Chaos Space Marine Codex P. II

Sorry for my long absence guys,  to be honest I had started writing this next post almost a month ago but with work, school, and real life getting in the way, I just didnt have the time to finish it.  So in my last post I spoke of what I saw as my winners of the chaos codex, in this post I will continue with my review and concentrate on the not so good units of the codex.  Let me start of by saying the following, overall the codex is really good.  It gives players I believe the tools to make a competitive list that still has some fluff to them.  However I believe there was lot of lost opportunities that would have made this book the knockout that it should have been.  The hype surrounding the fact that Phil Kelly was the author, the rumours surrounding it just made it seem that this book would be the be all end all book of 40k, in fact what we got here is one of the most balanced books of the game.  Again, this is a Kelly production and it will take time for us to see that this book is a success.  With that being said, let me get to the meat of my post, the losers of the codex.

Defilers - While it can be argued that the defiler is better in this edition, the cost of this beastie is just way out there. 195 points for a stock armor 12 walker is just unacceptable, yes it has a battle cannon but go 2nd and guess what is the first thing you lose. If the defiler was armor 13 then maybe it would be worth it. If Phil would have kept it at the same price, then definitely it would be worth it but at armor 12 no way. I would have loved this guy priced at 135 points, with all options either being free or for minimal cost. The maulerfiend at 125 base is a heck of a lot better and brings a lot more to the table including a 12 inch move and move through cover. I expect to see a lot less of these guys on the table which is too bad as I love the model.

 Possessed - Wow was I expecting a heck of a lot more from these guys. At first glance, these guys look a lot better; same stat line which was good before, better possessed table which is based on a D3 roll with all 3 abilities being good, fleet built in and now as they are considered daemons fear. You then look at the price and all is lost. 26 points a model!!?? No gun, no 2+ save, what the heck Phil? That price tag should at least include a 2+ save, the mark of your choice, or 3 attacks base. For 5 points more you can get a terminator, 'nuff said. These models are just gorgeous so like I did in the old edition, I will probably pull these guys out, (this is becoming a theme now with me liking the models so much that I will be playing them even though their rules are terrible).

 Warp Talons - Man was I expecting a lot for these guys being a Nightlords player and all. I was expecting elite Raptors with ton of options, instead I get a unit that is horribly overcosted and with virtually no options at all other then marks.  Its cool that the champ can get 2 rolls on the chaos table but that is too random to base your unit on.  What Phil should have done with these guys is make it so that you can take any weapon sort of like the vanguard veterans out of the space marine books.  Grenades should have been a no-brainer as well, the fact that these guys are an assault unit with no grenades has me shaking my head what the heck was he thinking? 2 wounds would have made these guys extremely good.

 Mutilators - I have been following the rumors for the codex since the news broke that Chaos would be the next book. In trying to learn what was coming out, I looked and looked for that one unit that would allow me to run a hyper elite army.  Basically, an army with as little model count as possible, be tough as nails and give me what I want to call a chaos "paladin" army.  When rumors broke that chosen terminators would give me what I wanted, I waited with baited breath.  Once we learned that terminators were only going to be 1 wound, and not the hyper elite that I wanted them to be, we heard of a new unit, the so-called close combat Obliterator.  With 2 wounds, having the equalivent of terminator armor and being able to wield 2 sets of  specialized weapons, they sounded like they would fit the bill for me.  Then you get the negatives, slow and purposeful, no range weapon of any kind, and max units of 3 makes this a poor choice to try to do the super elite chaos army that I wanted.  Why oh why are they slow and purposeful?  They are a close combat unit which cant run so either you deep strike them in or spend the points on a landraider to get these guys across the board.  Just doesnt make sense, maybe I will give them a go as a rentinue for Abaddon complete with a Landraider, other then that, nope.  And what kills these guys even more, the models themselves which are some of the worst models I have ever seen GW put out. 

These are the worst of the chaos book per my opinion.  The internet will say that there are others but in my opinion the rest of the book is really good.  Time will tell with this book, and with the next 6th edition codex coming out next month, we wont have to wait long.

 

New Chaos Dex

The moment has finally come, the moment that my chosen army will once again breathe life and be the scourge of the table top, finally my army will be good as grey knights, or that is what most internet pundits have been stating since the release of the codex last week.  The truth however is a lot further from that as nobody has been able to come up with the netlist to rule them all.  As for me, I am actually quite happy with this turn of events as I find the codex to be like a fine cigar, to be enjoyed rather then rushed, to be savored rather then scarfed down, etc.  I dont want an army that is auto-take, an easy win button like how Necrons and Grey Knights are at the moment, but an army that rewards the thinking player, an army that utilizes the idea of combined arms where synergy between units is paramount.  I see this codex as that book, the thinking man's army and not one where you will see every player bringing the same list over and over.  This is a Phil Kelly production after all, where numerous builds are in, all can be competitive, and all fun to play.  For the last couple of weeks, I have read the book backwards and forwards and I still have not seen all of the combinations that are possible.  Every day I discover something new, something unique, something that I would not have thought of after going through the book the time before and this is exciting to me.  My imagination is going crazy on all of the possible builds I can do with my armies, all of the options I can take and with allies the sky is the limit.  What I thought I would do now is to discuss some of my winners of the dex as well as my thoughts on why.

Winner - Chaos Lords
 These guys saw a major improvement from the last dex.  The options that these guys have now are limitless, allowing you to build a lord that you can truely call your own.  You want a beatstick, give him the mark of Khrone, mount him on a juggernaut and give him the ax of blindness.  You want a more shooty lord, mount him on a bike and give him the brand and you have a fast moving mini hellhound that can really put out the hurt on horde and MEQ units.  All and all a winner


Winner - Chaos Space Marines
This unit is both a winner and a loser.  Let me explain, the unit definitely got a huge boost for the number of options available to them.  The fact that Marks could be taken without the icon means that marks cant be just shot off.  Gift of mutation on the champion is a nice little boost that can be good if you roll well, a homage to the old 3.5 dex of allowing you to tool up your champions.  Big squads is still in there and the base cost of each model is the lowest MEQ you could get.  Now the bad, if you tool these guys back to last edition stats, you are paying the same amount in points as the last book.  You start adding in the new stuff like marks, VOTLW, etc, and the cost starts going up.  I would be good with the price but the fact that these guys are not fearless or have some sort of ability to not be run down really takes the cake.  I would easily pay for fearless as a mark, all you are left with is an icon that can get sniped out easily especially in this edition at the cost of 25 points!!  Still not bad if taken cheap or if babysat by a fearless character.


Winner - Chaos Bikers
A unit that for the most part is a winner due to the fact of their new points cost.  They now cost the same amount Raptors cost in the last book which means big squads are a viable choice now.  6th edition has also made bikes a heck of lot better with jink saves, hammer of wrath, etc.  A good sized squad with a couple of melta guns and a mark will run you under 300 points.


Winner - Heldrake
To be honest, i didnt believe the hype when they first announced this unit.  Still didnt believe it when reading the heldrakes rules when I had the codex in hand.  After trying it for a couple of games thanks to a friend of mine letting me borrow his all I can say is awesome.  The heldrake is really good at one thing, killing infantry.  Yes this unit was billed at being the ultimate anti flyer unit however with its baleflamer is the scourge of infantry everywhere.  Its also remarkablely tough with its 5 + invul and armor 12.  It will not die just adds to its toughness which I saw first hand when I made several rolls to restore hullpoints.  Of all of the daemon engines, this one is definitely the best of the lot.  

I am still digesting the codex at this point, these were the stand outs that I saw and that I actually tried out.  I will go over the losers of the codex in my next post along with the lists that I plan on running.  All in all a great codex but one that is also filled with many missed opportunities.   

First 6th ed Tournament

 Hey guys, sorry that I havent posted in a while, life and work as really been taking its toll on me. I'm still painting figs and in fact got into warmachine a little more over the course of the last 2 months and actually painted up my first battlegroup. Pics I will save for another post as this is all about my experiences at my first 6th edition 40K tournament. I was eager to try my hand at a tourney, starting out at a lower point costed one to test my knowledge of the game but to my surprise, my first experience was at 2000 pts. In addition to the 2000pts, the tournament also required that your army take an ally. So in deciding to do this tournament, I opted to do a last hoorah for the chaos codex. I wanted to go with an army that was completely painted even though it wasnt necessary. My Thousand Sons army is fully painted however I wanted to go with an army that was entirely out of the box and one I never used before. Once I heard that they were giving out an award for best painted, I decided to go with a fluffy Khrone based army based around large squads of marines with a couple of havoc squads for support. For my allies in keeping with the Khrone theme, I decided to take a hard hitting Herald of Khorne on a juggernaut with a bloodcrusher retinue and some bloodletters to make the allies legal. Not just any Herald but the almighty Skulltaker which I had finished converting for an escalation league I had a couple of months ago. The army came in at 1990 so i took melta bombs for the 2 lords to get me to 2000 pts. Below is the list in detail. As you can see, the army contains no vehicles. I usually take at least 2 rhinos in all of my lists, in 6th however i have found that rhinos give up easy first blood points and so i decided to go with none.

HQ: Chaos Lord  = (base cost 90 + Juggernaut of Khorne 30 + Melta Bombs 5 + Mark of Khorne 10 + Daemon Weapon 40)

HQ: Chaos Lord = (base cost 90 + Juggernaut of Khorne 30 + Melta Bombs 5 + Mark of Khorne 10 + Daemon Weapon 40)

Troops: Khorne Berzerkers 9 Khorne Berzerkers = 9 * 21 (base cost 21) + Plasma Pistol x2 30 1 Skull Champion , 51 pts = (base cost 36 + Power Axe 15)

Troops: Chaos Space Marines  = 11 * 15 (base cost 15) + Icon of Khorne 30 + Meltagun x1 10 + Plasma gun x1 15 1 Aspiring Champion , 45 pts = (base cost 30 + Power Sword 15)

Troops: Chaos Space Marines  = 11 * 15 (base cost 15) + Icon of Khorne 30 + Meltagun x1 10 + Plasma gun x1 15 1 Aspiring Champion , 45 pts = (base cost 30 + Power Axe 15)

Heavy Support: Chaos Havocs  = 5 * 15 (base cost 15) + Missile Launcher x3 60

Heavy Support: Chaos Havocs  = 5 * 15 (base cost 15) + Lascannon x3 105

HQ: Skulltaker  140 + DS: Juggernaut of Khorne 35

Elite: Bloodcrushers of Khorne  = 5 * 40

Troops: Bloodletters of Khorne = 10 * 16

The army would definitely suffer in open ground which is what I expected which is why i took large squads of troops to mitigate this a little.  I knew that I would facing my share of Guard and indeed there were a lot of Guard players.  Necrons were also heavily represented including several with multiple fliers.  To say that the my list did well is an understatement, I actually went undefeated in my 3 games, tying the first game and winning my last 2 games. Unfortunately with it being a battle points tournament, I ended up in the middle of the pack as I didn't blow out my opponents. The overall winner tabled 2 of his opponents with a Necron Flyer list so there was no way I could place. I did accomplish my goal however by winning best painted, surprised as there were several different armies that we painted very well but hell, I will take it... lol. Pics are of the army itself, I went with a dark grey with dark blue details similar to the pre-heresy world eaters colors. I hate painting white so that was definitely out of the question so I went with a light grey shaded with a black wash. Let me know what you guys think.

New 40K Starter set Chaos leaked pics..

Thank you Faeit2012 and the posters on Warseer, etc who got us these pics. All I gotta say is OMG!!!! That Hellbrute is just amazing and the Chosen Chaos Marines look great as well. Someone on Faeit's blog mentioned that the chosen look like something out of the space marine video game and they are definitely right on that one. The Cultists look amazing as well. The Chaos lord looks ok, he just seems kind of static in the pose that they gave him, I will definitely with hold judgement on it until I see a better pic. Thank you GW for yet again taking my money. This along with the new Chaos dex and Forgeworld doing the hersey means I will be broke and my wife will be pissed... lol

6th edition and Tau.

Whats up everybody? I played several more games in the last couple of weeks to get more of a feel of this edition. I have to say, so far i am loving it, the changes for the most part are all good. In my latest game I used my Tau in a 1500 point game against a Grey Knight Draigo wing. We decided to play an objective game as it would have been an auto win for him if we did kill points. We rolled 3 objectives and decided against the mysterious objectives or terrain just to keep the game going. I rolled inspiring leadership for my warlord trait and my opponent got the scoring warlord trait which meant that Dragio himself was now scoring. Firewarriors not to mention crisis suits have greatly benefited from 6th edition as I could now keep on the move and out range my opponents army. Dragio wing in 6th edition is still devastating especially with the divination school but I must admit what really makes it extremely annoying is the fact that all paladins are considered characters. Unless your packing strength 8 or higher and in abundance, big paladin squads with an Apothocary are just gross when it comes to absorbing small arms fire. For 3 straight turns I shot my entire 1500 pts of Tau into my opponents 10 man squad and I was lucky to get a wound through. Look out sirs, combined with a 2 up save, combined with Feel no pain means a lot of rolls before a wound gets put on a model. My friend rolled unbelievable amounts of 5 up feel no pain which pretty much negatived all of my AP2 plasma shots. With only 3 rail guns (3 separate squads), he would put the one wound I caused on Draigo who due to him being eternal warrior, still gets his feel no pain. The Tau are definitely more mobile now, finally playing more like their fluff and against slower opponents can run circles around them. They aren't Eldar but a heck of lot faster then they were in both 4th and 5th. Wound allocations on squads made up of characters is one of the only downsides I see with 6th so far. The fact that you cant maneuver your squads to avoid the tank as your opponent could call a look out sir from any character means you will be spending most of your game just trying to kill the unit off.

I will continue to use the Tau and will be adding more broadsides and ditching the hammerhead just to get more railguns on the field. Im tempted to try out stealthsuits as well as they have become the eldar pathfinders of the Tau army. With a little terrain and the new changes to Stealth field generators, these guys will be hard to dislodge, I just wish the range of the burst cannons was longer...

More 6th edition thoughts..

Well its been a couple of weeks now with the new edition of 40K, I am still in the process of digesting the rules, making changes to my army lists, and best of all just having fun playing it. Part of the fun of a new edition is creating new lists with your existing armies as the rules might have made something better or something worse. In the case of my Chaos Space Marines, I have to say I just love how some of these rules actually improved the army. This last weekend, I was finally able to play a larger point game, 2000 pts in a large team game. As this was my first large game of 6th, I decided to go with my Thousand Sons with some allied Chaos Daemons (Fateweaver and a squad of Pink Horrors with the changling). As I really love some of the new psychic powers, and lets face it, the Chaos powers are really not any good anymore I decided to go with Ahriman so that I could generate 3 powers with him. Upon multiple readings of both the rule book and the chaos marine faq and the codex, I discovered that my aspiring sorcerers are all mastery level 2 (mark of tzenntch allows you to cast 2 powers) however since I could only "buy" one power for them in the codex, I could only generate 1 power for them (which sucks). Not to bad as I could cast level 2 spells and if I roll a level 1 spell, could still use my force weapon in close combat. Not to mention that on average, I would be getting a 5+ deny the witch roll unless the enemy psycher is level 1 which would make it a 4+; about time my expensive aspiring sorcerers count for something. I had Ahriman roll on the Telepathy chart as I really loved the invisibility ability I got during my last game and rolled a 6 for Hallaucation.

This power is unbelievable, it effectively shuts down an enemy unit with in 24 inches (basically they cant move, run, shoot, assault or hit in CC)if you roll between a 2-4 and since its a malediction, it auto-hits. Even though you need to roll for this, I have to say, this does seem a little OP for me. I casted this several times to the annoyance of one of my opponents as it allowed Ahriman and his squad of thousand sons to punch through a huge squad of scrabs and munch on a big squad of immortals and the Stormlord. I love the power but I feel that GW might need to nerf it a little bit like maybe allowing you to shut down a single phase or maybe having to roll to hit it or limiting it to just the player turn and not the entire game turn. It is a level 2 power so you would need a level 2 character to cast it so it does limit it in a way but most armies can get level 2 psykers. If I was lucky and generated this power along all of my squads, I could see this starting fights in a competitve atmosphere like a tournament or with WAAC opponents. Then again, maybe its a blessing against WAAC players... lol. I also ran a Daemon prince in order to have 2 flying monstrous creatures and the new vector strikes ability. As a whole, I love the idea of running flying monstrous creatures that are hard to shoot at and can hit units with their strikes and still shoot any weapons. What I dont like is how the rule reads in regards to being hit and taking grounded tests.

The rule specifically says that Flying MC's take the test if they are "hit", so I can have say a las pistol ground my MC just by hitting it. This in fact happened to me and so my Daemon prince was then lit up by 2 squads of plasma and melta toting Vet squads in Chimeras and he promptly died before doing anything. We had a discussion on this and we might house rule to say that the shot needs to wound the MC before a grounded test needs to be taken. I really hope that GW Faqs this as huge blob squads or units with a high rate of fire can knock MC's out of the sky with a single 6 rolled. I know the entry also mentions a Jink move so maybe if you are hit you are to roll your jink save and then if you fail your roll your grounded test but the rule doesnt say that. Fateweaver is fine, if I fail the grounded test he just takes his 3 up invul save but what about MC's with no invul save or a 5+ one? That just kills Nids as they dont even have an invul save to start with. Also, whats the deal of making it a strength 9 with no armor saves allowed?

The next army I would like to try is my Tau as I feel 6th really gave them a boost compared to the other older armies out there. With the differences in rapid fire, assault moves for jetpack toting troopers, the Tau are finally a highly movable force capable of laying down tons of fire while redeploying if an enemy gets too close. I will just need to finish painting the army.

6th edition - initial thoughts

Well the world has certainly changed for 40k. With the release of 6th edition this last Saturday, the world of 40k has been effectively turned on its head. I was fortunate enough to get invited to a 40k shindig held by a good friend of mine at his place to tryout the new rules with a large group of our friends. We decided to go with small 1000 pts games to make it easier for us to get a handle on the new rules. I played 2 games using my Thousand Sons as I wanted to try out the new psychic powers and I got to say, for this army, it definitely breathed some fresh air into it. With the ability to have a sorcerer in each troop squad, i got to use several of the new powers. Some of these were pretty bland while others are really cool. I ran Ahriman as he being a level 3 psycher would allow me to select up to 3 different powers if i wanted too and allow me to cast more then once per turn. Let me give you some benefits that i see with 6th - Flyer rules in. Flyers just became a valid unit to take. I am just hoping that all armies get access to them and it seems that in the future that they will. - New psychic powers! These are just great, I just wish you could choose which one you want to use instead of having to roll for it. Even with the random roll, the fact that we got more options for powers is always good. Some powers like invisibility are just awesome!! Terrify is also great with its ability to strip fearless away and give even the chance to fail a morale check. - Snapfire!! The fact that your troops can fire heavy weapons on the move and most importantly fire at charging enemies is just a great mechanic. Overwatch really helps out those shooty armies to at least take out some of their attackers before they get smashed to the ground and the fact that vehicles could fire a snapshot even when stunned or if they move 12 inches is just pure win. - Changes to rapid fire. I cant even begin to express how good this is for shooty armies. Tau firewarriors just got scary with the ability to move and fire at full range or firing twice at half range. Tactical space marines can also provide cover fire on the move just to name a couple of examples. - Warlord and the special abilities they get!! These are just cool, not over powering but a nice ability all HQ that are selected as your army's warlord get. Again, I wish you could just pick the ability instead of having to roll for it but most of them are really good. Having Ahriman and his Thousand Son retinue outflanking by rolling the outflank ability is pure win and I got it twice!! I am hoping that as new codexes come out that more abilities are added.

There are several more benefits but again this is my initial thoughts only after playing a couple of games. With these initial likes we come to some initial dislikes. - Allies. Ok, this is both a benefit and a dislike. I didnt include it in benefits section as I wanted to discuss this first in a negative light. As a whole, allies are a welcome addition to 40K. Allies will open up a lot of options for players especially where fluff is concerned. But with the good, you are going to get the bad with WAAC players finding the cheesiest combinations ever. GW at least built some counter measures to this by coming up with their Allies matrix but mark my words, there will still be those players that will find ridiculous combos that are both broken and just not fun for their opponent. I'm keeping my mind open to this one and hopefully it will be more of a benefit then a dislike - Relentless. - Giving rapid fire weapons the ability to shoot their full range once while moving is great and all but what benefit do people with relentless get? All I could find is the ability to charge after firing which is what relentless was in 5th. I had wished that relentless would have given models the ability to fire twice at full range and still be able to charge in combat after firing thus making it different from what Rapid fire is. - Power Axes, Power Weapons. This is just dumb, power axes being initiative 1 and just plus 1 strength but AP2, Power weapons being AP3 just made 2 plus armor saves boss. I had Sanguinor tied up for 4 turns with my obliterator as he is now AP3 with his power weapon which was funny to me but my opponent was just pissed. What will this do to Xenos armies with no access to power fists, thunder hammers, etc? I know that each army got faqs to address this but what good is high initiative if basic terminators will beat your face in? I know that this was done to address Grey Knights and their initiative 6 shenanigans but it really screws a lot of armies. The good thing is it seems that nobody barring rending attacks have AP2 weapons that attack at initiative so everybody is on the slow train if they want to by pass 2plus armor. Its funny but Necrons have the fastest AP2 CC weapon in the game with their Warsytches.

- Close Combat wound allocations. As we know, casualties in the shooting phase are taken out based on who is closer to the actual unit shooting. It is a nice simple way to deal with wounds when shooting is concerned but what about Close combat. This rule is just dumb and with mixed armor might tend to just slow the game the down. Why not keep wound allocation in CC the same as Fourth thus dealing with the wound allocating shenanigans of 5th? This one will definitely need some getting used to. - No assaulting out of reserves. This is just so stupid as it really nerfs outflanking units by not allowing them to assault out of reserve. I read this rule over and over again trying to make sense of it but as it stands, no unit coming from reserve (on either board edge) can not assault as if they deep struck. Web way portal Dark Eldar, outflanking Genestealers, or my own Chaos chosen can not assault on the turn that they come in. I have an idea of why they did this, (Thunderlords outflanking with Shrike)but come on. This is just dumb. Will guys thats it for now until I get more games in. All in all I have high hopes for this edition. I mean hell, even some big 40K talking heads are saying that this could be the best edition of 40K. I guess only time will tell...

Week 3 40K escalation league, some more thoughts..

With the 3rd phase of the escalation league come and gone, my daemons are still going strong. At the 1000 points level, I wanted to add in another big threat to the army that is both scary and imposing. I decided to go with a Nurgle daemon prince with wings, noxious touch, cloud of flies, and iron hide. Expensive when it comes to Chaos Space Marine daemon princes for sure but with the ability to wound anything on a 2+ regardless of toughness and getting both defensive and offensive grenades, makes him quite a threat on the battlefield. So far my daemons are undefeated in the league with my latest opponent being a tyranid player. Great player who I wish I can get to play more games with, this game was just plain fun. He brought to the a field a tooled up hive tyrant with 2 guards, a big squad of genestealers with broodlord, 2 big squads of warriors, and a tooled up Trygon prime. We rolled capture and control and dawn of war with me going first. The game went on to Turn 5 with me winning the game 1-0 as I had killed all of his scoring units by turn 4. Props to the Tyranids though, I underestimated his genestealers who ended up taking out my horrors (of course) but also a squad of bloodcrushers. I had to multi-assault the genestealers with another bloodcrusher squad, my deamonettes, and my daemon prince to finally take them out. My deamon prince then went on a tear who with my fiends ended up taking out both warrior squads and his Hive tyrant who had a tyrant guard with him!! He just couldnt wound the daemon prince as I kept making my 5up invul saves. His Trygon finally got into combat with him and at the end of the game had put 2 wounds on him. I had the Trygon with 3 wounds left and probably would have killed him off if it had gone one more turn. More definitely happened in this game but as it happend several weeks ago, I forgot a lot of what happened, suffice to say my opponent and I had a great time which in the end, is all I am truly looking for though it nice when you win... lol. My daemons are still undefeated in this league but with the local FLGS closing (I am truely sad about this)it seems as if the league will end at this point. This brings me to my next thoughts or thought, (whatever) and the timing of this closure. I had wished that the store (GW store by the way) had stayed open to account for 6th edition as I had hoped they would do an all night gaming session to kick off 6th edition like it did with 5th. The closing of this store will also impact where we gather and play as the only other gamestore in town tends to close a little bit early. The good news is we and a bunch of the guys are busy building tables at our homes so we can keep the community alive and maybe host tourneys, etc. I would have loved to finish the escalation league and have a complete 2000 pt daemon army painted so now its on me to continue the momentum to get this done. With 6th edition on the horizon who knows where my attention will be. Pics are of my finished Daemon army at 1500 points, (2000 of course but not finished painted yet). Let me know what you guys think.

40K Escalation League Week 2 game

Sorry for not posting in a while, life has been very hectic lately. The 2nd phase started 3 weeks ago however I couldnt make it to the FLGS due to my wife being super sick with the Flu and other issues that came up. I took this opportunity to fine tune my list and to get some more painting done. I opted to change out my list in favor of dropping out 1 squad of horrors and adding in a squad of fiends of slaanesh to give more anti-tank ability as well as giving me another fast unit to chase down those speedy opponents. So my 750 pts list looks like the following -
Total Roster Cost: 749
 HQ: Herald of Tzeentch 1 Herald of Tzeentch, DGT: Master of Sorcery, Bolt of Tzeentch, Chariot of Tzeentch
Elite: Bloodcrushers of Khorne 3 Bloodcrushers of Khorne, Instrument of Chaos
Elite: Bloodcrushers of Khorne 3 Bloodcrushers of Khorne
Elite: Fiends of Slaanesh 4 Fiends of Slaanesh
Troops: Pink Horrors of Tzeentch 8 Pink Horrors of Tzeentch 1 The Changeling
Troops: Daemonettes of Slaanesh 9 Daemonettes of Slaanesh

I played my game against an Eldar shooty list that included both a fire prism, a small squad of Dark Reapers which I havent seen in a while, a striking scorpion squad, an Autruch, a squad of pathfinders, and 2 squads of dire avengers. I won first turn but opted to go second. My opponent setup his pathfinders away from his army in terrain (shocker) and moved his units up. His pathfinders were isolated, I dropped my horrors, my 2 blood crusher squads, and my herald around them and had the horrors open up on the pathfinders. My opponent thinking his 2+ save would save him didnt know what to say when I told him to make 18 saves. He lost 3 of the pathfinders making the squad pretty useless with just 2 guys remaining. My Herald took a shot at the fire prism and with luck on my hand, rolled 2 6's in a roll to destroy it!! I told my opponent that this was just a lucky shot as I had glanced it, he failed his cover save, and I rolled 2 sixs due to the halo fields. It didnt matter at this point as he was really discouraged and so the game was mine. His striking scorpions actually did some damage and took out one of my blood crusher squads and his squad of dark reapers were a bane to me as they kept putting wound upon wound on my units. We decided to call it on turn 5 as all he had left was his dark reapers and their was no way for him to come back as he was down 7 to 1 in kill points. The addition of the fiends really improved my list; having such a fast unit that hits as hard as they do really set my list apart. In the coming weeks, I might want to add the other squad of horrors to give me more shooting as my list has changed to a more close combat oriented list which might prove to be difficult to play once we get to the higher point values. Anti-tank is definitely a must for me as I mentioned in my earlier posts, I might go with minimum squads of horrors with bolt and another deamon prince with bolt to provide me with the anti-tank I will need.

Chaos Space Marine Rumors for 6th ed.

For those who cant seem to get on Tasty Tastes' website (Blood of Kittens)due to it crashing and all, I was able to get ahold of the Chaos Space Marine rumors that he posted. I listed these below -Troop Choices will be Chaos Space Marines and Cultists -All Cult Marines are Elites No new Special Characters -Special Characters will unlock Cult Marines as troops (Kharn for Berserkers and so on) -Typhus makes Cultists into Zombies -Chaos Dreadnaught is removed and replaced with a new unit (like how pariahs were replaced with Lychguard) -CSM now get a Flyer a Mechanical Chaos Dragon (model is done will be part of initial release) -Lesser and Greater Demons are gone -Spawn replaced by “Fell Beast” I feel like I am missing something… Oh yeah… Almost Forgot... Rules for Traitor Guard are in! Now for some of my thoughts, to be completely honest with you with out him posting any of the wargear or other options which he says he will do at a later time, this codex seems more like he put it as a clean up of the old book. I dont think they will replace the Chaos Dreadnaught, I mean that would be mean the end of Forgeworlds awesome Dreads and completely goes against the rumors for the starter box which claims that a chaos dread will be in the box. Flying Mechanical Dragon, ah no, that sounds pretty wierd, I guess if Grey Knights got the Dreadknight Chaos needs a mechanical beast for him to slay... lol. Deamons gone, this one I hope isnt true as I was hoping that Daemons out of the Daemon codex would be in the book so this rumor I hope is false. In terms of the cult troops being elite, this is definitely a throw back to the 3.5 codex where special characters or marked lords opened the cult marines into troops, this one definitely sounds plausible. Traitor guard rules are pure win in my book and one of the rumors I hope to be true. Tasty Taste, thanks again for the rumors!!

hate-mongers, Doom and Gloom, End of World as we know it

So today as I was doing my daily rounds of looking at rumors, at my blog rolls, listening to podcast, etc, and I come across a certain blog article that just for the lack of better term, irritated me. Here this self professed prophet of 40K talking about doom and gloom for 40K, that 6th edition will be the deathknell for the game and as proof, he points to 8th edition Fantasy as a presedent. Look buddy, 6th edition isn't even out, why not wait for it and I don't know, play some games and then make you decision if the game is going to hell or not. Instead this Talking Head points the finger at the people running the major tourneys like Adepticon, Nova, etc and tells them that instead of writing faqs to help with speeding up game play (helping with answering contenous rules, etc.)to rewrite an entire new game of 40K. He accuses them of being little Napoleons that the only rules they seem to be faqing are the ones they got screwed over by when they played. I guess the idea of writing a faq to help with running the tournament to fix loop holes that GW has yet to correct isnt enough for him. Game designers no matter how talented they are always going to have detractors who just hate what they do. 40K as it stands definitely has its issues, especially for competitive play but I always take the side of why I play the game, fun. I remember someone saying that 40K isn't made for competitive play and I have to agree, its not. Its a beer and pretzels game, always has been, always will. 40K prophet, its people like you that ruin the game for me, you dont like the game, play another one its as simple as that. Warmachine or FOW definitely have rule systems that are more geared toward competitive play. You want to improve 40K, why not get together with other like minded people and start something for competitive play? Why not write a codex for your favorite army and submit it to the Codex Project to have it play tested by the community? All in all, instead of complaining and bitching, why not do something constructive? Stop being such a buzzkill dude...

40K Escalation League - Week 2

As I have 2 weeks to decide on what I want to do for the 2nd phase of the league, I am still trying to decide on what changes I can make to my list. As of right now, I am thinking of taking the following -
HQ - Herald of Tzeentch
Chariot, Bolt, Master of Sorcery

Elite - (3) Bloodcrushers
Fury of Khorne

Elite - (3) Bloodcrushers
Fury of Khorne

Troops - (8) Horrors of Tzeentch
Changling

Troops - (8) Horrors of Tzeentch

Troops - (10) Daemonettes of Slaanesh

So basically I am adding another squad of bloodcrushers and another unit of horrors to my 500 point list to get it to 750. I might still need to tweak some of the points but bottom line this is what the list will look like. I plan on testing this list in the next couple of days or so to see how it handles the other lists in the league.

I think the biggest weakness I see is the lack of long range anti-tank; I only have one model with the ability to fire a long range anti-tank shot and in some of my early test games testing the 500 pts list, I fell victim to not being able to take out vehicles reliably.

As the point cost goes up, this is going to continue to be a huge problem especially once the AV 14's start popping out (Landraiders). For the next sequences of the league, I will probably switch out to minimum squads of Horrors with bolt and deamon princes for now, I might try out screamers once we get to the 1250 or 1500 point range. Now for some updated pics, I have finished the first blood crushers squad, my first horror squad, my herald, and 2 squads of daemonettes. I also finished building my 2nd bloodcrusher squad which includes my conversion of Skulltaker riding a juggernaut. Let me know what you guys think...

40k Escalation League

On top of all of the madness that I have to do in terms of painting, our local FLGS manager decides to hold a 40k Escalation league. The league will start at 500 points and we will be adding 250 points every 2 or 3 weeks until we get to 2000 points. The real great thing about these types of leagues is the fact that everything needs to be painted and so encourages players to paint their armies. I love this as it will help me with getting another of my armies fully painted that I have laying around as well as allowing me the opportunity to try new options. I was going to do my death company army but saw that 2 or 3 other players are going to do Blood Angels so I decided to pull out my half painted daemon army for this; also, nobody was doing Daemons which made this decision a lot easier for me as I wanted to do an army that nobody was doing. As the points level for this starts at 500, I really couldn't go with my go to guy, Kairos, however I wanted to stay with a tzeentch HQ. For the points, Daemonic heralds are a steal. Going with this idea, I am taking a Herald of Tzeentch on a chariot with Bolt and Master of Sorcery giving me a fire platform that can both move 12 inches and put out 4 shots a turn. As he is considered a jetbike as well, I can turbo boost him to contest objectives if I need to on the last turn and with 5 wounds, should be hard to kill. Accompanying my HQ will be 3 Bloodcrushers to provide my army with a hard as nails unit that can compete with the best assault units in the game. This unit not only serves as my hammer, but due to how scary they are perceived to be it gives you that psychological edge. Running out the 500 points I started with going with 2 units of 8 or 9 horrors and thus re ligating my list as a shooty one as horrors put out a lot of firepower.

After several test games however, the list was being outclassed by armies that had high mobility, great armor saves, or ones that could tie up or kill all of my blood crushers as my horrors hit like wet noodles in combat. To change it up I decided to go with one squad of horrors with the changling upgrade as the ability he has for 5 points can be game changing if it happens and a squad of 10 daemonettes. Having 2 squads that can dice up the enemy in a 500 point army list has paid in spades as the daemonettes helped me win all of my next test games that I played with them. Their high initiative, fleet, and offensive and defense grenades, and boat load of attacks makes them a real threat on the battle field. Of course, they are a glass hammer so if I roll badly or if they get caught out in the open, they fall over like blades of grass. My first weeks opponent was a Space Wolves player that had a wolf guard battle leader in terminator armor, a 10 man grey hunter pack in a drop pod, and a 10 or 12 man blood claws pack. We rolled up kill points with pitched battle and he decided not to bring on his HQ and blood claws pack as he was afraid of my deep striking units.

I believed this cost him the game as it allowed me to overwhelm his unsupported drop pod squad with my blood crushers, horrors, and Herald. He did manage to shoot my horrors on his initial drop reducing me to just 2 horrors however my bloodcrushers got a turn of not getting shot and butchered the squad after my herald shot them up. I won the game 2 to 0 and with it bonus points for having a fully painted army. I have 2 weeks now to add to my list to get it to 750 points so I am thinking of adding another squad of 3 Bloodcrushers and to re-add my other horrors squad to my list. I might go with a budget Deamon prince in order to get some more Anti-tank but we shall see. Pics are of my daemons about a week out before my first league game, I will post more updated pics in my next post. Time to get more painting done...

The Future of Chaos...

Over the course of the last couple of weeks, with moving into our new home, I have been thinking about the future of chaos and what that will bring. I have been paying a lot of attention to the rumors on BOLS, Warseer, etc. and to be honest, it all sounds good. A lot of the old character seems to be making its way back however I do hope that its not another Grey Knights book. The last thing I want to see is every one and their mother playing chaos, of course this is bound to happen as with every new army; I just dont want players to give me a dirty look when I pull out my chaos army. The biggest hope that I have is that the new chaos codex will bring back the flavor of chaos, to allow for multiple builds instead of just a few, and to bring back the options that the old codex had. My other hope is that GW concentrates on fleshing out the undivided chaos legions along with the god centric ones, like the Alpha Legion, Word Bearers, and my favorite the Nightlords. GW definitely has the resources for writing awesome fluff (tap Black Library authors here GW please!!!) and keep the rule writers to what they do best, writing rules. Black Library has given you years of awesome fluff, filled with characters and villians that could be brought to the table top. Let us chaos players have the options to kit out all kinds of lists, lists that while being fluffy can still kick some serious ass on the table top. So come on GW, bring on Honsu, Talos, etc, bring out shiny new models that we will kill to have, but above all make the codex something to be feared once again.

On another note, I plan on running the following chaos lists in the next weeks or so, basically playing my favorite army for the purposes of having fun. In the case of my Thousand Sons army, I am actually bringing summoned daemons to the mix including a summoned greater daemon. In my last 2 games, the summoned daemons actually helped me win my games by either tearing up guard in CC (ok guard suck in CC but hey) and providing me with a cheap scoring unit. The greater daemon has been a terror, tearing up vehicles and when I played a Nids player, tore through a 5 man warrior squad, killed a genestear squad of 9, and then tied up the hive tyrant with his guard for 2 full turns!! Below is my list -

Total Roster Cost: 1749

HQ: Kharn the Betrayer (1#, 165 pts)
1 Kharn the Betrayer, 165 pts
: Summoned Greater Daemon (1#, 100 pts)
1 Summoned Greater Daemon, 100 pts

Elite: Possessed (10#, 309 pts)
8 Possessed, 238 pts = 8 * 26 (base cost 26) + Icon of Khorne 30
1 Possessed Champion, 36 pts
1 Rhino, 35 pts

: Summoned Lesser Daemon (9#, 117 pts)
9 Summoned Lesser Daemon, 117 pts = 9 * 13

Troops: Thousand Sons (10#, 294 pts)
8 Thousand Sons, 189 pts = 8 * 23 (base cost 23) + Personal Icon 5
1 Aspiring Sorcerer, 70 pts = (base cost 60 + Doombolt 10)
1 Rhino, 35 pts

Troops: Thousand Sons (10#, 289 pts)
8 Thousand Sons, 184 pts = 8 * 23
1 Aspiring Sorcerer, 70 pts = (base cost 60 + Doombolt 10)
1 Rhino, 35 pts

Heavy Support: Obliterators (3#, 225 pts)
3 Obliterators, 225 pts = 3 * 75

Heavy Support: Vindicator (1#, 125 pts)
1 Vindicator, 125 pts

Heavy Support: Vindicator (1#, 125 pts)
1 Vindicator, 125 pts

The Nightlords list I am really excited to try out as I painted up a Nightlords Commander in Terminator armor and have yet to use him. Along with his Lightning claw buddies in a Landraider, these guys make one hell of a hammer. Like my wolf army, I see the benefit of having 2 heavy weapon squads in the backfield to provide supporting fire for my troops. In keeping with my space wolf team, I am running cheap havoc squads with a lascannon and 2 autocannons to give me weight of fire and a lascannon to reach out and take out heavy vehicles. In keeping with the Nightlord theme, I am also running 2 big chosen squads that I will infiltrate all over the board to provide the proper terror tactics to my opponents. This list is below -

Total Roster Cost: 1750

HQ: Chaos Terminator Lord (1#, 145 pts)
1 Chaos Terminator Lord, 145 pts = (base cost 120 + Mark of Khorne 10 + Combi-flamer 5 + Lightning Claw 10)

Elite: Chosen (10#, 240 pts)
9 Chosen, 187 pts = 9 * 18 (base cost 18) + Meltagun 10 + Flamer x1 5 + Meltagun x1 10
1 Aspiring Champion, 53 pts = (base cost 28) + Power Fist 25

Elite: Chosen (10#, 235 pts)
9 Chosen, 182 pts = 9 * 18 (base cost 18) + Meltagun 10 + Meltagun x1 10
1 Aspiring Champion, 53 pts = (base cost 28) + Power Fist 25

Elite: Chaos Terminators (5#, 430 pts)
1 Chaos Terminators, 15 pts + Icon of Slaanesh 15
1 Terminator, 40 pts = (base cost 30) + Power Fist x1 10
3 Terminator Champion, 150 pts = 3 * 40 (base cost 40) + Lightning Claws (pair) x3 30
1 Land Raider, 225 pts = (base cost 220 + Dozer Blade 5)

Troops: Chaos Space Marines (9#, 200 pts)
7 Chaos Space Marines, 120 pts = 7 * 15 (base cost 15) + Plasma gun x1 15
1 Aspiring Champion, 45 pts = (base cost 30 + Power Weapon 15)
1 Rhino, 35 pts

Troops: Chaos Space Marines (9#, 200 pts)
7 Chaos Space Marines, 120 pts = 7 * 15 (base cost 15) + Plasma gun x1 15
1 Aspiring Champion, 45 pts = (base cost 30 + Power Weapon 15)
1 Rhino, 35 pts

Heavy Support: Havocs (5#, 150 pts)
5 Havocs, 150 pts = 5 * 15 (base cost 15) + Autocannon x2 40 + Lascannon x1 35

Heavy Support: Havocs (5#, 150 pts)
5 Havocs, 150 pts = 5 * 15 (base cost 15) + Autocannon x2 40 + Lascannon x1 35

Let me know what you guys think..

40K Campaign - Death Co. test drive..

Sorry for not posting in the last month or so, but real life has gotten in the way, we recently moved to a new house which has taken all of my time. I haven't done anything 40K related be it painting or modeling. A couple of weeks past, the local FLGS manager began a 1750 point 40K campaign in which more then 5 teams will be competing. Each team has a total of 5 per team and any army can be used including Forge world units and army lists. Upon hearing of this I thought that the time had come for me to pull out my newest army, my Death Company Air Cav army. I am taking the following with some changes based on who I will be facing such as switching out one of my chaplains for a librarian for some anti-psychic ability -

1750 Pts - Blood Angels Roster - 1750 pts New Dual leader air strike force

HQ: Astorath the Grim
1 Astorath the Grim

Elite: Chaplain in Power Armour
1 Chaplain in Power Armour

Troops: Death Company (8#)
1 Death Company, 0 pts
1 Death Company,(Thunder Hammer)
6 Death Company
1 Death Company,(Power Weapon)

Troops: Death Company (8#)
1 Death Company, 0 pts
1 Death Company,(Thunder Hammer)
6 Death Company
1 Death Company,(Power Weapon)

Troops: Tactical Squad (10#)
9 Tactical Squad
1 Sergeant

Heavy Support: Stormraven Gunship (1#)
1 Stormraven Gunship

Heavy Support: Stormraven Gunship (1#)
1 Stormraven Gunship

Heavy Support: Stormraven Gunship (1#)
1 Stormraven Gunship

Troops: Death Company Dreadnought (1#)
1 Death Company Dreadnought

Troops: Death Company Dreadnought (1#)
1 Death Company Dreadnought

To say that this army is fun to play is an understatement, I know that if I I have a turn of bad luck, that I will probably lose the game, however with the speed of the storm ravens, I can redeploy quickly and strike any where on the game board. My first game of the campaign was against an imperial guard Death Korp of Kreig army with 6 Leman Russ tanks. To be honest, I thought it was all over even though I got first turn. We rolled table quarter deployment with Kill points. My opponent deployed castled up in the opposite corner with all 6 of his tanks split up into 2 3 tank squadrons. I deployed as close as possible to the center of the board with my tactical squad Storm Raven hanging a little back just to give my opponent another target. Lucky for me he didn't steal the initiative and so I rushed forward with 2 of the Storm Ravens; I still wasn't in range to get the 2 dice for damage as I was about 18 inches out however due to him having his tanks in squadrons even though I managed to roll the lucky 6 to glance with one of my multi-meltas, I rolled a 2 which he could just ignore. My other Storm Raven opened up on a squad of rough riders (These Death Korp riders are freaking sweet models)and I ended up killing all of them which put me in the lead with 1 kill point. His first turn should have been the death of me, he fired all of tanks at both of the storm ravens carrying the death company squads and dreads however due to some hot dice on my part, all he was able to do was stun one raven and shake on. I kept making my 4 ups covers like it was going out of style which just demoralized him. He tried to assault the closest storm raven with his commissar lord and his squad of veterans but due to moving flat out, he needed 6`s to hit and failed to do any damage. Suffice to say that by turn 2, my entire army was in his lines multi-assaulting every thing in my path. By the end of turn 2, i was up by 6 killpoints and my opponent decided to call it as I had managed to kill 4 of his tanks with only losing 4 death company in that turn and pretty much he didn't have any place to go. My next campaign game was against a wolfguard based army led by Grimnar. This game was a lot more challenging as my opponent had a lot of missile launchers and was able to knock out 2 of my storm ravens by turn 2 and had taken off all of the weapons on the 3rd one. His 3 dreads also highlighted a major weakness with my dreads, as they don't have their power fists, if they are assaulted by a rival dread, they will get owned which in fact happened to one of my dreads. This game came down to the wire with me winning the capture and control game by contesting his home objective with my last storm raven. So far the army is a blast to play and I hope to continue to use this army for many games to come, now I have to finish painting it. Lets hope my luck holds up for my future campaign games. Pics are from a GW article that talked about painting the Storm ravens.

Playing the game for fun...

Over the course of my 40k "career" the one thing i have tried to do is to keep the game fun. Edition after edition, codex after codex I try to play the game to make it fun for both me and my opponent. Throughout the years, I have kept using my chaos space marine armies and have had some of my funniest games with them even when I lost. In this age of competitive gamers, I tried to keep to my fluffy armies as best as I could however I did feel the need to create one competitive army, (my space wolves) and though they are fun to use with all of the dogs and the 3 beatstick wolf lords, its still not as fun as my Chaos armies. I guess I'm just a victim of being a fluffy player, building lists per the fluff or based on how the model looks. In one of my earlier posts, I mentioned the Chaos army that a White Dwarf editor had built and painted. It had some of the worst units known in the Chaos codex much less 40K, things like possessed and summoned daemons, to a defiler. I'm sure that this guy didn't have a winning record but he just loved how his army looked. I feel that I am the same way, and in a way I believe that I will continue to play the game this way. I just hope that GW will eventually come to the realization that the cooler a model looks, the cooler their rules need to be, that and here's hoping that Possessed space marines and Thousand Sons are actually competitive in their next interpretation.

coming attractions...

With the coming of the new year, opportunities present itself. My lovely wife graced me with 3 storm ravens and what I refer to as a cheater dreadnought for my budding Death Company army for Christmas. When GW first released the storm raven, I admit, i really hated the model, it just looked like a jet plane out of metal slug, you know chibbi style. After seeing the kit up close I actually grew to like it and was inspired to start a fun army based around 3 of them and all death company models. I actually bought a Astrath the Grim model when he first came out as I wanted to use him for a Nightlords conversion but decided against it. I am glad I did as it meant that i didn't have to pick up another one when I got the idea to start this army. Seeing that I also have a budding Draigowing Grey Knights army as well I have decided that I wanted to make the storm ravens dual purpose so I am planning to paint them in a dark grey scheme with magnetized emblems. The kits themselves were really straightforward to put together as GW for once put a decent how to manual in the box. In fact all of their new stuff that I have gotten have had decent manuals so kudos GW. The kit comes with all of the options that the storm raven can use such as all of the weapon options for the turret weapon as well as the nose weapon mount. Below is the list that I'm building, let me know what you guys think.

New 2000 pts Death Company Air Cav

Total Roster Cost: 2000

HQ: Astorath the Grim (1#, 220 pts)
1 Astorath the Grim, 220 pts

HQ: Reclusiarch in Power Armour (1#, 150 pts)
1 Reclusiarch in Power Armour, 150 pts = (base cost 130 + Melta Bombs 5 + Infernus Pistol 15)

Troops: Tactical Squad (10#, 170 pts)
9 Tactical Squad, 147 pts = 9 * 16 (base cost 16) + Sergeant 26
1 Sergeant, 23 pts

Troops: Death Company (10#, 260 pts)
1 Death Company, 0 pts
1 Death Company, 50 pts = (base cost 20 + Thunder Hammer 30)
7 Death Company, 140 pts = 7 * 20
2 Death Company, 70 pts = 2 * 35 (base cost 20 + Power Weapon 15)

Troops: Death Company (10#, 260 pts)
1 Death Company, 0 pts
1 Death Company, 50 pts = (base cost 20 + Thunder Hammer 30)
7 Death Company, 140 pts = 7 * 20
2 Death Company, 70 pts = 2 * 35 (base cost 20 + Power Weapon 15)

Troops: Death Company Dreadnought (1#, 125 pts)
1 Death Company Dreadnought, 125 pts

Troops: Death Company Dreadnought (1#, 125 pts)
1 Death Company Dreadnought, 125 pts

Heavy Support: Stormraven Gunship (1#, 230 pts)
1 Stormraven Gunship, 230 pts = (base cost 200) + Hurricane Bolters (each side) 30

Heavy Support: Stormraven Gunship (1#, 230 pts)
1 Stormraven Gunship, 230 pts = (base cost 200) + Hurricane Bolters (each side) 30

Heavy Support: Stormraven Gunship (1#, 230 pts)
1 Stormraven Gunship, 230 pts = (base cost 200) + Hurricane Bolters (each side) 30

I eventually want to go with Gabriel Seth as my other HQ just for the fact that nobody takes him and to add some more anti-vehicle other then the Storm Ravens and some infernus pistols. I dont know about you but an HQ who swings a strength 8 weapon at initiative with rending is nothing to sneeze at. That and the ability to auto-hit anything in base to base will make it so even vehicles will have a need to fear the death company even on foot.

Tournament Time..

Sorry for not posting in a while, lets just say that life got in the way along with holidays and work just being plain busy. Three weeks ago saw our local flgs hold its its first 40k tournament since the last manager had left. The tourney was being run by one of the local players who in all honesty did a great job and kept the tourney running smoothly. The tounament was 1250 points per army and used standard book missions. Simple, to the point and a heck of a lot of fun. I know that I have said this before, but I just love the smaller points games in 40K. I hate games that last more then then 2 hours or longer, which smaller point games remeady really well. In fact if I had my choice, I would rather get in 2-3 smaller games during a day instead of playing 1 large game lasting hours and hours. This tournament gave me the benefit of giving me the ability of playing 3 games and lasting only 1 and half to 2 hours. I took my Dark Wolves as I wanted to try to play an all drop pod army and instead of taking wolf lords like I normally do with this army, I decided to take just 1 "cheap" rune priest. By doing this, it allowed me to take over 40 models!! I love playing Marine armies but due to their nature as an elite army, I am usually out numbered. By putting so many models in the list at such a low point list meant that I might actually out number some of my opponents. My first opponent was against Necrons played by my buddy. This would be the 2nd time I would be facing him and just like our last game, the game was too close to call. I made 2 mistakes which in hindsight cost me the game, he definitely outplayed me by deploying all in 1 quarter,not giving me the opportunity to isolate his army with my drop pods. I dropped extremely aggressive wanting to jaws his big 20 man unit but ended up due to scattering back a bit only able to hit 4 models with JAWS. Contrary to popular belief, necrons if they fail their initiative roll still get their reanimation protocols roll as they get this no matter what. I hope they keep this ability as JAWS can really put the hurt on this army. Our game ended on turn 5 with me pulling a tie, he had gotten one of my grey hunter squads to leave their objective by assaulting with scrabs. He was holding one objective and contested my other one so it came down to this assault. I won the assault and rolled well enough to consolidate back onto my objective thus tying the game.

My second game was against a dark eldar player I have never played before. This guy was a blast to play and like my necron buddy just likes to have fun. This game we drew dawn of war and capture and control, he deployed Lelith and a squad of bloodbrides in their raider and thats it. I thought he made a mistake as my whole army would then target this unit but between my flub rolls and he making flicker field saves, it literally came down to my dreadknought blowing it up after 2 grey hunter squads failed to do anything. Of course he brought out the rest of his army and i had one squad of greyhunters and their drop pod annihilated off the table. His 3 ravagers did flub their rolls against my dread and were only able to destroy an arm and shake it. I concentrated on all of his skimmers with my rune priest being the MVP killing 3 transports with living lightning. In the end he was able only to contest his objective which i had captured with me holding my objective thus winning the game 1-0.

With a major win and a tie, I was placing pretty good but definitely not in contention for 1st as we had a player who had won his last 2 games. I was definitely placing in the top 5 which I was pretty happy with. My last game I faced a grey knights army, which other then the imperial guard army would be the army I feared the most. If it came down to objectives, i would definitely have an edge, if it came down to kill points and it would be game over for me. As I prepare myself for the game I hear the dreaded words, kill points. With my opponent only having 6 kill points and me rocking 13, 5 of which are easy kill points, all my opponent had to do was reserve everything, come out,kill some drop pods and hide. That is exactly what he did.

I dropped all of my pods on his table edge close enough to rapid fire any squads that came on but far enough to not be charged by him. He wisely deployed on the other side and his bad reserve rolls for the 2nd turn actually helped him win the game as all of my pods came in by turn 2. He just focused on shooting up 1 squad with his dreads, had his evasor Assassin kill one squad, and then shot up some pods. I knew it was over so I even charged a squad of terminators with my 3 thunderwolf calvary and they got murdered. In the end my opponent won 6 to 2. All in all I went 1/1/1, not bad for not doing a tournament in a while, I should have gone 2/1 but my mistakes in my first game really robbed me of a victory. Super fun and I cant wait for the next one!! I might even consider running one myself.