Friday, July 31, 2009

There be Dragons... Fire Dragons


A while back I had a post about the "Boy's in Blue", talking about painting up my Dire Avengers. Well, here we have the Boys in Red. Not sure that is the right phrase, I think that when facing these boys the correct phrase was actually uttered by the Wicked Witch of the West. "I'm Melting!"

Overall I really like the way these Fire Dragons look compared to the older versions. I have 2 older FD mixed into this lot and while they look ok, the new ones certainly look better.


You might also notice that the new Dragons are slightly larger than the old ones. This is interesting to me, as it makes me wonder if other armies have the same "growth" as model ranges are getting done.



I changed my paint scheme a bit, but am still fairly close to what I posted previously. I am not a huge fan of the bright orange and yellow FD scheme, as I feel it really stands out in a jarring fashion when plugged into a Biel-Tan army.This darker scheme actually fits well, while still sticking to the idea of the FD.

So no Exarch for these boys so far. I will eventually have to expand them out from the current to a full squad of 10, along with adding a couple Exarchs (each weapon choice). For the moment, I only play with 6 or 7 in an army, so these boys work well. As I note to the right, this brings my total painted army to just shy of 3K points. Even dropping Yriel from normal lists, this gives me well over 2500 points to play with.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Chicago Gamesday 2009 - Golden Daemon

I have been torn as I try to figure out how to do this post. I have 37 images (after I cleaned up my pictures) from the Golden Daemon in Chicago. I realize a couple things:
  1. I have not explained my methods for picking what I take pictures of at Golden Daemon
  2. 37 pictures is a heavy load for the blog and a long post
  3. I have a number of long posts to put up after my Chicago trip
So, I am going to approach things this way. First let me explain my method when I am snapping pictures at the Golden Daemon contests. First, I realize that everyone will be able to go online or look in White Dwarf to see the winners of the contest. In addition, those pictures will be far better than the ones I take (I would hope!). Second, typically the areas I am taking pictures in are from the line, clouded by the scratched and smudged screens, and crowded with multiple models. Toward this end, I walk through the line and try to take the best pictures I can of the models I like. This means I will very rarely have pictures of Nurgle models (I really do not like them) and will have more pictures (usually) of Eldar, as I like those models. Basically, this is a profile of what caught my eye.

Now, I am also thinking of not putting all my pictures up on the blog. Based on the second two points above, I am going to post a couple that really stuck out for me, and then post a link to my Flickr slide show. This slide show is all the pictures from Games Day Chicago, not just Golden Daemon. I think my intelligent readers will not be disappointed.

So, here we go. The following are some of the entries that really stuck out to me. For my full picture coverage please look here.


* I met Gobbo while I was in Chicago, he had travelled from Denver for the DLT picnic and Games Day. This was a great model and when I was in line I heard this comment from the guys behind me: "Man, that guy took the term single 40K model to the extreme!"


* I liked this Farseer model. I tried to convince the people behind the table to turn on the static ball, but they wouldn't.


* This was just incredible. I took several pictures and have them cleaned up as much as possible in my slide show.


* and this just made me say WOW! The artist painted up a complete canopy of trees, shaded them, then placed this Wood Elf in the canopy. Great model.

I liked all the models I took pictures of, and I strongly recommend you check out my Flickr Slide Show.

Game Report - DLT Forge Risen Necrons vs Dead Tau Project



Necrons, those undead in space that used to be so tough and now are a little hampered in 5th edition. While the hit to glancing definitely impacted Necrons with the new vehicle damage chart, I believe the larger impact is phase-out and how that interacts with the new 5th edition scenarios. Basically, there is only 1 mission you play when playing Necrons. Phase Out. Lets see, grab 5 objectives... Nah, lets just make them phase out. Seize an objective in the opponents deployment zone... nah, lets just make them phase out.

The DLT guys are writing a new campaign (The Forge Star Campaign) that actually adjusts Necrons a bit. I was lucky to play against Rich from DLT and the new Forge Risen Necrons. You can hear about the game on Episode 50 of their podcast, and I am going to give a bit of an overview here as well.

List for the game:
@1500

HQ
Autarch (Mandiblasters, WJG, Power Weapon, Fusion Gun)
Farseer (Doom, Runes of Warding, Spear)

Elite
7x Fire Dragons
w/ Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones, SCan, TL SctLaser)
8x Banshees
w/ Banshee Exarch (Executioner, Warshout, Acrobatic)
w/ Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones, SCan, TL Missiles)

Troops
9x Dire Avengers
w/ Dire Avenger Exarch (Bladestorm, 2x Avenger SC)
w/ Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones, SCan, TL Bright Lances)
3x Jetbikes
w/ 1x SCan
3x Jetbikes
w/ 1x SCan

Fast
8x Warpspiders
w/ Warp Spider Exarch (Withdraw, Powerblades, 2x Deathspinner)


Rich's Forge Risen Necrons

1x Pariah Lord (new from Forge Star)
1x 8 Immortals
1x 3 Wraith
1x 7 Scarabs
2x Tomb Spiders
1x 2 Heavy Destroyers
1x 4 Destroyers
2x 12 Necrons + Pariah Sargent(FS) + Gauss Flamer Template(FS)

Game Record: 2-7-3

First it is important to understand what some of the changes for the Forge Risen Necrons are. Based on my (faulty) memory, here are the highlights:
  • Phase Out - Necron squads who fall back must make a leadership test or that many necrons "phase out" of the squad.
  • Wraiths - 1 of the attacks the wraiths have become a power weapon attack
  • Pariah Lord - Essentially a super pariah. Allows Pariah Sergent upgrades in necron squads that are at least 12 man strong
  • Gauss Weapons - become rending
  • We'll Be Back - this becomes a 4+ FNP
  • Tomb Spiders - Add +1 to a FNP save for necrons within 6 inches
I really enjoyed this game. I found that with Phase out changed in this manner, I was really playing to the mission and prioritizing my shooting/attacks instead of just hunting down Necron Warrior units to push a phase out. In addition, the other changes did not come out as over powered, but made for an interesting game.

Our game was an annihilation mission, with "normal" set-up of 12 inch deployment zones. Rich set-up everything on the table, while I kept my bikes, spiders, and autarch in reserve. A couple highlights before the end of the game were:

I successfully split his army in half, with 1 warrior squad + spider, wraiths, and immortals headed to the left and the rest of his army headed right. I had 1 set of bikes and 1 wave serpent (dragons) to the left and the rest of my army on the right side of the board.

The Serpent with Dragons was Crew-Shaken close to my deployment zone, so I turbo boosted into the middle of his army on the left flank. My intention was to jump the dragons out, scoot and shoot with the serpent, and unload with 7 melta shots. Instead, the Serpent was blown out of the sky, the Dragons emergency disembarked and were promptly picked apart by remaining gauss fire then assaulted and wiped out by the wraiths.

Banshees waltzed through 1 doomed squad of Warriors, 1 doomed squad of destroyers, and got stuck on a multi combat with immortals and scarabs at the end of the game.

Dire Avengers blade storm into the destroyer squad, kill 1, then lose 5 Avengers to return fire from the same destroyer squad.

So we come to the last 3 player turns of the game. I have the bottom of the turn and on my turn 4 I charge the Pariah Lord with my Autarch, Spider Exarch, and 1 warp spider. 10 str 3 power weapon attacks and 1 regular attack result in 1 wound on the Pariah lord. In return, the Pariah Lord kills the warp spider, tied combat. Top of turn 5 I send 8 str 3 power weapon attacks into the lord, and everything fails to land (due to my average rolls not wounding and his invuln saves). In return, the Pariah kills the Warp Spider Exarch, I lose combat by 1 and roll for a 6 (Pariah drops my leadership to 7, lose combat by 1) and fail. I successfully make the initiative check to flee then roll my 3 dice to jump away. I jump over the ongoing combat between the Immortals and the Banshees, and the Lord ends up on the other side of the combat. I do a quick check of the board and see the following status:
  1. Farseer is alive and in a Serpent, within 24 inches of the immortal combat
  2. Autarch is alive but fleeing, no problem I can rally him next turn
  3. Banshees are in combat with the Immortals and 1 scarab base. With Doom, I should clear this combat on my turn and gain 2 KP.
  4. Half squad of Dire Avengers are 1 inch from the table edge and fleeing
  5. Currently kill points are tied at 4 / 4
So, I happily move into my turn 5, comfortable that this game is fairly wrapped up. I knew we would be ending after my turn because the bunker was closing.

- First thing on my turn I launch Doom at the immortals. I make the rolls, everything is good, then Rich reminds me of "Psychic Void" around his Pariah Lord. Pariah Lord is within 6 inches of the immortals, Doom dissipates into the warp. Damn. No problem, as long as the Autarch and the Avengers rally (on a 10 and a 9 respectively), I am playing for a tie and my banshees may even pull out the win without doom.

- I roll for my Avengers to rally and they do, sticking nicely on the edge of the table but not willing to leave the field of battle. Now things are turning around!

- I grab my dice and roll for the Autarch. Roll a 3, fantastic. I quickly measure and find the Autarch is 5 1/2 inches away from the immortal combat. DAMN double DAMN! He cannot rally and ends up jumping a bit further away. He is still fleeing and that makes the total 5KP for Rich to 4 KP for me.

- I shoot what I can, dropping a couple wounds here and there but not removing any units. Onto the Banshees! Banshees drop 3 wounds onto the immortals, and none onto the scarab base. Fail. Final score stays at 5KP to 4KP, win to Rich.

Overall I really enjoyed this game. From a lessons learned standpoint:
  • My Bikes are still working as a harassment unit, not actually delivering any scoring action. They add nicely to my other str 6 shooting, and work as diversion units.
  • I am still not supporting my Dragons. Maybe its something subconscious? I need to make a concerted effort to support my dragons when I play.
  • Doom Seer works out really well. I put him with the Banshees this game and that worked better than running with the Avengers. I am going to keep him with the Banshees for a while.
So, that was the game. My record looks fairly abysmal, but I am getting very comfortable with my army so I expect this will start climbing on the win column.

*As a note, HuronBH has pointed out this was actually a tie. I have updated the record column both in this post and on the right. A falling back unit does not equal a kill point until it actually hits the table edge!

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

GW Chicago Battle Bunker



Above you see another in my picture stream of GW locations I have visited. This is me posing in front of the GW Chicago Battle Bunker. I have to admit that the Chicago Bunker made the Baltimore and Seattle bunkers look very sad. I am looking forward to getting back to the Seattle Bunker next month (August) and getting a picture.

The Seattle bunker is huge..... Huge I tell you. The main room was the same size as the Baltimore bunker, and set up in a similar fasion. Then there was the gaming room, with additional tables, connected to that main room. I was very impressed!

Second impressing thing was the expansive city-fight table that they had set-up. I only have a picture of 1/3 of the table, but here it is:


Hanging out with the DLT crew at the bunker was very cool. I had a great game against Richard and overall I was a very good night. AT one point during the night I came around the corner and ran into someone who I recognized from his Web-Video's. I was happy to meet Battlefoam Romeo in person and we had a great chat! He is a great guy and I hear his game vs DLT Mack was a good game. Above that, Romeo's Daemon army looked fantastic!

I should have gotten some additional pictures of me with Romeo and me with the DLT crew, but alas my brain shut down on the photography end. Lessons learned for next time......

Upcoming posts

Well, I am back from Chi-Town and have a lot to catch up on! As I start cleaning up my pictures to make them post-worthy and writing up the blog posts, I figured I would put up a quick update. Here are a couple items that will be coming up over the next 2 weeks (in no particular order):

- Chicago Games Day review and pictures
- Chicago Golden Daemon pictures
- My time with the DLT guys
- Battle report vs DLT's Rich and his Forge Risen Necrons (Alternate Necron list)
- Overview of an upcoming 40K Campaign I will be playing in.
- Background to the Dead Tau Project
- Chicago Battle Bunker visit

I have recieved a fair number of questions since January about why I hate Tau so much. This brings me to a good point where I think it would be nice to put out some information about my army, and why I started the Dead Tau Project. I will also use that post to update my January post tracking progress.

Now off to writing, photo-editing, and taking care of RL work.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Modeling update - Fire Dragons, Grav Tank Bases, Objectives

Wow! Its been 4 weeks since my last model update. Time flies when you stop paying attention. I have some updates which I will detail and comment on below. I will be traveling for work this week, so no Tuesday gaming reports. Also, I will be headed to Chi-Town this Friday for a number of events, including Picnic like Thunder with the DLT guys and GW Chicago Games Day. As this Games Day is not really costing me anything, I have higher hopes for it. I expect to be playing some games at the Chicago Bunker after GD, so I should get a battle report up when I return.

Fire Dragons

I started working on these boys over the past couple weeks, assembling the bases and preparing them for painting. Last night I started painting them. I only have the base coat red and black down on the Dragon, and the base brown on the Tau Weapon's on the bases. The expected scheme for the dragons will be:
  • Armor: Mechrite Red base / Blazing Orange/Fiery Orange highlight
  • Cloth bits: Orkhide Shade base / Dark Angels Green / Scorpion Green highlight
  • Gun: Tin Bitz base / Brazen Brass / Dwarf Bronze highlight
  • Tank (on gun and backpacks): Brazen Brass base / Dwarf Bronze / Boltgun Metal highlight
  • Under-armor: Black base / Adeptus Battlegrey highlight
I am realizing that even though I love the way the models look, I am not enjoying painting them. Something about the armor and the model was very tedious when painting.



Grav-Tank Bases

I had some bases made for my grab-tanks along with some objective markers. They both came out great and I do not mind plugging where I got them. I recommend Bitzjunkie, who is a Bartertown advertiser under KonflicT Terrain. Here are 2 of the bases for the grav tanks:







Objective Bases

Along with the tank bases, he also put together 5 basic objective markers. In addition, he assembled a bonus 6th objective that came out very cool. I will be putting a banner on the pole. I am looking forward to painting this.



Workspace

And just for fun, here is my workspace as of last night. The Fire Dragons will head into their case for the trip this weekend, and then back out when I return.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Dead Tau Project improves

*Image from Deviant Art.

Its been 2 weeks since I added to a column other than the loss column, and this time I get to start incrementing the win column as well. I was able to get in two games during tonight's club gaming and the Dead Tau Project's new record is:

2 wins - 7 losses - 2 draws

The two games tonight were 1750 vs Rich's Khorne Daemon army, and 1850 vs Casey's Daemon army for the Big Waaagh this weekend. I am still fighting hard against daemon armies, but I think I am starting to get the hang of things. I used a couple tactics for these two games that seemed to work out for me in games vs daemons.
  • I am giving them first turn and not trying to seize the initiative
  • I left the bulk of the army in reserve
  • Combined fire, focused fire, combined focused fire
  • "Kill it till its dead"
Its been a fairly busy night (work picked up after the games) so the two games are fairly muddled in my mind. I will post what I remember of their lists, post my lists, then put some thoughts and wrap up below.

For my game vs Rich's Khorne Daemons @1750:

HQ
Autarch (Mandiblasters, WJG, Power Weapon, Fusion Gun)
Farseer (Doom, Runes of Warding, Spear)

Elite
6x Fire Dragons
w/ Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones, SCan, TL Scatter Laser)
8x Banshees
w/ Banshee Exarch (Executioner, Warshout, Acrobatic)
w/ Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones, SCan, TL Missiles)

Troops
9x Dire Avengers
w/ Dire Avenger Exarch (Bladestorm, 2x Avenger SC)
w/ Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones, SCan, TL Bright Lance)
9x Dire Avengers
w/ Dire Avenger Exarch (Bladestorm, 2x Avenger SC)
w/ Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones, SCan, TL Scatter Lasers)
3x Jetbikes
w/ 1x SCan
3x Jetbikes
w/ 1x SCan

Fast
7x Warpspiders
w/ Warp Spider Exarch (Withdraw, Powerblades, 2x Deathspinner)

Rush's army @1750 *updated with Rich's list from comments
Initial Wave
Bloodletters x8 - Fury of Khorne, Icon
Bloodletters x8 - Fury of Khorne
Flesh Hounds x8 - Karanak, Fury of Khorne
Soul Grinder - Phlegm
Soul Grinder - Phlegm

Reserves
Bloodthirster
Bloodthirster
Bloodletters x8 - Fury of Khorne, Icon
Bloodletters x8 - Fury of Khorne
Flesh Hounds x8 - Fury of Khorne


This seems smaller than his army last time I played him, but that's what I remember. I am still having trouble fully dealing with his big units of bloodletters, but am getting better at avoiding his bloodthirsters and soulgrinders. I did get to throw a singing spear into the rear armor of a soulgrinder for a destroyed result. That was nice.

For my second game vs Casey, here is what I took @1850

HQ
Autarch (Mandiblasters, WJG, Power Weapon, Fusion Gun)
Farseer (Doom, Runes of Warding, Spear)

Elite
6x Fire Dragons
w/ Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones, SCan, TL Scatter Laser)
8x Banshees
w/ Banshee Exarch (Executioner, Warshout, Acrobatic)
w/ Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones, SCan, TL Missiles)

Troops
10x Wraithguard
w/ Spirit Seer (destructor, spear)
9x Dire Avengers
w/ Dire Avenger Exarch (Bladestorm, 2x Avenger SC)
w/ Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones, SCan, TL Scatter Lasers)
3x Jetbikes
w/ 1x SCan
3x Jetbikes
w/ 1x SCan

Fast
7x Warpspiders
w/ Warp Spider Exarch (Withdraw, Powerblades, 2x Deathspinner)


Caseys Army @1850
*updated from comments
Fateweaver
Herald of Tzeentch, We Are Legion, Master of Sorcery, Bolt
Herald of Khorne, Chariot, Unholy Might, Blessings of the Blood God

14 Plaguebearers, Musician, Icon
17 Pink Horrors, Changeling, Bolt

5 Blood Crushers, Rending, Icon, Musician
6 Fiends of Slaanesh, Unholy Might

2 Daemon Princes, Mark of Tzeentch, Bolt of Tzeentch, Unholy Might, and one had Daemonic Gaze
This was a better game overall for me. The largest downfall I had was my DA + Farseer sitting in reserve until the start of turn 4. This was strange, but did not really hurt the game. It would probably have helped to have Doom on the board earlier, but not significantly.

Our mission was 3 objective, with objectives set out as follows:
  • 1 in his deployment zone to the right, out in the open
  • 1 mid table in some open terrain
  • 1 in some trees at the edge of my deployment zone (to my right)
My wraithguard deployed into the trees next to the objective on my side of the board. My plan was to sit and hold that objective while using the rest of my army to move up and confront him, trying to grab 1 more objective. This worked perfectly.

Casey made a couple mistakes, which he caught as the game went on and will be unlikely to make moving forward. He left his pink-horrors un-supported and on the mid-field objective. I was able to take this with my spiders over 2 turns of shooting/close combat. He also moved his plague bearers away from his side objective to attack one of my jetbike squads. This left him at least 2 turns away from his objective and I was able to tie him up for close to 3 turns between my banshees and my bikes.

At the end of the game, my game against Rich was a tie with 1 objective a piece, and my game against Casey was 2 objective for me, 0 for him.

Some overall thoughts:

I believe I am doing better supporting my Dragons. Its only been 2 games since I have started to look at this, but I am keeping my dragons, Avengers + Farseer, and Banshees near each other when I start playing. This is letting me support my dragons a bit more, although they are still dieing.

I am also doing better at focusing fire. It is important as Eldar to keep shooting until the squad is dead, even if there seem to be better targets out there. My rolls with Shuriken Cannon's on Serpents are so bad that its not really wasting shots to put a serpents shooting into the 2 - 4 models left from a depleted squad to try and wipe them out. I need to watch this more, but it means I am only really good for the following in a single game:
  1. DA should wipe out a squad to a blade-storm and doom. Banshees can clean up if necessary.
  2. Banshees should wipe out a squad if doomed
  3. 3 Serpents + spiders should wipe out a squad. Doom helps but is not necessary
  4. Dragons should clear a single vehicle (with armor)
  5. Spiders should wipe out a squad on the turn they deepstrike
This means I am only able to kill (on average) 4 squads per game, with maybe an upswing to 5 or 6. The bikes really just support the rest of the shooting and act as harassment and distraction units. If they are alive on turn 4, then I look for them to grab an objective. I need to keep an eye on this in the future, and start working it into my plans if it really holds true.

Comments welcome!

Sunday, July 12, 2009

'Ard Boyz After Action

*Image from GW Website, not my own painting.

Well, 'Ard Boyz was a fun day and I did get in 3 games. I ended up getting Massacred, Massacred, Minor Loss. Even with this being the case, I did enjoy each of my games, and I learned some very important lessons. I also believe that in at least 2 of my games I gave my opponents a challenge and had the game fairly close.

Throughout the day I was approached by other players, spectators, and the tourney organizers with compliments on my painting and modeling for my army. Keep in mind that 'Ard boyz does not have any painting score, so many of the armies there were not even primed. Even with this being the case, it was very nice to be recognized and complimented. It also encourages me to keep going and gives me hope for a tourney with painting scores.

As for overall lessons, here are the biggest lessons I learned:
  • Keep the mission objectives in mind. Not just remember what they are but plan around them accordinly. Especially objectives.
  • Keep the time of the round in mind. Running out of time without realizing it ruins any plans.
  • Support my Fire Dragons. Alone they will do 1 thing well then die.

Here is an overview of my day. A warning, this will be a long blog post.

Lets look at my list, then we will move onto the games and my opponents lists.
@2250

HQ
Eldrad
Yriel

Elite
6x Fire Dragons
w/ Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones, SCan, TL SCan)
9x Banshees
w/ Banshee Exarch (Executioner, Warshout, Acrobatic)
w/ Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones,Vectored Enginers, SCan, TL ScatLaser)

Troops
10x Wraithguard
w/ Spiritseer (Destructor)
3x Jetbikes
w/ 1x SCan
3x Jetbikes
w/ 1x SCan
9x Dire Avengers
w/ Dire Avenger Exarch (Bladestorm, 2x Avenger SC)
w/ Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones, VEctored Enginers, SCan, TL Brightlance)
5x Dire Avengers
w/ Dire Avenger Exarch (Bladestorm, Defend, Power Weapon, Shimmershield)

Fast
9x Warpspiders
w/ Warp Spider Exarch (Withdraw, Powerblades, 2x Deathspinner)

Heavy
1x Falcon (Holo-Field, Stones, Bright Lance, SCannon)
1x Falcon (Holo-Field, Stones, Bright Lance, SCannon)

So there was very little thought behind this list. Basically I put together nearly everything I have painted, plus added the unpainted Fire Dragons, and an unpainted Eldrad.

Game 1 - vs Ronnie Andrews and his Orks
HQ
Ghazghull Tharaka
Big Mek with Shokk Attack Gun

Elite
5x Mega Nobz in Trukk
13x Commandos with Snikrot and 2 burnas
15x Lootas

Troops
7x Biker Nobz
20x Boyz
25x Boyz
25x Boyz
10x Gretchin with Runtherd

Fast
9x Stormboyz

Heavy
2x Killa Kan with Grotzooka
1x Battlewagon

Battle Summary
This game was Scenario 1 of the 'Ard Boyz scenarios, with 5 objectives and long table edge deployment. He deployed everything except Snikrot on the board and had first turn. I deployed Eldrad+DA+Wave Serpent, Banshees+Wave Serpent, and the Wraithguard on the board. Overall, I did very little during the game. I think the only unit I actually killed was his Stormboyz.

Couple critical errors I made during the game, in no particular order:
  • I let his bikers intimidate me, pointed the Fire Dragons at them, and only killed half the unit. Snikrot wiped out the Dragons
  • I did not pay attention to time. We ran out of time with him taking his turn 5, and me not getting my turn 5. This left me with a scoring Falcon/DAVU away from an objective, with my intention to move it back during turn 5.
  • I forgot the Assault moves for both my spiders (after deep striking) and my bikes (on 2 different turns, leaving them out to be shot)
  • I did not push for his objectives. I should have used my tanks to push toward his end of the board, left my Wraithguard on one of my objectives, and planned to contest any remaining.
  • I let myself focus on reacting to his game.
On a funny note, Ronnie was accompanied by a lovely young lady (I believe his girlfriend) who took some pictures and was his cheerleader for his games. He also came with a crew, who I ended up playing in my remaining games. I made a comment during our game (to her) that it would be amusing if I ended up playing her entire crew. Great group of guys, who unfortunately live a little to far for me to play regularly.

Game 2 - vs Ryan Andrew and his Dark Angels
HQ
Belial
Chaplain on bike

Elite
Dreadnought - Multimelta
Dreadnought - Plasma Cannon/Missile Launcher

Troops

5x Terminators - Banner, Apothecary, 2x Claws, Hammer
5x Terminators - Ass-Cannon, Claws
10x Tact Squad - Missile, Flamer
10x Tact Squad - Fist, Plasma Cannon
6x Grey Knights - Psycannon, Incinerator

Fast
6x Ravenwing Squadron
1x Attack Bike

Heavy
1x Land Raider Crusader
1x Predator - Las Cannon, Sponson Las Cannons

Battle Summary
This game was Scenario 2 of the 'Ard Boyz scenarios, a kill point mission where HQ are worth 5 points, troops/transports are 1 point, and everything else is 2 points. Deployment was half-table deployment. He deployed everything on the table, minus 1 Terminator squad which would deepstrike in. I deployed my Wraithguard into a set of trees (middle deployment zone for me), and parked both serpents, DA, Banshees, and Eldrad to the left of those trees. I had the bottom of the turn. Highlights of this game were:
  • Banshees cutting through the terminator squad (in another forest base) while they were doomed.
  • He focused many turns of shooting into the Wraithguard, who spent the whole game in cover and fortuned.
  • Spiders and Bikes destroyed his Ravenwing, and reduced his Chaplain to 1 wound before the Chaplain ran and hid.
This game went a full 6 turns, with the game going into turn 6 tied at 5 kill points a piece. We were both meneuvering around the board and really fighting to get the upper hand. Turn 6 saw my dice fail me and his dice fall in love with him. In quick succession, he knocked Eldrads Wave Serpent (Eldrad was alone at this point) out of the air (his KP total to 6), then hit Eldrad with a single plasma shot. I rolled my invuln save, and rolled a 1. I smiled and thanked Eldrad for putting up fortune this turn (I had considered not doing so), and rerolled my save. I rolled a 2. Plasma causes instant death, his total goes to 11. He then shoots at the remaining Banshee in cover, her cover save fails, his total to 13. It comes to my turn and I survey my shooting power and what he has left. I can just see his Chappy-on-bike and I have 3 Shuri-cannons and 1 Missile left to shoot. I unload everything into his Chappy-on-bike and only cause 2 wounds, both of which he saves.

Game ends with him 8 points ahead of me, massacre.

Overall I am not sure what I could/should have done different in this game. I pulled squads back when I needed to preserve them and really lost due to my HQ being taken out in what I consider a bad set of rolls. This is multiple games now where my Fire Dragons have jumped out of thier transport, shot thier weapons 1 time, and been wiped out in return. I took out the Land Raider, which was thier job, but I need to support them better. In this case I trades 296 points (Dragons plus Falcon) for ~255 of a Land Raider. In KP total, this was giving up 4 kill points ( Dragons = 2, Falcon = 2) for 2 kill points (LR = 2)


Game 3 - vs Bryan Hardenberger and his Necrons
HQ
The Deceiver
Lord, Res orb, Veil

Troops
11x Warrios
11x Warrios
11x Warrios
11x Warrios

Fast
5x Destroyers
5x Destroyers

Heavy
3x Monolith

Battle Summary
This game was Scenario 3 of the 'Ard Boyz scenarios, a combo objective+kill-point mission. The scenario was table-quarters deployment, with an objective placed in the middle of the non-deployment table-quarters. Then normal kill-points were used at the end in conjunction with objectives. Bryan won the roll and chose to deploy first. Now, before I continue let me make a couple comments:
  • Bryan admited before the game that he rarely plays in tourneys, and usually playes either Apocolypse or in multi-player (3+) games. He is very much a beer and pretzels gamers.
  • The table had 5 hills and was fairly devoid of any cover
  • Bryan had never played Eldar before, so was unfamiliar with my whole army
Now, based on this and the fact we were playing at the bottom tables, I probably should have had a win. I am by no stretch of the imagination a tourney player, although I am trying to move my skills in that direction.

So, the start of this game was by far my most amusing point of the day. Bryan very carefully deployed his entire force minus 2 monoliths and 2 warrior squads, paying special attention to how he would move toward objectives and making sure he had line of sight to all parts of my deployment zone. I had marked out 4 dice, 1 for the middle of the table and then 3 marking out the 12" bubble of non-deployment (due to center of the table) in my zone. Bryan completed his deployment and then gave me the go-ahead to start my deployment. My response was to pick up my 4 dice and say "ok, everything starts in reserve, go ahead with your first turn."

I thought Bryan was going to fall over. Apparently he did not realize that this was possible. We then had a quick discussion about how my units would come onto the table and the fact that Mech-Eldar's movement made this a feasable strategy.

This was a great game overall, with each of us playing hard. I was heavily focused on pushing my own initiatives and trying to figure out how to force a phase out of his army. So much so that when Bryan asked (at the end of the game) if I saw a way he could improve I had no advice for him. During the game I chopped through one doomed necron unit + Lord with my Banshees (pulling his lord into combat through consolidation), I blew up one of his Monoliths with my Wraithguard, tore through a unit of destroyers with my spiders, and unleashed Bladestorm Hell into another doomed unit of warriors wiping them out. Couple errors I made during this game:
  • Used my Dragons unsupported to kill some warriors, with the aim being thier 8 shots denied WBB. Dragons died to return fire from 2 squads (the squad they shot at had 8 guys left, and then another complete squad of 11 was right there)
  • Yriel was left in the open, taking 10 gaus shots (dead)
  • I should have pushed harder for his objective.
The last bullet above is important. I had parked my Wraithguard on the objective on my side of the table and they were weathering incredible amounts of fire (even without fortune). He had 1 monolith and 2 warrior squads parked on his side objective. I should have pushed my DA + Eldrad + Banshees toward his objective and cleared it. I could have used my haywire grenades (from the spiders) to take out the monolith, or just blocked the line with my own tanks.

At the end of the game we both thought this would be a tie, then we added up kill points. There was a point in the game where I charged 4 necrons with my Banshee Exarch. I expected to win this combat and ended up only inflicting 1 wound. His 3 Warriors struck back, inflicting 1 wound in return and I failed my save. This ended up pushing him up 1 kill point for a minor victor (we each had an objective, I had 5 kp, he had 6 kp)

I would love to hear your comments/suggestions on my games and review. I would also like to hear how your own 'Ard Boyz experience went.

Friday, July 10, 2009

'Ard Boyz Preliminaries


So, I have spent the past 18 months building my themed army, modeling bases, painting to the best of my ability, and modifying a full scope Eldar army. I have looked at balanced lists and played many games just for fun and for learning how my army works in this new edition. What would posses me to throw in some utter cheese and take my army to 'Ard Boyz where the only requirement is that your bare metal is glued together?

I am not sure, outside of saying at least I am getting some games in. I am headed up to Frederick MD tomorrow to play in the 'Ard Boyz preliminary tournament. Now, let me be honest here.
  1. I fully expect to be spanked hard in this tourney
  2. I loaded up on a couple models I really do not plan on using much
  3. I think the day will be a whole lot of fun
Now you are never supposed to go to a tournament expecting to lose. I am certainly hoping to bring hom 3 wins, and curb-stomp my opponents into the ground. I will try an remember that this is the "Big Boys" tournament where if you did not come to crush your opponent you should "take your dolls and go home!" At the same time, I am looking forward to seeing the hard lists and seeing what the local tourney scene is like.

I will post my list after the games tomorrow along with some pictures of the new model I completed. I updated my queue to the left, moving my newest Dual Shuri-Cat DA Exarch to the right.

Wish me luck!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009



Good game tonight versus John's Crimson Fists. I have to say the first thing I learned (and probably the biggest) is that when all 4 of your wave serpents are immobilized or destroyed on turn 1, its going to be a bad night. Especially when they are only 6 - 12 inches onto your board edge from deployment. That's a long walk for Eldar squads who thought they had a ride.

List is the same as last week:
@1750

HQ
Autarch (Mandiblasters, WJG, Power Weapon, Fusion Gun)
Farseer (Doom, Fortune, Runes of Warding, Spirit Stones, Spear)

Elite
6x Fire Dragons
w/ Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones, SCan, TL SCan)
9x Banshees
w/ Banshee Exarch (Executioner, Warshout, Acrobatic)
w/ Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones, SCan, TL SCan)

Troops
9x Dire Avengers
w/ Dire Avenger Exarch (Bladestorm, 2x Avenger SC)
w/ Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones, SCan, TL Missile Launcher)
9x Dire Avengers
w/ Dire Avenger Exarch (Bladestorm, 2x Avenger SC)
w/ Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones, SCan, TL Brightlance)
3x Jetbikes
w/ 1x SCan
3x Jetbikes
w/ 1x SCan


Fast
6x Warpspiders
w/ Warp Spider Exarch (Withdraw, Powerblades, 2x Deathspinner)


John's marines (Crimson Fists) as I remember them:

Whirlwind
Pedro Cantor
Predator - las cannon sponsons
Razorback - heavy bolter
Rhino
Assault Marine Squad (10)
Dev Squad (3 missiles, 1 laz cannon, 5 marines)
3 tac squad (laz cannon, power fist, flamer)
1 tac squad (5 man)
2x Attack Bikes

Game Record: 1-4-1

Tonight was a loss, but I do not feel bad about it. We played annihilation with the normal board edge set-up. He had first turn, and all of my transports were destroyed or immobilized during his first turn. All of my squads ended up walking across most of the table to head toward combat. Grueling game but it ended up going into turn 5, him with 4 kill points and me with 2. Unfortunately a couple unit kills and IC kills brought his total to 9 while mine only came to 4. The Autarch was on a killing spree for 2 turns then got tired and whiffed when it came to killing the remaining marine with the power fist.

Overall it was an enjoyable game and I blame the dice more than anything else. I could have held back to preserve points, but I am not convinced that would have been effective. I would have ended up with the assault marines in my face, and a load of long-range guns from the heavy weapon shooting. The largest change I am considering at this point is changing my TL-SCannons to TL-Scatter Lasers for the extra range.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Swordwind suffer a crushing Tie..... a Tie?



I had a couple of great games last night at the Tuesday night club games with the IFL. I can only really count 1 of the games as Sean and I did not complete our game. The game that does tally into the army record was against Rush's Daemons of Khorne.

So, here is what I came to the table with:
@1750

HQ
Autarch (Mandiblasters, WJG, Power Weapon, Fusion Gun)
Farseer (Doom, Fortune, Runes of Warding, Spirit Stones, Spear)

Elite
6x Fire Dragons
w/ Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones, SCan, TL SCan)
9x Banshees
w/ Banshee Exarch (Executioner, Warshout, Acrobatic)
w/ Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones, SCan, TL SCan)

Troops
9x Dire Avengers
w/ Dire Avenger Exarch (Bladestorm, 2x Avenger SC)
w/ Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones, SCan, TL Missile Launcher)
9x Dire Avengers
w/ Dire Avenger Exarch (Bladestorm, 2x Avenger SC)
w/ Wave Serpent (Spirit Stones, SCan, TL Brightlance)
3x Jetbikes
w/ 1x SCan
3x Jetbikes
w/ 1x SCan


Fast
6x Warpspiders
w/ Warp Spider Exarch (Withdraw, Powerblades, 2x Deathspinner)


Rush's Khorne list was along these lines:
2x Blood Thirsters
2x Soul Grinders
1 unit of flesh hounds (~5) plus Karanak
1 unit of flesh hounds (~6)
2 big units of Bloodletters (~16)
1 small unit of Bloodletters (~7?)

Record: 1-3-1

Our mission was Pitched Battle, Capture and Control. I gave him first turn started with the following on the table:
  • Farseer + DA Squad in a Wave Serpent
  • Banshees in a Wave Serpent
  • 1x Bike Squad

I used my first turn to bring up my psychic powers (fortune) and push hard down the table toward Rush's objective. His Daemons were all on the board by turn 2, with the exception of 1 Blood Thirster.

Overall, I killed 1 Soul Grinder and both units of flesh hounds. I put a very small dent (2 guys) in one of the big units of bloodletters, and put 3 wounds on one of the Blood Thirsters. In return, Rush was able to kill my farseer, 1 DA squad, my banshees, both Bike Squads, my Autarch, my Fire Dragons, and my spiders. This was a tie due to my ability to turbo-boost my waveserpent plus DA in the final turn to contest one objective. The other objective was surrounded by 2 wave serpents, a Blood Thirster, and a Soul Grinder.

I find that I am having a very hard time cracking daemonic invuln saves. In addition, I notice that bladestorm and my banshee attack is very effective on a doomed squad, but not so effective otherwise. Now, some of this (at least in this game) may have to do with Rush's amazing ability to roll dice last night. It was almost like his dice were trying to make up with him after a fight based on the amounts of 5's and 6's he was gifted with. However, this can happen in any game and I am not happy with a tie because of strong dice rolling. My dice were not kind to me, but they were not entirely hating me either.

A couple items I realize I need to work on.
  • I need to work on my Fire Dragon deployment. I am jumping out of the Serpent and shooting, which leaves me bunched up for a flamer template. They get great shots off then their dead.
  • I am still not focusing fire correctly. I need to work on target prioritization and using the correct weapons for the correct job. In last nights game I should have focused the Dragons, BL, and Missiles on the Soul Grinders, and the remaining str 6 shots on the troops. My banshees and DA should have been able to handle the dogs without help from the tanks.
  • My Maneuverability does not seem to be working as I expected. I need to figure out if this is incorrect expectations or a change vs Daemons or bad choices in leveraging my maneuverability.
Overall it was a very enjoyable game, and I can see myself getting better. I think with a little more tweaking and a lot more games things will come together and I will be back at my Eldar Prime and ready for a tourney.