40kGT Final - Results

Phew! Well the final is done and congrats to Josh Roberts on 1^st place with beast-star.

List-Fu: 1650 SW+IG+INQ for GT Final

CMON, Beamo (GW)

I thought I'd put up the list that I'm working on for the 40k GT finals in March. This list has developed from the thinking behind this post and the following discussions on the blog and at the club, so thanks to everyone who contributed their thoughts (Coyote, hornywingythingy and Jamie in particular).

List-Fu: Caledonian '14 Uprising Lists

Thought I'd share this link to the army lists for the upcoming Caledonian Uprising. For anyone interested in the sort of dirty lists they might be facing in the UK, this is a good indication of what is popular among the competitive crowd at the moment. Enjoy and good luck anyone going!

Year in Review 2013

This year I had two major goals – qualify for the 40k GT national finals and try and get the blog noticed. It's been a good year!

List-Fu: Inquisition vs Marines

GW

I thought I'd post up a list that I've been working on since the rumours of Codex: Inquisition started to trickle in, but first a little bit of background...

Since the GT Heat in October I've been thinking a lot about marines in 6th. 'What marines in 6th?' you may well ask, and that's kind of the point. From what I've seen over the past year or so, many of the top performing lists have been devoid of any flavour of marine as a primary troop choice. Sure you get some examples that prove this isn't always the case, but if you look back I'd suggest that xenos and GEQ equivalent codexes have done really well. Necrons scythe/wraith wing, IG blobs and air support, Deamon Flying Circus and now screamer-star, any combination of Tau and Eldar, Chaos marines with helldrakes but cultists instead of marines... you get the idea.

Now this isn't any sort of complaint and I actually think it's great to see such a variety of armies doing well over a comparatively short space of time, compared to say half a year at a time of 'counts as' the latest marine codex. It's hard to say if this pace of change will continue and I'm not going to go into some of the theories about why GW are doing this, but at this time I guess most would agree that seeing large numbers of marines is fairly rare on the top tables at tournaments.

Coolminiornot - Helldrake (GW) - wingsmoothpainting

I think it's already been well documented that this is considered to be due to the increase of low AP cover ignoring weaponry kicking about in 6th. Baleflamers and markerlights are top contenders here, but there are a number of other ways of getting ignores cover, not least being the brilliant Perfect Timing in Divination. I think others reasons include the massive reduction in the use of mech and the resultant move towards plasma over melta. Again, not new ground here, but I've never found footslogging large groups of marines across the table to be particularly effective and I think drop pod lists leave you too exposed and static for my tastes.

So how does this relate to the recent Inquisition release and what I want to run in my lists? Henchmen. But perhaps not in the way you'd think.

Acolytes are crazy cheap at 14pts for a body and a special weapon. I'm used to having one special per 5 marines, so to be able to take 3 specials on three bodies at 42pts compared to 85pts for 5 grey hunters with a plasma gun is a massive increase in offensive potential and points efficiency. And yes I'll take the heavy bolter razorback with psybolt ammo, thank you very much. What has held me back until now is how squishy the 3 man acolyte unit is compared to a unit of 5 hunters, but as you may have guessed from the first few paragraphs, 5 power armoured dudes aren't as survivable as they used to be.

This got me thinking if there was a variation on my GT list based on acolytes rather than hunters, so I started to put together a few lists with GK primary with my fire and scoring support IG allies to see where it led. We'll get to the list in a minute, but essentially pre-Inquisition this combo offered a significant increase in quality fire power at the expense of (slightly?) more durable troops and losing battle brothers. I'm still going to have to try out the list to see if the durability is an issue or not, but I know that losing prescience on the thudds results in a serious drop in efficiency.

GW

Enter the Inquisition! Cheap access to divination, the ability to choose a generally more useable warlord table and two sweet, sweet pieces of wargear - servo skulls and the psyocculum. Being battle brothers with imperial forces opens up a lot of possibilities, particularly carpet bombing Imperial Guard. The scout/infiltrate denial is a big bonus for a shooting army if it can buy another turn to whittle down an aggressive force before they hit your lines but reducing scatter by 1d6 is a significant increase (even if it's only for a turn or two before they are chased away) for Guard.

The second item, the psyocculum, makes the bearer and their unit BS10 against units containing a psyker. Situational? Yes, but let's think about how often this situation crops up. A lot of the most powerful combinations in the game use some kind of buff-psychic powers, especially deathstars. Farseers, heralds and Tigerius are good examples. For the cost of a powerfist, adding this kind of increase in accuracy combined with, oh lets say, barrage sniping means that targeting and putting wounds on lynchpin models much more reliable. I find that with prescience up I average about 3 hits per template from the thudds. 4 is not that uncommon, especially against a slightly clumped up unit, but I usually assume 2 to be on the safe side. So that's ~36 S5 hits. That's a lot of Look Out Sir! rolls to pass. Otherwise the increase against units with brotherhood of psykers/sorcerers or even individual psykers such as deamon princes, dreadknights and tervigons can be really quite handy.

So for comparison, let me give you my GT Heats list and then the work in progress inquisition list:

1650pts Space Wolves and Imperial Guard 40kUK GT Heat 2 List
Rune Priest, Jaws, Living Lightning
(IG) Company Command Squad, Master of Ordinance

4x 5 Grey Hunters, Razorback (Heavy Bolter), plasma gun
2x 5 Grey Hunters, Razorback (Heavy Bolter), melta gun
(IG) Platoon;
Platoon Command Squad, 2x flamer
2x Infantry Squad
2x 1 Sabre Defence Platform, lascannon (IA 2 2nd Ed)

3x 2 Hyperios Missile Launchers (IA Aeronautica)
(IG) Vendetta [130pts]

(IG) Heavy Quad Launcher Battery (3 guns with 9 crew) (IA 2 2nd Ed)

1650pts

VS

1650pts Grey Knights, Imperial Guard and Inquisition WIP list
(GK) Coteaz
(IG) Company Command Squad, Master of Ordinance, mortar
(INQ) Ordos Hereticus Inquisitor, level 1 psyker, psyocculum, 3x servo skulls (warlord)

(GK) 3x 3 Acolytes, Razorback (Heavy Bolter with psybolt, searchlight), 3x plasma gun
(GK) 2x 3 Acolytes, Razorback (Heavy Bolter with psybolt, searchlight), 3x melta gun
(GK) 3 Servitors with plasma cannons, 2 Acolytes
(IG) Platoon;
Platoon Command Squad, 4x flamer
2x Infantry Squad, mortar
4x 1 Sabre Defence Platform, lascannon (IA 2 2nd Ed)
1x 3 Sabre Defence Platforms, each with lascannon, one with extra crewman (IA 2 2nd Ed)

(IG) Vendetta [130pts]

(IG) Heavy Quad Launcher Battery (3 guns with 9 crew) (IA 2 2nd Ed)

1650pts


Coteaz goes with the servitors and noble bullet catchers (surprise!). The inquisitor usually sits with the quads or occasionally the command squad if an accurate ordinance blast is needed vs psykers - even better with the Burner of Worlds (orbital large blast) or Witch Hunter (preferred enemy: psykers) warlord traits!

Pros
This list punches harder with lots more special weapons - an extra 5 plasma guns, 4 melta guns and 2 flamers. Plus S6 razorbacks, more las-sabres over hyperios launchers, 3 plasma cannons and 3 mortars. Throw in better warlord traits, scout/infiltrate lockdown, more accurate blasts and Coteaz and I'm very tempted by this build...

Cons
I'm not sure just how fragile the 3 man acolyte squads will be and if they are worth the gains in firepower. Possibly too glass hammer? Weaker scoring, but there are still a lot of units thanks to the MSU build and the sabres score too. I've also lost the rune priest's anti-psyker, but to be honest he's usually tucked in the back to avoid giving up warlord and only works 50% of the time, I don't think this is a big loss.


Play testing is required. I've only tried henchmen once, so I'm interested to see how they work out. Any thoughts welcome!

A rules question for you all before I sign off - How do you think multiple barrages work with orbital blasts like the Master of Ordinance or the Burner of Worlds warlord trait? Page 34 of the mini-rule book states that the closest blast is placed first, then the others flip off via a scatter dice. So say a mortar is placed first (ideally with BS10 using the psyocculum) and the others flip off. Does this circumvent the 'orbital' or equivalent rule which states that this blast always scatters (for example) the full 2d6? Answers with page numbers appreciated!

40kGT Heat 2 Results

Last weekend I attended my second tournament of the year, Heat 2 of the 40kGT in Brighton. Having managed to place in the top ten in July at another tournament at Brighton I was hoping that my refined list would help me into the top half to qualify for the national finals in March.

My list was:

1650pts Space Wolves and Imperial Guard 40kUK GT Heat 2 List

Rune Priest, Jaws, Living Lightning
(IG) Company Command Squad, Master of Ordinance

4x 5 Grey Hunters, Razorback (Heavy Bolter), plasma gun
2x 5 Grey Hunters, Razorback (Heavy Bolter), melta gun
(IG) Platoon;
Platoon Command Squad, 2x flamer
2x Infantry Squad
2x 1 Sabre Defence Platform, lascannon (IA 2 2nd Ed)

3x 2 Hyperios Missile Launchers (IA Aeronautica)
(IG) Vendetta [130pts]

(IG) Heavy Quad Launcher Battery (3 guns with 9 crew) (IA 2 2nd Ed)

1650pts

Further list analysis here.

DAY 1

Game 1: Crusade vs Daemons.

Screamers, beasts and drones were all over me on turn 2, but I was winning when we timed out. However, the TO came over and gave us extra time into lunch to get turn 5 in. Timing is critical when diving onto objectives, and I'd already sacrificed a turn of shooting to get into position because I could tell we weren't going to get turn 5 in within time. Result = loss. Quite frustrated at that, but there was really nothing I could do. Oh well!

Game 2: Relic vs IG & Ultramarines

Tigerius and his grav-toting biker friends accompanied a full commissar led blob which mostly hid under his skyshield shooting lascannons. I managed to take out 75% of the enemy with minimal significant loss. Anything of his that got close to the relic died. Manticore and 3 vendettas didn't last long either! Good game.

Game 3: Scouring vs Daemons & CSM

I made a big mistake keeping all my razors off the board. Then I messed up my psychic powers, positioning and target priority all game. Didn't play well at all, lost fair and square. I don't usually make that many mistakes, and I paid for it!


DAY 2

Well after a disappointing first day I wasn't holding out much hope for getting a top half finish to qualify for the finals. I needed two more wins and a draw to guarantee a place, but one of the games was killpoints (always a hard one with MSU lists) and I'd found out on Saturday that I'd be playing against Tau/Eldar in Emperor's Will next...

Game 4 Emperor's Will vs Tau & Eldar

Going second, I deployed out of range for most of the enemy and only lost a thudd first turn. I couldn't stop one of the riptides and broadside units contesting my objective, but he only had one troops choice left to claim his and I flamed the kroot off and then scored it for myself with the PCS.

Things got a bit difficult at this point, as he'd apparently asked if there was anything in the vendetta when it came on. Unfortunately I don't remember this at all (having declared the unit embarked at deployment), but came in on the extreme right flank out of range from the broadsides and the fusion gun, so only the single remaining riptide's ion cannon had the chance to shoot. I also took out the single skyray that turn, eliminating his only skyfire unit.

Could he have fired a load of shots from the two broadside units and bought it down? Sure. But that fire wouldn't have been going elsewhere, particularly the thudds, so it may have worked out that I'd have been able to kill the last unit of kroot anyway, drawing objectives but then winning by killing the ethereal (secondaries at the GT don't count towards the result, but instead contributed towards tournament points). Who knows, but it was unfortunate to have the misunderstanding spoil an otherwise mostly amicable game.

Game 5: Purge vs CSM & Daemons

After introducing myself I said that this would probably be my opponent's easiest win of the tournament, as my list offers a 'target rich' environment with over 20 killpoints available. Comparing this to the compact 10 offered by the 4 FMC, 2 helldrakes and handful of cultists, marines in a rhino and plaguebearers, it wasn't looking good. Throw in hammer and anvil deployment and a huge (10"+) LOS blocking terrain for the FMCs to hide behind and getting siezed, things went from grim to grimmer! Oh, and one daemon prince got warp tether...

A couple of key lucky dice rolls helped keep me in the fight early on though, when I exploded the first helldrake with a sabre lascannon and the rhino with a MoO barrage hit. By the end of the game I'd also killed the other 'drake and three of the daemon princes, but had somehow only managed to lose a hyperios unit, 3 razors and a hunter squad!

Best game of the weekend by far, laughing all the way through, with an unexpected win to boot!

Game 6: Big Guns vs Eldar

2 wraithknights, Eldrad and reapers in a bastion and 3 DAVU waveserpents. Joy! Fortress of redemption (ruin) in the middle for the wraithknights to hide behind? Yep. Piloted by an ETC player? Excellent. Bring it on!

My opponent had already qualified in Heat 1 and was standing in to even out the numbers. Had this not been the case he may have focused a little more but we ended up with a friendly game and a win to me. Result!


Conclusion

After a dire first day, I somehow managed to pull three wins out of the bag day 2, placing 8th out of 45 against some very strong competition. Really happy with the result, and managed to qualify which was my main goal this year. Thanks to all my opponents and the GT crew for their efforts. Good times!

List-Fu: Space Wolves and Imperial Guard for 40kGT Heat 2

Do I need this?

So I've been analysing my games at Brighton and thinking more about the list. There is one particular unit that on further reflection I don't think I've betting the most out of – the plasma Company Command Squad (CCS) in the chimera. This unit fills the compulsory HQ slot, provides mobile high strength, low AP shooting and orders. The multi-laser and heavy flamer are really a bonus and the chimera adds to the light mech saturation.

What I've found is that I tend to use the CCS in a backfield role, keeping within 12” of my heavy quad launchers (aka thudd guns), usually giving them the Fire On My Target order and forcing successful cover saves to be re-rolled for the target enemy unit. I also like the option to try a Bring It Down for re-rolls to hit with the thudds if an MC or vehicle is sitting in the middle of a bunch of infantry when the rune priest is off using Perfect Timing elsewhere.

CCS (centre) between thudds (left) and where the fight will be (forward right)

However, I think that the unit is a bit conflicted in where it wants to be. With orders I want to hold back, but the plasmas and a transport mean that I want to push forward to get into rapid fire range. I don't think I'm really getting the most out of the unit in every game so I've started to think if there is a better way to spend the 100pts from the plasmas and chimera.

Hiding from Tau

So what do I need to add to the list?

Reviewing my games leading up to and at the tournament, I've noticed that in certain match-ups I want to be extremely defensive, at least for the first couple of turns before setting up late game objective grabs. For example, in my game against Sharon's extreme shooting Farsight Tau with Tau allies and my fourth game against Steve's Forge World Sisters and Imperial Guard I wanted to stay out of sight to minimise early casualties. In the face of an enemy that I know can out-shoot me I don't see this as a bad thing to do (especially if they get first turn), but I want to be able to do more damage whilst conserving my mobility and scoring units.

Tau castle sans bubblewrap

I also want to be able to punish anybody castling against me. In my last game at Brighton against Jeff's Tau, he deployed his vehicles in the extreme far corner behind a ruin and wisely kept all his squishy foot targets in reserve to avoid my thudds. I'd like to be able to threaten this sort of enemy deployment with a high strength pie-plate to force the decision between clumping to make the most of cover or spreading out to minimise blast casualties. I can already do this vs infantry with the horrendously efficient thudds, but I'd like to do the same against vehicles and multi-wound targets with T4 or below.

The answer is of course long range barrage, and I've started to dream of a second allied heavy support slot to allow me to take a manticore. This is not exactly breaking new ground, but with prescience these can be devastating. I suppose I could force myself to spend 50pts on the third thudd gun instead. Oh, well...

FW - Converting these guys for the Commander and MoO

But wait! Perhaps there is another way outside of the IG heavy support slot? Two options spring to mind – Marbo and the Master of Ordinance (MoO). I could fit in either with a bit of tweaking, and both provide a high strength, ordinance and barrage-like effect. I have considered the Pskyer Battle Squad (PBS), but I'm not sure that I want to rely on Ld9 psychic powers and deny the witch attempts on top of scatter and cover rolls.

Scratch-built las-sabres - not perfect but ok for now

So Marbo or the MoO+something else? I've said before that I'd like to add lascannon sabres at 1750 points and above for better punch vs AV13 at range. I could 'upgrade' a couple of hyperios for 30pts extra. I think this is a better deal than Marbo thanks to orders effecting the sabres and more turns shooting with the MoO (even if significantly less accurate), so I'll go with this and drop a couple of flamers from the Platoon Command Squad to cover the shortfall (still leaves them with two).

This leaves me with:

1650pts Space Wolves and Imperial Guard 40kUK GT Heat 2 List

Rune Priest, Jaws, Living Lightning
(IG) Company Command Squad, Master of Ordinance

4x 5 Grey Hunters, Razorback (Heavy Bolter), plasma gun
2x 5 Grey Hunters, Razorback (Heavy Bolter), melta gun
(IG) Platoon;
Platoon Command Squad, 2x flamer
2x Infantry Squad
2x 1 Sabre Defence Platform, lascannon, searchlight (IA Aeronautica)

3x 2 Hyperios Missile Launchers (IA Aeronautica)
(IG) Vendetta [130pts]

(IG) Heavy Quad Launcher Battery (3 guns with 9 crew) (IA 2 2nd Ed)

1650pts

So I've lost three plasma guns, a chimera, a couple of hyperios and a couple of flamers, but gained 4 more S5 AP5 barrage blasts, two scoring las-sabres and an unpredictable S9 AP3 ordinance barrage large blast. This gives me more threat and punch at range, while hiding if required, and judging on how I'm playing the lists, I think I'll get more use out of this than what I've lost.

I've moved the Hyperios back to Fast Attack, as the GT have ruled that as the IA Aeronautica and IA12 units have different names, they are actually different units and one does not replace the other. This is excellent news, and I can definitely see the logic (especially when it helps me out!).

Another one of these then! Note this was not an in-game shot...

I was going to wait until the new Space Marine codex dropped, but from the rumours (which pretty much turned out to be correct!) I couldn't spot anything that made me want to swap the puppies out for marines just yet (although Tigerius and the initial Tactical doctrine every turn got very close...). I've had a couple of games with the revised list (managed a win vs a serpent spam list in relic and a win vs an Iron Hand drop pod army with 4 ironclad dreads in a 3 objective Crusade) and it already seems better suited to how I want to play the army, so I'm happy so far. The heat is only three weeks away now, so we'll see if this list is up to scratch soon enough...

Any thoughts or comments welcome!

List-Fu: Space Wolves and Imperial Guard 1650pts (Part 2)

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!

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...

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!

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

Brighton Singles Tournament - Day One Update

Tau Castle - Joy!

I return undefeated! I have to say this is thanks to a mix of strategy, luck and opponent's mistakes, but that's the game, right? Three great games so far and a lot of fun.

Three perfect aggressive deep strikes into my backfield - ouch!

So I'm 2-1-0 going into day two, just like the GT last year. Today saw me draw game one against a brutal Farsight Tau and Tau allies list in Big Guns/Vanguard, win Crusade/Hammer and Anvil against Zandreck/Oberon veiling Necrons, and win The Relic/Dawn of War against Fateweaver Demons (could have very easily been a draw).

Razorwall around The Relic

Definitely still need to speed up, and I'm expecting a hammering tomorrow, but we will see!

Brighton Singles this weekend!

1650pts SW&IG

So, the July Brighton Singles is this weekend and I'm ready for war!

I've been able to get all my models assembled and painted to a decent enough standard (actually I'm really pleased with the IG and hyperios launchers so far - hobby articles are on the way!), and I'm packed and ready to go.

Rules, FAQs and accessories

All the lists have been submitted and having had a look through everyone is bringing tough armies. Out of 43 players, there are a large number or Tau, plus a strong showing from Eldar, Chaos Marines, Necrons, Imperial Guard and Space Wolves. There are a good number of well ranked players attending too, so I'm really looking forward to some hardcore games!

This is my first tournament of the year and second ever 'competitive' event, so I'm approaching this tournament as a learning experience and as practice for the GT in October. I know I need to get faster playing, particularly making decisions, and this will be a good test of my army against a wider range of armies and players than I'm used to. Time to put some theory into practice!

Breaking news - I've just found out that my first round opponent will be Sharon Reddy with Farsight Tau and Tau allies, playing Big Guns with Vanguard deployment. For those who don't follow the 40kGlobal podcast or the UK rankings, Sharon is a highly ranked long term Tau expert. Given the current strength of the codex and how well I expect the army to be played, this is going to be a very tough game.

Excellent...

Battle Report: New Eldar vs Space Wolves and Imperial Guard

1650pts, The Relic

 

This was to a game against one of my regular gaming buddies from Walberton Wargamers to test out the new Eldar codex using footdar and practice with my Brighton Singles list. I've been writing this up round by round over on the Total Immersion Wargaming Facebook page, but have saved the detailed pre- and post-game analysis for the blog. This has proved to be much easier for me, so I expect I try this again for the next report. Anyway, on to the game!

My 1650pts Brighton Singles List (WIP)

PRE-GAME
Game - Blood Bowl The Relic
Deployment - Vanguard

Space Wolves + Imperial Guard List
SW+IG list in detail. This is my fourth or so game with the list and I have to say I'm loving it so far.

Eldar list
Avatar, fast shot

3x 7 Fire Dragons, Exarch with fast shot, fire pike

3x 10 Dire Avengers
2x 3 Windrider Jet bikes

2 Vypers, cannon

Fire Prism

Looking at the Eldar (mostly) foordar list and having had a good read of the new codex myself, I thought that the list suffered from range issues, even with battle trance, and no decent ant-air firepower. The close range firepower was reasonable, especially considering the triple large squads of fire dragons and fast shooting exarchs, and this could be a threat if I got too close too early. With double MCs (the Avatar and wraithlord), the Eldar also had the upper hand in combat, so I really wanted to use my range to my advantage and move in for the relic later in the game. I was also really pleased not to face the old Runes of Warding, as the chance of killing my own warlord through that is just too high to risk casting powers (I've tried this before!).

There was one problem, however, in that the jetbikes windriders could potentially pick up the relic first turn, them move rapidly away in the shooting and assault phases if they stuck to 6" per phase. Assuming that the rest of the army then formed a cage around the relic (I need to play Blood Bowl again soon), I would have to work through a lot of infantry and the MCs before I could get to the relic. Thankfully, I thought I had enough ranged firepower to take out the jetbikes in my first turn, even if they did manage to get back in their deployment zone, meaning that they shouldn't be taking it too far. Also, if the cage was too tight my quad guns would have a field day with 8 barrage blast templates, especially as there were no Eldar transports to hide in.

Calm before the storm

Game plan
Target troops to deny Eldar claiming the relic, go for secondaries, use my superior range and mobility to focus on key targets. Pick up the relic late game if possible.

Target priority
Avatar, troops close to relic, immediate threats, troops.

Eldar deployment - note lots of tightly packed infantry

THE GAME 

Eldar deployment
(Black undercoated units are Dire Avengers)

I am a little surprised at the deployment, which concentrated around cover overlooking the relic - begging to be barraged. MCs are also placed centrally looking to munch anything that gets too close. Fire prism should have been in cover. I'd also put the vypers on a flank to get some side shots in on the chimera, rear shots on any forward razorbacks and harass any backfield units. Most importantly, as I suspected, the jetbikes were deployed aggressively within 12" of relic for a first turn grab.

SW+IG deployment - out of mid-range and in cover

 

SW+IG deployment

The heavy quad launchers ('quads' for the rest of the report) and rune priest (prescience and scrier's gaze) tuck in cover in the far corner area terrain to rain down barrages on the target rich centre, also keeping the warlord safe.

Hyperios (WIP models) spread out with good views to the centre. Command squad sit in the Chimera to dish out FRSRF to the mini-blob and bring it down to themselves for the MCs. They also have the option to try Fire On My Target on the quads, but this is not reliable at only Ld7.

Plasma hunters deploy in their razors in cover looking to deny easy first blood, and will move up to engage mid-field targets.

The vendetta with PCS and the two melts hunter squads reserve, planning a fairly reliable turn two arrival thanks to scrier's gaze. Melta hunters will probably push up the far flank to threaten the fire prism and go for linebreaker.

SW+IG turn 1 - Goodbye Avatar. Quad launchers rule too

 

And I seize for the first time ever!!

 

SW+IG Turn 1
Excellent, a decent chance for first blood, and oh look, the Avatar (the warlord) hasn't got any cover! Time to line up as much plasma and missile launcher action as possible...

So I push forward a little to get in range, including immobilizing the Chimera on the rocks (was worth the risk), and unload. I rinse through the Avatar's 5 T6 3+/5++ wounds quickly with only the demon save for protection. First blood and warlord in one. Result!

I still had the quads, razors and blob to shoot, so moved onto priority two - troops close to the objective. The quads go first to make the most of the beautifully clumped up squads, and with prescience up wipe out 9/10 of a dire avengers squad and two jet bikes. The remaining shots take out the last jet bike in the squad and the entire second jet bike squad.

That was a good round of shooting! Not rolling particularly above average, but making the most of the opportunities presented, namely an exposed warlord and bunched up troops. Having re-rolls on most things also really helps even out the dice and make shooting a lot more reliable.

Strong start for the Wolves.

 

Eldar turn 1 - Push into range and close on the relic

 

Eldar Turn 1
Everything pushes forward to engage, but is mostly (deliberately on my part) out of range. Dire avenger shots with quasi rending and the large blast from the fire prism prompt two plasma hunter packs to go to ground, as do the blob (wasn't intending to move onto the relic yet). Fire dragons on the flank take a wound off a hyperios with a fast shooting exarch (unlucky not to get two and remove a model).

With the fire dragons generally out of range and the wraithlord still out of charge range, there was little damage done this turn. Personally, I would have used battle trance to move back into cover, but already things are looking bad for the pointy eared space ninjas.
 

SW+IG turn 2 - Working through the enemy troops

 

SW+IG Turn 2

Continuing down my target priority list, I will use this turn to try and gun down as many of the remaining dire avengers as possible. If I can obliterate all of the enemy troops, even with warlord and line breaker secondaries, there is no way for the Eldar to win. With my reserves are very likely to come in this turn if I can cast scrier's gaze, all of which can potentially push for line breaker. I'm now confident that I've got the game in the bag, even without the relic. I will also target units with long range anti-tank so I can keep the razors available for moving troops around if required.

So the priest manages to get the power off, and the two melta hunter squads deploy into cover to rapid fire the fire dragons on the flank. I can re-mobilise over the next couple of turns to push for line breaker. The razors also line up shots on the now out of cover dire avengers on the opposite flank.

The vendetta comes in flying, targeting either the wraithlord or fire prism. The two embarked plasma hunter squads stay inside and push a little more toward the centre with the company command squad.

Shooting from the melta hunters thins the fire dragons down significantly, and the hyperios, plasma and a razorback take out the two vypers. I decide to shoot the vendetta at the wraithlord (perhaps should have shot the fire prism, but I didn't want the MCs to make combat) with no effect.

The rest of the army whittles the dire avengers down, killing one squad with the quads (without re-rolls) and halving another squad.

Looking good so far.

 

Eldar turn 2 - Threatening with the wraithlord

 

Eldar Turn 2
The remaining Eldar infantry decide to take cover with good views to the relic, and the wounded wraithlord lines up an optimistic charge on a depleted pinned squad of plasma hunters (presumably not wanting to risk being tied up with the mini-blob in combat). The prism really should hang back, but at this stage I think the Eldar were playing for kicks rather than with any real intent of winning!

Shooting takes a few casualties of different squads, but without the range to focus fire to eliminate squads, the best the Eldar could do was hope to force leadership tests.

In the assault phase the wraithlord tries the long charge into cover and unsurprisingly fails, whereas the flanking fire dragons (two left including the exarch) manage to make it in against a squad of melta hunters (4 remaining after shooting). I had expected them to multi-charge the razorback to nuke it with a melta bomb, but they didn't. Handbags proceed to swing for the rest of the game in this combat, with my hunters failing their counter attack and consistently failing to cause any casualties until the last round of the game for no loss in return. Thankfully this didn't matter to me, as at least the dragons were no longer a threat to either linebreaker or the relic.

With two full squads of fire dragons overlooking the relic but otherwise having yet to contribute to the game, I didn't really suffer any significant damage again thanks to range and cover saves.

 

SW+IG turn 3 - Taking midfield behind a razorwall

 

SW+IG Turn 3
This turn the last dire avengers have to go, as did the wraithlord. I also need to re-mobilise the melta hunters who weren't in combat to set up linebreaker next turn in case I don't want to drop off my platoon command squad. This was also the turn to move up and secure the ground around the relic so I could pick it up with any one of the 5 troop squads I had poised ready to pounce...

So I move up with all this in mind, blocking off the relic with a trio of razorbacks and disembarking the last two plasma hunters. I surround the wraithlord and prepare to rapid fire, whist the flanking melta hunters pile in their razorback and zoom across the board.

Heavy bolters wipe out the squad of 5 dire avengers in cover, except the flanking razorback which went flat out into the Eldar deployment zone. Mass rapid fire bought down the wraithlord with some FRSRF, and the left over fire halve one of the fire dragon squads as a bonus! Missiles and a now hovering vendetta fail to damage the fire prism.

The fire dragon vs melta hunter combat goes on...

Another good (but still average dice overall) round of shooting and some decisive movement. There is very little the Eldar can do at this point with so many opposing troop units ready to pick up the relic next turn.

(Tactical note) I've been trying to get better at setting up multiple targets for each unit. I'm generally quite pessimistic about what is needed to wipe a squad out, so well generally set up more than average fire power to try to ensure the job gets done. However, this can lead to wasted shots, so I try to do what I think is known in chess as ' forking' - setting up two or more targets.

Eldar turn 3 - Fire dragons finally get to blow stuff up!

Eldar Turn 3
With little left on the board, the Eldar prepare to sell their lives as dearly as possible. The half strength squad in the centre move around the razorback to get clear shots on the plasma hunters by the relic, whilst the full strength squad get into melta range of the middle razorback (I would have set up a multi charge on the two razorbacks, personally). The fire prism moves away from the melta hunters approaching its rear armour, but for some reason goes forward rather than sideways.

Doing the most damage the entire Eldar army had all game, the full strength fire dragons annihilates the central razorback (oh no, I've lost a 40pt tank, ahhh... /sarcasm), exploding it and luckily killing two hunters next to it (I forgot to remove it and mark it with a crater - oops!). The half strength squad slag three more and for a giggle the fire prism shoots a S9 lance at the hovering vendetta, penning and shaking it! I really don't know why it didn't shoot a large blast at the hunters or infantry squad, but hey, I didn't mind!

Everything passes it's leadership test, and the next turn would seal the game for me.

SW+IG turn 4 - Taking the relic any tying up loose ends

SW+IG Turn 4

Time to finish the Eldar off and grab the relic!

The flanking melta hunters bail out of their razorback into the Eldar deployment zone and line up shots on the full squad of fire dragons, staying in cover from the fire prism as much as possible.

The hunter squads close to the relic line up for short charges on the depleted fire dragons that ran around to the back of the razorback last turn, except for the furthest who decide to try a mid-ranged assault on the fire prism who's stayed too close. I decide that the mini-blob have the most resilience to hold on to the relic, if there's anybody left to shoot them!

Shooting obliterates the large squad of fire dragons and the last dire avenger (we'd both forgotten he was there since the first turn), whittles the small fire dragons down to just the exarch, but doesn't touch the prism (again!).

All the charges go in, but the fast shooting exarch gets a lucky two sixes on overwatch and kills two hunters on the way in! The hunters fighting the prism manage to take two hull points off and shake it, ensuring a further round off combat in the Eldar turn. In a stunning display of martial prowess, the exarch kills a grey hunter and then avoids I think 21 attacks back! I have visions of the Matrix. Terrified by the apparently invulnerable exarch, the larger of the two grey hunter squads decide to leg it!

At the end of the turn I couldn't believe that the exarch was still standing. Thankfully he was still contained and unlikely to be able to contest the relic...

Eldar turn 4 - Fire dragon vs melta hunter pillow fight finally ends!

Eldar Turn 4
With no movement or shooting, it was straight to combat. The prism was wreaked by krak grenades, the melta hunters finally ended the pillow fight with the flanking fire dragons, and the invincible exarch drew combat in the centre, leaving him as the only Eldar model left on the board!

We called it there, giving the Space Wolves & Imperial Guard the win with the relic, first blood, slay the warlord and linebreaker, and with only a single unit destroyed! 6-0 victory!

 

Mini-blob hold The Relic (Yes, I've since finished making the models!)

 

 

POST-GAME THOUGHTS

Well that went rather well, didn't it? I'm going to break down my comments into sections, ending with a look at my list.

Deployment

It just goes to show how important it is to deploy considering the risk that you may be seized. If you have some way of controlling the roll, say with Coteaz, then it's possible to be more aggressive, but here I don't think that there really was any need to take the risk. Had the Avatar been set up behind the hill and/or out of plasma range, it would have been much harder to take the warlord secondary so early. That I could also take first blood with the same unit made it a massive uphill struggle for the Eldar even before they got to move. 

Mission
In The Relic and Emperor's Will missions, secondary objectives are so important that I really have to question whether I'd ever want to take an aggressive warlord, as the points vs benefit generally seem too high for me. As I try to design my lists to take-on-all-comers at 6 game tournaments, I would expect 1/3 of the games to be significantly effected by whether my warlord died. I personally prefer to avoid a combat warlord, as they have to get stuck in to contribute to the game and that's generally where it's easiest for most armies to pick them off. I've tried running a thunderwolf lord with a unit of thunderwolves, and although great fun, I just felt that it was a lot of points for a unit that had a limited impact on the game for their points. The Avatar seems even more restricted, as although he has some metla shots at close range, his limited mobility means that it may be better to run him forward rather than shoot most of the time, and even then he's not that fast and can be avoided with deployment and mobile units.

Tactics
With first blood and warlord in the bag first turn, the rest of the game was really an exercise for me in not messing up. I'm happy with my overall threat assessment, game plan and target prioritisation, but I do think that even with a bad first turn the Eldar could have done more to try to pull it back.

Firstly, I'm not sure that Battle Trance was used to it's fullest effect in this game, and there were some obviously just-for-fun decisions being made. A big one for me here was the use of the fire prism, which I think is potentially a really good unit and could have caused me some serious problems. For example, even with most of the Eldar units destroyed, the area in the centre had no cover so if the fire dragons had exploded my razorwall (not unreasonable with that many melta guns), the AP3 large blast really could have done some damage and potentially kept me off the relic.

I would have sent the vypers around to harass my backfield, rather than just scooting up towards the centre. This would have threatened my warlord, and possibly forced me to divert fire power away from the centre. Also, although the windriders could potentially take the relic first turn, there was a good chance that I could still shoot them down in my turn. Looking back at the game now, I think that they could have been a lot more effective if they'd been kept safe for end game linebreaker or even just sent with the vypers to hit my back lines. 

Eldar List
My friend acknowledged at the start of the game that this wasn't what he'd consider to be a hardcore list. I stand by my initial assessment that the list had limited range, mobility and anti-air, and for me these are three of the most fundamental requirements for a good list. However, even some of the worst lists can carry some significant threats against your army, and what the Eldar lacked in range they made up for in close range fire power. In a relic game, this might have been used to greater advantage, knowing where most of the fighting was likely to be but not bunching up so much to get hammered by the quads.

 

I don't know if fire dragons are the auto-include they used to be. The units were too large and could have really benefited from a transport for each unit to get them into the game earlier, as I managed to avoid nearly all their shooting until I was ready to close in on the relic. Generally though I'm afraid it's back to the drawing board for my buddy in search of a more competitive list (he's threatening me with wraithwing Necrons next! Or maybe it will be double helldrakes again...).

SW+IG list
I'm finding that my list is working well and has a good range of tools. The heavy quad launchers continue to impress me, and showed in this game how they can pummel tightly packed formations, even when the targets get a 4+ armour save (dire avengers) or better (windriders). This game they wouldn't have benefitted from orders, and the company command squad pushed forward to plasma the Avatar early, so would have been out of range anyway. Against targets relying on cover saves, Fire On My Target! (re-roll successful cover saves) is going to be a nice little bonus.

I always like having a number of mobile troop units to react to whatever they need to, and so far the weapon load outs are working well, even if I do take the occasional casualty from plasma! Bring It Down! helps a little with this though. I still think that for 40pts, heavy bolter razorbacks are highly underrated given the mobility they offer to MSU troops. Also, in combination with the anti-infantry fire power of the quads, my opponents have the choice of clumping up in cover to get a save against the heavy bolters, or spread out to avoid massed casualties from the barrage blasts. 

Even with no enemy fliers to target, the hyperios missile launchers were still incredibly useful in providing missile support at range where and when it was needed. At similar points cost on a unit-for-unit basis, I can't see any reason why I would take Long Fangs when I can take these with skyfire, interceptor and T6. Otherwise, I would also still like the list to be better at dealing with AV13-14, so maybe in time I will swap these out for lascannon sabre platforms (which would go in the 1850pts version of the list anyway).

SUMMARY
Well for those who made it this far, thanks for reading! I hope that this report has given you an idea of my (rather involved) thought process throughout the game and how these considerations inform my list building. I'd be really interested to hear if you would have done anything different, or have any tactics to share!