Ive decided to take eldar once again for the first round of the 'ard boyz (3 years in a row now). Unfortunately the Eldar are much weaker compared to the newer armies but I firmly believe that I can still do very well with them because Im preparing for my areas meta games
The con of the eldar, in my opinion, are as follows
Poor infantry models
Poor CC except for jetlocks
Poor troops in general (Not very resilient)
Pros
Able to capture objectives rapidly
good concentration of fire
amazing anti-squadron units
eldrad
Knowing that I decided on the following list
HQ
Eldrad
Farseer on jetbike
8x warlocks on jetbikes
Elite
8 fire dragons (exarch with tank hunter and crack shot) + wave serpent TL BL
8 fire dragons (exarch with tank hunter and crack shot) + wave serpent TL BL
Troops
10 dire avengers (exarch with bladestorm) + wave serpent with dual cannons
10 dire avengers (exarch with bladestorm) + wave serpent with dual cannons
5 jetbikes + 1 warlock (embolden)
Heavy
Fire prism (holofields, star engines)
Fire prism (holofields, star engines)
Fire prism
Strategy
The basic strategy here is concentration of firepower on units I need to die first.. You dont NEED to zoom up and suicide yourself with Eldar .. All you gotta do is outlast them. I gave the fire prisms star engines and holofields so they can contest late game and annoy the hell out of people
I took the warlocks to surround transports and kill everyone inside with fire dragons
Mission 1 strategy
First or second turn? Second due to night fight and objectives
Deployment will be refused flank and I plan to hit them hard on a single flank and possibly then retreat to hold more objectives while using the serpents and prisms to contest
Due to only having to have more objectives it lets my jetbike squadron stay in reserve until hopefully turn 3.. Then with the warlock they most likely will not fall back
I think to win at this mission you need to be conservative with Eldar because you have to win the KP game as well as the objective game to score a massacre
Mission 2
First or second turn? First .. Eldrad is annoying in dawn of war if you go first since you then dictate where their 3 units set up (or 0 if they stay in reserve)..
Basic strategy is to deploy a unit of dire avengers 6" from the board edge and their wave serpent empty and Eldrad. This lets you on the first turn fortune the wave serpent and then have your fire dragons walk on so that they can embark into it (Instead of in a non-fortuned one)
Its important to get your jetbikes on before their shooting so they arent set up to shoot you before you can fortune.
Eldar are fast enough that you can pretty much go anywhere they move on.. First turn night fight means going first is also better because they wont have much on the board anyway
Since this is a KP mission the strategy is fairly dependent on what they bring
Mission 3
First or second turn? First turn.. Eldrad is amazing in spearhead deployments and there is no night fight.. Getting your fortunes up before they shoot is much more useful than going second in a 2 objective mission
Basic strategy
By using eldrads ability you can either force them to commit to a side and then move away OR towards them to engage.. Also it may force them to not commit at all giving you free choice over what side you wanna hit in full force.
You will lose this game if you try to commit to both objectives imo considering you dont need to control both, only one and contest the other.. That is where the jetbikes come in and the fire prisms with star engines
as stated I plan to hopefully catch the player unprepared on a flank and hit one objective with everything
We will see how the games go!
Friday, July 10, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Recent tournament results
As I have other sites where I post my models Im going to be using this blog more to talk about blood angels and eldar (Since those are the armies I play)
Much has been said about the state of Blood Angels as an army. A lot seem to think it's a bad list or a boring list or most likely a misunderstood list. I agree on two of those points, which are its fairly boring and its misunderstood
As my tournament results keep confirming they are NOT a bad list and infact can be quite powerful if used correctly. What this means is that you generally use the combination of Dante + Corbulo, rhinos and some hard hitting units such as death company.
Last week I played in a local 1850 tournament and took my Blood Angels once again. I didnt quite know how I'd fair against new imperial guard but luckily no one brought them for some odd reason
As usual we had a bunch of marine players and a mix of other races like eldar and orks. Some were experienced, some werent and some *thought* they were experienced. Having played 2 armies for all of my 13 years of 40k experience I like to think I know how to play my lists regardless of rule changes
For this tournament I took my standard template list.
HQ
Dante
Corbulo
Elite
6 man veteran squad - 2 meltas, power fist, power weapon
8 death company - jump packs
Troops
Tactical squad - melta, power fist, rhino
Tactical squad - melta, power fist, rhino
Assault squad - power fist, rhino
Fast attack
attack bike - MM
attack bike - MM
Heavy
Land raider crusader
-------------------------------
At first glance it doesnt seem like a "wowzer" army but played correctly Blood Angels can be asbolutely devastating. The overall strategy is to keep your units close to one another as you advance, keeping Dante and the DC out of los if possible by using the land raider. Once you reach the enemy you branch out and attack as many units as you can while remaining within the 12" bubble of the two characters. People who dont understand how lethal this is get demolished by a multi-unit charge which ends up entire wiping them out with a ton of LD modifiers or they suffer massive amounts of no retreat
However, Blood Angels are a tier2 list to be sure so new IG is difficult however Orks arent that bad because BA can pump out tons of wounds
Game 1
I faced a mech eldar player who was using what i remember as..
HQ
Autarch - warp generator
Farseer
Troops
10 man wraithguard
guardian squad
2 10 man dire avengers - wave serpent
Elite
2 6 man fire dragons - wave serpent
Fast attack
9 man warp spiders
Basically his strategy was to hold objectives with his guardians and wraithguard and out flank you with the avengers, dragons and spiders. To be said it was a decent list. I personally don't like 10 man wraithguard units because they're a bit too slow for my taste
Deployment - 5 objectives, table quarter deployment
He won first turn so he set up with aggressively with his serpents in front with the wraithguard and guardians behind. The warp spiders and the autarch were kept in reserve.
My deployment was fairly defensive with my rhinos upfront (the empty rhino closest) with the land raider, jump troops and attack bikes hidden behind them. I also combat squadded 5 bolter marines to hold and objective in my deployment zone. I was worried about the warp spiders deep striking backing there, but my fears were unfounded
Summary of the battle
I stole the initative and was able to use it to blow up a wave serpent with fire dragons on the first turn. In return he destroyed my land raider but was unable to destroy my rhinos before they got to his line. On turn 3 all my assault units charged his wraithguard, guardians, and a squad of dire avengers and wiped them out on his following turn
By turn 5 nothing was really left alive except for the autarch, some warp spiders and an empty wave serpent. To the Autarchs credit he did kill Dante when I failed all my invulnerable saves but then was cut down by the veteran squad on the final turn
At the end of the game I had 4 objectives controlled and he had 0
Game 2 - dawn of war, capture and control
This game was against an Ork Army played by someone who I rarely get along with during games.
His list was something like this..
HQ
Ghazghkull
Big mek with shokk attack gun
Elite
Mega nobz - battle wagon
Troops
Shoota boyz - 30
Shoota boyz - 30
Slugga boyz - trukk
'ard boyz - 30
Heavy
killer kan - mega blasta
deff dread
He won first turn and deployed his big unit of 'ard boyz in the middle of the board, a unit of shoota boyz at his objective in the rear and his big mek with them
I decided to not deploy anything and force his hand.
Summary of Game
After much taunting about my strategy being stupid he moved his units on, but didnt move the 'ard boyz up at all.. I came on with all my forces and moved slowly, killing a few of the 'ard boyz here and there
The only thing I was really worried about was a lucky shot from the shokk attack gun which did manage to destroy a rhino but did nothing else
For the 2nd turn I moved up slowly again, putting my rhino within charge range of his 'ard boyz (which were in a large piece of terrain). This is a very classic tactic of delay because I was trying to bait him into commiting his units
Taking the trap he tried to charge my rhino with his huge 'ard boyz unit (why he did that I will never know).. and failed to make it to me. On my following turn I counter charged with every unit I had except for the assault squad in the land raider. The 'ard boyz were dead and I consolidated so that my tactical squads were in front
Ghazghkull and his mega nobz charged them next turn, wiping out a full squad (no surprise) and he called the waagh as well. However he made a massive mistake and charged his shoota boyz unit at my death company AND the tactical squad thus locking them into a complex assault.
YOU SHOULD NEVER DO THIS when you have one GOOD unit and a unit that is total liability like shoota boyz are. I managed to do around 7 more wounds, which caused ghazgkulls unit to take no retreat damage and left about 6 shoota boyz AND made the mega nobz unengaged
On my turn I jumped my veterans right next to the nobz and unloaded the land raider.. After many melta guns and bolt pistols 4 of the 6 mega nobz were dead and I charged, killing the other 2 while suffering a good amount of deaths in the process
Ghazghkull failed his LD test and was run down. Note, he was fearless but the ork player insisted he was not (I knew he was because of his special waagh but this guy was really annoying during the game)..
KNOW YOUR OWN RULES..
Anyway after that point I was able to move my remaining units up and capture his objective as well on the last turn via consolidation
Victory - 2 objectives
Game 3 - kill points, pitched battle
I faced a sisters of battle army that was definatly not high tier
HQ
Saint celestine (lol)
Canoness
Elite
celestians
Troops
20 man sister
10 man sisters
guard platoon - chimera
Fast
Dominion squad - immolator
Heavy
2 exorcists
retributor squad
His list was at a massive disadvantage because it was not mech and basically had to wait for me to hit his lines. Now, he did benefit from those super annoying acts of faith which stopped his celestians from dying and actually killed my veterans
He deployed extremely defensively in a box at the back corner.. and I deployed aggressively with everything in a line.
Summary of the battle
I won first turn and moved everything up and popped smoke. On his next turn he only managed to stun a single rhino (which was the empty one) and another rhino made 4 cover saves in a row. On my next turn I moved up another 12" so I was right infront of his lines with 2 rhinos, the land raider and the death company charged saint celestine who was hiding behind a building, killing her.. The veterans and another tactical squad moved to engage his celestian and dominion squads
Basically, he failed to stop my assault units and when they assaulted I killed all the guard infront, then a tactical squad died to return fire and then the entire sister army vanished when the death company and assault squad charged on turn 4
However, as stated his celestian squad killed my veterans and really was the only thing left alive. To make matters worse, the rhino that passed 4 cover saves was only rendered immobile on the next turn and on turn 6 repaired itself!
Victory - tons more Kps
I went on to win best overall due to my painting scores and highest battle score.
Much has been said about the state of Blood Angels as an army. A lot seem to think it's a bad list or a boring list or most likely a misunderstood list. I agree on two of those points, which are its fairly boring and its misunderstood
As my tournament results keep confirming they are NOT a bad list and infact can be quite powerful if used correctly. What this means is that you generally use the combination of Dante + Corbulo, rhinos and some hard hitting units such as death company.
Last week I played in a local 1850 tournament and took my Blood Angels once again. I didnt quite know how I'd fair against new imperial guard but luckily no one brought them for some odd reason
As usual we had a bunch of marine players and a mix of other races like eldar and orks. Some were experienced, some werent and some *thought* they were experienced. Having played 2 armies for all of my 13 years of 40k experience I like to think I know how to play my lists regardless of rule changes
For this tournament I took my standard template list.
HQ
Dante
Corbulo
Elite
6 man veteran squad - 2 meltas, power fist, power weapon
8 death company - jump packs
Troops
Tactical squad - melta, power fist, rhino
Tactical squad - melta, power fist, rhino
Assault squad - power fist, rhino
Fast attack
attack bike - MM
attack bike - MM
Heavy
Land raider crusader
-------------------------------
At first glance it doesnt seem like a "wowzer" army but played correctly Blood Angels can be asbolutely devastating. The overall strategy is to keep your units close to one another as you advance, keeping Dante and the DC out of los if possible by using the land raider. Once you reach the enemy you branch out and attack as many units as you can while remaining within the 12" bubble of the two characters. People who dont understand how lethal this is get demolished by a multi-unit charge which ends up entire wiping them out with a ton of LD modifiers or they suffer massive amounts of no retreat
However, Blood Angels are a tier2 list to be sure so new IG is difficult however Orks arent that bad because BA can pump out tons of wounds
Game 1
I faced a mech eldar player who was using what i remember as..
HQ
Autarch - warp generator
Farseer
Troops
10 man wraithguard
guardian squad
2 10 man dire avengers - wave serpent
Elite
2 6 man fire dragons - wave serpent
Fast attack
9 man warp spiders
Basically his strategy was to hold objectives with his guardians and wraithguard and out flank you with the avengers, dragons and spiders. To be said it was a decent list. I personally don't like 10 man wraithguard units because they're a bit too slow for my taste
Deployment - 5 objectives, table quarter deployment
He won first turn so he set up with aggressively with his serpents in front with the wraithguard and guardians behind. The warp spiders and the autarch were kept in reserve.
My deployment was fairly defensive with my rhinos upfront (the empty rhino closest) with the land raider, jump troops and attack bikes hidden behind them. I also combat squadded 5 bolter marines to hold and objective in my deployment zone. I was worried about the warp spiders deep striking backing there, but my fears were unfounded
Summary of the battle
I stole the initative and was able to use it to blow up a wave serpent with fire dragons on the first turn. In return he destroyed my land raider but was unable to destroy my rhinos before they got to his line. On turn 3 all my assault units charged his wraithguard, guardians, and a squad of dire avengers and wiped them out on his following turn
By turn 5 nothing was really left alive except for the autarch, some warp spiders and an empty wave serpent. To the Autarchs credit he did kill Dante when I failed all my invulnerable saves but then was cut down by the veteran squad on the final turn
At the end of the game I had 4 objectives controlled and he had 0
Game 2 - dawn of war, capture and control
This game was against an Ork Army played by someone who I rarely get along with during games.
His list was something like this..
HQ
Ghazghkull
Big mek with shokk attack gun
Elite
Mega nobz - battle wagon
Troops
Shoota boyz - 30
Shoota boyz - 30
Slugga boyz - trukk
'ard boyz - 30
Heavy
killer kan - mega blasta
deff dread
He won first turn and deployed his big unit of 'ard boyz in the middle of the board, a unit of shoota boyz at his objective in the rear and his big mek with them
I decided to not deploy anything and force his hand.
Summary of Game
After much taunting about my strategy being stupid he moved his units on, but didnt move the 'ard boyz up at all.. I came on with all my forces and moved slowly, killing a few of the 'ard boyz here and there
The only thing I was really worried about was a lucky shot from the shokk attack gun which did manage to destroy a rhino but did nothing else
For the 2nd turn I moved up slowly again, putting my rhino within charge range of his 'ard boyz (which were in a large piece of terrain). This is a very classic tactic of delay because I was trying to bait him into commiting his units
Taking the trap he tried to charge my rhino with his huge 'ard boyz unit (why he did that I will never know).. and failed to make it to me. On my following turn I counter charged with every unit I had except for the assault squad in the land raider. The 'ard boyz were dead and I consolidated so that my tactical squads were in front
Ghazghkull and his mega nobz charged them next turn, wiping out a full squad (no surprise) and he called the waagh as well. However he made a massive mistake and charged his shoota boyz unit at my death company AND the tactical squad thus locking them into a complex assault.
YOU SHOULD NEVER DO THIS when you have one GOOD unit and a unit that is total liability like shoota boyz are. I managed to do around 7 more wounds, which caused ghazgkulls unit to take no retreat damage and left about 6 shoota boyz AND made the mega nobz unengaged
On my turn I jumped my veterans right next to the nobz and unloaded the land raider.. After many melta guns and bolt pistols 4 of the 6 mega nobz were dead and I charged, killing the other 2 while suffering a good amount of deaths in the process
Ghazghkull failed his LD test and was run down. Note, he was fearless but the ork player insisted he was not (I knew he was because of his special waagh but this guy was really annoying during the game)..
KNOW YOUR OWN RULES..
Anyway after that point I was able to move my remaining units up and capture his objective as well on the last turn via consolidation
Victory - 2 objectives
Game 3 - kill points, pitched battle
I faced a sisters of battle army that was definatly not high tier
HQ
Saint celestine (lol)
Canoness
Elite
celestians
Troops
20 man sister
10 man sisters
guard platoon - chimera
Fast
Dominion squad - immolator
Heavy
2 exorcists
retributor squad
His list was at a massive disadvantage because it was not mech and basically had to wait for me to hit his lines. Now, he did benefit from those super annoying acts of faith which stopped his celestians from dying and actually killed my veterans
He deployed extremely defensively in a box at the back corner.. and I deployed aggressively with everything in a line.
Summary of the battle
I won first turn and moved everything up and popped smoke. On his next turn he only managed to stun a single rhino (which was the empty one) and another rhino made 4 cover saves in a row. On my next turn I moved up another 12" so I was right infront of his lines with 2 rhinos, the land raider and the death company charged saint celestine who was hiding behind a building, killing her.. The veterans and another tactical squad moved to engage his celestian and dominion squads
Basically, he failed to stop my assault units and when they assaulted I killed all the guard infront, then a tactical squad died to return fire and then the entire sister army vanished when the death company and assault squad charged on turn 4
However, as stated his celestian squad killed my veterans and really was the only thing left alive. To make matters worse, the rhino that passed 4 cover saves was only rendered immobile on the next turn and on turn 6 repaired itself!
Victory - tons more Kps
I went on to win best overall due to my painting scores and highest battle score.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Tycho and Terminators
Yesterday I had a wonderful idea to add in Tycho to our upcoming mega battle on the 30th which included him not being "quite" dead from Armageddon. Instead he was left with nothing more than a fragmented memory and a hatred for the orks that almost killed him. With no chaplain to guide him he gathered a few remaining soldiers to leave that world to hunt out any green skins he could find
It is on Rikal IV that Tycho found his target
For this conversion I took Tycho's head and cut it off because I think his model is garbage. Kit-bashing a new body I used the chainsaw sword from the vanguard box and a combi-melta from another model I wasnt using. Painting was fairly easy as I knew he would be in death company colors. I partially hand drew the banner followed by a huge skull decal from the baneblade sheet. The end result is below!
In other painting news I finished up the last of my terminators. The opposing side is bringing 5 gargantuan squiggoths so I desperately needed something to kill them with.
...Enter Terminator squad: black
That's it for now. If you're interested in the playtest rules for the final battle for Rikal IV just follow the link at the top of the blog
It is on Rikal IV that Tycho found his target
For this conversion I took Tycho's head and cut it off because I think his model is garbage. Kit-bashing a new body I used the chainsaw sword from the vanguard box and a combi-melta from another model I wasnt using. Painting was fairly easy as I knew he would be in death company colors. I partially hand drew the banner followed by a huge skull decal from the baneblade sheet. The end result is below!
In other painting news I finished up the last of my terminators. The opposing side is bringing 5 gargantuan squiggoths so I desperately needed something to kill them with.
...Enter Terminator squad: black
That's it for now. If you're interested in the playtest rules for the final battle for Rikal IV just follow the link at the top of the blog
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Master of the Forge Detonious
Took me a little while but I finished my custom master of the forge.
He's going to be a minor character in the final battle for Rikal IV that we're having on the 30th. You can find his stats by clicking on the LINK in the last blog post
He's going to be a minor character in the final battle for Rikal IV that we're having on the 30th. You can find his stats by clicking on the LINK in the last blog post
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Final Stand rules
I have been hard at work writing up the rules for my next mega battle named "Final Stand". In this the Blood Angels are pushed back to their last stronghold and must either destroy all the assaulting orks and chaos or die trying. Here are the rules, however parts are missing such as secret objectives
To see the rules click here
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Terminators and sternguard
It's a lot of work trying to get all my units ready for our big final Rikal IV game. After making rules for Jolin the terminator captain I decided he needed his own command squad. Fortunately I had a base coated terminator unit with FW shoulder pads which would work perfectly.
Using my standard paint scheme I simply added gold to their shoulders and altered their headpiece colors to make them stand out more. I think they turned out pretty well
Now the sternguard were much more of a conversion process since I didnt buy GW's boxsets. 70$ for 10 models isn't what I call a bargain for marines who just have special bolters. Creating my own 7 combi-meltas was fairly easy just a bit time consuming. For the sergeant I used the limited edition one from the online store and then made my own heavy flamers. Inspiration struck me for the floating platform and while it's not totally canon I think it looks cool anyway so screw it
In game 1 these guys were a huge disappointment but I hope game 3 will be different!
and lastly I finished Corbulo's custom stormlord. If anyone follows BA lists you'll notice that Corbulo tends to ride in a vehicle to maximize his range which has become a bit of an inside joke to my friends and I. Since he's a prominent member of the chapter why isnt he riding in something a bit more stylist? Well here is his new ride
I call it the "Last Rites"
That's it for now. Only a few more units to go
Using my standard paint scheme I simply added gold to their shoulders and altered their headpiece colors to make them stand out more. I think they turned out pretty well
Now the sternguard were much more of a conversion process since I didnt buy GW's boxsets. 70$ for 10 models isn't what I call a bargain for marines who just have special bolters. Creating my own 7 combi-meltas was fairly easy just a bit time consuming. For the sergeant I used the limited edition one from the online store and then made my own heavy flamers. Inspiration struck me for the floating platform and while it's not totally canon I think it looks cool anyway so screw it
In game 1 these guys were a huge disappointment but I hope game 3 will be different!
and lastly I finished Corbulo's custom stormlord. If anyone follows BA lists you'll notice that Corbulo tends to ride in a vehicle to maximize his range which has become a bit of an inside joke to my friends and I. Since he's a prominent member of the chapter why isnt he riding in something a bit more stylist? Well here is his new ride
I call it the "Last Rites"
That's it for now. Only a few more units to go
New updates
It's been a super busy couple of weeks due to me getting married and also involved with a mortgage for our new house.
The board did get finished so first I figure I'll post the results!
This first picture is the entire board with all my terrain. Since this picture was taken I have finished basing and painting all the terrain so it looks better. Please remember my carpet isnt flat and will look different properly set up
a picture of the blood angel base area which took me the longest
So far all the players in the game are excited and its looking to be A LOT of fun. Who says apoc cant be entertaining?
The board did get finished so first I figure I'll post the results!
This first picture is the entire board with all my terrain. Since this picture was taken I have finished basing and painting all the terrain so it looks better. Please remember my carpet isnt flat and will look different properly set up
a picture of the blood angel base area which took me the longest
So far all the players in the game are excited and its looking to be A LOT of fun. Who says apoc cant be entertaining?
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