Dark Angels Analysis - Land Raider Variants

The Dark Angels Analysis segment should be finished by Sunday. The plan is to absolutely bomb the remaining units allowing me to concentrate on the impending Chaos Daemons throughout the next month. Left to do I have the 3 Land Raider variants, the dedicated transports of the Razorback, Rhino and Drop Pod, and the special characters. So to close out February, here come the Land Raiders.

Battlefield Birmingham Game 5

In my final game, I played another top level UK tournament player. Currently ranked 3rd in the UK according to RankingsHQ, and the best Tyranid player in the country, I was playing Chris 'papa' Dickinson.

Battlefield Birmingham Game 4

Right, going into day 2 I had 1 win and 2 losses. So the deployment, Hammer and Anvil, definately made a welcome appearance in the first game of the day. I was playing against an Eldar player with Dark Eldar allies by the name of Andrew. He had an interesting list. He was running Eldrad, a squad of Fire Dragons with a Crack Shot Exarch on a Quad Gun on an Aegis Defence Line.

Battlefield Birmingham Game 3

My third game was my first against a top level tournament player at a tournament. I was playing against Nathan, the current UK number 8 (as this goes out) and English ETC player. He was bringing a Dark Eldar army with Eldar allies. I won't go into his list too much as he's an ETC player, but if you want to hear about it make sure to check out the 40kUK podcast, either tomorrow's episode or the one next week, but check them both out anyway because I did an interview for one of them for the War Stories segment. But what I will say, is that his list pumped out more shots than I've ever seen packed into a list.

Battlefield Birmingham Game 2

Ok, game 2 was against another guy called Ben. This time the mission being 5 objective Big Guns Never Tire with corner deployment. He was running Chaos Space Marines, which are already a very good match up for my army. But he was running a Nurgle army, with Daemon allies. So he had a Lord, 3 big squads of Plague Marines with Rhinos and 3 squads of Nurgle Obliterators. For his Daemons he then had Epidemius and 15 Plaguebearers.

Battlefield Birmingham Game 1

Right, I'm back at my flat now, so I can start updating these posts on my Battlefield Birmingham games to make them more comprehensive.

The first game that I played was against Ben Archer. He came with a Dark Angels Deathwing army, consisting of 2 Contemptor Dreadnoughts, 2 squads of Terminators, 5 Black Knights and a pair of tactical squads. I don't think that I've missed anything. The mission was multiple (3) objectives.

My list can be seen a couple of posts back.

Dark Angels Analysis - Interrogator Chaplain

Only one post today I'm afraid, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get one up tomorrow, as I'm making the journey to Birmingham for Battlefield Birmingham this weekend, I should keep the blog update with live happenings from the tournament over the weekend though. As for today, I played my last couple of practice games. Albeit both at 1,500pts which didn't give me chance to practice with my Thunderwolf Cavalry, which I could really use. But I was able to use the Grey Hunters quite well, it's been pointed out that I don't really do anything with them and I think that this is a good call. Even during non-objective games I tended to put them at the back of the board and fire off the odd bolt shot. However, I was able to use them to good effect today.

Dark Angels Analysis - Chaplain

Not much to say to kick off today really, I've nearly finished painting my Long Fangs, I just need a new brown wash and then I'm there. Also, about 2 months ago I promised pictures of Thunderwolves, so here is a picture that I took on my iPhone (below). Told you there wasn't much, so, the Chaplain.

Dark Angels Analysis - Librarian

Right, second post of the day. Dark Angels Librarian coming up.

Dark Angels Analysis - Company Master

Over the next 2 weeks I aim to finish the Dark Angels analysis, so that I can shell out on the new Chaos Daemons Codex on the 2^nd and start on that. This means that there may be more than one post each day, so make sure to keep checking here for new posts.

Today I move on to the HQ section, starting with the generic Hqs. This one should be quite quick, it's only the Company Master, meaning that there should be another post coming your way later this evening.

Dark Angels Analysis - Dreadnoughts, Predators and Vindicators

I've finally finished my Drop Pod, it may not be the nicest looking thing in the world and if I had put more effort into it, maybe give it a couple more washes or by a bit more careful with the weathering it could look nicer. But it's a good enough tabletop standard for me at the minute, I've still got a pack of Long Fangs to finish this week remember. So here's the picture of the Drop Pod:

In other news, 'curses to ye GW!'. I'd better get this Dark Angels analysis finished pretty quickly, due to the teaser for the new Daemons being out, and that's something that I'm going to want to look at, with me being a Daemon player and with them being my Wolves worst match up currently. I also played a game at the Oxford Gaming Club tonight, against a blob Guard army, the Relic. I started to run out of steam towards the end but although I was getting battered in the last 2 turns I would have won had I not failed my 2+ save on my Warlord, as it was it was a Draw.

I did an interview with my opponent for the 40kUk podcast afterwards (as you do) so make sure to check out the next episode with the segment 'War Stories' in it.

But anyway, if I'm going to get this done before the Daemons drop I'll need to go quickly, so on with the generic vehicles!

Dark Angels Analysis - Devastators

I've finally broke my losing steak (not a great start to a tactical post) that I've been on since I won all 3 of my games (that's a little better) at day 1 of Throne of Skulls, between then and Wednesday, I had only won 1 game, and that was against Black Templars. I played 1 games on Thursday, the first against a S6 spam Eldar list, 1,500pts. 2 Squads of Warp Spiders, a Scatter Laser War Walker squadron, 3 Vypers with dual Shurikan Cannons, 3 squads of bikes, Fire Prism and Eldrad in a Wave Serpent with 10 Dire Avengers. Long story short the Manticore went crazy and killed: 1 Fire Prism, 2 War Walkers, a Wave Serpent, 9 Dire Avengers, Eldrad, a Vyper (with a Heavy Flamer) and a Jetbike. 4 objectives, wierd corner deployment.

The second game was against a Draigowing army. Same points level (although we both agreed that Draigowing definitely works better at higher points levels. Draigo, Coteaz, a Dreadknight, Psyfleman Dreadnought, 10 Strikes with a Razorback, a squad of 5 Paladins and a squad of 2 Paladins. Emperor's will, Pitched battle. This was a really close game, I had a Lone Wolf contesting his objective in an everlasting dual with Coteaz, and he had a couple of Paladins on mine. I had First Blood but he had Linebreaker. 

Unfortunately for my opponent Coteaz suffered Perils of the Warp thrice in the game giving me Slay the Warlord. My Guardsmen were charged by the Paladins, and ran, but only a short distance so they were able to rally and my 2 packs of Long Fangs and the Guardsmen were able to pile on the wounds until the Paladins died. So long story short here, my opponent was very unlucky. I do have a bit to say about Draigo though, I did a post on Paladins back when 6^th edition just dropped so if that's your thing go and check that out, but I'll do Draigo and I have some things to say about my army again as I'm still learning, so I'll do that at some point.

But anyway, Dark Angel Devastators.

Dark Angels Analysis - Whirlwind

I've been pretty busy since my last post. Fluffwise, I'm about half way through Path of the Outcast now, really enjoying it. Paintingwise, I still hate Drop Pods. Not only are they really annoying to assemble, and not only do they fall apart in a stiff breeze, but they are also really irritating to paint. They may not be the largest vehicles in terms of volume, but they have a huge surface area due to having to paint things on the inside. I'm almost done with the first coat of the thing, and I need to have it done by next week really. I've had it for 8 months.

This post would have been out yesterday but the draw for Battlefield Birmingham was made so I spent some time doing background checks as to what I would be up against, and it looks like it'll be Dark Angels, so I'd better get going through this Codex. Whirlwinds today.

Dark Angels Analysis - Land Speeder Vengeance

Finally I manage to get away from the Fast Attack section, which appears to be jinxed in that I keep having to go back and correcting mistakes that I've made. So it's now time to move onto an easier, the Heavy Support section. Excellent, the promised land where everything is homogeneous between Marine codecies. Oh, what's this Dark Angels Land Speeder Vengeance? Well, better take a look at it:

Battlefield Birmingham Army List

Something a little different today, I'm thinking that maybe posting something other than a Dark Angels analysis will break the sloppiness of my writing, I keep missing little bits. The latest mistake post wasn't quite as bad as the previous one, GW releasing a £30 book full of typos didn't help, but that's not an excuse.

With Battlefield Birmingham coming up in 2 weeks time I've finally decided to lock down my list, so that I get familiar with it and how it works together, I already know what everything does but I don't like last minute changes. So, in this post I'm going to be going through what I'm taking and why.

1,750pts: Space Wolves and Imperial Guard

Dark Angels Analysis - Black Knights

Sorry for the short sabbatical. I've really needed a bit of a break from posting for a couple of days, firstly because I was absolutely shattered due to only getting about 4 hours of sleep in 48 hours, and secondly because some of my posts were getting really sloppy. But anyway, time to round out the Dark Angels Fast Attack section. Black Knights.