The Road to Cally

The Caledonian Uprising is one of the most competitive tournaments in the UK Calendar. Traditionally it’s also one of the biggest. This year it has 180 people registered. I don’t think there are any other tournaments in the UK that will exceed this. 

It's held in the North West Gaming Centre in Stockport near Manchester (I think .. my English Geography is a bit limited). It’s a bit of a drive (around 3 hours) but there is a bunch of us making the trip south so it will qualify as the closest thing I get to a “boys weekend” these days. Really looking forward to it.

Don't tell anybody - but Im playing again!

Whisper it  ….. I’m playing a lot of 40k again! 

Not sure why – but for the first time in a long time, I’m enjoying playing 40k competitively again. I’m just back from Heat 3 of the UK GT, where I qualified for the final (just!). I’m committed to trying to get into the Scottish ETC team (unlikely, but we’ll see), and more importantly I’ve found a Tau list that’s fun to play and reasonably competitive.

7th Edition and Teenage Romance

When I was in my final year at school I had a huge crush on one of the girls in my class. I fell for her like only an 18 year old can. I was obsessed. Sadly it was entirely unrequited.

A few years later I met her again, and we spent some time together. With a few years perspective I really couldn’t see why my 18 year old self fell for her so hard. Other women were way hotter and way more interesting.

And that’s kinda how I feel about 7^th edition. I’m totally over my obsession with 40k.

Excitement Mounting

Well, against my better judgement I'm getting excited abut 7th edition!

I like some of the rumours I'm reading. Unbound armies are silly, but I'm assuming that most tournaments will just ignore them (oh and Lords of war of course!)

I like the sound of the Maelstrom of War missions. Variable missions, where you score points at the end of each turn actually sound quite fun. And the psychic phase ..... sounds OK!

So I've put of that purchase of Dropzone Commander until 25th May!

EYIG

7th Edition

7^th Edition

I’m afraid my enthusiasm for playing 40k is at an all time low.

Readers of my ramblings will know I’m not a huge fan of 6^th Ed. I keep hearing people say things like “6^th Edition is the best rules set ever” or “I’m having more fun with 6^th edition than I’ve ever had”, and it makes me wonder if they’re playing the same game.

Farsight Bombs Revisited Part 2

For some stupid reason the comments section is not working for me at the moment, so the idea of this post is to respond to the comments in the last one.

@Franco - Your'e probably right about Shadowsun. The reason I wanted to run it as an Enclave list is to get the Talisman. Next tourni I know I'll be playing at least 2 good Demon players and I thought this would help. However, I guess the 2+ cover save will help just as well against psychic shooting.

@Melvin. It's OK to run Shadowsun with Farsight as long as its and Empire list rather than an Enclave list.

@Arrgyle - Check the wording on the Enclave Supplement - it says p88

"Any character in your army that may select Signature Systems may not select from those in [the Empire book] but may instead select from the [Enclave Book]."

Bodyguards are not characters so the prohibition on taking Sig Systems from the Empire Book doesn't apply to them. Accordingly the Bodyguards are drawn from the Empire Book and can take Empire Sig Systems.

The pods are important. Because of the stupid FAQ introduced last year, a unit can only kill models up to the maximum range if its weapons. So if there are only 18" weapons in the bomb, and it drops in 17" away from a unit of boyz, it can only kill those models within 18", which would wast a lot of shots. However, if there is one weapon in the unit with a longer range i.e. the Missile Pod, then the 18" Pulse Carbines can kill everything up to 36" away. This is pretty crucial, as you want to keep the bomb at max distance to void being charged. Stupid rule, but it is what it is!

The pods also make the bomb more flexible, allowing it to reach out and "touch" more distant targets. This is important, because the bomb (after the Skyrays shoot their missiles) is the only real shooting unit in the army. It needs to be as flexible as possible.

Sorry, but I disagree about the Sniper rounds as well (!) - the last thing I want anybody to think is that the Kroot are a threat. The list has very weak scoring. The fewer guns being turned on the Kroot the better.

EYIG

Farsight Bombs Revisited.

A while ago I wrote an article questioning how effective a Farsight Bomb might be. The conclusion I reached was that it wasn’t that effective. Well, I was wrong!

A couple of weekends ago I played against Franco from 40k Global at Dark Millenium in Stirling. He played his Farsight Bomb (I played my bikes) and I must say I was impressed (great game BTW – I won the Primary objectives, but Franco dragged it back on Secondary’s for the win). The biggest problem I saw was keeping so many points off the table to deep strike down on (hopefully) turn 2. What I hadn’t really thought through was using an SM Libby with Gate of Infinity to “gate” the bomb around the board, benefiting from Farsight’s “no scatter” rule each time. I knew it was possible of course (there is a “little” rules issue over whether Farsight’s ability works with gate, but most TO’s are ruling it does), but I hadn’t really appreciated how powerful it was. I got a demonstration from Franco.

Malifaux Masters Battle Reports - Part 1

Hello Sir#67 here to tell you about my latest Malifaux antics.

A few weeks ago some of the best players in the country gathered together for the Malifaux Masters and somehow I qualified!

For the people who are unfamiliar with the Masters format; the Masters is an invitation only tournament held over two days. To qualify you need to finish the year ranked somewhere in the top 16 Malifaux players as listed on Rankings HQ.

The players are split into four different groups with the top four players in the UK are seeded so that one of the top four is present in each group. The actual draw took place a week before the event and anyone could listen in via conference call. Points for transparency there!

On day one you play each member of your group once and the top two players in each group will go through to day two. Day two is a straight knockout event.

I was in Group 2 with James Doxy (UK No 2), Jacob Senett and Matt Ledgerwood. I’d never played any of these guys before so I had no idea what to expect. I’ve been to some of the same events as James and know him to be very good with Ramos but that was about it. I was taking my Neverborn. I’d been playing Neverborn and Malifaux in general for about a year by the time the Masters rolled round but my M2E experience is not the best (dam you Dropzone Commander, you beguiling destraction you!) I was hoping to make it to day two and to do that I’d have to finish at least 2^nd in my group.

I’m terrible at recording battle reports and you don’t really have time to take notes at the Masters so I’m not going to post proper battle reports more just general thoughts. I've also totally forgotton which upgrades were taken by either side. If you just assume that I look Beckon Malifaux every time I played Lilith you shouldn't go far wrong. 

Game 1: Recconoiter 

Opponent: Matt Ledgerwood (Ressurectionists)

Crews:

Lilith

Bad Juju

2 x Waldgeist

Young Nephlim

2 x Terror Tot

Primordial Magic

Seamus

Hanged

Mortimer

Bette Noir

3 x Belle

Punk Zombie

This game kind of set the tone for the rest of the Masters. We both played very cagey. I used Tangle Shadows to swap Bad Juju with Bette Noir. This put Bad Juju in the middle of Mark’s crew and he proceeded to make a nusience of himself. Lilith delt with Bette Noir with the rest of her ap and Saemus blew the face off a terror tot I moved a little but to far up the table. Bette Noir popped out of the tots corpse and Sameus made a belle. Bad Juju repositioned slightly and cast Landslide. Landslide is an amazing spell, I managed to catch 2 Belles and the Hanged in the pulse. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to put slow on any of the models but I did get a 10, 12 and 13 out of Marks deck. 

The game devolved into a bit of a stalemate at this point. Neither of us could make any real dent in each other’s crew. The Young Neph went down and Lilith killed Bette/summoned Belles repeatedly. My other tot and the Illuminated managed to drop markers for me to secure max points from break through and 1 from Power Ritual. Mark managed to score 2 points from Distract.

We had to call the game at the start of turn 4 and when points were totalled up I managed to win 5-4.

Game 2: Turf War

Opponent: Jacob Sebnett 

Crews:

Jacob Lynch

Huggy

3 Illuminated

Beckoner

Teddy

Nicodiem

Nurse

Bette Noir

Mortimer

Canine Remains

Punk Zombie

Crooked Man

Mortimer started off by digging up corpses for Nico to summon from and Nico made a Hanged and some Punk Zombies. My models hung around the edge of the scoring zone around the marker. Trying to take advantage of my superior threat range. 

Turn 2 and my Illuminated charged and killed the Canine Remains, Bette popped up and proceeded to Red Joker my Illuminated. Nico summoned a Canine Remains from the old dogs corpse and one of my illuminated gave it a cursed object. Huggy double walked through a church to enguage half of Jacobs crew. I’m pretty sure either Lynch or a Beckoner put Bette back into the ground. 

Again we hit a stalemate. I fed models into the zone to keep scoring for Turf War and passed out some Cursed Objects. Huggy went down in Turn 3 but I brought him back in Turn 4 to score for Bodyguard. Teddy went a little bit wild but ended up being killed by the Hanged. 

We were on even points until one of the last activiatons of the game where Jacob killed his own model denying me a point for Cursed Object resulting in a 9-8 loss to me.

I really should have been far more aggressive in this game. If I had activated Jacob at the start of the turns instead of at the end for extra cards, I could have cranked my crew’s damage out put enough to keep up with the attrition battle.

Game 3: Reckoning

Opponent: James Doxy

Crews: 

Lilith 

Bad Juju

2 Waldgeist

Barbaros

2 Terror Tots

Primordial Magic

Ramos

Joss

Howard

Electrical Creation

2 Molemen

Metal Gamin

James moved his electrical creation forwards and Ramos used magnetism to move towards it and kill it for scrap. He then proceded to summon 3 Steam Aracnids and arranged them in “Swarm formation” (all bases touching). Lilith moved forwards and cast Tangle Shadows on one of the spiders, swapping it with Bad Juju. She killed the spider in base to base with her and summoned a forest to block Joss’ line of sight to Bad Juju. Bad Juju delivered the message to Ramos and cast Landslide making Ramos Slow!

The two Molemen did their scheme marker thing and Howard set off to smack one of my Tots. The Waldgeists set up some forests and Barbaros hunkered down behind one and used his zero action to Challenge. Joss disgarded Imbued Energies for Fast and used the extra ap to walk then charge Barbaros. Joss missed with his first attack and Barbaros hit his defensive trigger pushing Joss away again. For some reason we both forgot that Joss’ axe doesn’t allow defensive triggers.

Turn 2 and Bad Juju punched a spider in the face and cast Landslide again. Ramos used Magnetism to push towards the Metal Gamin. Lilith cast Tangle Shadows on the Metal Gamin and took it down to it’s Hard to Kill wound. Barbaros ended up next to Ramos as part of the Tangle Shadows. Howard Langston murdered a Terror Tot and Barbaros hit Ramos. A combination of the Repulse trigger and Barbaros’ weapon meant that he was able to nimble away and plant a scheme marker.

The Waldgeists killed the Metal Gamin getting me a point for Reckoning.

After that nothing changed in the subsequent turns. We both got maximum points for our schemes. I took Protect Territory and Deliver a Message, James took Break Through and Protect Territory. The single point I was able to get for Recokoning in Turn 2 handed me a 7-6 victory.

I was really nervous going into this game. James had only ever lost 1 game of competitive M2E up until this point and to be honest I was expecting to either win my first 2 games and so stand a good chance of getting out of the group or loose both my games and not progress. 

Having to beat James made things very interesting because if Jacob also won his game there would be three players in our group with a 2-1 record and it would be soul stone difference that would decide who went to day 2.

Thankfully Matt did James and I a favour by beating Jacob and I progressed to the quarter finals. 

My write up for day 2 will follow shortly.

Thanks for reading

Sir#67

Preferred Enemy List Review

List Review

A number of things in my list worked well, and a number not so much.

What worked

Preferred Enemy Bat Reps

Just back from Preferred Enemy in Stirling. About 24 of us turned up for a 7 game 1,650pt tourni. It was the first big test for my revised bike army using the new codex.

The list I took was in the last post

Preferred Enemy Take 2

Thanks to Sam for pointing out the error in my last list (need to make Khan the Warlord to give the bikes Scout). It has made me think again about whether he’s worth it. I’ve hummed and hawed (good Scottish expression!), and I’ve decided not to. I want to see if the list works without Scout.

There are a number of reasons – I want to see if my theory hammer on how to play Stalkers works, and that depends on Iron Hands being the Primary. Also, I like having the Inquisitor as my Warlord, allowing me to “throw away” the Chapter Masters. Finally, Khan is pretty pathetic for everything else, other than scout.

Bikes for Preferred Enemy

I’m off to a 1,650pt tournament next weekend. I’m bored with Tau (gasp!), so I’m taking my bikes.

I took them to a team tourney a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed playing them. Very different from Tau. Boiling it down to its most fundamental – with Tau you win the game in the shooting phase, with the bikes I think you win the game in the movement phase. Makes for a very different play style.

At the team tournament my list was basically Khan, a Chapter Master, 3 full bike squads, 2 Scout Squads  in Land Speeder Storms, and a couple of Thunder Fire Cannons. I went 3-0-0, but due to the “match up” mechanic, I was able to avoid some horribly bad match ups (Demon FMC spam and Dark Eldar venom spam!). I played mech elder (4 Serpents, 3 Fire Prisms and 2 Crimson Hunters), Orks (I think 4 battle wagons), and Tau (Farsight with double Riptides some Broadsides and a bunch of suits). 

Back from a Year Off.

Hello,

I think it’s been about a year since I posted on this blog. Don’t worry I am still alive but it has been a busy year.

I’ve worked in Cardiff for most of last year, got a new job at a consultancy in Newcastle and bought a house. Unfortunately neither of those things has left a lot of time for blogging.

I also decided to give up 40k in the early part of 2013. A combination of 6^th edition rules and rising prices really turned me off the game. I’ve been on quite the gaming odyssey over the past 12 months, in my quest for something new to try I’ve dabbled in:

Warmachine/Hordes

Magic the Gathering
Infinity

Malifaux

X Wing

Dropzone Commander                    

Dropzone Commander has been something of a whirlwind at my local club. Two of us took a gamble on the two player starter set and it turns out the game is pretty damn good. In just over a month we now have around 10-15 people looking to play regularly.

Dropzone hasn’t been my main focus however. I’ve spent most of my time playing Malifaux. I’ve really fell in love with that game. It’s got great models and great mechanics, not to mention a fantastic competitive scene. Everyone I’ve met has been great right from the start, in all the tournaments I’ve been to I’ve never had a single problem with anyone. One of the guys at the club John had a bit of trouble at the first tournament we went to but the next time he saw the same person at an event the player in question made a point of apologising for his previous behaviour. I’ve never even heard of that at a 40k event and to actually see it was something else. This doesn’t mean that every tournament is fluffy bunnies and cotton wool. There are some very good players in this country and most tournaments are hard fought but good natured contests.

Speaking of tournaments I’ve been to quite a few this year:

Vapnartak (4^th)

Monkeyfaux (11^th)

Breachside Brawl (6^th)

The Dark Breach (1^st)

Henchwench (5^th)

4M (1^st / team event)

Back to the Breach (15^th)

Scottish GT Hardcore (2^nd)

Scottish GT (5^th)

That’s nearly 1 event every 6 weeks!

The icing on the cake of my year of Malifaux was finding out that I’d managed to qualify for the Malifaux Masters. I finished the year ranked 13^th in the UK so I only just scraped into the top 16 but I’m still pretty proud of myself.

The Masters is taking place on 18^th/19^th January and I’m in the middle of my preparations. That basically means I’m painting like mad to try and get everything finished!!!

Now that my life has settled down a little bit I’m hoping to start blogging again but Malifaux and Dropzone Commander will be the main focus of the articles I write.

I’d also like to thank EYIG for keeping the blog going for the past 12 months while I’ve been busying my time with anything but 40K

Thanks for reading, hopefully it won’t be 12 months before my next post!!!

Greg (Sir#67)