...the bat reps.

I forgot the feckin camera. I have a brain like a sieve some times. I only put it down to grab a drink gah!

Anyway I did take the time to remember the games in a bit more detail so I can give you a written summary. Boring I know but I haven't had much to write about recently. My list for both the following games was this:

Khan on Moondrakken

Terminator Squad with Cyclone

3 x Typhoons

Tactical Squad
Missile Launcher
Flamer
Teleport Homer
Rhino w/EA

Bike Squad
Full Squad
2 x Flamer
Power Weapon
MM Attack Bike

2x Predator w/lascannon sponsons.

A strange list I know but its gone 4 games undefeated so far (now that I have said that loosing streak can start...)

Game 1 VS Matt's Eldar

My old adversary. He normally kicks my arse with his mech list which is like this:

Eldrad
Jetarch

2 Waveserpents

Falcon

2 Prisms

Fire Dragons

Banshees

Avengers

and a small Jetbike squad for the Autarch

We rolled Capture and Control and Dawn of War, joy...

I won the roll off and opted to go second. He set most of his stuff on the board. I put down the Tactical Squad in two squads with the combat half in the rhino that camped on the objective, the ML half sat in the ruins right next to it. After a fairly dismall round of shooting Matt ended the turn with everything on the table, the Grav Tanks were lined up at the centre of the board ready to meet my reserves with the Fire Prisms a bit further back. On my turn I brought everything on apart from the bikes and termies and over the next two turns took apart most of his tanks and the occupants.

Turn two saw the arrival of my terminators, they deepstriked at the back of the Eldar, a risky move that almost saw them fly off the board but they landed and put a rocket into a Prism. They did get charged by the Aurtarch and co and they were wiped out (I couldn't roll a 2 to save my life :( ). Next turn however Khan and his boyz show up via outflank, they then promptly eat up the the squad over the next two turns.

From turn three onwards the stranded passengers of the wrecked wave serpents make a move on my objective (Matts was unclaimed for the whole game) but are promptly seen off by half a Tactical Squad and the Typhoons. The Bikes finish off the Jetarch and drive to Matts objective (yay for bikes as troops!) on the way they melta another Prism. Then everything seemed to go wrong! Eldrad and his posse of Dire Avengers come sashaying out of their Wave Serpent, cue guide, doom and Bladestorm. I watched Matt stack all those wounds together and I start to allocate out these wounds. Quite a crowd had gathered at the table by now (we were the only game going at the time) and they all watched in suspence as I rolled each model's saves. I passed the saves for Khan, the Sargent, the Attack Bike and a flamer but I lost 6 bikes!

The rest of the game was me basically mopping up but the game ended 1-0 to me and a crushing blow to Matt's ego. It was a fun game but I'm in no hurry to give him a rematch, I'm going to savour the win.

I'll give my thoughts on the game and the second Bat Rep tomo, right now I'm tired so it will have to wait. More to come!

Bat reps tonight!

Ok I have "bring the feckin camera!" ingrained into my head so expect some awesome battle reports or failing that some blurry pics of stuff you had to be there to understand...

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.