Video Battle Report

Hi everyone, been really busy the last month with University work and what have you. However I have managed to grind out a recording of a game I played with John Booth over Vassal last month, with 5 hours of cut footage. Have at it.

CSM in 7th and Obliterators

It's all requests Tuesday, and as I can't be arsed to go to bed due to the 48 hours of pain I have lined up over the next few days here's a blog post.

I've spent the last month or so coming out of my cocoon of 6th edition and out into the big bright world of 7th, and a lot has changed. As such, I've been trying out a variety of Chaos lists from variations on the goofy curveball raider list that did so well for me in 6th, to ripping off a gentleman from Belarus. In the end, I think I've settled on stealing from the Belarussians with a few tweaks, which I cannot go into detail of right now for a number of reasons.

Instead, I'd quite like to talk about Obliterators, and how they fit in the modern game of 40k. If you disagree with any of the points made here, I'm more than happy to discuss them in the comments section, and if you just think that I'm a flat out dipshit with less game knowledge than a 12 year old in a hobby store, I'm more than happy to compare our credentials (/snobbery).

I have always been an advocate of one particular style of play since getting into Chaos Marines, and that is board control. If I am able to dictate where you are on the board throughout the game through my threat ranges then I can essentially dictate which objectives you can get to, and if I can dictate which objectives you can get to I can take necessary steps to prevent you from claiming them and take the ones out of your reach to close out the game. With my old Land Raider list it was essentially possible to win a game without either player losing a single model. Very few want to get near to them, and if you only have 4 Lascannons et al I'm just going to dance around the board's terrain and laugh, pushing you into a corner all the while, because my threat range is as long as my arm. Of course there are match ups which completely shut this down, but that is the case with most things.

In 7th I believe this theory of board control to be even more important, and this is simply due to the fact that it is much harder to contest objectives now. With only Eldar and Necrons able to do it to a consistent 'turn 5 jumping' level. But lets break this down to a very core level. 5/6 missions are based around capturing objectives, so lets use this as a base win conditions. So the 2 ways to win a game of 40k are to 1) hold more objectives than your opponent, or 2) wipe them from the table (a very crude breakdown but lets roll with it for a second).

Of course, you can kick the crap out of your opponent in order to claim more objectives, it's a perfectly viable strategy because you're obtaining board control via removing your opponent from the table, but the point remains that you can essentially substitute 'hold more objectives' with 'have better board control'. This is precisely why objectives need to be 12" apart, these missions are literally designed to test board control. Even if you are jumping the objectives with jetbikes turn 5, and the game ends for you to win after hiding in the corner for 4 turns, the point still stands. Your opponent was not able to bubblewrap the objectives properly, and you were able to capitalise on it, in short, you were able to control the board better because you were able to exploit the parts of it that you needed to.

So lets come back to our win conditions, 1) Control the board better than your opponent 2) Wipe them from the table. Now how do Obliterators fare in terms of helping you fulfill those win conditions?

Obliterators have always been a solid individual unit within the Chaos Codex. They're versatile, they're pretty tanky, and generally produce something that the Codex lacks in terms of a viable shooting unit. If you're looking for a rundown of Obliterators at the start of 6th edition, by a 19 year old that was still getting embarrassed at small events and Throne of Skulls, you can find it here (http://wargamingrampage.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/chaos-marine-analysis-obliterators.html) I sucked. However, 2 years down the line with a crap load more experience at a top level and a few things in my trophy cabinet, do I still think that there is a place for them in competitive lists with reasonable expectations of winning games? I'm going to jump the gun here and say no, and here's why:

(Wednesday) Lets start from the ground up here. I spent last night drafting out a list centred purely around Obliterators, and making them as efficient as possible. I'm not going to go into full detail with it because I need to be at work in 45 minutes. Essentially you're going to start with 3 units of 3 Obliterators with Mark of Nurgle, taken in a primary detachment of Crimson Slaughter for the Divination psykers and whatnot. So 2 Sorcerers on bikes, then in 2 units of Spawn to provide peel for the Obliterators, you don't really want them getting charged because - although proficient in close combat - they are still not fabulous especially with the lack of Fearless, and every turn you spend in assault is a turn you're not shooting.

Then you probably want to take a brick of Tzeentch Heralds. They can go in a Horror unit they're fine you don't really need them in anything faster so you'll save points on discs and an extra squad there. Then just use the remaining points on a few mandatory scoring pieces, some more peel or more flashy upgrades. Then sit as a brick, daemons in the centre, then Oblits, then Spawn. Cast up Cursed Earth every turn to give the Obliterators a 4++ save and then spend the rest of your dice spawning. Then move up into the centre of the board and take it. You can then spread if you need to but essentially you have a 24" threat range from the edge of your circle, so approximately a threat 60" in diameter.

So lets go back to our win conditions, and to be realistic, Chaos Marines should not be wiping people from the board very often. In terms of damage output we're pretty weak. Obliterators are our only ok shooting unit (they're pretty expensive for their output per turn really when compared to other factions, a perfectly reasonable comparison because that is what you are going to be attempting to outshoot), and once you've fully loaded yourself on those there's nothing else to add. Shooty CSM does not really work. Assault wise, possibly, but if you are smashing someone based on assault they have not taken the tools to protect their big hitters which will help to clear you or kite you around the board, and they should revise their list. At the top tables, you are not going to be able to table someone via assault either.

So then you come back to board control. Taking the example list above, you are having an effect over a large section of the board, but how great is the effect? Spawn are exceptionally good at tying things up and wiping squishier units but it's not a unit that makes you crap yourself in terror. Obliterators are a similar story. Sure if you have all 9 pump their fire into something then you will probably kill it, but damn that's a lot of commitment. As I mentioned earlier, the damage output per Obliterator per turn is not that great.

Now you can head down to your local gaming club, play a guy with a nicely painted Space Marine army, beat him by taking the middle and claim that it works. But that isn't evidence for working in tournament play. So lets compare it against the last 9 lists that I played against in tournament play (the last 2 events) and see how it would do:

1) FMC daemons. Come down, spawn tie up 2 DPs, the rest charge the Obliterators and kill them. They don't care about your threat, you don't have enough protection and your Oblits are unlikely to kill a flying DP in a turn even with Prescience.

2) Centurion Marines. You might do ok here. Really depends on the first turn.

3) Shunt Grey Knights. Again, can just jump forward, they had enough force weapons to deal with the spawn followed by the 3 Dreadknights eating the Obliterators. You might kill 1 before it gets in but if he commits fully you are in trouble.

4) Wraithwing. The real problem here is that he doesn't care about your spawn.

5) (at work on my phone) Dark Eldar. He didn't really spam lances or poisoned so really the list would be fine here.

6) Wave Serpents and Lance. He doesn't really care about your damage or your potential to tie him up so he can dictate the board much better. Until he catches up with and kills you.

7) Wave Serpents and Wraithknights. Slightly bette as you can now try and tie him down. But then he'll probably spend the first couple of turns clearing a few spawn before going for it an doing exactly the same thing.

8) horde nids. You can't tie everything down so he'll lock down your spawn with his bigger stuff, the oblits with gaunts and then have free reign of the board with the rest of his stuff.

9) weird ass summony ork/chaos list. Similar problem except he is more able to kick your teeth in with his DP.

So how's the list performing? Not particularly well. The main problem really here is that you don't have enough clear and your strength of board presence in terms of your threat because of this just isn't enough to deal with most. In short, an obliteration centric CSM list does not work.

So would they work as a support stor file role? I think the question you always have to ask yourself when building a list is 'why?' Why am I taking this unit? What does it bring to my army that nothing else does as well. I've use mutilators at tournaments in the past, not because I wanted to be that guy that used weird ass models, but because they were better suited to a role than anything else. Therefore, it doesn't matter if a unit is considered universally solid, if it doesn't fit the role you're looking for taking it is like pouring points down the drain.

If your list structure is 'I have some choppy units, now I need some snooty units' then to be honest you may struggle. When building your list ask how you are going to win games. Thus, you can generate an overall play style, and if a unit doesn't fit with that, leave it out.

10pm Christmas Eve. Still at work. On the toilet. The problem then is, even if you have a list maxed out on Obliterators. They don't provide any threat over the boar due to their relatively lacklustre point for point damage output, and despite the fact that they're tanky they don't have the speed to really tie anything up unless your opponent is exceptionally careless. Meaning that for their points cost they neither threaten a large enough area of the board efficiently enough for what they do (spawn do it better) and are not really able to clear most units well. 

Tl;dr. Obliterators are an expensive unit that provide very little in terms of achieving the win conditions of 40k.

GT Heat 3 Report and T.Leighton vs National Rail

Prepare yourselves for a pause and restart post because this one is going to be an essay, all encompassing events over 4 days. Oh Joy. Before you think about the pain of reading this lengthy abomination, think about the pain I'm going through writing it. The events documented in this post may have scarred me for life (especially Friday, that was awful).

A Glorious Return - Who Am I Now?

When I started this blog it was designed as the documentation of the introduction into the UK tournament player. This player was an 18 year old kid who got his ass handed to him at Throne of Skulls, losing 3 games including 2 tablings and only picking up 1 win. If I had the opportunity to talk to this scrub I'd have instructed him to sell all of his 40k and to go and spend his money playing something that was more to his skill level. Like Minecraft. This kid went by the alias of Rampage, and despite the humiliation of getting bent over a table by a group of GW store egos, for some reason he wanted more (maybe he  just swung that way or it was some kind of weird fetish I don't know), and if this story intrigues you go and have a look at the 200 posts that proceed this, you'll be in for a fun evening if the alternative was attentively watching the BBC News Channel et al for the 8 hours that such a marathon would take. Still, it's a higher standard of writing than the 50 shades series that thing is trash.

But back to the point, not even I can understand the insanity that crossed this kid's mind, and to this day 2 1/2 years on his Win/Loss is very much mid table. That said, I am not the same player that I  was 2 1/2 years ago, I have moved on from such things as having a terrible alias and attending tournaments as merely an objective (seriously anyone can fork over some money and turn up at a table). Phase 1 of my journey as a competitive gamer was to consistently finish in the top half of tournaments and give top level British players a tough game, and when I'm on it I can do that. After about half a year's break from the hobby I'm back with a new objective. Challenge for podium spots at big tournaments, win small events with ease, and represent my country at the ETC. So let's begin with a quick rundown of where I am now.

In the last 6 months I...

In June 2013 'Wargaming with Rampage' hit a peak, almost making 5,000 reads in a single month. Since then, I have struggled for motivation, and this has been all too evident in the crappy content that I have put out since. This has at part been due to University, partly due to my growing League of Legends addiction, and partly due to the fact that I no longer feel I need to validate myself by posting maths on the internet and hoping no-one complains. A good example of the latter is Blackmoor's blog, not much content been going up on there since he's been on the 11th company (just kidding I'm not Blackmoor (I'm better than that guy (bring it Blackmoor! (Just not on Vassal I play really badly on that system)))).

So, in short what have I been up to in the last 6 months. Well, I went to the GT heats, was sick in a gutter and missed out on automatic qualification by 1 slot because people didn't turn up for day 2. However I still got through courtesy of 'Best Chaos Marine player at heat', and then turned up at the final in March and claimed best CSM player in that too, despite being docked points for not being able to write lists properly.

In January I went to the Caledonian Uprising, where I bagged my first top half finish, again using my prized Chaos Space Marine army. 2 weeks ago I decided to pick up Necrons for the first time and take them to an escalation tournament. Which I then flopped at because I wrote a really bad list. And then last week I went to the War of the Roses, a 2 day tournament in which I only lost one game, albeit because I made a stupid mistake but still only one game, which I was happy with, making me a more consistent top 50% player.

In addition, I have been heading to the England squad days and weekends on a regular basis, helping the 9 out and getting some top level experience, which has served me very well in the last couple of big events.

In short, I'm really looking forward to get back into blogging, not for my own self validation or for an ego boost, but because I enjoy writing, and with the game getting shaken up so much in the next couple of weeks, things are going to get interesting.

Intense Concentrations

Yes I am aware that terribly vague titles are indeed, well, terrible, and are something that I used to do back in the early days. But never-the-less, I can't think of a better name for this post.

Today has been really productive. I went and did some group work for University, then came back, played some Minecraft with my mates including standard Tom Leighton level dumbassery (letting the farm animals out, then egging the house for my mate being annoyed, allowing hordes of monsters to spawn on my island and solving the problem of Skeletons by diving into the deepest ocean I could find with all my stuff). Then I played a couple of games of 40k. To give some perspective here, these started in the middle of the afternoon and finished at 1:00am, and one isn't even finished.

Maulerfiends, Defilers and Specialism

I've found a really good use for this blog. Debates on Facebook. Posting arguments on a blog and then linking into Facebook is easier to read than slapping a huge slab of text down and hoping someone will read it. So what I am going to be arguing for here is that Maulerfiends are a good unit and that Defilers are not, thus reinforcing my stance and attacking the counter-argument being presented. Behold!

UK 40k GT Heat 2 - Report: Game 6

So, going into the last game, here is how it stands. I'm currently sitting just above mid table with 2 wins, 2 losses, a draw and a strong victory points count back due to smash victories against my first 2 opponents and picking up some points against Rob. So now it comes down to one game. If I win, I qualify comfortably, if I draw, I just scrape in, I lose and I'm probably out. And to be honest, it doesn't get much harder than this.

UK 40k GT Heat 2 - Report: Game 5

Game 5 and I'm feeling pretty good. I'm confident against anything other than my horror match up in FMC Daemons in Kill Points, Hammer and Anvil. This is also exactly why I was pretty certain that my qualification would go down to the final game. As an FMC Daemons army arrives at the table.

UK 40k GT Heat 2 - Report: Game 4

So I come into day 2 only needing to win a game. The first game of the day being Emperor's Will with Vanguard Strike, and I was playing against a Necron player with Tau allies, who had won a 2 day event a couple of weeks back. He was running 3 Annihilation Barges, 2 Night Scythes with minimal Warriors and Crypteks with Haywire Staffs in. He had a Riptide, a Skyray, a tooled up Overlord and a load of Kroot with Snipers.

This isn't a bad match up for me at all. But despite this, I would have been happy with a draw, as it left me with only needing to avoid losing both of my remaining games to qualify. He picked the deployment zone behind an enormous hill, and he made me go first, Night Fighting was in effect.

UK 40k GT Heat 2 - Report: Game 3

So, going into the final game of day 1, and I'm on the top tables, kicking it with 40k powerhouses such as Courtney Rhodes, James French and Rob Waller. Rob beat my friend (who's a much better player than me) that I came down with in the first round, and now I was in his crosshairs.

UK 40k GT Heat 2 - Report: Game 2

Courtesy of the large win in the first game, I was now sitting on table 2, which at this stage in the tournament really doesn't mean too much. That said, my next game was against a Tau player. He was running an Ethereal, he had 2 squads of 10 Kroot, he had 2 squads of Broadsides with all of the Missiles. 2 Riptides with Fusion Blasters on one and one with SMS. He had 2 squads of 6 Pathfinders. Then he had Eldar allies, with 2 squads of Bikes and a Farseer on a Bike. Plus he had an Aegis Defence Line.

The Mission was the Relic with Dawn of War deployment.

UK 40k GT Heat 2 - Report: Game 1

I've been looking forward to the GT Heats for a while, but also felt a little nervous. I really felt that that I should qualify for the finale. I had decided what to take a few weeks ago, but I didn't really want to divulge anything such was my desperation.

My list was:

Surprise Throne of Skulls

Ok the surprise is for me, if it were for readers it would be a pretty terrible surprise especially considering that I'm the one going. One of my club mates bought a Throne of Skulls ticket, and recently discovered that they wouldn't be able to go, and so they have been attempting (with the permission of the organisers) to offload it.

Throne of Skulls is next weekend, and I'm meant to be moving back down to Oxford then, but I just dropped £700 on a new PC and ideally I'd like to take it back with me, so I thought, what the hell, I'll buy the ticket.

Strategy Ramblings - Chaos Marines Vs The Screamer Brick

Well, if this is indeed the restart of regular posting that was a very short hiatus indeed. It occured to me at work that rather than thinking up new ramblings, or shoe-horning myself into a corner making me write posts about certain topics, I should just write about whatever pops into my head whilst I'm working. One of the biggest problems in my game is my strategy. I'm pleased with my tactical play after Invasion where we demolished our way through the tournament with a pretty poor list combination, but when you're getting into the larger tournaments to succeed you need to make that step into strategy, and that's been something that I've been attempting to do.

I've been uming and ahing a lot recently regarding my list choice for tournaments for the rest of the year. Recently I've been thinking about a Wolves Jaws bomb / blob hybrid. Good for Daemons, good for Tau. However how would my Chaos list fare against the flavour of the month? Welcome my friends, to my mind. Here is a picture of some head bookends, giving an accurate description of what goes on inside my head.

Invasion II Game 3 - Tournament Report

Going into the final game we are now on the top table, and our severe lack anti vehicular weaponry has come to sting us in the table once again, this time in the form of a dual Eldar list. It was a strong list, but not broken. The had a Spiritseer in a squad of 5 Wraithguard with D-Scythes in a Wave Serpent. They had 2 squads of Bikes, Baharroth, 10 Howling Banshees which he tanked for, a Night Spinner, Fire Prism, and that was about it.

Invasion II Game 2 - Tournament Report

In the last post I may have alluded to our list's inability to deal with vehicles, well, when you have 3 AV13 vehicles facing you across the battlefield, you definitely can't deal with vehicles. We were playing against a Chaos Marine and Necron List, comprising of a Black Mace Lord, a 5 man Nurgle squad, a 10 man standard squad, a Vindicator, 10 Immortals with Tesla, 10 Warriors, a Lord and 2 Annihilation Barges. The mission was Crusade with Dawn of War.

Invasion II Game 1 - Tournament Report

Wow I have a lot of posts on the go. None of them are finished but there are a lot half complete. Although the amount of content coming out of here is currently a bit minimal, it should pick up hopefully towards the end of the month.

Anyway, yesterday was the day of the Invasion Doubles tournament for the Oxfordshire and Wiltshire stores, with 6 stores coming up to Warhammer World to compete. All in all 68 teams. As I've been living in Sheffield for the past couple of months I've been unable to acquire a ticket, but I went down to Warhammer World anyway to see everyone. As it happened, Oxford were one player short, and one of their guys was left without a player. Using my special ringer powers, I thus partnered him. Let the tournament commence!

Fabius Vs Abaddon

I know that this is a bit of a strange post, firstly it comes straight out of left field among all of the tournament reports and Eldar analysis posts, however I said I'd do it so here it is. I recently got into a debate with some guys on Facebook regarding Fabius and Abaddon. The original notion being that Abaddon made Fabius look good. I disagreed, and flew straight into my basic argument stance. Write so many words that people cannot be bothered to read it and I win by default (actually I employed the same tactic in my A Level Computing Coursework a couple of years back, 1,500 pages and over 500,000 words). However, when the obvious of not reading the post was stated, I promised to post it as a Blog article and link it in, breaking it down into sizable chunks. So here it is.

Toy Soldier 40k Tournament Report - Game 5

Game 5 started nicely, as I was drawn against the opponent that my Sheffield friend played in Game 3. He was a Tau player but it wasn't really an optimised Tau list and apparently it was a really enjoyable game. The mission was The Scouring, we placed objectives, rolled for Warlord Traits and Daemonic Gifts, and then something terrible happened. We were both rematched as the players on the table next to us had already played each other. So the nice Tau army with 1 Riptide and 1 Squad of 2 Broadsides was whiscked away and replaced with this.

Lots and lots of Guns

Oh dear.