Imperial Catachans and Ethnic Diversity

I painted up these Catachans over the last week and some, but bogged down when it came to different shades of skin.

Adepticon Championships, Game 2 (Mech Guard!)

This was a tough match up - a very tough match up.  While this isn't the Guard army I would build, it's still a great build... but worse, from my point of view, it seemed custom made to beat me.

He had three units of two Hydras with Heavy Bolters and Heavy Stubbers: Str6 Twin-Linked, Str5, Str4... and separated across each third of the board.  Most of the game they pivoted and fired, pivoted and fired.  And that's just a portion of the army - you can see the rest in the picture.

Daemons Vs Imperial Guard... Again!

So, we're down to the final game in the Comics Asylum tournament that was held a few weeks back.  My opponent is a well-traveled tournament player, whom I met first at Wargames Con.  Let me say up front that he is truly one of the nicest players I've run across, very friendly and outgoing.  I don't want to mention his name, since he was very careful not to appear in pictures (though all three of my opponents gave me permission to take and use the game pics) so I've got to assume he wants to remain private.

I got my preferred wave, and Fiends set up across the board in charge positions for Turn 2.  One unit drifted too far left, but it is what it is.

Daemons Vs Imperial Guard

So, Game 2 was Daemons Vs Mech Guard.  I've stated on a number of occasions that my army does well against Mech Guard, but I'll have to admit this army had me worried.  It had two Hydras, Russ Executioners, and Vendettas, as well as the standard Melta-Vet Chimeras.  To top it off, it made use of two Auto Cannon Heavy Weapons Teams and...

...and Inquisitor with Mystics!  Every Deep Strike was an additional challenge!

Da Boyz, Game V

So, here we are, final game of the weekend!  Feel free to scroll through and check out the others, all except the loss in Round III - which I'll get to in due course.

As you'll see, I was paired with fellow Bell of Lost Souls writer Rob Baer, otherwise known as Man Boy Genius.  I reintroduced myself, whereupon he got a quizzical look on his face.  "I've met you before, man."  "Yup," I said, "except at Wargames Con you were feeling no pain!  I wasn't sure you'd remember."

A semi-legendary story!  Here's a dude that placed at an event even though he missed the early part of day two due to... well, you get the idea!  His army is well-known, but I assure you it's even better in person.

I won't spend too much time on this game, since it was fairly straightforward.  We have an objective each, and the first HQ to die will drop an objective.  My plan was to hold mine and sack a Herald, then hold that.  It would be enough to win the Primary.  The Secondary was Kill Points... and I wasn't confident I'd do well there.  It depended on his Hydra Battery.

Themed Armies: Plasma Gun

I recently decided to write an occasional series here called Themed Armies.  Basically, I'll take a theme and compare and contrast it across two armies.  I want the theme to be basic enough that most armies could create a list, though obviously some armies will do it better than others.

The theme is Plasma Guns.  The armies are Chaos Space Marines and Imperial Guard.

Day 2, Game 5: Daemons vs Guard

This was a put up or shut up game, from my point of view.  I've talked plenty of times about my win record against the local Imperial Guard, ably lead by Evil Homer.  My contention has been simple; Guard armies in the current meta don't have quantity shots, they have quality shots... so what happens when the Guard run into Daemons with their Eternal Guard and Invulnerable Saves?

What happens is I usually win.  I know how good Evil Homer is (as in, very) so I felt plenty prepared when I saw my opponent for Round 5. 

As it turns out, Paul was the only Guard player I'd face that weekend, but he made up the lack with a subtle leadership of his plastic toys which lead to a barnburner of a game... and it came down to the last dice in the last assault.

Living in the Era of Internet Advice

Sometimes I wonder how much we're capable of learning from blogs and forums.

It can be a bit depressing. There is so much information out there, but it can be difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. Leaving that out of the equation though, I think we put ourselves in too much of the argument.

Life: A Little Something Simple

Not too much today.  I've got the last two pictures of Mighty Mighty Carlos' Mech Guard to show you, in this case his Inquisitor and Mystic.  Note: I also wandered down memory lane, so if you're not interested in that ignore the italics.

I'm a bit spoiled for painters to learn from in my area.  The Master Manipulator (every store needs one) simply can't take half measures: he's too OCD for that.  If there's a fault or a blemish, it's going to get fixed.  He has to force himself to leave off troops choices and move on... and I suspect he does this by convincing himself he'll come back to it later.  He's a great technician, a true student, and he'll finish one mini in the time it takes others to do a squad.  He'd rather have his model.

Little Barrera is a prodigy.  He's a year or so younger than me.  I met him and his older brother when I first moved to Texas at age 16; this was back in 92, so it was the glorious Rogue Trader era, when no deodorant bar went unmolested but was rather quickly converted to a skimmer of some type.  Anyway, LB was 14 and I remember a few of the older guys resented his presence, like he was an annoyance his older brother was stuck with - I guess it didn't occur to them the two were really close, since Big Barrera (and now you know where I came up with the nickname) was at least 6 or 7 years older.  I know LB carried some resentment since he was always quick to anger.


Funny thing is, so was I.  I was always way to quick to run my mouth back then, because I found everything funny.  Take a) a small person with a big mouth and b) a jock with an over-sized ego and it's a pretty sure bet you'll find the small person cleaning blood off his shoes with that crappy school toilet paper.  Ironically, when I moved to Texas I didn't get into near as many fights in school.


Texas is civilized.  You don't fight in school: you fight off the side of the road next to a truck of some sort.  Still and all, I finally grew up a bit before my senior year, and you don't get the shit kicked out of you on a semi-regular basis without learning how to fight (or rather, take a punch and not fall over, which is usually enough).  Still, my classmates in Texas did something much worse than hit me.


They ignored me.  The area I moved to wasn't used to military brats coming and going.  It's an insular sort of place and everyone knew everyone from kindergarten.  That did something no amount of fights ever did.


Shut me up.


It was miserable, finishing out high school in Texas.  Big Barrera was literally my first friend in Texas, and this is a dude who was engaged, living on his own, and attending college.  He wasn't some social pariah with no friends, dipping into another generation to find someone to impress.  He had zero incentive to treat a 16-year old punk well, but he did and I've always been very appreciative.  I suspect, now that I'm older and hopefully wiser, that BB was being nice to the only guy who didn't treat his little brother like a nuisance.  Why would I?  We were of an age and neither of us very mature.  Anyway, not soon after I met Herr Fernseher, who is something of a kindred spirit, except he's a truly decent person and I'm really not, and Texas became an alright place.


Shit, that was a stroll down memory lane.  To bring it back to gaming, our interest in 40K was the common ice-breaker.  I can still remember picking through Big Barrera's collection, amazed at the quality of his stuff.  It was just fucking cool, that's all.  He was an artist in his own right, but his little brother was simply amazing.  He quickly outdid everyone.  I'll have to post some of his work; he was really ahead of his time.  You have to remember, this was 92-93, and many of the techniques we take for granted weren't really worked out then.  You'd be amazed at what passed for 'good.'

That brings me back to the Mighty Mighty Carlos.  He's also an artist - and no, I don't think everyone who graduates with a degree in Art is an artist.  I'm picky I am, but I knows 'em when I sees 'em, and Carlos is one.  He doesn't over-invest time he doesn't have, so uses technique and color theory to bring out the best in a simple scheme.  I say simple but it never really is, is it?

For example with the two miniatures above, he doesn't use metal but rather blends up the grays into whites and blues, contrasting that with the deep red.  It's a scheme that pops.

Let's take a quick look at another example.  This is a closeup of one of the squads, and it's not a great pic at that.  In real life, the tans are more vibrant... this said, it's enough to illustrate what he told me.

He said the tan and the black are both neutral colors that the eye can easily rest on.  Each model has dots of red and white - which I know you can't see, so you'll have to take my word for it - that draw the eye around.  Again, simple but well-executed, and in addition well-based.  The effect is great.  When he's done, I'll get better quality shots to show you. 

Blah!  Wall of text, end!

Video Battle Report, Daemons v Mech Guard

I had problems with the edit of this one.  Basically, I shot too much footage and had issues editing it down.  I think in the future I'll do a mix of video and pictures to try and capture the flow of the game better.



The Mighty Mighty Carlos played a great game and fully deserves the win. I have no idea if I would have been in a better position or not if the game had continued; that's the mark of a close one, in my humble opinion.
The Master of the Fleet was truly crippling. I felt like I had a difficult time getting rolling. Also, this solidifies my thinking on optimized vs non-optimized lists. His was, mine wasn't, and that turned out to be important. To be fair, mine was close to what I consider an optimized list and in most games close is good enough... it just isn't when the margins are this close is all. Lastly, this will be the last time I play Icons in a Daemons army.

Why, you say? My plan was to put two Icons in the non-preferred drop, with the idea of having that to fall back on. The problem is, when they're there you find reasons to use them rather than making the correct placement choice. It's the difference between passive versus aggressive play and of course the Daemons require aggressive decision making. On the other hand, my opponent had three squads with no weapons upgrades at all - no melta, no nothing - chosen to ride in his Vendettas. His reasoning, and I can't fault it, is if you have those options you'll use them when 90% of the time the best choice is stay in your ride! Don't get out, and when you think you should get out... don't!

That kind of thing.

I wish the Mighty Mighty Carlos well in the next round and congratulations on playing a great game.

Brent

Imperial Guard by the Mighty Mighty Carlos

So, as I finally get off my lazy ass - I have Memorial Day weekend lethargy - and start work on the video battle report I shot earlier this week, I thought I'd post some pics of the Mighty Mighty Carlos' WiP Guard army.

The Brock Samson mini I posted a few days ago?  That's his.  The last time I'd seen his army it was plastic, but a few short weeks later and he's made serious progress.  Obviously there's a ways to go but just as obviously its going to be a good place to get to.

Oh - the ones in the back are borrowed models.  Hell, I think he should just paint those too...

Brock Samson as Marbo!

I played at chez moi last night in a game against the Mighty Mighty Carlos.  He wanted a Hard Boyz test game against my Daemons and I was only to happy to do it, given this is as close to Hard Boyz as I'm getting this year.  Fear not, gentle reader (and Practical John), I will release it as a video battle report sometime soon - maybe today - but in the meantime I'll be showing off his models here.

And my absolute favorite was this gem, the Venture Brothers' own Brock Samson as Guardsman Marbo!

That, sir, is one sweet mullet!

Game 3: Daemons Vs Mech Guard

For Game 3, I played my nemesis, the very evil Evil Homer, who of course played his Mech Guard.  I'd say it's a tossup between this army and Little Barrera's Space Wolves for which is the most feared at our FLGS; in that, we're pretty much like other areas.

I don't know where my army fits into the bunch - you'd have to ask someone else.

But I digress.  The mission was, again, modified from the Battle Missions book, and it only took one look to realize I wanted to be the Defender, not the Attacker.  Take a look at the picture - and remember, as always, you can click on the picture to zoom in.

So the Attacker is forced to play aggressively and get into the enemy deployment zone.  Had I rolled lower than Evil Homer, he would of course chosen to defend; while it would have been difficult to shift all those vehicles, I've done it in the past.  My army is suited to it.  His, however, is not.  This was obviously a huge uphill battle for him, and he practically had to table me to get a minor win, much less a major.  I was pretty happy with this turn of events, but just as obviously he wasn't.

Let's take a moment to talk about that.  I won't bore you, but there were some good and bad things about these scenarios.  My FLGS has almost always used missions modified from the main rulebook, so armies pretty much knew what to expect.  These last two months first the Master Manipulator (every store needs one) and then Little Barrera used these modified missions, really shaking things up.  I think that's a positive thing.  It more represents the type of missions played at events like Hard Boyz, BoLSCon, and Adepticon, where there is almost certainly multiple missions to achieve in order to claim a major victory... and you can pretty much guess you'll need a string of majors to win the day.  It forces people to consider elements of their army they may not normally pay attention to, and perhaps top-heavy gunline armies may be reworked as a result, hopefully to the enjoyment of everyone concerned.  In short: it's a form of comp built in.  The problem with this, other than those who hate the idea of comp at all, is that it leads to mismatches such as this.

Game 2 worked out well for me, and I saw Birdsong posted a comment; I meant to ask him, but haven't yet, if he believes he would have been better served by not using the full reserve option in that particular game, with that particular mission.  I think the match would have been more equitable.  In this game it wasn't a choice that resulted in a mismatch: I won a dice roll and the game became lopsided as a result.  Now, that in no way invalidates my win, or my ultimate first place position on the day, because lucky draws in certain scenarios is a factor in every tournament anyone plays in.  Evil Homer wasn't happy, but he didn't complain or throw a fit - that's just the nature of a tournament, and if you can't deal with it you should consider another venue for your hobby.  I certainly didn't blame God and everyone when Birdsong pulled the Sanctuary Screwjob a month ago; in fact, I love that game!  Now I'd best move on, since I'm certain I've bored most of you...

The attacker goes first - that's Homer! - so of course I'm off the table.  He moves on along the entire long edge, concentrating his artillery on the opposite end of the table in the picture you see here.  Basically, the objectives were in the quadrant on my right flank, so of course that's were he focused his power. 

Here's my drop and run moves...

...and here's the table after the top of 2.  His shooting was pretty brutal.  I lost two units of Fiends, some Khornedogs, and had wounds dumped on my Great Unclean One.  I'll admit, I was blown away by how effective his shooting was.  If that doesn't seem impressive, consider that each Fiend has two wounds and I had a cover save for practically every shot.  That's a lot of hitting, wounding, and failing... and I'm not known as a player with bad luck failing saves - these failed the old fashion way.  By overloading me with dice to roll.

My army has 4 elements, which is my personal idea of proper army composition, but I won't go into that much today - hell, maybe ever!  Everyone has ideas about what's best; who's to say I have anything both original and useful to say on that score?  Anyway, I have Placeholders, Disruptors, Aggressors, and Gunners in this and every other army I build, though the proportions change... and this obsession with these elements sometimes results in odd choices in my armies, such as the lone Vyper in my old Hybrid Eldar army (I lacked Disruptors). 

Blah!  Moving on, what made me nervous is Evil Homer blasted most of my Aggressors off the board.  I still had one unit of Fiends and a unit of Khornedogs... not to mention the Great Unclean One, who could fulfill that role in a pinch.  His turn was great, and I know he was well satisfied with it...

...and then I went.  I've rarely had a more perfect turn than this one.  I'm very aware of what my army is capable of, but so is Homer.  He's my nemesis, after all.  It's fair to say we were both shocked.  Two Daemon Princes and a unit of Plaguebearers came in from reserve.  On my left flank, my Herald got in position to attack Homer's artillery, making sure I could overlap the Breath template and pick up at least two tanks.  The two Princes dropped on the flank as well, taking up the slack left by the destruction of the two units of Fiends.  One Prince blasted a Chimera and the other knocked a Vendetta out of the sky.  My remaining unit of Fiends had a juicy target to charge!  On the right flank, my Khornedogs were going to have no problem reaching the Vendetta, but let's not pretend they wouldn't have had problems doing something to it... after all, what does the dog do when it catches a car?  My other Herald solved that problem by moving into position, Bolting the Vendetta and immobilizing it.  Consequently, my Khornedogs were able to target the bird AND the Chimera sitting next to it, which I would have been able to do had the bird still been in the air.  The difference between charging the base and charging the downed Vendetta along its entire span is huge, and it allowed me to space my models enough to pick up a treat.  The Great Unclean One used Breath on his targets but got a bit unlucky and failed to roll high enough to charge, and the Khornedogs failed to hurt the downed Vendetta, but Karnak the Khornedog of Vengeance lifted his leg on the Chimera, blowing it up and spilling shocked Guardsman all over the board!  Good stuff!  In the subsequent turn, Homer's, the remaining Khornedogs did blow up the Vendetta, spilling Guardsman out the back in a nice pile for my Herald.

Here's a shot of the right flank during Homer's shooting phase.  He failed to kill the Great Unclean One, who subsequently ravaged the Autocannon squads in the corner, but he did kill all but a few of the Khornedogs.  The remaining, pissed off at the affront, took their close combat attacks in Evil Homer's turn - like they're allowed to as long as the vehicle hasn't moved - and blew the Vendetta up.  Notice the Herald?  He came along and blew his halitosis all over them!

I think this is the 3rd turn.  Evil Homer later said that my brutal Turn 2 caused him to realize he was playing for a draw.  He sped his Vendetta up and took what troops he had left to go after the Herald on my right flank.  I believe his plan was to sneak them along the edge, going for the Horrors whose job it was to control the corner objective.  Ultimately, it didn't happen, but Homer's a gamer - he'll fight to the end.  Moving on, my last Daemon Prince dropped and destroyed the Vendetta with Bolt and Breath, disgorging the troops below it.  As you can see, it's still on its base, but that's because we didn't want it balanced on the terrain; we understood it was wreaked.  Meanwhile, on the left flank, my remaining Fiends and Herald, as well as the Daemon Princes up there - which you can't see in the pic - continued to lay waste.  It was a fight, though, as Homer marshaled his forces for the counter-attack. 

Here's a picture taken from the short edge, right flank.  The Great Unclean One killed his opponents but was finally put down by the remaining Autocannons and the PCS in the Chimera.  The Vets with Melta, who'd previously been dumped out of their Chimera by Karnak, went after the Herald.  Karnak, meanwhile, had been forced to go to ground.  It didn't help, and he was sent yapping back to the Warp.

Same angle, next turn.  The Daemon Prince in the middle moved up to attack the remaining Guardsman with Breath.  The Herald closest to the camera was targeted by the Vets, who are hoping to kill the Herald and move on to the Horrors.  In the middle, the Psychic Battle Squad (btw, they'd killed half their squad by rolling box cars on the first turn of the game - fun!) and a Vet Squad, both in Chimeras, are making a play for the center objective. 

Here's the last picture.  When Turn 5 rolled around, we had 18 minutes left and chose not to play on.  I had a minor win and there was no way Evil Homer could improve his position.  It's possible I could have, but it wasn't likely enough for me to care.  Certainly Homer would have given me the last turn had I wanted it, but weighing that against relaxing 15 extra minutes between rounds and I think I made the right decision.

This last picture is the board with my models removed.  Keep in mind, the Vendetta in the middle is wrecked, but the point is my opponent had plenty of stuff on the table, but his artillery was trapped in one corner and his PCS in Chimera (out of the shot) was in the other, along with the remaining Autocannons.  Ultimately, they couldn't affect the last turn, other than maybe killing off a model or two. 

I find that interesting.  I handed the Guard a butt-kicking, yet there's still a lot of plastic on the game board.  Simply put, it's the type of army that's hard to put away completely, and had I been in the unenviable position to play the Attacker, I'm wondering if I could have shifted so much off the objectives.

Ah well!  That's how it rolls, and keep in mind I had quite a bit as well.  We went through 4 turns and it was  a random game length mission; a lot could have happened.

Thoughts?

Daemons Vs Guard, Video Battlereport

Okay, we have Brent Vs Evil Homer, me fighting it out with my nemesis!  Enjoy, and let me know what you think.

Evil Homer vs. Mikey's Meatgrinder

Evil Homer (IG) vs. The Mikey Meatgrinder

So leave it to our buddy Mikey to bring the cheese. My list gets labeled as bad but I think his is worse. Long of the short is 12 missile launchers, 4 razorbacks, the ability to target 10 vehicles on turn 1, oh and he understands targeting priority too. Great.

So we played for 4 objectives spaced evenly like a + sign around the center of the table, no objective in the center. Dawn of War deployment, cityfight style table w/ multiple 2 story and a large 3 story building amongst numerous others. The secondary objective involved searching ruins for the secondary, each time a unit entered a ruin roll, on a 6 the objective is there. I hate this secondary but what are you gonna do? You got to play what's handed to you.

I should point out I elected to pick table sides and deploy, I needed to hide the Mantys and there was a perfect corner to do so. Unfortunately it also meant I had to go first and in DoW I would rather go second. So first turn to me.

I start 1 chimi w/ vets on the table in some ruins. He started all off table. I roll on hard, pop-smoke which in hindsight I should have waited a turn to do. The Vendetta’s screamed on to grab the 4+ and hugged some of the taller cover to limit LoS. He moved on and set up the Long Fangs in cover, made a parking lot with good shooting lanes and started shooting. First shot of the game from a razorback nailed a vendetta. See how these things work?

So the rest of his shooting involved some stuns. Nothing spectacular.

The rest of the game revolved around a lot of jockeying for shots and position on the objectives. I advanced the chimis to grab 3 objectives and moved the CCS down the left side to babysit one of the chimis and threaten a long fang squad. He moved to counter my moves on objectives.

The game was a lot of maneuvering. Neither of us cold really get the shooting game going and I was avoiding letting him get into CC with me. I shot a lot of squads but could not kill marines in cover. Mikey seems to make a 4+ cover save on demand. Me, I fail em all the time.

Anyhow in the end he controlled 2, I controlled 1 and we split the 4^th. I owned the secondary (he downed another bird and squad inside hoofed it to the nearest cover, finding the secondary waiting for them). I think Mikey made a mistake, he had a razorback in some cover and he could have moved on the secondary for 2 turns to deny me the secondary. It was a naked guard squad, they weren’t going to be able to stop him.

I screwed up in my last turn. At the end of my turn I controlled 3 objectives and knew I was going to lose 1 of them. I knew another would be contested. I left him an easy out though, I neglected to move a bird into position to back up a naked guard squad I had left holding an objective. He assaulted with his 10 man GH squad as expected. If I had moved the bird there’s a good chance we draw the game as I would have had 1, he had 1, and 2 would have been contested. Then again he could have assaulted both and killed them but it would have given me another out.

Other than the dice no really cooperating for either of us in a decisive manner, I think our targeting was spot on and I was overall really happy with the game played out. It was tense, we knew the winner was in good shape to take the whole.

In terms of points it went 5-4 to Mikey, his army gives up 16 and mine gives up 17, as you can see the dice gods were not giving us decisive results.

I expect Mikey to make some improvements to his list going to 1750 (more damn missiles…) and I am making improvements to mine as well. More on that Wednesday or Thursday when I have to turn my monthly list in.

-Brent feel free to insert pics to break up the Wall o' Text

-EH

So those 4 of you reading may have picked up on the fact that we have a tournament this weekend. I haven't posted in either Brent's or Whit's list threads because in Brent's case I honestly don't have any great advice and Whit seems dead set on his list (so I won't be a dick and bash it).

In my case I have my list ready to go. As normal I'm not completely happy with it. There is something about the List or maybe the codex in general, that just doesn't do it for me. Not sure what it is. I think it's because I keep trying to make changes to my list but can't really justify it. Like I won't give other units an honest shake or something. I put a PBS in my monthly list only to be paired against 2 fearless, and 1 mostly fearless army, so much for playing leadership games. It makes me inclined to not put it in my tournament list because I just haven't seen how its going to work so it got axed. My monthly also ran 2 IST squads to make the vendetta's scoring, they have been replaced by base platoon squads. So here it is.

1500 Pts - 5th Edition Roster

HQ: Company Command Squad (6#, 167 pts)
4 Company Command Squad @ 167 pts (Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x4; Plasmagun x4; Chimera)
1 Company Commander (Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Refractor Field; Close Combat Weapon; Bolter; Senior Officer)
1 Chimera (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Turret Multi-Laser; Heavy Flamer)

HQ: Inquisitor Lord (4#, 83 pts)
1 Inquisitor Lord [OM] @ 83 pts (Psychic Hood)
1 Familiar [OM] (Close Combat Weapon)
1 Mystic [OM] (Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon)
1 Mystic [OM] (Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon)

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 (Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon)
1 Chimera (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 (Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon)
1 Chimera (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Turret Multi-Laser; Heavy Flamer)

Troops: Infantry Platoon (26#, 200 pts)
1 Infantry Platoon @ 200 pts
4 Platoon Command Squad (Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x4; Lasgun x1; Flamer x3; Chimera)
1 Platoon Commander (Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon; Junior Officer)
1 Chimera (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Turret Multi-Laser; Heavy Flamer)
9 Infantry Squad (Frag Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x9; Flak Armour; Lasgun x9)
1 Sergeant (Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon)
9 Infantry Squad (Frag Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x9; Flak Armour; Lasgun x9)
1 Sergeant (Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon)

Fast Attack: Vendetta Gunship Squadron (1#, 140 pts)
1 Vendetta Gunship Squadron @ 140 pts
1 Vendetta (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 (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 (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: 1500

=I= and the 2 infantry squads get vendetta's. This should allow me to operate the melta vets more aggressively than in the past as the number of scoring units has increased. I don't want to use them as sacrifices but sometimes things have to die. The CCS is my reserve unit, whenever there is a gap in the lines, there they go, 4 plasma's work on this unit.

There are 1-2 armies that I am actually a little worried about this month. Mikey's Space Wolves are going to be a beast to beat. Razorback and Missile Launcher spam makes short work of AV 12. I may to play the reserve game with the vendetta's for that one and hope the manticore's get lucky and take out 1-2 Razorbacks each on my turn 1. While that's happening push the chimera's up the table. I can't outrange that army with this build. We'll have to see how it goes. Maybe I get lucky and his dice go to hell...hmmm...prayer circle anyone?

Tyranids are the other army (if they show) that is going to be interesting, and that alone forced the inclusion of the =I= to hopefully provide some defense against dropping Zoe's and other gribbly BS.

Oh and I did something stupid this week, I am participating in the B&C Librarium Painting Challenge. Seems I have to paint 1 squad of Thousand Sons and Rhino before the 31st of march. So much for working on the Guard....

-EH

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)

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.

Video: Imperial Guard VS Tau

Spoiler Alert... the video you're about to see has a completely one-sided victory.  To me, this battle represented a summation of the 5th Edition vs 4th Edition style lists argument; for that reason, I think it's interesting.



EDIT: I'm receiving reports of the video-embed on this blog not working.  I'm not sure what the cause is, but here's a link if you run in to this problem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNsIPW4Viw0
Brent

1000 point IG

So for our local army building project our 1000 point lists are due in for the month of December tomorrow.

I have several 1k IG lists floating about but during the last month or so I have lost at least 1 game to not having a third troop unit. I also changed my original CCS from a quad melta to a quad plasma squad. To do all this I dropped the Devil Dog I had been running. I never really got anything out of it except for another chimera hull. A version of this list got run last Friday against Brent's demons (no DH Storm Troopers) and If I had been running this version I would had the win instead of the draw.

See I found myself in form control of the table but at the end of the game neither of us controlled an objective, in terms of kill points I think it was a win for me. If I had brought a small scoring unit in a vendetta I would have secured an objective for myself rather than making sure I contested it with the vendetta.

1000 Pts - December List

HQ: Company Command Squad (6#, 195 pts)
4 Company Command Squad @ 195 pts (Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x4; Medi-pack; Plasmagun x4; Chimera)
1 Company Commander (Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Refractor Field; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon; Senior Officer)
1 Chimera (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 (Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon)
1 Chimera (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 (Flak Armour; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon)
1 Chimera (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Turret Multi-Laser; Heavy Flamer)

Troops: Inquisitorial Stormtroopers (5#, 55 pts)
5 Inquisitorial Stormtroopers [OM] @ 55 pts (Frag Grenades; Targeter; Hellgun x4; Flamer x1)

Fast Attack: Vendetta Gunship Squadron (1#, 140 pts)
1 Vendetta Gunship Squadron @ 140 pts
1 Vendetta (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 (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)

Total Roster Cost: 1000

So the lone DH Storm Trooper squad mounts up in a vendetta, everything else stays in the tank for mobile killing power and protection. Very simple. I had my plasma CCS pay massive dividends against Brent's demons as well. The ability to generate a large number of high strength low ap (no FNP!) shots was very handy and should help me against his blood crushers as well when they show up in his list.

I have enough other anti-tank that I think I can spare the plasma for the CCS. No one like to get hit with 6-8 plasma bolts. I don't think plasma is or should supplant melta in most list but for this application I feel its warranted. Its just another tool in the box.

Finally since all of my mech vets are Kasrkin and I have to buy a blister of each (melta/plasma) to get the melta guns I need this move saves me $50.00 on more melta troops.

I will kibbits this version of my list with the Master Manipulator tomorrow morning before I finalize but I think its work out fine.