A new direction?

As much as I love my huge raider bomb I have tried out a replacement at the shop today and so far the results are promising. Instead of Termies+LRC+Cassius+Libby I'm now trying out Khan and a full bike squad with 2 flamers, Attack bike and a power weapon. This comes in at slightly less points but allows me to re-jig my list quite a bit.

Because I know have another troop choice I have dropped a tactical squad (I'm not a fan of these guys, they just seem like point filler to me) and got myself a Terminator squad with a cyclone launcher that can either Depp Strike or Outflank as the situation demands as well as another Auto/Las Predator.

I have only used this in a couple of games but the combination of a massive bike squad and deep striking terminators has caught people off gaurd. A game against a Suit heavy Tau list was a close run thing. My reserves came in late meaning that the rest of my army was blown to bits and couldn't really help out my fresh squads. Such is the gamble of reserves, I'll have to see if it pays off...

A new army...

I have been working on a new IG army after watching the film We Were Soldiers. Besides being an awesome folm it gave me an idea for an air cav style list. Here is what I've come up with:

HQ

CCS 130
MoO
Camo Cloaks
Medic

Troops

Veterans 150
Sergeant Harker
3 Sniper Rifles
Heavy Bolter

Veterans 140
Shotguns
Power Weapon
Heavy Flamer
2 x Flamer
Grenadiers

Veterans 115
Forward Sentries
Missile Launcher

Veterans 115
Forward Sentries
Missile Launcher

Fast Attack

Vendetta 130

Vendetta 130

Vendetta 130

Heavy Support

Basilisk 155
Camo nets

Basilisk 155
Camo Nets

Basilisk 155
Camo Nets

Total: 1505

I know this isn't as air cav as it could be but I think it still does justice to the theme. I already have the 3 Vendettas but I'm not too sure about the rest of the army, on paper it looks great but I could use a fresh pair of eyes.

The Angels on My Shoulders

Image used without permision from Gamesworkshop.

OK its content time again so I thought I would share with you my thoughts on what I think is a little gem in Codex: Space Marines, the Landspeeder Typhoon. This is essentialy a Landspeeder with some Missile Launchers bolted on and comes with the option of a Heavy Bolter (for the price of a basic 5 man Tactical Squad) or a Multimelta (for the same price as a MM on a tactical squad). I have three of these guys in my list and they have yet to let me down.

I arm mine with Heavy Bolters so that they can sit near or on my back line and snipe transports and massed infantry. Using their maximum range keeps them safe from the all too common S4 Rapid Firing bolters that are the bane of AV10 vehicles, this means they tend to survive longer than the suicide MM/HF Speeders. Being Fast means that when their guns are shot off, which happens to me alot for some reason :), they can still be used to contest objectives.

There are a few things to be wary of though. Never squadron them, the silly hit allocation rules mean that its relativley easy to shut down the squadron with Stunned and Shaken results. Remember to use the full 36" effective range to stay out of harms way where possible. Lastly, remember that they are still very flimsy so cover saves and LOS blocking is your friend.

Typhoons are a very versatile unit, which is what is needed in a good SM unit. The good news is that there isn't much competition for FA slots in most Marine armies, the only real challengers are MM Attack bikes. Even so a squad of 2 Attack Bikes seem like a nice complement to 2 Typhoons.

To summarise, keep your distance and your Typhoons willbe a massive headache for your opponent.

More to come!

I know I haven't posted anything for a few days but don't worry, content is on the way, when I get back off of holiday (should be Thursday) I'll get some posts up and some more rants. Bat reps will follow next week.

Fluff nuts Vs WAACs

I took a plunge into the rather iffy depths of BOLS a moment ago and came across this article: http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2010/04/wargaming-askew-will-original.html

I consider myself to be a rather middle of the road player when it comes to fluff and gaming. I have an interest in the fluff and background to the universe but I also like to push my skills as a player. I get upset when people treat both of these things as mutually exclusive. Thats not to say that I don't like people who prefer one over the other, its just not neccassary to wail on others that don't agree with you.

I have seen on some forums that people get taken to pieces because they have included a unit just because they like it, despite being considered crap, Pariahs spring to mind here. This is the whole argument that the fluff nuts bring up which can be summarised as "Take what you like, play for fun". Define fun. Fun is different things to different people. However there is something to be said for taking a "crap" unit and making it work. Just like some people can do with Rubrics and Vipers. Arguments of this nature though lead to the so called meta-game of 40k where absolute efficiency is king. Why take Vipers when Fire Dragons and the like can do more for less points.

Fluff nuts are not with out blame though. The author of the linked article is just as bad as the Win At All Cost players (for more discussion on that look up Danny Internets, he has an awesome series of articles on the subject of competativeness). The above author, who is not alone and is just serving as my example here, is suggesting that optimising your list to win makes you a bad person and no fun to play to play against. This isn't true. Just because I have no historically themed IG or I'm not wearing a wolf teeth necklace while my SW on the board does not mean that I am ignorant of what happened during the Horus Heresy. Seriously, I make a list for my army and then build fluff around it, this way I get something that is both competative and has history for when I need it.

All in all both camps need to stop this holier than thou attitude and remember that there are different kinds of fun.

My Space Marine Army Rundown

Seeing as I have no Batreps or pictures to give you I thought that I could do a run down of my SM army for you guys to take apart. Here is the list:

Chaplain Cassius

Librarian w/ Null Zone and Smite

Assault Terminators (2 THSS/ 3 LC)

Land Raider Crusader w/ Multimelta and EA

2x Tactical Squad w/ ML MG Rhino + EA

3x Land Speeder Typhoons

Predator w/ Lascannon Sponsons
I think the idea is pretty clear, Libby, Cassius and Termies ride in the the LRC, Typhoons and Pred sit back and pop tanks, I tend to reserve my Tactical Squads so that they don't get killed early on.

My army has evolved quite a bit over the last year and a half that I've been back into the hobby and this version was built with Fritz' attack/support/defend idea for list building.

Attack:

The massive hammer unit running up the field (LRC+TERMIES+CASSIUS)is a scary unit to face for lots of people. It is a do or die unit like Fire Dragons, if you don't kill the unit they will give you lots of grief. I chose Cassius over a normal Chaplain because he is point for point the best character in the book. If you are going to take a non-Terminator Chaplain take this guy. This unit can chew up most things and has enough survivability (if not speed) to walk across the table if needed.

Support:

I love my Typhoons, they rarely let me down. I found the best way to use them was to keep them separate, I know its more KPs but they really do work better this way. One Typhoon can blow up a Chimera or Wave Serpent and the other two can eat the squishy troops inside. Just remember that these guys are long range units, keep them as far from the enemy as possible or you might end up loosing the to rapid fire Bolters and such. The predator fills a similar role to the Land Speeders. It sits at the back and snipes transports and light armour, he can do a slightly better job because of the Lascannons but his LOS is usually more restricted. Finally the Librarian, he rarely gets out of the Land Raider, he sits inside popping off Null Zone to help the Terminators out and using his Psychic Hood to mess up the other player. If there aren't many Power Weapons about and I have a unit to hide him in, he might get out and start busting heads if he needs to.

Defend:

Everybody knows that the Troops section of the codex is hardly the most exciting part of a codex. Still you have to take two troops and that's what I have done. I reserve these guys to make them last a bit longer. The first rhino to come in from reserves will normally make a b-line for a far away objective, the second will camp on mine and throw missiles out of the top hatch if needed. If its a kill point game then the squads go into reserve and sit at the back of the board shooting missiles at people. As you can tell, I'm not a fan of Tacticals.

That's my list and how I use it. It does well in most games but I do feel the the 1500 point standard in my shop does hurt this list but I am trying to change it for 1750 so I can squeeze more stuff in, probably another Predator and a Rifleman Dread.

DFW is back on the air!

After a long break from this blog I've decided to get back into it but I'm going to shift focus from just Orks to all my wargaming shenanigans. Be prepared for some new content within the next few days and I'll get the camera back on.

I need to give a bit of credit to TKE for giving me a kick up the arse to get going again :D