NoVA Day 1

NoVA comes and NoVA goes. Its been hard recovering after not really having a weekend. Thank god for Labor Day.

As you probably heard, we had Irene roll through here, but luckly with minimal damage to the area. I came into the Open with the goal of breaking even. My list definitely wasn't set for tourney level competition but set for a fun game with (what I think is) a cool character. Let me break down some the Pros and Cons of the weekend:

Pros: Terrain was important but not exactly game breaking. Each table had a good set up and you knew what to expect with each game. The different piece allowed for some creative line of sight options. Everything was considered flat but being in an elevated position gave you better line of sight overall.

Bracketing levels. I've been to a few tourneys but never a two-day one. Day one (which I'll get to in a bit) was very random how you got paired up. Day two, you played people around your same level. Pretty much all of my games on day two were very close or at least a blast to play. I think it makes it a better experience for everyone overall. No one likes getting stomped out for two days straight, though I'm pretty sure that happened to a few people.

Cons: The venue was nice and all, but no cell phone reception at the tables. Nit picky, I know, but it sucks having to go up top to get reception. I heard from multiple people that it was wicked hard to find something to eat. Since I'm from the area, I either brought things to eat or waited until I got home.

There were a few issues with getting some of the table assignments correct. Plus whenever they were posted, everyone would create this mass of humanity around the list. Then someone would need to put their hand on the page to read an individual line, blocking half the page. Really now? Still need a hand to read in a straight line? Come on, guys. Not really an issue with the tourney, just an observation. Maybe next year, a big projection of the table placement or a TV, I don't know. The list on the wall is low-tech and cheap. We're a hobby of creative folks: let's find something better.

Ok, now for some meat. For each I'll just give a brief overview and a highlight, good, bad or otherwise:

Day one, Game one: Nids
Lots of bugs. 2 sets Hormagaunts with 24 bugs each, Two terrvagons with their 10 each gaunts, three sets of Zoans, Flying Tyrant. I felt good that I had somethings that could take that much but my hopes were dashed quickly when my Stormraven crashed the second turn. I played too conservatively and let him come to me instead of meeting him half way. I ended up getting tabled, badly. Game Highlight: Watching my Terminators get charged by 22 hormagaunts that were boosted by two of the other big bugs. 66 attacks with re-rolls. I ended up taking 10 wounds on each of my four remaining Terminators. Result: Loss. Horrifyingly apparent, I still can't squish bugs.

Day one, Game two: Mech Blood Angels
Predators maxed out, 3 small assault squads in Razors, and two assault jump packs full, one with a chaplain/priest, and the other with a librarian. The terrain was all pretty flat but tall enough to create these valleys. Those created choke points that let me set firelanes and take out tanks as I felt it required. I did have a really good bum rush turn early (turn 1 or 2) and popped four tanks in one turn. What would have helped my opponent is if he included more melta into his army. A lot of his normal squads had either flamers or nothing. Once the troops hit the ground, my Dreads could walk up and bash them up. EXCEPT MY GODDAMN VENERABLE DREAD WHO IMMOBILIZED HIMSELF STEPPING OVER A RHINO. He has flame throwers. File under "Not Helpping". Game Highlight: After his deep striking librarian nailed the landing with his unit, I dropped a few templates on the unit to try to get it wiped. Didn't wipe it but caused just enough to cause a panic check the unit. I was more than happy to escort them off the board. It was a rough game and we both got bloodied, but really it was the terrain setup that made the difference here. Result: Win. At least I know how to handle BA's now. I wanted to play more BA's throughout the weekend so I got a better feeling how they played (since I'm doing them next), but he was the only one I got to play against.

Day one, Game three: Mech IG
Chimeras for as far as the eye can see, three gunships, a PBS, two heavy blasting tanks (the ones with rockets and, I think, a colossus). An Inquisitor lord and a Callidus from the Witchhunters Book as a last hurrah from the Codex. Lots of shooting and me taking covers saves trying to outflank where I could. This was probably my worst match-up and game. I see where everyone was getting their gripe on competitive IG. The PBS targeted down my Terminator squad to reduce their leadership to a "2", the Callidus pops up and templates them with the better shredder. I lose only two but now a check on a "2", and I'm the one getting escorted off. My incinerator squad outflanked in and managed to kill off a tank and the Inquistor with one turn of creative template placement. Highlight: Had to be the Callidus coming in like a hot rocket of anger that her codex is now in a magazine. I'm kinda glad she's not raged out now in the GK codex. Result: Loss. Felt like I was on a steady diet of my own teeth at this point.

Day one, Game four: Grey Knights
After hearing about how many GK's were there, I finally played against one!
Grand Master, Librarian, Paladins and a Stormraven. MSU Strike Squads in Psybacks. Purifiers and a Vinnie.
I thought I had the upper hand after he reserved a ton of his stuff and I killed the Assassin and a whole unit of Strikes before his other stuff got there. I still have much to learn. They came in and rocked my silver plated world. Psyk-Out grenades, rad grenades, and tropes all on the grand master. My Terminators never stood a chance. They all hit themselves at I1 but it didn't matter since he charged with the Psyk-outs, I'm going last :(.  Highlight: I found the proper way to utilize the Brotherhood Banner. In that unit, Mordrak can't be singled out but through wound allocation, and I failed a save on him. Banner activates. Bye-Bye Ghost Knights. His list felt stronger than mine and he gave me some good advice on not overreaching myself. Result: Loss. Tied for objectives. Tied on table quarters. Tied on Kill Points. He won by victory points by a 27 point margin. That's 27 out of 2000 points. Ugh. A fantastic game to end day one, but still, 27 points.

I'll hit up Day Two later, but here's a photo of my army with Mordrak's Fancy Lads up front against Belial on the Second Day.

"Come on, lads!"

Battle Overview - 2000 GK's Test List

I finally managed to get in a game with the list I posted last time. Overall, I was pretty pleased with how it went. Of course, things could have swayed back and forth depending on our rolls but I think it was a good impression of how the list is designed to play like.

2000 points against a standard shooting Space Wolves list: 3 rune priests, 3 long fangs (two with Las, one with Plasma), 3 tactical squads with 10 men each with a Power Fist, Melta, and Combi-Melta in Rhinos, small Wolf Scout unit, and one Dreadnought with Assault Cannon to flavor, served chilled over ice.

We roll off and I choose to go first. Termies loaded up in a Stormraven, Psybacks spread out a little bit with their Riflemen escorts, Vinnie in a tower and Calli in reserve.

First turn = first mistake. It was my first time using the flyer rules in a regular game, so I had heard from one of our rule-lawyers (who is usually wrong) that if its a transport that moves flat-out and get immobilized-turned-to-wrecked, you lose the squad. Well, with a troop choice, an HQ, and a Heavy Support loaded into it, I wasn't going to risk that. Post-game I looked it up specifically and that only happens if its on your phase (like if you landing in rough terrain and take a dangerous test). So I only move 12" to fire my guns and not risk the crew. What I should have done is blast forward with all power to engines and start chewing up Long Fangs.

Either way, turn 1 consisted of me moving up the line, and destroying most of one unit of long fangs, popping two of the rhinos, destroying the weapon on the third, and preventing the dreadnought from shooting. Not bad if I do say so. I realize I should use the Vinidicare more for HQ sniping at this point but he was dead the follow turn, so "Ooops".
----He responds back by destroying the Stormraven and trying to soften up my Interceptors and Termies. Plasma Cannons shuffle back into position and a Tactical Squad moves forward.

Turn 2, Purgation Dread saunters up, some of my Strike Squads get out of their rides. And the Callidus drops in. The Dreads rock it out with their shots out, bringing the last Rhino to a stand-still and killing off a few Long Fangs. The Purgation Dread is close in so it lays down template 1 and tags 5 marines, template 2 does the same. 10 wounds turns into 8 dead marines. Hot damn! I charge in, kill one more marine, and low-and-behold the power fist kills him with shot straight to the face. The Callidus dropping rolled a 5 for the number of hits (right on!), and then only killed one Long Fang (awwwwwh). The shredder template got another but the unit didn't panic because of the priest.
----His turn equaled some more shooting and at everything that could bleed. Callidus took shooting from two units to get rid of her. The Long Fangs she lit up had only one Lascannon left and she managed the 4++, but didn't see the other Lascannon from the Tactical Squad behind her. Doubled out. His Wolf Scouts came on the board and assaulted my weakened Interceptors. The Hammer in the unit kept it real and prevented a total wipe out from the unit.

Turn 3 = Shooty-McShoot-Shoot. Dreads doing their thing, Termies walking up, and the Interceptors getting a support charge from a Strike Squad to help out. I'm slowly whittling away at their numbers but there's a lot left, so I need to start focusing down. I manage to miss almost completely the lone Tactical Marine with the Power fist.
----Power Fist guy rolls in and pops one of my Razorbacks (the Lascannon one). This guy has more than made up his points in punching out a dreadnought AND a transport. I end up getting some Plasma to the face and lose another transport.

The rest of the game was dancing back and forth while keeping the troops alive. Once a full unit passed the mid-field line, my Termies jumped it but I lost my Librarian to Perils of the Warp from casting Hammerhand, of all things. The game ended with my opponent being up by one kill point in the last turn. A rough, long-fought game but a fantastic test run.

Time for lessons learned:
Two Riflemen Dreads = Required Gear.
Again, still impressed with their performance. They lasted the entire game with 3 Long Fangs on the board. The Purgation Dread did incredibly well, but my opponent had a bad phase of armor saves that happened on that shooting phase so we'll see how he goes. He might just become a third Riflemen thanks to magnets.

Halberds on Strike Squads are worth it.
The Strike Squads are cheap and upgrades are expensive. One or even two guys with Halberds make a huge difference when fighting grunts. The Justicars with 2A (3 on charge) make huge differences in terms of on coming attacks. I might expand to include one more guy in each unit so I have more wounds to throw around.

Be prepared to lose ANY Assassins you bring.
All the Temple Assassins are crazy killy, so they will be a priority. Vinnie did great and Calli drew fire. After a few more games, I will have to figure out if I want to swap out the Callidus with a Clexuss Assassin, and utilize him as a counter attack unit to support the other squads once the line is crossed.

I'm hoping to get at least one more game in this week. As for now, gotta try to finish the bases and get three colors my tanks. Weathering is probably going to start up this week too. If there's enough time, maybe even finish painting the Assassins too. Stay cool out there, Internet, cause its sweltering in Virginia.
Laters.

Tourney Result and Grey Knight Discovery!

So I can say firmly that I am very pleased with the Grey Knights. I play in a local tourney run in the local GW by a buddy of mine. 1500 points with the list I had in the last post. It was a knock down, drag out fight every step of the way but I had a blast the whole time.

The set up was single round elimination, so you go until you lose. I ended up having a bye for the first round then immediately got thrown into the fray.

Round 1: Jay with Necrons
This is the first time I've ever played against Necrons. I was trying to figure out how they would capture objectives with only a few scoring unit types. It turns out its because they are irritating to get rid of. We'll be Back and a Monolith tricks can make things really annoying. The pivotal moment came when the jetbike guys flew up, hit Coteaz's Chimera and popped it. I lost a bunch of henchmen from the blast then they panicked and ran (leadership 10, BTW). His plan was to escort them off the board. My plan was to take the Purifers I had close by and smash them into tiny pieces. My plan worked. Riflemen Dread did his duty and shot up something awful every turn. Kill Point mission: Win by 2. By The Way: deep striking interceptors near a Monolith = terrible idea.
Match MVP: Purifers. Two Psycannons and an Incinerator within assault range is dead nasty (Yo!).

Round 2: Brian with Meat IG
I have played lots of games with Brian but never against him. Multiple heavy weapons teams, a huge blob unit that went across the board, PBS with Overseer, and a flyer with a vet squad in it. First turn, I lost both Chimera and had to walk my henchmen up. It came down to me being able to shoot better and not get within range of specific squads with my head down. My Rifleman got up into some terrian piece up high and started sniping out heavy weapons. It got a Kill Point every, single turn. Brian managed to kill a Purifer with a single Psyker with a low STR, AP1 shot. It was pretty amazing, honestly. On my last turn, I finally managed to get my jump troops to leap over a building and assault the far right side of his huge blog unit, pulling them entirely over away from an objective. One troop unit sitting on an objective, another there, and my last unit freed itself from a separate combat and massarced over to a third. Finally swung a vehicle over to contest his objective: Win 3 to 1.
Match MVP: Rifleman Dread. How can he not be the MVP getting a KP every round? He's going to need a nickname if he keeps this up. Possibly a pith helmet and a monocle, too. Don't put it past me.

Round 3: Final against John's Blood Angels
John is a very experienced player who won a recent local tourney in the area. A very strong list indeed: Death Co in Rhino, 4 man bike squad, 2 preds, another rhino with assualty unit and a chaplain, a tactical squad, and a razorback squad. I knew it'd be uphill the whole way, but the crowd had died down a lot so it was just me and him on the tables to duke it out with Thomas (the TO) watching. Kill Point Mission. I take the first turn to deploy out. First shot of the game from the Rifleman - pop a full rhino, kill four of the ten marines and make them walk. Execellent opening shot. The Dread kept up the firing the whole game and made the other vehicles stay back and safe. Fortitude is amazing. Most of the time you can rely on a couple shots at least stopping a vehicle from firing. Yeah, not so much. Pivotal moment: Coteaz's henchmen squad lose the chimera, start up walking towards the 8 man Death Co rhino with my hit squad protecting incoming fire. I lose their transport, Death Co walk up and assault the henchmen and the hit squad. Here's where things got bloody: Coteaz triggers Sancturary (2 Death Co drop), 3 Death Cult Assassins with Coteaz's Hammerhand (since he's Mastery 2, I got both powers off), kill off 5 or so more Death Co leaving the Chaplain by himself, Chaplain targets Coteaz and murders his face, Fearless wounds kill off the Chaplain. That's an 8 man Death Co with a Chaplain killed in the turn that THEY assaulted. Later on, Thomas commented he knew I had something up my sleeve, "No one walks TOWARDS Death Company." The rest of the game was a ranged fight for the most part, just trying to kill off his massive squads with my small ones. Final result: Win by 2 kill points.
Match MVP: Henchmen. 3 DCA's doing their thing is gross. The unit I built could not only charge well, but take the punch and be a threat with Melta. Its going to require a little tweaking to optimize (dropping Arcos, sorry guys), but it could become the best unit I got soon.

So I ended up winning my first solo tourney. It was a great time with some pretty memorable moments. I promised John another game sometime because I feel I got crazy lucky and he couldn't make a FNP roll to save his life (literally, I guess). What helped keep me afloat was any time I had a unit out of a transport, I had to use terrain and LoS blocking correctly. One turn over extended and you give a kill point or two, that's the game there.

Lessons learned about Grey Knights:
-Never drop Interceptors in through Deep Strike. Really now, everytime I DS'ed they got murdered that turn. I lost a lot of points by over reaching the survivablity of power armor and it put me behind 272 points in most games.

-Riflemen Dreads are going to be crazy popular. If you're  playing GK's and you haven't gotten one converted, do it. This guy will more than make up his points. Fortitude will keep him firing and moving every turn. The amount of attention this guy gets is unreal. Since I've always been a fan of them, I think I might do a post on the Grey Dreads soon.

-Purifers are deadly until the very last man. Move 6", use the Incinerator, Assault, Purifying Flame. That's one model who caused about 7 wounds by himself. If you have a Purifers unit with an Incinerator in it, make him the last to die if you can get an extra turn out of it.

-Psycannons are no joke. Extremely shocked how well these things work.

-If you run henchmen, go for balance, not spam. If I had gone for just DCA and Crusaders, I would have lost out on a lot of killing potential with the Banishers and Warriors with Melta guns. Go for what you're comfortable with them doing and build to that. The DCA spam will not survive: I don't care what the Internet says.


With all of that being said, I am now building a 2000 point list. Following my non-traditional build standard, it will again be a mix of Grey Knights and Inquisition. This time around the focus will be on the Grey Knight side of the equation. Updates to follow.

Until then, thanks for sticking around. Roll high.

Gift horses, gifted to myself

My buying habits are a little crazy right now with the holiday season, but I think I'll be good with my recent purchases to keep me busy through a few months. After my game last night, I picked up a set of Khador Uhlans and Kovnik Markov. Plus, waiting for me at home were the Man-of-War Drakhun and the Widowmakers I ordered online. I have a serious back log of painting to do now.

Last Thursday was my usual Warmachine night, but I hadn't played in a few weeks. I met up with a buddy of mine, Caleb, at the FLGS. We actually played a two-versus-two match with some other guys at the shop. Everyone dragged 25 points out. My partner was another Khador player. Instead of intermixing our armies, it was pretty much one-on-one until someone died to support the other. So Caleb was my opponent with this more-or-less:

pDenegra
-Ripjaw (2)
-Slayer
-Spell Cast-astic guy attached
Mechani-Thralls (10)
Pistol Wraith
Machine Wraith
Nerco-surgeon

To match, brought this:

eVlad
-Kodiak
Iron Fang Pikemen (6)
Great Bears of Gallowswood
Greylord unit (3)
Koldun Lord
Demo-corp (3)

The plan was to use Transference, Hand of Fate, and eVlad's feat to just smash face. Here's what actually happened: first turn just got my line to jump forward; Caleb tried to Cripple my Pikemen through an arc node but was short by an inch, so I tried to charge it with the whole unit and almost one-shot it a CMA combined with Hand of Fate, which resulted in a very damaged light jack early.

Here's where things got nuts quickly. He moved the damaged jack just enough to free up one of the Pikemen who had a decent looking line to the caster. So, popped feat, got 5 guys all jacked up and tried to take out the witch. Pikemen slides in, gets within melee range, but his buddy gets a free-strike for breaking combat and with one die gets killed by the light jack. Super-Pikeman nails her, uses Transference to boost the melee damage, and causes 11 points of damage. This is turn 3 or 4, by the way. I used one of the other feat boosts on a Greylord - charge in, with battle wizard, kills four Mechani-Thralls with the melee/spray combo. A few other guys smack around some Mechani-Thralls, and my Koldun Lord takes out a Pistol Wraith. Little did I know, this made his Necro-surgeon the scariest model on the field.

My noble Pikeman gets crushed by a Slayer. Deneghra pops her feat (everyone gets sickly). Thralls come back and my Kodiak gets possessed by a Wraith. Koldun Lord gets eaten by a light jack but he took out the Pistol Wraith in the previous turn. So my scary turn gets turned on me completely and I end up behind the ball. Everyone being sickly means no charges or double attacks with the Great Bears. My Kodiak couldn't shake the Wraith, so in an act of pride, the Great Bears attack it from behind to kill the Wraith inside. No one dances with my girl but me, so that guy had to go. I knock out both its arms leaving legs intact. The Wraith pops out, then the cortex gets damaged, so the Kodiak is now a blocker. Until it gets smashed to pieces by combo-strikes the next turn.

Major threat now becomes the Slayer who finds his way to Vlad. Knocks Vlad down to 5 boxes with two attacks. Vlad hulks-out and destroys a healthy Slayer by himself using Martial Paragon and additional attacks. Here's where I lost the game. After the attacks destroyed the jack, I didn't move him far enough away. Next turn, Deneghra spells him with a boosted hit, beats his armor and does 6 damage.

Insane game and I'm really starting to learn the combos that work. eVlad might have to be my caster for a while now. I was incredibly impressed with the way he can do almost anything. The only weak point of the list was the Kodiak. I'm not sure if its because I used him incorrectly or if Caleb managed to control him out of being a threat, but its probably going to get phased out. I might throw in a Destroyer for the AoE or replace another unit for range other than the Greylords.

On a side note, I started writing this Friday and thought I had posted it. In the time between, I've managed to assemble the Drakhun, three Uhlans, Kovnik Markov, a unit of Windowmakers on resin bases, and an Assault Kommando Flame Thrower. So I've been busy.

I also managed to paint-up the Drakhun watching Monday Night Football. Photos coming later. I got a game set for tonight, so I'll try to take pictures and get a battle rep up too.