Battle Report: My Worthiest Victory

Okay, so here's Game III, Daemons Vs. Daemons... what can I say?  There are games and there are games.  I can't easily explain how great this win was, and it was a testament to the character of my opponent that he didn't sour my high in the least - he was really cool about the whole thing.  I run the real risk of embarrassment by adding the video Intro and Closing, but what the hell.  The Master Manipulator (every store needs one) occasionally needs new fodder.

Jon gets the choice and gives me the first turn.  Daemons 101, right?  Well, that standard move isn't as strong when you're playing another Daemons player.  He basically gave me a drop into an open field and the ability to choose my assaults at the top of Two.  The picture shows the first model of Jon's army being placed for Deepstrike, and the four units of my preferred drop.  I could have stacked 5, but in this case if I didn't get what I wanted - the two units of Fiends - I wanted to have 5 units on the backend to hopefully make up for it.  I knew proper use of my Fiends and Flamers was going to be critical this game.

 

Jon's army is designed to maximize the pain on the first drop.  He uses a couple of single Screamers to add to his numbers - 13 in all, if I'm not mistaken - so he dropped seven units on me.  Luckily for me, unluckily for him, one of the three two-man units of Crushers suffered a mishap and was destroyed.  As I've learned the hard way, that's going to happen with Daemons on occasion; Jon let that setback go pretty quickly.  A word here about the Crushers... so, two-man units?  I wasn't sure why, given how often we see the big units in Daemons lists, designed to soak up a ton of firepower, but the answer here is elegant.  The footprint is the problem; 5 or more models of that size take up a ton of room and a canny opponent can use that size against you.  Also, it's an expensive unit - you practically have to run Fateweaver and build the list around Juggers.  Jon was running 6 at 1250, quite a number, and none of them were tripping over their feet.

 And this is how it looks after the top of Turn Two.  My Flamers came in and hit their drop, then toasted most of the Daemonettes in the central building; the one or two left I assaulted... with the Flamers!  This move surprised him, I think, but that unit was safer in combat than out.  He went first - but he was going to anyway with Initiative 6.  The Flamers had 3 attacks at Strength 4 on the charge, and the Herald had a few Strength 3 to add; they soaked the hits and killed off the few remaining models, then swept a bit farther up the board, away from the Daemonettes on my lower left flank (placed there by me due to a mishap).  The unit of Plaguebearers I brought in at the beginning of Two I placed as a further buffer.  The Fiends both jumped the other big Daemonettes squad, killing it off completely, then spreading out to block assaults.  If it looks like I was protecting my Flamers... I was.  They were too important.  The two units of 'bearers on the right flank I used to assault the Bloodcrushers.  This was a sac move, but with poison weapons and an Invulnerable Save, I just needed to hold the unit in place for as long as possible.  The Princes that dropped I used to take pot shots at the Slanneshi Herald, doing a wound.  

Sorry for the wall of text, but Turn Two was the most important of the game, far as I was concerned.  I got and held the initiative, picking the assaults in a manner most advantageous to my units.

  My opponents other units make their way on.  He uses his DP to assist his Crusher with the kill.  By this point, Jon had adapted his strategy and started concentrating on killing my Troops choices off.  I saw it coming, but like all good moves there wasn't much I could do about it.  I would have to sweep the board for a major win.  You can't see it well in the picture, but he has two of the six Daemonettes still on the board, and both are sitting on objectives.  My Fiends and Flamers were too far north, having finished off the units on that side.  I had to waste a turn getting into position for the last 3rd of the game.

 

I don't have the pictures of the last two turns.  Basically, Jon blocked with the Screamers, trying to protect the central unit of Daemonettes, but I was able to finish off the Khorne Prince and last Crusher, help my Prince finish off the closest unit of Daemonettes, then get in position for the final assault.  The Flamers opened a path for a multi-unit charge and I swept the board....  I'll let my last video speak for itself, as it were - and the finger at the end was meant in jest! - but I have one observation to make.  Jon will continue to be a dangerous opponent to play - I am under no illusions that somehow this one win makes me 'better' or something... but my last one-and-a-half years of constant practice and traveling out of town for tournaments has paid big dividends.  I think the key to playing well is playing consistently - playing mistake-free as much as possible, and I recognize this is difficult for players to do without constantly striving for improvement.

Speedpainting Flamers; 4 in 1 Hour...

Okay, I'm not the best painter in the world, but I'm fast and I get decent results.  I'm taking a chance that maybe some of you out there may find a use for this type of article here, so let me know if you dig it.

Use the stick, overbrush a base coat.  Use Foundation paints for your base colors when you're going for speed.  This is a tan over black; I'll wash some depth in later.

  Add a bit of a lighter shade, overbrush, add a bit of a white, overbrush.  Don't clean your brush.  Use a large brush - you're going for area here, and the mini doesn't care if you're using your sable brush.  I added a yellow on the beak, brushing hard near the tip (heh) and light near the base; again, I'll wash depth in later.

   Blue near the base, same as above.  Add a lighter blue - again, don't wash your brush unless it needs it - then some white... overbrush... you're going for a drybrush type look on the blue area.

 Purple.  Then lighter purple over that.  Then take a bit of light blue and sorta brush near the join of the two colors.  Don't sweat it too much.

  Work it until you're happy (heh).

  Wash both colors with blue wash - the new stuff; that stuff is great - use it for everything!

  Wash the rest of the model with a brown wash, beak included.  In this case, I used Sepia, not Mud.  Don't be afraid of hitting the purple area; in fact, purple loves Sepia.  Hell, do the whole model with the wash, if you want, assuming  the other wash is dry.

  I cheated.  The brown fur is an old-style ink.  It goes on easy and you're gonna matte finish it anyway - you want speed here.

  I start hitting the details here, some white on the stubby bits.  Green for eyes.  Green for hands.  Notice I build up the green in the same way I did the other colors.  Base with big brush, lighter color, wash, lighter color over to bring up the highlights.

  Working...

  The wash gives depth to the green.

  Hit the green again, after the wash drys, just like I said before.  The only time I used a small brush was the eyes.

  All four models in one hour.  Then I based them, which actually took about 15 minutes or so, but a good base improves an otherwise blah model.

  A money shot.  It's bent over (heh) so you can see the purple/blue details.

Thoughts?

Brent Vs Evil Homer, Game II

If I have a nemesis, it's Evil Homer.  Regardless of the armies used - in this case, it was my Daemons Vs his Imperial Guard - it always seems like it's Brent Vs Evil Homer.  That's not a bad thing, it's just the way it is.

I think we are the two who want to win the most.  That's what it comes down to: in a store full of past big-event winners, we're the two who currently are pushing hard to win.  Personally, I know it's made me a much better player.

This was the army I was least looking forward to playing - not the GAME, mind you, 'cause that was Game III.  I didn't fancy my chances of ripping apart vehicles in close combat, so I had to hope my shooting was up to snuff.

He deploys...

...and takes his first turn.  He's leaving me a spot in his backfield, but it's a trap.  If I drop there's the chance of serious mishaps.  Also, he'll simply turn his army and pound the snot out of me.

So I take the bait and drop in his backfield.  Why?  It was still by far the best place to drop.  The above pictures don't show my Flamers and Herald, but they're to the left, lining up on the rear armor of the vehicles.  Two of my DP's scattered to the terrain piece (you can see them if you look - they're hiding), but I did delay a third through a roll on the mishap table.  Still, it was worth it.  I had a round of shooting at Homer's army.  And this is where he realized he made his one mistake.

He'd forgot to drop smoke.  It was his one mistake - you can ask yourself whether some of his moves were correct, but that's not the same as an out-and-out mistake - but boy, it was a big one.  Then we took 30 seconds to bitch each other out over dice rolling.  (Feel free to skip the next three paragraphs.)

Yup, we did.  He got pissy, I got pissy, so we scratched and pulled hair, verbally speaking.  Here's what happened.  Everyone has different ways of rolling dice.  Evil Homer, The Master Manipulator (every store needs one), and Little Barrera all roll on the table then pick up and reroll ANY dice that lands in ANY terrain piece - doesn't matter what it is.  I keep a dice that lands anywhere, as long as it's flat; if it's even a bit cocked, I reroll it.  Most of the time, terrain is lightly flocked and the dice is flat flat flat, so I see little point in taking the time to pick up and reroll a dice, but I've learned that's a habit that annoys Homer.  Why?  Because my opinion about what's flat and his may be different.  I don't think this has ever come up before, simply 'cause we are both consistent in our methods - nobody is doing it to gain an advantage, they're doing it because it's what they believe is the right way - and both of us are so above-board-not-cheaters it's just not been an issue.

But it was that day.  You see, the tables were really springy, so dice were rolling all over the place.  Then I dropped a dice - literally, was rolling three but dropped one - and snatched it up with a "Whoops, that's not my roll!"  It hadn't stopped moving, but Homer thought it had.  It pissed him off and he called me on it.  I was pissed at the insinuation and told him not to take his anger at forgetting the smoke launchers out on me and my dice rolling.  Blah blah blah, I know, but these things happen sometimes at events.  30 seconds later Evil Homer extends the olive branch and I take it, agreeing to keep my rolls in the dice box only.

I've given it some thought since then and don't think I'll change my rolling habits, in general.  There's nothing wrong with my way, since I do the important stuff religiously, like picking up misses instead of hits and giving my opponent time to review the dice - that kind of thing.  In Tournaments though, you have to be willing to give in some, and Homer had a legit issue.  Regarding our tone, hell, we're guys.  Sometimes you need to clear the air.  When it's done, it's done.

On my left flank, on Homer's side of the board, the Herald and Flamers dropped in the open while the Fiends diverted to one side.  My opening fire, on this flank, immobilized and shook the command tank (in gray, above) and shook the other Chimera.  (On the other side, the DP's destroyed a Manticore, among other things.)  Evil Homer turned his guns on me, including his Vendettas and remaining Manticore.  Worried, I think, about missing out on the firepower of the Chimeras and embarked squads, he decided to unload his command squad with Plasma Guns to help out against the Fiends. 

Ultimately, he didn't have enough.  My flamers and Fiends survived the top of Turn Two's firepower, and on my turn, the bottom of Two, the Fiends charged the closer Vendetta and pulled it down.  The command squad was shredded by concentrated fire from the Flamers.  At the top of Turn Three, Homer used the last weapon on his immobilized, turretless command Chimera - the Heavy Flamer - on the Fiends, reducing that squad to one, wounded beastie.  Good thing I had another unit dropping!

On the right flank, one Daemon Prince was brought down in Turn Two by Homer's concentrated fire, but the other managed to limp through the ruins and open up a Chimera.  The troops piled out of the wreckage and started firing.  Also on that flank, my Plaguebearers started appearing from the Warp, shambling toward the objectives.

Here's a middlegame shot.  My last unit of Fiends and my delayed Prince join the fight.  With Fiends, it's important to use their movement wisely.  There is little reason to drop close - they have plenty of speed to close the distances quickly.  The last DP would have perhaps appreciated a closer drop, but I aimed for a large, open area, reasoning I had enough initiative going to avoid a chancy deep strike.  On the right flank, in the upper corner, my Daemon Prince, with one remaining wound, circles the Veterans rather than charging them: the Manticore is the important target.  The Bolt misses.  The Manticore had moved forward, unloading a Heavy Flamer on the 'bearers in the ruins but primarily putting room between it and the Prince chasing it.

Homer turns his remaining Vendetta on the full-strength Daemon Prince.  The Vets in the center pour out of the Chimera, which had broke and axle trying to drive into the ruins; the vets aim at the Flamers, but the shifting stuff of the Warp must have made the nauseous since they failed to bring the unit down.

Here it is a few turns later.  The tanks in red are destroyed.  The Plaguebearers have solid control of the objectives in green.  The Fiends have charged the middle, destroying first the Chimera hunkering on the center, then the juicy troops inside.  Ultimately, the Vendetta and remaining squad is destroyed, ending all chances for the Imperium.

So the Daemons were 2 of 2, defeating the army I was most worried about.  Homer was gracious in defeat, though it's not like we aren't used to it.  It seems inevitable that we end up playing each other in every tournament, and the last time was last year, where he knocked me out of the running.

Unfortunately, the ultimate spoiler won his game on Table 1, and it was announced we'd have to fight.  It would be Daemons Vs Daemons, Brent Vs Jon... and I'd never actually managed to beat this guy.

He's that good.  I've always joked he's like my Kryptonite, showing up at our major events and almost always winning.  I can think of at least 4 times over the past few years where we fought in Game 4 for the top spot - and he won every time.  Believe me when I tell you I'm considered a crafty veteran, so how does this shit keep happening?

(TO BE CONTINUED)

Collected BOLSCON Games

I'm working on the battle report for my game against Evil Homer last Saturday, and while all I have to do is upload the pictures I don't have them available now.  ('Cause I'm in school.  Ha!  Blogging in Diversity.)  Thus, this post.

The army I used for BOLSCON.  I didn't take my toughest build, largely because I was worried about the base-size for my Council.  Still, I liked the army, and despite the current style of list-creation, it was a very competitive army.

I'm working on the main website, strictlyaverage.com - the site that's going to be a companion for the blog - and I'm collecting all the BOLSCON stuff.  It's been here the whole time, but I really doubt people explore blogs that much, even with labels and searches available, so I decided to throw the links up here in this post.

http://strictlyaverage.blogspot.com/2009/09/bolscon-games-1-and-2.html

http://strictlyaverage.blogspot.com/2009/09/bolscon-games-continued.html

http://strictlyaverage.blogspot.com/2009/09/game-4-bolscon-finally.html

http://strictlyaverage.blogspot.com/2009/10/bolscon-game-5.html

http://strictlyaverage.blogspot.com/2009/11/bolscon-game-7.html

It wasn't until I did this that I realized I missed Game 6, which was against a Tyranid player, a young player but no slouch.  I'll have to find those pics and remedy that.

I'll be posting the game against Evil Homer later this afternoon.

Daemons Vs Dark Eldar

So, Game One of Saturday's Tournament found my Daemons taking on Gauthic's ever-improving Dark Eldar.

After stacking his deployment in corner (quarters deployment, 5 objectives), Gauthic spread out along both flanks, setting up a shooting gallery in the middle.  I felt I had to counter with some aggressive drops.  I placed the Herald and Flamers close to one of the Ravagers, and when that came down on target I was able to back the Princes up a bit, though still in range of Bolt.  Note I stacked the drop on one side - no point in splitting my forces.

And my shooting was pretty crippling.  The Ravager on the left was shaken and, while he survived another round of shooting later, it never made it back to the fight before being destroyed.  The other, as you can see, was destroyed, as was the Witches' ride.  The surviving Witches didn't make it through terrain for an assault and were gunned down in Turn Two.  All in all, a pretty devastating opening round from the Daemons.

As an aside, the obvious thing here is why he didn't hold everything in reserve, safe from a drop and shoot like this.  I think he wanted to capitalize on the opening phase, when Daemons are weak, scattered across the board and with half the army in reserve.  The Bolts, with AP 1, were also fairly devastating... including the bonus for open top, I had a +2 when I penetrated and only a dead even roll when I glanced.  Fail a cover save and it's good night Gracie...  Still, had he gone the whole reserve, my plan was to drop all 3 Plaguebearers and 2 Fiends.  The first would grab cover and hunker down, while the second would drop on my side of the board and wait out a turn before launching an assault.  This plan still allows my shooting to drop in later, so I think I would have been fine.

The other obvious disadvantage for Gauthic's list is the 4x4 tables.  Next month we move up to the regulation tables, which will be a huge benefit to his list.  Moving on...

Gauthic's Archaon and squad assaulted a unit of Fiends early in the game, but failed to wipe them out quickly enough (bad dice rolls plus my Inv. saves).  On Turn 2 I was able to drop the other unit on the board, and since the combat was still going on in Turn 3 the Fiends were able to support the Fiends.  Note my drop here; the idea is to be far enough away that should the combat end I may be far enough away to avoid a charge.  In this case, I don't think I gave myself enough room, but that's the idea.

This was important, since it represented the last assault threat, and while obviously Gauthic still had shooting available, I was more worried about reducing his mobility to avoid late-game Objective grabs... it was my game to lose.  A good player can often come back from odds like, and make no mistake Gauthic is very, very good, simply because they never stop pushing.  It's important to continue to play well when you gain the upper hand - 'cause you want to keep it.

I sac the Flamers and Herald for the shot at the Raiders (combined with DP's and Bolt, off camera).  Ultimately, I immobilize one of the last two Raiders there in the corner, though the return fire destroys all but the Herald.  Allocation games are important to certain units surviving.  I had a Herald, a Flamer with Bolt, and two Flamers... so depending on what comes down the pipe I can spread this around where it's most advantageous.  In this case, my Herald actually survived another round, so I rewarded him by later placing him up close and personal with a Raider squad.

In this shot, I'm spreading out to limit the last mobile Raider's movement; no matter where he Turboboosts, someone will be close to bring him down.  At this point the game is effectively over...

...since I had three objectives to none.  The Fiends cleared the board.

This was a tough beat for Gauthic, who couldn't catch a break in the game.  During my post I didn't bother to mention the poor dice rolls, simply because there were so many!  The learning curve for Dark Eldar is pretty steep, and I think some mistakes were made - for instance, I don't think it was a good idea for his Archaon and squad to hop out of their transport and assault the Fiends... but that's opinion.  Would it have been better to crash after a few bolts, then get assaulted anyway?  Sometimes these games turn into 'What Ifs' and I don't find that all that helpful.

Winning any tournament is 50% luck, 50% skill, and 50% endurance (yea, yea).  I won the tournament Saturday - since ol' Whit spilled the beans - and I had to play and beat the two armies I was least looking forward to playing, but I didn't have to play any of the Landraider lists, so who knows how that would have played out.

Anyway, Gauthic went on to go 2-2 for the day, recovering from a tough start.  I still think the Dark Eldar are going to be hell later on this year.

A Real Ad (from YTTH)...

Begin humorous interlude... (Well, I think it's funny, anyway.)

I saw this on Stelek's site and grabbed the picture.  Obviously the Google-Ads bots have no idea what Eldar are, but saw a money-making opportunity.

Thus ends the humorous interlude... Battle Report, coming up!

First Tournament... Daemons List

Brent here, ready to discuss my outing yesterday with my ever-developing Daemons army... I guess they aren't new, but I've only been playing them for a few months.  As a reminder, my FLGS is involved in an army build-project, starting from 1K and adding points each month to reach the Hard Boyz standard of 2500.  Yesterday was the first tournament of the project and the year.  Everyone's goal is to build rock-solid armies to take on the road to the major events.

Here was my list...

1250 Pts -  Daemons Roster - Tournament List

1 Herald of Tzeentch @ 100 Pts
Daemonic Gaze; Master of Sorcery; Bolt of Tzeentch; Disc of Tzeentch

3 Flamers of Tzeentch @ 135 Pts
Bolt of Tzeentch (x1)

2x6 Fiends of Slaanesh @ 190 Pts

3X5 Plaguebearers of Nurgle @ 75 Pts

3 Daemon Princes of Chaos @ 140 Pts
Mark of Tzeentch; rDGT: Bolt of Tzeentch

I'll admit, I wasn't certain how well I could expect the army to do, but I had developed a strategy over the last few months.  The Bloodletters weren't working; the Herald wasn't working.  Obviously Bloodcrushers are a net-list favorite, but they are expensive and have to be used aggressively to get value from them.  And by aggressive I mean you put them in someone's face and dare him to unload everything his army has - and that wasn't something I wanted to do for 4 rounds and 10 hours.  So while I expect to add back in the 'letters and Herald at a later date, for now I needed a new direction.

So, looking at what consistently worked in my list, I had Fiends, Plaguebearers, and  Tzeentch Princes with Bolt.  Fiends: consistent assault power that can be delivered from a distance.  Plaguebearers: 'nuff said.  Tzeentch Prince with Bolt: surprising good tank-busting, but more than that I could send them into close combat and trust to Toughness 5 and a 4+ Invulnerable save to hold a line.

To this I added a unit of Flamers and Herald of Tzeentch... and sweated this decision the whole time.  I was pretty aware the Plaguebearers weren't going to do much more than hold objectives, and while that's their job it leaves the rest of the army doing the grunt work.  Everything had to be capable of breakout performances, and I simply wasn't sure if this last contingent could do the job.

Any thoughts on the list?  Comments?  Critiques?

My first game was against Gauthic and his Dark Eldar... TO BE CONTINUED

Absolutely perfect (almost)

Okay, the tournament results are in and I was absolutely perfect, almost. I placed second in the tournament which had 4 rounds. I would tell you how Brent and evil homer did, but I don't want to spoil the fun of their posts. I think we had 14 players and the armies that I can remeber were 2 chaos demons, 1 dark angel, 1 tyranid (old codex), white scares, guard, dark eldar, demon hunters, blood angels, ork, space wolves, crimson fist, tau, and my chaos space marines. Round 1 I played against the dark angels and in this game we had 3 objectives, and the secondary objective was table quarters. I had some terrible luck with my terminators, and my lesser demons died on the mishap table. I ended up with a minor victory due to grabbing more table quarters. What's funny is I played this guy the night before and almost tabled him, but this time I just barely got by. Game 2 was against demon hunters and the thing about his list was that he had two crusader land raiders which made me nervous. For the mission we had 4 objectives and I can't remember what the secondary objective was. I did manage to kill both land raiders on turn 3, and my opponent did have some bad luck rolling against me. I got a major victory against the demon hunters. Round 3 was against orks and a fairly new player. I talked tactics with him the night before and I think it paid off for him. He was running a horde type list with snikrot, a warboss on a bike, and a large squad of commandos who would out flank (or what ever the rule is called, ambush I think). He ended up with the major victory due to kill points, but we only got through 4 turns. I am fairly confident that had it gone one more turn I would have had him. I do not feel that he was slow playing me on purpose due to the fact that he is a new player. I could have rushed his turns but I wanted him to be able to think about what he was going to do next, and you can't do that with someone telling you to hurry up and move 90 models. My last match up was against the dreaded white scars and their retarded command squad. I managed a major victory after finally killing his command squad with just about everything I had. In the first half of the game my dice were failing me badly and I was getting pretty pissed, but I stayed with it and then my opponent's dice went way south on him the last 2 rounds. Nothing makes you feel better than watching the dice gods attack someone else's dice for a change. The tournament went well, although I would have liked to have seen at least one mission without having to claim an objective. Next month is 1500 pts and I might add a greater demon and another demon prince, go min max.
Here was my 1250 list:
Hq Demon prince: slaanesh, wings, lash
5 terminators: champion with power fist combi melta, 1 heavy flamer power fist, 3 power weapons 1w/ combi melta
8 lesser demons
7 plague marines in rhino: 2 meltas, 1 with a personal icon, 3 bolters, 1 champion w/ power fist.
rhino has havoc launcher.
10 man marines in rhino: 2 meltas, 1 chaos glory, 6 bolters, champion w/ power fist.
rhino has havoc launcher
2 oblits
Dreadnought: twin link auto cannon, missile launcher

Most of the games I put everything in reserves except for the 2 rhino squads and the demon prince. I would move forward with one or both rhinos and deep strike off of the icons use meltas off of termies or oblits to pop vehicles. Use the lash from the demon prince to keep heavy hitting units back, and pull scoring units off of objectives. The lesser demons would claim an objective close to home and would go to ground in cover if shot at. They are fearless so you don't have to take a leadership test from shooting. That's it, pretty simple plan for success.

Sorry if I butchered the ork stuff or anything else, I'm to lazy to check names of characters or their rules.

Tournament Prologue

Tournament Prologue

So tomorrow is our first tournament of the new year. For those of us participating in our monthly build-up we are required to play our build-up army though not necessarily our monthly list.

Turn out should be good for us, maybe 12-16 players with a wide variety of armies. I am taking my IG and will be playing my monthly list. It’s worked fairly well though I have some concerns about it. Mostly the number of scoring units and a lack of long-range AP (though I think this is less of an issue given the availability of cover saves). I also really lack the ability to torrent a unit down so we’ll see how it goes.

All three of us that post here are playing and I think it might be interesting to read all of our thoughts about the event. Three different views on the same even so to speak.

Here is my list, feel free to comment. (insert wall of text now…)

HQ: Company Command Squad (6#, 165 Pts)
4 Company Command Squad @ 165 Pts
Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Close Combat Weapon (x4); Plasmagun (x4); Chimera
1 Company Commander @ [26] Pts
Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Refractor Field; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon; Senior Officer
1 Chimera @ [55] Pts
Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Turret Multi-Laser; Heavy Flamer

Troops: Veteran Squad (11#, 165 Pts)
7 Veteran Squad @ 165 Pts
Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Close Combat Weapon (x7); Lasgun (x4); Meltagun (x3); Veteran Weapons Team; Chimera
1 Veteran Weapons Team @ [10] Pts
Frag Grenades; Close Combat Weapon (x1); Flak Armour; Lasgun (x1); Krak Grenades; Autocannon
1 Veteran Sergeant @ [7] Pts
Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon
1 Chimera @ [55] Pts
Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Turret Multi-Laser; Heavy Flamer

Troops: Veteran Squad (11#, 165 Pts)
7 Veteran Squad @ 165 Pts
Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Close Combat Weapon (x7); Lasgun (x4); Meltagun (x3); Veteran Weapons Team; Chimera
1 Veteran Weapons Team @ [10] Pts
Frag Grenades; Close Combat Weapon (x1); Flak Armour; Lasgun (x1); Krak Grenades; Autocannon
1 Veteran Sergeant @ [7] Pts
Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon
1 Chimera @ [55] Pts
Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Turret Multi-Laser; Heavy Flamer

Troops: Veteran Squad (11#, 155 Pts)
9 Veteran Squad @ 155 Pts
Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Close Combat Weapon (x9); Lasgun (x6); Meltagun (x3); Chimera
1 Veteran Sergeant @ [7] Pts
Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon
1 Chimera @ [55] Pts
Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Turret Multi-Laser; Heavy Flamer

Fast Attack: Vendetta Gunship Squadron (1#, 140 Pts)
1 Vendetta Gunship Squadron @ 140 Pts
1 Vendetta @ [140] Pts
Extra Armor; Searchlight; Twin-linked Lascannon (x3); Heavy Bolter Sponsons (x2)

Fast Attack: Vendetta Gunship Squadron (1#, 140 Pts)
1 Vendetta Gunship Squadron @ 140 Pts
1 Vendetta @ [140] Pts
Extra Armor; Searchlight; Twin-linked Lascannon (x3); Heavy Bolter Sponsons (x2)

Heavy Support: Manticore Rocket Launcher (1#, 160 Pts)
1 Manticore Rocket Launcher @ 160 Pts
Storm Eagle Rockets; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Heavy Flamer

Heavy Support: Manticore Rocket Launcher (1#, 160 Pts)
1 Manticore Rocket Launcher @ 160 Pts
Storm Eagle Rockets; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Heavy Flamer

Total Roster Cost: 1250

The autocannons are there because I had 20 points to burn and it was either that, or carapace on the CCS. I probably should have gone for the carapace but what's done is done.

On Tau

I sent in a video battle report to Yes The Truth Hurts, called Guard Vs Tau, that was published on January 10th.  In the intro, I sorta blithely claimed it was an example of a 5th Edition list Vs a 4th Edition list... and I caught a good deal of flak from both my claim and the content of the video.

So I went back to the drawing board a bit.  I created another video, Daemons Vs White Scars, in which I tried harder to outline useful content, such as the players' thoughts on the game, the tactics and ides used, and the importance of keeping the objective in mind.  Certainly I think it's a better battle report than the one I sent, but that's not the point.

I couldn't get the idea that Tau weren't competitive out of my head.  It was pointed out that the Tau player in my video, aside from being a newbie taking on a veteran, misplayed his deployment... he was beaten pretty bad.  I couldn't help but think that would happen to a Tau player regardless of the list or his experience. 

So I had to test my theory.  I asked Shannon to bring his Guard army in for a match, and I created what I felt was a good, all-comers 1250 Tau list (I didn't want to design a list just to play the army in question).  Here's a synopsis of the 1250 list... the units had the standard Wargear selection.

HQ and Bodyguard, Plasma and Missile Pod, Gun Drone.
2 Suits, Plasma and Missile Pod, Gun Drone.
6 Warriors, Devilfish with Smart Missile System.
6 Warriors, Devilfish with Smart Missle System.
Kroot, 2 Hounds
Broadsides, 2 Gun Drones
Hammerhead w Railgun
Hammerhead w Railgun

Here's a synopsis of Shannon's Guard at 1250...

Command Squad, Plasma Guns, Chimera.
Veterans, Melta Guns, Chimera.
Veterans, Melta Guns, Chimera.
Veterans, Melta Guns, Chimera.
Vendetta.
Vendetta.
Manticore.
Manticore.

The Tau have been in a box for years and are in pretty bad shape - in fact, the suits aren't put together and were laying on the bases.  While this is fine in a pick-up game like this, I didn't think it was great for a full blown video.  Besides, I wanted this game to be a good test and didn't want the distraction of shooting clips.

I'll cut to the chase: I was very, very wrong.  The Tau won the game and were far from outmatched, like I thought they would be - in fact, they more than held their own in the shooting department.  Where I had problems was later in the game, trying to find resources to camp objectives properly.  I've included some pictures, one each from each phase of the game, plus the deployment. 

Do I think this game proves something on a large scale?  No, I made that mistake with my video, painting one game with a broad brush.  But I've satisfied myself that the Tau, if listed and used properly, are a viable army in this current era.  While they'd have problems against certain matchups, what army doesn't?  It's the nature of the beast.

It's important not to rest on assumptions, but to continue to test theories and try to approach something close to truth.

Website Under Construction

Nothing to report - the website is under construction now, so I'm fitting that between work and the start of school.

www.strictlyaverage.com


As a curiosity, one of the families we've worked with at the agency (Inheritance Adoptions) was selected by Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.  The reveal was last week, and the episode will air in about 8 weeks, but these last two weeks were crazy.

Just to fit some content in here, I have a tournament this weekend at the FLGS.  Hosted by Galaxy Comics and judged by the Master Manipulator (every store needs one), there will be numerous armies slugging it out, including my Daemons, Evil Homer's Guard, Big Whit's Chaos Space Marines, Gauthic's Dark Eldar, the Original Tony's White Scars, the Other Other Tony's Tau.., and so on and so on.

I'm still working out a list, and I'll admit I'm a bit directionless.  Do I include the Blood Crushers, even though I don't much like using them?  How about the 3 DP's of Tzeentch, which I enjoyed but didn't lead me to any brilliant wins?

I've had a vague plan to build toward, testing some ideas on the way.  Once idea I've put a lot of hope in was the Herald on Jugger in a unit of Bloodletters... and while it's been okay, it hasn't exactly run off.  I may have to shake things up and try something new.

Or should I?  You see, in the past it's been that thinking that's screwed me, where I end up taking something unfamiliar, something I have no experience using, and it usually bites me in the ass.

So in short, I'm going to run a variation of the lists I've used.  I don't think it will be brilliant but my goal is to represent myself well at this level - not necessarily win the whole thing.

That comes later.  I'm out - Brent

Dogs chase bikes

(So, we have a new post from Big Whit... let's have a look, shall we?)

Tony's White scars: Command squad with Kor'sarro Khan, 1 apothecary, 2 lightning claws storm shields, 2 thunder hammer storm shields. 9 man bike squad combat split, 2 attack bikes with multi meltas, 2 attack bikes with multi meltas, 1 typhoon speeder, 5 man scout with sniper riffles.
Mike's Space Wolves: 1 lord on a thunder wolf with 4 thunder wolves, 5 man scout with melta gun, 5 man long fang with 4 missile launchers and razor back w/ las cannon. 5man long fang w/ 4 missile launchers and razor back w/ las cannon. 2 10man gray hunters in rhino.

Mission: capture and control, table quarters 5 objectives, one in every corner and one in the center of the table.

Turn 1: Tony goes first. Bikes move up and shoot at thunder wolves killing 1.

Mike moves razor back up shoots at attack bike killing 1 squad, stuns the speeder, and tries to charge w/ thunder wolves and fails.

Turn 2: Bikes move up. Snipers kill 1 thunder wolf, bikes miss all of the melta shots. Bike squad assaults Thunder wolves and gets wiped out.

Mike's scouts comes in on the far side of he tables and kill the land speeder.1 squad of gray hunter come in. Thunder wolves assault the other half of the bike squad killing them.

Turn 3: Tony kills one Thunder wolf to shooting, stuns a razor back, and assaults thunder wolves

with command squad killing the rest of the wolves. Mikes other unit of gray hunters come in and everyone dumps out and shoots at Tony's command squad killing 2.

Turn 4: Snipers move down to get close to objective. Tony kills 2 scouts w/ shooting and assaults a unit of grey hunters killing 2 and gray hunters kill 2 bikers. Mike kills the rest of the comand squad.

Turn 5: Mike spreads a squad of grey hunters out claiming 2 objectives and kills 2 snipers with shooting.

Mike wins with 2 objectives to Tony's 1