Batrep: Chaos Marine vs Space Marines & Imperial Guard

Once again, the Spikey Bikey Lord rode forth. This time the Black Legion faced the hated Imperium of Man! Right, to business...

My List:
Chaos Lord on bike, with Mark of Khorne, Sigil of Corruption, Axe of Blind Fury, Gift of Mutation (Nothing!)
10 Chaos Marines with 2 plasmaguns, extra close combat weapons and a lightning claw and meltabombs for the champion, all in a Rhino with Dirge Caster
10 Chaos Marines with 2 meltaguns, extra close combat weapons and a lightning claw and meltabombs for the champion, all in a Rhino with Dirge Caster
10 Chaos Marines with 2 meltaguns, extra close combat weapons and a lightning claw and meltabombs for the champion, all in a Rhino with Dirge Caster
7 Bikers with Mark of Khorne, 2 meltaguns, Icon of Wrath and a lightning claw for the champion
Helldrake with Baleflamer
Forgefiend with 2 Hades Autocannons
5 Havocs with 4 Autocannons
Vindicator with Siege Shield

Warlord Trait: Hatred

Same list as before. Probably the most balanced list I've concocted of all my armies, with a nice, kickass Warlord on a bike. Who, I must add, still hasn't had a chance to turn into a daemon prince. Somehow, I doubt it'll ever happen...


Wong's Space Marine & Imperial Guard:
Vulcan Hestan
Master of the Forge
Company Command Squad with 3 meltaguns, plasma pistol and vox caster
Ironclad Dread with meltagun, heavy flamer and chainfist in a Drop pod
Ironclad Dread with meltagun, heavy flamer and chainfist in a Drop pod
5 Scouts with sniper rifles, a missile launcher and camo cloaks
5 Tactical marines with combimelta and meltabombs for the sergeant in a Drop Pod
Platoon Command Squad with 4 sniper rifles
Infantry Squad with meltagun, autocannon and vox caster
Infantry Squad with meltagun and autocannon
Vendetta with heavy bolter sponsons
Rifleman dreadnought
Rifleman dreadnought
Leman Russ Demolisher with hull-mounted heavy bolter

Warlord Trait: Counterattack while in deployment zone.

Drop pods full of nasty-ass Ironclads. And with Vulcan Hestan there, that massively increases their reliability in nuking vehicles in a static gunline. On top of that, 3 troops choices with 3 radically different approaches to taking objectives: Guardsmen to sit on an objective within one's deployment zone, Scouts to infiltrate onto one, and Tactical Marines in a Drop Pod to wrest it from the foe by force. Looks to me like this list would be murder on a gunline army. Against something like my Black Legion, designed to surge forward, disembark and overwhelm with a mass of fairly high-quality troops, I'm not so sure, but we'll see, yes?

Mission: Big Guns Never Tire, 3 objectives
Deployment: Vanguard strike. Wong won the roll off and forced me to go first. Night fighting was active on the first turn.

Knowing there's going to be Ironclads with twin-linked meltaguns dropping into my midst, I elected to leave my Vindicator and Forgefiend in reserve, which would at least guarantee they get one shot in. The strategy, then, was very simple.

I'll have the bikes, Rhinos and Havocs on the board. The bikes and Rhinos would move at full speed towards the enemy lines. Looking at the list, I could see there was really nothing in Wong's army which could withstand a solid charge from the bikers. The contents of each Rhino were pretty mean, too, so I was pretty confident in chucking them right in. If they get to enemy lines, they shoot stuff and beat it up in close combat. If their Rhinos blow up, they can either plod forwards, bolters blazing, or shuffle back to the objective in the middle.

The Havocs, meanwhile, would camp on their objective and shoot whatever comes into range. On top of that, being a heavy support choice sitting on an objective and only comprising 5 measly MEQ models, I knew the Havocs would prove an irresistible target which would command a lot of attention while the rest of my army went to work.

That was the plan. Here's how it worked...

Batrep: Chaos Marines vs Chaos Marines, 1750 pts

I decided it was time for a change of pace today. After something like 5 or 6 games in a row, fielding nothing but Deathwing, I felt the urge to put a real army on the table - something with some bite and mindless bloody violence... CHAOS!

After getting my Helldrake a few months back, I pieced together a Chaos Marine list which I felt was pretty solid and suitably balanced. The thing was, it never saw action, seeing as I was distracted by any number of other things, like my Necrons, Deathwing, a little Warmachine (alas, Warpspace, I'll miss you...) and of course, experiments with my good old Blood Angels. So, I decided today was a good day for the Black Legion and the Spikey Bikey Lord to go forth... As it turned out, I wasn't the only to think so - the first four 40k gamers who walked into the happy FLGS ALL brought Chaos Marine armies! All is not well in the Eye of Terror...

My List:
Chaos Lord on bike, with Mark of Khorne, Sigil of Corruption, Axe of Blind Fury, Gift of Mutation (Shred)
10 Chaos Marines with 2 plasmaguns, extra close combat weapons and a lightning claw and meltabombs for the champion, all in a Rhino with Dirge Caster
10 Chaos Marines with 2 meltaguns, extra close combat weapons and a lightning claw and meltabombs for the champion, all in a Rhino with Dirge Caster
10 Chaos Marines with 2 meltaguns, extra close combat weapons and a lightning claw and meltabombs for the champion, all in a Rhino with Dirge Caster
7 Bikers with Mark of Khorne, 2 meltaguns, Icon of Wrath and a lightning claw for the champion
Helldrake with Baleflamer
Forgefiend with 2 Hades Autocannons
5 Havocs with 4 Autocannons
Vindicator with Siege Shield

Note that the Lord, all the Chaos Marines and the Bikers have Veterans of the Long War. This is a nice, straightforward and aggressive list, designed to surge forward en masse and force the opponent into some tough target priority decisions.

David's World Eaters:
Kharn the Betrayer
5 Chosen with 4 meltaguns, combimelta for the champion, in a Rhino with Dirge Caster and Dozer Blade
5 Chosen with 4 meltaguns, combimelta for the champion, in a Rhino with Dirge Caster and Dozer Blade
8 Khorne Berzerkers with Veterans of the Long War and Gift of Mutation for the champion (+1 BS)
8 Khorne Berzerkers with Veterans of the Long War and Gift of Mutation for the champion (+1 W)
8 Khorne Berzerkers with Veterans of the Long War and Gift of Mutation for the champion (+1 BS, 2+ Armour)
Helldrake with Baleflamer
Chaos Predator with twin-linked lascannon and lascannon sponsons
Chaos Predator with twin-linked lascannon and lascannon sponsons
3 Obliterators with Mark of Khorne and Veterans of the Long War

It was only on seeing this army deployed on the table that I noticed a glaring oddity - 3 squads of Berzerkers, walking with Kharne... and NOTHING to help them cross No Man's Land? 6th edition has put a lot of small arms on the table... is 24 power-armoured bodies enough to get across the board and put a chainblade where it hurts?

Mission: The Scouring
Deployment: Dawn of War. I won the roll off and deployed first. Night Fighting was not active on the first turn.

Objectives clustered to one side, just how I like them. Well, in the rare event that I actually could be bothered to seize objectives, at any rate. It's been a while since I'd taken to the field with the Black Legion, but I figured with the units I had, the strategy was simple enough. The Rhinos and Bikes surge forward at full speed, under the cover of supporting fire from the Forgefiend, Havocs and Vindicator. The saturation of targets would ensure either Bikes or the Chaos Marines would get in close enough to bring some hurt, either with bolter or blades. When the Helldrake arrives, it would soften targets up some more so the boots on the ground can deal finishing blows.

Against the World Eaters, I would have to check my advance somewhat, and make sure the engagement is decided by guns, rather than up close.

Aaaaarrrgghh! Curse you, FAQ!

Belial, by ~lobaud on Deviantart

Well, there are new FAQs on the GW site, and my Deathwing has been struck a blow! Well, kind of. Here's the offending piece of text:


Q: Do units deploying via the Deathwing Assault special rule count
toward the limit of units you are allowed to keep in Reserves at the
start of a battle? (p44)
A: Yes.

Alas, no more null deployment for me, I'm going to have to start with stuff on the board... Still, given what my list is like, that means Belial, the Librarian, the Deathwing Knights and one more squad can Deathwing Assault in, while the others on the board need either Cyclones or plasma cannons to hurl long-range dakka as they advance. The difference is the possibility of having to endure a turn of enemy fire on Turn One. Not too much of a nasty change, I suppose, but I'll just have to get a game or 2 with Deathwing in...

Seduced by the Dark Side!

I found myself standing in Border's the other day, staring at a shelf very well-stocked with Fantasy Flight's X-Wing miniatures game.

I saw a couple of games in progress, saw a few battle reports, read the rulebook, and figured: Why not? I loved the X-Wing flight sim games as a kid. So, after a quick calculation, I realized that there's a lot of mileage to be gotten out of pretty few models. In fact, for not even half the cost of that Tau army I've been mulling over, I can get the X-Wing Core set and 6 more fighters (which makes a 100pt squadron for the Empire and Rebels). That's about MYR600 or so saved, not to mention some insane amount of time and effort in assembling and painting, which, truth be told, is better spent on finishing off the paintjobs of my existing armies.

At the time of writing, I have 4 solild 40k armies: Blood Angels, Necrons, Chaos Marines and Deathwing. On top of that, I've allied contingents of Imperial Guard and Grey Knights. I do NOT need another army. What I could use, however, is a nice, quick game with a low model count and a nice, intuitive mechanic that captures the cut and thrust of dogfighting in the Star Wars universe.

So, I've thus far had 2 games of X-Wing at 60pts, playing once each as Empire and Rebels, and I have to say, I'm hooked. By this time next week, I should have 2 TIE Fighters, a TIE Interceptor and a TIE Advanced for the Imperials; and 2 X-Wings and a Y-Wing for the Rebels.

I am pleased, and I totally recommend this game for anyone who wants a good, engaging Star Wars game that's quick to pick up and quick to play. Is it more fun than 40k? Not even close. But if you've got about 45 mins to an hour and, like me, you get no pleasure out of games of 40k of less than 1,750 pts, then I can think of few things better than X-Wing.

Addendum: By the way, f*** the Tau. My interest in acquiring new armies for 40k is hereby at an end. Unless, of course, I drop an existing army and make room in my life for another. Not bloody likely...

F*** Riptide, gimme my Strike Freedom!

Seriously, how the hell can the Riptide even compare?

Okay, so I got my scruffy paws on a copy of the Tau codex, and I have to say, I'm interested. As with any army that captures my interest, it's a style of warfare radically different compared to my current armies, and on top of that, like my lovely Crimson Guard, they ally with damn near everyone in the grimdark future, barring the forever alone Nids, of course.

So, after poring through the codex for the past few days, here's my idea for 1750pts of Tau:

• Commander with plasma rifle, 2 missile pods, drone controller and 2 marker drones
• 2 Body Guards, each with plasma rifle, 2 missile pods, a marker drones and a shield drone
• 3 Crisis suits, 2 with twin-linked plasma rifles and a fusion blaster, 1 with plasma rifle, a fusion blaster and a drone controller, accompanied by 2 marker drones and 4 gun drones
• 3 Crisis suits, 2 with twin-linked plasma rifles and a fusion blaster, 1 with plasma rifle, a fusion blaster and a drone controller, accompanied by 2 marker drones and 4 gun drones
• 8 Firewarriors, including Shas'ui with markerlight and target lock
• 8 Firewarriors, including Shas'ui with markerlight and target lock
• 8 Firewarriors, including Shas'ui with markerlight and target lock
• 2 Broadsides with twin-linked high yield missile pods, twin-linked smart missile system; one with a drone controller, the other with a target lock, accompanied by 4 missile drones
• 2 Broadsides with twin-linked high yield missile pods, twin-linked smart missile system; one with a drone controller, the other with a target lock, accompanied by 4 missile drones
• 2 Broadsides with twin-linked high yield missile pods, twin-linked smart missile system, both with velocity tracker accompanied by 4 missile drones

1,747 pts in total.

So, here's are some salient points about this list:

1. No Pathfinders. The idea is to maintain a steady stream of markerlights using the Firewarrior Shas'uis and marker drones with the Crisis suits. The Commander is loaded to keep his distance and dump a bunch of super-accurate markerlights on targets deserving of serious pain. 
2. Hunting down serious armour is a task for the Crisis suits, who are there to drop in and crack open stuff. 9" melta range makes dropping straight in a lot safer, and more so since they can back off thanks to the handy jet packs.
3. Anti-air is handled by one team of Broadsides, unleashing the equivalent of 8 twin-linked autocannon shots on whatever poor sucker comes within range. Against AV12, that's good odds of bringing down a Vendetta or Stormraven. Against AV11, the 8 shots of twin-linked SMS can come into play, pretty much guaranteeing a kill. 
4. NO railguns. Kinda funny, now that I look at it, but seriously, 65 pts for a S8 shot. Granted, its AP 1, but compared to 4 S7 shots? No, thanks. In teams of 2, the Broadsides are dumping 8 S7 shots, 8 S5 shots, all twin-linked, for 130 pts. Max out on drones, that's 4 ablative wounds that chuck out another 8 S7 shots.  Against AV13, one salvo with a little markerlight help will quite likely crush a vehicle through weight of glancing hits. 
5. LOADS of drones. 24 Firewarriors, 9 Crisis Suits, 6 Broadsides and 30 (!) drones. Those drones form a shield of ablative wounds for the precious battlesuits and provide a nice boost in firepower. 

I'm thinking I could perhaps ditch one team of Crisis Suits for some Fast Attack choices, say a team of Pathfinders and some Piranhas. I like the idea of using Piranhas to move up, drop a squadron of drones, then move flat out to harass a flank. Or maybe just replace said Crisis Suit team with a mighty Riptide...

Anyway, this is all just pie in the sky for now. I've yet to test out my Deathwing & Grey Knight army. Maybe I'll try proxying this list at some point. For the moment, I'm going to have to resist temptation...

Blood for the Blood Angels!

After a long, long time gathering dust while the Black Legion, the Crimson King and Deathwing went to war, the Blood Angels came out to play! A simple list, with a strategy I've used to brutal effect before.

My FTO list:

Reclusiarch with Infernus pistol and melta bombs
Furioso Dreadnought with frag cannon and heavy flamer
7 Sternguard Veterans with 4 combimeltas, 2 combi plasmas and a heavy flamer
7 Death Company with 2 Infernus pistols and 2 power axes
Death Company Dreadnought with Blood Talons
Predator with lascannon sponsons and searchlight
2 Stormravens with twin-linked multimelta, twin-linked assault cannon and hurricane bolters
Baal Predator with heavy bolter sponsons and searchlight
2 Land Speeder Typhoons (separate)

1747 points total.

This is the latest evolution of the FTO list, with all the fat cut out, designed to gain victory through overwhelming violence. For those who haven't been following the progress of my Blood Angels, FTO stands for F*** the Objectives. Yes, of course I realize there aren't any scoring units. This list is designed to achieve victory through overkill. Here's how it works...

The Baal Predator, Predator and 2 Typhoons are there to be on the board in Turn 1 and hopefully use their firepower to hurt any anti-aircraft weaponry the opponent may have. Turn 2, the Stormravens come in, hopefully, and use their firepower to further neuter the enemy's ability to shoot down the Ravens. This is important, because when they come in, they're going to be in a position to let their cargoes unleash hell in Turn 3. If both Ravens survive, the ensuing violence in Turn 3 will usually cause enough violence to knock the fight out of the enemy.

I got 2 games in with this list this weekend. Read on for brief summaries of the battles:

Zounds! The Tau!

At long last, the Tau get their update! Truth be told, I kind of had a soft spot for the Tau. I loved the idea of unleashing crushing amounts of firepower with swish battlesuits stomping and flying about. And now this!

Yay! Plastic Pathfinders! And man, that Broadside is looking nice. I'm not so sure about the Riptide, though. Well, no point getting ahead of ourselves. I'm still having too much fun with Deathwing, and I've decided that's IT for hobby spending for this year. Well, at least until Deathwing is 100% painted.

Also, I want a good look at the Codex. So far, here are the arguments for and against the Tau, in my book:

For:

• 100% Plastic Army! No need for fricking Finecast! As it is, I'm tempted to kitbash a plastic Belial...
• Excellent allies! These blue commies will ally with damn near any faction of the 41st millennium, being somewhat distrustful only with Orks, Dark Eldar and Chaos Daemons. 

Against:

• Budget limitations. I've far too much going on this year. Regardless of how much I like the Codex, I think Tau is going to have to be a project for 2014. 

Well, the budget limitation trumps all arguments for, really. So, for the moment, Tau are just another bunch of scruffy xenos that I'm looking to kill with as much ludicrous violence as I can fit in a 6' x 4' table...

An Experiment with Angels: Deathwing + Stormraven full of rage

Right, seeing as I'd gotten comfortable with Deathwing, having tested out a solid list against some solid opponents, I decided to mix it up a little. This post is a record of an experiment that should never be repeated. Here's what I tried out:

Dark Angels
Belial
7 Deathwing Knights
5 Deathwing Terminators Plasma Cannon, Chainfist and Hammer & Shield for the Sarge
5 Deathwing Terminators Cyclone Launcher, Chainfist and Hammer & Shield for the Sarge

Blood Angels
Reclusiarch
Furioso Dreadnought with Frag Cannon and Heavy Flamer
9 Death Company with 2 Infernus pistols and 2 power axes
Stormraven with hurricane bolters

Nothing complicated, really; just freed up points from my Deathwing list to fit one Stormraven chock full of lethality. The Raven with Death Company and Furioso is a key component of my Blood Angel list and had proven marvellously lethal in such lists, so I figured I put the two together and see how that works.

The idea is that Deathwing comes in on Turn One, with the Deathwing Knights soaking up the grief and the other 2 squads hurt stuff with their guns. Then, hopefully, the Stormraven swoops in on Turn 2, guns blazing, and unloads the brutality of the Death Company and the Furioso. In my experience, that generally hits so hard, the opponent will have trouble dealing with whatever comes next, in this case, the squads of horrible stompy Terminators.

Theory sounds good, yes? Well, I gave it a test drive today. Here are its weaknesses:

1. Insufficient target saturation. Turn 1, it's just the Deathwing on the table. With full Deathwing, enemy firepower was split between the Knights and the Command Squad, the both of them being the deadliest threats, the Knights because of their whupass, the Command Squad because of the Banner of Fortitude. With just the Knights on the table, they took the full brunt of the enemy firepower, and a little bad luck on my part really stings. And when turn 2 rolls by, the Stormraven then becomes the single most tasty target. 
2. All the eggs in one flying basket. Putting the Death Company, Reclusiarch and the Furioso is a HUGE risk. If that thing goes down the turn it comes in, that's potentially 725 pts killed, with the Death Company never even seeing the face of the enemy. In my test game, the Raven did indeed go down, with only 4 Death Company surviving the crash. 

That having been said, the Terminators surprised me by really picking up the slack, with the Knight Master going on to wipe out a squad of Chaos Marines and a Predator. Didn't win, but 2 things were clear:

1. If the Stormraven had survived, its contents would easily have wreaked enough havoc to win me the game. The point is moot, however. The Raven went down, and I daresay most armies have easily enough gunishment to take down a lone Raven, even without dedicated anti-aircraft weaponry. 
2. Pure Deathwing or pure Blood Angels would have gotten the job done better. Deathwing because they'd have the staying power. Blood Angels because of the sheer violence they can inflict, which could be enough to silence enough enemy guns to let the Stormravens get to work. 

Verdict: I don't like this list. That crash killed 615 pts in one fell swoop, and that was no thanks to a lucky salvo from some Chosen with plasmaguns. The amount of points I'm allowing to be potentially killed in one shot is just unreasonable. Emperor forbid I should face Fuegan manning an Icarus lascannon or a battery of Sabre platforms. As such, this list is SCRAP.

So, the question remains... Who can pair up with Deathwing?

Deathwing Sergeants: Making the most of 5pts

Man of the Match during my last game, which earned him a paintjob.

Right, not long ago, I had another game using Deathwing, and I think I've hit upon a reasonably solid list that gets the job done. This is it:

Belial

Level 2 Librarian in Terminator armour

DW Command Squad with 2 Hammers & Shields, Cyclone Launcher, Deathwing Champion and Banner of Fortitude on one of the Hammer & Shield-bearing Terminators

7 Deathwing Knights 

5 DW Terminators with Cyclone Launcher, Chainfist and Hammers & Shields for the Sergeant and Cyclone Terminator

5 DW Terminators with Assault Cannon, Chainfist and Hammer & Shield for the Sergeant

5 DW Terminators with Plasma Cannon, Chainfist and Hammer & Shield for the Sergeant

This comes to 1,747pts, by my reckoning, and thus far it has stood surprisingly firm against lists with pretty vicious firepower. This is due to 2 things:

1. The Deathwing Knights - This is a pretty serious Deathstar unit, and with Belial, it has the pretty nasty ability of being placed exactly where it's needed. On top of that, with Storm Shields and Fortress of Shields all round, it can (and has, twice) soak up the entire opposing army's firepower for a turn and still have enough Knights to pose a serious threat. 
2. A Storm Shield for the Sergeants of the plain old Deathwing squads.

The 1st point is obvious enough. The 2nd needs a closer look to truly appreciate.

The thing about Deathwing is Hammers & Shields are expensive. 5 Terminators with Hammers & Shields will set you back 200 pts for Vanilla Marines, 225 pts for Blood Angels, and 245 pts for Deathwing. A bit on the pricey side On top of that, Vengeance Strike is a loud and clear signal to all that Deathwing is meant to shoot stuff. 4 twin-linked krak missiles to break open a transport and a twin-linked plasma cannon to brutalize whatever pops out. Sounds good to me! Anyway, about that shield...

What I'm trying to achieve here is to get the most out of my Deathwing Terminator Squads. As such, each squad needs a little dakka, a heavy weapon to be annoying with, a chainfist in case some big horrible vehicle strays too close, and as much invulnerable saves as I can get. I can't have both the shooty death and the shields, as such, only one can carry the shield, and it has to be the Sarge. Why? Here's how my Deathwing squads deploy as they Deep Strike:

N.B. -The dude in the middle with the brown base is placed first.

Here's where the 6th ed shooting rules really shine. Since the dakka has to be resolved from the model closest to the source of shooting, the Sarge has to be on the receiving end first. Suffice it to say, this would put Sarge at risk of going down to small arms fire, a 16.7% chance for each save he's forced to make. But, he's a character, so we can just pass the wound off to the other grunts, starting from the closest to the Sarge. That would be the dude in the center of the formation above. Now each wound has about 8.3% of killing the Sarge. And of course, the squad will be deploying somewhere near the Banner of Fortitude, meaning Feel No Pain, meaning now each wound has a 5.6% chance of offing poor Sarge. And this isn't even factoring in the rolls to hit and wound. And of course, if Sarge is on the ugly end of serious AP2 fire, he takes it for the squad!

Here are a few probabilities:
Death by BS4 bolter = 1.9%
Death by BS3 lasgun = 0.9%
Death by BS4 plasmagun = 12.3% (vs 24.7% for the grunts)
Death by BS4 lascannon = 18.5% (vs 37% for the grunts)

It may not seem like much on paper, but when the squad is staring at a Lascannon Predator, a Vendetta, a fireteam of Chosen with 4 plasmaguns or a squad of Sternguard toting combi-weapons... that Storm Shield is often the difference between life and death.

So, that's one little trick to get more bang for your buck in the world of Deathwing. Next up... I don't know. More Deathwing? Or maybe a Dark Angel/Blood Angel allied list? We'll see. Until then, happy wargaming...

Imperial Guard leadership check...

... failed:

And that's what double 6's look like.