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.

Campaign Phase 2 week one updates

The first week of phase 2 brought along a lot of bloodshed amonst the 2 factions. In the first openning battle, the fallen captain took to the field of battle and crushed a Grey Knights detachment who were sent out along with a full Assassin team to silently take him out. A battle also broke out between a space marine company allied to the fallen captain with some Dark Eldar allies against a loyal space marine company and their Grey Knight allies who fought each other to a stalement with both sides bloodying each other in furious combat! The battle raged for hours until both sides decided to leave the field of battle to lick their wounds. Hope however arose for the Imperium as Skyrar's Dark Wolves tore into the Eldar allies of the Fallen Captain slaughtering all before them to the anger of the the Fallen Captain.

A total of 3 games were played for the first week of phase 2 culminating in the following tally for both Teams -

Forces of Disorder - 3 points
Forces of the Imperium - 3 points

As always, I will be posting the rules for the campaign with every post for convenience.

Phase II - War in Earnest
There is no turning back now as the Fallen space marine commander pulls all of his forces to engage the forces of the Imperium. Sin and Heresy, betrayal and treachery most foul are revealed as the forces of the Imperium fight back against this powerful enemy.

Games of Warhammer 40K of 2000pts a side are scored as follows -
Victory for the Imperial forces - 3 campaign points
Victory for the Forces of Disorder - 2 Campaign points
Any Draws and Ties - 1 Campaign point for the Forces of Disorder only

1500pt games of Boarding Action - Victories for any side - 2 Campain Points

Other Types of Games - 1 Campaign Point for any victories

Special Mission for the phase - Betrayal at Sounds Fall - 4 Campaign Points

This game is played using the Boarding Action Rules - After 2 years of battle a Parley between an Imperial Commander and the Fallen Captain on a ruined Space Station ends in Murder and Betrayal. Amid the fire and confusion of a void battle happening on the outside, Imperial Forces with revenge on their minds attempt to retrieve the body of their fallen Lord. The Forces of Disorder have other plans however, to make an example of any force that opposes them. The Imperial side has 1000 points of forces available to them using the usual restrictions of an attacking force in a Boarding assault game. They also get the services of a mighty Librarian with his honor guard for free (see me for the rules). The Forces of Disorder get 800 points of forces following the rules of the defender in a Boarding action mission.

Objective - The objective of this battle is simple, the recovery of the fallen imperial commander's body. This objective is mobile but may only be moved by imperial models. Any imperial model in base to base with the objective may move it with them as long as they move no more then 6 inches that turn (no running,, jump moves, etc.); they can also not assault while carrying it. They will defend themselves however if they are assaulted with their normal attacks. If the model carrying the objective is killed, the objective is simply left where it falls. In order to win, the Imperial forces must end the game in possession of the objective or if an imperial model "leaves" the table with the objective via their deployment zone. If this happens during the game, the game automatically ends with an imperial victory. On any other result, the forces of disorder win (they have the objective or nobody has the objective)

Setup - This game is played on a 4'by 4' table cut into 4 quarters with a 12 inch circle in the center of the table where the objective is placed; no models maybe placed within the 12 inch circle and at least 6 inches away from it. The Forces of Disorder pick any table quarter and deploys first following the boarding action rules for defender, the Imperial player then picks any table quarter they like and deploys there. First turn is always given to the Forces of Disorder however the Imperial forces may seize the initiative on a roll of 6. Game length is 6 turns with no roll needed after turn 5 or when the Imperial forces move the objective off of the table.

Game Special Rules - Death before Dishonor - Any Imperial unit with in 6 inches of the objective is fearless.
Night Fighting - Night Fighting is in affect through out the entire game
The Catastrophic Damage table is in affect the entire game, however rolls for this are done at the beginning of every player turn and not game turn!!!

Below is the Unit upgrade table for your reference
1. At the end of each game, each player will nominate a unit in their army based on the following - the winner will chose 2 units, losers 1 unit, and in the case of any ties, both players will nominate 1 unit. Each nominated unit will be able to chose from the following tables, roll a D6 and that unit will have that USR from that point on. If the unit or vehicle is lost, the unit will lose the ability. In addition, once a unit has received an ability from one of the tables, all its future rolls must be on the same table. This reflects the specialization that comes with experience.
The tables are –
Fieldcraft Veteran Ability –
1 – Infiltrate
2 - Move Through Cover or Skilled Rider
3 – Stealth
4 – Scouts
5 – Fleet
6 – Fearless
Melee Veteran Ability –
1 - Feel No Pain
2 - Furious Charge
3 - Counter-attack
4 - Hit & Run
5 - Preferred Enemy
6 - Eternal Warrior
Gunnery Veteran Ability -
1 - Night Vision/Acute Senses
2,3 – Relentless
4,5 - Tank Hunters
6 – Fearless
Vehicle Crew Veteran Ability -
1 - +1 BS
2,3 - Can re-roll dangerous terrain test
4,5 - Ignore Shaken results
6 - +1 AV all facings (Max 14)

Campaign Update Week #2 and #3

Time for another update to our campaign - after another 2 weeks of fierce fighting, the forces of the fallen space marine captain have once again held off the forces of the glorious Imperium. In a Void battle which culminated in a massive boarding action by a force of Grey Knights, the combined forces of the fallen captain's forces were able to repulse the attack and claim victory for their Lord. The captain's Eldar allies also took the brunt of a large Imperial Guard regiment and fought it to a Bloody stalemate!! Space Marine allies of the Fallen Lord also fought a Crimson Fist company to a stalemate with both armies losing a lot of battle brothers as each side fought to the death!! It appears that the Fallen Captain forces are ready and able to combat the armies of the Imperium and win. Hope for the Imperium however came with the combined forces of a Grey Knight Brotherhood led by Draigo himself, allied with Skyrar's Dark Wolves who took the fight to an allied coalition of Dark Eldar and Space Marine allies and finally got a hard fought win for the Imperium!!

With the first real blow dealt to the Fallen Captain in the first phase of the campaign, the first phase will come to an end next week (Oct. 8) with our Special Mission game. The tally for both teams are below -

Forces of Disorder - 7 points
Force of the Imperium - 2 points

Remember teams, you must choose a champion for your team who will fight for your team. Rules for the game are below along with the rules for the entire first phase.


Campaign Rules - Phase 1
In order to make it easier for all of the players of the campaign, I am going to list the rules for each phase on my blog in order for all of the players to have easy access to the rules.

1. At the end of each game, each player will nominate a unit in their army based on the following - the winner will chose 2 units, losers 1 unit, and in the case of any ties, both players will nominate 1 unit. Each nominated unit will be able to chose from the following tables, roll a D6 and that unit will have that USR from that point on. If the unit or vehicle is lost, the unit will lose the ability. In addition, once a unit has received an ability from one of the tables, all its future rolls must be on the same table. This reflects the specialization that comes with experience.
The tables are –
Fieldcraft Veteran Ability –
1 – Infiltrate
2 - Move Through Cover or Skilled Rider
3 – Stealth
4 – Scouts
5 – Fleet
6 – Fearless
Melee Veteran Ability –
1 - Feel No Pain
2 - Furious Charge
3 - Counter-attack
4 - Hit & Run
5 - Preferred Enemy
6 - Eternal Warrior
Gunnery Veteran Ability -
1 - Night Vision/Acute Senses
2,3 – Relentless
4,5 - Tank Hunters
6 – Fearless
Vehicle Crew Veteran Ability -
1 - +1 BS
2,3 - Can re-roll dangerous terrain test
4,5 - Ignore Shaken results
6 - +1 AV all facings (Max 14)

Campaign Phase 1 -
Storm Clouds gather
With the Imperium starting to build up its presence around the Fallen Space Marine companies Base planet, the captain reaches out to anybody for aid. He feels that he will just use them to keep the Imperium off of his back long enough to plead his case to the High Lords of Terra. Unfortunately for him, the fact that he going to xenos and heretics for aid just makes him look even more guilty -


Victory in a Boarding Action (1000 pts or more a side) is worth 3 Campaign Points
Victory in a Team battle (500 pts each player or more (no more then 1750 per player) is worth 2 Campaign Points
Other types of games (regular 40K games, etc.) is worth 1 Campaign Point.

Special Mission - The Massacre at Bellerophon's Fall - is worth 4 Campaign Points - Remember, this game can only be played once. Each team must select a Phase Champion to play this special mission.

The forces of Disorder have managed to isolate and encircle forces of the Imperium on the ruined industrial moon of Bellerophon's Fall. Here they hope to decapitate the enemy's force leadership in a single devastating blow before they can bring in reinforcements.
This game is a 2000pts games on each side, chosen as normal. The Imperial forces however need to take 3 HQ selections as these will play the part of objectives in the mission. For every one that is killed or leaves the battlefield (run off), the forces of disorder gain an objective point. For anyone that survives, the Imperial forces gain an objective point. Kill points are also used, the one with the most kill points count as having gained an extra objective. If they choose, the forces of disorder may trade in a heavy support slot to run an additional fast attack slot.

This mission uses a 6' by 4' playing area with a 12" border area around the edges. Terrain is setup as normal with the insides of building or ruins counting as both difficult and dangerous. The imperial forces deploy first, deploying their forces into the central area of the table. Unless they have ability to deep strike, no imperial units can be held in reserve. The forces of disorder deploy second anywhere along the the 12 inch border but not closer then 6" of an enemy model. They can keep as many units in reserve as they wish. Unless deep striking, their forces may enter from any table edge.
First turn is roll off, whoever wins gains first turn however if the forces of disorder have fewer units on the table then the Imperial forces, they gain +1 to their roll's result.

Special rules - Twilight Assault: Roll a D6 at the beginning of each game turn. On a result of 4+, the rest of the game is played using Night Fight.
Game Length is 6 turns only, however at the end of the 5th turn, players must roll to see if the game continues to turn 6.

If the Imperial forces win the phase, they will have +1 to all reserve rolls for the next phase. If the Fallen forces win, they can re-roll Deep Strike scatter dice in the next phase.

End of of another era....beginning of a new one... oh and Nightlords..

Well, this weekend marked the end of an era at our local FLGS. The manager of the store just let us know that he will be leaving the store for a better job. While I can't blame him for moving on, without a doubt this manager has been one of the better ones we have had at the local store since my buddy Juan. This manager ran campaigns, tournaments, and was just a cool guy to hang out with. I invited him to join us when he can as it would be real shame if we didnt see him again. With him leaving, our April campaign has been cancelled, we did do a single day tourney however as I only had time for one game and only your best scores were taken I dint have a chance. I did tie my game against a Grey Knights player who used some pretty wicked tricks such as giving his dreadknights the scouting ability with his Grand Master, using the ghost terminators with Mordrak, killing my uber wolf lords with his uber paladins, and using the vindicare assassin to take out my invulnerable saves off of my lords. Seems like a fun codex to play and I have been tempted to try my hands on building a Pre-Heresey Thousand Sons army but for now I am content on finishing my dark wolves and playing with finished armies.

I plan on using my Nightlords again but plan on re-doing some of the paint schemes that I had already done. The Nightlords were my first army and as my skill with the brush has improved, whenever I pull them out, I can see the differences between old models and my new ones. I finally am comfortable with painting lightning bolts on their armor and adding in terror markings so I plan on adding these to my army. I am also just like my dark wolves leaving them as specific type of army. What I mean by that, is that they will be my fast attack army (with my dark wolves being a drop pod hero-hammer army)so the theme will follow that with all aspects of the army being able to move quickly, be it by transport, bike, teleport, or jump pack.

I plan on "revealing" a Nightlords list which will utilize a hammer unit in a landraider made of lightning clawed terminators with an icon of Slaanesh. I will post the list up in my next post along with some tactics that I will use in order to run it. During our last campaign, these guys were just fun to use with my Bikes and my Biker lord. Pics are of my newly completed lightning claw termies; I plan on running them as champs so they all have a base of 4 attacks with 2 power fisted termies to act as back up against tougher opponents. I plan on finishing their "ride" this week... A.D.D., here we go again....

My Skyrar's Dark Wolves Campaign List

Hi guys, well for the campaign I am settling on the following list. The list still utilizes my deathstar HQ unit but to a lesser degree, no 2+ saves due to trying to keep the point cost down and getting 2 heavy support choices. In my last couple of games using them, I really liked what drop pods brought to my list, it gave my troops the capability to contest anywhere on the table which is something that was lacking when I ran the pure foot lists. I really do not want to use Rhinos or the dreaded Razorback as then I'm just running a Net list. My list is as follows -

1500 Pts -Initial 1500pts Campaign Skyrar's Dark Wolves

HQ: Wolf Lord in Power Armour (1#, 215 pts)
1 Wolf Lord in Power Armour, 215 pts (Unit Type: Cavalry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Belt of Russ; Wolf Tail Talisman; Thunderwolf Mount; Bolt Pistol; Frost Weapon x1; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack; Independent Character; Rending in CC only; Saga of Majesty)

HQ: Wolf Lord in Power Armour (1#, 205 pts)
1 Wolf Lord in Power Armour, 205 pts (Unit Type: Cavalry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Thunderwolf Mount; Storm Shield x1; Thunder Hammer x1; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack; Independent Character; Rending in CC only)

Fast Attack: Thunderwolf Cavalry (1#, 105 pts)
1 Thunderwolf Cavalry, 105 pts (Unit Type: Cavalry; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack; Rending in CC only; Wolfkin)
1 Thunderwolf Cavalry (Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Thunderwolf Mount; Storm Shield; Frost Weapon)

Fast Attack: Fenrisian Wolf Pack (10#, 80 pts)
10 Fenrisian Wolf Pack, 80 pts (Unit Type: Beasts; Vicious claws and fangs; Counter-attack)

Troops: Grey Hunters Pack (11#, 205 pts)
10 Grey Hunters Pack, 205 pts (Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol x10; Bolter x8; Close Combat Weapon x9; Meltagun; Power Weapon; Plasmagun; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack)
1 Drop Pod (Unit Type: Vehicle (Open-topped); Transport Capacity: 10 models; Storm Bolter; Drop Pod Assault; Immobile; Inertial Guidance System)

Troops: Grey Hunters Pack (11#, 205 pts)
10 Grey Hunters Pack, 205 pts (Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol x10; Bolter x8; Close Combat Weapon x9; Meltagun; Power Weapon; Plasmagun; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack)
1 Drop Pod (Unit Type: Vehicle (Open-topped); Transport Capacity: 10 models; Storm Bolter; Drop Pod Assault; Immobile; Inertial Guidance System)

Troops: Grey Hunters Pack (11#, 205 pts)
10 Grey Hunters Pack, 205 pts (Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol x10; Bolter x8; Close Combat Weapon x9; Meltagun; Power Weapon; Plasmagun; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack)
1 Drop Pod (Unit Type: Vehicle (Open-topped); Transport Capacity: 10 models; Storm Bolter; Drop Pod Assault; Immobile; Inertial Guidance System)

Heavy Support: Long Fangs Pack (5#, 125 pts)
4 Long Fangs Pack, 125 pts (Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Close Combat Weapon x4; Missile Launcher x3; Plasma Cannon x1; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack; Fire Control)
1 Squad Leader (Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack; Fire Control)

Heavy Support: Long Fangs Pack (5#, 155 pts)
4 Long Fangs Pack, 155 pts (Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Close Combat Weapon x4; Heavy Bolter x1; Lascannon x3; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack; Fire Control)
1 Squad Leader (Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack; Fire Control)

Total Roster Cost: 1500

I might change the make up of my Long Fangs maybe adding a 4th missile Launcher or dropping a Lascannon for another Plasma cannon but we shall see. Let me know what you guys think...