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Me and 40K

31/12/2013

Wise words from our Tournament Fair Play Winner:

My first intro into 40k was back in 4th edition when I went round a new friend’s house and he showed me his Eldar models. I was instantly hooked.

Once I started to get an idea of what is was all about I started collecting my first army.

Surprise, surprise it was an Eldar army. Biel tan to be precise (from the craftworld Eldar supplement) which at the time was a powerful force and I had much success with.

After facing a regular(ish) opponent who’s space wolves impressed me. My next army was to be a Space Wolves force, led by Ragnar Blackmane army packed with blood claws and rhinos.

After a few years both armies were at a good size when I managed to bag a serious girlfriend and thought it was time to “grow up” and say goodbye to my collection and sold them. Partly because I was a big closet gamer and thought she wouldn’t want to be with a big geek. Needless to say the gaming bug didn’t take too long to return, so I plucked up the courage to tell her all about it and she wasn’t bothered in the slightest. It was back on!

First and foremost I always go for which models appeal to me the most, followed by a good theme I can build around.

The choice was quite easy. It had to be Tyranids. I'd fell in love with the warrior models and watched Starship Troopers one too many times.

My most recent army being Dark Eldar followed a similar pattern. Obviously beautiful models followed by a gladiatorial theme. Meaning a Wych heavy force was on the cards.

I love war-gaming but have never really approached it from a competitive angle. I play to have fun with the army lists I’ve created and try to get the best out of it through practice and trying to come up with my own tactics. Victory is always a bonus but, a fun, close fought battle is better win or lose.

I consider myself a very fair gamer that has to ‘have it right’. Meaning Ii like a clean game with no rules bending (like the classic, measure from front of base move full movement to back of base) or confusion between players.

As mentioned earlier I’ve been a closet gamer for most of my time. It wasn’t until around a year and a bit ago I realised it didn’t matter what I did or what or anyone thought of it. If they were my friends then it wouldn’t be a problem and if there was a problem they could (#*!) off! It was a case of history repeating itself and the people I told had no issue with it. Some then were actually inquisitive about it, having no knowledge of the hobby.

This has allowed me to expand my gaming circle. First finding Table Top Tyrants where I met many of the All Scars Players, who in turn educated me about Leicester Phat Katz. Finally there was a new club arriving on the scene and I was all over joining it. I have never had so many games of 40k than I have in the past year and have started delving into other games systems that I didn’t know existed until recently.

Having made new friends, created new gaming rivalries and with many more yet to face it’s the best hobby time of my life.

See you on the battlefield. Ozzy B

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One rule to rule them all!

28/12/2013

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Anyone with an internet connection and a pair of functioning eyes is aware of the rapid changes 40K is going through at this point in time: Formations? Super Heavies? Forge World? Fortifications? Digital Rules with unannounced updates? Supplements? Codices? FAQs?

"Holy Confusion, Batman! Writing Rule Packs has never been so hard!"

We are truly in uncharted waters.

I have been in spirited, and very interesting discussions with other club leaders about what to make of all of this interesting, exciting, crazy new information we are getting bombarded with and GW's (apparent) complete disregard for balance (or even spell checking...or you know, making sure the Inquisition release even had the right title!).

So what to make of it all? I, obviously, enjoy organising 40K. It is what I enjoy most about the game, honestly! The social aspect of going to events and gaming with, and playing with other hobby enthusiasts is just the best.

Previously we have been able to adjust to rules changing lists mid tournament but now things are coming so rapid fire, and in so many different formats and media types, and with updates on the down low that keeping up with it all has become incredibly difficult. And, everything is being billed as good to go for any game of 40K (although what we choose to use is always entirely up to us).

So what to do? I love organized play, as do many, many thousands of gamers. However, presenting a cogent, tested format for tournaments, casual play, etc. in the face of this barrage of new material is an interesting quandary.

As the game becomes increasingly more complex with rules interacting with one another in nearly infinite ways, the potential for game breaking combos increases exponentially.

But what is game breaking? Even that is hard to define as two of the most commonly derided lists I hear about are the Seerstar and Screamster (both of which revolve around the notorious 2+ reroll save). Most gamers I would bet would say these are cheesy, or broken. However you talk to top level others and they will tell you they aren't that hard to deal with, some may even say they think they are bad!

Are they both right? Both wrong? It all depends on perspective. For the player with the knowledge of how to deal with something, that thing may be no big deal. For the player that doesn't, it kills the fun of the game.

Where does that leave us? Well, as I see it, we have a few options if we want to continue to have fun gaming together as friends, rivals and fellow enthusiasts.

Let it ride and see where GW takes us! The game has had broken, crazy stuff before and we have all survived. Perhaps this is just another storm to weather? Perhaps it will, at some point, all make sense.
Look at running two types of events at each event in respect to tournaments. A "Gladiator" style event with a higher points limit, no restrictions on any official material, less games and a no-holds barred style format along with a more traditional tournament format with restrictions on supplements to create a more predictable, stable tournament environment with less points, more rounds.
Introducing a "Ban List" style concept such as we see in games like Magic. This could take many forms and is essentially a form of targeted comp with the intent to prevent the most abusive units (at least as perceived by those determining the ban list) to hopefully prevent "unfun" combos. This would be a constantly evolving list, adjusted with each new release. As much as I dislike comp due to it's subjectivity, a very focused list of no go units/items/etc. is something to consider.
Attempt to "fix" universally abused rules. Some proposals have been to eliminate allies, limit allies, restrict the type or number of allies. Another suggestion was to target specific rules that impact all armies, such as the proposed change of making any 2+ save with a reroll downgrade to a 3+ save of the same type with a reroll. The intent being to prevent any army from having a potentially "invincible" unit to, again, make the game more fun for more people.
Try to use missions, terrain, and deployment to encourage army diversity and to potentially penalize "abusive" lists.

What do you guys think?

Each idea has its merits and its flaws. Ultimately, those of us that labor at creating these events want them to be fun. We want them to grow and be something to look forward to every year! We want to evoke that excitement and fun that makes us all love the hobby of miniatures wargaming and our reactions to changes and proposals such as those above are geared in that direction.

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The Aegis Defence Line

26/12/2013

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Right today I am going to talk about deployment. This is perhaps the single most difficult part of 40k to talk about yet along with movement, the most important to get right as they are the areas you have the most control over and thus how you can dictate games without relying on dice. Looking at the top of the Leicester All Scar Player Statistics has made me realise that the more you remove dice from the game, the more you will win consistently.

"The more you remove dice from the game, the more you will win consistently."

Deployment bulls down to this: where do you want your army to be end of Turn 1? Turn 2? Turn 3? Don't try and think beyond that until you are able to do those three turns (particularly 1 and 2). Following that, flip it to your opponent's side - where does your opponent want to be end of Turn 1? Turn 2? and Turn 3?

The Aegis Defence Lines I've seen at Leicester All Scars are normally deployed where their models start rather than finish the battle. Deploying an Aegis outside your deployment zone is statistically better than standing behind it for a whole game as you can consolidate behind it to claim an objective.

Are these Mordian Iron Guardsmen more effective at 24" or 12"?

I know some of you reading this will think I'm mad deploying terrain you have paid for outside you deployment zone but give me a chance to explain:

The Aegis needs from my observations to be roughly 6-12" further up; even if the initiative is stolen, you're still getting the benefits of the Aegis 90% of the time and when it's not stolen, your army is in a better position game long and importantly you are giving your troops an opportunity to benefit from using their weapons at a shorter range. For example, Guardsman either need to expose themselves outside of 4+ cover save from the start of the game to have a more effective threat range in order to rapid fire or are a static 24" threat.

Therefore put the aegis where you want to be Turn 1 and more often than not, push it a little bit further up so you're not limiting your movement Turn 2.

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Tyranids vs Dark Angels; 3000 points; Mission: Crusader

24/12/2013

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"If Mik had rolled for the game to end, the result would have been 2-2."

My opponent for the first stage of the Crusaders of Light and Darkness Campaign was Austin's Tyranids. I had played him once before and walked away with a narrow 6-5 victory so I knew I had my work cut out for me if I where going to beat him again! Before I devised my list I had the opportunity to watch Edd's Tyranids maw Joe's Guardians of the Covenant, a successor chapter of the Dark Angels. Watching the battle unfold taught me that the way to win would be strength in numbers. This time we were playing 3000 points, however rather than building a list from scratch I looked at my annotated 2500 point list from my last battle with Austin. I find if I make notes after a battle it gives me an opportunity to evolve my list and tactics. Therefore using my notes and what I had learned from Edd's game I dropped the vindicator and dreadnought for an additional Tactical Squad, Devastator Squad and a Contemptor Dreadnought. I also upgraded my two Whirlwinds as Relic Whirlwind Scorpius tanks to increase their rate and strength of fire. Click here to view our lists.

When fighting against Tyranids, I knew I only had a two turn window to cause as much devastation as possible before the swarm was in range to charge. With that in mind, I decided to focus my fire on the monstrous creatures first and work my way down in size.

Regardless of who achieved first turn, I had decided that my entire army would start in my deployment zone. This meant forfeiting the Deathwing Assault which I hoped would surprise Austin and give him on more target to think about.

Once scenery and the 5 objectives had been placed (1 in each of our deployment zones, 3 in no mans land), I managed to win first turn and deployed my forces across the table:

Although a gun line would have been logical, I decided to move towards the Tyranids and hold the objectives which is an effective tactic when playing Dark Angels due to their stubborn nature. Concentrating my fire proved very effective as I refused to move onto other targets until each monstrous creature was killed. This was risky as it took 3 plasma cannons, a squadron of Land Speeder Typhoons and a Predator to achieve First Blood by killing the Tyrannofex. The Contemptor fired at the monstrosity but failed to wound rolling a double 1 which we both laughed at! Jon, who had come to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, looked on bemused as he couldn't work out who had suffered snake eyes!

Luckily this wasn't an omen of things to come as l continued with the murder spree killing the Hive Guard and reduced the Swarm Lord to 2 wounds. The potency of the Relic Whirlwind Scorpius even scared me! It was an error on my part to take two particularly when combined with two Devastator Squads.

Despite Austin's casualties, the hungry swarm started their march across no mans land. Being an experienced Hive Lord, Austin had spotted from my deployment that I had stationed a lonely Tactical Squad on the left flank which is where he attempted to break though my lines. With two Land Speeders destroyed from my Tornado Squadron by the Warriors damaging them in the Shooting Phrase and Raveners finishing them off in close combat my left flank was crumbling. Combined with Tactical Squad Vardus enfeebled and a fifth of its strength killed, Austin turned his attention to my Devastator Squad in revenge but luckily only Sergeant Cortus and a marine armed with a Lascannon were killed.

Rather than deal with the tide in the Second Turn, I continued to only target the monstrous creatures killing the Swarm Lord to achieve Slay the Warlord and the two Carnifexes who were too close for comfort. I then tried to stem the tide of Raveners and Warriors whose synaptic understanding was causing much devastation reducing my Devastator Squad to one marine and killing two fifths of Sergeant Kohl's Tactical Squad who had been ordered move from the center to bolster the lines. Two thirds of the Raveners where killed by rockets from the Relic Scorpius and the remaining third felt the wrath of Sergeant Kohl's Tactical Marines rapid firing.

With no monstrous creatures left, Austin called down his reserves but he was reluctant to fly his Hive Tyrant in range of the Contemptor who had forfeited his movement phase ready for her to arrive. The Zoanthropes, who were carried by a Mycetic Spore, used their combined psychic energy to further weaken Tactical Squad Kohl! Despite my hopes that the flanking Brood Lord and Genestealers would arrive on the right, the enfeebled Marines had another problem to cope when they arrived where Austin wanted them on the left.

By Turn 3, I had secured 2 objectives making the score 8-4 to me as Austin had stationed a squad of Warriors on the objective in his deployment zone and at that point had achieved Line Breaker. Moving the enfeebled marines away from the Genestealers, they needed 6's to hit and as a result only caused one wound. Luckily for them the remaining Land Speeder from the Tornado Squadron and supporting Predator reduced the Genestealer Brood to zero. The Tornadoes continued to cause havoc killing the Hive Guard while the entrenched warriors holding the objective finally succumb to sustained fire. Even though the Zoanthropes were fired on by the Deathwing and Tactical Squad Kohl, they only caused one wound. Hurt pride resulted in the Deathwing charging and finishing the job off in combat.

Having exterminated the swarm from the centre of the board to the right, the marines holding the objective were about to have a visitor, buried between two objectives the Trygon Prime suddenly emerged from the ground! Reducing my lead to 1 as the monstrous creature was contesting the objective held by Tactical Squad Epherial . Austin then charged the Brood Lord and one squad of Hermagaunts positioned on the left charged the beleaguered marines. Making short work of the marines they were ready to pounce on the Sergeants Kohl's tactical marines. The other squad of Hermagaunts charged the Deathwing who were now enfeebled!

Despite being peppered with Predator fire throughout the game, the Hermagaunts used cover skillfully on the far right of the board and by Turn 4 were ready to contest or occupy the objective held by Tactical Squad Epherial. To prevent this Tactical Squad Remial sent them to ground in the ruined city. As for the writhing Trygon Prime I had no choice but to bring the beast down. Librarian Zaharial, who had blessed the Devastators throughout the game, did so again allowing them to re-roll failed rolls to hit and wound, causing four wounds in total. This meant Tactical Squad Epherial would have to finish the job with bolter and plasma fire. Unfortunately the bolter fire was ineffective and both plasma weapons overheated killing one marine. It was left to Contemptor Dreadnought Titus to finish the job, killing the beast at last! The Hermagaunts were cut down by the remaining Tactical Marines and the Brood Lord was finished off by Land Raider Tornado.

By Turn 5, the Hive Tyrant had landed and while she had been wounded, she managed to kill Librarian Zaharial and was contesting the objective held by the Tactical Squad below. The Hermagaunts, who had gone to ground, had survived to contest the objective.

If Mik had rolled for the game to end, the result would have been 2-2, but luckily for me the game continued and while I managed to regain my victory points claiming two objectives and Line Breaker the Hive Tyrant survived to devour the Tactical and Devastators in defiance. In the end the result was 9-2.

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Crusader of Light and Darkness Stage 1: Planetfall

22/12/2013

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Here is Mik's Battle Report which turned out to be the most significant game of the day:

This weekend saw the first round of the All Scars narrative campaign, the Crusaders of Light and Dark, down at our FLGS Tabletop Tyrants. The battle lines had been drawn and I was to lead my Black Legion chaos space marines against the armoured might of Lee’s Imperial Guard (with Grey Knight allies). We had agreed on 3000 pts and after looking at some Forge World rules I asked if he would be willing to let me try the rules for the Dreadclaw Drop Pods. Being the gentleman he is, he agreed and so I set about putting my army list together. I toyed with a few options, even considered having Abaddon himself lead the assault but decided in the end on the following list.
2998 pts Chaos Space Marines 6th Ed (Black Legion) Roster (Primary Detachment)

HQ (350pts)
Chaos Lord Morrow (220pts) Champion of Chaos, Fearless, Independent Character
Aura of dark glory (15pts), Bike (20pts), Mark of Nurgle (15pts), Skull of Kerngar (40pts), The Hand of Darkness (50pts), Veterans of the Long War (5pts), Power Armour (10pts), Bolt Pistol, Combi-melta (10pts)
Warpsmith Otto (130pts)
Champion of Chaos, Independent Character, Master of Mechanisms, Shatter Defences
Aura of dark glory (15pts), Bolt Pistol, Power Axe, Veterans of the Long War (5pts),

Elites (321pts)
Chaos Terminators Men of Mayhem (321pts) Deep Strike, Veteran of the Long War (24pts)
1 x Heavy Flamer (10pts), 6 x Combi-melta (5pts)
Terminator Champion Opie (40pts) Combi-melta

Troops (1514pts)
Chaos Space Marines (313pts)
Autocannon (10pts), 19x Chaos Space Marine (247pts), Meltagun (10pts), Veteran of the long war (20pts)
Aspiring Champion Tiggs (26pts) Champion of Chaos, Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon, Combi-bolter (3pts)
Chaos Space Marines (313pts)
Autocannon (10pts), 19x Chaos Space Marine (247pts), Meltagun (10pts), Veteran of the long war (20pts)
Aspiring Champion Happi (26pts) Champion of Chaos, Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon, Combi-bolter (3pts)
Chaos Space Marines (313pts)
Autocannon (10pts), 19x Chaos Space Marine (247pts), Meltagun (10pts), Veteran of the long war (20pts)
Aspiring Champion Chibbs (26pts) Champion of Chaos, Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon, Combi-bolter (3pts)
Chosen (Troops) (245pts)
5x Chosen (90pts), DreadClaw Assault Drop Pod (65pts) (Deploying the Dreadclaw, Difficult Ground, DreadClaw
Assault), Meltagun (10pts), 4x Replace boltgun w/ Meltagun (40pts), Veterans of the Long War (12pts)
Chosen Champion Ortiz (28pts) Champion of Chaos, Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon, Combi-melta (10pts)
Chosen (Troops) (245pts)
5x Chosen (90pts), DreadClaw Assault Drop Pod (65pts) (Deploying the Dreadclaw, Difficult Ground, DreadClaw
Assault), Meltagun (10pts), 4x Replace boltgun w/ Meltagun (40pts), Veterans of the Long War (12pts)
Chosen Champion Rhatt (28pts) Champion of Chaos, Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon, Combi-melta (10pts)

Fast Attack (305pts)
Chaos Bikers (305pts)
9x Chaos Biker (180pts), Mark of Nurgle (60pts), 2x Meltagun (20pts), Veteran of the Long War (10pts)
Chaos Biker Champion Jax (35pts) Champion of Chaos, Bolt Pistol, CCW, Melta Bombs (5pts)

Heavy Support (508pts)
Chaos Land Raider Spartan (330pts) Armoured Ceramite (20pts), Combi-bolter (5pts), Dirge caster (5pts), Extra Armour (10pts), Warpflame gargoyles (5pts)
Havocs (178pts)
3x Flak Missiles (30pts), 4x Havoc (52pts), Lascannon (20pts), 3x Missile Launcher (45pts), Veteran of the long war
(5pts)
Aspiring Champion Boh-B (26pts) Bolt Pistol, Combi-bolter (3pts)

Aegis Defence Line (85pts) Icarus Lascannon

With others also taking up the battle, Lee and I rolled to determine deployment and got Vanguard Strike, we shuffled the scenery a little and then rolled off for who would go first and I won the choice. With Warpsmith Otto joining Rhatt’s squad of Chosen in their drop pod, and Chibb’s squad of marines loaded in the Spartan, I deployed the remaining 2 squads of marines within reach of cover and the Havocs in the Aegis Defence Line allowing Boh-B to man the Icarus Cannon. Lord Morrow took up position on my left flank with his favoured unit of bikers and the loaded Spartan took the right flank. Facing me were Lee’s forces of Catachan guardsmen, with a trio of Leman Russ, a Manticore, a Chimera (loaded with a demolition team), a Sentinel, a Vindicare assassin, a squad of Grey Knights and the behemoth of a Nemesis Dreadknight. Lee’s warlord trait meant that his Dreadknight could count as a controlling unit for the game, while mine gained the ability to re-roll any Chaos Boons I might gain. We rolled the dice to determine Night Fighting and found that we were indeed using the cover of darkness – maybe my black armour would be harder for Lee’s troops to spot in the night?

We took turns placing the objectives, drafting Jon to place the final one impartially as he had popped in to say happy Xmas to us all. Lee rolled to seize the initiative but failed, so with a friendly handshake we began.

Everything other than my Havocs advanced, with squad Happi uncovering an objective (revealed to be Nothing of Note), and Ortiz’s Chosen landing by drop-pod (albeit a little off-course). The Chosen were eager to begin the slaughter and they unleashed their meltas at the nearby Sentinel – reducing it to a pile of molten slag. First Blood to the Legion!

The crew of the Spartan had spied the Chimera in the shadow of a ruin and fired one of its quad-lascannons at the imperial transport. The Chimeras camo-netting protected it from one shot but the other struck true, rocking the tank on its tracks and leaving the occupants shaken.

Lee’s first turn had his troops seeking revenge and wiping out squad Ortiz and damaging their Dreadclaw. The Leman Russ tanks rumbled forwards and killed a small handful of marines and his Grey Knight allies begin to advance. (It was only after ending his turn that he remembered that he hadn’t used his assassin).

My 2nd turn began with reserve rolls, the 2nd dreadclaw was ready to descend but the Men of Mayhem terminators were still in the bar. With a bang on target scatter roll (much to Lee’s chagrin) Warpsmith Otto and his back-up piled out behind enemy lines followed Ortiz’s example, firing their melta’s at the nearest imperial battle tank and destroying it.

The damaged dreadclaw took to the air and came down close to the Spartan, opening the way for Lord Morrow and his escort to rip their throttles and surge towards the dreadnight. The roar of the engines was soon replaced with that of weapons fire as the unit let loose with bolters and melta, damaging but by no means destroying the behemoth. The Spartan tried to maneuver around the dreadclaw and managed to beach itself on a kerb (note to self, when rolling difficult terrain test DO NOT SAY “ANYTHING BUT A 1!”), but was still in a position to blast a quad-lascannon at the Chimera again (and, again shaking the vehicle and occupants).

Lord Morrow and the bikers assaulted the dreadknight even though its might blade was practically as long as one of their rides and both sides scored telling blows. Lee’s response was to blow up the retreating Dreadclaw though it thankfully was an off target shot at the Spartan. His guardsman took a dislike to my warpsmith and fired mercilessly at him and his unit. Thankfully his mechatendrils were able to pull “volunteers” from the Chosen to use as human shields, leaving him alone behind the enemy lines. Also the first wave of his air support had arrived.

The Grey Knights swarmed into the combat between the dreadknight and the bikers, leaving only Lord Morrow mounted but bloodied.

My turn three and I rolled to see if the Men of Mayhem were finished drinking, they were but due to a mishap with the teleport targeting system (it tried to land them on a Leman Russ) so while the tech’s on board checked the wiring, the terminator clad warriors had one more for the road.

With their ride immobilised squad Chibb’s disembarked and made for the fortifications ahead of them, taking a snap shot at the Valkyrie as they did so. The now empty Spartan fired once again at the Chimera, this time causing it to enough damage to be unusable and causing its occupants to disembark.

This gave Otto a choice of targets, either to continue forward and tackle another of the imperial tanks alone or to turn and terrorise the demolitionists. Mechatendrils whirring he spun around and fired the built-in flamer and melta, relishing the smell of burning flesh as guardsmen fell charred. Before the corpses had begun to cool he charged into the remaining troops issuing a challenge to their commander, who accepted as he stepped forth to face Otto. The commander was only a human though and the enhanced traitor marine tore him asunder with his power axe.

Meanwhile Lord Morrow continued battling the leader of the Grey Knights, with the imperial warriors blessed armour saving him from the devilish wounds of the Hand of Darkness. Unfortunately Lord Morrow’s own defences weren’t so lucky as the nemesis force hammer tore through his Aura of Dark Glory and knocked him bodily from his beloved bike. Lee had scored Slay the Warlord.

Lee’s third turn saw his Avenger arrive screaming across the skies above the battle between the warpsmith and remaining demolitionists. His remaining Leman’s repositioned to get better shot s at my forces, finally taking out my Spartan (along with a couple of the marines that were stood too close) and his aircraft and manticore used their devastating arsenals to good effect, reducing all three of my marine squads in size. It was around this time that we started to hear results from some of the other battles, and it appeared that things were very close all over (apart from Patrick and Dave’s battle which saw Patrick’s Black Legion score an overwhelming 11-0 victory) and it was fast becoming clear that the outcome of our battle could be the deciding factor. As it stood we both controlled 1 objective each and had both scored a secondary with First Blood and Slay the Warlord respectively.

Turn four began with my terminators finally putting an appearance in and tearing guardsmen apart with bolter fire while Chibb’s led his men deeper into the fortifications to secure a 2nd objective. The squad members with the melta and autocannon took opportunistic shots at the Avenger as it passed overhead, the melta managing to knock the craft out of the sky – right on top of Chibb’s unit! Luckily no one was harmed. Lee’s forces were able to take down warpsmith Otto, eventually freeing up the remainder of the units there and the Grey Knight forces advanced across the battlefield. Concentrated fire was able to decimate my late arriving terminators before they could make any more mischief amongst his ranks.

As we prepared to begin turn 5 we heard the last of the other results, it was a 3-2 win for the forces of light so far – the hopes of the dark forces rested solely upon the our outcome now, which considering my track record was a worrying prospect. Not only that but time was beginning to run out for us too so the pressure was truly on.

Squad Tigg’s let loose with everything they had left at the Grey Knights but once again the blessings on their terminator armour saved all of them, but one! The Havocs tried to take down the remaining air support but the Valkyrie proved resilient. Squad Chibb’s turned their fire upon the approaching dreadknight, well aware that the massive machine could take their objective away from them, and the cheers went up when lucky bolter shells finally felled the monstrosity.

Lee’s forces consolidated their hold on their objective as the Grey Knights advanced on squad Chibbs, storm bolters blazing and cutting my marines down. The lemans and manticore continued to barrage my other units, severely reducing their numbers too. By now only my Havocs were unharmed. Then the Grey Knights charged into the remaining members of squad Chibb’s, with their numbers lacking they fell before the nemesis weapons of the loyalist terminators and lost the objective to them.

As the dust settled (and time was rapidly running out) we called it rather than roll to see if the game would continue. The final tally was 1 objective and First Blood for me – 4 vps, 2 objectives and Slay the Warlord for Lee – 7 vps. Making the overall campaign result a 4-2 win for the forces of light. (I realised after the tallying the other results that had I kept that 2nd objective the result would have been 7-4 to me, thus making it 3-3 overall, and then coming down to total vp’s scored which would have been 33-30 in favour of the dark forces, aaargh! So close).

Both Lee and myself agreed that it had been a great game with it being very close throughout, yes my streak continues but not through want of trying.

In hindsight I should have put the warpsmith in the Spartan with squad Chibbs rather than the 2nd dreadclaw, which although allowing 2 more units to deep strike proved not to be that much use after that as although they come at almost twice the cost of an imperial drop pod they have none of the others weaponry. Had the ‘smith been in the Spartan he could have attempted to fix it after immobilising itself.

I think the use of the larger squads worked well for me, apart from clumping them too closely together once in cover, allowing the big blast templates that are part and parcel of an Imperial Guard armies repertoire to take their toll – repeatedly.

If I had to choose a “man of the match” from my army it would have to be the warpsmith, aside from the stupid power axe (which you can’t swap out in the equipment options) his bag of tricks make him very nasty. Extra attacks in close combat, the ability to fire a flamer and melta or either in combination with any other ranged weapon he has, the shatter defences ability (reducing an enemies cover save in one piece of terrain) and the chance to curse enemy machines or repair your own are a definite no brainer I think. His only main downside being that the model is finecast and an absolute shit to put together, and even worse to transport safely (one of my mechatendrils has come adrift already!).

The draw for the next round has been done, and I am to face the greater good of Ross J McCart. My previous encounter against Tau wasnt a good one but lessons have been learned and I look forward to trying them out in the “Big Guns Never Tire” mission we are due to play (January 18th 2014).

To view pictures of the battle click here.

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Bad Dice: Are they the cause of all our gaming woes?

19/12/2013

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The affliction of Bad Dice has plagued every player at Leicester All Scars at some point during a game. Although many would raise an eyebrow when you blame the dice for your losses, sometimes what else can you say?

Bad Dice are often self-fulfilling, a get out clause for getting your tactics wrong. So how can you remedy Bad Dice?

The main point here is if you just blame your losses solely on bad dice you haven't really learned anything - and every loss is a golden opportunity to learn how to improve - both in how you've designed your army list and your tactics.

On the other hand if your dice are really rolling poorly then don't go to the other extreme and completely revamp your army list. Play through the bad dice and try your best to suck it up. I think most of us are happy to roll average and unless you've got a really poorly skewed set of dice everything will even out over time.

I know in the past I've had a few brief stints where my dice just seemed God awfully bad cursed. It happens to everyone at some point in time too. It's very important not to let bad dice bring you really down - if you start focusing on the dice too much it'll take you right out of the game - and sometimes you could have probably still drawn or even won.

Some of us are superstitious about our dice. You have some shiny green dice you always roll for armour saves, some bright red dice you roll to hit and wound in assault and some big black dice you roll to penetrate armour... Whatever! Typically your dice roll average which is good enough and sometimes they are just so smoking hot they literally burn holes in the table. Then one day you come to find your dice have gone and lost all their magical mojo... Oh noes!!! They’ve been sucked completely dry of all their good luck it seems... Game after game you keep failing tons of Terminator armour saves. It's just not fair!

I'm peculiar about my dice so I'll stick with them through the good times and bad. They are like my family though annoying I still care for them. So to keep the mother in law away I store them in a knitted dice bag.

However, if your dice keep betraying you then maybe it's time to buy some new dice. Straight edged dice supposedly roll more on average so that means you should roll less 1s with them.

I have found in the past that using a dice tray seems to really help and I'm going to start using mine again. You know exactly how many dice you rolled and there is little to no chance of any ended up cocked. Rolling dice in a tray can really help to speed up the game as well so it might be worth a try for you if you're really down on your dice.

"Oh Lord why are my dice always so cursed?"

We have all heard a player say this type of phrase and they tend to say it more often than not whenever they lose. The worst case is when your opponent cries about his bad dice rolls all game long, every roll of the dice, then somehow it is all smiles when there dice start doing what they want them to do.

The point here is that if your dice have deserted you try not to whine too much about it - it's just as bad as gloating about a win. Sure when you roll triple 1s for your armour save versus three lucky wounds from a squad of fleeing guardsmen lasguns you're going to say something - it just human nature and there is nothing wrong with that at all. To be a good sport though means you don't constantly whine about how bad are your dice or how awesome are your opponent's dice throughout an entire game. Maybe you're not having much fun but that doesn't mean you have to go and ruin it for your opponent as well. If you do, then remember in a tournament it could hurt your sportsmanship score if you're concerned about that kind of thing.

Everyone will at some time experience the bad dice blues. It happens. On average though over time dice rolls will even out. Everyone has different ways of dealing with it. The main thing is to remember it's mostly just a phase and for every game where your dice stank it up you'll have another game where they are on fire. Keep your mind focused on the mission objectives and play it through. Often you can still draw and sometimes manage to eek a minor win if you stay positive. It is often said that one of the marks of the great players is their ability to pull victories out from behind bad dice rolling, and I think that is true. Don't hate your dice as they are simply inanimate objects after all. There's nothing you can do about lots of poor dice rolls so try not to take it too hard... It will all eventually turn around for you if you stay the course.

By Gary Walker

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Crusaders of Light and Darkness Stage 1: Grey Knights vs Tyranids

18/12/2013

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This Saturday (21st) will see my Hive Fleet take on the Grey Knights, in the first round of the Leicester All Scar's club campaign 'The Crusaders of Light and Darkness'.

In the first round I have drawn Andrew, the recently crowned club tournament champion. I have to confess I did lay down a challenge to Andrew following his victory, as I would like to see how far I am off the pace. Andrew went 5-0 with full points in every game of the Tournament before being crowned champion, and I have yet to see him post a result that wasn't a victory!

This will also be my first time attending a club meeting, because of other commitments stopping me in the past, but the club has a great group of guys, and from what I've been told the game days have a great atmosphere, so I am looking forward to it.

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Two old gits and a new rulebook!

18/12/2013

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Here is Mik's Battle Report against Gary's Dark Angels.

This past Thursday afternoon saw me return to the battlefields of the 41st millennium with my Black Legion Chaos Space Marines. My foe of old, Gary (Imperial) Walker, faced me with his Dark Angels Space Marine force and only one of us would be victorious.

We had already agreed on 2000 points and to play the Purge the Alien mission from the main Warhammer 40K rulebook.

My army assembles in anticipation.

We rolled off for first to deploy which Gary won and set about deploying his army, 3 squads of Ravenwing bikes with Land Speeder support, 2 tactical squads, a Vindicator, a Devastator squad, an Interrogator Chaplain, and their leader a Librarian. He also had a drop-pod containing another tactical squad and a squad of Deathwing terminators in reserve.

These were to be faced by my forces of a 15 man marine squad, a 10 man assault squad mounted in a Rhino, a hellbrute, a squad of Nurgle bikers, a Landraider, a chaos sorcerer, a squad of Havocs, a predator and a Chaos Lord of Khorne with a squad of chaos terminators.

After determining psychic powers and warlord traits Gary was to go first, so I attempted to seize the initiative – and failed. And so with a cry of “For the Emperor!” the Dark Angels surged forward and the battle began.

Turn 1

The drop-pod landed right in front of my lines, disgorging its melta & multi-melta armed squad way too close to my Landraider for comfort, but failed to damage the vehicle. The Vindicator was more accurate, taking out a pair of Havocs, my sorcerer, and the ‘raiders Havoc Launcher in one shot. In response my bikers surged forward into the first tactical unit even as my Rhino flung wide its doors and my assault marines disembarked ready to rumble. My shooting proved reasonably ineffective as the ravenwing bikes and speeders jinked their way to safety. The Chaos Lord and his entourage tore into the drop pod unit in brutal close assault.

Turn 2

My marine units came under attack from more of the ravenwing, the assault unit breaking and running after being reduced to 3 men. The Havocs look on nervously as the Deathwing teleport in using the other ravenwing’s homer as a target. Dark Angel shooting proves a little more accurate this time, as chaos marines begin to fall and both the landraider and predator lose the use of a sponson weapon each and their crews become shaken. The Hellbrute attempts to charge the ravenwing but fails to reach. The Chaos Lords unit turn their attention to the newly arrived Deathwing but the false emperors grace is with them and they pass all their saves.

Turn 3 Onwards

The Interrogator Chaplain joins the melee with the chaos bikers as a land speeder moves into a more advantageous position.

Having chased down the remainder of a chaos squad, a trio of Ravenwing now face the coming onslaught of the Hellbrute. It tears into them with its power scourge and leaves nothing but twisted bike parts and gore in its wake. The Landraider finally finds its mark taking its misery out on the devastator squad with its lascannons, until the zigzagging speeders finally get in position and destroy it with multi-melta blasts.

The remaining member of 15 man squad “Tiggs” finally succumbs under the repeated assaults of the ravenwing. Their repeated hit and run attacks having whittled them down to nothing on the exposed left flank.

As the last of the Nurgle-blessed bikers attempts to flee, the Inquisitor Chaplain has one more question for him. He obviously doesn’t like the answer as he then proceeds to smash the defenceless biker with his crozious. The immobilized predator takes careful aim with its turret mounted twin-linked lascannon and remaining sponson lascannon, and manages to finish the landraiders job of taking out the devastators and the librarian before the vindicator returns the favour and reduces the tank to a pile of scrap.

The Chaos Lord and his men battle fiercely with the Deathwing, eventually it comes down to the Lord and 2 remaining loyalist terminators, but as I roll for another turn at the end of our fifth round the fickle dice gods deny me once more and the sole survivor of my Chaos army, its defeated leader, leaves the field of battle having suffered only a single wound himself but the bitter taste of defeat mingle in his mouth with the blood of imperial scum as he licked the blades of his lightning claws clean.

Final result was 11-6 to Gary’s Dark Angels, it was a hard battle and one that started out going my way until the dice gods abandoned me and the Dark Angels seemed to make each and every saving throw that was asked of them.

Still, it was great fun and it gave Gary and myself our first taste of the new 6th edition rules in readiness for the big multi-player battles later this month that he has organised.

A big thank you has to be given to John, Dustin and Jack who were on hand to clarify the rules and changes neither of us were sure of.

In hindsight I probably shouldn’t have bothered with the landraider or rhino, and the Lord and his unit should have focused on something other than the Deathwing (something without 2+ saves preferably). I can’t say how useful the psychic powers are as yet as my sorcerer had barely seen the light of day before being obliterated.

Well, lessons learned and I’m looking forward to putting some of them in to practice against more opponents soon. The good thing about the forces of Chaos, there’s always more of them waiting to fight another day.

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Is 40k tactical, or does the best list/army win? Is it just Rock/Scissor/Paper?

16/12/2013

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Edd in the heat of battle.

This month Edd, a member since our founding, takes the chair:

Is 40k tactical, or does the best list/army win? Is it just Rock/Scissor/Paper?

These were questions I asked about a year and a half ago when I started to build an army with the intention of serious (ish) play.

I did a lot of internet research and discovered a community I never knew existed. A lot of stuff I saw was black and white; folk seemed opinionated about everything. I read about 'broken' rules and unbeatable combinations.

I learned about Spam.

A good quote from the time went something like '...there are only three or four competitive builds in 40k...'

Wow. Not four competitive armies, only four builds...

My first army was Ultramarines. My collection (now about 3000 points) was mostly bought on Ebay. Composition of the force was guided by what was going cheap. An example: Predator tank with LAS turret and LAS sponsons. It's a metal model - there was no changing the loadout. Pre new codex that setup was costing a lot of points. I played it.

I also bought a load of jump troops and a jump pack chaplain (From an actual shop), and played them at the first All Scars meet where they ran into (in a 500 pt, 3-way game) Corteaz in a Landraider alongside Mik's Chaos, and then played Jon's well-put-together Necron list. Neither battle went well.

My 2000pt list for the inaugural tournament was every model I had. Paul Thompson handed my arse to me on a plate in the first game. Around the same time, I was playing against Ross's Tau in regular friendly games. Research told me to get in and show them, using close combat weapons, where they could stick (and eventually possibly find) the greater good. This had me charging everything I could at full pelt against Tau gun lines. I was not having much success. Paul's own gun-line had shown me a new way, however, and I started moving from conventional wisdom to find ways to play a more defensive game against the Tau; a game I felt suited me more.

I also started buying specific models to add to my forces. I won't bury you in the blow by blow escalation, but playing the same opponent regularly sees a sort of evolution. You play a game and want to change up for the next one, to do something better, to capitalize on a weakness...

Tactics. I started to see it, but it was still to do with the list (at least in my mind). This was punched home when I played my second tournament game, with my original list, against Andrew (looking back, my opening fixtures were tough).

Funny thing; I was really enjoying myself, felt challenged and engaged every time I played. The nuances of each game, the decisions each player made, seemed to be so important, and it surely couldn't be the rock/paper/scissors idea that I'd seen derogatorily bandied about.

Well it took a while (and 3000 points of tyranids) but the bullet finally got to my slow-going brain last week.

Escalation had been released and there was talk everywhere about unbeatable lists and combinations again (although there had been talk of screamerstars etc prior to that), so the question of tactics was in my head again.

I was playing against Simon Rooke's Orks in a game that was dramatically close. Turn 5 it was his. Turn six it was mine. Turn seven... The orks drive a battlewaggon (flat out instead of shooting) across two sets of dangerous terrain to block a small temple ruin doorway to stop my t-fex acid-spraying (and potentially routing) a nervous bunch of objective-holding boyz.

They even raised the spiked roller on the front to make sure there was no line of sight.

Never mind that the T-fex had lurched past a Tirvigon locked in combat with a single heroic ork who could have gotten linebreaker (had he not been squished), never mind the defcoptor that had just been beaten off from contesting a seperate objective (after doing a whirlwind tour of the entire battefied), never mind the termagants racing for linebraker themselves... That single battlewagon move cracked it open for me... you can't account for that in points. You can't account for that in anything.

And when I looked back I saw hundreds of things that had happened in my battles, and I realized that, actually, there definitely are tactics, and more than tactics; there are damned heroic and dramatic things going on in every game; decisions made in the heat of competition that can, will, and do make or break the fight – I actually feel for the little (and not so little) guys out there fighting for me.

So, I think a powerful list can put the odds against you (sometimes dramatically), but I will never say that I was beaten by a list. When my marines or Tyranids go out and see what they're up against it's time to employ the tactics necessary - with the tools they have. I also find myself using units (particularly with the tyranids) that do not have a great reputation on-line but suit my style of play, and that begins to smack of strategy.

When my guys (inevitably) do face a baneblade, well, it's time to grow a steely pair.

The ork game ended a draw; it was our second battle and the war continues. Meanwhile Ross' Necrons have emerged to take a regular gaming slot against the tyranids and, between shouting MINDSHACKLEF***INGSCARRABS and BLOODYRESSURECTIONPROTOCOLS, I can tell you I'm on the lookout for the next best tactical move.

(PS: don't get me started on the psychology involved).

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Me and 40K

Wise words from our Tournament Fair Play Winner:

One rule to rule them all!

The Aegis Defence Line

Tyranids vs Dark Angels; 3000 points; Mission: Crusader

Crusader of Light and Darkness Stage 1: Planetfall

Bad Dice: Are they the cause of all our gaming woes?

Crusaders of Light and Darkness Stage 1: Grey Knights vs Tyranids

Two old gits and a new rulebook!

Is 40k tactical, or does the best list/army win? Is it just Rock/Scissor/Paper?

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