Screens, and how to Beat them

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. 

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.

Blood Angels List Review

My list for Dark Millenium was 

Blood Angles Battalion

Lemartes

Captain JumpSmash

5 Scouts

5 Scouts

5 Scouts

15 Death Company with 3 Thunder Hammers

Guard Brigade

Company Commander (the CP Miner)

Tempestor Prime

Tempestor Prime

5 Tempestor Scions, 2 Plasma Guns, 1 Plasma Pistol

5 Tempestor Scions, 2 Plasma Guns, 1 Plasma Pistol

5 Tempestor Scions, 2 Plasma Guns, 1 Plasma Pistol

5 Tempestor Scions, 2 Plasma Guns, 1 Plasma Pistol

5 Tempestor Scions, 2 Plasma Guns, 1 Plasma Pistol

5 Tempestor Scions, 2 Plasma Guns, 1 Plasma Pistol

Cyber Wolf 

Cyber Wolf

Cyber Wolf

Acolyte

Acolyte

Acolyte

Heavy Weapons Team, 3 Mortars

Heavy Weapons Team, 3 Mortars

Heavy Weapons Team, 3 Mortars

Supreme Command Detachment

Shield Captain, Dawneagle Jet Bike, Hurricane Bolter

Shield Captain, Dawneagle Jet Bike, Hurricane Bolter

Shield Captain, Dawneagle Jet Bike, Hurricane Bolter

Dark Millenium 5

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. 

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.

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. 

So this was the list I took

Blood Angels

So, Blood Angels.

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!!

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.

Games Workshop Heat 2

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.

Usual format, brief battle reports, and then a wrap up at the end ..... and a shock announcement!! 

List for Heat 2 of the GW Grand Tournament

I’m paralysed with indecision.

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.

Rapid Fire Tournament report

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. 

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.

Anyway, on with the bat reps