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| Lining up for Best Painted just for the photo! |
I thought I'd do a quick review the army (original list here) having played it up to and at the recent Brighton Singles tournament, plus throw in a few photos of my models for good measure. I may do a unit-by-unit breakdown in a later post too if I can find the time!
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| My 8 scratch built Hyperios Launchers |
I had a bit of a nervous few days a couple of weeks before the event when I found out that Forge World had released alternative rules for the hyperios launchers in IA12. I've seen some FW units been nerfed to oblivion on a whim, and what made it worse was that I'd nearly finished scratch-building and painting 8 of the things! In the end, the TO ruled that only the latest issued rules for the hyperios should be used based on some Facebook evidence showing that FW had said the same thing. Fair enough, but this was a pity, as it removes twin-linking as standard and I did notice a slight drop in reliability over the course of the tournament. It could have been worse, however, as their FOC slot moved to heavy support! Thankfully I had all these slots free so it didn't matter and could just shift them across, but this could have royally messed up the list so I got away fairly lightly I think! I knew there was a risk in going for Forge World, and it's good to know I wasn't being paranoid...
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| Forge World Heavy Quad Launchers, Maxmini heads on Cadian bodies |
So after IA12 adjustments and a very productive few weeks I was had the following all painted up to a reasonable standard, plus 6 custom objectives for extra soft scores!
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| 4 of my 6 custom objectives. The other two are wolf claws from the Canis model |
1650pts Space Wolves and Imperial Guard
100pts Rune Priest, Jaws, Living Lightning (Warlord)
150pts Company Command Squad, Chimera (Heavy Flamer), 3 plasma guns
4x 125pts 5 Grey Hunters, Razorback (Heavy Bolter), plasma gun
2x 120pts 5 Grey Hunters, Razorback (Heavy Bolter), melta gun
150pts Platoon; Platoon Command Squad, 4 flamers; 2x Infantry Squads (no upgrades)
130pts Vendetta (PCS goes here)
2x 105pts 3 Hyperios Missile Launchers (Forge World)
70pts 2 Hyperios Missile Launchers (Forge World)
100pts 2 Heavy Quad Launchers (Forge World)
1650pts
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| Company Command Chimera (I've since done the searchlight with lense-flare etc.) |
Overall, the army is performing really well and has all the tools I think I need at 1650pts. I'm not looking to change anything and want to continue to practice with the army. Going to 1850pts I would still definitely add Forge World las-cannon sabres for more puch vs AV13 at range and additional anti-flier, maybe a third heavy quad launcher. I would also playtest an aegis defense line, as this offers good cover for my artillery and backfield units, but at the cost of limiting my transport's maneuverability and making deployment more predictable. With the increase of ignores cover weapons (see Tau and Eldar), I'm not sure that the aegis is as useful as it was!
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| Command and Platoon Squads. Cadian bodies with Maxmini heads again |
Leading up to the weekend I'd played with the list against Iyanden twin-Wraithknight Eldar, wraithwing Necrons with triple anni-barges, new footdar Eldar and Imperial Fists mech with double vindicators. At the tournament I played Farsight Tau with Tau allies, Zandrek Necrons, Fateweaver Chaos Daemons, Forge World Sisters with Imperial Guard powerblob and las-sabre allies, venom-spam and beast-deathstar Dark Eldar with Eldar allies and pure Tau. That's a fair spread! That's 10 games, and I'm 6:3:1 (w/d/l) with the single loss against the new Tau in Purge the Alien, my toughest mission.
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| Vendetta. Bonus points if anyone can name the DVD in the background |
That's doing pretty well, but I know there is room for improvement! I'm not using the vendetta to it's full potential yet, and I've made a couple of less-than-optimal decisions with my target priority/psychic power choice with the heavy quad launchers/rune priest (e.g. choosing juicy targets protected by multi-level ruins or going for ignores cover rather than prescience shooting behind an aegis). I'm usually pretty good at remembering not to block the hyperios' line of sight with razorbacks, but I still did this once at the tournament. I'm also trying to speed up my gameplay, as I think I could have turned two of the three draws into wins if we hadn't timed out. I'm getting there though, and this will come through getting more games in on the clock and getting to know the army better.
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| Another shot of my Hyperios, just because I can |
I've yet to test the list against flier heavy armies, but with the 8 hyperios launchers and the vendetta I have a reasonable amount of anti-flier at 1650pts. I'm looking forward to testing this, as there are both scythewing and multiple helldrake lists kicking about at the club. Similarly, I'd like to get some games in against some proper hoard armies, like Orks and Tyranids. I've been really impressed with the heavy quad launchers so far, particularly with prescience or ignores cover. The damage output for 100pts is stupendous and in combination with the small arms, flamers and heavy bolters should cover anti-hoard reasonably well.
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| Still lots to do, but they're getting there |
What I have found so far is that there are no easy wins against tournament level opponents with the list. Instead I think I have had a fighting chance against pretty much anything, and that's exactly what I want from a balanced list. Knowing how to fight my opponents is one of the big keys here, so for now it's more games and more recon!
Fight club?
ReplyDeleteCool, I will be honest, I'm not a fan of fw myself, seems their rules are either utter utter sh*te, or worse filth than the beardiest powergamers dreams, plus I struggle to afford gw prices let alone fw! But its something that is becoming more accepted in tournies I guess....
Army looks nice, are the hyperios built from the rocket pods off valkyries?
We have a winner! Yes, it's Fight Club. My favourite film. I'll be humming Where Is My Mind for the rest of the day now!
ReplyDeleteGlad you like the army :-). GW prices seem to be getting closer to FW, but there was no way I could afford £22(?) per hyperios! Yes they are made using the missile pod from the valkyrie, plus spare razorback parts and some plumbing bits. I'll be doing a hobby article on these art some point to show how I did them stage by stage.
Yeah, I'm the same with flesh hounds of khorne, 35 quid for 5, given I want to field 40+, that would be 280 quid, for really ugly models, I'm converting mine from chaos warhounds, much much cheaper, and spare spiky bits (I play demons, beastmen, woc and csm so have loads of spiky bits)
DeleteAh yes, the noble art of adding spikey bits! Do you have a set list or do you like to change it around?
DeleteAtm I'm finishing converting it, so have been running fateweavers flying circus (its awesome!), but once its done I'm thinking fatey, juggerheralds, 40 flesh hounds and 20 seekers with slaanesh herald.
DeleteNice. I'm yet to play either of those lists, so I'm curios - how would you play against my army and what would be your target priority?
ReplyDeleteWith the circus, priority one is the rune priest, kill him and my magic isn't quite so curbed, probably either with the heldrake, or fateweavers tzeentch spells, or my allied dp with the brand, then its killing the Hyperios, whilst drake and prince with brand go after your troops, I reserve all my troops, demons either deep strike or walk on if they can find somewhere to hide, cultists try to hide. I'm not overly worried about the vendetta, it will probably kill the heldrake, but the heldrake always dies. I'm considering adding demonettes rather than horrors as my troops, since there is literally nothing I can do against wraithknights, and the horrors are ineffectual at best.
ReplyDeleteWith the cav/beast list, would grimoire one of the units of flesh hounds, dependant on mission outflank the seekers (fast rending, again, for wraithknights/termies) hopefully have invisibility on one of my psykers and hug terrain with the invisi seekers or hounds, one unit would probably be just left with its cover save, to try to goad you into shooting it rather than the glass hammer of the seekers. The amount of mech shouldn't be a problem, fateweaver and the heldrake pop transports with ease, I'm not sure what the quad cannons do, I assume anti infantry like the thud guns?
It would be a tough match up since you have at least nine scoring units, but its lots and lots of targets for the warpstorm table, which effectively with fateweaver is almost the old preliminary bombardment every turn for me, that's a great leveller.
But yeah, either army, the rune priest is priority one, then the Hyperios, then your troops (I win most games off slaughtering my opponents troops so they can't claim, its amazing the number of people who forget to play the mission) its all very dependant on what I roll up on my random powers, like my last game vs tau, I rolled up puppet master twice, enfeebled twice, and warp speed on both demon princes, so when he was aggressive, enfeebled both (t5, can instil gin) puppet mastered them for ordinance shots on the army, then assaulted with warp speed and smashed both riptides, meanwhile, heldrake was burning his troops and the brand dp was burning his pathfinders. Its not the best example I suppose, because he effectively lost turn one, he set up first, we had nightfight, he deployed his aegis well back, and stuck everything around it, I reserved all my troops and deployed beyond his max range with movement due to night fight, he only got to shoot with his riptides, and was aggressive with them, I jumped all the army 24 inches, bar the oblits, and half his army was gone by end of turn two. Turn 5 he had two tanks backed into a corner, and I had the relic back in my deployment zone.
Rereading this, it comes over as big headed, that's not my intention, I'm sure it would be a very tough match up, and your obviously a skilled player, or you wouldn't have done as well as you did, but I'm very familiar with guard and spacewolves, they were my most common opponents back in my old club, so I got quite a good target priority for them, and without manticores and the like to worry me with s10 instigib, it gives me more free reign with my demon princes.... So in short, sorry if that came over as arrogant arse/waac powergamer! ;)
ReplyDeleteNo worries bud, I didn't read it as big headed. Just the good detailed response I was hoping for, so thanks!
ReplyDeleteI can see how the rune priest could be a pain. I've found that he's not that hard to avoid if you really need to, and I struggle to roll 4+ most of the time anyway! That's why most of my guns have re-rolls!
On the other hand, he's usually pretty well protected, sitting in the quads (aka thud guns) at the back, usually out of line of site if possible. You'd have to work through quite a lot of my army to get to him if I really wanted to keep him safe (not impossible though!).
Against flying circus I'd experiment with putting him in the combined squad in the middle of my force to project the 24" no-stick as far as possible as safely as possible (I'm guessing I'd castle and try to refuse flank a fast aggressive force like your two lists), rather than sit at the back.
Good call targeting the hyperios early, as these would be pounding the FMCs one at a time. I tend to place these in terrain as much as possible, spread out to get good lines of fire and to try and prevent targets easily hiding behind a large central piece of terrain. Elevated ruins are the preferred spot, but they still get a save in area terrain, so that's not too bad either.
I also like to focus on enemy troops early. It continually surprises me that so many lists take so few troops. I know there are arguments either way, but one of my perpetual list building tests is ' can this role be filed by a troops choice?'. The armies I play (SW, IG & GK) all have some very strong troops, and with allies available, a unit really has to offer something unique to make me select it over a troops choice.
Thanks again for a good detailed response!
If anyone else fancies jumping in too with their list and thoughts on how they'd tackle mine, I'm always up for a bit of friendly theoryhammer! (waits for tumbleweed)
Lol, yeah, the troops in csm and demons aren't the strongest, when I'm playing my nids or guard I'm always loading up on troops, but especially the csm troops are very meh.
ReplyDeleteThose Hyperious launchers are astounding, well done.
ReplyDeleteThanks bud. Really pleased with them!
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