Battle Report - Chaos Marines vs Space Marines

Hello!

I recently had another game against my regular opponent John. I took my Alpha Legion for the first time since the great repainting/rebasing, while John wanted to play 'Ultramarines' featuring Fulgrim as a stand in Roboute Guilliman and lots of stompy dreadnoughts. This was out first game since the big FAQ so I wanted to make use of more command points so I took a Brigade detachment. It wasn't super optimal but had quite a bit of stuff in it.

HQ: Chaos Lord, Sorcerer, Sorcerer
Troops: 40 Cultists with auto guns, 3 units of 10 cultists with melee weapons, 2 units of 5 Marines with Plasmaguns and Combiplas.
Elites: 2 Contemptors with Fists and multi meltas, 5 Chosen with 4 Melta guns and a Powerfist
Fast attack: 3 individual Chaos Spawn
Heavy Support: All Lascannon Predator, Autocannon/Lascannon Predator, Havocs with 3 heavy bolters
Transport: 2 Rhinos

John has a thing for Dreadnoughts. He took a Vanguard, A Spearhead and a Superheavy Auxiliary. Not sure I've got all the units in the right slots, I'm not too familiar with the loyalists.

HQ: Captain with Jump Pack, Lieutenant with Jump Pack
Elites: 2 Venerable Dreadnoughts with assault cannon, fist and heavy flamer, 2 Relic Contemptors with assault cannons and fists, Redemptor Dreadnought with about 7 million guns.
Heavy Support: 2 Morris Dreadnoughts with Autocannons, Contemptor Mortis with missiles and Lascannons
Lord of War: 'Guilliman'

The mission we rolled up was Targets of Opportunity (Chapter Approved Maelstrom where you redraw all your cards at the start of your turn) and deployment was Search and Destroy.
 

John won the roll off for first turn. I plonked a big line of Cultists in the way, covering several objectives in case I could deny them to John. Also hid my Predators behind a building and loaded up the Rhinos.

John's first turn featured a strong advance from the Contemptors and Venerables. His missions boiled down to 'kill stuff' so that's what he did. Both my Contemptors fell to shooting and most of the cultists in the big blob. Three of the dreads charged in to finish them off, denying me the chance to bring them back with Tide of Traitors. I semi-joked that John had fallen into my trap, though I do wish I'd left a bunch of cultists on the roof of the building so I could have denied the charge.

The trap is sprung! I drew cards to kill stuff in the shooting phase and claim a couple of objectives that were close enough for my cultists to advance onto. The Predators revealed themselves and all my infantry got out. In the Psychic phase both my Sorcerers rolled 11 for their Smites, melting one of the Contemptors. Firepower from my Power armour units, including Prescience/Veterans of the Long War/Endless Cacophony on the Melta Chosen and Daemon Shell from the Lord cleared out the two dreads in the building. The Predators fired on the Redemptor (unpainted models must die!) but some poor rolling meant it didn't even drop a bracket. Still, a successful counter punch.

John picked up an objective in his backfield with the Mortis Dreadnoughts and unleashed the Bang Bang. My Chosen disappeared along with one and a bit Predators. The Venerable/Redemptor front line moved up along with Fulgrim.

Suddenly I didn't have that much on the table, but still had a couple of Rhinos for being annoying. One advanced onto an objective, while the other was Warp-Timed into Fulgrim's face. My psychic/shooting was a bit disappointing, I removed the Redemptor but had to throw everything at it. Then, a brain fart. I charged the Rhino into the dread in front of him to both slow down Fulgrim and stop the dread from shooting. I forgot a few key things, 1-Ultramarine dreads can fall back and shoot, 2-It was a Venerable Dreadnought with a fist, hitting and wounding on 2s, 3-Heroic Intervention is a thing. Suffice to say, the Rhino did not survive.

John's big guns cleared out the rest of my power armour troops, killed off my Predator and in an epic moment Fulgrim and his Venerable chum declared charges on all 3 of my HQs. Fulgrim sliced the Sorcerers in two, but the Dread failed to finish the warlord.

With my limited resources I tried to score some points. Objectives told me to kill Imperial units but didn't give me much else. My lord fell back, and opened up with his trusty Daemon Shell, dropping it to 1 wound. The remaining Havocs finished it off. Elsewhere my remaining Rhino charged in to one of the backfield Mortis dreads to reduce it's firepower a bit.

Last couple of turns became a mop up mission for the Not-Ultramarines. Fulgrilliman finished off my Lord with an honourable blast of bolt shells to the back, before finishing off the infantry in my corner.   My Spawn tried to charge the Contemptor Mortis to hold it up, but overwatch killed one and the other got squashed in melee. That Mortis did some work this game, finishing off my remaining cultists as well as all his previous kills.

At the end John had managed to grab a few more objectives while finishing off my force entirely. Ouch. I think I had a good start to the game but it all went wrong very quickly. John had some decent luck, at one point getting 5 free command points in a single turn thanks to the warlord trait, but I think the biggest issue was my 2nd turn shooting and Rhino charge. If I'd have left the Rhino in the way to hold up Notty-G for another turn I might have been able to smite him or something. I'm not sure the result would have been much different, but that was definitely the biggest mistake of the game. Still, it was fun seeing Fulgrim on the table, doing Primarch things. 

Splinter Fleet Goliath, Tyranid army

Hello!

Here are a bunch of pictures of my entire (for now) Tyranid collection. This force has been growing since the early 2000s and has reached around 6500 points. I started painting them orange before Macharius Solar Orange was a thing, and finished painting them trying to mix various paints to replicate the last few dregs of my last remaining pot of the stuff. As a result the colours are pretty inconsistent throughout the army, but I like to think this gives the impression of an organic force spawned at different stages of an invasion, some fresh and vibrant while others older and more faded. I deliberately painted my Old One Eye conversion to look darker and more red than the others for this reason.

Speaking of conversions, there are a fair few in here. Some warrior based biovores lurk at the back, while a custom Haruspex sits next to the Scythed Hierodule. It was originally a Terigon from Carnifex bits before the Tervigon model existed, but later became a Haruspex when I got a 'real' Tervigon and some spare crushing claws that came with it!

Anyway, pictures!

The Fractured Truth, Alpha Legion Warband

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This post is kind of the catalyst for starting this blog. I wanted to share these pictures on forums but the image hosting site I was using at the time died. I decided that rather than finding a new hosting site and hope that it didn't suddenly decided to move or charge for it's services, I'd put a little more effort in and start a blog, with the idea that it would be easier to share and less likely to just disappear off the internet when I'm not looking. Ironically, that's exactly what this army would do if given the choice, because they are sneaky Alpha Legion Chaos Marines.

This army comes to around 4500 points, and consists of a mix of the 40k chaos marine models and the plastic Heresy marines. At one point I had two separate Alpha Legion armies for 30k and 40k, sharing their transports and the like, but I wanted the flexibility of using all of those lovely plasma guns, so recently I did a bit of a repaint to make them all look similar. A bit of bit swapping between the two to blur the lines and the application of Forge World transfers and I think I've now got a coherent looking force that could probably pass in 30k or 40k. This is the full force for now, but since Forgeworld have started showing off a certain new Primarch, I might have to grab some extra models...

Halfling Blood Bowl team WIP

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I've been working away on my current project over the weekend, a Halfling Blood Bowl team! The minis are from a recent Kickstarter by Star Player Miniatures, as seen here. I haven't entirely decided on a team name yet, but I have decided on a black and red scheme, as they are sponsored by Nan Doe's Spicy Chicken.

Anyway, here is the full team and support staff:

I love all the little fun details on these guys. Hairy feet, colander helmet, the chicken leg catcher! They are very cool sculpts. I'm looking forward to getting these little guys on the field and losing horribly. I'm still a relative Blood Bowl noob, so I'm not expecting great things, but a spectacular failure or two could be a bit of a laugh. 

Hopefully these two little heroes might stand tall (chortle). On the left is the captain, Piggy Beefteeth (named after a notable Halfling Rogue/drunkard in one of my D&D campaigns). On the right is a cheeky chappy stealing a goblin's sausages. I think I'll be using him as a star player to spend some of my inevitable inducements on.

While it may be a bit optimistic hoping for heroism from Halflings, I'm a bit more expectant about the chances of the Treemen to leave a mark on the opposing team. Be it throwing a team mate or just stamping on someone. They do have one major weakness though, they do love to take root. But how do you remember if they have done so on the field you ask? 

With this gRooted marker of course!

Big FAQ Beta reserves rule initial thoughts.

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I assume by now anyone who is interested has had a chance to read the 'Big FAQ' recently released by GW for 40k. Most have probably formed opinions already. Some think the changes are not enough, others think they have gone too far. The Beta 'deep strike' rules in particular seem controversial and have many people cursing GW for ruining everything forever. My initial instinct is to ignore the beta rule for now, as it will quite dramatically change the way I build my Tyranid lists.

Turn one and half the army turns up from the skies/underground, protecting them from fire and immediately piling on the pressure. I can see how this may feel overwhelming for an opponent and a bit like a 'cheap' tactic, but in my experience I very rarely got a charge off or any significant damage from my reserves on the turn they came in. It didn't feel broken. However thinking about it, aside from the Mawloc right in the midst of the foe, there isn't much I couldn't have replicated by starting these units on the board. In fact I'm pretty sure the Gargoyles would have been closer. I've been moving away from the Genestealers in tunnels tactic as an offensive one, and instead just as a psychological blow, but if I were to march them their full move up the board, I've seen that have a similar effect.

Of course, I've also been on the receiving end of the teleportation alpha strike. Here Slaanesh Terminators with combi weapons blast my knight off the board in turn one. If the beta rules go ahead, I won't miss this experience, though in fairness, I still won the game pictured. I've used the same tactic with my Alpha Legion as well, and it's effective (unless you roll a lot of ones for your plasma and kill half your squad) and quite frankly will continue to be so from turn 2 onwards. Turn one gives you chance to screen your units better, but also gives you chance to kill the screen before your reserves turn up. In recent games John has been using a Dreadclaw filled with plasma gun Havocs, and due to unit positions he has been regularly leaving them to turn 2 or 3 already.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm not convinced by the Beta rules, though I think I agree with most of the rest of the FAQ, but if they come to pass, they are not the end of the world and I'll adapt. In the meantime it might be best for us all to actually play some games with the rules and see how well/badly it goes. That's the whole point of 'beta' rules - they might be rubbish but the only way to know for sure is if people play them and give their feedback. Just don't knee-jerk reject the rule, or blindly accept it as a given.

House Taranis Knight aka Knighty McKnightface?

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 A while ago I finished up painting an Imperial Knight to go with my Adeptus Mechanicus force. I had great fun doing all the weathering, applying transfers and giving it glowy eyes. In fact at this stage it's probably the best model I have ever painted. That's not necessarily saying much, but I'm quite proud of it.

I went with House Taranis, partially because there are transfers in the box for this one, but also because the relatively subdued scheme (compared to House Raven) wouldn't detract too much from all the orange Ryza guys running around it's feet. Also decided to magnetise most of the options to give me some flexibility without driving me crazy with magnets. It can be run as a Paladin, Errant or Crusader.

The only issue I have at the moment (apart from the Knight's constant desire to explode) is a name. He or she is a bit of a hero, felling a mighty Leviathan Dreadnought in a recent game, and consistently taking a solid battering that might have been better directed at my squishy servitors. They deserve to be named I think. So, as referenced by the title of the post, does anyone have any suggestions?

Battle Report - Tyranids vs Necrons

Hello!

This afternoon I took my Tyranids, Hive Fleet Goliath, using the Jormungandr adaptation, against my regular opponent John and his shiny new codex using Necrons, under the Mephrit Dynasty. We played at 2000 points, the mission was Sealed Orders from Chapter Approved, where you start with 6 maelstrom cards and only once you have got rid of them al, can you draw 5 more, then 4, 3 etc. In addition the cards are kept secret from your opponent. As a further note, this was the first game I was using my new orange Tabletop Tactics dice!

My list was largely designed around making use of the Scythed Hierodule, who I have used twice before in 8th and he has yet to reach combat. I took a Battalion, a Spearhead and a Superheavy Auxiliary detachment.

HQ: Malanthrope, 2 Neurothropes
Troops: 20 Genestealers, 30 Termagants, 2 broods of 3 Ripper Swarms
Fast attack: 29 Gargoyles
Heavy support: Mawloc, Trygon, 2 Tyrannofexes with Acid Spray
Lord of War: Scythed Hierodule

John took a solid core of warriors with character support and some fire support. He was pretty confident he wouldn't be killing the Hierodule on the first turn this time, but his army looked a tough nut to crack. He took a Battalion, a Spearhead and an Outrider detachment, and it was something like this:

HQ: Anrykr the Traveller, Illuminor Szeras, Lord, Cyptek
Troops: 3 units of 20 Warriors
Fast attack: 3 units of Scarab Swarms, 1 of 4 and 2 of 8
Heavy Support: 3 Annihilation Barges

Deployment was Frontline Assault (pointy long edges) and I just finished deploying first and won first turn, however John only went and seized on me!

A large chunk of my army started off the board, ready to react depending on what cards I drew. As a ravenous warp beast watched on, the battle began!

John got a lucky draw with his cards and picked up a Necron specific one that told him to hold all three odd numbered objectives, which turned out to be the three across his lines. He moved up a little and put some damage on my Termagants at long range, reducing them to a few models. No first blood put he picked up lots of points on turn one.

My turn and I moved up, popping all my reserves onto the board. John panicked. Genestealers and Trygon on one flank, swarm of Gargoyles on the other, Mawloc just in behind and not on the picture, the Ripper Swarms in the far corners of his deployment zone. I killed off some scarab Swarms but none of the warriors were in bio-acid range. I scored points for hold the line and behind enemy lines for d3, among some other points to keep it about even.

The return fire was brutal on John's turn. He focused on clearing out my chaff, killing the last Termagants, all the gargoyles and the Genestealers, who were finished off by Scarab Swarms. John also picked up some points but we both started our 2nd turns with one or two cards in our hands, which may have been poor planning on both our parts.

In my turn 2 both the Tyrannofexes got into range, one of which was stationary for double shots. The Scythed Hierodule surged forward, and between the three monsters they cleared out the red warrior unit. The Trygon killed some scarabs, and the Hierodule made it into melee with one of the Annihilation Barges. I used the Adrenaline Surge stratagem to attack twice, but still only did one wound on the damn thing. Quantum Shielding is very annoying!

The Necrons manoeuvred around to get their shots off. John threw a lot of fire into the Trygon, reducing it to 1 wound, and also stripped a few off the Hierodule. His toughness 8 really helped out, as did some poor rolls from the Annihilation Barges. Anrakyr boosted the warriors to kill the Trygon in melee, earning John big game hunter. He failed to pick up Overwhelming Firepower however thanks to the Trygon holding on till the fight phase, and he also failed to get Hold the Line thanks to my Ripper Swarms!

The Scythed Hierodule swung around the get stuck in, and I measured up and found both Tyrannofexes were within 18 inches of the yellow warrior squad. One of the Neurothropes started proceedings with a 5 damage Smite, only taking 1 mortal wound himself. Shooting from the two Tyrannofexes finished off the yellow warriors, while the Hierodule melted the Annihilation barge out of the sky with it's bio acid. In the charge phase he piled into Illuminor Szeras and pinned him to the floor with one of his massive talons. I picked up 3 points, this was a good turn!

John decided to focus everything on the Scythed Hierodule in his lines (probably smart.) All the firepower reduced him to 9 wounds, the tesla shooting was thankfully poor. The warriors, Anrykr and the Lord charged in. Anrykr managed 4 damage with his warscythe, as did the lord, leaving it up to the warriors to inflict the final wound. A mountain of dice were rolled but not a single 6 to wound! The Hierodule lived on with 1 wound remaining! This would be a big setback for John.

The Hierodule fell back, getting Anrykr closest to his bio-acid, and melting his face. The Tyrannofexes continued to be amazing, reducing the squad of Necron warriors down to a single model, who auto failed his morale check as he warlord lay slain before him. The Hierodule charged the remaining lord but failed to hit in his injured state. The lord failed to wound in return.

John managed to get another point or two killing one of the Neurothropes that had ventured over to an objective, the tesla finally rolling solidly average this turn, but the damage to their reputation had been done! In melee the Lord finally knocked the last wound off the Hierodule, sending it crashing to the ground, its job done.

My turn 5, I finally spread out my castle, grabbing three objectives for Ascendancy, and 3 points! One of the Tyrannofexes got close to the injured Lord and melted him with acid. This turn was also notable for being the first one where I actually managed to cast Catalyst.

We rolled for random game length, and the game came to an end. Counting up, John had managed a respectable 13, but I had taken the win with 18 points! A bit of bad luck and a bad match up for John, but a good game nonetheless. It's nice to play 8th edition and both armies being left with some usable units on the field at the end. We discussed it and considered John's list to be quite difficult to deal with. If I'd taken Rupture cannons instead of Acid Spray on my Tyrannofexes I would have really struggled to find them a target, and those warrior blobs would have just hung around forever. Similarly if John had access to some genuine anti-tank weapons, that Hierodule might not have had quite such fun. In the end, lessons learned and a good time was had by all.