Keeping it Simple

Finally got to use the new Tyranid codex today! I know I'm way behind on it but free time has been limited and of course I had a visit from Nurgle all over my house recently. When you've got two youngbloods down from zombie rot your priorities change from gaming to "oh dear god stop havin stuff come out of you!"

The Battle Report will be coming soon.

So my trouble came while putting together my list. I love new codex's, the new units, the new playstyles, the new ugly surprises you can drop on your opponent. It's all a lot of fun but it's easy to lose sight of the basics with all these new toys to play with.

So here's the list I came up with:

HQ
Tyranid Warrior Alpha
2 Boneswords
Deathspitter

Elite
Deathleaper

Troops
3 Tyranid Warriors
2 Boneswords each
2 Deathspitters
1 Barbed Strangler

10 Termagaunts w/ Poison
10 Termagaunts w/ Poison
20 Genestealer w/ Broodlord w/ Implant Attack

Heavy
Carnifex w/ Heavy Venom Cannon and Mycetic Spore

A reasonably balanced list for 1000 points I felt and while I lost out in the end it was very bloody and costly for my opponent. At the 1000 pt level I felt a Hive Tyrant was to expensive as an HQ while the Tyranid Alpha had a good balance. The huge genestealer brood, while very unpleasent to see at the outset of the game got tangled up in close combat with a dreadnought. I should've split them into two groups of ten which would've given me more tactical options and not locked up the entire brood for most of the game.

The carnifex dropping with the spore would've been very cool unfortunately it landed after the last of my synapse creatures were killed and spent what rounds it had mindlessly chasing Space Marines.

All this aside I found myself trying to jam to many new toys into my list while I was building it. Oooh, new Hive Tyrant! Oooh, Old One Eye is back! Oooh, got to take all those new goodies that my opponent hasn't seen thrown at him yet! Originally my army list looked quite a bit differant. After I had built it I made a 1000pt Imperial Guard list as well since I wasn't 100% sure what I would use today and while building that list I started rethinking my 'nids list and the options I had taken for it.

This made me realize that while I always put the basics in my army, I tend to get caught up in the one trick ponies or the surprise units that either completely take my opponent by surprise or die in a blaze of humiliation. With my Imperial Guard army that thought took up after I put in my usual drop squad of Stormtroopers. I love to use them as tank busters, the deep strike ability and the power of two meltas plus melta bombs has a pretty good chance of killing a tank or difficult unit. For example, trying to cram 3 Leman Russ tanks into 1000pts, while doable presents a very poor trade off. Based on this I took a look at what those Stormtrooprs were accomplishing versus what other units of similar points cost could do in their place.

It broke down like this

1 Stormtrooper squad w/ 2 meltas = 105 points
or
1 Guardsman Marbo = 65 points

In a lot of ways they have equivalent kill power and survivability. Both are designed to pop off sometime over the course of the game, kill one key opponent and then probably die very quickly afterwards. They're both nasty surprises and no one wants them to show up on their side of the board.

However, what I went with was 1 Veteran squad with 3 meltas for 100 points. Equal points to the Stormtrooper squad, roughly equal ability as well but more survivability based on the sheer number of troops. The extra melta gives them that much more killpower and once I loaded them up in a Chimera they had free reign to chase down troublesome enemy units or shore up a hole in my own defenses for a total of 155 points. Yes slightly more expensive and the wow factor doesn't seem as likely but at least on paper they look like a better bargain.

The same thought process went back into my Tyranid list. I had taken a squad of 3 Lictors, looking to them to take out a key squad somewhere in the game. For the 195 points they cost me I took a second look and dropped down to a single Deathleaper instead. The enhanced Rending attack, the better camoflage and the equivalent killpower made it a more attractive unit and once it was on the field it did it's job by annhilating my opponents Devestator squad.

The genestealers were another tough call and while the Deathleaper paid for itself by locking down a devestator squad for two turns and then killing them all, the genestealers wound up not being worth the points for that large a squad. Originally they were slated to use the Mycetic spore and drop down on a key location during the game and either I should have stuck with that instead of shifting the spore to my Carni or broke the 'stealers up into two smaller squads, infiltrated them both seperately and left the mycetic spore off the list completely. Those extra points could've beefed up an existing unit or gving me more 'stealers so their surviviability would have grown.

Anyone's thoughts on it all would be greatly appreciated of course, the comment section is there for a reason hahhah! Has anyone else found themselves overdoing one aspect or another of their army? Given the list above, what would you have changed to make the army more killy?

Mission Plans

The release of the new Battle Missions book has gotten me thinking about the differant games of 40k I typically play. Most of the time we just use the standard missions in the rule book, occasionally we play a little Cityfight or Apocalypse. Haven't had the chance to play a Planetstrike yet but we're building up our forces for it.

Also I've been re-reading Gaunt's Ghosts, all of which are excellent of course though the Saint series was my favorite so far, and some of the battles they describe are worth putting together as one off missions so here's my first one.

I apologize for the Paint table layout, I don't have any fancy-schmancy graphics editor.

Mission 1: Invasion of Cirenholm

During the Crusade of the Sabbat worlds, Imperial forces were forced to retake the planet of Phantine in order to take advantage of their natural resources. The major cities of Phantine, including Cirenholm, are located on top of mountains as millennia of pollution has forced the population to build at higher and higher elevations. These mountaintop cities are only accessible by air and so the Imperial armies are forced into a dangerous invasion. The attacking forces make drop landings on very narrow areas under heavy fire.

Defender: Deploys anywhere on their table half. Defender may not take any Heavy units. Defender also places 1 objective at the center of their longest deployment zone edge. This represents the entrance to their defended hive city.

Attacker: The attacking force begins the game in reserves. They may not take any Heavy units as their landers cannot carry vehicles for the intial attack.

The Attacker goes First.

Special Rules:

Prepared Defences: The defender has had ample time to bolster and equip their defending forces. Each Troop unit that can take heavy weapons may do so for free under the existing unit rules. (For Example: A squad of Imperial Guardsmen may upgrade two troopers to a Heavy Weapons team for free). Other squad upgrades still maintain their normal points cost.

Elite Assault: The attacker is throwing their best troops at the enemy so the normal allotment of Elite units is increased to match their Troops allotment. (For Example: An Imperial Guard army may normally take 6 Troop choices, they may also include 6 Elite choices).

Airborne Drop: All attacker units begin in reserve and begin rolling for Reserves on Turn 1 instead of Turn 2 as normal. All Attacking units gain Deep Strike. Attacking units must arrive within the Attackers Deployment Zone and may begin play normally following the Deep Strike rules. Any units that scatter outside the deployment zone into the gray areas have suffered a drop mishap and roll on the following table instead of the Deep Strike Mishap table:

Roll 1d6

1) Drop Failure: The unit suffers a terrible catastrophe. The entire squad is lost to the void.

2) Drop Missed: The drop is held up over the zone and suffers AA fire. The unit suffers 1d6 Str 4 AP - hits and may take armor saves as normal.The drop is held up over the zone and suffers AA fire. The unit suffers 1d6 Str 4 AP - hits and may take armor saves as normal.

3) Drop Missed: The initial drop is turned back. Squad may attempt to re-deploy next turn.

4) Rough Drop: The scattered drop marker is moved directly into the deploment area at the space nearest it's exit. The unit lands in disarray, suffers 1d3 S4 AP - hits.

5) Co-ordinates Incorrect: Unit drops completely off target. Defender may reposition the drop marker any where within the Attackers drop zone.

6) Overshot!: Drop marker may be repositioned anywhere within the Defenders deployment zone by the Attacker.

Game Length: The game lasts a random number of turns. At the end of Turn 5 roll 1d6. On a roll of 1 the game ends immediately, 2+ it continues. At the end of Turn 6 roll 1d6, on a 1, 2 or 3 the game ends, 4+ it continues. The game ends at the end of Turn 7 in this case.

Victory Conditions: The attacker is making a desperate push to take this beachhead so all Troop and Elite units count as scoring. Any attacker scoring unit within 3" of the objective marker at the end of the game counts as a scoring unit and wins the game for the attacker.

If the defender can keep the entry way objective clear of enemy units by games end, the defender wins.

So there it is, my first attempt at a mission. It's a bit rough around the edges but we all need some refining at some point. If anyone out there has a particular mission in mind, leave a comment and I'll try to incorperate it into it's own mission later on. Also, any comments or critiques are welcome as well. If you play this one out, by all means leave me some feedback on it!

New Minis

While I'm not going to buy the new Blood Angels codex I do love it when new codices come out.

Really it's all about the new minis!

I haven't played Space Marines in years and when I first started I was totally going to go with the Blood Angels. The red armor really did it for me back then and the vampire thing was just icing on the cake. When my youngest son is old enough to play we'll probably be setting him up with Space Marines since he just strikes me as a Marine player.

So the new Blood Angel minis are very cool looking. The wings on the jump suits make for amazing models and are really what is selling me on the new minis.



Is anyone else weirded out by the fact that the suits have nipples?

Astaroth the Grim is a very solid model as well. The wings do it for me again, the huge sword is amazing looking but.. I'm troubled...

I know I've seen him somewhere before.....



ZOMG IT'S DRACULA!!!! RUN!!!

I haven't read the codex but I assume at some point he'll change into a wolf person and totally convince your redheaded girlfriend to go "walking" in the rain with him.

Speaking of swords though, the new Chapter Master has an awesome two handed chainsword. Is it equivalent to the chainswords that the Sisters carry? I mean yeah they go last in combat but they hit like a semi truck.



He's no Hive Tyrant but he's still a good looking mini.

And I could NOT find a picture of the wolfman with the redhead from Bram Stokers Dracula that wasn't.... undressed? Awkward!

Ultramarines Movie voice casting

I'm excited that there is a Warhammer movie coming but if it's anything like Mutant Chronicles I think I'm going to cry.