Happy Birthday Brother!

Today is my brothers 26th birthday and I thought I'd help celebrate it by showing off how much of a better painter he is than I am.

Of course the dork doesn't have any of his beautiful Tau, Sisters or Black Templars, especially some of the specially built or modified minis, posted online. So instead you'll have to make due with his Legion of Everblight from Hordes.



Thagrosh is a nasty fellow in his own right. I haven't had the chance to take a look at the new evolved version but from what I hear he only gets meaner the older he gets.



The Carnivian I've taken down a time or two, those Skorne monster hunter units really can do their job occasionally, but it's a mean monster and combined with Thagrosh' ability to bring it back from the dead it's basically a twofer.



Incubi. As if his normal troops were not annoying enough, whenever you kill one they turn into one of these. Yeearrrggh!

Anyways, Happy Birthday Curtis! You paint beautifully and I hate you for it!

Imperial Draw

So our noble guardsmen faced off against the insidious Tau tonight and it was bloody!

We took 1000pts each and my army list didn't change much from last week:

HQ
Company Command Squad Destroyed by games end
No Upgrades

Elite
Ratling sniper squad w/ 5 members 4 members dead 1st turn

Troops
Platoon Command Squad 3 members dead by last turn
No Upgrades
Heavy Weapons Team w/ 3 lascannons Wiped out first turn
Heavy Weapons Team w/ 3 lascannons Wiped out first turn
Special Weapons Squad w/ 3 sniper rifles Wiped out fifth turn
Infantry Squad w/ Autocannon Wiped out 2nd turn
Infantry Squad w/ Autocannon Took fire until 4th turn, then wiped out
Veteran Squad w/ 3 meltas and chimera Wiped trying to take Tau side objective
Veteran Squad w/ 3 meltas and chimera Wiped out 6th turn trying to hold Imperial side objective

Heavy
Leman Russ Demolisher w/ lascannon Survive unscathed!

I did add in the ratlings and honestly, was not terribly impressed. They took a beating first turn and broke, the sole survivor held on the rest of the game but managed to miss every shot he took though I will give him credit for actually accepting a Fire on my Target! order.

The Tau had the following:

HQ
Etheral w/ 10 man Fire Warrior squad 70% killed by Demolisher shot

Elite
3 Stealth Suits Wiped out turn 6
3 Stealth Suits Survived untouched

Troops
Fire Warrior squad 2 members left at games end, lost objective
Fire Warrior squad 5 members left at games end, lost objective
Kroot squad Wiped out 5th turn

Heavy
Hammerhead Weapons destroyed 4th turn
Hammerhead Survived untouched

We rolled Sieze Ground with 3 objectives as the mission and the Tau got first turn. They wiped out the Hvy Weapons squads with submunitions and did a number on one of the infantry squad with their missiles. Like I mentioned the ratlings got whacked by the Fire Warriors.

Neither one of us were able to grab a foothold on those objectives and at games end neither of us had any scoring units left. Now this sounds like a down ending but a lot of my games against Tau typically end with almost a complete route of my forces. In the last turn, one of my Chimeras put enough heavy bolter shots into a Fire Warrior squad to take them below scoring level, thus forcing a draw as they had a hold on an objective.

So, very very bloody and not just on my side which is a win in my book!

Rat-a-tat-tat

On Bell of Lost Souls we were discussing some of the merits of my Imperial Guard list recently, especially in regard to the Special Weapons / W snipers I took. Really it was more about the Ratlings vs Traditional Snipers and it had some valid points so here's a quick pro/con of both of them:

Ratlings



Pros:

Better BS means more accuracy
All models in the squad have Sniper weapons
Infiltrate allows better positioning at the start of the game
Stealth gives defensive bonuses

Cons:

Takes up an elite slot
Low Leadership makes giving orders more difficult
Low Leadership can send them running very quickly
Can't hold objectives

Guardsmen Snipers



Pros:
Scoring Unit
Higher Leadership so orders are more likely to be followed
Spotters with Lasguns provide some weapons diversity and allow additional orders options

Cons:
Higher cost for initial unit (Special Weapons Squad w/ sniper rifles is 20pts more expensive than ratlings for the base unit)
Lower BS, less accurate
No special abilities


In my last game my basic guardsmen snipers actually paid for themselves, held their objective and kept their targets at bay. I've never had much success with them as a unit but this particular game they were worth every penny. Based on the ideas above next game I'll probably split the differance and take one squad of Guardsmen with Sniper rifles to sit on an objective and provide cover fire and then a 5 man squad of ratlings to focus their more accurate fire on key enemy units. The same amount of points is spent and it does give me some extra options during the game.

New Sabbat Worlds!

I love the Sabbat worlds novels. Gaunt's Ghosts, Titanicus, Double Eagle, they've all been very well written and realized. This new one is right off of Dan Abnett's blog.

Appearantly it will be a set of short stories all within the Sabbat Worlds campaign and not necessarily Gaunt-centric, though Dan's own contribution is. The Apostles short story is exciting since Double Eagle was an awesome book and anything that further expands those stories is very welcomed. I've heard rumours of a direct sequel for a while but nothing solid from what I understand.

A sequel to Titanicus would be very cool too. Nudge Nudge.

Lousy Traitors, Always peeing in your cereal!

Started reading A Thousand Sons by Graham Mcneil and so far it's pretty good. The Heresy novels have been interesting overall but I've got to say my favorite is definately Mechanicus, also by Graham Mcneil. It makes a great companion book to Titanicus by Dan Abnett, which I guess is how Graham and Dan tend to work together as Dan is working on Prospero Burns as a follow up to Thousand Sons.

These items aside I'm pretty excited about the Horus Heresy game coming up from Fantasy Flight Games



I have a huge love of overly complicated boardgames with lots of cool pieces. It started way back with Heroquest, Battlemasters, Torpedo Run (not overly complicated but LOTS of cool pieces hahhah) and I can't wait to try this one out.

On the other hand, it used to be all about how I was going to come up with $100 to fund this game purchase. Since I've had kids and had to get responsible about my money now it's become more along the lines of How can I justify this purchase.

If I sell blood to buy a Heresy game, could it be considered blood for the blood god?

Imperial Victory!

I can't actually say how long it's been since I achieved victory with my Imperial Guard. Their losing streak is roughly years long at this point but tonight they pulled it together and made the win happen!

So here's the army list built for 1000 points:

HQ

Company Command Squad
No Upgrades

Troops

Platoon Command Squad
No Upgrades

Heavy Weapons Team w/ 3 lascannons
Heavy Weapons Team w/ 3 lascannons

Special Weapons Squad w/ 3 sniper rifles
Special Weapons Squad w/ 3 sniper rifles (I actually forgot I had taken 2 squads of these guys and didn't field the second squad by mistake. D'oh!)

Infantry Squad w/ Autocannon
Infantry Squad w/ Autocannon

Veteran Squad w/ 3 meltas and chimera
Veteran Squad w/ 3 meltas and chimera

Heavy

Leman Russ Demolisher w/ lascannon

Doubling up on everything and keeping the special toys to a minmimum actually made me focus on what each squad was capable of and making the most of deployment and orders.

My boys went up against Space Marines who field 2 tactical squads, 1 AC carrying dreadnought, 1 devestator squad w/ missile launchers and a deep striking Terminator HQ unit w/ chaplain.

Highlights from the game were definately the Company Command continously issuing Fire on My Target to my remaining Heavy Weapons and pouring those lascannon shots into that lousy devestator squad. Once the Snipers got into position they were able to benefit from these orders as well.

My infantry squad saw the most damage. On first turn, Alpha squad got a solid Move! Move! Move! and moved up to screen Beta squad. The following turns Alpha absorbed a lot of fire but kept it together while Beta got a steady stream of First Rank FIRE! Second Rank FIRE! I got to say, even the lowly lasgun is a fearsome thing when it gets to double fire. The autocannons in both squad took their toll on those armored bastards. Really MVP squad has to go to Beta who almost singlehandedly took the marines apart while they were sitting on the objective marker.

Beyond that the Demolisher had a heavy hand in taking out his second tactical squad. Once the second chimera made it up to the objective and dropped off the veterans with their meltas, the remaining marines were destroyed.

Simplifying things, finding a more directed approach and making the orders work as best as possible really came together and put a solid Win in my column. Woot-burger!

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?