Preperation

With not much happening in terms of new rules this month, and with all of the happenings in my own life, I recognise that maybe this month hasn't been the most productive of all time in terms of how much content I've been able to churn out. That said, I'm going to try and squeeze some blood from the stone here and get something out at least.

I have a couple of small things to talk about today, as I say nothing too in depth but if you start to get board just skip the paragraph that you're on and go to the next one.

First things first, a few months back I did a semi-spontaneous series which was generally called Throne of Skulls Prep, although it did tend to lose the 'prep' title after a while, and today's post's title is a kind of kickback to that. The reason being, in January I am going back to Throne of Skulls. Last time I went, I did so to learn my new army, get some experience with it and see what ToS was like. Now that I've done that, the plan is to go back and hopefully do a little bit better, so anything more than 1 win and 1 draw will suit me down to the ground, just to see how much 6 months extra practice with an army helps you, obviously it matters to have experience with an army but how much will it matter here.

Speaking of practice, I am getting a lot more games in now, I've played 4 games in the last 10 days or so and all of them have been against top people. One of which was against a top tournament player too, although I'm not going to namedrop. So, I'm going to try and compete this time around.

The list that I currently plan on taking, which involves me picking up a couple more models, can be seen below. It might change a little depending on whether I manage to aquire certain models but this is a good template which I probably won't deviate too far from.

HQ:

Rune Priest:

-Chooser of the Slain

-Tempest's Wrath

-Living Lightning

Rune Priest:

-Jaws of the World Wolf

-Living Lightning

Elites:

3 Wolf Guard:

-Terminator Armour

-Power Weapon

-Storm Bolter

Troops:

8 Grey Hunters:

-Meltagun

-Wolf Standard

7 Grey Hunters:

-Meltagun

-Wolf Standard

7 Grey Hunters:

-Meltagun

-Wolf Standard

Heavy Support:

5 Long Fangs:

-4 Missile Launchers

5 Long Fangs:

-4 Missile Launcher

5 Long Fangs:

-2 Missile Launchers

-2 Lascannons

Allied Contingent:

HQ:

Primaris Psyker:

Troops:

Veteran Squad:

-Grenade Launcher

-Mortar

Fast Attack:

Vendetta:

Heavy Support:

Manticore:

-Heavy Flamer

And there we have it. Yes, it's beardy, and yes, I'm a bit of a douche for using it, but I like to be able to take a list everywhere, and keep it relatively similar once I've found something that I like, so if I decide to start going to other more competitive tournaments, this list is still something that will be able to compete.

On a side note, if anyone else is considering going to Throne of Skulls this January just drop a comment below and I'll see you there. 

Right, now onto the next order of business, fun with fluff. With the Chaos Codex fast approaching I've decided to get some painting done, so as not to look like a bandwagon jumper when it hits. Bearing in mind that this is a fluffy army, and I don't care if I'm using a unit that is quite frankly, terrible (not unlike my Eldar army), I got back into painting my Hellbrute, and considering that this isn't an army which is first and formost for gaming, I wanted to do a good job of it, that is why a) I haven't finished, and b) I haven't put a post up in a while, as I was waiting to finish the thing so that I could show it done, but I really needed to post some content so here is what I've done so far. 

And there we have it, after finishing the Hellbrute I plan on moving onto one of the 2 squads of Cultists. I'm going to try and do this with a different method though, with the other 2 fully painted armies that I have (Orks and Space Wolves) I was motivated to paint them as quickly as I could to get them ready for an event, and thus used the production line method, as well as rushing them resulting in them not looking as good as they could have. This time, I'm going to be painting each model individually, so we'll see how that turns out. That's me done for today though. Back again soon. Hopefully.

Return of the Internet - List Building

I do have a valid excuse for why I haven't been posting recently. I have had no internet. The only way that I would have been able to access such a phenomenon would have been to type up a post on my iPad, and then get on a bus, using the terrible internet connection which I would find there to upload a post, meaning that I'd be sitting there for the best part of an hour as it takes ages to upload. I didn't try, this is an estimated guess after going in search of internet 2 days ago.

However, after sitting through an extremely long induction to my course the University has finally allowed me to use their internet. Hoorah! It wasn't like it was needed in the first few days in which I'm studying here to, you know, learn about the city and the University. As such, I ended up having to undertake the 45 minute walk to my gaming club with my dual sized aluminium case full of all of my hobby related items that I have brought with my to University, and then walk back late at night in constant fear of being mugged (nice place, I just don't know it very well). In addition, I have been missing out on a weeks worth of the goodness that is the Dakka Dakka worldwide campaign, which, being a regular poster over there, I am naturally a part of, or at least I hope I am, I may have been locked out on account of my sudden disappearance, I'll have to check once I'm finished over here. You might be able to tell that I'm quite bitter about this.

I could write about the large number of games that I have played in this time, but I'm not going to. Instead, I am going to just summarise them according to result very quickly. I lost the first, second, third and fourth game in this hiatus, a highlight being when I was playing against a horde Ork army with Imperial Guard allies, my Manticore managed to fire all 4 of its missiles and only managed to kill 2 Ork boyz and 10 Guardsmen in a 7 turn game. The best bit being that the boyz were both killed by the missiles, and the Guardsmen were all killed by the Heavy Flamer on the front of the Manticore (my opponent marched them forwards). Quality.

I'm also going to quickly slot in some Word Bearers progress. I have purchased the Limited edition Dark Vengeance, if your store has sold out then you may be in luck of getting your hands on that Interrogator Chaplain if you are willing to come to Oxford, where the GW there still has a few on the shelves (by that I mean at least 7). I've also assembled the models, based them all and sprayed them all black. I've also started painting the Hellbrute, so that I can quickly glance across the room to remind me of what the colour scheme it (in exact terms) without having to walk over, pick up a cultist and study its paint coverage.

But anyway, here's something I haven't done for a while. I have spent a lot of this time on Battlescribe, mucking about and creating a few lists, just experimenting really. So, cutting to the chase, the lists are for Chaos Daemons, Eldar and Tyranids, and I'll go through them in that order explaining them. All of these lists are 1,500pts.

Chaos Daemons:

HQ:

Fateweaver, Oracle of Tzeentch

Elites:

6 Flamers of Tzeentch

Troops:

20 Pink Horrors of Tzeentch

-The Changeling

20 Pink Horrors of Tzeentch

20 Pink Horrors of Tzeentch

And that's it. The idea behind the Daemon list was that I wanted it to be a mono-God build, so, everything in there is Tzeentch, I could have gone with an Epidemius kind of thing but since everyone is doing that I went for something different.

So, I went for a kill point denial idea when going for this build, but am also aware that there is a 1/6 chance of getting kill points in a game, that is why the Horror blocks are there. They are excellent at denying Kill Points, 20 model 4+ invuln models can be a bugger to shift, especially that Changeling unit where there is the possibility that you could shoot yourself. So you can dump them on objectives and just let them hold them, and with Fateweaver backing up the squads that need it the most, they aren't going to die very easily.

Sure you can charge them, but even then you'll have to be close enough to the Horrors to do that, meaning that it is likely that they'll have shot your unit up at some point, but then you're going to have to pile through 60 S4 overwatch shots, still be in range to charge, and then try and get through 20 fearless wounds which all have 4+ invulnerables, and those saves are also likely to be re-rollable.

Additionally, the likelihood is that you'll only need to hold as many objectives as your opponent's holding, due to the roll of the Flamers. They should really be coming in with your first wave, this is so that they can prey on one of your opponent's weaker squads and just destroy them in a single turn of shooting, getting you that First Blood point. Even in the unlikely event that they don't kill the punier unit which you marked for death, they should still eat a large amount of fire before succumbing, and if you try and charge these, then you'll have 6D3 armour save ignoring hits to get through.

So, make of that what you will. Next list.

Eldar:

HQ:

Farseer

-Runes of Warding

-Spirit Stones

-Guide

-Fortune

Jain Zar

Elites:

5 Fire Dragons

-Exarch

-Wave Serpent with Scatter Lasers and Shurikan Cannon

10 Howling Banshees

-Exarch with Executioner

-Wave Serpent with Scatter Lasers and Shurikan Cannon

Troops:

5 Rangers

5 Rangers

5 Rangers

Heavy Support:

3 War Walkers

-2 Shurikan Cannons each.

3 War Walkers

-2 Shurikan Cannons each.

3 War Walkers

-2 Shurikan Cannons each.

I would say that this is by far the weakest of the 3 lists.

I didn't want to take Eldrad, this was for 2 reasons, the first being that I was stretched for points, the main one however was that I really wanted to include a Phoenix Lord in here, being a lover of all things fail in the Eldar Codex (I regularly run various Phoenix Lords and Swooping Hawk squads in my Eldar armies, I have the models, why leave them on the shelf collecting dust when you could be playing with them, it's one of the reasons why I like Apocalypse, as it lets me field my Pheonix Court of Khaine), and I didn't want to take 2 named characters.

So, out of all 6 of the Pheonix Lords why pick Jain Zar? Well, I'll quickly run through the other Pheonix Lords to get to my point.

Baharroth is crap, he is argueably worse for points efficiency than the aspect that he is the leader of (i.e. the Swooping Hawks). To sum him up, he is a Swooping Hawk Exarch (already a bad start) with a Pheonix Lord statline and a 200pt price tag. Next.

Asurmen isn't great either, he is the most expensive of the Pheonix Lords at a whooping 240pts, but he does also come with an invulnerable save, but then he doesn't really put out enough damage to justify his points cost. Bad. On we go.

Karandras is quite fun, he's a monster in combat but with 40k much more of a shooting game now he's going to have to take at least 1 turn of shooting before he can charge anything, and he's expensive.

Fuegan is ok too, if there is a vehicle that you want dead, he will kill it. He will kill it so much that it's soul will cease to exist. He's decent in combat too and does come with Feel No Pain. That said, very expensive, and what you would take him for (smacking vehicles) Fire Dragons will be able to do too, for less points.

So that leaves us with Maugan Ra, and Jain Zar. Maugan Ra is often seen as the best Pheonix Lord to take, and leaves Jain Zar overlooked. He is very good all round, he shoots well, a 4 shot S6 assault, rending and pinning weapon with both fast and crack shot being fired at a BS of 7 is sweet, and also comes with Jain Zar's assault weapon strapped to the end of it. So why take Jain Zar over him?

Well, she is 40pts cheaper than Maugan Ra, and you can put her in a squad of Howling Banshees, Maugan can only go in Dark Reapers, meaning that he isn't going to get much combat action, or in a generic non-aspect squad, which isn't really going to be complementing him full either as they are likely to be either shooting based or combat based, only taking advantage of his combat or his shooting, he might still get to shoot in a combat unit or fight in close combat in a shooty unit if they're charged but you're not taking advantage of his full range of abilities.

Jain Zar is very much all combat, although she does come with a S5 AP2 assault 3 triskele which is nice for breaking down those Terminators, before charging in at S7 and I10.

So basically, she's cool, she hits hard, you don't see her too often, and if you want a Pheonix Lord for under 200pts then there you go.

Right, on with the rest of the list, quickly as this is getting damn lengthy. The War Walkers, I always liked to include a good fire base in 5^th edition, simply so that I would have a presence across the board, so I wouldn't have to try and chase things down with my close combat units. This was why my 30 Nob list was so terrible against Dark Eldar, I couldn't catch them, so dropping 10 of them and picking up a load of Lootas seemed a good idea, this is essentially what these are here for. Plus, 54 S6 shots is pretty terrifying. I didn't go for Scatter Lasers for the simple reason of not having enough points left.

Rangers. Very nice for squatting on objectives. On a general principle I like to take a troops choice for every 500pt block. And the Fire Dragons are to take out heavy armour and another Wave Serpent to provide some target saturation to take some pressure away from the Banshees.

To sum this one up though, I wouldn't take it to a large tournament.

Right, I'm tired and I want to go to bed, so let's get this one done.

Tyranids:

HQ:

Tervigon

-Catalyst

-Scything Talons

Tervigon

-Catalyst

-Scything Talons

Elites:

3 Hive Guard

3 Hive Guard

3 Hive Guard

Troops:

10 Termagants

10 Termagants

10 Termagants

Tervigon

-Catalyst

-Scything Talons

Tervigon

-Catalyst

-Scything Talons

Tervigon

-Catalyst

-Scything Talons

Probably the most competitive out of these lists really. Initially, it was an experiment to see how many Tervigons I could cram into a 1500pt list, then I started mucking around with a Hive Tyrant and Ymgarl Genestealers to get them bursting out of cover everywhere and eating things, then I remembered that there wasn't any shooting in the list whatsoever, so I drop the Ymgarls and replaced them with Hive Guard, which came out over the points limit, so I dropped the now void Hive Tyrant and had exactly enough points for a 5^th Tervigon.

So, the answer to how many Tervigons can you get into a 1500pt list is, as many as the force organisation chart allows. 5.

With this list, on average you should be spawning 52-53 Termagants in the first turn assuming that your opponent hasn't killed any if they went first, although that should decrease as the game goes on as your Tervigons stop spawning.

I'm getting into some proper rambling right now so I'm going to try and mitigate the damage by stopping this post here. Hopefully I should be back to the usual gaps between posts now. As always, have any suggests or anything at all to say relating to this post, including possible improvements to the lists, please feel free to drop comments down in the comments box.

Spread the Word

I know that I usually post a bit more frequently, but for the next week or so I'm probably going to be able to get 1 post a week down at best. This is because in about a weeks time I will be moving from Sheffield down to Oxford to study, and so am trying to get everything ready for that. This means that I either don't have the time to get any hobby in, or if I do, I don't have much time to write about them.

But onto the subject at hand. Tournament season is pretty much over for me now, if it wasn't for the 2-3 week long freshers 'week' that I have to attend at my University I might have been able to attend the Maelstrom team tournament (depending on whether we would have managed to pick up enough players to form a 5th Overlords team) but unfortunately it is that long, so I'm not going to be there. Best of luck to all of the Overlords / Overlords forumites that are attending though. Back on topic now, so, I'm probably not going to get many tournaments in between now and June, there might be the occasional club tournament that I attend but it looks like I'm going to struggle.

I think that this is actually a blessing in disguise though. As much as I enjoy competitive gameplay I feel that I've been neglecting a whole other side of the hobby. The last 4 months has been about, writing a tournament list, quickly painting everything up and then slapping it all down on the table. I haven't really engaged the rest of the hobby. So, during my time at University, I am going to be consentrating on delving into the back story of 40k, as well as enjoying more of the creative side of the hobby too. So, this means starting a new army (again).

So, what to pick. I thought that this one was quite easy for me. I wanted something that could contrast with my Space Wolves, as I plan on bringing them along with this new army to University. I wanted something with character, I wanted something with fantastic models and I wanted something with options.

This lead me down to an army that I have been looking at for a while in Chaos Space Marines. I have always enjoyed playing against Chaos, but I have found their Codex rather mundane in that there are really only a couple of ways in which you can use them, and their model range isn't the best, but I think that the last couple of months have changed my opinion of them in order to motivate me to get a small army. The first of which is the Dark Vengeance starter set. When I first saw it I thought that the models looked fantastic, and although I like the Dark Angels side, the Chaos side is superb. It's a relatively cost effective way to start a new Chaos army, and I am planning on selling the Dark Angels.

The second was 6th edition. I already have a Daemon army, and the ability to ally them with the Chaos Marines instead of having to take Lesser Daemons is a nice touch. Meaning that I can get playing with my Chaos right away, using the models that I have got from Dark Vengeance as an allied detachment (well, I could if the units had points costs in their entries).

The final straw was the ongoing rumour of the new Chaos Codex. I have been looking forward to this for a long time, even before I had plans to start Chaos, but I am hoping that with the new Codex will come with it a variety of new ways to build an army and a host of new models.

So, let's go deeper. Exactly what kind of a Chaos army am I going to play. First of all, I wanted something red. The reason for this is so I could contrast it with my Space Wolves, not only because I can show that 'this one is the evil army and this is the good army', but it also contrasts them in the ways in which you can enjoy 40k. Additionally, I didn't want to make a homemade force, I wanted to use one of the original legions so that people could see the army and instantly recognise it for what it was. That said, I wanted to use a legion that isn't very common, as I like inauthenticity. I also decided to go for a legion that was unidivided, allowing me to use forces from each of the different Chaos Gods without any issues, and was also known for using Cultists and summoning Daemons.

Word Bearers it is then.

Whilst this project is going on, I'll be posting news of its progress along with pictures of finished miniatures just to show how it's getting along. It should also work quite nicely in breaking up all of the unit analysises that I like to do. That said, I think that this post has gone on quite long enough.

Throne of Skulls Stats and Ork Evolution

Ok, I said I was going to spend some time writing posts whilst I was on holiday. And I did, however, I'm not bringing one to you today for 2 reasons. The first is that it is not yet completed, it's pretty long but I'm still trying to say something sensible on Lone Wolves to close the post out. It's on the topic of whether Wolf Scouts are still worth taking. Secondly, I cannot get said article off my Ipad as I need a Wi-Fi connection to e-mail it to myself so that I can copy it across here, or just post it directly. I come to you today and most of the time from an area with a wired connection.

Before I get on and talk a bit about how 6th edition has effected my Orks, I'm just going to say a few things. Firstly, I'd like to thank GoatMajor for the game whilst the Throne of Skulls youngbloods was going on, it was very enjoyable and certainly beat sitting in the bar for the duration of the entire tournament. You can find his blog at Simon's painting blog and stuff on the right of this post, it's definately worth checking out (as are all of the Underlings blogs). I was lucky enough to see his Necron army first hand and it looked fantastic, made my half painted Eldar army (often painted in different colour schemes as I changed my mind with colour choices) look like I had kicked a shelf full of paint pots with their lids loosely on onto my army, and has encouraged me to start painting my Eldar again, this time I've gone for a Biel-Tan colour scheme, let's hope I stick with it. So yeah, thanks for the game and thanks for encouraging me to paint my Eldar, it was much needed. A thanks also goes out to my first round of Throne of Skulls, who also came out for a game, it was nice to see a Sisters of Battle army on the table.

Speaking of which actually, I'll quickly run through which armies were the most common at the July Throne of Skulls in case anyone wants to tactically choose which army to take.

The most common were Space Marines.

Followed by Necrons, then Grey Knights and then Imperial Guard.
After those came Chaos Space Marines with Space Wolves and Dark Eldar coming afterwards with the same number of players.

Then Orks, and similarly Blood Angels and Eldar were drawn on player numbers behind them (Orks won both the Throne of Skulls and the Youngbloods).

Dark Angels came next, with Tyranids and Tau drawing on player numbers behind them.

Following were Chaos Daemons and Sisters of Battle with 2 players each and then Black Templars who were represented by a single player.

Right, now, the changes to the Ork army that I use. There's not really much to say about it, but I'll just quickly run through it again before I get started. Essentially, it's Ghazzy and a Warboss to make 2, 10 Ork Nobz squads in Trukks Troops, I then use the freed up Elites slots to get 2 squads of 12 Lootas, and then take a squad of 30 Ork Boyz with Shootas, 3 Big Shootas and a Nob with a Power Klaw for some over the top deckchair goodness.

I'm just going to run through some of the improvements that I think that my army got in the rulebook transition.

Looking at my Boyz for just a start, they were a unit that you wouldn't really be able to shift via shooting (30 T4 fearless models going to ground are not easy to shift, especially when there are 2 squads of Nobz down your throat), and also something that you wouldn't want to get into combat with, lots of attacks, Power Klaw, that sort of stuff. Now it's a unit that you really don't want to get into combat with unless you're some sort of combat machine, or a Soul Grinder. The first reason of that is overwatch. At the end of the day, Orks are only really suffering a -1 to their BS when snap firing so how often we hit is only halved. But with this unit you are unleashing 53 S4 shots on overwatch and 9 S5 shots, so on average you're going to be hitting with 8.83 S4 shots and 1.5 S5 shots before combat even starts, not bad. Then you have the end of Fearless wounds, which is really helpful as essentially I would lose as many boyz as I lost the combat by before. Additionally, if the enemy unit doesn't manage to get the charge off on me, I can just let rip at normal ballistic skill after the unit has already been overwatched from the charge attempt and charge them myself. Admittedly the Power Klaw can now be challenged but overall I think that the improvements outweigh the downgrades. Remember that the Power Klaw can challenge too if you really need to.

Lootas, as a shooty unit, have also benefitted from Overwatch. However, I would also say that the inculsion of Hull Points has been another plus factor for them, as they are now feasibly able to destroy vehicles with an armour value of 13, with that many potential shots you are likely to do some damage. For example, lets say that you have 2 squads of 12 Lootas firing, on average they will get a total of 48 shots, so 16 hits, so on average you are going to be getting 2.5 glancing hits on a 13 armour vehicle, that's not bad. Basically, the range of targets that they can hurt has increased, and they're getting S7 snap shots when they are charged.

I think that one of the main drawbacks to the army now comes with the Nobz. Despite the fact that they can still pull wound allocation shenanigans and can do it more cheaply as you don't have to customise all of the Nobz. However, the problem comes with transportation.

Trukks are fragile, they are even more fragile with 6th edition. That was fine in 5th, as all you had to do was keep the Trukks alive long enough so that when they inevitably die they would do so in front of your opponents army and Nobz would run out of the wreckage and create havoc. Now, you need to keep the Trukks alive long enough to allow the Nobz to disembark. True, it is still an assault vehicle, but you still need to get it close to the enemy lines without dying. Additionally, if a Trukk blew up in your lines, it would be unhelpful, but a turn or so of walking and Ghazzy's Waaagh! would soon rectify that. Now, with the changes to fleet, that's not as effective as it once was. This is where I think I will change the list.

With my Space Wolves taking up the points level of about 1,500 - 1,750, my Orks have seen little to no action over the last few months, the changes to the list should rectify this, and so I'm planning to increase my Orks to fit the points bracket of 2,000+pts. Swapping the Trukks out for Battlewagons seems the best plan here, as although they lose some speed they remain open topped, are much more durable and can still do things after delivering their contents. I'm then just going to be filling up the additional points with Lootas.

So, those are my plans for my Orks, however when these plans will be implemented is anyone's guess, as next year I'll have University and everything that comes with it to pay for, but we'll see how that goes and how much money I can save on things like bus fares each week by walking everywhere.

Daemons Analysis Part 3 - Flamers, Screamers and Hellflayers

EDIT: This post is now out of date. An updated post will be posted shortly, and a link placed below:

With September just around the corner now and with all of the goodness that it is supposed to promise, I've decided to get the Daemons analysis finished in one final post on the subject so that we can have a break from me trying to analyse units and failing for a couple of weeks. I'm on holiday again next week, I'm going to Scarborough, but my plan is to write a whole new host of posts on my shiny new Ipad whilst I'm away, so that the content wheel will once again start churning properly when I get back.

So, off we go. This post, again, might be a little brief, as there's not really much to say on these, as the Hellflayers are similar to the Chariots and the Screamers and Flamers have just been through some modifications. So it might look like I'm trying to squeeze blood from a stone at some point.

Hellflayers:

Starting with the Hellflayers. Oddly enough this is, out of the 3, the unit that I have the least to say about. Simply put, a Hellflayer is a Seeker Chariot of Slaanesh with 4 key differences. The first of which is that it takes up a Fast Attack slot as oppose to a Heavy Support one, so you don't take slots away from Flying Daemon Princes, which is nice. Secondly, it comes with the Soulscent special rule, which means that it gets an additional attack at normal initiative for every unsaved wound caused by its Hammer of wrath attacks. Which means that, against marines, it will on average get 2 additional attack, which is by no means spectacular.

Now onto the negative differences. The first of which is that you can only take Hellflayers individually. So, again, you are not going to be able to form a particularly nasty close combat unit with them. Secondly, a Seeker Chariot costs 20pts more than an individual Chariot, but is half the cost of a full 3 Chariot squad. So, the question is, does a Hellflayer do a better job of taking out backfield shooty units than a pack of Chariots considering that you are paying half the points and not taking up that vital Heavy Support slot?

Well, lets look at the maths for a Hellflayer charging a 5 man squad of Devastators whilst at full Hull Points. So, 2D6 Hammer of Wrath hits, averaging 7. at Strength 4. So 3.5 wounds, 1 rending, 2.5 standard wounds, 1 failed save. 2 dead marines. So, 7 attacks, 4.6 hits, 2.3 wounds, rounding to 2. 1 rends, and the other is a standard wound, which is saved. So, 3 dead marines after all of the Hellflayer hits, leaving 2 left standing. We'll assume that the Sergeant was killed just for simplicity. 2 attacks, 1 hit, 1 wound, saved. So, the Hellflayer wins combat by 3, leaving some of the squad alive, so either they'll rally next turn or they'll be locked in combat, probably for a slap fest lasting for quite a duration of the game.

So, I'd say that you can rely on this to shut down 1 unit, but any more and you're looking at a cavalcade of Seeker Chariots to do the job. So, do you want to spend 60pts on being able to take out a single static shooting unit at best, or 120pts and a Heavy Support slot on being able to possibly take out a few. Anyone who's seen my Ork list will know that I like overkill, so I'd personally go for the Chariots. But as I say, it's a preference thing.

Screamers:

So, we know that Seeker Chariots are colliding with Daemon Princes and Soul Grinders in the Heavy Support choices, but what would Hellflayers have to compete with in Fast Attack? Other than Flesh Hounds, Seekers and the like they would also be clashing with Screamers (segwaying like a pro).

Screamers have gone through some changes with this new update, and it's difficult to pinpoint whether they have improved or not. Firstly, let's look at the changes to their statline. They now come with +1 wound, +1 initiative, and +2 attacks. They do however, lose their 4+ save, having to rely on the 5+ for being a Daemon. I'll come to the maths on whether they're more survivable later when I get on to flamers.

Additionally, they lose Warp Jaws, and they get something called Lamprey's Bite. Now, instead of getting 1 attack with a Melta Bomb, Screamers get 3 attacks (assuming that they didn't charge) at S5 AP2 with 2D6 armour penetration. I'd call that an upgrade. They also get a new special rule called slashing attack, which is like a sweep attack but is done when you turbo boost and you can't use Lamprey's Bite through it.

I'd just say use this unit to take on vehicles and small elite units like Terminators. Simply because that's where they will do the most damage, and you can't afford to through them somewhere were they're going to be hit by too many attacks. Their weapon skill of 3 will really hurt them there, as at the end of the day they're T4 Sv5+ models with 2 wounds, they might be able to take a bit of damage, but ideally you want to be breaking through a unit before it has a chance to swing back, so avoid big units or units with high initiative. On average you will cause 7 wounds at AP2 to T4 models with 5 Screamers on the charge, the remaining 23 boyz aren't going to care.

The last 2 changes to Screamers are to do with how you take them. The first of which is that you can no longer take them in a squad of 12, the maximum size of a squad is 9. The second change is that the Screamers have increased in points cost. They are now 9pts more expensive per model than what they were. So, do you think they have increased in usefulness enough to warrant this increase in points? I would say yes, but as with most things in the Daemon Codex, they're only worth their points if they are used properly.

Flamers:

A unit whose points cost did not change proportionately to the changes in their rules are the Flamers of Tzeentch, or at least, that's what I think. As well as having got a lot better in 6^th edition with nothing wanting to charge them due to getting (D3 x number in unit) / 2 armour and cover save ignoring wounds on you, not even walkers with the ability to strip Hull Points on a 4+ with every hit, they have now got a boost here too.

The first thing to get out of the way due to it being the least interesting is the boost to the initiative (+1). It's not really as though you're going to want to charge with your Flamers and it's not like anything is going to get past your overwatch very often unless they're a pretty large unit, which will probably have been flamed by you the previous turn anyway thinning out their numbers.

Right, onto more interesting things, like the changes in their durability. The Flamers have lost their 4++, now being replaced with a 5++ for being a Daemon, but, like the Screamers, they get 2 wounds. So, before the update it would take 3 Boltguns rapid firing to kill a Flamer (6 shots, 4 hits, 2 wounds, 1 saved), now it would take 9 Boltgun shots (4.5 rapid firing if you will) (6 hits, 3 wounds, 1 saved, loses both wounds). So, from here we can see a 50% increase in the durability of a Flamer. No getting around the 2 wounds with S8+ either, as now they actually benefit from having Eternal Warrior.

In the army list section there can be found a couple more changes. Again, the maximum squad size has been decreased to 9, which is dissapointed as I would have liked to take 12 Flamers and hurl them around reliably destroying 1 unit every turn (unless they suffered the full shooting capacity of the opposing army first). They can't be given Bolt of Tzeentch anymore, which I was never going to do anyway as, although they are BS4, it cost 30pts just to give a model bolt. You can however give the unit a Pyrocaster for 5pts, which in essence is a Flamer with +1 attack. I personally wouldn't bother with this, as it's not like you're going to be using that attack very often and when you do it's not going to make much difference.

I think that from the changes to the Flamers I can conclude that unit has increased in usefulness. Both through this update and through 6^th edition itself. So, you'd expect this unit to go the way of the Screamers and become more expensive. Actually, they are now a whole 12pts cheaper than they were previously, almost a third off what they used to be.

I smell a bargain.

Tournament of War: A Tournament report

Ah, I'll just sneak this tournament report in now. The tournament that I attended was called the 'Tournament of War' at my local club, which is Steel City Wargaming in Sheffield. A great club and this was an event to match, really well run.

The scoring for the tournament was broken down as follows. The primary way of differenciating players was through tournament points, with 3 points being awarded for a win, 2 for a draw and nothing for a loss. The second was through victory points scored in games, it wasn't a margin of victory, just a straight up, how many points did you score method. The 3^rd bracket was how many points you lost over the course of your games. As in, if you lost a full unit, as in completely dead, how many points was that worth, tallied up to form a total, and whoever lost the least if it came down to this would be placed higher.

3 games were played by each player over the course of the day, and everyone was playing the same mission each round. I came down with one of my friends who had not yet attended the club. I won't name drop as I'm not sure if he's ok with that but he brought Necrons and I was bringing my improved Space Wolves, although it is not yet optimised. My list was as follows.

Rune Priest with Chooser of the Slain, Living Lightning and Jaws.

Rune Priest with Tempest's Wrath and Jaws.

Allied Primaris Psyker.

3 Wolf Guard, 1 in Terminator Armour with Power Fist and 2 with Standard Power Fists.

5 Wolf Scouts with Meltagun.

Allied Veteran Squad with a Grenade Launcher.

2 squads of 7 Grey Hunters with Meltagun and Wolf Banner.

10 Grey Hunters with Wolf Banner and 2 Meltaguns.

2 packs of 5 Long Fangs with 4 Missile Launchers.

5 Long Fangs with 2 Missile Launchers and 2 Lascannons.

Allied Manticore.

All of this came to 1,499pts.

My friend was taking something along these lines.

Overlord with Warscythe and Mindshackle Scarabs in Catacomb Command Barge.

20 Necron Warriors.

2 squads of 15 Necron Warriors.

2 squads of 3 Destroyers.

2 Monoliths.

Just before I start I want to quickly say that all of my opponents were great and I enjoyed every game. But anyway, on to the games:

My first game was against a Tau player. Now, in every tournament that I have attended my first game has ended in defeat. However, against Tau, I was reasonably confident that I could break this curse. This was then cemented when the mission was Big Guns Never Tire, and I got the first turn, blowing away his Hammerhead and getting 2 victory points straight off the bat. However, he fired back to knock out my Manticore with a single shot from his Broadside, the same Broadside then found a Scout squad behind in the next turn which promptly melted him with a single shot. In essence, I had to keep my objectives and I'd win on secondaries to take the game, but I needed to push for a third objective to try and get as many points as I could.

The game ended with my having 3 objectives, first blood and killing 2 Heavy Support choices, and my opponent having 2 objectives and having killed one of my 4 Heavy Supports. Meaning a 12 – 7 victory to me. I was pleased with this, but this was nothing compared to the carnage that descended on the tables next to me. On the table ahead, our resident tournament player brought down some Tyranids with a large number of victory points, landing him on the top table, whilst my friend on the table below me beat down an Ork army claiming a 14 – 3 victory, landing him on the top table also. Necron Vs Necron action.

I ended up on table 2, playing against a Chaos Space Marine army with 2 squads of Obliterators, some Sorcerers, a Defiler and a lot of standard marines. It was the Emperor's Will, and when I failed to kill anything (night fighting - I only wounded an Obliterator) in my first turn I knew I was in trouble, the Manticore died in the first shot of the game and from there I lost the ranged firepower to knock my opponent off his objective, I kept dropping as many templates as I could onto my opponents objective, but when I finally killed the first squad another took its place. In the end, everything piled onto my objective and the ranged battle was his. I killed the Defiler and Oblits but for some reason the last men standing in both the Chosen squad and a marine squad refused to die giving up points, he jumped my objective on turn 6 and on turn 7 took it. I avoided a tabling by having a single Long Fang remaining, losing 12 – 0.

Meanwhile, my friend was tabled on turn 7 by the other Necron army and unluckily didn't manage to kill a unit, so he joined me one table ahead of me after losing 15 – 0.

I was pushed back towards mid table after that game, and my third game came against the other Chaos Marine player in the room (there were only 2), He was running a similar list except instead of standard marines he had Plague Marines and had dropped 1 Obliterator and the Chosen. I was going second in this game of Crusade and Dawn of War. I spotted a mistake at the start of the game, where my opponent had deployed his defiler behind a large ruin which blocked line of sight and his Obliterators nearby. So, I proceeded to stick my Manticore on the other side of the terrain and put my flimsy Guardsmen on that objective.

We got night fighting, and I failed to sieze. In my opponent's shooting phase, nothing died. In mine, the Manticore smashed a Plague Marine squad reducing it to 2 men, and a few more were shot by bolters and other pieces of small arms weaponary. In turn 2 the pile of dead started to increase, before this game, my Terminator Wolf Guard had been allocated 3 wounds over the course of 2 games on a 2+ save, he had died in both games. This time, he didn't get the luxury of that save, but he managed to pass far too many 5+ invulns before finally succumbing to Plasma cannon fire.

My scouts came on behind the Defiler, and missed with their Meltagun, a Long Fangs pack was shot and ran off the board giving my opponent First Blood, but then he moved a squad of Plague Marines off an objective to go and take another one, whilst en route they were cut down by Long Fangs. My Warlord, although managing a successful duel with a Sorcerer was punched in the face by a Power Fist after a glorious intervention, whilst my Primaris psyker squad and a lone scout managed to take down the remaining Plague Marines and the Obliterator squad. Claiming a 3^rd objective. Meanwhile, a Defiler was munching his way through a pack of Grey Hunters whilst my Rune Priest 'perils of the warp' – ed himself to death.

Luckily for me, the game ended at the close of turn 5, as the defiler had finished with the Grey Hunters and was ready to drop his Battlecannon on my Veterans. As it stood, I had 3 objectives and my opponent had none, also gaining a Slay the Warlord point after my Manticore dropped a missile on my opponent's other Chaos Sorcerer. Thus resulting in a 10 – 2 victory to me. This result pushed me up the table a considerable way and now that the results are out I can edit this post and say that I finished in 5th place.

My friend ended up playing Eldar in his last game, and unfortunately lost that one as well, mainting his record of winning 1 and losing 2 games in every tournament he has attended, hopefully he can break his own tournament curse next time, he's a good enough player to do so.

That's all for the tournament, all I can say is that if you live anywhere within the region of South Sheffield then I'd definitely recommend coming down to the club. It's a really friendly club and they did a fantastic job of running this event without even considering that it was the first tournament the club has run. Just put Steel City Wargaming into any search engine and it should be one of the top options.

Well, that's all for today. See you Friday.

Forget the Schedule

I have been horrendously busy over the last week, so unfaortunately I have not been able to get a post in. I'm still really busy, but I just have time to sneak a quick post in. I'm going on holiday next week, and so I'm probably not going to be able to get a post in until Friday at the latest. So, I haven't abandoned the blog, I'm just going to be away, but this should give me time to churn a few thoughts around my head so that I can really get a decent analysis in on the remaining 2 parts of the Daemons analysis. As well as this, I attended a local tournament yesterday so I'll be talking about that as well as a few other games that I've been involved in, and hopefully get something down on the Tyrannofex as well.

That's all for today really, as I don't have much time to write anything even remotely satisfactory. So, next post coming on Saturday.