Team Tournaments and Pregame Thoughts

Well, it is the night before a team tournament. My friend, Chris and I have put together what I feel is a solid list that isn't a cheese list but rather something fun, challenging and a blast to play.

I know many out there think that because they hear the word "tournament" they have to bring the ultimate crap that they can put on the table by min/maxing their list and just killing the hobby as a whole trying to come up with the ultimate steamroller army. Really? You have to win THAT badly? Instead of being a good general, having a solid list and letting fate take its course, you would rather pimp out a list for the sake to win. If so, you should seek therapy.

This is not how I like to play. I go to an event for 3 good games with the hopes of playing a well painted army with a great player. Sometimes you get the half ass army or player which does detract from the game enjoyment. Still, you can always find something positive from the game.

For Chris and I, we prefer to put on the table a unique mix, never replicate the same list like some people and bring something that we hope will be a great theme as well. In the past we have had: 

• "Lion and Wolf" with Space Wolves and Dark Angels (Ravenwing)
• Greater Green: Tau and Orks
• For the Greater Good: Tau and IG
• Two Waaaggghhhs! Two Ork armies each with a unique theme. Bad Moons and Deathskulls joining forces.
• "Wolf and Tank" IG with Space Wolves
• "Wolf Brothers" Double Space Wolves with one with Thunderwolves/scouts, the other had more shooting and brawn on their side.

We try to avoid taking the same list to the same store, if another store hosts a team event we consider it fair game but even so we will build it from scratch instead of just taking something we made before and playing it again.

I scrapped my list I was going to take to this tournament:

• Cotaez
• Techmarine (Adeptus Mechanius)
• Vindicare
• 2 warbands with 4 Death Cult Assassins, 3 Melta Guns, 4 Crusaders
• 1 Chimera
• 1 Land Raider Redeemer
• 6 Grey Knighs (Strike Team) with halberds in a Las/Plas Razorback.

It had some punch, but only in close combat, even then that T3 could lead to a quick end for this list and put all the pressure on Chris to carry the load in each game. I don't like that, each player should carry their weight in a tournament.\

I hope tomorrow's list we made will be a blast to play and we take home a win perhaps!

Something interesting

http://galaxyinflames.blogspot.com/2011/05/games-workshop-in-ruins.html?showComment=1307674504645#c9206901047121340986

Loved this! I want to share it with others. Shout out to Stelek's blog posting it and I wanted to share this with others that may read here and not there.

This is amazing and I hate the fact GW LA Battle Bunker was utter pricks for destroying this. They should be shot. It did not degrade the hobby for a single moment for me, I laughed. As a former GW employee I wish we would have thought of this. Creative as  hell that store and they should be commended. Idiots was jealous and just shielded their hate with dumb propaganda that this was very un-GW. Feh! If I was still working for GW I would have laughed and said good job and asked what was next! That's encouraging the hobby not destroying the hard work of others. Sad...truly sad.

Theme of the Week!

 Sorry for the slow posting of late. I just started my new job this week and it has taken a toll on me. The job is really interesting and I feel will be something I will enjoy doing. It is a huge change from IT to doing Contract Management but that is the way of being a state worker. Budget cuts say your job goes, so you find something else or move on. I was lucky, not only did I get something but a pay raise at that, so I can't complain. In some ways  I feel being a gamer helps you when you go to job interviews. You understand how to deal with people, adapt how you communicate, dealing with situations and so on....I even wrote a paper in college about gaming and development of communication skills for the young and old alike.  I still hold to that thesis that games can teach many things as well as be enjoyable.

I am about halfway through the book and I hope to be posting a review by this weekend. So far, the style is intesting on how it breaks down something of histroical 40k background and gives you an enjoyable story. More on this later...

Hobby wise, I am getting ready for a tournament next weekend. This time a team event, always a favorite for my friend and I. Why? Because we usualy end up playing one another almost every other tournament. It also blends two lists into a fun outing. I have the Ravenwing again on deck with perhaps Space Wolves or something else going into the mix. Chris already has his list, so it is up to me to come up with the list that will enhance what he has built and make both list stronger for the event.

I have been painting some Dark Angels, Space Wolves and some Inquisition models this past week. No real focus on anything as I am just trying to keep active with my hobby and avoid getting into the "I am too tired after work to paint" grind. I will try to post up some pics by Friday and I hope a Batrep on Sunday with perhaps a book review to top the weekend off.

As ever, thanks for taking the time to read this blog, feedback and comments are always welcome!

Grey Knights: What Went Wrong with the Codex Part 2

Hey Matt  Ward, how long does it take you to screw a codex over? Not long from what I see!

On to part 2 of my review of what was done wrong with the Grey Knights Codex. Our focus is in the Inquisition for this installment. Wow, again I would like to state that the Inquisition must have been forced into the Codex at the last minute without much thought. Let's look at how badly damaged Warbands are now.
First we will start with the positive aspect, in the old Demonhunters Codex there was 3 pages for Inquisitorial Henchmen (one page was just base stats and fluff with a huge pic), so we can call it 2. In the new book we get 4 pages. Not bad....

The old book had:

•  Familiar: added +1 imitative and allowed extra psychic powers to be purchased for the second.
• Hierophant: First added +1 LD and made all demons roll difficult ground to assault. The second removed -1 LD from the Demons.
• Acolyte: Could take 15 points of wargear
• Warrior: +1 WS to the Inquisitor, could take Servitors or Guardsmen or other warrior types with assorted weapons (mainly assault weapons and heavy weapon servitors).
• Sage: +1 BS to the Inquisitor, second gave a reroll to hit with shooting,.
• Mystic: Could allow the unit to shoot at deeps striking units within 4d6". Second one allowed you to nominate a unit within 12" to shoot. Now only Cotaez has the power and limited to his unit only. No longer can you nominate.

The new book:

•  Arco-Flagellant: Feel No pain. Basically copied from the SOB army list. Great STR and WS but useless otherwise for the point cost with no armor save. Why buy this guy when there is Death Cult Assassins and Crusaders waiting in the wings?
• Banisher: Aura of Faith that forces re-roll successful invulnerable saves. Not bad. Eviscerator for 15 more points, so 30 points for a one wound guy with STR 6 or STR 8 with Hammerhand, Again a SOB throwback.
• Crusader: Straight from the Witchhunter Codex. Now, a 3+ storm shield and power weapon. WS 4 on top and 15 points. What a deal! Wonder why they are popular???? Hah!
• Daemonhost: Stripped won from 65 points in the prior codex to 10 and don't take up a FOC slot like before. Good idea, but rip out their wounds, at least give them 2! The random chart each turn wasn't changed much and really does not work with a single wound guy like it did with the multi wound model.
• Death Cult Assassin: Wow, another model that once took up a FOC, now with the Warband. A good idea, cheap and just amazing. Pretty much was a cut and paste from the old book. Got rid of a wound, added +1 INT and made them unable to infiltrate as they are part of a squad now.
• Servitor: No longer limited to one plasma cannon, but mind lock now prevents them from being really useful.. Some argue that 2/3 of the time they will work if there is not an IC in there to keep them in line. I don't like those risks. My luck, the critial roll will be the deathblow.
• Jokaero: Aptly named if you ask me. Let's take an Obliterator and make it cheaper and crappier with some weird rules. Now, these guys can work in limited applications but you have to be prepared to take the bad with it. They suck in combat, really, Tau can kick their ass., 
• Mystic: Deep Strike within 6" and you don't scatter. Hey, it's called a Teleport homer! Duh! Except they left them out of the codex...
• Psyker: An interested introduction for this one, could be powerful with high STR and AP large blast. Crappy leadership at 8, so 1 out of 3 tries will fail. Cheap and makes up for missing blasts from the rest of the codex.
• Warriors: Cheap! Limited by the # special weapons you can take. I can deal with that just like before, you could only have 3 of any type and this time only limited here. You can take more of the others. Warriors and Acolytes from before are rolled up into one batch now.  Lots of options, yet many missing like: Lasgun (free swap for pistolr or CCW), Shotgun (free swap), oddly you can take a bolter for 1 point but NO BOLT PISTOL! They removed some possible models that many people had in their collection and also made everything the same price when it comes to a flamer, melta, plasma or grenade launcher. There has always been a price difference in most books and just amuses me that people would consider taking a Grenade Launcher or a Flamer over a melta or plasma gun. Really, let's thing about it. Unless you know your playing against a horde list, useless.

So, we see a few steps in the right direction, then Matt just said, meh! Tossing everything into the book without much more than a casual thought. Some serious thought should have went into the book more. Mystics should have been left alone not turned into craptastic beacons. Points should have been balanced some to help keep things in line also with other books. An improvement, but not much of one as most was copied from Witchunters and modified if at all.

My Latest Books: The Purging of Kadillus (review to follow)

Just pick this up over the weekend and have started to read this book. This is my first "Space Marine Battles" book that I am trying out. I have the Battle for the Fang for this month on my to buy list as these two books features the Dark Angels in this one and Space Wolves in the others. Two of my armies that I own and am building up.

So far I am just a few chapters deep into the book but I have started to find it very enjoyable so far. It is a historic book of sorts as this fluff has come to already pass. Unlike the Horus Heresey books the book itself is larger print and easier to read. In some ways I think these books may be geared towards younger readers to a point to bring them into the hobby or capture their imagination quickly with these books.

In any case, I will post a review of this book when I finish. I am starting a new job tomorrow so, I figure my reading time will be slow. Plus, I have some short stories of my own to finish up in two weeks for the first round of reviews that I hope to submit to the Black Library as well as get ready for a team tournament this weekend. WHEW!

Grey Knights: What Went Wrong with the Codex Part 1

I keep reading about how these fantastic lists and such people come up with from the Grey Knights Codex, but very little touches on the matters of what did GW do wrong with the codex.

My first outing is to touch on the Assassins. Why does everyone want to take the Vindicare and the other three temples are treated like red headed step children? Simple. GW dropped the ball on them. When you look at the codex, GW put their love into the Grey Knights and not into the Inquisition. GW wanted to create a codex unlike the one prior that they had to pray someone would play, instead they created a monster of a book that everyone and their mother wants to play due to the insane rules they created.

So, we are going to look at each of the 4 temples and see their merits and failures:

All assassins have Move Through Cover, Fearless, Fleet, Lighting Reflexes and Synskin. Now everything so far at a glance is great until you get to Synskin, instead of a 4+ Feel No Pain you get a 6+. Meh....

On to the Temples...

Callidus: In this package you get Hit and Run, Stealth, The ability to deep strike without scatter (but can assult like before) but instead you inflict d6 STR 4, AP 2 hits. While this looks great and ignores most armor, what GW failed to add should have been ignore cover also. A unit in cover, even if you got say 4 wounds could pass at least 2 saves on average. Sure you take a loss of 30 points from 2 marines and you can still shoot the gun against their Leadership (which on average for most units is 8-10), thus wounding on a 4, 5 or 6 depending on the leadership. Granted you get a great AP 1 with the Neural Shredder and is a Template (thus wasting the great BS stat line our paying for). The C'Tan Phase sword is amazing able to ignore armor saves (power weapon) and any unsaved wounds causes instant death no matter what.

Culexus: This is a very co-dependent assassin, you have to have psykers in your list or at least hope the other player does to fuel your guy. Base line, you get a 12" shooting ability at STR 5, AP 1 with 2 shots and adding 1 per psyker within 12". This could be great with a Grey Knight list as you could pump up this guy to the point he could be a walking machine gun of of death. Still with short range, he runs into a challenge. Sure he has the Etherium, pass a leadership test to shoot at him. Ok, again most armies are between LD 8, 9 or 10. So, most armies are failing about 1/4 of the time to 1/3 of the time. Oh, the most important part...no infiltrate. So, you can't even setup in a critical spot or flank with him. They give him the nifty Psyk-out grenades but no power weapon or anything to inflict real damage or any option like the old codex to drain a psyker in close combat. One of their trademarks of their old fluff.

Eversor: Now here is a beast! Melta Bombs, Neruo Gauntlent (counts as a lighting claw), extra d6 instead of 1 bonus attack on a charge, Executioner Pistol that is 12". STR 4, AP 2 that wounds on a 2+ tossing in Furious Charge. Wow! A beast, either inflict a wound that can only be saved by an Inv save or fleet to a target attacking with a base of 5 attacks plus d6 (base 4, add 1 for extra weapon and d6 for Frenzon), this along with a lighting claw to reroll wounds and Furious Charge making him I8 and STR 5 on a charge isn't bad. Not like the old way that you would wound only on a 4+ and ignore armor saves. Still, he takes a loss of the old 12" charge and lacks Infiltrate. HELLO! So, no flanking, no setting up to get into possible charge range. You have to hoof it or hide and pray someone is dumb enough to come near you. Unlike the Culexus, you can be shot and killed fairly easy.

Vindicare: Back in the prior codex this guy was the #2 or usually the #3 out of 4 pick by players. Single shots on his gun limited his use. Now, he has unlimited ammo, shield-breaker now removes the Inv save along with keeping most of his other perks. Toss in the fact that he has Stealth and Infiltrate! Wait! GW added Infiltrate to him, BRILLIANT! Score one for GW....

But why neglect the Culexus and Eversor? Why the the Callidus the #1 pick of the codex of old get ganked badly? Serious....if you really didn't want the Inquisition in the book, then DON'T PUT IT IN! This is a serious craptastic job of shoving a bunch of crap at the end of the book either as filler or because someone wanted it in there to not hurt fan feelings. I for one love the Inquisition and wished they gave them the time of day to be an enjoyable playable option. There is some options but not like their should be.

So, let's recap:
#1 with a gun! Really, the Vindicare. Why would take anything else? Guy that can pop AV 14, check!, Guy that can remove Inv saves, check! Guy that can inflict 2 wounds at AP 1, check. Guy that can snipe any target they want to make wound saves, check please!
#2 would go to the Callidus
#3 Culexus take this spot only due to the forcing leadership tests  to be shot at, still, easy meat for a smart player to snap up some easy points or a simple kill point.
#4 Eversor a once respected and feared model is little more than an annoying threat now. Oh, yea, he's bad ass if you can get him there. BANG! Ok, next target.

My only question to Matt Ward is was your head up your ass when you wrote this section?

2k BatRep from Mega Gaming and Comics

 

Went to try out a new store that was hosting a tournament. After a long 2 hour drive we arrived at Mega Gaming and Comics. The tournament was packed out with 16 players, the table space was a bit cramped with tables right against one another. After the first round, the store was also hot due to the # of players packed near one another.

The store itself is nice, lots of comics all over, displayed nicely. Their gaming area was perhaps one of the top 3 best stocked gaming stores I have been in. They even had a selection of Forge World in 3 cases, sadly nothing that I was wanting or was willing to ask my wife to dip into the savings to let me get some resin fix that weekend.

The store manager was very nice, though this is the first tournament that I was charged tax for and the price was unusual, $12 instead of the usual $10 most charge. Some charge $15 but you usually bought pizza for lunch. The TO was a bit meek and shy, I had a sense he was really new at this and was still trying to figure out what worked and what did not. Two others from my area was there and well agreed that the TO could have organized the tournament better. I guess we are spoiled by some of the local stores here that have had reliable and regular organizers and know how they want to run things. Many of the players was very nice and welcomed us to the store, there was a few guys that I felt like looked at us like predators that just had invaders in their lair. Guess they was worried about being knocked off the hill and no longer king.

I had a few ideas of army lists and batted out what I thought would be great to bring to the table. After I kicked some heavy  handed lists to the side as I didn't want to go to a new place with a list that would give people a bad impression. So, I picked Orks as they was fun, well painted, a challenge and just enjoyable.

Of course I forgot the camera this time! So, sorry no pics....

My List:
Ghazghkull Thraka
Big Mek with KFF, Klaw and Cybork
15 Kommandos with Snikrot with 2 burnas
9 Kommandos with Nob with Klaw and 2 big Shootas
13 Grots with a Herder
20 Orks with 2 rocket launchers, Nob with Klaw and Bosspole
20 Orks (same as above)
18 Ard Boyz with Nob with Klaw and Bosspole
11 Trukk Boyz with Nob (same as above) with big shoota, red paint and ram
12 Trukk Boyz with Nob (same as above) with (same as the first Trukk unit and same upgrades)
3 Battlewagons, 2 with ram and 1 with a deathroller. Both with red and a single big shoota.

Game 1 was against Eldar.

I think his name was Devin or something like that. A nice guy and had this for a list:

Eldrad
Yuriel
Wraithlords (full squad)
Guardians in Wave Serpent
Harlequins in Wave Serpent
3 Wraith Lords with assorted Weapons
8 Jetbikes with two shurikin. Cannons

The main objective of the game was Kill Points for a Win or Loss. The table had a good bit of scenery on it including a large building down the middle. He won the dice off but I took first turn on a 6. This was a standard DOW game.

We had a good game and was close. I won by one kill point and had a few delays waiting to see what his battle plan was before I struck. Once I got the boyz into the fight I was plowing him down. I took my share of losses but that is how orks work. You can hurt me, but I have more things to hurt you.

At the end of the game he had one Wave Serpent, a surviving unit of Harlequins and about half of his Wraithguard unit.

Second game was against Grey Knights (forgot the guys name)

His list was this:
Librarian with several powers
Purifier Squad (full) with psycannons and the two blades
Two Strike Squads (full) with psycannons
3 Razorbacks with las/plas
3 Dreadnoughts with TL Autocannons with psybolt ammo
Inquisitor with several Crusaders (meat shield to give 4+ cover to the rest and then casts Stealth power to get a 3+ while they have a 3+ in the front).
2 Vindicare Assassin's (get into this later)

As we swap lists I see that he took two Vindicares. I point out this list is illegal. He pulls out the book and it does not show 0-1 for each FOC. That is because I missed the word <UNIQUE> in the profile. I was already starting to get hot, I did not remember the Unique rule, so I let it slide. I was uneasy and knew I was right. I still wonder if he just didn't read the codex or was just a cheat or power gamer. He was married to one of the store staff that was helping to run the event and was playing an army also. She interrupted the game several times telling him about her game, asking questions as we was playing and was to a point generally annoying to a point. She was nice enough but the social tact of keeping her mouth shut at times during the game did drag our game. I saw this a few times in the first and third round.

I won the dice toss, I setup, he setup everything in a castle of sorts. Dreads, layered by Las/Plas Razorbacaks turned sideways, then a Purifier squad in a long line, then the Strikes (the other in reserve), the Warband in front this game was standard 12" pitched battle with objectives in an X pattern.

There wasn't much to talk about this game, it was a cluster f*** from the start. I lost half my stuff first round, the other half the second round. I was getting shot apart the entire time. I lost the game as by the end I had little left. Oddly he was bitching it was such a pain to remove all my orks, but I guess he was expecting to roll over everyone he played. I heard he did this to the other two games with little to no issues.

Round 3 vs Blood Angels (John)

This guy was really a great guy. When he parked next to us as we waited for the store to open he came over, introduced himself and talked to us. A very nice guy and a good player, those guys I like to see at tournaments.


His List:
Mestiphon
Librarian in Terminator Armor
Terminator Squad with assorted close combat weapons
2 Storm Ravens with las/melta weapons.
Death Company Dread with Blood Talons
3 TL Lascannon Razorbacks with 5 man assault squads inside with power weapon and a melta
2 Baal Predators with heavy bolter sponsons

He won the dice toss, took his spearhead quarter and setup. I held all in reserve. He moved about for two turns until I could come on in Turn 2. 2 Wagons (Gazzies and one of the boyz) and the KFF Truckk hit the table. Snikrot jumped out of a side spot and tried to take down a Razorback. Damm fast vehicles. He ran forward....perfect....I raced forward, jumped out, piled into his Razorback and slowly starting on turn 3 I was  milling down his army.

He ended up winning the match but with only 2 table quarters to my 1. VP holding was based on total VPs in the space, not just scoring. One more round Mephiston would have died (only had one wound left) and he just barely beat me on VPs by 6 points for that quarter. It was a close loss and a good fight.

Two losses and one win. I have done better, still that illegal list annoyed me, I would have no doubt lost to a superior codex and a very cheesed out build, but to cheat (either on purpose or not) just ate into a loss even more so.

We plan to go back again, perhaps when it gets cooler as those close quarters and heat just makes the experience less than happy,