Allies for Tau

Seeing as how my BA armies have been screwed over by 6^th ed (controversial I know, but that’s how it feels), I’ve been thinking more about Tau.

In particular I’ve been thinking about Allies.

Seems to me that the Allies system is a perfect way for old codexes to be “boosted” to make them more competitive. As the Tau codex is now the oldest codex, I wonder….

If I were to list the 3 biggest draw backs with a Tau army they are

·         Crappy troops (yes I know fire warriors got a little bit better, but not that much better!)

·         Crappy BS on their elite fire platforms (XV8s being BS3), and

·         Difficulty in dropping heavy infantry without plasma, and only having 2 viable platforms for plasma (XV8s and XV88s), both of which have their issues (XV8s are BS3, XV88s are very static)

I’m sure there are loads of options to boost these, but the 2 armies I know best are Blood Angles and Eldar (used to play Eldar a lot before I played Tau), so these are the ones I’ve been thinking about.

The most obvious one is BA. An allied detachment of a JP Librarian with shield and fear, combined with 2 JP Assault Squads (with priest if points allow) solves the first problem. Giving the assault squads twin plasma guns and the sergeants twin plasma pistols solves the 3^rd. Putting plasma on the ASM allows you to put twin linked missile pods on the XV8s, solving the second problem.

However, more interestingly it would allow you to play aggressively, moving forward with your army (ASM covering the suits, suits giving fire support to the ASM) rather than hugging the board edge. A Tau army coming to get you is novel!

The more intriguing option however is Eldar. Run Eldrad as your HQ, with a squad of Rangers (Eldar snipers for those that don’t know). The interesting addition is Eldrad, he brings so much to a Tau army. 

Firstly their is psychic defence. Eldrad has  runes of warding. For those of you who don’t know this forces psychers to roll 3d6 on their psychic test. They then take one wound from perils for every point they roll above 12. There are no saves from perils any more. Oh, except Eldar Farseers who save on a 3+! If your playing Grey Knights laugh as their heads explode, or they glance their Dreadnaughts to death failing fortitude rolls!

Next there is Divination (not the new powers, but Eldrads own special power). This allows him to redeploy d3+1 units right before the game starts. This is pretty huge for Tau.

Finally, there are his psychic powers, and this is where it is really interesting. First up, none of the elder powers work on Tau units. But that’s OK, because Eldrad gets 4 rolls on the Divination table if he swaps out his codex powers. He is also mastery level 3, and (uniquely I think) can cast the same power twice. He has access to the Divination table and another one that isn’t important (!). Go look at the Divination powers. They are awesome for Tau.

The primaris power, Prescience (i.e. the on he is guaranteed to get) allows you to re roll missed to hit rolls – so twin linked fire knives! And because Eldrad can cast it on 2 unit per turn that’s 2 squads of twin linked fire knives.  Foreboding gives Eldrad and his unit counter attack and Overwatch at normal BS.  Perfect Timing allows the unit Eldrad is attached to, to ignore cover. Misfortune forces 1 (or 2) enemy unit to reroll successful saves. Forewarning gives one (or 2) units a 4+ invulnerable save. Only 2 of them are so so – Precognition allows Eldrad to re roll missed hits and wounds, and Scriver's Gaze allows you to re roll reserve rolls. However, because the best one is the automatic one, and he gets 4 rolls on the table, chances are he’ll get the ones you want.

These work so well with a Tau gun line army – Land raider in cover? Cast Perfect Timing on your Broadsides – no more cover. Terminators charging your lines? Cast Prescience on 2 squads of fire knives, and Misfortune on the terminators. Six twin linked plasma rifles, and 6 twin linked missile pods, shooting at the terminators who must re roll their successful saves! That’s one very dead squad of terminators!  Or, my personal favourite – a unit of TH/SS assault terminators is about to charge your Kroot line – cast Foreboding on the Kroot giving them counter attack and overwatch at BS3, cast Prescience on the Kroot allowing them to re roll missed to hit rolls (shooting and combat), and then cast Misfortune on the terminators forcing them to re roll successful saves! On average Overwatch will kill 2 terminators, and assault will kill the rest before they even have a chance to swing! Alternativly cast Forewarning on the Kroot giving them a 4+ invulnerable save. Never seen such a scary pack of Kroot in your life!

The big downside of course is that it does very little to solve the biggest problem with a Tau army – crappy troops! Rangers are OK – they have the sniper rule, and unlike most snipers they rend on 6’s on the To Hit roll – so any precision shot they make is AP2. They also get stealth which is helpful. Upgrading to pathfinders also helps. Their stealth roll bonus is now 2+, and they rend on 5’s and 6’s, but they are still not great. So you will be “stuck” with 2 relatively rubbish back field scoring units (Rangers and Fire Warriors) and as many Kroot squads as you can afford. It’s not terrible, but it’s not great.

I’m going to try both, but I really like the Eldrad option.

EYIG

2 games into 6th

I’ve now played 2 games of 6^th edition and I’m getting  there!

My last game was against Little Geek’s Demons. He tabled me! What did I learn?

Well first, demons got way better in 6^th edition!

Flying monstrous creatures are pretty hard core! When Little Geeks FMC’s come in they “swoop”, which means I can only hit them on sixes. When they move they can jump over my vehicles and hit them with a “vectored strike” which is a “sort of” assault. It hits on threes on the side armour. When it lands it can still fire one weapon, or if it’s a Lord of Change with some sort of upgrade thingy, 2 weapons. In one turn Little Geeks Lord of Change swooped over a Baal Predator, knocked off its assault cannon with a vectored strike, landed and then toasted a devastator squad with Breath of Chaos! His blood thirster is also a FMC….. so it is a truly horrible close combat monster, that you can only hit on sixes before it rips you apart….!

Demons can now tear vehicles apart quite easily. Little Geek runs 2 big squads of fiends – so hitting on 3’s, with 6 s5 rending attacks each on the charge, they easily rip apart anything that isn’t AV13+. Fiends are also beasts, so they can catch anything but the fastest vehicles.

It’s not all good for Demons – blood letters and blood crushers are pretty weak now (hell blades being AP3), but who cares when you have fiends!

And that made me think about how weak vehicles are now. Much has been made of hull points weakening them, and that’s true. But the really weakness I think is how vulnerable they are in assault. Now you hit them on 3’s rather than 4’s or 6’s. Couple that with hull points and even a pack of 10 Kroot will tear a rhinos apart no matter how far it moved… (30 attacks on the charge, 20 hits, 9 glances ..hell they could multi charge 2 rhinos and still have a reasonably good chance of killing both of them!) And if the Kroot wrap around the rhino before they charge it…..the contents are dead as well!

The other problem is the inability to charge on the turn you disembark even if you haven’t moved, and even if you have been blown out your transport. The earliest you will every be able to charge anything out a rhino is turn 3, and only then after hanging around for a turn getting shot at, assaulted and allowing your “target” to get out the way.

And to top it all you can’t claim an objective while inside a vehicle, nor can a vehicle contest.

Anybody who ran a mechanised army will have to radically rethink how they do it.  A few thoughts

·         Razorbacks are now backfield support units. The last thing you want to do is move them forward into assault range. Arming them with twin linked heavy flamers is now pretty pointless, and assault cannons questionable. In this role they are perhaps stronger as they are harder to stun.

·         I’m struggling a bit to see a role for Rhinos – moving forward with them is now pretty dangerous, but staying in the back filed is pretty pointless. Over 200 points to shoot a heavy and a special out the top hatch. Not exactly points efficient.

·         Chimeras are better because they have the 4 firing hatches – but hull points, and a 5+ cover save effect them too – auto cannons and XV8s with missile pods will strip them of hull points pretty quickly (on average 6 deathrain XV8s will kill a chimera!).

·         Putting anything in a transport you might want to use in assault (unless it’s open topped or has an assault ramp) is pretty pointless. For blood angels 5 man assault squads used to be a cheap scoring upgrade for a razorback, with a melta gun (maybe with an infernos pistol on the sergeant), who, if you gave the sergeant a power weapons, and there was a priest hanging around, were OK in assault, particularly if you teamed up with another 5 man squad. Seems to me there is just no point in thinking this way anymore.

·         For marine armies I wonder if we’ll see the resurgence of the tactical squad? The ability to combat squad and keep both squads in the rhino increases flexibility. Being able to jump out and rapid fire something over 12 inches away helps, and  8 rapid firing bolt guns, a missile launcher and a plasma gun on overwatch might make you thing twice before you charge them. Is this the new use for Rhino’s?

·         Landraiders become relatively better. Harder to “one shot” and you can assault out of them.

·         Ironically I think predators become better.  While hull points and 5+ cover makes them easier to kill at range, it’s harder to stun lock them so, while they might not last as long, they are more likely to fire to full effect until they die.

·         In a Tau army there is now even less point in bringing hammer heads and fire warriors in devil fish. Disruption pods only give a 5+ save. One of the big advantages of a hammer head over a broadside was the ability to tank shock on to an object to contest it.. not any more! I bought a Devilfish for my fire warriors so they could move forward onto objectives, tank shocking if needs be….not any more!

Hmmmmm……back to the drawing board…!

EYIG

Stormtallons in 6th

Remember this

"If I could use stormtallons to escourt Stormravens in my BA army, that would be awesome"

Well, guess what, with Allies now I can. Take a a primary Codex marines detachment with 3 stormtallons and some bikes as troops. Then add a BA allies detachment with an HQ, a stormraven, some death company and a death company dreadnaught. Stormtallons can be attached to a unit and come in on that units reserve roll. The Stormraven has 3 units in it (including the HQ) and is a unit in itself. Attach all 3 tallons to the raven and its contents. Everything comes in on one reserve roll, probably turn 2.

Cool beta strike!

EYIG

6^th Edition

My first impressions of 6^th ed were very positive. I love the allies rules and was very excited about the other changes. However, I played my first game of 6^th last night, and I have my doubts!

Now, what follows are my first impressions having played one game – so more or less entirely irrelevant. I need to play a heap more games before I come to a conclusion. A lot of what I’m about to say comes from needing to rethink tried and tested strategies and ways of doing things and I guess that’s what I’m finding frustrating. Now you can argue that that’s all part of the fun of a new edition, and you would be right, but some stuff is just irritating, and makes very little sense.

Here’s 2 things.

First I wanted to bring my Tri Raven list, but I can’t any more. The ravens and their contents must start in reserve. Because I don’t have anything other than the stuff in the Ravens, I can’t comply with the only 50% in reserve rule, so the list just doesn’t work. What’s wrong with being able to keep more than 50% of your force in reserve!

Second (and this is the biggie) I found wound allocation really irritating. Allegedly it stops the wound allocation abuse in 5^th. Now I never found that terribly annoying to be honest. Yes Nobs and Paladins were irritating, but that was about it – the way you could allocate wounds on single wound models was mildly annoying, but no big deal. As I read the rules in 6^th, it’s open to far more abuse!

Now this may be because I’m doing it wrong, and if you think I am please let me know, but the big problem I see is in units with different armour saves.

As I read the rules in assault, if there is more than one model in base to base with the attackers, the defender gets to choose who he allocates the wounds to first. If there are different armour saves on those models he can allocate all the wounds on the model with the different armour save. The attacker rolls all the dice one after another until that model is dead before moving on to another model. The problem it seems to me is that if there is one model with a tough armour save then all the wounds can be “wasted” on that model before doing anything else.

Last night my buddy had wolf guard terminators in packs of grey hunters. I assaulted them with a BA assault squad, doing about 7 wounds. He rolls them one after another on the terminator and only if he rolls a 1 does he move on to the grey hunters…..how annoying is that?

Worse,  imagine a biker command squad with a captain in artificer armour. If you allocate all the wounds to the captain he has a 2+ and then a 5+ against everything that isn’t AP2. I’m no math whiz but isn’t that something like 30 wounds before he’s dead, given he has 3 wounds?  Even when the power fists swing he has a 4++ and then a 5+ FNP. Remember he’s T5 now so unless there is something swinging at S10, he will not be insta killed - so he gets all his wounds and his FNP. So it needs something like 10 or so AP2 wounds before he’s dead, so 20+ power fist attacks! A whole squad of power fist terminators! And let’s not forget that once he’s down to his last wound  he can “look out sir” that last AP2 wound to his buddy with the storm shield!

You might say “a ha, but I can challenge him with a sergeant and take him out the combat”, well yes, but if I refuse the challenge, while that takes out his attacks, I can still allocate wounds to him.

If this is right biker command squads are insanely hard. I suspect you could do similar things with Nob bikers – but I don’t know the rules for orks as well.

Please, please tell me I’m getting this wrong, cause if I’m not, this is way, way worse than Paladin wound allocation shenanigans.

EYIG

The last few days of 5th!

I almost don’t want to do this post. I’m getting really fed up of 6^th edition rumours and speculation. However, I feel compelled to say something (don’t know why!).

Firstly, I’m not going to comment on the rumoured rules changes. It’s pointless. Inevitably you look at the rumours through the prism of 5^th edition. It’s impossible to assess individual rules changes without knowing the whole picture. The fact that charge range may be 2d6, discard the highest, means nothing unless you know what all the other rules are that impact on assaults. Everybody is getting excited about power weapons being “only” AP3. Terminators will be gods apparently. But what if cover saves are changed so they never get more than their 5++, and the rapid fire rules change to make plasma guns scary. Terminators not looking quite so god like now!

 

So I’ll save comments until after I read the rules. But a few thoughts for now.

 

First I hope they publish extensive FAQs for some of the older books – well lets be honest, I hope they publish a FAQ for the Tau codex to update some stuff, pending a new 6^th ed codex. I would be really sad if my Tau were even more restricted.

 

Second, I really want flyers to be awesome…..I have 3 Stormravens for my BA, and now 2 Stormtalons for a fledgling SM biker army. Death from above!

 

Thirdly, I hope all the new stuff is available electronically, the new Space Marine Codex for the iPad is fantastic.

 

Finally, it looks like all the authors on this blog will be playing at a 2 day tournament on the weekend 6^th hits the shelves. All 3 of us (and Little Geek too) are going to the Games of War  tourni on 30^th June and 1^st July. Our last tournament of 5^th edition. Black arm bands will be worn!

 

It’s going to be the last “hurrah” for 5^th, and I’m going to take a really silly list just for fun.

 

The king is dead – long live the king! 

EYIG

 

 

AP values in combat: the elephant in the room

Hello Sir#67 here.

I was driving down to mansfield this afternoon ready for blog wars 3 tomorrow and had a little revelation about the prospect of ap values in close combat.

Incase you were in some sort of coma for the past week you'll have heard that close combat weapons will have their own ap values. They're something along the lines of:

Chainswords, combat knives etc: ap6
Power Weapons: ap3
Power Fists: ap2
Chain Fists: ap1

Looking at this, I along with everyone else has predicted the rise of the terminator.

Going with what we currently know this is exactly what is going to happen.

Thing is it's a new edition that's on the way and to a certain extent all bets are off.

If cc weapons are going to get an ap value then what happens if the nature of ap values changes.

The idea's been put about that 40k is becoming more like fantasy. Looking at things like random charge ranges, challenges etc that seems to be the case. So lets take that idea a little further.

What if instead of removing your armour save ap values modify it instead.

Stay with me here, strength values modify saves in fantasy so maybe ap values will do the same in 40k. If the modifiers were set up some thing like:

ap6 = -1
ap5 = -2
ap4 = -3
ap3 = -4
ap2 = -5
ap1 = -6

Power weapons will give your standard marine a 6+ armour save and a terminator a 5+ armour save. This would make a termies invulnerable save a bit pointless though so lets steal another rule from fantasy and let you use both armour and invulnerable saves at the same time.

A terminator would then get a 5+ then 5++ against a power weapon and a 6+ then 5++ against a power fist.

This way terminators are a bit more survivable but not the harbingers of the apocalypse they look like at the moment.

It's just a thought, fresh out of my own mind so don't read to much into it but it doesn't seem so out there to me at the moment.

What say you?

Sir#67

Club Challenge 2012 – flight of the Storm Ravens (cue Robert Duval waxing lyrically about napalm in the morning!)

This was a really fun weekend. It was a club tournament, well actually it was 5 tournaments in one – 40k, Fantasy, Blood Bowl, Hordes and Flames of War. Your club entered players in 4 out of the 5, and the club with the highest average score across all 4 won. There were also prizes for the top 3 in each system, and a club shield for each system. I was playing for the Cheltenham Warchiefs (don’t ask!), and we were targeting the 40k shield.

So Friday night didn’t go well. I am such a light weight when it comes to beer….and whiskey…! And so it would appear poker (the only text I got from Mrs Geek all weekend was not to tell me how much she was missing me, but to ask how much I lost at poker…!)

So Saturday started bright and early (well early anyway), and my first opponent was playing Necrons.

The games had 3 missions in each – the Primary, which was usually objective based (one annihilation game during the weekend), then VP difference which applied a score modifier, and then an optional objective (like kill their most expensive unit, or most expensive HQ etc). You got 20 points for a win, 10 for a draw and 5 for a loss. A big VP margin could give you another 5 points (with your opponent losing 5 points) and you could get 5 points for achieving your “secret mission.

Game 1

Last time I played Necrons I got absolutely humped…..so this time I approached it very cautiously. Mission was sieze ground with 5 objectives, spearhead deployment. He had 3 spiders, two 6 “man” units of wraiths, an overlord in a barge and 4 squads of 5 warriors with a Cryptec in each. He also had a destroyer Lord, and 2 of the barge thingies that shoot heaps of S7 shots, and even more if they roll a 6 (Telsa?). I got first turn and deployed, he deployed everything and did not sieze. Objectives were spread roughly in an “X” pattern toward the centre of the board.

In my first turn he shot a solar flare, so I didn’t shoot anything and didn’t really move either – I wanted do stay away from the Lord in the Barge and his drive by attack. In his turn he tried to spawn some scarabs and rolled 3 ones, wounding each of his spiders! He moved his Lord flat out, and moved everything else into the middle of the board.

Hmmmm…to get the objectives I needed to deal with his Wraiths. I suspected they would murder my Sanguinary Guard, but I fancied my Furioso’s chances (S5, even with rending, will find AV13 tricky). The 3++ save will mean it would be a long combat, but all I really needed to do was pin them in place, allowing my Guard to target his troops and hopefully wipe them. The problem was I needed to tie up 2 squads of Wraiths, and kill 4 troops choices with only 5 units (2 Furiosos and 3 squads of Guard). Oh and I really needed to kill the Lord in the Barge before he gibbed my Ravens.

So the plan was to kill the Lord first, then kill the spiders (don’t’ want any more scarabs scuttling about) tie up the Wraiths with the Furioso’s, and kill his troops with the Guard, and hope I had some Guard left to claim some objectives….!

It almost worked – the spiders went down in a flurry of blood strike missiles, the Lord went down to the Raven’s Multi Meltas, and one Furioso ripped through a squad of Wraiths (the extra armour really helped here – effectively giving him a 5++ in close combat). However I wasn’t able to catch the other Wraith squad, and they pulped one squad of Guard. However, I did manage to kill all his troops (bar 2 that were out of position),  both Lords and all his vehicles. Turn 5 I had 5 scoring models left (2 in one squad and 3 in another) but they were out of position. If it had gone onto turn 6, I could have bounced the guard onto objectives for the win…but it ended turn 5.

So a draw on Primary, but I won on secondary and achieved my mission (kill his most expensive HQ). So a win for me something like 17pts to 6pts.

The Furioso’s were great this game at holding up wraiths – didn’t kill them very quickly, but stopped them doing anything. The biggest problem was that my scoring units were also my heavy lifters – I didn’t get the timing right i.e. I didn’t pull the Guard back quickly enough to grab the objectives.

Game 2

Three Objectives, one in the centre and 2 on the centre line, 9 inches in from the board edge. Against Guard – 2 Vendettas, a Manticore, 4 Chimeras, a Devil Dog and 2 Lehman Russ with the battle cannons. He also had some storm troopers and a bunch of metal/plasma vets in the chimeras and Vendettas. I got first turn (phew)!

I set up centrally, keeping Dante and a squad of SG in reserve, and he castle up in a corner. First turn I moved flat out right into his teeth, and jumped out all my units using “Skies of Blood” and the locator beacons on the Ravens. I popped smoke on the Dreads, and landed the guard in cover behind the Dreads. As discussed before, the idea was to give him target priority issues.

It worked a treat – from memory I think I lost one squad of Guard, but everything else survived. My turn 2, Dante came down and I was in about him. Long story short- at the end of the game I had 2 objectives, he had 6 guardsmen left, and I achieved my mission (kill 50% of his  troops). Stand out moments – Dante, the Guard the Ravens and every other sodding melta gun in my army failing to do anything to his Chimeras for about 2 turns….! Him deep striking his storm troopers beside 2 remaining Guard models that were running away from the action to grab an objective, opening up with 2 melta guns, hitting with both, but rolling snake eyes to wound (phew), and finally moving a Raven flat out behind one of his Vendettas and firing the assault cannon into its rear armour, killing it.

So a 28 points to 2 win.

Game 3

Annihilation, Dawn of War, Grey Knights. Two Autocannon Dreads, a Dreadknight, a bunch of terminators with max psycannons, 2 squads of purifiers in rhinos, and 3 strike squads in razorbacks.

Now, looking at this, I quite fancied my chances – if I could get them out their boxes, and my Dreads into combat, I might just pull it off….! But it didn’t work! In his first round of shooting he downed both ravens, and killed one of the Dreads that came out of them. Effectively that was game over there and then. I just could not advance into his hail of shooting. Big loss for me – 28pts to 2 pts. My opponent went on to win best overall, which makes the loss a little easier to bear!

So end of day 1 and sitting on 2 wins and a loss. Not too bad, but a little disappointed in the last loss being such a bit one.

Game 4

Grey Knights again. Capture and control. Spearhead. He had a Dreadknight with teleporter, Landraider with purifiers, a big bunch of terminators (10) a Grandmaster, a Dreadnaught with autocannons and a razor back with a strike squad inside (BTW – the army looked amazing – very well done in Bronze rather than silver – he got my vote for best army).

So I took a little time to think this one through. He only had 2 scoring units (the Termis and the Strike Squad). I suspected he would camp the termis on his objective, and use the Dreadknight to contest mine with the 36” shunt move. With that in mind I placed my objective on the top of a 3 story building, in the middle of the board. My Guard could fly up there, but his Dreadknight couldn’t (MCs can get up onto top stories, but only if they “fit” – it was a small, but tall building!). The idea was to kill the strike squad, and retreat with a Guard squad to the top of the building I would then try and contest his objective.

He won first turn but gave it to me. And it was the right thing to do. There was lots and lots of terrain on the table. He managed to set up in such a way that I could see nothing to launch my missiles at. So I set up on the line, keeping Dante and a squad in reserve. The idea is that I would use his “no scatter on deep strike rule” to nuke the Land raider if needs be. So I moved flat out into his teeth with one Raven, and hid the other slightly back behind terrain (yes the terrain was that big!) I used the machine spirit to shoot his Raider, hit it and penned it, but rolled a “1” on the chart…bugger! In his turn the purifiers jumped out the Raider and downed the first Raven but he didn’t do much else. The Guard squad and the Dreadnaught sheltered in the wreckage, preparing to kill the Purifiers that had jumped out the Raider and shot down their ride.

My turn 2, Dante came in. Hmmm….I needed to pull the Terminators off his objective. If I deep struck Dante and crew close enough to hit the Raider, and tempt a charge from the Termis that might just do it. I could then try and get both Furiosos into the terminators. So Dante deep struck right behind the raider – the Guard Squad and the Furioso that had been blown out their Raven lined up the Purifiers and the Second Raven moved flat out in the hope that it would kill the Autocannon Dread. I used skies of blood to get the Gurad squad out of the remaining Raven. Close to the ruin with my objective in it.

Well Dante and the SG failed to kill the Raider (3 penetrating hits, 2 ones and a 2 on the chart!). The Guard wiped the Purifiers (no halberds), and the Raven took an arm the Dread.

In his turn he moved the Terminators off his objective to assault Dante (good), but moved his strike squad razorback and the Dread cleverly to block an assault from the Furioso in the Raven (bad). The strike squad jumped out and killed the Guard squad that had wiped the Purifiers (argh!) and the Dreadknight assaulted the Furioso that had been shot out of the downed Raven (Oh dear!). And (having made his fortitude roll) he immobilized his Raider on terrain! The terminators pulped Dante’s squad (Dante took one with them) but Dante survived and used Hit and Run to get away, hiding behind the raider. The Terminators consolidated towards the Raven with the Furioso. The Dreadknight (even with the Great Sword) didn’t do anything to the Furioso (thank you extra armour!) and The Furioso did 2 wounds in reply.

In my turn Dante jumped over the Raider into position to assault the strike squad. The Raven moved to try and get position to allow the Furioso to assault the Terminators, but couldn’t (remember – lots of terrain!). I jumped the remaining guard squad onto my objective, killing 2 because of dangerous terrain tests!! Dante shot one marine in the strike squad, and the Raven finally killed the Autocannon Dreadnaught.  In assault Dante fluffed, killing only 3 marines! In return he was insta killed by the Demon Hammer….! Both the Dreadknight and the Furioso fluffed, and they were still locked in combat.

In his turn the remaining strike squad member got back into the razor back and zoomed off, onto his objective. Se he was holding his objective with one guy in a razorback. He shot the raven and did nothing, and then assaulted it with the Terminators, exploding it. The Dreadknight finally killed the Furioso and consolidated towards the Guard squad on top of the ruin.

In my turn I assaulted the Terminators with the Furioso, and shot the Dreadknight with an Infernus Pistol from the Guard in the Ruin. I put a wound on the Dreadknight (leaving him with one wound!), and the Furioso chewed through 9 terminators in 1 round of combat (!) leaving him locked in with the Grandmaster.

This was his turn 5 (I think!). He has just lost all his terminators (he took this hard because he forgot his psykotroke grenades!) and he was holding his objective with one marine. He needed to kill my Guard in the ruin and stop my Furioso killing the Grandmaster and consolidating onto his objective to contest it. All he had left was the immobilised Raider with a heavy bolter, the Grandmaster who could do nothing to the Furioso, and the Dreadknight on 1 wound.

First he tried to move the Dreadknight into the ruin to get the guard. He couldn’t do it – it was too big to fit on the ruin. I let him take the move back, and he jumped it over to assault the Furioso, locked in combat with the Grandmaster. He shot my Guard with the Raider’s heavy bolter but I made my 2+ saves. In the assault the Dreadknight had to go through terrain so was going last, so the Furioso killed the Grandmaster, and the Dreadknight cast Hammer Hand….and periled, failed its save and lost its last wound! The Furioso consolidated towards his objective, but was not in range to contest. I needed the game to go to a 6^th turn…and it did!

The Furioso moved to the objective but stopped more than 3 inches away because of poor difficult terrain test. And I made a stupid stupid mistake. Rather than run onto his objective, to ensure the win, I decided to shoot the Razorback with the Melta. Rush of blood to the head! I missed. So at the moment it was a draw. If the game ended there, I would have snatched a draw from the jaws of victory. Thankfully it went on to turn 7 and I destroyed the razorback and killed the marine inside…phew!

So a really close game. At the end I had 1 Furioso and 2 Sanguinary Gurad left, and he had an imobilsed raider. So a win, but not a big win – 20 - 10 to me.

Game 5

Grey Knights again! To be fair there were only 4 Grey Knights players in the tournament of over 30 guys, so just unlucky I guess. Interesting list – he was running 2 storm ravens, 2 squads of 5 Paladins, 2 squads of 2 Paladins, a Dreadknight and Draigo.  

This was the 5 objective game I wasn’t looking forward to. One in the centre of the board and one in the centre of each quarter. Dawn of War. I won first turn, and gave it to him. He deployed one 2 man squad of paladins on the objective in the far left quarter, and one on the second floor of a ruin within striking distance of all three on the right of the board. He made the Dreadknight scoring with Grand strategy, but kept it in reserve deep striking. I deployed nothing, keeping one squad in reserve deep striking, and everything else coming on first turn.

His turn 1 he moved both Ravens full of Paladins flat out into the centre of the board. My first turn I moved my Ravens flat out head to head with his. I concentrated both Assault Cannons on one of them, exploding it and putting a wound on a Paladin. He had taken it off the board before we both remembered he had forgotten to take the cover save from going flat out. I guess I could have said “tough your mistake”, but that seemed a bit extreme…so I let him roll it and he saved – ah well!

His turn 2 he gets his Dreadknight in and deep strikes it onto the other objective on the left, essentially removing it from the action which was all happening on the right side of the board. He tries to shoot down my Ravens, but manages to only shake one of them.

My turn 2 I get the other squad in, but deep strike it away from the action, but able to get to objectives if necessary. I also explode both his Ravens!

That was pretty much game over there. In his turn he shoots at my ravens but they hold up. In my turn 3 I “monster” Draigo and his squad with both Furiosos, 2 squads of Sanguinary Guard, Dante and a Priest. After the dust settles I’ve wiped out the paladins and put 2 wounds on Draigo with the loss of 5 guard and Dante. Draigo has to take a bunch of fearless wounds and rolls I think 3 ones. Dead.

After that it was just a matter of stalling the Dreadknight by assaulting him with one of the Furiosos (they stayed locked in combat for the rest of the game) and picking of the other Paladin squad with the Raven’s Blood Strike Missiles, assault cannons and multi meltas. At the end I held 2 objectives, he held one, one was contested and the other had a Dreadknight running towards it (after finally killing the Furioso), but not fast enough….!

Another win 28pts – 2pts.

So – 4 wins and a loss, enough to give me 5^th overall. We wont talk about how the club did!

I really enjoyed playing this list. It wasn’t optimal. I should have taken an assault squad rather than the 3 Guard squad, but it was fun to play. However, it really is too many eggs in 2 baskets. If the Ravens went down turn one or 2, then I really struggled. To make a Raven list work, I think you either need 3 of them, or other things (e.g. scouting Baal Predators, Razorbacks) to take the heat of 2 Ravens.

More importantly I really enjoyed the tournament as a whole – the team aspect of it was a blast.

EYIG