tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62908066758297948052024-03-13T00:41:51.455+00:00Apostates AnonymousA blog set up by 40k enthusiasts, for 40k enthusiasts.
Concentrating on the competitive side of the hobby, but in no way limited to it.Bedehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427331008019514181noreply@blogger.comBlogger223125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290806675829794805.post-6283143789580635492018-03-11T16:05:00.000+00:002018-03-11T16:06:19.024+00:00Screens, and how to Beat them<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica";"><span style="font-size: 14px;">As an army that predominantly deep strikes, and (worse) needs to charge from those deep strikes to really deal damage, I hate screens! However, if I'm to do well at the GT, I need to work out how to beat them so I can deliver Thunder Hammers to the Emperors foes. </span></span><br />
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To be clear, what I mean are units positioned to push back deep strikers, and units strung out in front important units, that force you to charge them first, before you can kill the stuff hiding behind them. For my army to work at it’s full potential, I need to get better at clearing screens.</div>
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<b>What are Screens?</b></div>
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As I see it there are broadly 2 types of screens. First there are the “normal” ones. By this I mean units of chaff strung in front of important units, to stop you charging them. A good example was Game 2 at DM5. My opponent strung 30 guardsmen across the board in front of his Knights. If I dropped down in front of the Knights, I need to clear the guardsmen, before I can assault the Knights. This particular opponent is pretty crafty, because he always makes sure that his Knights are more than 3 inches behind his guardsmen. What that means is I can’t even declare the Knights as a target when I charge, as they’re more than 12” away. Why is that important? Well, it’s important becasue if I could declare them as a target, I could wipe the guardsmen, then consolidate into the Knight, trigger Honour the Chaptes, to allow me to fight again, and then smack the Knight with some Thunder Hammers.</div>
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The 2nd type of screen is having some random guys standing around, zoning off the board - buy this I mean having enough units hanging around that I can’t get within 9 inches of anything. Again, my game 2 at DM5 was a good example. As mentioned above, my opponent had a string of guardsmen in front of his Knights to stop me dropping down in front of them and charging. However, that wouldn’t stop me dropping down behind them. However, he was wise to this and had dotted random chaff units around in his backfield to zone of everything behind his Knights and Guardsmen. So the only place I could drop was in front of the Guardsmen.</div>
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There’s another “trick”. Some untis can deploy outside of your deployment zone, pushing deep strikers back even further. For example, Eldar Rangers can deploy before the first turn, in “no mans land”, which create an 18” bubble of “no deep striking”. The best untis for this are untis that can deploy into no man’s land during deployment - e.g. Space Marine Scouts and Nurglings”. </div>
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Using a combination of all these strategies allows an opponent to deny you a huge area of the board to deep striking units.</div>
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<b>What to do about them?</b></div>
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Bluntly, I’m not entirely sure! All three games I lost at DM5 we’re largely because of effective screening. </div>
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Simply stated, I need to work out how to kill screens before my damage dealing units come down. That means I need units that can kill lots of (typically) low toughness, high save models (e.g. Guardsmen, Scouts, Nurglings, Cultists) quickly and efficiently. But it’s not quite as simple as that. The screen killers need to be able to kill both types of screens. Being able to kill a line of Guardsmen is different from being able to kill three units of Nurglings 18” apart in no man’s land. For example, a unit of Death Company can come down and easily kill a line of guardsmen. However, it’s harder for them to kill 3 untis of 3 Nurglings bases when the first one is 36” away from the third one!! </div>
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Which means I need multiple ways to kill them. </div>
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And the screens killers will most likely die to retaliation next turn, so either they need to be efficient i.e. I dont care if they die ‘cause they’ve done their job, or have a way to protect themsevles from that retaliation. </div>
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<b>The Solution?</b></div>
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I dont know if it’s THE solution, but it’s what I’m going to try. </div>
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Firstly, the best cure is prevention!! I need to use my Scouts more agressivly, punching them as far forward as possible to stop my opponent deploying anything into no mans land. Easier against units that infiltrate into no mans land (e.g. rangers), harder against units that deploy into no mans land (e.g. Nurglings). For units that deploy into no mans land, I’m thinking about taking a 10 man untis of scouts so I can zone off a larger area with one deployment.</div>
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But back to killing screens. In the army I’m thinking about I will have 3 Screen Clearer’s - the 15 man unit of Death Company, the Mortars, and a unit of 6 Assault Bolter Inceptors. </div>
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The Death Company I’ll use against big units, strung out in front of my opponents army, or against units placed close together. I can string out the DC, and multi charge all of them. With descent of Angels, and re-rolls from Lemartes a 9” charge is pretty reliable. They also have 30 bolter shots that will also help thin out the horde. The problem of course is that the DC will be targeted with extreme prejudice by my opponent. They are only Marines after all, and will die in droves. The secret then is to try and “take a prisoner” i.e. trap a unit so it can’t fall back, which means my opponent can’t shoot the DC next turn. Easier said than done on occasion. I did it regularly with my Harlies, and when it works, it's "golden".</div>
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The other beauty of using the DC is that they work against tougher screens because of the sheer volume of attacks, and +1 to wound from Red Thirst. It’s also easier to exploit any mistakes made by your opponent in placeing their screen, with an assault unit - e.g. if they place the units their screening too close to the screen. </div>
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I’ll use the Mortars for anything really, but typically for low toughness, high save units (Guardmsen, Cultists), that are spread out, denying landing zones. The Mortar’s protection is that they’re in the backfield, and (hopefully) out of line of sight. </div>
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Finally, the Inceptors can kinda do both jobs, as long as they get within 18”. I’m planning to run either Dante, or another Captain to baby sit them, for re-rolls to hit. The plan is to land them in cover for an enhanced save, and hope that their T5 and natural 3+ save will keep them alive. A forlorn hope perhaps, best boosted by giving my opponent something more scary to shoot at (the DC for example). </div>
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So there you have it, my solution to screens.</div>
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Thoughts?</div>
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EYIG</div>
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Embrace Your Inner Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09175279670690377675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290806675829794805.post-80491710858095273832018-03-10T14:11:00.001+00:002018-03-10T14:11:23.618+00:00Blood Angels List Review<div style="font-family: "helvetica Neue", helvetica; font-size: 14px;">
My list for Dark Millenium was </div>
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<b>Blood Angles Battalion</b></div>
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Lemartes</div>
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Captain JumpSmash</div>
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5 Scouts</div>
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5 Scouts</div>
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5 Scouts</div>
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15 Death Company with 3 Thunder Hammers</div>
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<b>Guard Brigade</b></div>
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Company Commander (the CP Miner)</div>
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Tempestor Prime</div>
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Tempestor Prime</div>
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5 Tempestor Scions, 2 Plasma Guns, 1 Plasma Pistol</div>
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5 Tempestor Scions, 2 Plasma Guns, 1 Plasma Pistol</div>
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5 Tempestor Scions, 2 Plasma Guns, 1 Plasma Pistol</div>
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5 Tempestor Scions, 2 Plasma Guns, 1 Plasma Pistol</div>
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5 Tempestor Scions, 2 Plasma Guns, 1 Plasma Pistol</div>
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5 Tempestor Scions, 2 Plasma Guns, 1 Plasma Pistol</div>
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Cyber Wolf </div>
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Cyber Wolf</div>
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Cyber Wolf</div>
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Acolyte</div>
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Acolyte</div>
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Acolyte</div>
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Heavy Weapons Team, 3 Mortars</div>
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Heavy Weapons Team, 3 Mortars</div>
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Heavy Weapons Team, 3 Mortars</div>
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<b>Supreme Command Detachment</b></div>
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Shield Captain, Dawneagle Jet Bike, Hurricane Bolter</div>
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Shield Captain, Dawneagle Jet Bike, Hurricane Bolter</div>
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Shield Captain, Dawneagle Jet Bike, Hurricane Bolter</div>
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The strongest feature of the list were its Command Points. The list started with 16. Every time I spent a CP, on a 5+ I regained it. Every time my opponent used a Strategem, on a 5+ I “stole” a CP. Every game I spend 5 CPs pre-game - 3 to give 2 Shield Captain a 3++, 1 to make Captain JumpSmash a Death Company Captain, and 1 to give him the Angels Wings relic (cant be overwatched and re-rolls charges). I would usually spend 4 on Descent of Angels (charge on 3d6), using it twice, 2 on Red Ramapage (extra d3 attacks), again using it twice, and usually 6 on Honour the Chapter (attack twice) again, using it twice, either on JumpSmash and/or Lemartes. Occasionally I would use 2 CP’s to stop the big DC unit from failing moral. Combine that with other miscellaneous uses (e.g. re-rolls, On Wings of Fire etc), and I used a ton of CPs every game. In only one game did I run out of CP’s. I usually ended the game with around 6 CP’s left, and in one game I had 11 left at the end.</div>
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Which of course begs the question, assuming I have the CP Miner, do I really need 16 CP’s, or to put it another way, do I need the Guard Brigade?</div>
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I suspect the answer is “no”, so in the next iteration of the list I’ll drop the Brigade. </div>
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There were a number of other things that weren’t quite right.</div>
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<b>Scions</b></div>
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In theory, having 30 deep striking plasm shots is amazing. However, I was underwhelmed by the Scions. Even re-rolling 1’s from the Tempestor Prime’s Orders, I found myself more often frustrated by the Scions, than impressed by them. Often I would need to commit 3 units plus the Prime to inflicting enough damage to be worth while, and once committed their utility was usually done. Usually they were killed next turn as a “high priority target”. With T 3 and a 4++ save it’s not hard to do. However, often I just found myself out of position to do anything else. Once they’re down, they’re pretty immobile. </div>
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I’m wondering whether Plasma Inceptors might be an alternative. Two units of Scions cost 156pts, and kick out 10 plasma shots at 12”. Three Inceptors will on average kick out 12 plasma shots, at 18”, and cost 177pts. For that extra 21pts I get T5, a 3+ Save, a 10” move and the ability to reposition with On Wings of Fire (a Strat allowing me to pick any unit with the Jump Pack rule up and put them down again anywhere on the board for one CP). Not a bad deal. The down side of cours is the random number of shots 6d3. There will be some turns when I roll a handful of 1’s - but rolling 6 dice should even things out. </div>
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<b>Cyber Wolves and Acolytes</b></div>
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The only thing these units added to the list was a way to fill out the Brigade cheaply. But more than that they irritated me. It just didn’t feel right to have 3 random Solves and 3 random guys with Bolters hanging around. If I don’t need the Brigade, I’ll ditch them in a moment.</div>
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<b>Death Company</b></div>
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Don’t get me wrong, i love the DC, the number of attacks they can throw out is staggering (60 attacks on the charge from 15, re-rolling with Lemartes and +1 to wound rolls from Red Thirst). It was the load out I found awkward. Often I found that either the Thunder Hammers weren’t needed, or I wanted more of them - or to put it another way, the target you point the DC at, either needed more Thunder Hammers or more Chainswords. </div>
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I suspect the answer is to have 2 units. One of 15 DC, with nothing but Chainswords for clearing screens and low to medium toughness models, and another unit to kill Big Scary Things (BSTs). This might be DC with Hammers, but it could be Sanguinary Guard or Vanguard Vets with Hammers and Storm Shileds. Further thought required.</div>
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<b>Shield Captains</b></div>
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I’ll be honest here up front - my objection to Shield Captain is more “philosophical” than real - it just didn’t feel right pasting 3 of them into a BA and Guard army. They were a late addition. I had been running Sanguinary Guard, but was disappointed by their performance (too few attacks, and random damage). I had come to the conclusion that, to make SG work, you had to run too much support (an Ancient with the Relic Banner to give them a 5++ “feel no pain”, and a Libby with Unleash Rage to give them another attack), and I loved the Dawneagle models. </div>
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The Shield Captain bring 2 big things to the army - torrent of fire via their Hurricane Bolters, and resilience. Interestingly, what they dont bring is combat punch 5 attacks at s6 and (most tellingly) d3 damage just doesn’t cut it in a BA army! Three Thunder Hammer Jump Captains are way more scary in assault. </div>
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<b>Mortars</b></div>
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It’s not that they're bad - 3d6, s4 shots, at 48”, which ignore line of sight for 33pts, is pretty good! And add in how they can zone out your backfield and it’s even more compelling. However, they problem is they hit on 4s! Even re-rolling 1’s from the Commander’s orders they are still pretty rubbish. To work I think they need to be in a pure Cadian detachment, so they re-roll all misses. </div>
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<b>Future Direction</b></div>
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To try and address some of these issues I’m going to change up the list for my next GT at the end of March. I think Inceptors might be the answer!!</div>
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The plan is to drop the Guard Brigade to see if the list works with fewer Command Points. I’ll still take a Guard Spearhead Detachment to give the Mortars another chance as pure Cadians to, increase their accuracy. I’ll replace the rest of the Brigade with 2 units of 3 plasma Inceptors, to replace the Scions, and one unit of 6 bolter Inceptors to replace the Shield Captain’s torrent of fire. I’ll also take the Thunder Hammers out of the 15 man DC unit, and take a second assault unit to hunt BSTs. Not sure yet what. </div>
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Further thought to follow.</div>
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EYIG</div>
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Embrace Your Inner Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09175279670690377675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290806675829794805.post-52194110601718813532018-03-06T10:32:00.000+00:002018-03-06T10:43:33.914+00:00Dark Millenium 5<div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392); font-family: helvetica;">
This was the 4th time I’ve been to DM (missed last year’s event, which clashed with the LVO). The event has really hit its stride with 50 people attending (filling the venue), and having a waiting list. </div>
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The Rules pack was quite unique, with primary and secondary missions, and Bonus Points for first blood, kill the warlord, line breaker and “last laugh) (i.e. the last person to kill something). The primary missions were recognisable, but the secondary maelstrom missions were bespoke for DM5. Your started with 20 maelstrom missions, of which you could achieve 2 per turn. They were all seperatly pointed (1-4), depending on how hard they were. There were 4 points for winning primary, 4 for secondary, and 4 bonus points.</div>
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Most people loved the rules pack, but I wasn’t a fan of the maelstrom mission. In practice games I found that having 20 missions you could choose from made things too complicated, slowing down the game as I thought about what I was going to achieve that turn. Ultimately I decided just to ignore the malestrom missions, and focus on the primary missions - if I scored any malestrom points it would be a bonus. </div>
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So this was the list I took</div>
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Blood Angels Battalion</div>
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Captain, Thunder hammer, Jump Pack (Captain “JumpSmash”)</div>
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Lemartes</div>
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Scout Squad x3</div>
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Death Company x15, 3 Thunder Hammers, the rest wth Bolters and chainswords</div>
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Guard Brigade</div>
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Commander (the CP Miner)</div>
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Tempestor Prime x 2</div>
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Tempestor Scions, Plasma Gun x2, Plasma Pistol </div>
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Tempestor Scions, Plasma Gun x2, Plasma Pistol </div>
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Tempestor Scions, Plasma Gun x2, Plasma Pistol </div>
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Tempestor Scions, Plasma Gun x2, Plasma Pistol </div>
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Tempestor Scions, Plasma Gun x2, Plasma Pistol </div>
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Tempestor Scions, Plasma Gun x2, Plasma Pistol </div>
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Cyber Wolf x3</div>
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Inquisitorial Acolytes x3</div>
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Heavy Weapons squad with Mortars x3</div>
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Custodes Supreme Command Detachment</div>
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Shield Captain on Jet Bike x3</div>
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If I’m honest I didn’t like my list. The Cyber Wolves and the Acolytes were there just to make up the Brigade as cheaply as possible and “just didn’t feel right”, and the Shield Captains were a late additions (had been running Sanquinary Guard) because I loved the models, and thought they would provide necessary weight of fire from their Hurricane Bolters. However, again - it jsut didn’t feel right. But I’ll get to list analysis later. </div>
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Usual format, brief bat reps, and some list analysis.</div>
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<b>Game 1</b></div>
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Against a space wolves list - Nigel, Bjorn, 3 units of Grey Hunters, 2 packs of wolves, 3 packs of Wulfven (sp!), 2 Dev Squads and a Plasma Obliterator. When I first saw the list (first round match ups were posted a few days before) I was pretty scared by the Plasma Obliterator, but after I read up on it it wasn’t too scary - a few Thunder Hammers will sort that right out!! Can’t remember the mission, but it didn’t matter.</div>
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We set up, me with most stuff in reserve, my opponent with everything on the board, except the Wulven who were coming in from the board edge. I knew about that “trick” having fallen foul of it in the past. If you know about it it’s easy to counter by making sure there was no board edge they could come in from. with all the models in my army, and the scouts infiltrating that was pretty easy.</div>
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My opponent got first turn and shot me. I think he brought in one unit of Wulven, but they were so far away, its didn’t matter much. In my turn I moved up and brough in some scions to kill 2 packs of grey hunters that were screening the Plasma Obliterator. The Shield Captains Hurricane Bolters and the Scions cleared away the screens, and I shot the unit of Wulven a bit. In my opponents turn he shot me a bit and brought in another unit of Wulven. I brought in more scions and the BA Captain. The scions killed stuff and the BA Captain and the shield captains assaulted the Plasma Obliterator and killed it. It was pretty much mopping up after that.</div>
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Learning points - Screening and board control are really important in 8th. Being able to block board edges with scouts and “chaff” units neutralised the Wulven as a real threat (TBH, my opponent would have been better deploying them on the board, and forcing me to deal with them). Also the Commander with Khurov’s Aquila and Grand Strategist, is so good I don't expect it to survive the March FAQ. I started the game with 16CPs, and, despite spending liberally, ended the game with 11!! Finally, in assault, Wulven are horrendous!! The ability to attack again once they die, even if they have already attacked, makes taking them out in assault a suicide mission. </div>
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<b>Game 2</b></div>
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But of course a big win in game 1 launches you up the tabels, so Game 2 I found myself with a nose bleed on table 3, versus an interesting Imperium list. 2 Knights, 2 Lehman Russ Commanders, some guardsmen, an assassin (the assasulty one), and the most annoying unit in the game right now, St Celestine!! I’m sure there was other stuff, but they were the highlights. </div>
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Now, I’ve played this list before at the club (my opponent is an “irregular” attender) so I kinda knew what it did. The key is killing the Knights, but that’s harder said that done, because while you’re focusing on doing that (and getting past the guard screen) the assassin and the Saint are harassing your backfield. Long and short of it .... I killed the knights (Thunder Hammers are “the bollocks!!), but I didn’t do it fast enough. My opponent was a master at screening his knights and denying me effective places to deep strike. A loss, but a relatively narrow one.</div>
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Learning points - I need to rethink my screen killing game. For an army that relies largely on deep striking killy stuff in close, and charging - having a place to land is really important. I need to be more aggressive with my scouts during deployment and get them right up in my opponents grill, to push back their screens, and then get more effective at killing the screen, before bringing in my Killy stuff (more thoughts on that to follow).</div>
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<b>Game 3</b></div>
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So, back down to mid table obscurity!! Against a kinda similar list to mine, in that he had BA characters, cyber wolves Shield Captains (5 of them!) and guard. Long story short .... I came 3rd!!</div>
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The difficulty again were screens - my opponent played it really clever and kept all his Killy stuff behind a line of guardsmen and cyber wolves and slowly pushed it out across the board, while harassing my backfield with assassins. After the game, we discussed what I could have done differently - we concluded I should have played my Death Company more aggressively, spread them along the whole length of his screen, and taken it all out on turn one. The problem was, I was running 3 Thunder Hammers in that unit and felt I needed them for the Shield Captains, so didnt’ want to “throw them away” on screen killing. </div>
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Learning points - if I’m going to use the Death Company as screen clearance (which they are very good at) maybe it’s not a good idea to have Thunder Hammers in the unit that would be “wasted” on those screens. </div>
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<b>Game 4</b></div>
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The draw was posted up in the evening of day one, and it had me up against Tyranids (80 Genestealers!!), so I spent some time reading the Tyranid Codex and working out what I was going to do about that. However, in the morning I found there had been a drop out, and the draw was changed, putting me up against Death Guard. To be honest I was pretty pleased about that, because I wanted to practice against Death Guard, as I’ve never played them before (and I hear they’re real nasty!!)</div>
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His list had some characters, that I never really understood, 2 Demons Princes, 3 Bloat Drones, 2 Plage Crawlers, a Predators and 3 units of Plague Marines. I assumed his battle plan would be to shove the Bloat Drones and the Demon Princes down my throat, and blast me with his tanks ..... which was pretty much what happened. But I screened off the board, leaving the Princes and Drones nothing much to do in turn one, and then pounded all 5 of them with Plasma, Shield Captains and Death Company ..... and bounced off! They are unbelievably durable. I killed them eventually, but it took 4 units of Scions, the Death Company, and all three Shield Captains, over three rounds of combat to finish them off. After that, it was a matter of clearing up (easier said than done - those Plage Burst Crawlers are nasty).</div>
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Great, game against a fun opponent, and learned a lot about Nurgle units (more to come on that).<br />
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<b>Game 5</b></div>
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Against Ad Mech - Robots, Cawl, Grav Kataphrons, 2 Dune Crawlers, and some other stuff. Now, I’ve heard about the Robots, and know that they have horrendous fire power, assisted by Cawl’s re-rolls, but if they’re shooting, they can never move again, so the key must be to tie them up in combat. So that was my plan. </div>
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My opponent really didn't have any screens for his Robots - the only thing he could have used was a unit of Electro Priest, buy for soem reason he put them in reserve and planned to infiltrate them after deployment. He also deployed his robots on the line (we were playing Hammer and Anvil so he may have been worried about range). What I thought he was planning to do was deploy the Electro Priests as a screen, but by infiltrating them in, outside his deployment zone. So I pushed up my scouts to restrict his ability to do that. </div>
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My opponent got first turn, and by god those robots are horrendous. At the end of his shooting phase I think the only think I had on the board was my Warlord (who was hiding) a Cyber Wolf and the Shield Captains. Everything else had been blasted off the board. But, IMHO, he had made a mistake. Rather than bring the priests in to screen the ‘bots, he had pushed them forward to assault my scouts.... leaving just enough room for the Death Company to come down 9” away from the ‘bots.</div>
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And down they came along with some Scions. It was a high risk strategy - if I had missed the charge (not likely, but possible) it would have been all over. But the DC made the charge, as did Captain JumpSmash and Lemartes. I killed some bots, and then managed to consolidate into the Kataphrons and one of the Dune Crawlers. Having brough the other one down to a few wounds with Scion Plasma, there wasn’t much to shot me next turn.</div>
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After the DC, JumpSmash and Lemartes got into the ‘bots, it was pretty much all over. </div>
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Learning points - the Ad MEch ‘bots have horrendous fire power, but they are easily countered. Again, the importance of screens. If my opponent had been able to screeen his bots effectively, it would have ben a totally different game.</div>
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Game 6</div>
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So after 2 big wins I was up among the tops tabels again and of course came across one of the horrors that lurk around there. Death Guard, but this time with Epidemius, a huge blob of Plague Bearers, 2 units of the Flys, some other characters, some Nurglings and 5 Plague Burst Crawlers.</div>
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But most importantly - 2 of the Nurgle trees that make the whole list tick, allowing anything within 7” to fall back and still shoot or charge, and everthing to advance and shoot with no penalty.</div>
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So, my opponent deployed everything, using the nurglings to create some board control to stop my deep strikers. He also wrapped his Burst Crawlers in a double wrapping of plague bearers and Flys. However, I managed to use scouts to get some board control on the right of the board.... and I got first turn for the first time all tournament! </div>
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So I tried to kill some Nurglings with 3 shield captains, 9 mortars 2 units of scouts and a unit of Scions ..... and failed! I then charge the death company into his screens ..... and bounced off! He jumped the flys over the plague bearers and started to take objectives and shoot a bit. I charged all 3 shield captains into a unit of flys .... and did 3 wounds! You get the picture. </div>
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Again, not being able to clear the Nurglings quickly didn’t help, and bouncing off the screens was a problem. To be fair I made a stupid mistake and forgot to trail a model back to Lemartes to get his re-roll to hit in assault buff. I might have killed more of the screen, but ultimately I doubt it would have made much of a difference. To be honest, of the three games I lost, this was the one where I doubt I could have done much else. It’s a rock hard list.</div>
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So next post, some post tournament thoughts and list analysis</div>
Embrace Your Inner Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09175279670690377675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290806675829794805.post-35533858920634769542018-01-11T08:03:00.000+00:002018-01-11T08:03:34.276+00:00Blood Angels<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica Neue", helvetica; font-size: 14px;">So, Blood Angels.</span><br />
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Long time followers of my blog (Hi Mum!!) will know I had a huge Blood Angels army back in 5th edition. Firstly I ran a full Jump Pack Descent of Angels army, and then a triple Stormraven army with added Dreadnoughts. However, at the end of 7th I sold all of it to finance my Genestealer Cult army. Kinda regret that now!!</div>
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Anyway - I love the new Codex, particularly the Strategems, which I think allow you to play the army like it should be played (fast and deadly!). And I need an army for the GT final (I would play Harlies if I thought the Codex would be out by then, but I doubt it). So, I’ve been furiously painting Blood Angels and trying to work out the best build. OK, maybe not the best build, but the best version of the build I want to play.</div>
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What i would like is an army that hits hard out of deep strike, that is all or nothing, a bit like my old drop pod army was. The core of the army will be a 15 man Death Company unit backed up by Lemartes, and a 10 man Sanguinary Guard unit. I need to build around that.</div>
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There are 2 things I think the army needs - fire support and command points. </div>
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As for Fire Support the key thing is clearing bubble wrap. The big problem with trying to charge stuff out of deep strike is when your opponent wraps his important units with chaff. You come in, kill the chaff, and then have your 300pts Death Company unit murdered by stuff hiding behind the bubble wrap. I used to do this all the time with Kroot when I played a Tau gunline army. If the fire support can kill other stuff reliably, that’s a bonus, but the DC and SG are pretty deadly.</div>
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My first thought was 3 units of devastations with 3 Heavy Bolters, a Laz Cannon and a Cherub. However I found them too static, and often out of position. I needed something more flexible. My next thought was a Guard Brigade with 6 units of deep striking Scions toting Plamsa Guns, with a bunch of mortars in heavy support. I haven’t tried this yet (the Scions and mortars are still on my workbench waiting to be built). Finally, my latest revelation (!) was Primaris Inceptors. They bring a huge amount of dakka, in a far more flexible “package” than Devistators, and point for point are more efficient. The downside of course is their short range - but I want them up close and personal. </div>
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As for Command Points, the army is really CP hungry. What makes the army tick are its Strategems, particularly Descent of Angels (2CPs to allow a 3d6 charge), and on Wings of Fire (1CP to reposition any JUMP PACK unit). I initially ran a BA Brigade, which was OK, but believe it or not, I found 12 CP’s too few. I was spending 1- 4 CP’s pre game to upgrade Captain Jump Smash into a Death Company Captain, and hand out some extra Relics, and then up to 7 on turn one, moving Captain Jump Smash before turn one, giving him d3 extra attacks, and making him attack twice to kill the biggest scariest thing on the board. And that was before bringing in the Death Company and using Descent of Angels to charge stuff. So, by the end of turn one I could have spent all my CPs.</div>
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So I started thinking about alternatives, which brought me to taking a Guard Brigade with BA Battalion for 15 CPs, and then making a Guard Company Commander my warlord, giving him Grand Strategist, and Khurov’s Aquila. By doing this, every time I spend a CP I get it back on a 5+, and every time my opponent uses a Strategem I get an additional CP on a 5+. And with that many CP’s sloshing around, spending one to give a BA character the Veritas Vitia would mean that if I use a 1 CP strategem I throw 2 dice to get a 5+, or if I use a 2CP strategem I throw 3. </div>
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So the 2 lists I’m toying with are</div>
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<b>Guard Brigade, BA Battalion</b></div>
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<i>Guard</i></div>
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Company Commander (Warlord - Khurov’s Aquila, Grand Strategist)</div>
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Tempestor Prime</div>
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Tempestor Prime</div>
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5 Tempestus Scions, 2 Plamsa Guns, Plasma Pistol x 6</div>
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Cyber Wolves x3</div>
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Inquisitorial Acolytes x3</div>
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Mortars x3</div>
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<i>BA</i></div>
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Captain, Jump Pack Thunder Hammer</div>
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Lemartes</div>
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Librarian, Jump Pack</div>
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5 Scouts x3</div>
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15 Death Company, 3 Thunder Hammers</div>
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10 Sanguinary Guard (swords)</div>
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Mortars and the Scions provide the fire support for the DC and the SG. Mortars clear bubble wrap and Scions clear more substantial stuff. It starts with 15 CP’s and on average dice should get 7 or so back during the course of the game (depending on how many my opponent has). </div>
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The other list is</div>
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<i>BA</i></div>
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Dante</div>
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Lemartes</div>
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Sanguinor</div>
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3 x 5 Scouts</div>
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15 Death Company, 3 Thunder Hammers</div>
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10 Sanguinary Guard (swords)</div>
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4 Inceptors, Bolters</div>
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4 Inceptors, Bolters</div>
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4 Inceptors, Bolters</div>
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<i>Guard Vanguard Detachment</i></div>
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Company Commander (Warlord - Khurov’s Aquila, Grand Strategist)</div>
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4 Acolytes (just here to give me enough units on the board so I can hold everything else in reserve)</div>
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Not sure about Dante. He’s there primarily to buff the Inceptors when they come in, and then jump across to support the Sanguinary Guard. Full re-rolls rather than re-rolling ones is good, but is it worth 100pts over Captain Jump Smash? Also not sure about the Sanguinor. He’s there to give the Guard +1 attack (which they really need IMO), but a cheap Libby with Unleash Rage can do the same thing (although not as reliably). If I replace Dante with Captain Jump Smash, and the Sanguinor with a Libby i have points to get more Inceptors and a truly terrifying amount of dakka. </div>
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Thoughts?</div>
Embrace Your Inner Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09175279670690377675noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290806675829794805.post-17051035015263731602017-12-11T21:46:00.002+00:002017-12-11T21:46:44.544+00:00Games Workshop Heat 2<span style="font-family: "helvetica Neue", helvetica; font-size: 14px;">After a very long drive (in snow and ice!!) I’m back from Heat 2 of the GW GT. I went 3-1-1, and came 9th out of 86, with 4 “best army” votes and 4 “favourite game” votes. really pleased about that.</span><br />
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Usual format, brief battle reports, and then a wrap up at the end ..... and a shock announcement!! </div>
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<b>Game 1</b></div>
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Against Eldar - Wraithknight, 3 Wraithlords, 2 Hemlocks, a Crimson Hunter, some rangers and a bunch of Psykers. The GT was playing the old missions, where last drop goes first. I had fewer drops so I was going first. Can’t remember the mission (didn’t really matter).</div>
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The only thing I was really concerned with was the Wraithknight, and only a little. The issue is I need to get close with multiple Starweavers so I can Fusion Pistol him down, which means that, if I dont kill him he can multi assault the 'weavers, and has a really good chance of killing more than one. So the plan was to be a little patient and make him come to me, so that I I could get enough Fusion Pistols into double dice range as possible and make sure I killed him in one turn of shooting.</div>
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The problem was, his Farseer had Fortune. A Fortuned Wraithknight is a bit scary! But he deployed poorly (which he admitted in our after action round up). He bunched up his army, within range of the Solitaire (again, knowing what the Solitaire does, and really understanding what he can do on the table top are 2 very different things). So, the Solitaire hops out, blitzes across the table to within a couple of inches of all three of his Psykers. I moved up some Starweavers to just within charge range of the Wraithknight, hoping to “bait” him into moving up for the charge, so I could Fusion him down next turn. In shooting, I killed a couple of units of rangers for first blood. The Solitaire charged all three Psykers, killing the Farseer and putting wounds on the bone singer. Crucially - no Fortuned Wraithknight.</div>
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In my opponents turn he did move up his Wraithknight, and in fact pulled of a really long charge, but he wiffed in assault, failing to kill either of the 2 Starweavers he charged. However, I had stupidly left my Farseer exposed, and his Hemlocks assassinated him.</div>
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In my turn 2, everything moved up and everything was in range, I killed 2 Wraithlords, the Wraithknight and the rest of the rangers. My opponents retaliation was minimal, and I killed everything bar the flyers in turn 3 for victory.</div>
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Poison and Fusion pistols are a pretty hard match up for high toughness armies.</div>
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<b>Game 2</b></div>
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This was a great game, against a really fun opponent running Alpha Legion. Obligatory block of berserkers, loads of cultists, 2 squads of havocs with Laz cannons, 2 wierd forge world Dreadnought thingies, a big block of slaneshi terminators with Combi plasmas, and some chaos marines. Happily I was going first so I didn’t need to worry about the ‘zerkers. Kill points, dawn of war.</div>
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Now in deployment my opponent did something a bit clever - he split his army into 2, deploying one block in one corner, and the other in the another corner. While he had more drops than me, I had more units (most of my units start in transports). He had also realised that my army is pretty close range, and would need to get close to kill either block of units. His thinking was that I would come to one block, and kill it, before moving onto the other. If he could hold me up long enough in killing one block, and while doing so take more killpoints from me than were in that block, I wouldn’t have time to get across to the other block to even up the kill point tally.</div>
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And that’s exactly what would have happened, if it hadn’t been for one brave Kabalite Warrior!!!</div>
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Of course I only worked all this out afterwards and fell for it all, hook line and sinker. I moved up to the largest block, and over a number or turns wiped it out. So on turn 4 I was on 10 kill points and he was on 9. I was also at one end of text table and he was at the other with a havoc squad toting 4 laz cannons, a Lord, some cultists and some marines. The problem was, I would need to move up to try and get more kill points, and the chances were I would lose some units on the way in - and we might only have 2 turns left....! </div>
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So I decided to bravely run away and hide, hoping I could hang on to my 1 KP lead. </div>
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I tried to hide as best I could, but there was very little LOS blocking terrain. The best I could do was force my opponent to move his laz cannons every turn, so he was hitting my 4 remaining Starweavers on 5s. So after 4 turns (it went to turn 7!!), I had ducked and dodged and rolled 4++ saves like a champ, and I won ..... !</div>
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And the brave Kabalite Warrior? Well he was the last remaining model in his unit and I had forgotten about him chilling in the back field, but my opponent hadn’t. He managed to get one laz cannon in range, roll a 4 to hit, and a 2 to wound, meaning I needed to make a 6+ to avoid a draw ...... and I did!</div>
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Great game!</div>
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Learning point - think things through at the start. Always ask, at the very beginning of the game - what’s your game plan for winning the mission, something I failed to do in this game. If I had thought it through, I might have worked out my opponents cunning plan, and I could have kept my army more central, rather than focusing on on end of the board. </div>
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<b>Game 3</b></div>
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Against grey Knights. Two Grandmasters (one of them in a Dreadknight), a bunch of Paladins, 3 units of Stikes in Razorbacks, a Stormraven and a Stormhawk interceptor (not sure of the name, not the Stormtalon, the other one!!). TBH, not the most optimised Grey Knight list, and I was slightly surprised he was sitting on 2 wins. Mission was the Relic (what a silly mission!!), and he had fewer drops so was going first.</div>
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My only really tactic for turn one was to “clench” and roll 4++ saves. With the 2 flyers and the deepstriking Dreadknigh (plus a Razorback he gated behind me!!) there was a lot of fire power coming my way!! </div>
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And he made a dent (!), killing 2 Starweavers, the Solitaire, and both Troupes inside. It could have been worse, but it hurt. However, there then followed one of the most uneven examples of dice rolling I have ever witnessed on a table. </div>
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In my turn 1 I surrounded the Stormraven with fusion pistols, and killed it in one volley from one ‘weaver. He then lost a Paladin to a “1” and I proceeded to kill all but 1 of the remaining paladins with the other Fusion pistols. The Kabalites opened up on the Dreadknight and reduced it to (I think) 3 wounds (he just kept rolling handfuls of 1s when rolling saves). In his turn the Dredknight killed a Starweaver and other shooting brought the Troupe down to 3 players left with Fusion pistols (but that was all his whole army did - I just couldn’t fail a 4++ save, it was getting embarrassing!). </div>
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But the highlight came when the remaining Paladin and the non Dreadknight Grandmaster assaulted the 3 players that came out the destroyed Starweaver......I killed both of them in overwatch! </div>
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It went downhill after that!!</div>
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Win to me!</div>
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<b>Game 4</b></div>
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So, I dont think I’ve ever gone 3-0 in day one of a 2 day GT before. I was expecting a hard list for this game and I wasn’t disappointed! Girlyman Primaris gunline with Girlyman, 2 Libbies, 2 Repulsers, 6 Aggressors (first time I’ve come across these ... bloody hell but they kick put a lot of shots!!), and some of them Primaris tac marines (intercessors?). Retrieval mission, and he was going first.</div>
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Cutting to the chase, I was tabled at the end of turn 4. The fire power of the Repulsers and Aggressors was just too much. Combine that with Null Zone on one of the libbies, and I was really stumped on how to deal with this. At one point I thought I might hide (there was some los blocking terrain) and then just jump on the objectives, but my opponent was “wise” to this, and had placed his 2 objectives 12” apart, and 12” from one of mine, meaning he could move his whole army onto the “triangle” and just sit there. I realised that my only hope was to rush him and pray which is what I did, turn 3... but he just had too much fire power, and with re-rolls to hit and wound....!</div>
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Maybe if I had just rushed him on turn one I might have survived (I had been whittled down a bit by turn 3). We chatted it through after the game and both came to the conclusion that was probably my only hope!!</div>
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Learning point - null zone is horrible for Harlies, and Girlyman is an outstanding force multiplier!</div>
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<b>Game 5</b></div>
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Against Eldar again. Hemlock, Lynx, 2 Fire Prisims, a Nightspinner, Wraithknight, Warlock, Farseer and some (pretty random IMHO) Kabalite Warriors with an Archon in a raider. Hold and secure (old Emperors will i.e. one objective each - the “draw game”). I was going first.</div>
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Long story short we drew. It was a great game, with lots of really tense moments (at one point my opponent was complaining about his blood pressure and had to take "a moment"!!), but no real tactical insights. We both played the game well, with no mistakes. If I could be allowed an excuse - I had used up all my luck in Game 3, as I coudln’t make a 4++ to save my life, only got one psychic power off all game, and every player toting a fusion pistol was blind! Oddly however, my opponents dice were similarly cold. In one round I seem to remember his whole army managed to take 2 wounds off a Starweaver (and not because I was making lots of 4++ saves)!! </div>
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Still, we laughed a lot and had a blast.</div>
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learning point? Well, when I say I didn't make a mistake, I forgot to use my Solitaire! Simply forget to get him out his 'weaver when it blew up....duh!</div>
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So, there we have it 9th overall, and qualified for the final in May.</div>
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And the shock announcement - I love the new Blood Angels book, and have bought a bunch of marines.</div>
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EYIG</div>
Embrace Your Inner Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09175279670690377675noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290806675829794805.post-767588770239168862017-12-05T17:52:00.000+00:002017-12-05T17:52:14.359+00:00List for Heat 2 of the GW Grand Tournament<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica Neue", helvetica; font-size: 14px;">I’m paralysed with indecision.</span><br />
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I’ve boiled it down to 2 options for my list for the weekend, and I just can’t make up my mind. It’s a decision between a pure Harlies list to take advantage of our new Strategems, or adding in a Farseer and some Kabalites in Venoms to provide torrent of fire.</div>
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<b>List 1</b></div>
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Shadowseer</div>
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Troupe Master, Fusion, Embrace</div>
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Troupe Master, Fusion, Embrace</div>
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Troupe, 3 Fusion, 4 Embraces x 6</div>
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Starweavers x6</div>
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Solitarie</div>
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Skyweavers x5</div>
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This is the pure Harlies list. It’s designed to be all about assault and Fusion Pistols, and using the Skyweavers to get into my opponent’s “grill” as fast as possible.</div>
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Pros</div>
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<li>It’s got a lot of redundancy. In the games I’ve played with 6 Troupes, I dont think I’ve ever had to get all 6 out their Starweaver.</li>
<li>The Skyweavers can pull off 30” charges without the Shadowseer casting Twilight Pathways, and 50+” charges with Twilight Pathways. With a 3++ after they advance, it makes them a great unit for tieing stuff up, forcing gun lines to fall back and neutering shooting. </li>
<li>Only 7 drops, so will usually get +1 to go first.</li>
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Cons</div>
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<li>It has no easily accessible torrent of fire. I say easily accessible, because it does have torrent in assault from the multiple Troupes, but it’s harder to coordinate, and you risk losing a significant number of Players if your opponent “interrupts” the assault with the stratagem.</li>
<li>It has no real screening unit. The best it can do going second against first turn charges is 5 Skyweavers - a very expensive screen. The alternative might be straining 3 Starweavers across a front, with Troupes outside ready to counter assault, but it’s not ideal.</li>
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<b>List 2</b></div>
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Troupe Master, Fusion, Caress</div>
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Troupe Master, Fusion, Caress</div>
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Troupe Master, Fusion, Embrace</div>
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Troupe, 3 Fusion, 4 Embraces x 5</div>
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Solitaire</div>
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Starweavers x5</div>
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Farseer, Skyrunner, Warlord trait that means you cant overwatch him, and relic that means you get a preroll for Psychic tests. </div>
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5 Kabalite Warriors x 3</div>
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Venoms x3</div>
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So dropping one Troupe and the ‘weaver, for 3 Venoms full of Kabalites, each kicking out 17 poison shots at 18”. I've dropped a Troupe and Starweaver from the list I ran at the weekend to fit in a Solitaire. The Troupe Master is not really necessary, but i couldn't think of anything else to put in to use up the points! </div>
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Pros</div>
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<li>Significant Torrent of Fire. Fifty eight shots at 18”, with doom will put a dent in most hordes. And I’m expecting a few nid players.</li>
<li>It has a screen (the Kabalites)</li>
<li>It has a Farseer, which IMHO, is a far better option than a Shadowseer (unless you’re planning to boost Skyweavers) and he’s on a Skyrunner which makes him more survivable, and faster.</li>
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Cons</div>
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<li>I have one less Troupe</li>
<li>There is nothing their really to take advantage of the 3++ stratagem (is that really a con?)</li>
<li>9 Drops, so less likely to get the +1 to go first. </li>
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In summary the pure Harlies list is closer to the armies “aesthetic” fast, tricky, engaging and fragile. Adding in the Kabalites take it away from that, making it more of an axe than a scalpel !!</div>
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Bottom line - I think the second list will be easier to play, and more effective, while the first list is more situational, and harder to coordinate ...... but maybe more fun!!</div>
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Thoughts.</div>
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EYIG</div>
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Embrace Your Inner Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09175279670690377675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290806675829794805.post-25348103277885463652017-12-05T13:39:00.000+00:002017-12-05T13:39:08.191+00:00Rapid Fire Tournament report<span style="font-family: helvetica Neue, helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Just back from Rapid Fire 2017, one of the longest running tournaments in Scotland, and one of the first tournaments I every went to about 10 years ago. Number were a little down at this event, but it was v2.0 of the event, the “main” Rapid Fire having taken place in October (I couldn’t make the date). It was hugely oversubscribed, so they decided to run another event a couple of months later. They had 34 at the first one, and 28 at this one. </span></span><br />
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I was speaking to the TO, and he things they will do the same next year, but have one event more “fluffy” with some comp on army lists, with the other a little more “hard core”. Think that would work well. There is not a particularly deep pool of competitive players in Scotland, but those who are, are particularly competitive. Most people are casual players who just want to play toy soldiers with the friends over a couple of days. Often they “clash”, so having seperate events would I think work well.</div>
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Anyway, on with the bat reps</div>
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<b>Game 1</b></div>
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Against Orks - 120 boys, Mega Nob Warboss, Wierd Boy and a Stompa. Was a little worried about this, as the stompa is notoriously hard to kill (T8, 40 wounds!), and the boy’s could just swamp me, and with “da jump”, one mob of them would be in my teeth turn one.</div>
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However, I needen’t have worried. The Venoms with Kabalites inside gave me the torrent of fire to kill a unit of 30 boys per turn (with doom from the Farseer), and all the Fusion Pistols killed the Stompa turn 2. The only worrying moment was when the Stompa blew up, killing my Farseer, a Troupe Master and 3 Starweavers!! I did think about whether to bother with the Stompa, because with -1 to hit on all my Vehicles he was hitting me on 6s. I could have just run away from him. However, mission was the Relic, and all he needed to do was land the Stompa on the Relic, and without killing it there would have been little I could have done to get it back. </div>
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The other thing that was interesting is how you need to think about charges. The “interrupt” stratagem means that if you charge a mob of boys with 2 units of Harlies, you need to make sure you kill enough of them with your first unit to make sure the return attacks dont wipe you completely. So you need to whittle them down first.</div>
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Win to me, tabled him at the end of turn 4.</div>
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<b>Game 2</b></div>
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Against Dark Angles, but not the usual Azrael gun line. Bunch of scouts, some characters a (pretty random) Predator and 2 big units of 10 assault terminators with Storm Shields and thunder hammers. Mission was Maelstrom.</div>
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He kept the Termies in reserve and dropped them down turn 2 onto objectives (!) It was a shooting gallery after that. I assaulted the termies (for the fun of the thing), but I could have easily just stayed in my boats, and killed them all at range. Tabled him turn 3.</div>
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Not really much to learn from this game sadly. It was a bad match up for my opponent. What ever he did I could just run away and shoot him.</div>
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<b>Game 3</b></div>
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So after 2 big wins. I found myself on Table 3 against tau. Yes really!! He had a bunch of little guys - Breachers, Strikes, Pathfinders and Drones, a unit of 3 plasma suits, 4 Commanders (2 of them Coldstars), and a Y’varna. </div>
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Now, I played Tau all through 5th edition, and at the start of 6th (stopped because everybody was playing them and they got a bit boring TBH), but I’ve kinda lost touch with where they are now because nobody seems to play them anymore, so some of the rules came as a bit of a shock! In particular, when he explained to me what the Y’varna did (3d6 S6 flamer that does a straight 3 damage!!), I started to pay attention. </div>
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So I deployed conservatively, out of range of the Y’varna (or so I thought). He put all the little guys on the board along with the Y’varna and the Coldstars. All the XV8s were in their Manta, ready to deep strike in. I got first turn and decided to take it, moving up and killing 2 or 3 little units of Infantry for First Strike, still staying away from the Y’Varna. Then it was his turn. He moved all his stuff (one of the moves was a bit of a shock, see below), and then one of those things happened that sometimes happen in Tournaments. He forgot to bring his suits in from reserve and moved onto shooting. Sigh ..... I hate it when that happens, because I never know what to do - do you let him go back, or is it “tough luck”. In the moment I decided to let it slide and actually reminded him he had forgotten, letting him go back and bring in his suits. I wanted to “set the tone” for the game early. Not sure it was the right call, given what happened in the rest of the game.</div>
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Next, two things happened. </div>
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First, while he had explained how the Coldstars worked, I hadn’t really processed it (they have a 20” advance). I had surrounded my Farseer with Venoms, but not well enough. Both Coldstars were able to get close enough to the Farseer to make him the closest model and killed him! Second, I had forgotten that the Y’varna could advance (duh). Now I could excuse myself the first mistake, but this was just stupid. So, he advanced his Y’Varna and drew a bead on a Starweaver ... but he was about 1” too short. He could reach the Hull, but not the base, and with Starweavers it’s the base you measure to. </div>
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So, after the dust settled on his turn one, I had lost my Farseer (giving up Kill the Warlord), a Venom full of Kabalites, and a couple of Starweavers. More worrying was that the Y’Varna would be in range next turn. But my opponent had IMO made a mistake. He had deep struck his suits in behind, my Starweavers. That meant I could fall back, away from the Y’Varna, to deal with the suits, getting some (although not all) of the ‘weavers away from the big scary suit, but still deal with the little suits - which is what I did. That turn I killed the unit of 3 Plama Suits and 2 of the Commanders.</div>
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In his turn, he moved up, and killed a bunch of stuff with the Y’Varna, but it wasnt’ that bad. I was rolling an unholy number of 4++ saves. So in my turn, the Y’varna was in my teeth and I needed to deal with it so I could move onto objectives next turn (we were running out of time). And then he explained to me how the drone saviour protocols worked (to be fair he had explained it earlier but, again, I hadn’t really taken it in). He had 9 drones next to the Y’Varna (remember that number, it’s important), in 2 squads, one of 4 and one of 5. I asked him about the 4 man squad and he said “no, one died”. </div>
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So, the way it works is that if the suit suffers a wound it can pass it off to a Drone. Note, not a point of damage, but a wound. So if my Fusion Pistol causes a wound, he can pass the whole d6 off to the Drones. Hmmmm ..... what that means in reality is that the Drones need to die, before you shoot at the suit.</div>
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So, I moved all my ‘weavers into double dice range, and moved a 2 man unit of Players (that had been shot up last turn) up too. So, in shooting I managed to kill all the drones, but my Fusions Pistols wiffed, and the Y’Varna was left with 2 wounds. I would need to assault it to kill it, but with that horrendous flamer......! But I had to kill it. So I charged in a ‘weaver full of Players, hoping it would soak up overwatch, but it died horribly ...... but then I had a brain wave. The Players that came out the ‘weaver could still asssault ... and there was a building they could get into just beside the ‘weaver which meant they were out of line of sight of the Y’Varna. So I could asssault the big suit, without it being able to overwatch, lock it in combat, and then asssault with everything else. My opponent was <b>very</b> unhappy about this, but it was all legit (after a trip to the TO to check). So the Y’Varna died.</div>
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So, it was my opponents turn 3, and we were running short of time. He wanted to make this the last turn, but I checked with the TO, and it wasn’t hard dice down, rather finish the turn you’re on. So I was pushing him to finish his turn, so we could both get a turn 4. He moved about a bit, and shot some stuff, but nothing of consequence. It could have been quicker, but I did get my turn 4. </div>
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But I screwed it up! </div>
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He had 2 objectives, and I had 2, so I needed to take one from him. He was holding it with a commander. I decided to get one unit of Kabalites out of their boat and run them onto the objective, planning to kill the commander to take the objective. I got the Kabalites onto the objective, but failed to kill the commander, In his turn he killed the 5 Kabalites with the commander for a draw, holding the objective. In retrospect, I should have swarmed the objective with both Venoms full of Kabalites. that would have forced him to kill both Venoms, and all 10 Kabalites ....... but i was pretty sure I could kill the Commander. </div>
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So, with 2 objectives each, his Slay the Warlord gave him the win by one point!</div>
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One last piece of controversy! In his last turn he found a Drone in a ruin. It was the 5th Drone out of the 4 man team that was "attached" to the Y’Varna. It hadn’t died, it had just been left behind when he moved them. He wanted to go back and argue he could have put a wound onto that Drone, and thus saved his Y’Varna......! </div>
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So, a loss, but really one I should have won if it hadn’t been for 2 silly mistakes (losing my Farseer, and not swarming the objective on the last turn).</div>
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Despite the “controversy” I enjoyed this game. It was a little tense, and to use an expression that seems popular, “salty” at times. My opponent was a decent guy, but not a regular tournament goer, so was perhaps used to a “looser” interpretation of the rules than my approach to tournament games (especially when I’m sitting on 2 big wins!!). I always play the rules “tight” and there were little things throughout the game, I suspect irritated him. For example, I didn’t take his word that things were in range, and measured them exactly (on a few occasions stuff he assumed were in range were out), and I was pernickety with movement.</div>
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But the thing that really wound him up was the assault on his Y’varna. As I’ve said before, the assault phase has a lot of subtlety, and for Harlies you need to play it tight. However, what I take away from this game is that, playing the assault rules precisely, in accordance with the book, can give rise to some odd situations. Don’t really know what to do about that!</div>
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<b>Game 4</b></div>
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So onto day 2, and I’m playing Demons with brimstone spam, Malific Lords, Flamers the Changling etc etc. One of the toughest match ups for Harlies. Long story short, it was a Malestrom Mission, he lost the roll off to place objectives (so chose sides), loaded one side with objectives, choose it, and moved his whole army onto 4 objectives. He then drew all the right cards, and I just couldn’t get through the brimstones - when I tried, he smited me (smote me?) of the table.</div>
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But, interestingly, I missed the Solitaire. There were a couple of occasions when a Sollitaire could have jumped the brimstone screen and assassinated the Changling, making everything much much easier. </div>
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<b>Game 5</b></div>
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Through the vagiaries of Swiss paring I found myself up against my first round opponent again (120 orksand a Stompa). This time my Fusion Pistols didn’t wiff and I tabled him at the end of my turn 3. Not much more to say really.</div>
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The list I took to Rapid Fire is in a previous post. Roughly, 2 Troupe Masters, 6 Troupes in ‘weavers with embraces and 3 Fusion Pistols in each Troupe, a Farseer and 3 Venoms with twin splinter cannons and 5 Kabalite Warriors.</div>
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What worked</div>
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<li>The Farseer. Doom and Executioner were fantastic. Doom in particular makes the 66 poison shots from the Dark Eldar contingent deadly. With doom they were easily able to wipe out 30 orks per turn.</li>
<li>Troupes in ‘weavers with Fusion Pistols and Embraces are just all stars. So fast, so flexible so deadly.</li>
<li>The Venoms with their Kabalites were great at kicking out loads and loads of poison shots. I suspect however they wouldn’t be quite so good against things with 4+ saves, but against hordes (who typically have 5+ or worse saves) they are amazing. </li>
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What didn’t work - well nothing really. However, the more important question is what did I miss?</div>
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First up, I didn’t miss the Shadowseer at all. However, that was largely because I didn’t have any Skyweavers. I’m coming round to the conclusion that Shadowseers and Skyweavers go together, particularly with the new stratagem in Chapter Approved to give them a 3++ after they advance. But, if you dont have Skyweavers, I don't think you need a Shadowseer.</div>
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It’s interesting, because on a facebook page I posted that I thought Shadowseers should come down in price to match that of a Farseer, opining that the Farseer was by far and away the better option. There were many who disagreed. But they’re all wrong (!).</div>
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However, the thing I really missed was the Solitaire. He would have been awesome I the Tau game, assassinating suits, and I suspect he could have taken out the Changling in the game against Demons.</div>
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So the dilemma I have for this weekend is to choose between this list, minus one Troupe and their Starweaver to add in a Solitaire, and a pure Harlies list, with a big block of Skyweavers and a Shadowseer to take advantage of the new stratagem.</div>
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An agony of indecision.</div>
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EYIG</div>
Embrace Your Inner Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09175279670690377675noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290806675829794805.post-5109509290164238652017-11-27T21:17:00.001+00:002017-11-30T18:08:18.666+00:00Harlequins in Chapter Approved<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica";"><span style="font-size: 14px;">Chapter tactics made a bunch of changes, some of them pretty controversial. But for Harlies, it's most pretty good.</span></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: "helvetica neue", helvetica; font-size: 14px;">Points Changes</b><br />
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Death jester dropped in points......., OK, you’re still never going to see him!!</div>
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The more interesting one was the change in points for the Caresses and the Kiss. Seven points for a Caresse makes the decision between it and an Embrace more difficult. I suspect the answer is mixed units. At the moment, I run 5 man units with 4 Embraces - maybe 2 Embraces and 2 Carresses?</div>
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The Kiss is trickier. At 9 points it seems fairly priced. D3 wounds is good, and putting it on a Troupe Master, to ameliorate its low strength, would be the way to go. But AP -1 (I thought it was -2!), is still an issue. </div>
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But, hey - the Solitaire went down 7 points. At 110pts, he’s a steal!</div>
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<b>Relic</b></div>
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The best place for this is probably on your Solitaire, so you can get it into the middle of your opponents army ASAP.</div>
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The -1 leadership is interesting. I have been thinking about “leadership bombs” recently, and this is another way to effect leadership. I’m thinking about Mind War on a Farseer. For those that dont know, you target a character, and each player rolls a d6 and adds their leadership. If you are higher than your opponent, their character suffers the number of mortal wounds that your roll exceeds their’s by.</div>
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It’s pretty situational, but, with a hit from a Phantasm grenade launcher (-1), a Hemlock nearby (-2), casting horrify (-1) and the relic (-1), the targeted character starts on -5. If you want to go crazy, add in Embolden (+1 to the Farseer’s leadership - although you would need to take a warlock), and a swooping hawk exarch (+1 to the Farseer’s leadership), and the starting differential is 7!! And then you shoot the Shadowseer’s Hallucinogen Grenade launcher at it!!</div>
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I suspect there are too many moving parts. One of them is bound to fail. </div>
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<b>Warlord Traits</b></div>
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OK, I suppose. Better than the generic ones. But really, I suspect I’ll be finding a place for a Doomseer in most of my lists, who has a much better choice of warlord traits. Pity you can’t put it on a Solitaire!</div>
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<b>Strategems</b></div>
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Now we’re talking. A 3++ if you advance for 1Cp, is golden!! The best use I think is throwing 5 Bikes with a 3++ into your opponents face turn 1, just to tie things up...! I still think that running Troupes across the board is a fantasy. Even with a 3++, they will still die to torrent. However, combining it with the other Stratagem has got me thinking.</div>
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Three CP’s to bring in a 10 player Troupe, with a Shadowseer. Drop in 9” away, cast Twilight Pathways, move advance and assault with a 3++. Ten players with a Caress each is more or less the same points as the 5 man Troupe I normally run, plus their Starweaver!</div>
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It’s a big investment in CPs, but could win you the game. Problem would be, when it’s not really what you want to do, you have a 10 man unit of Harlies running around without a Starweaver, which is less than optimal! </div>
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On balance, I think I prefer to keep the Troupes 5 man, in a Starweaver. </div>
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<b>Summary</b></div>
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So, we have one fantastic Strategm, one that’s abit situational, a relic that’s got possibilities, and a couple of useful point drops. I’ll take that! </div>
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EYIG</div>
Embrace Your Inner Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09175279670690377675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290806675829794805.post-12142528674035914602017-11-23T15:51:00.003+00:002017-11-23T15:51:34.148+00:00Rapid Fire list, Locked and LoadedOK, next tournament is Rapid Fire weekend of 2nd and 3rd December.<br />
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This is one of the longest running 40k tournaments in Scotland and this will be about the 10th year I’ve been to it. It’s usually a great event.<br />
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Competition on the top tables is usually pretty fierce, with a bunch of Team Scotland’s ETC wannabes attending to gain qualification points for the team. From the player list there will be half a dozen or so former Team Scotland players attending. However, mid tables are usually pretty laid back, with lots of fun games.<br />
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And I’ve decided on my list. With lots of feedback from the Harlequins 40k Facebook page (thanks guys), I’ve gone with 6 Troupe’s in Starweavers, with 3 Venoms full of Kabalite Warriors, and a Doomseer. Here’s the list.<br />
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Battalion Detachment (Aeldari - Harlequins) [1510pts]<br />
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HQ [154pts]<br />
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Troupe Master [77pts]: Fusion Pistol [9pts], Harlequin's Caress [9pts]<br />
Troupe Master [77pts]: Fusion Pistol [9pts], Harlequin's Caress [9pts]<br />
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Troops [762pts]<br />
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Troupe [127pts]<br />
Player [16pts]: Harlequin's Blade [1pts], Shuriken Pistol<br />
Player [30pts]: Fusion Pistol [9pts], Harlequin's Embrace [6pts]<br />
Player [30pts]: Fusion Pistol [9pts], Harlequin's Embrace [6pts]<br />
Player [30pts]: Fusion Pistol [9pts], Harlequin's Embrace [6pts]<br />
Player [21pts]: Harlequin's Embrace [6pts], Shuriken Pistol<br />
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Troupe [127pts]<br />
. Player [16pts]: Harlequin's Blade [1pts], Shuriken Pistol<br />
. Player [30pts]: Fusion Pistol [9pts], Harlequin's Embrace [6pts]<br />
. Player [30pts]: Fusion Pistol [9pts], Harlequin's Embrace [6pts]<br />
. Player [30pts]: Fusion Pistol [9pts], Harlequin's Embrace [6pts]<br />
. Player [21pts]: Harlequin's Embrace [6pts], Shuriken Pistol<br />
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Troupe [127pts]<br />
. Player [16pts]: Harlequin's Blade [1pts], Shuriken Pistol<br />
. Player [30pts]: Fusion Pistol [9pts], Harlequin's Embrace [6pts]<br />
. Player [30pts]: Fusion Pistol [9pts], Harlequin's Embrace [6pts]<br />
. Player [30pts]: Fusion Pistol [9pts], Harlequin's Embrace [6pts]<br />
. Player [21pts]: Harlequin's Embrace [6pts], Shuriken Pistol<br />
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Troupe [127pts]<br />
. Player [16pts]: Harlequin's Blade [1pts], Shuriken Pistol<br />
. Player [30pts]: Fusion Pistol [9pts], Harlequin's Embrace [6pts]<br />
. Player [30pts]: Fusion Pistol [9pts], Harlequin's Embrace [6pts]<br />
. Player [30pts]: Fusion Pistol [9pts], Harlequin's Embrace [6pts]<br />
. Player [21pts]: Harlequin's Embrace [6pts], Shuriken Pistol<br />
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Troupe [127pts]<br />
. Player [16pts]: Harlequin's Blade [1pts], Shuriken Pistol<br />
. Player [30pts]: Fusion Pistol [9pts], Harlequin's Embrace [6pts]<br />
. Player [30pts]: Fusion Pistol [9pts], Harlequin's Embrace [6pts]<br />
. Player [30pts]: Fusion Pistol [9pts], Harlequin's Embrace [6pts]<br />
. Player [21pts]: Harlequin's Embrace [6pts], Shuriken Pistol<br />
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Troupe [127pts]<br />
. Player [16pts]: Harlequin's Blade [1pts], Shuriken Pistol<br />
. Player [30pts]: Fusion Pistol [9pts], Harlequin's Embrace [6pts]<br />
. Player [30pts]: Fusion Pistol [9pts], Harlequin's Embrace [6pts]<br />
. Player [30pts]: Fusion Pistol [9pts], Harlequin's Embrace [6pts]<br />
. Player [21pts]: Harlequin's Embrace [6pts], Shuriken Pistol<br />
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Dedicated Transport [594pts]<br />
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Starweaver [99pts]: 2x Shuriken Cannon [20pts]<br />
Starweaver [99pts]: 2x Shuriken Cannon [20pts]<br />
Starweaver [99pts]: 2x Shuriken Cannon [20pts]<br />
Starweaver [99pts]: 2x Shuriken Cannon [20pts]<br />
Starweaver [99pts]: 2x Shuriken Cannon [20pts]<br />
Starweaver [99pts]: 2x Shuriken Cannon [20pts]<br />
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Patrol Detachment (Aeldari ) 490pts]<br />
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HQ [100pts]<br />
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Farseer [100pts]: 2. Doom, 4. Executioner, Faolchu's Wing, Shuriken Pistol, Witchblade, Warlord, Falcons Swiftness<br />
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Troops [105pts]<br />
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Kabalite Warriors [35pts], 4x Kabalite Warrior, Splinter Rifle, [28pts], Sybarite [7pts]: Splinter Rifle<br />
Kabalite Warriors [35pts], 4x Kabalite Warrior, Splinter Rifle [28pts], Sybarite [7pts]: Splinter Rifle<br />
Kabalite Warriors [35pts], 4x Kabalite Warrior, Splinter Rifle [28pts], Sybarite [7pts]: Splinter Rifle<br />
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Dedicated Transport [285pts]<br />
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Venom [95pts]: Splinter Cannon [15pts], Splinter Cannon [15pts]<br />
Venom [95pts]: Splinter Cannon [15pts], Splinter Cannon [15pts]<br />
Venom [95pts]: Splinter Cannon [15pts], Splinter Cannon [15pts]<br />
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The questions I need to answer before the Games Workshop GT heat the following weekend are<br />
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<li>Will I miss the Solitaire</li>
<li>Will I miss the Skyweavers </li>
<li>Will I miss the Shadowseer</li>
<li>Will the Kabalites and their Venoms give me the torrent of fire and screen I’m looking for</li>
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And of course there’s Chapter Approved to look forward to next weekend, which might make me want to change my list completely. </div>
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I do like the look of the stratgem previewed on Warhammer Community. A 3++ on a bunch of Skyweavers would make them a huge distraction unit.</div>
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I’ll report back after the tour I.</div>
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EYIG</div>
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<br />Embrace Your Inner Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09175279670690377675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290806675829794805.post-52556117468468950662017-11-21T13:28:00.003+00:002017-11-21T13:28:39.083+00:00Winter War List Review<div style="font-family: "helvetica Neue", helvetica; font-size: 14px;">
A great days gaming. three good games and lI earned a lot. Usual format, what worked and what didn’t in my list, and some learning points.</div>
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What worked</div>
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<li>Troupe’s in Starweavers. Harlequin Troupes in Starweavers are such a fantastic unit. Fast, tough, and deadly, whether it’s with Fusion Pistol drive buys (and I’ve revised my position on these), or in assault, they are just awesome. And having 5 of them rather than the 4 I had in my last list, made a difference. I was less worried about losing a Starweaver and, as a result, more ready to get them up close and personal, where I think they want to be. </li>
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What were OK</div>
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<li>Skyweavers. Their speed is great, but they do very little damage when they get there. Their main role is tieing things up and grabbing objectives. And they are so expensive - 56pts for a bike with a Glave. I expect them to come down in points dramatically in Chapter Approved (or get 4 attacks base, and S5 with a Glave).</li>
<li>Shadowseer. Again, she was OK for twilight pathways, but I really missed the Farseer from the list I took to Blood and Glory. For the same points, a Farseer on a bike is so much better. Again, I expect Shadowseer’s to come in at 100pts, after Chapter Approved.</li>
<li>Solitaire. From hero to “OK”. He didn’t shine this tournament like he did at Blood and Glory, but he was still good (assasinating a bunch of little characters in the game 2 against guard). Again, it’s what you try and do with him that’s key. Don’t bite of more than he can chew (e.g. a Patriarch!!). </li>
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But the main learning points of the tournament were (a) how complex and subtle the assault phase is, and (b) that my list lacks an effective screen, and needs more volume of fire.</div>
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The assault phase, or at least the way you move into assault (including pile ins) is incredibly important. A fraction of an inch matters! I won the game against guard because of the turn one multi assault, which left me locked in combat with the heavy weapons team, so my opponent couldn’t shoot me. And flip belts, combined with rising in crescendo, make it so much easier to do. </div>
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As for screens and fire power, I think I need some allies!! I’m going to play around with adding 3 units of Kabalite Warriors in Venoms, and a Doomseer - something like this</div>
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Troupe Master, Fusion, Embrace x2</div>
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Troupe, 3 Fusion, 4 Embraces x6</div>
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Starweaver x6</div>
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Farseer, Wings, Doom, Executioner</div>
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5 Kabalite Warriors x3</div>
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5 Venoms, with Splinter Cannons, x3</div>
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So, 6 troupes with a couple of master, all tucked up in their Starweavers, and 3 Venoms with Kabalites. The Kabalites can work as a cheap screen if necessary, and the Venoms kick out 22 poison shots each at 12” (if you count the embarked Warriors). With doom from the Farseer, on average dice, the Venoms would have wiped out one of the ‘stealer units in game 3, leaving the Troupes to mop up the rest (in theory!!).</div>
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I see the Starweavers and Venoms working together, with the Venoms lurking a little behind the Starweavers, providing fire support. The Farseer should be able to keep up if he takes the relic that allows him to move 12”, and the warlord trait that gives him another 2” to his move, for a 14” move. I would much prefer a bike, but dont have the points. Maybe when Chapter Approved comes out we will get enough of a points drop give him a bike (for example, I expect Splinter Cannons to drop to 10pts each)!</div>
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Alternatively I could drop one Troupe and Starweaver, and upgrade the Kabalite Warriors to Trueborn, and add in 6 more Splinter Cannon, for a total of 30 poison shots per Venom (again including embarked units). I would have points left over for a 10 man unit of Warriors to act as a screen.</div>
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Thoughts?</div>
Embrace Your Inner Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09175279670690377675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290806675829794805.post-24581457966617902322017-11-20T19:54:00.001+00:002017-11-20T20:00:45.058+00:00Winter War Tournament Report<br />
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Just back from Winter War, where I was trying out a Pure Harlies list (set out in the last post). Shadowseer, 2 Troupe Masters, 5 Troupes in Starweavers, a unit of 5 Skyweavers with Zephir Glaves, and 2 units of 2 with Star Bolas. It was a one day 3 game tournament, but with 46 players it was a big one.</div>
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<b>Game 1</b></div>
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Drawn against a Craftworld army - Farseer and 2 Warlocks all on bikes, 3 units of Rangers, a Unit of Banshees and a unit of Guardians both in Wave Serpents, a Fire Prisim, a Hemlock, a unit of Warp spiders, a unit of Swooping Hawks and 3 Hornets. Dawn of War deployment, progressive objectives (you got a VP for every objective you were on at the start of your turn), Slay the Warlord, First Blood and kill more Fast Attack were the secondaries. I got first turn.</div>
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My opponent had deployed in a corner and I was set up centrally. I was most worried about his Hornets taking out Starweavers. He knew they were a threat so had bubble wrapped them with Rangers, relying on their -2 to hit to survive and then block my Bikes. However, even although he was aware of how fast Skyweavers are (and I had told him about Twilight Pathways) it’s one thing to know what they do, and another to see it on the battlefield. </div>
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First turn my Shadowseer hops out her Starweaver 3 inches, moves 8 and rolls 6” on her advance to snuggle up behind some los blocking terrain. Skyweavers move to within 3”, ready to be boosted across the board. Solitaire jumps out, blitzes, and is 1” away from his Ranger screen. Starweavers move up onto objectives, but nobody else gets out, ready for turn 2 Fusion death on his vehicles. In the psychic phase the shadowseer gets of Twilight path way and the Bikes are 1” from his rangers.</div>
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In the shooting phase I clear his Rangers away, and my unit of 5 Skyweavers multi assault his Hornets ...... and do no damage what so ever! I wasn’t expecting to kill all three, but was hoping to get at least one. However, they will need to move and so are -2 to shoot next turn which is an advantage! </div>
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In my opponent’s turn his vehicles move so are -2 to hit, and do very little damage. His Hemlock moves up and tries to smite my Shadowseer but I block the power. It then tries to shoot a Starweaver, but doesn’t kill it. The Spiders and Hawks come in, but again do very little damage. The Banshees jump out and assault my Bikes, killing all but one. In my turn 2 in his teeth with loads of fusion pistols. I kill the Hemlock (-1 to hit is all very well, but if youfire enough Fusion at it it will die!) the Spiders and the Hawks, degrade the Fire Prisim and take one of the serpents down to a couple of wounds. </div>
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It’s pretty much over then. 19-1 win to me. To be fair to my opponent, his list wasn’t exactly optimised, and he was still getting used to the new codex (he didn’t use any of the fancy new stratagems). </div>
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Learning points - Flyers are manageable by simply driving a couple of Starweavers full of fusion pistols up beside them and rolling 4+! Hemlocks in particular are vulnerable to this becasue of their short range. Skyweavers are amazing because of the huge long charges you can pull off with Twilight Pathways, but at S4, dont expect to kill very much when they get there. I’m wondering if I should just forget about the Zepheryglaves, and juuse them as a throwaway disruption unit.</div>
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<b>Game 2</b></div>
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This was the game of the tournament. Against a friend from our club with his nasty new guard list. Cadians, with Creed a Primaris Psyker and some other little command guys, loads of infantry and heavy weapons platforms, Pask in a Punisher, another command Russ with a battle cannon, some scout Sentinals and a Baneblade - a Shadowsword I think - one with loads of heavy bolters, lazcannons and a huge “fuck off” gun (Volcano Cannon?) that only needs to look at a vehicle to kill it. There was no LOS blocking terrain on the table, and he rolled first turn.</div>
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Not going to lie, this was looking pretty bleak. The mission was capture and control (4 objectives), can’t remember what the secondaries were. Deployment was Serach and Destroy (diagonal table quarters). Because there was no los blocking terrain, I had set upon the line ready to rush him, it really was my only hope. IT would have worked if I had first turn, but with second turn....!</div>
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So I “clenched” and prepared to receive fire......and he killed 4 bikes out of the 5 bike squad.....! Minus 1 to hit, and 4++ for the win. But, to be fair, I was lucky. He made a mistake with the Shadowsword and deployed it too far back. It’s Heavy Bolters (which murder my Starweavers) were just out of range. Next turn I might not be so lucky ...... but I had an idea.</div>
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My opponent had made another mistake in deployment. He deployed a 3 models heavy weapons team of Heavy Bolters a little too far forward, and the infantry unit behind it was a little too close. If I could multi assault both units, kill the one at the back, and then consolidate into the heavy weapons team, trapping it in place.......I might just be able to shelter my whole army in combat, and then jump out and kill stuff next turn. </div>
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So the Solitaire jumped out his Starweaver, and blitzed to 1” from the Heavy Weapons team. The remaining Bike did the same, and I moved up with 4 out of 5 Starweavers (the 5th was way out of position). Shooting was unimportant, but I think I killed a Heavy Weapons Team. </div>
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I assaulted with one of the Starweavers first, to draw overwatch. I think it took a couple of wounds, but got into combat with both squads. I was careful to make sure that, although it was within 1” of the rear squad, it was closer to the Heavy Bolter team. That meant, if I failed to kill the rear squad, I could still consolidate into the Heavy Weapons team. I did the same with the Solitaire, the bike and one other Starweaver. The remaining 2 Starweavers couldn’t fit, so had to go into the Heavy Weapons team. </div>
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I rolled for the two Starweavers that could hit the rear squad first, killing a couple of guys. I was concerned that, if the Solitarie went first I might wipe out the squad, forcing more attacks into the Heavy Weapon Team, exactly what I didn’t want. It was critical that the Heavy Weapons Team survived. After the 2 Starweavers and the Solitaire, the rear squad was gone, that left 2 Starweavers swinging into the Heavy Weapons Team. Happily they wiffed, and all three Heavy Bolter teams survived, making it a much easier task to lock the team down.</div>
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In my opponent's turn, the only thing he could fire at was the Starweaver that didn’t get into combat. As you would expect, it died horribly, along with all its contents. I also killed the Heavy Weapons team in combat.</div>
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In my turn my priority was the 2 Leman Russes. I couldn’t get close enough to the Shadowsword to worry it this turn, but I was worried about the 40 shots from Pask’s Punisher!! This turn I would be in Fusion Pistol range, so I was expecting to kill, or at least cripple both of them. 15 Fusion Pistol shots later and both Russes were still standing. One of them wasn’t even degraded!! But that was OK, as I could just charge them, lock them in combat or force them to move out of combat ... and that’s what I did. </div>
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Long story short, I would have tabled him if we had run for 5 turns, but we got the the end of turn 4. He was left with the Shadowsword on 5 wounds, and some guys. Interestingly the Shadowsword was then hitting on 6s, so couldn’t target any of my Starweavers!!</div>
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Learning points - minus 1 to hit and a 4++, makes the army surprisingly resilient, particularly against armies that normally hit on a 4+. The week before the event my opponent was teasing me about “paper aeroplanes” ....! Also, the tactical subtlety in the assault phase is huge. Being able to manage the first turn assault against those two squads, so I effectively locked most of my army in combat, was key to winning this game. Finally, guard are very vulnerable to Harlies once you get in about them. Flip belts, and rising crescendo make it so easy to hide in combat, and then flip out. It can make a mockery of a guard gun line IF you get there.<br />
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<b>Game 3</b></div>
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With 2 big wins I was on table 2 against a Genestealer cult army. Four big squads of ‘stealers, and loads and loads (and loads) of cultists. Well over 100 models. This isn’t a great match up for Harlies. We struggle a bit with hordes!</div>
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The risk is that he comes in from Cult Anbush, rolls well, and I have 60+ ‘stealers in my face turn one. I just dont have the volume of fire to deal with that many bodies. So I decided to castle up, screen with my bikes, deploying the starweavers behind the bikes. The plan was, if I got first turn, to boost as fast as possible across the board and get into the cultists ASAP. If he got first turn he would come in, probably wipe my bikes, but I would then counter charge with all 5 troupes and see what happens. He got first turn!</div>
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He rolled well on Cult Ambush and I had 70 ‘stealers and a patriarch within easy charges of my bike screen turn one. At the end of the turn, I had one bike left (one unit of stealers missed its charge). The Troupe’s jumped out and hammered the ‘stealers as hard as possible. After a couple of turns I had pretty much killed all of them bar the Patriarch, but by then my opponent was so far ahead on maelstrom points, it was all over. </div>
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Learning points - it’s true what they say, you learn more from your losses than your wins. This loss highlighted a few points, and a number of mistakes</div>
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<li>Screening with the bikes was probably a mistake. I should have retained their speed and fire power. I could have used 3 empty Starweavers to screen almost as effectively, losing less fire power, and allowing the Bikes to boost away from the stealers and get into the cultists. The disembarked Troupes could the have hammered the ‘stealers. </li>
<li>I deployed the Shadowseer in her Starweaver. She should have been on the table to try and deny some critical psychic powers.</li>
<li>In one big multi-assault, I didn’t move my Troupe into contact with enough ‘stealers, which allowed my opponent to pull off enough ‘stealers to leave that Troupe with nothing to swing at.</li>
<li>I threw my Solitaire away on a pointless attempt at killing a minor character. There were far better targets.</li>
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But mostly it showed up the lists weakness to hordes, and the lack of any screening units.</div>
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So, 2 big wins and a big loss, enough for 11th place out of 46 players. </div>
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Retrospective on tournament to follow.<br />
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EYIG</div>
Embrace Your Inner Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09175279670690377675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290806675829794805.post-72126491088551580992017-11-12T22:50:00.002+00:002017-11-12T22:50:52.058+00:00Winter War 2017 - ListThis Saturday I'm off to Winter War 2017. Put on by a local club, it's easily the biggest one day event in Scotland - 45+ players for 40k this year!<br />
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It's only three games though, so very match up dependant.<br />
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Harlequins again. Pure Harliesthis time, dropping the Ravagers for another Troupe and Starweaver, and a bunch of Skyweavers.<br />
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Shadowseer with Twilight Pathways<br />
Troupe Master, Embrace and Fusion Pistol<br />
Troupe Master, Embrace nd Fusions Pistol<br />
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Solitaire<br />
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Troupe, 4 Embarces, 4 Fusion Pistols<br />
Troupe, 4 Embraces, 3 Fusion Pistols<br />
Troupe, 4 Embraces, 3 Fusion Pistols<br />
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Troupe, 4 Embraces, 3 Fusion Pistols<br />
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5 Skyweavers, 5 Zephereglaves<br />
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2 Skyweavers<br />
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5 Starweavers<br />
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So, broadly the tacit is boost the big unit of Skyweavers into my opponents teeth, snag objectives wit the little Skyweaver units, and mop up with the Troupe's. My concern is whether I'll misstate Ravager's fire power.<br />
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Time will tell.<br />
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EyigEmbrace Your Inner Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09175279670690377675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290806675829794805.post-45140559767848877122017-11-07T18:20:00.001+00:002017-11-08T17:51:45.931+00:00Blood and Glory List Review<div style="font-family: "helvetica Neue", helvetica; font-size: 14px;">
The list I took to Blood and Glory was </div>
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Troupe Master, Fusion Pistol, Caress</div>
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Troupe Master, Fusion Pistol, Embrace (I needed 3 points!)</div>
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Troupe, 5 Players, 3 Fusion Pistols, 4 Embraces</div>
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Troupe, 5 Players, 3 Fusion Pistols, 4 Embraces</div>
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Troupe, 5 Players, 2 Fusion Pistols, 4 Embraces</div>
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Troupe, 5 Players, 2 Fusion Pistols, 4 Embraces</div>
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Solitaire</div>
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3 Skyweavers, 2 Glaves</div>
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4 Starweavers</div>
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<b>Aeldari Spearhead</b></div>
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Farseer Skyrunner, Doom, Executioner.</div>
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Ravager, 3 Disintegrators</div>
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Ravager, 3 Disintegrators</div>
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Ravager, 3 Disintegrators</div>
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<b>Harlequins Battalion</b></div>
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<b>What worked</b></div>
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<b>Harlies</b>. The combination of speed, Fusion Pistols, and ability in assault is just fantastic. Everybody asked me if it wouldn’t be better as Ynarri, but rising crescendo is so good, I’m really not convinced. As I mentioned in the last post, the biggest problem is realising how far they can actually assault. At times it seems so unfeasible, that it’s hard to believe. I think I’ve settled on Embraces. The S4 and -3AP is I think preferable to the S5, and -2AP on the Caresses, especially for 3pts less. Not a particularly scientific opinion, really based on the fact that I usually found myself wishing that the Troupe Masters had had Embraces rather than Carresses! </div>
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<b>Fusion Pistols.</b> Fantastic when they work, woeful when they dont! Very “hit or miss” (obviously), but very necessary for dealing with big stuff, which Harlies struggle with a bit in assault. I think the optimum number is 3. Two is too random, and 4 too expensive. </div>
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<b>Starweavers</b>. If it wasn’t for Starweavers, Harlies would be pretty much unplayable. They are crucial for protecting your Troupes and getting them where they need to be. The take away from this tournament is how resilient they are. On the face of it they’re paper planes, but with a -1 to hit, and a 4++, they are surprisingly durable. And they’re so quick. A threat range of 22” for Fusion Pistols is incredibly effective.</div>
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<b>Skyweavers</b>. Their sheer speed is staggering, and they are no slouches in combat with Zepherglaves (I wish they were S5 though). A 22” move, and a 2d6 charge is so versatile. However, three isn’t enough. I think a bigger unit would be more impressive.</div>
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<b>Farseer</b>. The Farseer was great, mobility, reasonably durable, re-rolling failed psychic test, and Doom. Doom is such a strong power, particularly when combined with the Ravagers. Also being able to deny 2 powers, rather that 1 from the Shadowseer was very helpful. But....I missed Twilight Pathways! </div>
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<b>Solitaire</b>. He was a legend all tournament. The key is picking your targets. The biggest problem is toughness - he will struggle against anything greater than T5, but anything T4 or less - bring it on? He particularly excels against multi wound T3 characters. But the real power is that he is one model, ignores terrain and other models, and is incredibly fast. That means you can get him into very tight spaces, where nobody expects him to go. He is a character assassin, pure and simple. </div>
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<b>What didn’t work quite so well.</b></div>
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<b>Ravagers</b>. The problem wasn’t really that they didn’t work well, they absolutely did. The Disintegrators, combined with Doom are devastating ...... when they got a chance to fire. The thing is, becasue everything else in my army is -1 to hit, with a 4++, and because everybody knows how devastating they are, they’re the obvious target. I went 2nd in 4 out of 5 games, and in each of those 4 games, they were the focus of most of my opponents fire power. In only one of game did more than one survive turn one unscathed. And they’re not cheap ... 185pts each! But then again, they are my only real ranged fire power. </div>
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<b>Lack of units who’s only job is to score objectives.</b> I had hoped the Ravagers would be able to do that, sitting back and scoring. However, because they were such a big target, they seldom survived. With most of the Harlies up front killing stuff, I was often left with nothing to cover backfield objectives. </div>
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<b>Thoughts on future lists.</b></div>
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I think I would like to try a pure Harlies list, dropping the Farseer and Ravagers, and replacing them with another Troupe in a Starweaver, a big unit of 5 Skyweavers, 2 small units of 2 Skyweavers, and bring back the Shadowseer. </div>
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Something like</div>
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Shadowseer</div>
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Troupe Master, Fusion, Embrace.</div>
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Troupe Master, Fusion Embrace</div>
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Troupe, 4 Embraces, 3 Fusion Pistols</div>
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Troupe, 4 Embraces, 3 Fusion Pistols</div>
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Troupe, 4 Embraces, 3 Fusion Pistols</div>
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Troupe, 4 Embraces, 3 Fusion Pistols</div>
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Troupe, 4 Embraces, 3 Fusion Pistols</div>
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Skyweavers x5, Zephere Glaves</div>
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Skyweavers x2, Star Bolas</div>
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Skyweavers x2, Star Bolas</div>
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Starweavers x5</div>
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The problem of course is that I lose all that ranged fire power. I lose 18 S5 -3AP D2 shots and replace them with 24 s6 0AP (although -3 on a 6 to wound) D1 shots. Against a T7 vehicle I trade an average of 6 wounds (assuming one is saved) for maybe 3, depending on saves. However, the additional flexibility it gives me is I think worth it, becasue I also get another Troupe, 5 more Fusion Pistols, 2 “dedicated” scoring units (the 2 small Skyweaver teams) and the big unit of bikes that will be in anybody’s teeth turn 1, and can pull of 50+” charges if the Shadowseer casts Twilight Pathways on them .... and it’s one less drop for deciding who goes first.</div>
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Better I think!</div>
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Thoughts?</div>
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EYIG</div>
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Embrace Your Inner Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09175279670690377675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290806675829794805.post-10851263202698242742017-11-06T20:49:00.000+00:002017-11-06T20:53:49.443+00:00Blood and Glory Tournament Report<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", helvetica; font-size: 14px;">Back from Blood and Glory. Great tournament. I went 3-2, coming 15th out of 73. There were soft scores in play, so although I only had 18pts from my games, I got another 6 points from 3 "best games" votes (essentially sportsmanship) and 3 from "best army" votes i.e. painting. I was also one of 6 nominated for best army, although I didn't win. Really pleased.</span><br />
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And I loved playing my Harlies.<br />
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So usual format, brief battle reports, a list review, and thoughts on how I’ll develope my list as a result.</div>
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<b>Game 1</b></div>
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Against guard (this will become a bit of a theme). A big bunch of conscripts, all the Leman Russes in the world, a couple of the flamer tanks, and 2 Taurox. Can’t remember the mission, but it was dawn of war deployment, or at least the version of dawn of war with the spearhead, bringing the armies closer together. I had decided that I was here to learn about the army, what it can and can’t do. I wasn’t going to worry about missions etc, rather I was just going to “try stuff” and see how it went. So with that in mind I decide, I was going to rush him and see what happened. To be honest, I didn't have much of a choice. There was no line of site blocking terrain on any of the tables I played on all weekend!!</div>
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He took first turn! So I hunkered down and prepared to take some casualties ...... but he largely wiffed! I think he killed one Ravager, and took some wounds off another one, but that was about it. In my turn I did a bit of shooting (degrading one Leman Russ) and then rushed his conscript screen. I had some very successful advance and charge rolls Was all over him. I even managed to get one unit of Harlies and my skyweavers behind his screen, assaulting him from behind (!). Highlight was the Solitaire jumping over the screen completely, and charging his Warlord and Primaris psyker. Long story short, I massacred his conscripts, and did a really good job of locking the remaining conscripts in combat, ready to jump out next turn and masacare everything. So feeling really pleased with myself I ended my turn.....and he started to take moral tests.....! I hadn’t thought about that. Of course the remaining conscripts melted, leaving my Harlies “blowing in the wind” ready to be mowed down by all the tanks. It didn’t last long after that!!</div>
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Learning points - if you want to lock yourself into an assault, dont kill too many of the unit so they melt away from moral checks! Also, the Solitaire was a boss, leaping around killing characters.</div>
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<b>Game 2</b></div>
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Guard again! Banblade with even more Leman Russes, Hydras and the flamer tanks ... but interestingly no infantry at all. Hammer and anvil. Again he got first turn.</div>
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So, much the same as before, he opened up, I ducked, and survived with the loss of 2 Ravagers, and a few wounds here and there. I rushed him, and suffered another round of shooting, before I could get into his tanks. The 2nd round of shooting was pretty brutal, and I wan’t left with much, but once I got into his tanks there wasn’t much he could do, all I needed to do was “tag” the tanks and they couldn’t fire next turn. He really needed some bubble wrap! Highlight was locking a Leman Russ in combat so it couldn’t move, and just hanging out there for 2 turns, scoring an objective with my Ob Sec Troupe!! Win to me.</div>
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Learning points - Starweavers are surprisingly survivable against guard. Hitting on 5s is no fun, and once they’re are degraded so they’re hitting on 6s.......! Solitaire was a boss this game as well, pulling off a 30+” charge to lock down 2 Hydras that we’re doing a number on my Starweavers.</div>
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<b>Game 3</b></div>
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Magnus, smite spam, with Changling, some alpha legion havocs, cultists, and loads of brimstones. This is a horrible match up for Harlies, with smite spam cutting through our 4++, but again, a learning experience! </div>
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He got first turn, but did very little (out of range) and he was wary of charging me with Magnus, fearing all the fusion pistols. He shuffled forward ...... and created a little gap beside the changling! So my Solitaire hopped out his Starweaver, pulled of a huge charge, leaping the brimstone screen and assassinating the changling, much to my opponents surprise! He was also accompanied by a couple of Troupes who also pulled off 20+” charges, leaping screens to assault Malific Lords, brimstones and Sorcerers on disks. Sadly, the Troupes wiffed (I didn’t have the Troupe Master with them, which makes a huge difference), and while dramatic, it wasn't’ terribly effective. Ultimately, Magnus was just too strong, but I made my opponent work hard for his win!</div>
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Highlight of the game was the Solitaire assassinating the Changling ... and the look on my opponents face when he saw what was about to happen .... priceless! But the real learning point was the effective charge range of Harlies getting out of Starweavers - 3.9” disembark, an 8” move and then 3d6 (d6 advance and 2d6 charge), and 2 comand point re-rolls if necessary (on the advance and on the charge). That’s a threat range of 29”, and an average charge of 22”. The biggest problem is believing that you can get off that sort of charge! </div>
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<b>Game 4</b></div>
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Guard (again)! But this time with a Knight and some marines. Still loads of Russes and flamer tanks. This was the spearhead deployment where the minimum distance apart is 18”. I deployed 2 Starweavers full of Fusion pistols on the line, and my opponent deployed his Knight on the line .... 18” away. Hmmmm ....... a 16” Starweaver move, plus a 3” double dice fusion pistol range is 19” ..... and I got first turn. So, the Knight died, much to my opponents horror, and it was mopping up after that. A few anxious moments, but, again Starweavers are very resilient.</div>
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The Solitaire was a hero again, taking out 20 infantry and their commissar by himself, having “tanked” 20 laz gun shots the round before. Again, I didn’t need to kill Russes, just degrade them until they were hitting me on 6s, and/or tag them so they had to fall back and couldn’t shoot.</div>
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<b>Game 5</b></div>
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Against Iron Warriors. Bunch of Obliterators, some Cultists, a Knight and 3 Predators. He got first turn.</div>
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This was the game of the tournament, against an awesome guy. Very “back and forward” with extreme dice rolls on both sides - we were both rolling handfuls of 1s or handfuls of 6s. Great game. Highlight was committing everything to killing the Predators, leaving my Farseer facing down a Knight on 5 wounds. I was hoping to kill it with Smite and Executioner. I failed Smite first time, using the Farseer’s re-roll to get it off, doing 2 mortal wounds. I failed to get Executioner off, using my Warlord trait to re-roll one dice to get it off, and then rolling 2 mortal wounds, before using my last command point to re-roll that dice for 3 mortal wounds to kill the knight .... great game. </div>
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Learning points - Solitare was a legend again, killing Obliterators a chaos Lord, and a bunch of Cultists. </div>
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OK, thats that. Next Post a list review.</div>
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EYIG</div>
Embrace Your Inner Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09175279670690377675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290806675829794805.post-40674210459364947612017-10-31T18:47:00.003+00:002017-10-31T18:47:52.349+00:00Harlequins List Development<span style="font-family: "helvetica Neue", helvetica; font-size: 14px;">A bit of an update on my thinking on Harlies, and a look forward to the next couple of months.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica Neue", helvetica; font-size: 14px;">Over the next 2 months I’ll be attending 3 large events. In ITC speak they're all GT’s, and 2 of them will be “majors”. This weekend I’m going to the Blood and Glory GT in Darby (think there are around 70 people going), at the beginning of December I’m going to Rapid Fire in Stirling (34 people), and the weekend after that, Heat 3 of the GW GT at Warhammer World (being “allowed” to go to 2 events back to back cost me a holiday to Rome for Mrs Geek and the Geeklets !!). </span><br />
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The goal is to qualify for the GT final at Warhammer World in March 2018. For those that dont know, GW run 3 heats, with the top 40 people in each heat, going on to a final. For the last few years they have run gaming events (called “Throne of Skulls”), but they were a long way from a competitive tournament. This is the first time they’ve run the GT for a few years. I used to go to Throne of Skulls regularly, but they changed up the format so much I stopped. Broadly they turned them into gaming weekends rather than tournaments (no swiss pairing, heavy soft scoring etc), and they just weren’t fun anymore. While there are still soft scores (sportsmanship and pairing) I want to give it the benefit of the doubt again.</div>
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The goal is to qualify with Harlequins (I”ll allow myself some allies!!). To be sure of qualifying I’ll probably need to go 4-1, although 3-2 might make it, depending on paint and sportsmanship scoring. So, with that in mind, Blood and Glory and Rapid Fire are practice events, to experiment with some alternative lists and units.</div>
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My list for Blood and Glory is</div>
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<b>Harlequins Battalion</b></div>
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Troupe Master, Fusion Pistol, Caress</div>
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Troupe Master, Fusion Pistol, Embrace (I needed 3 points!)</div>
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Troupe, 5 Players, 3 Fusion Pistols, 4 Embraces</div>
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Troupe, 5 Players, 3 Fusion Pistols, 4 Embraces</div>
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Troupe, 5 Players, 2 Fusion Pistols, 4 Embraces</div>
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Troupe, 5 Players, 2 Fusion Pistols, 4 Embraces</div>
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Solitaire</div>
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3 Skyweavers, 2 Glaves</div>
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4 Starweavers</div>
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<b>Aeldari Spearhead</b></div>
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Farseer Skyrunner, Doom, Executioner.</div>
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Ravager, 3 Disintegrators</div>
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Ravager, 3 Disintegrators</div>
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Ravager, 3 Disintegrators</div>
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The Troupe Masters are there to give re-rolls to wound. Embraces are only S4 and they often need a little “oomph” with tougher opponents. The Troupe’s are the “guts” of the list. I’ve reduced Fusion Pistol numbers to fit other stuff in, and based on my thinking that too many Fusion Pistols is a bit of a trap. I’ve stuck with Embraces because of the -3 AP, and lower point cost. </div>
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I’m giving the Solitaire “one last chance”. I really want him to work, as he’s such an iconic character in a Harlequins army, but he’s been a bit lack luster so for. </div>
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The big change is dropping the Shadowseer for the Farseer. Not sure about this. Twilight Pathways is pretty good, but 134 points just for that? I think, for the same points, the Farseer is just better value. In particular Doom is extremely effective with the Dissie Ravager. Last week I killed a doomed Baneblade in one round of shooting, and I didn’t use a single Fusion Pistol! He also gets to deny 2 powers, is more mobile, and has the chance to cast Smite and Executioner for a possible 3d6 mortal wounds. </div>
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So that's the list. I'll be doing a brief battle report on Blood and Glory next week, and further list refinement.</div>
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I'm in the process of painting a couple of Hemlocks, so I want to try them as allies for Rapid Fire, so i can decide on the best list for the GT.</div>
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Thoughts?</div>
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EYIG</div>
Embrace Your Inner Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09175279670690377675noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290806675829794805.post-72279560743469932182017-10-31T09:19:00.000+00:002017-10-31T09:19:56.969+00:00Harlequins Review and TacticsAfter a bit of a break, I’m back!<br />
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I’ve not really had a break from 40k to be honest, just from blogging .... well at least here. I’ve actually been asked to contribute a few articles to Frontline Gamin, and my blogging time was taken up with a review for them. You may have already seen it (it was also posted on BOLS), but if not I include it below for completeness.<br />
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Why? Well, I want to do a series of posts on 3 GT’s I’m attending offer the next few months, and the article is “background”.<br />
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So, for those who haven’t read it, here it is.<br />
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I’ve now played about a dozen games with my Harlequins, including one tournament, so while I’m no expert, I feel I’m in a position to provide a review that’s more than a simple “this unit does that, and that unit does this”. So, to keep things brief I’ll assume you have the index and have read the basic unit entries. I wont dwell on the stats and rules, but try and focus on table top tactics and function.<br />
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So here goes – first special rules, then Psychic Powers, and then units. There aren’t many, so it’ll be quick!<br />
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<b>Special Rule – Rising Crescendo</b><br />
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All Harlequins with this rule (which is all of them bar Vehicles) can advance and charge, and can shoot and charge, even if they Fall Back.<br />
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This is Harlies defining rule. It’s part of what makes them so fast and so deadly in assault, especially when combined with Flip Belts (allowing them to move over units and terrain as if it wasn’t there).<br />
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Being able to advance and charge is pretty self explanatory. It gives Players a charge range of around 18” on average dice (8” move plus 3d6 i.e.d6 advance and 2d6 charge). The only downside is you cant shoot pistols if you advance. An issue if you forked out for Fusions Pistols.<br />
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The second part of the rule (being able to charge and shoot after falling back) is more subtle, particularly when combined with Flip Belts. What it allows you to do is exploit positioning mistake by your opponents by (very) careful play in the assault phase.<br />
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<b>Psychic Powers</b><br />
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Harlies have 3 powers, Twilight Pathways, which allows you to move a unit in the psychic phase, and 2 others I’ve never used (most tournaments in the U.K. require you to choose psychic powers at the list building stage, and I only run one Shadowseer)! With one of them you target a unit and roll off with your opponent. If you win the roll off the unit takes a mortal wound – keep going till your opponent wins the roll off, or the unit dies. The other one targets a unit and that unit is -1 to hit.<br />
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The problem with “the other 2” is - one is pretty random (you could lose the first roll off!), and the other limited to one unit – fine if there is one huge shooty unit of death, but, if not…..! So for me, I always choose the guaranteed utility of being able to move a unit twice.<br />
<br />
And that power is really strong. A Troupe jumping out a Starweaver (their dedicated Transport, we’ll get to that), and moving twice, gives them a threat range of around 33” on average dice (3” disembark, 8” move, d6 advance, 8” Twilight Pathway’s move, and then 3d6 advance and charge). With Twilight pathways, a Starweaver can get any embarked Fusions Pistols into double dice range of something 34” away, and a unit of Skyweavers (the bikes, again we’ll get to them) can charge something pretty much anywhere on the board (16” move plus 6” automatic advance, another 16” plus 6” automatic advance from Twilight Pathways, and then a 2d6 charge). Pretty damn fast. If only you could cast it on 2 units a turn!!<br />
<br />
The biggest problem I’ve found is actually believing you can pull of such long charges. I’m usually far too conservative with the charges I attempt.<br />
<br />
It can sometime be a little tricky to pull off, with only a 3” range. It’s best to have the Shadowseer in her Starweaver (and you did bring a Starweaver for all your units, didn’t you?) right beside the unit you want to boost. Get her out, moved her and advance her, then move the unit past her, but stay within 3”. That usually allows the unit you want to boost to get it’s full movement, before you boost it. Easier with Troupes and Skyweavers (you can hang one model back to stay in range), but harder with Starweavers.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Shadowseer</b>.<br />
<br />
The Harlequin Psyker, which when I play her always takes Twilight Pathways. Sure you can deny the odd psychic power, and generate the odd mortal wound via Smite, but they’re bonuses. Her main purpose is to catch your opponent with their pants down, boosting units across the board.<br />
<br />
The other ability which seems really good, but in my experience isn’t that great, is Shield from Harm (your opponent must subtract 1 from any to wound roll). It only effects infantry models, so it doesn’t effect Vehicles, nor (sadly) Skyweavers. It only comes into play when your Players are disembarked and running around …… by which time they’re either standing on a heap of enemy corpses, having pulled off that crucial charge, or they’re getting mowed down by so much fire power that -1 to wound doesn’t make much difference.<br />
<br />
So IMHO, a “must take” unit, but for a very specific purpose, and I’m not sure you need to take more than 1.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Troupe Master</b><br />
<br />
Basically a Player that hits more reliably (on a 2+), has one more attack (for 5 in total) and 4 more wounds (again, 5 in total). Not much to see here …. except he lets Players re-roll failed wounds in combat, which given their relatively low strength (5 with a Caress, 4 with and Embrace) is critical. Take at least 2 of these!!<br />
<br />
Load out for shooting is pretty straight forward – give him a Fusion Pistol (he hits on a 2+ remember), but then you come to one of the most hotly debated topics among Harlie players it seems – Embrace v Caress v Kiss.<br />
<br />
The Embrace is S4, -3AP and 1D. For 50% more points the Caress is S5, -2AP and 1D, and for more than twice the cost of an Embrace, the Kiss is S4, -1AP and d3D. The consensus (in so far as there is one) seems to be that the Kiss is too expensive, the Embrace too reliant on the Troupe Master’s re-roll to wound, leaving you with the Caress as the weapon of choice.<br />
<br />
To date I’ve run with Embraces. I take 2 Troupe Masters so can usually give all my Players re-rolls to wound. However, I suspect the efficient answer might be to take one Troupe Master, and use the points saved to put Caresses on your Players, leaving you with points left over.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Troupe</b><br />
<br />
Basic Troupe is 5 players, but can go up to 10 (although you will never want to take more than 6 as that’s all that fits in a Starweaver). A Player hits on 3s, has 1 wound, 4 attacks and a 4++. He/she has a Flip Belt (can move across terrain and models as if they weren’t there) and Rising Crescendo.<br />
<br />
The detailed tactical use of Troupes I’ll leave for another post, for now I’ll stick with how to load them out, whether to take Starweavers, and whether to take Fusion Pistols.<br />
<br />
Players have the same close combat options as Troupe Masters – an Embrace, a Caress or a Kiss. A Kiss is even less cost effective on a Player (only 1 wound and 4 attacks as opposed to 5 wounds and 5 attacks), leaving you with an Embrace or Caress. I suspect the argument will continue to rage. I run Embraces on my Players, as the most cost effective option, although I can see the argument for Caresses.<br />
<br />
I also run one Player in every Troupe with just a standard blade. He’s the one that eats overwatch, or dies when the Starweaver explodes.<br />
<br />
And always, always take a Starweaver. To be fair, I’ve never tried it, but I just can’t see running Troupes across the board ending well. Even with a Shadowseer in attendance, they’re still only T3, 1 wound models with a 4++. They just wont make it.<br />
<br />
Finally, Fusion Pistols. What’s not to like – S8, -4AP and d6 damage. Awesome….. except, I’m not convinced that loading Players up with Fusion Pistols is the way to go, for a couple of reason.<br />
<br />
First, they are unreliable. Maths isn’t my strong suite, but a 3+ to hit, followed by a 3+ to wound (most things) and then d6 damage is just too many hurdles to cross before you get the “promised” awesome result. In game after game, I’ve found Fusion Pistols don’t live up to their “hype”.<br />
<br />
Second, you usually want to use a Player’s ability to advance and charge. If you advance you can’t fire your Fusion Pistol! And if you fire you’re Fusion Pistol, and kill something you risk making the charge harder.<br />
<br />
“But, Starweaver drive-buys” I hear you say. Well yes, and that brings me to the third problem …. the desire to execute the “perfect” drive buy, combined with the short range of the Fusion Pistol, tempts you to over commit your Troupes, which usually isn’t the best plan. It’s particularly the case if you use Twilight Pathways to double move a Starweaver full of Fusion Pistols to “snuggle” it up against a “big scary thing” and blow it away. That’s a very expensive suicide unit.<br />
<br />
With allies there are, I think, better ways to deal with “big scary things” (Ravagers for example). However, if you plan on running pure Harlies, Fusion pistols are probably necessary (we’ll come to Voidweavers), you just need to be “restrained” in their use and pick your moment.<br />
<br />
<b>Skyweavers</b><br />
<br />
Two man bikes, T4, hit on 3+, with 3 wounds, 3 attacks, and a 4++, but most importantly, they move 16”, automatically advance 6”, and have Rising Crescendo and Flip Belts (i.e. they can assault after advancing). They come stock with a Shruiken Cannon you can upgrade to a Haywire Cannon (but probably wont), and a Star Bolas, that you can upgrade to a Zephyr Glave (which you probably will). The Star Bolas is interesting, and it’s probably worth having one in the unit that can heave a grenade, but you really want to pay the extra points for the Glave, for S4, -2AP and 2 damage per wound.<br />
<br />
They’re OK at shooting and OK in combat (better with a Troupe Master nearby to re-roll wounds) but I think the key stat here is the 16” move and the automatic 6” advance, combined with being able to advance and charge with Rising Crescendo. That’s a 29” charge on average dice, much (much) further with Twilight Pathways, where a 50” charge is possible. With that sort of speed you can do some crazy things.<br />
<br />
The obvious one is to pull of a long charge, not so much to kill stuff, but to force them to fall back and limit their shooting for a turn, allowing your Troupes to catch up. However, you can also use them as a “blocker” i.e. move them over the unit you want to charge and have them charge from the back of the unit, while your Troupes charge from the front, locking everything in combat. You then fall back, but can still charge and shoot via Rising Crescendo. It’s also easier with such a long move, to choose exactly where you charge a larger unit, isolating models with specific weapons, or even just stretching out a large unit, limiting their ability to consolidate models into combat.<br />
<br />
And they’re surprisingly resilient. Three wounds, T4 at -1 to hit from Mirage Launchers and with a 4++, means it takes some dedicated fire power to take them down.<br />
<br />
The problem of course is they’re expensive points wise, but I think you get what you pay for.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Solitaire</b><br />
<br />
“Sigh” my great unrequited love. I want the Solitaire to be awesome, I really do, but he continues to disappoint. In theory he’s amazing – hitting on 2s, 5 wounds, a 3++, with 8 attacks base, that you can “boost” to 10 once per game if you “blitz”. He’s even faster than your standard Player, moving 12”, which is increased by 2d6 if you blitz. So potential 30+” charges! He’s armed with a Kiss and a Caress so can choose one or other when he attacks.<br />
<br />
However, in most of the games I’ve played he’s been underwhelming. The problem is, he’s very situational – when he’s awesome, he’s awesome, but he’s not awesome often enough to make it worthwhile!! For his points I could take another Troupe, or a couple of Skyweavers, or more Dark Elder fire support, which wouldn’t be as awesome, but would be “good” more consistently.<br />
<br />
I held out great hope for the Solitaire as a character assassin. In my mind I saw him blitzing over screens and bubble wrap, taking out buffing characters, and crushing my opponents hopes and dreams. In my mind’s eye it looked so cool and clever that, even now, I think I should give it another chance, but the reality is, in all the games I’ve played, I’ve done this once. Usually he runs up to a reasonably soft unit, kills it, and then dies to bolter fire. Or he runs up to a beefier unit and bounces off, before dyeing to bolter fire.<br />
<br />
So, much to my disappointment, I think the Solitaire is a unit to take if you want to “forge a narrative” (do we still do that in 8th!), but is not an optimal choice.<br />
<br />
<br />
Starweavers<br />
<br />
Starweavers are awesome, without them I suspect a Harlequin army simply wouldn’t work. They provide the crucial protection your Players need to get them where they need to be. Although I’ve never tried it, I suspect footslogging Harlies just wouldn’t work. In my view, every Troupe should have a Starweaver.<br />
<br />
And that’s because Starweavers are surprisingly resilient. With T5 and 6 wounds they are little more than “paper planes”, but with -1 to hit from the Mirage Launchers and a 4++, they shrug of a surprising amount of fire power. They are also blisteringly fast, moving 16” with an automatic 6” advance. Just the thing for getting your Troupes into position to charge next turn.<br />
<br />
They also provide reasonable fire support – six, S6 shots, hitting on 3s, with -3AP on 6s to wound isn’t bad. And they hit on 3s in assault with 3 attacks. Nothing spectacular, but when you charge them in to suck up overwatch, they might just do something!<br />
<br />
<br />
Voidweavers<br />
<br />
I want to like Voidweavers, but they’re a bit lack luster. They come with the same basic chassis as the Starweaver, and most of the same rules (-1 to hit, 4++, 2 Shuriken Cannons, and an automatic 6” advance), but instead of transporting Players, you get a choice of 2 guns, a Prismatic Cannon, or a Haywire Cannon.<br />
<br />
The problem is the Guns aren’t great. The Haywire Cannon is d3 shots, S4 and only 1 damage. If you target a vehicle, on a 4+ to wound you do 1 mortal wound on top of any other damage, and on a 6 you do d3 mortal wounds. The Prism Cannon has 3 modes, dispersed which is Heavy d6, S4, -2AP, 1D, focused, which is Heavy d3, S6, -3AP, d3D, or beam which is Heavy 1, S8, -4AP, d6D.<br />
<br />
My problem is they’re so random. You might get 3 shots for the Haywire Cannon, and you might roll 3 sixes to wound, but chances are you’re not going to, and you might roll 6 shots with the dispersed Prism cannon, but again, chances are you’re not going to.<br />
<br />
And to top it of, all firing modes on both weapons are Heavy, so you’re -1 to hit if you move, and because they only have a 24” range, chances are, you’ll want to move.<br />
<br />
But the final nail in the coffin is that Ravagers are just so good, why would you want to take anything else? Different if you wan to run a “pure” Harlequin army of course, but even then I think you would be better with more Skyweavers and Fusions Pistols.<br />
<br />
So that’s it. Quick overview of the army’s abilities and the units. Next up some thoughts on lists, tactics and maybe even some battle reports.<br />
<br />Embrace Your Inner Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09175279670690377675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290806675829794805.post-32200540768417858362017-09-15T15:07:00.001+01:002017-09-15T15:07:40.574+01:00Harlequin List ReviewSo, a few thoughts on my list and some changes.<br />
<br />
The list I took was<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
Shadowseer<br />
Troupe Master, Fusion Pistol, Carress<br />
Troupe Master, Fusion Pistol, Carress<br />
<br />
Troupe, 3 Fusion Pistols, 4 Embraces<br />
Troupe, 3 Fusion Pistols, 4 Embraces<br />
Troupe, 3 Fusion Pistols, 4 Embraces<br />
Troupe, 3 Fusion Pistols, 4 Embraces<br />
<br />
Solitaire<br />
<br />
Starweaver x4<br />
<br />
Skyweavers, Zephyerglaves x3<br />
<br />
Ravager 3 Dark Lances<br />
Ravager 3 Disintegrators<br />
Ravager 3 Disintegrators<br />
<br />
So, what worked and what didn't?<br />
<br />
<b>What worked</b><br />
<br />
The Ravagers are really good. I have been debating dark lance versus Disintegrators, but I think I've finally come down on the side of disintegrators. They are just so much more flexible, and while the maximum damage you might get from a Dark Lance is more, the higher volume of shots and the consistency of the Disintegrators is more attractive.<br />
<br />
The Skyweavers were are also "all stars" surprisingly resilient, blisteringly fast, give OK fire support, and reasonable in combat with their Zephyerglaves.More importantly they can block, and lock things in combat to give your Troupes time to get there.<br />
<br />
Players are amazing in combat, and they are so fast. But they need to be supported. They fall over to a stiff breeze once they're out of their Starweavers, and at only S4 (with Embraces) really need the Troupe Master's re-rolls. There is an argument for taking Carresses. The way damage works now, it's only really better against T4,T5 and T8 or greater. However, T4 and 5 units are probably the units you want to put your Troupes against most often, and it makes them less reliant on the Troupe Master's re-roll. Might be an argument for taking Caresses and dropping down to only one Troupe Master.<br />
<br />
Starweavers are great transports. Minus 1 to hit, 6 wounds and a 4++ make them surprisingly resilient, and 2 Shuriken Cannons is a reasonable amount of fire power - all for 99pts - not bad at all. However, what I've found is that, while they are resilient against a small number of high strength shots, they are vulnerable to large numbers of lower strength shots. In my game against 'nids, the Termigaunts with Devourers swatted them out the sky with contempt.<br />
<br />
<b>What didn't</b><br />
<br />
Fusion Pistols. I'm becoming more and more convinced that putting multiple Fusion Pistols in a Troupe is a "trap". At first they seem awesome, but I'm not so sure it's worth it. Bluntly they’re unreliable, and tempt you to do silly things with your Troupes.<br />
<br />
I'm no math hammer guy, but it seems to me that a 3+ to hit, followed by another 3+ to wound (most things), followed by d6 damage has too many steps where they can fall down. Another problem is not being able to fire them after you advance. Nine times out of ten you want to exploit the Player's speed, and his/her ability to charge after they advance. If you do that, you can't use your pistol. "But Starweaver drive-buys" I hear you say. Well, yes, when they work they're awesome, but because their range is so short, it tends to forces you to over-commit your to get into a position to use them (particularly if you use "Twilight pathway" to double move the Starweaver). That's a really expensive "suicide" squad! (around 250pts, with the Starweaver, depending on how you tool up the Troupe).<br />
<br />
I've never been a huge fan of "swiss army knife" units i.e. Units that do lots of different things. I think specialism is the better option. I suspect it would be better to have maybe, one "disposable" unit tooled up with Fusion Pistols to take out the "big scary" (although that's an even more expensive suicide unit) but with all the other Troupes "just" tooled out for combat.<br />
<br />
So, for my 4 squads, one with 6 players and 6 Fusions Pistols, and the other 3 with 5 Players all toting Caresses, but just with Shuriken Pistols. That would save enough points to put Disintegrators on the 3rd Ravager. Alternatively, just take Fusion Pistols off the Troupes completely and invest in something else - that's 117pts - almost enough for a unit of Scourges with Blasters (130pts).<br />
<br />
The Solitaire was "situational" at best. I'm just not convinced he's worth his points. Again, the problem is consistency. When he's awesome, he's awesome, he's just not awesome often enough!<br />
<br />
Shadowseer. His only use really is to cast Twighlight Pathway on something, allowing it to move twice. Sure he gets of the odd smite, and denies the odd psychic power, but is it really worth 168pts to move a Starweaver 32", maybe twice a game? Not so sure. I suspect I would get better value from a Farseer on a bike casting doom, to allow the Ravager's Disintegrators to re-roll wounds.<br />
<br />
Finally, I have no real answer to flyers.<br />
<br />
Need to think about this a bit<br />
<br />
So maybe something like this<br />
<br />
Farseer, Jetbike<br />
Troupe Master, Fusion, Caress<br />
Troupe Master, Fusion, Caress<br />
<br />
Troupe, 6 players, 6 Embraces<br />
Troupe, 6 Players, 6 Embraces<br />
Troupe, 5 Players, 5 Embraces<br />
Troupe, 5 Players, 5 Embraces<br />
<br />
Skyweaver x2<br />
Skyweaver x2<br />
Skyweaverx2<br />
<br />
Starweaver x4<br />
<br />
Ravager, 3 Disintegrators<br />
Ravager, 3 Disintegrators<br />
Ravager, 3 Disintegrators<br />
<br />
My concern is that it puts all my "anti big thing" eggs in 3 Ravager shaped baskets<br />
<br />
Thoughts?Embrace Your Inner Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09175279670690377675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290806675829794805.post-57157810786551513922017-09-12T14:45:00.001+01:002017-09-12T14:45:23.817+01:00Harlequins first tournament<div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392); font-family: helvetica;">
Took my Harlequins to their first tournament at the weekend. It did not go well!<br />
<br />
Out of a total of 80 possible points available over the weekend, i got 3, losing all 4 games. To be fair, it was a team tournament, and my list was by far the weakest list in the team, so tended to get "preyed" on, but it was still pretty woeful!<br />
<br />
The list I took was<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
Shadowseer<br />
Troupe Master, Fusion Pistol, Carress<br />
Troupe Master, Fusion Pistol, Carress<br />
<br />
Troupe, 4 Fusion Pistols, 4 Embraces<br />
Troupe, 3 Fusion Pistols, 4 Embraces<br />
Troupe, 3 Fusion Pistols, 4 Embraces<br />
Troupe, 3 Fusion Pistols, 4 Embraces<br />
<br />
Solitaire<br />
<br />
Starweaver x4<br />
<br />
Skyweavers x3<br />
<br />
Ravager 3 Dark Lances<br />
Ravager 3 Disintegrators<br />
Ravager 3 Disintegrators<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Game 1</b><br />
<br />
Against an Imperial Fists marine army, 4 Razorbacks with Twin Assault Cannons, 4 tac squads with Heavy Weapons, a Landraider with a tooled out assault squad and Primaris Lieutentant to go inside, and 2 units of shooty terminators, lead by Lysander. Bluntly I fancied my chances. We had the same number of drops, so I would go first if I placed the first model. The Ravagers should (!) take out a couple of razorbacks, and the Shadowseer could cast Twilight pathways to move one Starweaver twice, putting 5 Fusion Pistols up close to the Landraider. Then all I would need to do is weather the storm of the Terminators coming in, before moping up.<br />
<br />
And I got to place the first unit!<br />
<br />
Which all very well, but stupidly (and I still can't believe I did this), having counted the drops carefully, and worked it all out, I deployed the Solitaire rather than put him in a Starweaver, meaning I had 9 drops rather than 8. Worse still, I didn’t realise until I had deployed a few units aggressively, ready to take turn one. It was like getting seized on!<br />
<br />
Long story short, we had a fantastic game, which I lost narrowly (despite the score line being 18-2). I more of less weathered the storm of his first turn, and wiped out the Terminators and Lysander with embarrassing ease. His armour was trickier, as we were playing Hammer and Anvil and it took a couple of turns to get the Fusion Pistols in Range, but at the end he had I think one Razorback left, and a handful of tactical marines, and I had a Ravager on 1 wound, and 3 players. Highlights (!) were missing with the Troupe Master's fusion pistol 3 times (he hits on a 2+), using a command point to re-roll it 3 times (in separate shooting phases) and missing again, three times!! Also, Landraiders are tough - it survived 7 Fusion Pistol shots (within double dice range) with 1 wound left. I had to assault it with the Troupe Master and the Solitaire to be sure. It then blew up, killing both the Troupe Master and the Solitaire!<br />
<br />
On the bright side, my teammates won big and we took the round<br />
<br />
Learning points - vehicles are a lot tougher to take down than I thought. Harlies are devastating in Assault - 2 Troupes (and the Solitaire) blew through 10 Terminators and Lysander as if they weren't there. I was beginning to wonder whether Fusion Pistols are the way to go.<br />
<br />
<b>Game 2</b><br />
<br />
Not a lot to see here - I was "thrown under the bus" by the team, and drew a Grey Knight Stormraven list - 3 Ravens and 4 Grandmaster Dreadknights. Only 7 drops so he was going first. My only hope really was to seize, which I didn't. He took first turn and killed about half my army. My "mission" was to get 1 or 2 points, so I ran away a little, but the Ravens and a gating Grand master hunted me down.<br />
<br />
Learning points ....... Ravens are really strong? Who knew!!<br />
<br />
My team mates did reasonably well though, and we lost the round by only 1 point.<br />
<br />
<b>Game 3</b><br />
<br />
Under the bus again - Demons (god I hate demons!). A bunch of characters and exalted flamers hiding behind brimstones and blue horrors. Again, my "mission" was to get 1 or 2 points out of the game so I shot stuff to little effect, and ran away some more. Got a point out of the game which gave our team a draw for the round.<br />
<br />
Hmmm ..... don’t want to sound bitter, but my opponent's list is a good example of how to abuse the character mechanic and smite spam. The only things I could shoot were the horrors, which are -1 to hit with a 4++. If I assault the screen, I kill it, but I'm then "smited" off the table, and if not, the Demon Princes steal my lunch. At one point I had a chance to assault over the screen, and "might" have taken out a couple of Demon Princes .... but while it would have been fun to do, I would have died in return, and that wasn't my mission.<br />
<br />
Learning points. That I don’t really enjoy the team format! Being "forced" to play a defensive game and run away, expecting to lose, but to get a point or 2 is no fun. If you're going to lose, you might as well lose big and have fun doing it!<br />
<br />
<b>Game 4</b><br />
<br />
This time I wasn't under the bus, and drew a Tyranid List. I fancied my chances here to be honest. Swarmlord, 2 Exocrines, 2 Tervigons (the ones that spawns the little shooty guys), a Trygon Prime, a Spore Pod, some Rippers, and 2 squads of 30 Termigaunts with devourers.<br />
<br />
However, I didn't know 2 things, first, that the Swarmlord can move again the turn he steps out the pod, and still charge, and that you can spawn 'gaunts from the Tervigons to replace losses. Well to be fair I knew that, but I didn't appreciate how it worked. He strung the gaunts all the way back to the Tervigons, taking casualties from the back of the horde, replenishing them from the Tervigons, and constantly pushing the the front line forward - and with 3 shots each from the devourers, they push out a hell of a lot of fire power.<br />
<br />
So the swarmlord comes down and attacks a Starweaver, he then refused to die to massed shooting (he cast catalyst on the Swarmlord giving him a 5+ feel no pain). Yet again, I wiffed horribly with my Fusion Pistols, even with re-rolls. It took me 2 rounds of shooting to kill him while he "monstered" a Starweaver, a Troupe, and a Ravager, and by that time the ' gaunts were all over me. I just didn't have the fire power to whittle down the swarm, nor could I get into combat due to massed overwatch. We were playing Hammer and Anvil, so the Tervigons were too far away to kill.<br />
<br />
Looking at the game again, I should have won. My target priority was way off. I should have played far more aggressively, pushing forward to get the Exocrines first, and then the Tervigons, accepting that I would suffer losses from the 'gaunts, but hoping I would get the big bugs, and then wipe the little ones.<br />
<br />
<b>Conclusion</b><br />
<br />
Well, that was a bit depressing! To be fair, there was nothing I could really do against the Stormraven list, nor the Demons. I should have won against the Marines, and should probably have won against the 'nids.<br />
<br />
Harlies are far from the strongest list in the game at the moment, which i knew when decided to buy the army, but I didn't really appreciate how tricky they were to play. Lots more thought required.<br />
<br />
The main learning point however was that I don’t enjoy the team format. Being "forced" to play a game you don’t want to play, for the benefit of the team, isn't fun. I don’t mean the match up, but the way you actually play your list. Playing "conservatively" so you lose, but don’t lose completely, just isn't fun. If I'm going to lose, I want to lose in a blaze of glory - in the words of the Kurgan - "it's better to burn out than to fade away"!<br />
<br />
And of course the format pushes you towards silly armies - at the weekend we saw quite a few smite spam demons, dark angle parking lots, Magnus a Khorne Lord of Skulls and 2 Knights, Tau Commander spam etc etc. I guess you get that sort of list at singles events, but once you lose a couple of games Swiss pairing usually means you get to play something a little more interesting.<br />
<br />
Next post, some more general thoughts on my list, and tactics<br />
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Embrace Your Inner Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09175279670690377675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290806675829794805.post-81562838290431405052017-08-30T23:59:00.000+01:002017-08-31T13:45:53.687+01:00Harlequins for 8th<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica"; font-size: 14px;">I'm a bit late with all this 8th edition stuff I know, but I've had my "usual" (OK, it's happened twice!) break from 40k after the LVO and spent the summer getting fit and losing weight (it's all relative!!), before getting bored with that and coming back to 40k.</span><br />
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I've now played 6 games of 8th edition (2 wins against guard, 2 losses against Grey Knights, one win against Dark Angles and a win against an Alpha Legion list with 40 berserkers, so 4-0-2 so far) and I'm beginning to get the hang of it. Llike most people, I'm impressed. It's simple and streamlined, but still sufficiently complex to be entertaining. The only thing I miss are vehicle facings and firing arcs. Firing arcs in particular added more depth to the game, and helped to reign in flyers (which are of course way more powerful in 8th).</div>
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But overall, I'm loving it!</div>
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And, I have a new army. While marines are still strong, (my Raven Guard in particular) Genestealer Cult is a bit rubbish (unless you want to take hundreds of genestealers) so I've decided to start a new army for 8th edition - Harlequins. Mostly for the models, which are amazing, and the painting, which is challenging, but also because I suspect they are a lot more powerful than is immediately obvious. They are certainly not the easiest army to play, but I suspect will reward "smart" play, once I get the hang of them.</div>
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I say Harlequins, but I'll be taking along some Eldar or Dark Eldar allies. I'm toying with 2 builds at the moment, one with 3 Ravagers as fire support, and the other with 2 Hemlocks. I've played Ravagers in the 6 games so far. The Hemlocks are still in their shrink wrap. I've prioritised painting the Harlies first as I have a Team Tournament coming up next weekend in which I can't use Eldar (another team member is using them). I'll move onto the Hemlocks once I finish the Ravagers - almost there! </div>
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So far I've enjoyed the Harlequins. They are are pretty fast, and reasonably deadly in assault, if somewhat fragile. However, one of the things I wasn't expecting was how deadly they are with Fusion Pistol "drive buys" from Starweavers. </div>
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The list I'm working with is</div>
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Shadowseer</div>
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Troupe Master, Fusion Pistol, Caress</div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Rroupe Master, Fusion Pistol, Caress</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Troupe, 5 Players, 3 Fusion Pistols, 4 Embraces</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Troupe, 5 Players, 3 Fusion Pistols, 4 Embraces</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Troupe, 5 Players, 3 Fusion Pistols, 4 Embraces</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Troupe, 5 Players, 3 Fusion Pistols, 4 Embraces</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Skyweavers x 3, 2 Zephyer Glaves</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Solitare</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Starwweaver</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Starwweaver</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ravager, 3 Dark Lances</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ravager, 3 Disintegrators</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Troupes and Starweavers are working well. The Ravagers are amazing - really impressed with them. I cant make up my mind between disintegrators or dark lances. I'm trying both at the moment, but dont think I've got it right.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The 2 units that haven't shone so far are the Shadowseer and the Solitare. However, they're still in the list as I suspect I need to get better at playing them. The key with the Shadowseer is I suspect the power that allows one unit to move twice. Using this to get a Starweaver full of fusions pistols snuggling up to a big scary thing might be useful. Also, I think the power which forces your opponent to subtract 1 from their to wound rolls might be more powerful than I've given it credit for. It doesn't work on Vehicles (sadly), but only on infantry.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Solitarie is a scalpel. I think (hope) that his role might be to snipe out characters. When he blitzes he moves 12" plus 3d6 - so on average 22"-23", and he can still charge. The crucial thing however, is he ignores intervening terrain and models. The plan then would be to get him close enough to blitz over bubble wrap and charge the characters hiding behind them. It's worked once so far, jumping over some guardsmen and killing their commissar, but I've not played it well enough yet to make it happen consistently. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Which brings me to skyweavers. It took me a while to work out what to do with them. In fact I almost cut them from my list as they seemed a little pointless. However, in the last game I played it dawned on me. They are great at closing down shooting units.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">They are blisteringly fast - 16" move, with a guaranteed 6" advance after which they can still charge. So, on average, a 27" charge? However, combine that with the Shadowseers power to have them move twice, and very little is safe from a first turn charge. The idea is top get them up against a bunch of shooty units forcing them to fall back next turn (or ideally locking them in place so they can't fall back). It limits the return fire, giving your troupe's a breathing space to get there and murder stuff. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">All very well if you get first turn, what about if you go second? Well, they're T4 with 3 wounds each, so not terribly tough. However, they have -1 to hit becasue of their mirage launchers, and -1 to wound if within 6" of the Shadowseer. Death Star they're not, but they are tolerably survivable. </span></div>
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So, these are my thoughts to date. I would welcome any feedback from other Harlequin players.</div>
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I have a 4 game team tournament next weekend, and a couple of practise games this week and next. Some brief battle reports incoming.</div>
Embrace Your Inner Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09175279670690377675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290806675829794805.post-69248384963296332752017-03-09T07:58:00.003+00:002017-03-09T07:58:35.993+00:00Going Second with Genestealer Cult - Planning your Beta Strike<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Going first with GSC is relatively straight forward. There are a number of decisions you need to make, but they are limited within the same general purpose – getting of the most effective Alpha strike you possible can. Going second is harder. In fact I suspect the best GSC players will be those who win consistently, while going second. So, how do you go second and win with GSC – well I wish I knew. To be honest I’ve not been very good at it! So far most of my losses have been when going second</span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
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So far my general strategy has been to weather the storm of their first turn (Shrouded helps), return everything to the shadows in my turn 1, and Beta Strike them turn 2. However, there are a few things you need to think about.<o:p></o:p></div>
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First, what you deploy and what you reserve. Ideally, you would deploy one tiny unit hidden out of line of sight and rely on the +1 to your reserve rolls to bring everything in turn 2. However, I can’t do that because I run 10 units from SubT, who <b>must</b> infiltrate. So the question is, how much of the Brood Cycle do you infiltrate – the answer being “as little as possible”, particularly when you remember only the Genestealers get shrouding. The problem is, there are a lot of bodies to hide. Given I must infiltrate my SubT units, that’s 80 bodies. Few boards have that much cover. Because only the Stealers get shrouding, Brood Cycle units gets dibs on cover, so the more bodies from the Brood Cycle you infiltrate, the fewer places there are to hide the SubT. <o:p></o:p></div>
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You also need to think about reserves. Only units you deploy and return to ongoing reserves come on automatically in turn 2. For everything else, you need a 2+, which sounds well and good, but imagine how annoying it would be to roll a 1 when trying to get your Genestealers on from reserve? So you might want to infiltrate the Genestealers. But you also need to bear in mind that your Iconward, and Magus will be attached to a unit from the Brood Cycle (attaching them to a SubT units means they don’t roll 2 dice on the table). Again, it would be really annoying if you roll a 1 for their reserve roll on turn 2. So maybe you deploy them too.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But, hold on, you also need to have some table presence on Turn 1 because you need to score maelstrom points, which brings me to the second bullet point, what to leave on the table and what to return to the shadows.<o:p></o:p></div>
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What I tend to do is deploy everything via infiltrate, using the Brood Cycle units to cover maelstrom. So far as possible, I have them in cover or preferably out of sight. That way when I return all the SubT units (plus the Genestealers and the units with the Iconward and Magus) to the shadows, I still have some board presence, and can still snag some maelstrom objectives. Which deals with the third bullet point.<o:p></o:p></div>
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On turn 2, you roll for the units in reserve just like you would on turn 1, and set up your Beta Strike, just like you set up your Alpha Strike. One difference is that you can’t move on the turn you come in from reserve, so the Beta Strike is less flexible. The hand flamers are less useful, and the Demo charges are only useful if you roll a 6, however, the principal’s the same. The big difference however is, a Beta Strike is inherently less useful against certain armies. Tau have intercept, War Convocation has litanies of the Electromancer, turn 2 demon FMC spam will be in the air and pretty much invulnerable, and lots of armies have psychic powers it’s hard to deal with once their up (e.g. Invisibility).<o:p></o:p></div>
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I haven’t really come up with an answer for Tau. I guess you have 3 options, play the mission with the little 5 man units and “distract” the enemy with the bigger units, or set up on the table and pray you weather 2 rounds of fire and still have enough mass to get into battle effectively, or go for the Beta Strike anyway, hoping you survive overwatch. None of them are particularly good options, but at least they're there.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Against War Convocation, trying to Beta Strike when he has litanies of the Electromancer up, is a bit of a waste of time. Your units will get shredded at I10, and you’ll get nowhere. A good player will pop litanies on turn 1, so it blocks you doing anything on turn 2, and will pop it again on turn 4, so any units that have returned to the shadows in turn 3 are also pretty powerless. Your only hope is to roll a 6 on units with demo charges or hand flamers! One possibility is to try and “goad” him into popping the second litany in turn 3, so you can come in and assault turn 4, but it’s not a great option.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Demon FMC spam is slightly easier to deal with. Here the plan is to flood the board with bodies so that the FMCs can’t fly, and then assault them turn 2 when they’re still on the ground. If that doesn’t work (and it is surprisingly difficult to do) you simply ignore the FMCs, and play the ground war, picking off summoned demons as soon as you can.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Finally, assaulting a powered up death star is pretty pointless The plan here is to play the mission and use bodies to slow it down - again easier said than done.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So, not very insightful I’m afraid – what tactics have you developed when you go second?<o:p></o:p></div>
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EYIG</div>
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Embrace Your Inner Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09175279670690377675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290806675829794805.post-7732197911560283322017-03-03T17:40:00.000+00:002017-03-03T17:40:04.739+00:00Going First with Genestealer Cult - The Ultimate Alpha Strike?<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
Does a Genestealer Cult Army have the ultimate alpha strike? That’s the question I want to explore in this post. However, first “spoiler alert” I think it does! So the rest of the post is really about why! The thing that makes GSC so effective at hitting hard in turn one is the ability to roll on the Cult Ambush table. I’ve talked about the mechanics of Cult Ambush in a previous post, so I won’t repeat myself here. Suffice to say, it’s the ability to deploy using Cult Ambush at the infiltration stage, setting up close range shooting attacks and first turn charges, that makes GSC such a potent Alpha Strike weapon. Maximising the potential of that Alpha Strike is an important element of playing GSC well, although perhaps not the most important element. I suspect the ability to play well when going second is more important. I’ll deal with that in a later post.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As I’ve mentioned before, I run an Insurrection detachment, with a Brood Cycle and 2 SubT’s. This article is written with that army in mind. If you run something different it’s a lot less relevant. For reference my current 1850pts list is<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Cult Insurrection Detachment<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Brood Cycle<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Iconward<o:p></o:p></div>
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5 Acolyte Hybrids<o:p></o:p></div>
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5 Acolyte Hybrids<o:p></o:p></div>
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5 Acolyte Hybrids<o:p></o:p></div>
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5 Metamorphs<o:p></o:p></div>
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10 Nepphytes<o:p></o:p></div>
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10 Neophytes<o:p></o:p></div>
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20 Genestealers<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Lords of the Cult<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Patriarch, Level 2, Familiar<o:p></o:p></div>
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Magus, Level 2, Crouchling.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Subterranean Uprising<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Primus<o:p></o:p></div>
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5 Acolyte Hybrids, 5 Hand Flamers<o:p></o:p></div>
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5 Acolyte Hybrids, 2 Demo Charges<o:p></o:p></div>
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10 Metamorphs, 5 Claws, 2 Whips, Cult Icon<o:p></o:p></div>
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10 Metamorphs, 5 Claws, 2 Whips, Cult Icon<o:p></o:p></div>
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10 Metamorphs, 5 Claws, 2 Whips, Cult Icon<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Subterranean Uprising<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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5 Acolyte Hybrids, 5 Hand Flamers<o:p></o:p></div>
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5 Acolyte Hybrids, 2 Demo Charges<o:p></o:p></div>
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10 Metamorphs, 5 Claws, 2 Whips, Cult Icon<o:p></o:p></div>
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10 Metamorphs, 5 Claws, 2 Whips, Cult Icon<o:p></o:p></div>
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10 Metamorphs, 5 Claws, 2 Whips, Cult Icon<o:p></o:p></div>
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Typically, the Primus goes with one of the 5 Man SubT Acolyte units, the Patriarch goes in the Genestealers, and the Iconward and the Magus each go in one of the Acolyte units from the Brood Cycle.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So, with that out of the way, there are 2 key questions – when to Alpha Strike and how to Alpha Strike.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The simplest to explain, but the more difficult decision, is when to Alpha Strike. IMHO, if you’re going first, unless there is a very good reason not to, you should set up to crush your opponent first turn. I know there’s a one in six chance of being seized on, and it’s very difficult to recover from being seized after setting up an Alpha Strike, but I think it’s worth the risk. A well-executed GSC Alpha Strike is a thing of beauty, and will often win a game turn one. However, there are good reason not to. <o:p></o:p></div>
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First, it may not be possible. The FAQ ruled (correctly IMHO) that Servo Skulls block Cult Ambush. If your opponent has 3 skulls, then best to go second and set up for the Beta Strike. Next, your opponent might have something in his army that increases his ability to seize. The most common is Coteaz, but a Tau Mirror Codex, a Calaidus Assassin and the right roll on the Strategic warlord trait table all increase the chances of a seize. If you’re facing one of those (or worse, two), you might want to think hard before going first and setting up an Alpha Strike. If you have the choice, it might be better to go second and crush him turn 2!<o:p></o:p></div>
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But if there are no skulls, and no Coteaz, and you decide to strike, how best to do it? There are 2 things to consider – list building, and table top tactics.<o:p></o:p></div>
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First, list building. In short, take as many units in a Subterranean Uprising as possible. The key to a successful Alpha Strike is rolling well on the Cult Ambush table. Being able to roll 2 dice and choose the result, doubles your chance of getting what you want. Next is unit load out. I’ve written elsewhere about how I think it’s best to load out Metamorphs and Acolytes. Metamorphs are best with Claws and a couple of Lash Whips (although you can make an argument for Leaders with Bonesword and Lash Whip). Acolytes are (maybe) best with demo charges and hand flamers. I’ll get into why in a moment.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Next set up, and this is where it gets more tricky. IMHO there are three things to think about – the order in which you roll for units, how to you place those units and what to do with the rest of your army.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Since the FAQ, GSC generals must roll for each Cult Ambushing unit individually i.e. pick a unit, roll, deploy, pick the next unit, roll, deploy etc. So, when you roll your first 6, you have no idea what support that unit will have – i.e. you have no idea how many more 6s you’ll roll. If you roll a 6 on a 5 man unit of Acolytes, place it to assault, and then roll no more 6s, that unit is kinda hanging out there! Five acolytes are good, but they’re not that good. So when setting up an Alpha Strike, you need to decide which units to roll for first.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Largely it depends on whether you’re opponent deploys bubble wrap or not. Here “bubble wrapping” means when your opponent deploys cheap units to block charges to more important units. Everybody knows that GSC can assault out of reserve. The most obvious way to defend against that, is to hide important units in a corner and surround them with cheap throw away units. So, even if the Metamorphs do roll a 6, all they do is kill a throw away unit, leaving the more important units to murder the Metamorphs in your opponents turn. I’ve seen Stormsurges surrounded by Kroot, Centurions surrounded by Scouts and Demon Princes surrounded by Brimstone Horrors. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It’s far easier where there’s no bubble wrap.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Where there’s no bubble wrap I usually roll for my “heavy hitters first”. Depending on my opponent, this could mean the Acolytes with Hand Flamers and Demo charges, or the Metamorphs. However, typically, I roll for the Metamorphs first, expecting 2 sixes, but hoping for 3. If I roll a 6, I set them up to charge. With the other I have a decision to make – do I set them up in support of the charging units, or do I set them up and Return to the Shadows in turn one, coming on again turn 2, rolling 2 more dice on CA? I tend to set up the charging units, and return all other units to the shadows, largely because Genestealers are better in this support roll. Next, If I’ve rolled a few 6s, and have 2 or more charging units, I’ll infiltrate the Genestealer to support the charging units. I think they’re better than Metamorphs in this roll, largely because they’re more survivable (stealth and shrouding, plus T4). They won’t get a first turn charge, but will almost certainly get a second turn charge (with fleet). Now, one could argue I should roll for the ‘stealers on the CA table just in case I get that 6. However, there is also the risk I roll a 1 or a 2. In an army that’s full of random stuff, I think playing the odds is the better option.<o:p></o:p></div>
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After placing the stealers, I’ll roll for the 5 man units that have support characters (Magus, Primus and Iconward), so I can place them where their bubbles have the most impact. Then I’ll roll for the other 5 man acolyte units and, if I roll well on the CA table, I’ll think about whether I can use them, particularly the Acolytes with Hand Flamers and Demo Charges, if I didn’t roll for them first. Otherwise I use these units to cover objectives, or place them to win potential maelstrom points. Finally I infiltrate the Neophytes. <o:p></o:p></div>
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So my <b>typical</b> order of operations is<o:p></o:p></div>
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<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 12.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 8pt;">Roll on CA for Sub T Metamorphs x6. Place the 6s for a charge, (if I think I can get through any bubble wrap) and “hide” everything else ready to Return to the Shadows on Turn 1.<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 12.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 8pt;">Assuming I roll at least 2 sixes, Infiltrate the Genestealers to support the charging units.<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 12.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 8pt;">Roll the supporting 5 man Acolyte Units (Primus, Iconward and Magus), place them where their bubbles have the greatest impact.<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 12.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 8pt;">Roll the other 5 man acolyte units, placing any 6’s in supporting rolls, and any non 6s to cover objectives or potential malestrom cards<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 12.600000381469727px; margin-bottom: 8pt;">Infiltrate the Neophytes (although if there is bubble wrap I might roll on CA for them, to see if they get a 5, in which case they could also be deployed as bubble wrap clearance).<o:p></o:p></li>
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Of course, it all becomes much harder if my opponent has bubble wrapped his more important units.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The key to dealing with bubble wrap is to clear it away, before bringing in your “heavy hitters”. You can do this in a number of ways, but the key is timing. If you can clear it away turn 1, and bring in your heavy hitters using Cult Ambush on turn 2, that’s good. But, if you can clear the bubble wrap turn 1, and make the charge, that’s better! IMHO the best way to clear bubble wrap is with 5 man Acolytes squads from a SubT using hand flamers and demo charges. In the past I had thought Hand Flamers and demo charges were a waste of time. When coming in using Cult Ambush, unless you rolled a 6, you were (mostly) out of range, and even if you rolled a 6, charging was better. However, with the FAQ confirming that you can move in turn 1 after using Cult Ambush, they’ve become a lot more useful. Now you can deploy out of range, move into range, and throw the demo charge or fire the flamer. To do that all you need on the CA table is a 3+, making them far more reliable bubble wrap removers than hoping to roll a 6 and charging the bubble wrap. You can make an argument that Neophyte squads from the Brood Cycle with Seismic Cannons do it more effectively, but they only roll one dice on the CA table, so it’s less predictable.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So with that in mind, what’s the order of operations? If my opponent has bubble wrapped, I roll for my bubble wrap clearance first - Hand Flamers when the bubble wrap is T3 with a minimal save (e.g. Kroot or Brimstone Horrors) or Demo Charges where the bubble wrap is more substantial (e.g. Scouts). I then need to decide whether I can clear the bubble wrap, <b>and</b> assault the more important units that turn (assuming a 6 on CA). This will depend on how confident I am of clearing the bubble wrap, and how long any charge might be, once the bubble wrap is cleared. The problem is, the charge might be 10”, depending on how well the bubble wrap is deployed.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Usually it’s only one layer. If my opponent is smart (and he has enough bubble wrap), he’ll leave 6” between the bubble wrap and the more important stuff. If a charging unit is 3” from the bubble wrap, and the bubble wrap’s on 1” bases, that’s a 10” charge to the contents of the bubble wrap. The charging unit can close the distance by 2” in the movement phase, but that’s still an 8” charge. Now, with fleet (on the Genestealers), and Psychic Stimulus (run and still charge), that might work, but otherwise, it’s a risky. If there are 2 layers of bubble wrap, then the distance could be as much as 15”, which even with fleet and Psychic Stimulus, is difficult. There is however an answer, with a little bit of luck.<o:p></o:p></div>
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If you have a couple of units of hand flamer acolytes, and you roll a 5 on the table (that’s a 5 on 5 dice if they’re in the SubT with an attached Primus), you can place the unit 6” away, fire the flamers at the bubble wrap immediately they deploy, (the flamer template is 8” long) and, with luck, clear the bubble wrap, or at least make a hole in it, allowing you to place units that subsequently roll a 6, closer to the units “inside” the bubble wrap. For this reason I kit out 2 of the Acolyte Units in my SubT’s with hand flamers.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So, if you can clear the bubble wrap first turn, <b>and</b> make the charge, after you clear the bubble wrap, the sequence more or less follows the order where there is no bubble wrap i.e. Metamorphs first deploying those that roll 6s for the charge, and hiding the others, followed by the genstealers in support, then the 5 man units with support characters, and finally the objective grabbers/support units. If you don’t think you can make the charge, deploy the bubble wrap clearance units, clear the bubble wrap and deploy the rest of your army to return to the shadows, and come in on turn 2.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So, a bit of a wall of text I’m afraid, but I think I’ve covered everything. The next article will be on going second with GSC, a much harder prospect.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Thoughts</div>
Embrace Your Inner Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09175279670690377675noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290806675829794805.post-26840504689992733262017-03-02T20:50:00.000+00:002017-03-02T20:50:10.122+00:00Cult Ambush and Return to the Shadows<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Initially I was going to have 2 posts, one on Cult Ambush and the other on Return to the Shadows, however they are so connected that it was hard to write about one without the other.</span></div>
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Cult Ambush (CA) is the “big rule” for GSC. But it’s a “fickle” rule, <span style="color: #1f497d;">typically </span>relying on rolling a “6” to have direct impact, and having a number of “hard” counters that limit its usefulness in <span style="color: #1f497d;">certain</span> situations. It seems to me that the key to success is a thorough understanding of how to use it and when. I don’t pretend to have that understanding yet, but thinking through a few options might help.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Cult Ambush works at 2 points in the game, when you infiltrate, and when you come in from reserve, including on-going reserve. In either of those circumstances you can choose to roll on the CA table, rather than infiltrating or coming in from reserve normally. First, note you don’t need to roll on the table. You can choose to infiltrate or come in from reserve normally. Why would you do that? Well, you may have a key unit you need to be sure doesn’t roll a 1 or a 2 on the table. For example, if you don’t roll Ambush Leader on the Warlord table for your Patriarch (i.e. you can’t choose a 6 for your First Curse) you might decide to infiltrate them, rather than roll on the table. This allows you to place the First Curse in support of any charging unit, rather than risk them being out of position by rolling a 1 or a 2. Remember, on turn one you can move and run your First Curse, almost guaranteeing a turn 2 charge, particularly with fleet.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Return from the Shadows allows you to remove a unit from the board and place it in on-going reserve. There are 2 restrictions – you can’t do it if you’re within 6” of an enemy unit, and you can’t do it on the same turn you arrive from reserve. On the 2<sup>nd</sup>restriction note that, if you infiltrate and roll on the CA table, because it happens before turn 1 starts, you can still Return to the Shadows on Turn 1. Another connected benefit, is the “Numbers Beyond Counting” rule in the Cult Insurrection Detachment”. It says that, when a unit returns to the shadows, it comes back with d6 models that have already been killed.<o:p></o:p></div>
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At the infiltrate stage, how you use Cult Ambush depends on whether you’re going first or second, and what you’re facing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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If you’re going first you need to decide whether to shoot for a bunch of 6s and set up to charge. IMHO, it’s what the army’s built to do and should be your default option, unless there is a good reason not to. A good reason not do might be if your opponent has bubble wrapped effectively, blocking off high value units with low value units, or if he has a bonus to seizing the initiative (e.g. Coteaz, a Mirror Codex in a Tau army, or a Caladius Assassin). Also, now that Servo Skulls block Cult Ambush, you might not have a choice. If your opponent has servo skulls and Coteaz, you might want to think about giving him first turn. If he bubble wraps effectively, you might want to deploy more conservatively, and simply leave him behind his bubble wrap, while you win the maelstrom. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I’m planning an article on Alpha Strikes using Cult Ambush, and I’ll go into this in a lot more detail there.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Going second is much easier. I usually reserve everything I can reserve (effectively the Brood Cycle), and then infiltrate everything else (remember the SubT <b>must</b> infiltrate) either out of range or in cover. I then “hunker down”, relying on shrouding to weather the storm of my opponents first turn of shooting, before returning to the shadows in my turn one.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Another possibility is to deploy everything aggressively, just like you would if you were going first, however it’s usually not the best option. The problem is, because you count as having infiltrated, you need to wait until your turn 2 before you can assault, giving your opponent 2 turns of shooting before you can do anything. The only time it might beworth doingthis is if your opponent is largely an assaulting army, that you think you can “take” in assault, but there aren’t many of them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Return to the Shadows<o:p></o:p></div>
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Along with Cult Ambush, Return to the Shadows (RTTS) is the iconic rule for GSC. While perhaps not as “dramatic” as Cult Ambush, it probably has a greater effect on how the army plays, and of course synergises well with CA.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The uses of RTTS are pretty obvious – you can use it to redeploy units anywhere on the board, and, combined with Numbers Beyond Counting, can replenish depleted units. It makes the army very mobile, and good at playing the maelstrom game. It also makes the army surprisingly resilient. At the LVO, I won the kill points game, largely because I returned depleted units to the shadows, and brought them back with more bodies.<o:p></o:p></div>
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However, what I wanted to think about a little more are the implications of this ability on how you play the army as a whole. Now, bear in mind I play a pure GSC army, Cult Insurrection Detachment, with a Brood Cycle and 2 SubTs - loads of bodies, and loads of units. The following thoughts apply to that style of army.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It seems to me that the combination of Cult Ambush and Return to the Shadows, lends itself to a “passive aggressive” play style. By this I mean that you use Cult Ambush and your hammer units (Metamorphs, Genestealer, large blocks of Acolytes) to hit your opponent’s centre of mass, while using Return to the Shadows and your smaller units to jump around the board, score maelstrom points and snag objectives. Thinking back to games that have gone badly, it has often resulted from not playing to this basic plan – essentially overcommitting the army to a meat grinder, and forgetting that its real strength is mobility. Looked at in this way, the most important part of the army are the little 5 man Acolyte units, not the powerful units. Their role is simple to buy the little units enough time and board space to win the game. <o:p></o:p></div>
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So, the most important rule is Return to the Shadows, and not Cult Ambush “who knew”!!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Thoughts?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Embrace Your Inner Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09175279670690377675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290806675829794805.post-42285696231373050452017-02-28T13:22:00.000+00:002017-02-28T13:24:58.545+00:00Genestealer Cult - Psychic Powers<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
Disclaimer - I am not an expert on Psychic Power. This is the first army I've really used where psychic powers are a feature.<span style="font-size: 11pt;">This post is looking for advice more than anything else.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">So, with that out of the way (!), here are a few </span><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;">thoughts</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> on </span><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;">the</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> Cult's </span><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;">psychic</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> powers, as it </span><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;">applies</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> to my list.</span></span></div>
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In my list I typically run a Patriarch and a Magus, both of which are level 2. I usually roll the Patriarch on Biomancy, and the Magus on Broodmind. I typically don’t roll on Telepathy. There are a number of results on the Biomancy discipline that are good for the Patriarch (which I invariably run in a 20 man block of Genestealer), namely Iron Arm, Warp Speed and Endurance. The reason I don’t roll him on Telepathy is that there is really only one power (Invisibility) that is amazing, and one that is good (Shrouded). So, with only 2 dice to roll I think I have a better chance of getting something good on Biomancy than Telepathy. Having said that, 20 Invisible Genestealers would be pretty amazing ……! Maybe the way to go is to roll on Telepathy where my opponent has no ignores cover (making Shrouded good), but Biomancy when they do.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There’s really no compelling reason to roll the Magus on Biomancy (I suppose if you really want endurance and don’t get it with the Patriarch…!), so I usually roll on Broodmind. To recap, the Broodmind powers are<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Primarus – Mass Hypnosis </b>One unit within 24” is minus 1 WS, BS, Initiative and Attacks<o:p></o:p></div>
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1.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span><b>Psychic Stimulus</b> – One friendly unit gains Relentless, Fleet and can Run and then Charge. This is OK, but situational. It would be good on a Neophyte squad with max heavy weapons, but I’m not sure it’s worth taking that squad in the hope you get this power. However, this would be golden if you were facing Coteaz. It would allow you to come in from reserve (assuming you rolled a 6) 12.1” away from Coteaz(so his “I’ve been expecting you” rule doesn’t work), and still have a pretty good chance of getting the charge.<o:p></o:p><br />
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2.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span><b>Psionic Blast </b>– Range 24” S5 AP3 Assault 1 Blast. Not particularly exciting.<o:p></o:p><br />
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3.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span><b>Might From Beyond </b>– friendly unit within 24 gets +1 Strength and Rage. IMHO, the best general purpose power.<o:p></o:p><br />
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4.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span><b>Mental Onslaught </b>– Warp Charge 2, Targets an enemy model within 24”. The targeted model and the GSC psyker roll dice and add their leadership. If it’s a drawn the target suffers a -3 penalty its Initiative. If the GSC psyker is higher, the target takes that many wounds, no cover or armour saves allowed. Again, a bit situational. It kinda depends on their being a crucial model, that doesn’t have a good invulnerable save, has a lowish leadership, and then again it still depends on a dice roll. <o:p></o:p><br />
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5.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span><b>Mind Control </b>– Warp Charge 2, range 24”. If successful, you control the shooting of one (none vehicle) model in a unit. Because it only effects one model, it depends on their being one very powerful model in the unit to take over. If you can take over a Stormsurge or a Riptide, great, but other than that, again, pretty situational.<o:p></o:p><br />
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6.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span><b>Summoning </b>– Warp Charge 2 or 3. If 2 you can summon 5 Hybrids, 10 Neophytes or 5 Metamorphs. If you choose 3 warp charges you can summon 10 Hybrids, 20 Neophytes, 10 Metamorphs, 4 Aberrants, or 8 Genestealers. No doubt, this is strong. And being able to upgrade the unit with any upgrades, makes it even stronger. However, it has its drawbacks. First you come in using Cult Ambush, so unless you roll a 6, you have a turn of waiting around doing nothing before you can do anything, and second, it takes a lot of dice to be effective. A summoning list might work, taking a bunch of Magi to provide dice, but it would just make an army that already takes time to play, even more time consuming.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So, strong powers, but not really outstanding. Certainly, none around which you’re whole strategy would turn, and the army certainly works without them. This of course begs the question, is it worth investing in psychic powers? I think the answer is probably “yes”, but not overinvesting. By this I mean, taking a level 2 Patriarch and rolling on Biomancy, it probably a good thing, however a Magus, with the Crouchlling, might not be.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As seems to be the case with most lists, the answer might be “go big or go home” i.e. you either commit to psychic powers and take a bunch of Magi, or you take one Patriarch to go with the Genestealers and call it a day at that. Mind you, for 85pts a Magus with the Crouchling gives you 3 powers, and 2 Warp Charges –pretty good value.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Thoughts?</div>
Embrace Your Inner Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09175279670690377675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290806675829794805.post-82327935925737657362017-02-27T18:14:00.000+00:002017-02-27T18:14:50.274+00:00Genestealer Cult - Short Tournament Report<div class="WordSection1" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; page: WordSection1;">
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">I attended a small 4 game RTT at the weekend. There were 6 of us, and we only played 1250pts on 4’X4’ tables. I took a different list, with 2 main changes. I didn’t take a Cult Insurrection Detachment, just a CAD and one SubT, and I took Metamorph Leaders in the 3 units of Metamorphs in the SubT. I wanted to see if I missed the bonuses in the Cult Insurrection Detachment, and assess whether the Leaders were worth it, given the not insubstantial extra cost (32pts per model). </span></div>
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I played Skirtari with a Knight (went second and lost). Dark Eldar (went first and won), Eldar (went second and was obliterated by Power From Death and Soulburst), and Chaos Marines (a draw). So pretty average. However, I did learn 3 things.<o:p></o:p></div>
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First, I missed all of the bonuses from the Cult Insurrection Detachment. In the games against Skitari and Eldar, not having shrouded in turn one, made weathering their shooting when going second much harder, meaning that my usual tactic of returning to the shadows and coming on turn 2 was less effective. Again, in the game against Skitari, I got badly shot up on turn one, and Numbers without Counting would have allowed me to come back on with more bodies. In my game against the Dark Eldar I was badly mauled by a Razorwing Jet Fighter – having -1 to his reserves would have kept it off for a turn. So, while there is “fat” in the Brood Cycle, it’s worth it for the bonuses.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Second, I never felt I needed the Metamorph Leaders with their Boneswords. The whips were great, especially against the Dark Eldar, but having rending makes shelling out 30pts for an AP3 weapon simply not worth it. Better to take 2 whips in each unit for 4 pts. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Soul burst and Power from Death is absolutely horrendous. My opponent (who only played 3 out of 4 games, but still won the tournament on battle points!) was apologising all day for how OP it was. I will be amazed if it’s not nerffed in some way, either by TO’s or by and FAQ from GW.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So with these learning points (and rethinking my position on Hand Flamers and Demo Charges), the latest version of my 1850pt list is.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Cult Insurrection Detachment<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Brood Cycle<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Iconward<o:p></o:p></div>
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5 Acolyte Hybrids<o:p></o:p></div>
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5 Acolyte Hybrids<o:p></o:p></div>
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5 Acolyte Hybrids<o:p></o:p></div>
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5 Metamorphs<o:p></o:p></div>
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10 Nepphytes<o:p></o:p></div>
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10 Neophytes<o:p></o:p></div>
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20 Genestealers<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Lords of the Cult<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Patriarch, Level 2, Familiar<o:p></o:p></div>
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Magus, Level 2, Crouchling.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Subterranean Uprising<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Primus<o:p></o:p></div>
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5 Acolyte Hybrids, 5 Hand Flamers<o:p></o:p></div>
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5 Acolyte Hybrids, 2 Demo Charges<o:p></o:p></div>
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10 Metamorphs, 5 Claws, 2 Whips, Cult Icon<o:p></o:p></div>
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10 Metamorphs, 5 Claws, 2 Whips, Cult Icon<o:p></o:p></div>
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10 Metamorphs, 5 Claws, 2 Whips, Cult Icon<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Subterranean Uprising<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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5 Acolyte Hybrids, 5 Hand Flamers<o:p></o:p></div>
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5 Acolyte Hybrids, 2 Demo Charges<o:p></o:p></div>
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10 Metamorphs, 5 Claws, 2 Whips, Cult Icon<o:p></o:p></div>
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10 Metamorphs, 5 Claws, 2 Whips, Cult Icon<o:p></o:p></div>
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10 Metamorphs, 5 Claws, 2 Whips, Cult Icon<o:p></o:p></div>
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Next, I have a post on Psychic Powers, and one on deploying the ultimate Alpha Strike.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Embrace Your Inner Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09175279670690377675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6290806675829794805.post-52513787843589044062017-02-23T13:50:00.001+00:002017-02-23T13:54:26.098+00:00Genestealer Cult - Unit Tactics<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
Now that I've played a few games, and been to a couple of tournaments with my Cult, I wanted to stop obsessing about lists, and set out a few thoughts on the units I've used, and how I use them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Bear in mind, I run a pure GSC army, using the Insurrection Detachment with a Brood Cycle and 2 SubTs. So, loads of units and loads of bodies. My thoughts need to be viewed in that context. If you run a different style of GSC army, "your mileage may vary".</div>
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<b>Patriarch</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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The Patriarch is a combat monster. WS7, T5, S6, I7, A4, W3 with AP3 claws with Shred and Rending. Add in 2 familiars for 4 more attacks (for only 10pts!!!) and he’s a beast. Better still, put him in a unit of Genestealer, and because he automatically passes look out sir saves, even in Challenges, he has a bunch of additional wounds with 5+ invulnerable saves. One point to cover. I suspect there’s a mistake in the recent FAQ. As written it says that the familiars attack with the Patriarchs weapons skill “and attacks”. I suspect it means “and initiative”, but that’s not what it says. As things stand, the familiars use the Patriarchs attacks i.e. S6, rending attacks, giving him 9 S6 rending attacks on the charge!! The Patriarch is also a level 1 psyker, but I always upgrade him to level 2, <o:p></o:p></div>
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The other thing to note is that, if you’re running the Patriarch in the Cult Insurrection Detachment you get to re-roll your warlord trait. The one you want all day every day, is number 6 – Ambush Leader, allowing you to choose the result on the Cult Ambush table. I always re-roll to try and get the 6, unless I roll [ ] i.e. grenades. I keep that.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I always run the Patriarch in a unit of Genestealer (I’ll talk about whether in a First Curse or not later) . Being able to automatically look out sir to 5++ saves is just too good.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As for how to use him, he’s a monster and I always throw him down my opponents throat as quickly as possible, whether via Cult Ambush, or simply infiltrating him and his unit as far forward as possible. I roll on Biomancy, hoping to get endurance to give the unit a 4+ FNP, or 3+ within 24” of the Iconward (I usually run Genestealer in the Brood Cycle). However, a Patriarch with Iron Arm or Warp Speed is a very scary thing!<o:p></o:p></div>
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So, Patriarch’s are nice and simple.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Magus</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Cheap and cheerful psyker. Starts off at level 1, but I always upgrade to level 2 and add in the Crouchling for 3 rolls on (usually) the Broodmind Discipline. I usually add him into a 5 man Acolyte unit from the Brood Cycle, and position him where he can do the most good. Not much else to say, but I’ll come back to him when I discuss psychic powers.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Iconward</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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The least useful of the IC’s I think, but compulsory in the Brood Cycle, so usually makes my army. The 12” (24” for units from the Brood Cycle) furious charge bubble is pretty good, but I always forget about the 6+ FNP bubble. TBH, the FNP bubble is only really useful when combined with endurance for a 3+ FNP, which on a big unit of Genestealer is really good.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Primus</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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The Primus is pretty good, especially in a SubT. While he has OK combat stats himself (3 attacks at WS5, with poisoned (4+) rending attacks, or 3 attacks at AP3, with instant death on a 6 to wound), it’s his 12” hatred bubble that makes him really useful. Combine that with allowing a unit from his SubT to roll 3 dice on the CA chart, all for 75pts, and he’s a bit of a bargain. One point to note is that only a Primus from the units SubT allows that unit to roll 3 dice on the CA table. Before the FAQ you could attach additional Primases from CADs allowing more than one unit to roll 3 dice on the table, but no longer.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Playing the Primus gives you a difficult choice. Do you play him aggressively, putting him in a big unit of Acolytes or a 10 man unit of Metamorphs, taking advantage of 3d6 on the table, or do you play him in a support roll, a little back from the front line, positioning him so he gives hatred to as many units as possible.<o:p></o:p></div>
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When I first started playing the Cult, I usually played him aggressively, in a Metamorph unit. More often than not his was on the front line, and died quite quickly. However, more and more I’m playing him in a 5 man acolyte unit, and placing him just behind the front line so he buffs multiple units, and survives to do it a few more turns. On balance I think he’s better in that support roll, than on the front line. That’s the Patriarch’s job!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Neophytes</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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In the style of army I play, I find Neophytes completely underwhelming. With the FAQ ruling that Heavy Weapons count as moving when you come in from reserve using Cult Ambush, I really don’t think they’re worth it over Acolytes. If I didn’t need to take them in the Brood Cycle, they would stay on the shelf. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Acolytes</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Acolytes are great value. Forty points for 5 guys that kick out 20 S4 rending attacks on the charge, plus can roll on the Cult Ambush table and <span style="color: #1f497d;">R</span>eturn to the <span style="color: #1f497d;">S</span>hadows<span style="color: #1f497d;">,</span> is amazing value. I’ve lost count of the number of opponents who are shocked by <span style="color: #1f497d;">their</span> poten<span style="color: #1f497d;">cy</span> in assault. They have a down side of course, T3 and a 5+ save make them pretty fragile<span style="color: #1f497d;">.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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However, I think the biggest problem with Acolytes is that, as an assault unit, Metamorphs and Genestealers are better. The problem is their combat upgrades are too situational, too random, and too expensive. I did run Rock Saws to deal with Knights, which they do very effectively, however, at 25pts each, they were too expensive, and I found if I stacked enough rending attacks on the Knight it died anyway. For a combat unit, the Metamorph upgrades are just better. However, their one strength over Metamorphs is that you can take them in numbers. A 20 man unit of Acolytes with a Cult Icon is pretty scary, and only 170pts. However, I’ve recently started thinking about them differently, and wonder whether demo charges and hand flamers might be the way to go.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I had previously thought demo charges and hand flamers were pretty useless. You would never get to throw a demo charge coming in from Cult Ambush because, unless you roll a 6, you're always out of range. Even if you roll a 6 you’re probably better off charging. To a lesser extent, the same is true with hand flamers. However, the recent FAQ has made me think again. The key FAQ is the one that confirms you can move turn 1, even if you infiltrate using CA. So, if you roll a 3+ on the table, you can move into range to throw the demo charges and fire up the BBQ in turn 1. <o:p></o:p></div>
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While this is in itself a good thing, it has more far reaching implications to how you play your army as a whole, something I’ll return to in a later post.<span style="color: #1f497d;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b>Genestealers</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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At first I thought taking a big unit of Genestealers was a waste of points that would be better invested in Acolytes or Metamorphs. However, I’ve changed my mind, and always try and fit one large unit of Genestealer in my army.<o:p></o:p></div>
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With one exception, Genestealers are the ultimate close combat unit. Weapons Skill and Initiative 6 are the crucial stats, but 3 attacks base, S4 (S5 from Furious Charge if you have a Patriarch attached, (and you should always have a Patriarch attached) with rending, and a 5++, round out the package nicely. I can’t make up my mind whether 3pts for scything talons (for +1 attack) is worth it, but probably not. The big downside of course is that they don’t have grenades, so if even one of them charges through cover (and it’s hard to avoid in a 20 man unit) they go at initiative 1. There are a couple of ways to avoid this. First you can roll on the warlord trait table, giving your Patriarch a chance to get grenades (again, you always want a Patriarch in the unit), or you can take the First Curse and roll a on the strange mutation table, which can again, give your unit grenades.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Which of course brings me to the First Curse. No doubt about it, the First Curse is better than a standard 20 man unit of ‘stealers with a Patriarch. The Strange Mutations table is great, and can give the unit a serious buff. <b>However</b>, If you’re taking a Brood Cycle as core in a Cult Insurrection Detachment, you must take a 5 man unit of ‘stealers, which, by itself is a bit pointless. However, you can bump the compulsory 5 man unit up to a 20 man unit and just take a Patriarch by himself, for a “sort of” First Curse. So in effect there is a “tax” in taking the First Curse, and that’s the 70pt compulsory 5 man unit of ‘stealers in the Brood Cycle. On balance, I’m not sure the Strange Mutations table is worth taking the First Curse and “wasting” 70pts on a 5 man unit of ‘stealers. An additional benefit is that the FNP bubble from the Iconward effects Brood Cycle Genestealers within 24”, and they become WS7 (!) if within 6 inches of another Brood Cycle unit (the first is much more useful, especially when combined with Endurance!). <o:p></o:p></div>
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As for how to use them – they are a hammer unit, but more importantly, they are the unit your opponent is (typically) terrified of, and just has to deal with. There is very little a 20 man unit of ‘stealers with attached Patriarch can’t handle, short of a powered up death star. Typically I ram the unit down my opponent’s throat forcing them to deal with it. Most games they die to a “man”, but not before taking a lot of incoming fire, and taking down a few units in the process. Essentially, they are the “distraction” getting all the attention while the rest of the army wins the game.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Metamorphs</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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If Genestealers are the distraction, Metamorphs are the killers. For only one point more than an Acolyte, you get the same stats and a Metamorph Talon boosting them to WS5. However, it’s the upgrades that make them so much stronger. For 2 points you can swap the talon for a Claw for +2 strength, a Whip for +3 Initiative, or a second Talon for WS6. They can take a Cult Icon for +1 WS and a for 10pts can upgrade one to a Metamorph Leader (+1 attacks and leadership), that can take a Bonesword for 20pts (AP3 and Instant death on a 6), and a whip for +3 initiative. They come in units of 5-10.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I’ve agonised about how to run units of Metamorphs. I’ve run them as 5 man units, as 7 man units and as 10 man units. I’ve run them all claws, all whips and with a mixture of both. Currently my preferred load out is a 10 man unit with 5 Claws, a Cult Icon and Leader with a Bonesword and Lash Whip coming in at 142pts. I suspect this will not be a popular choice, but let me explain my thinking.<o:p></o:p></div>
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First, 10 man rather than anything less. There are a number of reasons. First, the FAQ clarified that when you roll for Cult Ambush you roll each unit individually, place that unit, then move onto the next. The problem is, if you roll a 6 on a 5 man unit, you don’t know what support it might have. Good as they are, 5 unsupported Metamorphs, wont achieve very much. A unsupported 10 man unit can achieve a lot more. Also, Metamorphs have the same problem as Acolytes – T3 with a 5+ save, so they’re a pretty fragile. I’ve found that 10 of them will survive long enough to achieve something, and have a reasonable chance of returning to the shadows and coming back with reinforcements using Numbers Beyond Counting. Finally, because they’re so fragile, a 5 man unit can be crippled by overwatch. Of course the counter argument is that you could have 2 five man units, one sucking up the overwatch and the other getting into combat. That’s fine if you can guarantee rolling 2 sixes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Next upgrades. First I don’t think a second Talon is worth it. It’s not very often that WS6 is much better than WS5. Whips are great. Being able to limit incoming attacks by taking out units before they get to swing, makes a unit far more survivable. But for me Claws are the stand out upgrade. Metamorphs can stack hits reasonably easily (WS5 and access to Hatred via a nearby Primus) however I’ve often found that converting those hits into wounds is the problem, especially on anything T5 or higher. For Metamorphs I think +2 strength is better than +3 initiative. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Which brings me to the Metamorph Leaders. While +2 strength is better than +3 initiative, +3 initiative is still pretty good. Combine it with an extra attack, and an AP3 Bonesword, and you have a character that takes out “low grade” characters in a challenge (unless they have 2+ save), or takes out a couple of models before they get a chance to swing. Combine that with an extra point of leadership, and it’s <b>almost</b> worth the extra points. To be honest this is the bit I’m not so sure about. Might it simply be better to put in a couple of guys with Whips?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Finally, composition of the unit. I’ve gone for only 5 Claws because of how vulnerable the unit is to overwatch. I regularly lose 2 or 3 guys on the way in. Better they’re standard un-upgraded models, than guys with claws. So the plan is to put the 3 “normal” guys at the front, let them eat overwatch, challenge out a character with the Leader and/or taking out a couple of guys before they swing, and then murder the rest of the unit with Claws. So far it’s been pretty effective.</div>
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Thoughts?</div>
Embrace Your Inner Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09175279670690377675noreply@blogger.com0