Sunday 22 July 2012

Throne of Skulls and my own mediocricy:

As I have mentioned repeatedly here I have attended the Throne of Skulls tournament at Warhammer world this weekend, and I have to say that it was a fantastic event and I really enjoyed myself, all of my opponents were great people and all of my games were thoroughly enjoyable. So, to save you the pain of having to read through this entire post to find out how I finally performed in the event I'm just going to stick it here and get it over with, as it's not particularly exiting. I won 1, drew 1, and lost 3. This score looks, to be honest, pretty crap, for someone here spends their time assisting on army lists and posting articles on the metagame, and, to be honest, it is. I just seem to have the problem of translating theory into practice on the tabletop, as there are so many more factors to consider, as you never have the exact same situation twice. Basically, I'm definately still learning, and this event definately helped me to do that and I believe that I have come back a better player.

The list that I was taking is as follows:

HQ:

Rune Priest
-Chooser of the Slain
-Wolf Tail Talisman
-Jaws
-Living Lighting

Rune Priest
-Wolf Tail Talisman
-Jaws
-Murderous Hurricane

Elites:

5 Wolf Guard
-3 Power Fists
-2 Wolf Claws

5 Wolf Scouts
-Meltagun

5 Wolf Scouts
-Meltagun

Troops:

9 Grey Hunters
-Meltagun
-Wolf Standard
-Rhino

7 Grey Hunters
-Meltagun
-Wolf Standard
-Rhino

7 Grey Hunters
-Meltagun
-Wolf Standard
-Rhino

Heavy Support:

5 Long Fangs
-2 Missile Launchers
-2 Lascannons

5 Long Fangs
-2 Missile Launchers
-2 Lascannons

5 Long Fangs
-2 Missile Launchers
-2 Lascannons

My mind is fried as I'm doing this 3 hours after the end of the event so sorry if this all sounds stupid.

Game 1:

My first game was against an Eldar player. I won't drop his name as I haven't asked permission but he was a really nice guy. He also won the Best Eldar Player award at the event, which considering that it was his first Throne of Skulls was impressive. he had a squad of 3War Walkers with Shuriken cannons, a squad of 3 Vypers with 2 Shuriken cannons each, a Pathfinder squad, a Farseer, 2 squads of Dire Avengers in Wave Serpents with Shuriken Cannons, 2 squads of Fire Dragons in identical transports, and a squad of 5 Warp Spiders.

This was all looking good when I chose to go first, in The Scouring and Hammer and Anvil, all until he siezed the initiative and blew my Long Fangs away, leaving me with very little to hit him back with. He then dominated the shooting side of the game and eventually tabled me on turn 6, his speed allowing him to move around the Rhino wrecks that I had used for cover. First loss.

Game 2:

This was against a Space Marine player, who was also a very nice guy. He was running a Salamanders list with a 10 man squad of Thunder Hammer Storm Shield Terminators and a Librarian. My big mistake here was that I completely forgot about the overwatch rule. The remedy for this being not to stay up until the early hours of the morning painting your army the day before a tournament.

The mission was Vanguard Strike and Purge the Alien (or something like that, the new wierd Spearhead and Kill Points). My plan was to try and take down the Terminators, as I was confident that I could dominate the shooting battle and win the game that way. This is a bad plan if Terminators keep making saves. A dreadnought dropped in next to my Warlord and despite all nearby Melta being chucked at it there it stayed, before charging my large Grey Hunter squad and Warlord along with the undying Terminators before eating a second scout squads Melta next turn and succumbing. Simply, I shot everything at the Terminators while they refused to die and smashed their way through a Rune Priest, 2 Scout squads, 3 Grey Hunter squads 2 Rhinos and 2 Long Fang squads. Needless to say that I lost this game also.

Game 3:

Sieze ground equivilant and the new Dawn of War (pitched battle). If there is one faction that I know absolutely nothing about in terms of gameplay, it's Tau. Despite this, when I saw Tau across the board I was quite pleased, it gave me an opportunity to see a new army in action. My opponent won the roll to go first, but I got back from the first game and siezed it. We got night fighting, but despite this I shot a Pathfinder squad which promptly failed it's leadership check (twice) and ran off the board over 2 player turns.

When my opponent reminded me that most of his army had blacksun filters the first thought that came into my head was, 'oh crap, here we go again'. he then only proceeded to kill 3 Long Fangs and a Storm Bolter on a Rhino which gave me hope again. This was reminforced, when 1 scout squad came on and blew away his hammerhead, 1 Long Fang pack took down the Devilfish while the Phirana (that's probably spelt wrong but never mind) was reduced to a single hull point, the 2 remaining Long Fang packs brought down both a Broadside and its shield drone.

From here I had 2 objectives secure, bar 2 stealthsuit teams deep striking which were drove back by my Rune Priest and his Grey Hunters (the only successful charge in the game was initiated by a stealthsuit team charging them as a hail Mary). I then dropped many missiles upon Fire Warriors inside an Aegis defence line forcing both squads to go to ground to survive and ended up winning the game taking 2 objectives to my opponents 1, and 8 - 3 in victory points terms.

Game 4:

This was against a guy who had come all of the way over from Holland to play in the tournament, had a really great game here also. He was running a nice pre-heresy Iron Warriors army, along with some Steel Legion allies. This was big guns never tire and vanguard strike, and it was a pretty bloody game, most of both of our armies were dead, and at the end of the game he held 2 objectives. Giving him 6 points, plus 2 points for killing 2 of my Long Fang Packs. I only held 1 objective, but I had first blood, slay the warlord, a single linebreaker point and I had killed his vindicator, so it ended as an 8 - 7 victory to him, a very close game indeed. A result I was quite pleased with as he ended up racking up 4 out of 5 wins over the course of the event.

Game 5:

Both me and my opponent knew that we had nothing to play for in the competition, so in the end we just went to make the game as fun as possible. My opponent was playing a refreshingly different Eldar list, including Eldrad but 2 Wave Serpents full of Howling Banshees, some pathfinders, a bastion, Storm Guardians, etc. I ended up blowing up the bastian, killing a wolf scout, all of the guardian defenders, the pathfinders and wounding Eldrad twice, who then died whilst in combat with the wolf scouts to a perils of the warp. This was the relic and dawn of war, and although my Grey Hunters did grab the relic, they were eaten by Banshees, resulting in a 2 - 2 draw, with me getting linebreaker and slay the warlord, and my opponent getting slay the warlord and first blood.

So, as I say, I have definately learnt a lot from this experience, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the event. I will definately be attending again. I recommend it to anyone, whether you are looking to attend an event for the first time (most of the people that I met were doing this) or have been to many (there were a few European Team Championship players attending).

I plan on changing my list after getting more experience with wolves, and I've just edited it into this post. So, we'll see if this one is any better.

HQ:

Rune Priest
-Chooser of the Slain
-Living Lightning
-Jaws of the World Wolf
-Terminator Armour

Rune Priest
-Living Lightning
-Murderous Hurricane
-Terminator Armour

Elites:

5 Wolf Guard
-3 in Terminator Armour with Power Fists
-2 with Power Weapons

5 Wolf Scouts
-Meltagun

5 Wolf Scouts
-Meltagun

Troops:

7 Grey Hunters
-Meltagun
-Wolf Standard

7 Grey Hunters
-Meltagun
-Wolf Standard

7 Grey Hunters
-Meltagun
-Wolf Standard

Heavy Support:

5 Long Fangs
-2 Missile Launchers
-2 Lascannons

5 Long Fangs
-2 Missile Launchers
-2 Lascannons

5 Long Fangs
-2 Missile Launchers
-2 Lascannons

Fortifications:

Aegis Defence Line
-Quad gun

Right, so I'm quickly going to run through the changes and explain why I have made them.

Rune Priests:

I have dropped the Wolf Tail Talismans. This is simply because they were 10pts of wargear that I never used (in total). My Runic Weapon already did the job and failing that Deny the Witch would have made it.

I have swapped out the psychic powers, taking 2 counts of Living Lightning. I've already tried out 2 counts of Murderous Hurricane and 2 counts of Jaws and both are quite situational, as many models have higher initiative making it difficult to tackle with Jaws and Murderous is quite short range. In Throne of Skulls I kept ending up in situations where I was thinking, 'I wish this one had Living Lightning', so, now they both do.

They now have Terminator armour, I was fed up with them dying and the Invulnerable save that it gives them is really handy, and the 2+ means I can reliably shove them at the front of a squad for some beardy wound allocation shenanigans.

Wolf Guard:

I swapped the Wolf Claws out for power weapons. As non-specialist weapons I get an extra attack for dual close combat weapons and they're cheaper. Plus, I've never seen anyone leave Terminators to guard an objective with the exception of a lone Paladin so the AP3 doesn't matter enough for me to want to use points doing something about it.

The Terminator armour on the others is to make the Grey Hunter squads more durable and pull more beardy shenanigans.

Grey Hunters:

Dropped the Rhinos and 2 Grey Hunters to save points. I liked Rhino walling but I think the Wolf Guard will pull the same tricks well enough to keep the squads alive.

Aegis Defence Line:

I know it is not a reliable way to kill flyers, it can only kill one a turn, max. But, it does give me at least something to shoot at flyers with, in an army that definately lacked that. Plus, many an opposing model was saved by an Aegis Defence line at Throne of Skulls, and if nothing else than for the psychological effect that your opponent thinks that a squad is extremely durable and the option to go to ground to get a 2+ cover save, I think that this could be a good addition to the army.

Wednesday 18 July 2012

1,000 views and Throne of Skulls targets

I hate Internet Explorer. So much. Firefox time. I say this because I tried to open a PDF file which crashed my internet and wiped my post. So, I'll re-start.

First of all, before I begin the main core of this post. I would just like to mention that in the last week this blog has hit over 1,000 views. I would firstly like to thank everyone that supports and reads this blog for the massive jump in views that this blog has seen over the last month or so.

I would like to thank the fellow forumites over at the Overlords, as without their support I doubt that this blog would have hit 1,000 views so quickly. Again, I would severely recommend having a look at their blogs as well, as can be found under the heading of 'Underlings Blog Network' or something to that effect, to the right of this post.

I would also like to thank everyone who reads this blog for making this possible (including you), as without you, 1,000 views could never be reached. So, thank you.

Right, nostalgic part over. On with the rest of the post, and on to 5,000 views.

Over the last couple of weeks I have realised something since starting my new army. I am an extremely mediocre Space Wolves player. The fact that I have been playing them for a little longer now has not changed my opinion of this. So, with Throne of Skulls a mere 3 days away, I'm going to quickly rattle off some objectives for the weekend whilst I have escaped the tender mercies of the painting table.

My first objective is to have fun. Even if I lose every single one of my games I won't mind so long as I had fun. My other objective which drove me to purchase a ticket is to learn. I am definately going to end up playing better players than myself at the tournament, and as I'm just starting to get into tournaments, this is the perfect opportunity to learn from some more competitive gamers and improve my play.

So, on to how I aim to perform at the tournament. Some of my friends have set me a target of finishing in the top 50.... in my first GT (even though GW likes to call it an event).... in which 132 people participate. A bit too optimistic I think. But anyway, I'm going to just give myself a little challenge to see if I can meet it, and my target for the weekend is 6 points. With a win being worth 3pts, and a draw being worth 1. You can then pick up points for favourite game votes along the way. You do get 1 point free though, as 0-1 favourite game votes is 1 point, which seems a bit odd.

So, that's my target. This will probably be the last post before I hit tournament season. I had a small tournament a week or so ago which I haven't got around to talking about yet (by small I mean 6 people small), I've then got another tournament coming up on the 11th August and 2 Apocalypse games are currently in the pipework. So, hopefully I'll get back again early next week. Thanks for reading.

Friday 13 July 2012

Stop. Hobby time.

I'm going to take a break from the breakdown of 6th edition for today and move onto another aspect of the hobby. Having said that though, in the next batch of 6th edition breakdown segments I doubt I'll get into the meatier sections of the rules such as looking at all of the universal special rules or flyers as a whole (although the latter will probably be mentioned relating to my breakdown of June's flyer drop). I might take a quick glance at how the game has changed as a whole, but I think that I'm now going to stick to looking at individual changes in depth rather than skimming over whole loads of rules in a single go. But anyway, introduction and blog generic introduction over, on with the post.

I've definately noticed that when posting I tend to flood this page with paragraph after paragraph with a pretty distinct lack of pictures. Well, with only a week remaining until my first Throne of Skulls, my Space Wolves army is still not completely painted. I still have a Drop Pod, a Rune Priest, 1 Rhino, 1 Squad of Grey Hunters and 3 Long Fang Packs still to paint. 25 models in total. That said, I have made some decent progress over the last week or so. So here's a few pictures of what I've been up to.



My Rune Priest. This is going to be my Warlord for the duration of the event. The wierd thing next to him is his Chooser of the Slain marker. Which I made out of the Servo-Skulls found in the Devastator kit and filed around the edges of a 28mm base just so that it would be smaller than the Rune Priest himself.



My Wolf Guard. These guys rarely operate as a squad. I prefer to split them off into other units. The 3 Power Fist toting Wolf Guard are split among my 3 Grey Hunter Squads, and the 2 with Wolf Claws go into the Scout Squads.





Above are my 2 squads of Wolf Scouts. I took the Melta Bombs off these as I now can't charge off the Outflank but the Meltaguns still do the trick a lot of the time. Plus, they aren't very expensive as squads at all, so I don't mind too much if I lose them.



Finally, my Grey Hunter Squad, complete with Meltagun and Wolf Standard. I put them both on the same model just to change it up a bit for no reason in particular other than I thought it made him look pretty cool, and fluff wise there's no reason why he can't carry a Meltagun along with the Standard. Generally, this squad goes in the Rhino with my second Rune Priest.

Wednesday 11 July 2012

6th Analysis: Universal Special Rules - Part 2

So I'm back again. Sorry for the week long hiatus, but anyway, hopefully I'll get this segment on universal special rules over with this week. I'm only going to go over them briefly, as I want to talk about a small tournament that I was participating in over the weekend, but that can wait until the next post. Sorry that I'm still unreliable. But anyway. Off we go.

Furious Charge:

This has taken a bit of a hit, as now you only get a strength bonus when you're charging and not an initiative bonus. This may be the main part of this rule, but this could annoy armies like Orks, who enjoyed the initiative bonus. Now, they are going to be hitting last to all but Necrons, robbing you of a few of your attacks before you get to swing. Every Slugga Boy lost before you can strike costs you 4 attacks and they aren't that hard to kill.

EDIT: Ok, maybe my example of Slugga boyz was a bit crappy due to their base low initiative, but either way I feel I am qualified to moan about this as my list includes between 20 and 30 Nobz (excluding Nob squad leaders, any excuse to complain).

Gets Hot:

Simply, now vehicles can be effected, losing Hull Points for 50% of every gets hot roll. I haven't seen much Plasma recently but I'm looking forward to seeing a squadron of Leman Russ executioners in action during this edition.

Preferred Enemy:

Instead of just re-rolling failed rolls to hit, now you re-roll failed rolls to hit and to wound of 1 in both shooting and assault. I quite like this change, and it gives preferred enemy a little bit more use as well.

Sniper:

Snipers can now fire precision shots, meaning that they can pick a model out of a unit on a roll of a 6.

Split Fire:

The Long Fangs claim to fame (other than their sheer undercosted-ness) is now in the rulebook, meaning that I forsee other units getting something similar to their 'fire control' in the future.

Ok, I think that that's it for this part of the sixth edition breakdown segment. Sorry this pair has been a bit crappy. Still, hopefully I'll have some decent points to make next time rather than just scratching the surface of what everything actually is.

Wednesday 4 July 2012

6th Analysis: Universal Special Rules - Part 1

Just before we get this post underway, I just want to quickly mention something. I am not going to be going over the new shiny special rules, I'm only going through how I think that the changes made to existing universal special rules will effect certain aspects of the game. The reason for this is simply because as far as I know there aren't any units to which they apply yet (I haven't read the FAQs yet - yes I know I'm a bad player - I'm trying to digest the main rulebook first), and so discussing them would be moot as they won't effect the game initally. So, starting from the top:

Acute Senses:

This has changed quite a bit from the last edition of the game. Rather than applying to night fighting, it now makes it more likely that a unit will arrive on the side of the board that you want when outflanking. Now the only codex that I know that comprehensively includes this rule pretty much across the board are Space Wolves, and the only unit (bar a lucky - or unlucky depending on the context - roll on the warlord powers chart) that you will find outflanking from the book are Wolf Scouts.

So, horrah! They are now more reliable, but GW took away my ability to slap Melta Bombs straight onto vehicles after doing so (if they hadn't Wolf Scouts would be even more terrifying), so yeah. Still, this gives me a little bit more justification about continuing to take Wolf Scouts over Lone Wolves, although I am planning on picking up some Space Wolf Terminators and trying them out.

Overall I think that this is good for Necrons, as now the only army that has any ability to see them through their shield of night are Dark Eldar (I'm not counting Tau as their units have to pay to see through darkness).

Fearless:

Nothing much has really changed here, but I think that I should just quickly mention one little thing. Fearless units are now the only ones that can be tied up with something that they cannot physically kill, as they cannot choose to fail a morale check for our weapons are useless and so must always stick in a combat until the end.

Feel No Pain:

There is a bit of discussion going on as to whether this has been nerfed or not. This is because, feel no pain has been dropped to a 5+ save, but, now the only way to cancel it out is to cause instant death to a model, so it is much harder to do so. Honestly, I don't think that this is going to make too much difference out of combat. Where you would most commonly see this used is on squads of multi-wound models like Paladins and Nobz, but what is going to be fired at them is likely to be 'doubling them out' anyway, so you wouldn't have got to use your save.

However, when it comes to clsoe combat, I think that it has improved. A Nob or Paladin squad would munch a Tactical Squad or similar anyway without the need for feel no pain, but when they come up against other units that can handle themselves in combat, then it gets useful. The problem was, such units usually sported a decent number of power weapons and similar, once again invalidating feel no pain. This is why I believe that it has improved in close combat, as it gives you a bit more of an edge against harder close combat units, as power weapons don't cancel it out anymore.

Having said that, I don't really think that it is worth spending all of those points on an Apothecary in a Paladin squad, for Nobz however, access to feel no pain is really cheap, so I'll continue to take that all day long.

Fleet:

Another short one, this rule has got a slight nerf, as you are no longer able to run and assault, you only get to re-roll your run dice or charge distance dice. Where before you were guarenteed a charge range including the run of 7" hitting a maximum of 12" now you simply get a re-roll, which can mean that you may not get into charge range at all (this happened to me with my Nobz mob on Saturday Waaaghing, first roll, 4", second roll 5", only needed 6 off 2D6).

Deep Strike:

Short again, all that's happened is that the deep strike mishap table has changed, reducing the odds of a unit being destroyed and increasing the chances of it being delayed. Making life a lot safer for armies like Chaos Daemons, which is even more important given that now if they finish a game turn without any models on the board they automatically lose the game as though they were tabled. Come on, they needed the rulebook not to hurt there power in some places.

Right, I think that I'll conclude this post here, otherwise it's going to get lengthy and I'll start slacking and talking rubbish as I'm tired. The second part of this post will be up tomorrow, and if we need a part 3 that will come on Friday. Ok, until then.

Monday 2 July 2012

6th Analysis: Charging from Reserve

Many of the new rules in the new 6th edition of 40k have inspired a pretty large amount of nerd rage. Allies, purchasable terrain and possibly flyers (although not so much on the last one) have all done this. But one ruling that has done a similar thing that never seems to deserve its own thread on forums is the new rules for arriving from reserve. In a few words, you can essentially no longer charge the turn you come out of reserves. Now with deep striking you couldn't do this anyway unless a unit's entry specifically stated that you could, and with reserves arriving from your board edge you would rarely get to charge anyway. So, the one thing that this effects the most is outflanking units, and I believe that this is very important as a couple of lists which were arguably feasible in 5th edition have simply had their power reduced significantly.

Dark Eldar - Webway Portals:

5th edition has seen a couple of Dark Eldar lists based around the webway portal, although not as common as the standard VenomSpam lists (something which I shall come onto in a later post), they were still found knocking about in some areas. The inability to assault out of reserve has pretty much destroyed this build in my opinion, as well as poured cold water on any hopes of a 'Dark Footdar' build.

Simply because, Dark Eldar are flimsy, there's no 2 ways around it. So, you will deploy your webway, as you always have done, and your Wyches, Talos, etc are going to come piling out, and immediately get shot to pieces. The only way you can avoid this is to somehow make your units more durable.

Granted, Talos aren't bad for durability, but, despite their move through cover, they are not amazingly fast either, so I can just keep moving away from it snap firing while other, more heavy hitting shooty units finish the job. What I'm thinking more along the lines of is deploying it near terrain, so that squads can pile out of the webway portal and cower in terrain for a turn before bounding out and hitting units.

Large Wych squads for example could be good at this, they are after all a pretty fast infantry unit, and could reach enemy units. Although difficult terrain and the enemy units backing off could prevent the charge the new charging rules could allow them to reach the enemy unit. Mix a Farseer with Spirit Stones, Fortune and Doom into the mix and you have got a very nasty unit, which will get re-rollable saves (excellent for that turn in terrain) and give it a pretty nasty combat punch as well, although you'd probably want them to be stuck in combat, beating the opposing unit in your opponents turn, shielding them from shooting.

But there are so many variables to this, first off (in a very Dark Eldary way) you need a large amount of terrain, second, you actually need the carrier to make it to the terrain (in a 2 hull point open topped low armour vehicle, not easy) and you need to keep your units alive. I definately think that this build has to adapt if it is going to have any chance of surviving with the new rules set.

Tyranids - Genestealer Lists:

As lonely as it is to be a Tyranid these days, where you can't ally with anyone and your codex isn't great from a competitive standpoint, it gets worse when a new rulebook comes in and craps all over one of your builds making you essentially a mono-build codex.

Genestealer lists have taken an absolutely huge hit from this ruling. What you would do, is stick them in reserve, and run on the board hollowing and screaming, charging any units remotely close to you and eating them. You could also infiltrate them, getting them closer to your opponent in many occasions and setting you up for an early charge. Now, only the latter is available.

At the end of the day, Genestealers, like Dark Eldar, aren't exactly amazingly durable when out in the open, they're still only T4 with a 5+ save. Yes, you can outflank them into cover, but this just gives your opponent more time to move away from the board edge and is dependant upon something that is not in your control which is dangerous in tournament play.

So, you can infiltrate, fine. But what happens when you run into a Grey Knight list with servo skulls? What happens when you run into Space Wolves with Chooser of the Slain? You can't infiltrate where you would like, and so are kept at arms length while a rain of fire is poured down upon your Genestealers. Chooser is only a 10pt upgrade, and it gives anyone who takes it a huge advantage over you. These are in addition to bad match ups that you would already have as a Genestealer list such as Dark Eldar or Imperial Guard.

Again, this is a list that is going to have to adapt. If you're going to a tournament with lots of terrain, maybe outflanking is an option, it is still not as good as charging off the outflank would be if for some reason your opponent did deploy near the table edges, but you're mitigating the problem somewhat, especially if you manage to get Genestealers of both board widths, taking your opponent in a 2-pronged attack, although you're going to have to max out on Genestealers to make sure that at least some of them get to your opponent intact.

For infiltrating, you're going to need a bit of a distraction, something that you're opponent can't ignore and will have to shoot at. What I'm thinking at the minute is something like a big squad of Ymgarl Genestealers (fitting in with the theme) popping out of a building, or maybe something like the Doom of Malan'Tai in a Mysetic Spore, a possibly a bit more durable than the Ymgarls, cheaper and still pretty terrifying. The problem with these is that you will be taking away elites slots that you generally need for Hive Guard. Therefore, I'd go for either one big squad of Ymgarls or the Doom, so you're only taking up 1 slot, but you'll have to max out on Hive Guard in the remaining 2.

So, in short, there is a look through of how the new rules for reserves will effect some lists. Of course, there are probably more examples from other lists and even individual units such as a blob squad in an army with Creed or Space Marine scouts, but there are a couple of quick examples. Hopefully these will have given you some ideas and got you thinking about how this rules change will effect armies in your area.

Bye for now.