearly painted Stormravens, and by damn, I want to field them in battle in some way...
Necrons

I've been playing quite a few games using my Angels to proxy as Necrons and I have to say: I'm completely hooked!
I've been playing with a list centred around 20 Warriors marching about with an orb-wielding phaeron, flanked by 2 Ghost Arks each loaded with 9 Warriors and a Harbinger of Destruction and it's been awesome. The blob of warriors attracts an insane amount of firepower, but between the orb and the Arks, that blob is insanely tough to kill with shooting. It has, however, fallen to assault, pretty much every game it was assaulted... So far, I've tried out this style of Necron list against IG, Tau and Grey Knights.
Against Tau, the Warrior Blob is nigh unstoppable. Turn after turn, it weathered the abuse from 2 teams of battlesuits, 3 Broadsides and a Hammerhead, leaving the rest of my army free to outflank and chew away at the edges.
The IG opponent I usually play against favours big blobs of infantry. I've played twice against him. The first time round I lost and only later realized that due to a horrible miscalculation, I was fighting with a ~250 pt handicap. The 2nd time round, the dice simply weren't with me. In that game, I managed to fail 5 out of 6 armour saves with my Immortals (5 ones!), and a vital assault with my Scarabs into one of his Leman Russes fell flat on its face, when I only rolled 5 hits out of 20 attacks hitting on a 4+. Not to mention the absurd number of below average volleys of gauss fire...
Against the Grey Knights (Draigowing), I played using 2 huge Warrior blobs. A bit unwieldly, but in this game, the Doomsday Ark really shone, helping me to wipe out a squad of the dreaded Paladins.

In all the abovementioned games, I fielded a Doomsday Ark and 2 Annihilation Barges. I found that the barges certainly get the job done for the points invested in them, but I've mixed feelings about the Doomsday Ark. Its tremendous range, firepower and physical presence on the battlefield make it a VERY enticing target for the enemy. In every battle, my opponent detached a small force specifically to destroy the Ark. That in itself is a pretty useful trait of the Ark, but at that amount of points, I really wonder if I'm not better off with a team of 3 Canoptek Spyders pooping out Scarabs, with 25 pts left over for miscellaneous gadgets for the Lords and/or Crypteks...
I think the list still needs a bit of tweaking before I make any major investment. In any case, I'll be coming back to them after I sort out my Angels, perhaps in early 2012...
Chaos Marines

Gathering dust. I like that army and all, but every game I've played has been a fight against getting wiped out. It's ok, I'll busy myself with the other armies until the rumoured Chaos Legions codex turns up sometime in 2012.
Grey Knights
Gathering dust. I'll be back for them someday...
And that's it from me. Next update in... the hell I know. It'll happen when it happens...
Blood Angels
The Angels took a backseat to Necron enthusiasm for a while. Now it's the Necrons which are on hold, I'll be looking at 2 more ways to play my Angels. For those who've forgotten, I usually run a mechanized list, with 4 Razorbacks, 2 combiPreds and 2 Baal Preds as the core of the army. Now I'm looking to try out 2 completely different playstyles:
1) Jump army! Yep, a Descent of Angels list. I've already got 2 full Assault Squads, a Librarian with a jump pack, and 2 jumping Priests, so I figured it would be fun to try. I'll be looking to field Sanguinary Guard, too, coz I just love the models!
2) Death Star! 5 Assault Termies (4 claws, 1 hammer) riding in a Redeemer with a Librarian and a Priest. Pass the psychic check for Unleash Rage and that's 16 S5 I5 power weapons attacks, with rerolls to hit and wound. And the squad has Feel No Pain, to boot. Outside of Grey Knights, there's really not much which can stand up to that...
3) Something with Stormravens! I dunno, I still haven't quite figured this one out yet, but I've got 2 nearly painted Stormravens, and by damn, I want to field them in battle in some way...
Necrons
I've been playing quite a few games using my Angels to proxy as Necrons and I have to say: I'm completely hooked!
I've been playing with a list centred around 20 Warriors marching about with an orb-wielding phaeron, flanked by 2 Ghost Arks each loaded with 9 Warriors and a Harbinger of Destruction and it's been awesome. The blob of warriors attracts an insane amount of firepower, but between the orb and the Arks, that blob is insanely tough to kill with shooting. It has, however, fallen to assault, pretty much every game it was assaulted... So far, I've tried out this style of Necron list against IG, Tau and Grey Knights.
Against Tau, the Warrior Blob is nigh unstoppable. Turn after turn, it weathered the abuse from 2 teams of battlesuits, 3 Broadsides and a Hammerhead, leaving the rest of my army free to outflank and chew away at the edges.
The IG opponent I usually play against favours big blobs of infantry. I've played twice against him. The first time round I lost and only later realized that due to a horrible miscalculation, I was fighting with a ~250 pt handicap. The 2nd time round, the dice simply weren't with me. In that game, I managed to fail 5 out of 6 armour saves with my Immortals (5 ones!), and a vital assault with my Scarabs into one of his Leman Russes fell flat on its face, when I only rolled 5 hits out of 20 attacks hitting on a 4+. Not to mention the absurd number of below average volleys of gauss fire...
Against the Grey Knights (Draigowing), I played using 2 huge Warrior blobs. A bit unwieldly, but in this game, the Doomsday Ark really shone, helping me to wipe out a squad of the dreaded Paladins.
In all the abovementioned games, I fielded a Doomsday Ark and 2 Annihilation Barges. I found that the barges certainly get the job done for the points invested in them, but I've mixed feelings about the Doomsday Ark. Its tremendous range, firepower and physical presence on the battlefield make it a VERY enticing target for the enemy. In every battle, my opponent detached a small force specifically to destroy the Ark. That in itself is a pretty useful trait of the Ark, but at that amount of points, I really wonder if I'm not better off with a team of 3 Canoptek Spyders pooping out Scarabs, with 25 pts left over for miscellaneous gadgets for the Lords and/or Crypteks...
I think the list still needs a bit of tweaking before I make any major investment. In any case, I'll be coming back to them after I sort out my Angels, perhaps in early 2012...
Chaos Marines
Gathering dust. I like that army and all, but every game I've played has been a fight against getting wiped out. It's ok, I'll busy myself with the other armies until the rumoured Chaos Legions codex turns up sometime in 2012.
Grey Knights
Gathering dust. I'll be back for them someday...
And that's it from me. Next update in... the hell I know. It'll happen when it happens...
Monday, November 7, 2011
Necrons: First impressions
I just got my grubby paws on the Necron Codex over the weekend and I have to say, I like what I'm seeing and here's why...
Fluff-wise, I kind of like it. I know a lot of people out there are totally turned off by the Tomb Kings in space vibe, but I kind of like having Necron Lords all over the place each with their own characters and foibles. It's a complete about-turn from the fluff from the previous codex, but I think this one gives it a bit more scope for depth and expanding the fluff. That having been said, I've always been pretty easy to satisfy, fluff-wise. The army list, however...
Necron Warriors are now 13 points. 13 points! That pretty much decided how I wanted to play this. I'd always imagine Necrons as rank upon rank of Necrons Warriors, plodding inexorably forward, blazing away with their Gauss Flayers, weathering horrific amounts of firepower, and that's just what they do. Here's an example of some fun I had with Warriors:
1) Took a squad of 20 Warriors, accompanied with a Necron Overlord with the Phaeron upgrade and a Resurrection Orb. What this means is that those 20 Warriors now come back on a 4+ and are Relentless. Behind said squad is a Ghost Ark, happily feeding new Warriors to replace the ones that refused to get up.
2) Enemy shooting phase, the squad takes some ranged abuse. No biggy, about half get back up, but here's the thing. I take the casualties from the rear ranks and put the reanimated ones in coherency in the front. I've now effectively moved forward ~3" (2" for coherency, ~1" for the base) and it's not even my turn yet.
3) My turn and the Ghost Ark activates. At the start of my Movement Phase, I place 1D3 Warriors in coherency, again in the front. Since my opponent opened fire during his turn, I've now crept forward 6", and I still haven't carried out my Movement Phase!
This kind of shenanigan is a pretty useful way to make otherwise unwieldly blobs of Necron Warriors surprisingly mobile. And with 20 relentless Warriors, you can glance pretty much any vehicle to death or near-uselessness in a salvo.
Of course, it's not all hunky dory. For all their resilience to ranged abuse, swarms of Warriors are pretty vulnerable to a reasonably strong assault. A few power weapons to bully the Warriors, and whoops, there goes the combat! And with an Initiative of 2, they're very, very prone indeed to getting taken apart in a Sweeping Advance.
I'm still experimenting with the army list, but for now, I'm leaning towards an army centred around 2 Phaeron-led swarms of Warriors marching around the battlefield shredding everything their path with an absurd number of Gauss shots. The list has plenty of scope to field all sorts of fun gadgets (the Doom Scythe looks SO fun!) but for now, I've pretty much set my sights on a very Warrior-heavy Necron army for early 2012.
Fluff-wise, I kind of like it. I know a lot of people out there are totally turned off by the Tomb Kings in space vibe, but I kind of like having Necron Lords all over the place each with their own characters and foibles. It's a complete about-turn from the fluff from the previous codex, but I think this one gives it a bit more scope for depth and expanding the fluff. That having been said, I've always been pretty easy to satisfy, fluff-wise. The army list, however...
Necron Warriors are now 13 points. 13 points! That pretty much decided how I wanted to play this. I'd always imagine Necrons as rank upon rank of Necrons Warriors, plodding inexorably forward, blazing away with their Gauss Flayers, weathering horrific amounts of firepower, and that's just what they do. Here's an example of some fun I had with Warriors:
1) Took a squad of 20 Warriors, accompanied with a Necron Overlord with the Phaeron upgrade and a Resurrection Orb. What this means is that those 20 Warriors now come back on a 4+ and are Relentless. Behind said squad is a Ghost Ark, happily feeding new Warriors to replace the ones that refused to get up.
2) Enemy shooting phase, the squad takes some ranged abuse. No biggy, about half get back up, but here's the thing. I take the casualties from the rear ranks and put the reanimated ones in coherency in the front. I've now effectively moved forward ~3" (2" for coherency, ~1" for the base) and it's not even my turn yet.
3) My turn and the Ghost Ark activates. At the start of my Movement Phase, I place 1D3 Warriors in coherency, again in the front. Since my opponent opened fire during his turn, I've now crept forward 6", and I still haven't carried out my Movement Phase!
This kind of shenanigan is a pretty useful way to make otherwise unwieldly blobs of Necron Warriors surprisingly mobile. And with 20 relentless Warriors, you can glance pretty much any vehicle to death or near-uselessness in a salvo.
Of course, it's not all hunky dory. For all their resilience to ranged abuse, swarms of Warriors are pretty vulnerable to a reasonably strong assault. A few power weapons to bully the Warriors, and whoops, there goes the combat! And with an Initiative of 2, they're very, very prone indeed to getting taken apart in a Sweeping Advance.
I'm still experimenting with the army list, but for now, I'm leaning towards an army centred around 2 Phaeron-led swarms of Warriors marching around the battlefield shredding everything their path with an absurd number of Gauss shots. The list has plenty of scope to field all sorts of fun gadgets (the Doom Scythe looks SO fun!) but for now, I've pretty much set my sights on a very Warrior-heavy Necron army for early 2012.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Comics Mart Midvalley WH40k Mini-Mayhem Tournament!
I've just come back from a teeny tiny tourney. Really teeny tiny. 12 players, each with 750pt armies, playing on 3' x 4' boards. Each player plays 3 games against 3 other randomly determined players, with randomly determined missions drawn from the warped imagination of the organizer.
Here's the list I took:
HQ
Librarian with Shield of Sanguinius and Fear of the Darkness
Troops
5 man Assault Squad in a Razorback
- 1 meltagun
- Sgt has a powerfist
- Razorback has Lascannon and Twin-linked Plasmagun
5 man Assault Squad in a Razorback
- 1 meltagun
- Razorback has Lascannon and Twin-linked Plasmagun
5 man Assault Squad in a Razorback
- 1 flamer
- Razorback has Lascannon and Twin-linked Plasmagun
Heavy Support
Predator with Lascannon sponsons
And that's a total of 750pts on the nose.
How'd I do, well...
Game 1 - Vs Tau (CK)
Enemy list:
HQ
Shas'o with 2 shield drones, plasma rifle, missile pod and shield generator
Elites
3 Crisis suits, 3 with missle pods, then 1 fusion blaster, 1 plasma rifle and 1 with another missile pod, 2 shield drones, and something else I don't remember.
Troops
2 squads of 12 Firewarriors with photon grenades
Heavy Support
Broadside with multi-tracker
Mission - Wipe out the opposing player's Troops choices.
I moved first.
This game was a bit silly. I clumped my armour together, keeping my Librarian in a Razorback behind the other 2 Razorback. The terrain was pretty open, so I planned to slowly advance, using my lascannon to blast away the Shas'O and the Broadside he had attached himself to, then shred the Firewarriors at my leisure. My opponent opted to keep his Firewarriors back and close to his board edge, one squad on each flank, then intended to pounce when I got close. Things went pretty differently for both of us...
Turn one, I killed nothing but a blasted shield drone. He blew up a Razorback. 2 marines died in the explosion.
Turn two, I killed sodall. He blew up a Razorback. The Librarian's Razorback is still unscathed.
Turn three, I killed buggerall (I hate shield drones!!!). The Crisis Suits deep strike, and scatter right next to the now-footslogging and fairly angry Assault marines plodding behind my Librarian's Razorback. They blast away, but the cover afforded by the craters that used to be my Razorbacks meant only 1 marine got killed.
Turn four, the squad with the Librarian detaches, disembarks and all 3 Assault squads proceed to brutally maul the Crisis Suits. One survives and jetpacks away. Meanwhile, the Librarian darts forward in his Razorback, hops out (keeping out of sight of that wretched Broadside) and casts Fear of the Darkness on one squad of Firewarriors on my left. They run off the board. My some miracle, the Razorback survives the shooting from the retreating Crisis Suit, the Shas'O, the Broadside, and the remaining Firewarriors.
Turn five, the Librarian steps out from behind the Razorback, then casts Fear of the Darkness on the other squad of Firewarriors. They run off the board. The game is mine!
Game 2 - Vs Chaos Marines (Mark)
The enemy:
HQ
Daemon Prince with wings
Elites
Chaos Dreadnought with 2 close combat weapons
Troops
10 Plague Marines with 2 meltaguns and a champion with combimelta and power fist.
Heavy Support
1 Chaos Land Raider
Mission - a King of the Hill style game with a point awarded each turn to the player with a Troops choice within 3" of an objective in the center of the board. Also, if any player has lost all his Troops choices, on a die roll of 4+ at the beginning of his turn, he automatically loses.
Chaos moved first.
With a game like this, his plan was obvious: move the Land Raider up, then park his plague ridden hide on the objective, which happened to be sitting in the middle of a crater, commonly considered area terrain in this particular FLGS. He deployed his Raider in the open, right in the middle, with the Prince and Dreadnought hiding behind it.
Turn one, I got obscenely lucky, stole the initiave and immobilized his Land Raider in a volley of Lascannon fire! From then onwards, I whittled away at his Plague marines with my tanks, wiping them out. He then lost due to the No Troops Autolose on a 4+ rule, which is just as well, because his Prince was busily chewing up my Troops choices... Still, victory to me!
Game 3 - Vs Vanilla Marines (Marcus)
The enemy:
HQ
Captain on a Bike with lotsa bells and whistles
Troops
2 full Bike Squads with all the melta that could be fit, with Powerfists on the Seargents for good measure
Fast Attack
Land Speeder Typhoon
Mission - Each player has an objective marker with 3 wounds and some other stats to make it fairly durable. The idea is to kill the opponent's objective marker, which could only be done in close combat. Each player could only deploy his marker 6" away or less from his table edge.
Biker horde got the first turn.
This game I got absolutely shredded. I clumped my armour together as usual, on my right, then left the objective about 6" to the left and the plan was to focus all my gunishment on one squad, then the other. What actually happened...
Both squads of bikers turbo boosted forward, one squad down each flank. My army encircled one group, disembarked, and fired every gun I had at my disposal... And caused nothing. 1 wound on a bemused Attack Bike and that was it. That was an obscene number of cover saves to make! That squad tied up my army in assault, the other assaulted my objective and that was that. Ah, well...
Looking back, though, I don't think there was much I could have done against an army like that, especially not on a 3' x 4' board and not with an army like mine. I was mildly vexed by the profound lack of decent carnage this game, but hey, a mission's a mission, eh?
And that's how my day went. On a side note, during the 2nd game of the day, I spotted the biker army not having quite so much fun against some Tyranids (which later went on to win the tourney):
And that's that. Heap big thanks to Comics Mart for organizing this, much fun was had by all... except maybe for this poor devil with this really nice Tau army who apparently got so badly mauled in the first 2 games he didn't stick around for the 3rd...
Anyway, there's work to be done! Until next time...
Here's the list I took:
HQ
Librarian with Shield of Sanguinius and Fear of the Darkness
Troops
5 man Assault Squad in a Razorback
- 1 meltagun
- Sgt has a powerfist
- Razorback has Lascannon and Twin-linked Plasmagun
5 man Assault Squad in a Razorback
- 1 meltagun
- Razorback has Lascannon and Twin-linked Plasmagun
5 man Assault Squad in a Razorback
- 1 flamer
- Razorback has Lascannon and Twin-linked Plasmagun
Heavy Support
Predator with Lascannon sponsons
And that's a total of 750pts on the nose.
How'd I do, well...
Game 1 - Vs Tau (CK)
Enemy list:
HQ
Shas'o with 2 shield drones, plasma rifle, missile pod and shield generator
Elites
3 Crisis suits, 3 with missle pods, then 1 fusion blaster, 1 plasma rifle and 1 with another missile pod, 2 shield drones, and something else I don't remember.
Troops
2 squads of 12 Firewarriors with photon grenades
Heavy Support
Broadside with multi-tracker
Mission - Wipe out the opposing player's Troops choices.
I moved first.
This game was a bit silly. I clumped my armour together, keeping my Librarian in a Razorback behind the other 2 Razorback. The terrain was pretty open, so I planned to slowly advance, using my lascannon to blast away the Shas'O and the Broadside he had attached himself to, then shred the Firewarriors at my leisure. My opponent opted to keep his Firewarriors back and close to his board edge, one squad on each flank, then intended to pounce when I got close. Things went pretty differently for both of us...
Turn one, I killed nothing but a blasted shield drone. He blew up a Razorback. 2 marines died in the explosion.
Turn two, I killed sodall. He blew up a Razorback. The Librarian's Razorback is still unscathed.
Turn three, I killed buggerall (I hate shield drones!!!). The Crisis Suits deep strike, and scatter right next to the now-footslogging and fairly angry Assault marines plodding behind my Librarian's Razorback. They blast away, but the cover afforded by the craters that used to be my Razorbacks meant only 1 marine got killed.
Turn four, the squad with the Librarian detaches, disembarks and all 3 Assault squads proceed to brutally maul the Crisis Suits. One survives and jetpacks away. Meanwhile, the Librarian darts forward in his Razorback, hops out (keeping out of sight of that wretched Broadside) and casts Fear of the Darkness on one squad of Firewarriors on my left. They run off the board. My some miracle, the Razorback survives the shooting from the retreating Crisis Suit, the Shas'O, the Broadside, and the remaining Firewarriors.
Turn five, the Librarian steps out from behind the Razorback, then casts Fear of the Darkness on the other squad of Firewarriors. They run off the board. The game is mine!
Game 2 - Vs Chaos Marines (Mark)
The enemy:
HQ
Daemon Prince with wings
Elites
Chaos Dreadnought with 2 close combat weapons
Troops
10 Plague Marines with 2 meltaguns and a champion with combimelta and power fist.
Heavy Support
1 Chaos Land Raider
Mission - a King of the Hill style game with a point awarded each turn to the player with a Troops choice within 3" of an objective in the center of the board. Also, if any player has lost all his Troops choices, on a die roll of 4+ at the beginning of his turn, he automatically loses.
Chaos moved first.
With a game like this, his plan was obvious: move the Land Raider up, then park his plague ridden hide on the objective, which happened to be sitting in the middle of a crater, commonly considered area terrain in this particular FLGS. He deployed his Raider in the open, right in the middle, with the Prince and Dreadnought hiding behind it.
Turn one, I got obscenely lucky, stole the initiave and immobilized his Land Raider in a volley of Lascannon fire! From then onwards, I whittled away at his Plague marines with my tanks, wiping them out. He then lost due to the No Troops Autolose on a 4+ rule, which is just as well, because his Prince was busily chewing up my Troops choices... Still, victory to me!
Game 3 - Vs Vanilla Marines (Marcus)
The enemy:
HQ
Captain on a Bike with lotsa bells and whistles
Troops
2 full Bike Squads with all the melta that could be fit, with Powerfists on the Seargents for good measure
Fast Attack
Land Speeder Typhoon
Mission - Each player has an objective marker with 3 wounds and some other stats to make it fairly durable. The idea is to kill the opponent's objective marker, which could only be done in close combat. Each player could only deploy his marker 6" away or less from his table edge.
Biker horde got the first turn.
This game I got absolutely shredded. I clumped my armour together as usual, on my right, then left the objective about 6" to the left and the plan was to focus all my gunishment on one squad, then the other. What actually happened...
Both squads of bikers turbo boosted forward, one squad down each flank. My army encircled one group, disembarked, and fired every gun I had at my disposal... And caused nothing. 1 wound on a bemused Attack Bike and that was it. That was an obscene number of cover saves to make! That squad tied up my army in assault, the other assaulted my objective and that was that. Ah, well...
Looking back, though, I don't think there was much I could have done against an army like that, especially not on a 3' x 4' board and not with an army like mine. I was mildly vexed by the profound lack of decent carnage this game, but hey, a mission's a mission, eh?
And that's how my day went. On a side note, during the 2nd game of the day, I spotted the biker army not having quite so much fun against some Tyranids (which later went on to win the tourney):
And that's that. Heap big thanks to Comics Mart for organizing this, much fun was had by all... except maybe for this poor devil with this really nice Tau army who apparently got so badly mauled in the first 2 games he didn't stick around for the 3rd...
Anyway, there's work to be done! Until next time...
Sunday, October 16, 2011
A New Codex Looms: Necrons!
Saw this thread and I'm now fairly excited! Seriously, this is so awesome! I've been eyeballing the Necrons for ages and always had a soft spot for the fluff, but never got into them, mostly because the 4th Ed codex is rubbish, there're too many metal models (yuck!) and nothing about actually playing them as an army actually appealed to me. Now this!
Lotsa new models (PLASTICS!!! YEEEAAAAHH!!!) lotsa new rules and from the look of the rumours, the new Necrons will be playable as a horde army, which is absolutely up my alley. Looks like I've a lovely new project for 2012...
In other news, I've just sent off an order for some Blood Angel-y goodness. Am looking to complete 1750pts of all-jump goodness, then try out another list using an Assault Terminator death star. As such, my gaming expenditure will be on hold for a couple of months...
Lotsa new models (PLASTICS!!! YEEEAAAAHH!!!) lotsa new rules and from the look of the rumours, the new Necrons will be playable as a horde army, which is absolutely up my alley. Looks like I've a lovely new project for 2012...
In other news, I've just sent off an order for some Blood Angel-y goodness. Am looking to complete 1750pts of all-jump goodness, then try out another list using an Assault Terminator death star. As such, my gaming expenditure will be on hold for a couple of months...
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