Models In Progress and Recent Battles

It was recently brought to my attention that I've failed to update the 40K blog for over a month. Appropriately enough, the neglect was due to my push to increase the size of my current army and significantly increase its competitiveness.

Modelling

My first five Tactical Marines

When I started the hobby, I turned out five Tactical Marines from the beginner's paint set, a full ten man Tactical Squad, five Terminators, one captain, and a multi-melta Dreadnought (i.e., the Black Reach kit) within four months. The next month I had added a Vindicator, Vastator, to the army. I've since completed several other models, but not at the rate that I had achieved early on.

Right now I can muster between 1300 and 1400 points of fully painted models. The army's come a long way since I finished the Black Reach force, but it's lacking in a few areas. Hoping to grow my army as quickly as I had a year and a half ago, I started a project I call "Black Reach II". The intent of this was to recreate my efforts of mid-2011 by adding another Tactical Squad, a Terminator Squad (a close combat one, this time), an HQ, and a Dreadnought (an Ironclad) to my army.

A few weeks ago I began to prepare enough Marines to be able to field a second Tactical Squad with all the special weapons and most of the heavy weapons options. (As much as I love Telion and his Scout Squad, their usefulness as a troop choice is very situational and I often find myself wishing that I had ten more suits of power armor on the table.) I've also begun to prepare seven close combat Terminators: three with storm shields and thunder hammers and four with paired lightning claws. These seven will eventually be joining a Terminator Chaplain (which I haven't even taken out of the package yet) in a Land Raider Crusader (also still in its box). I expect this Terminator force to give me the close combat unit that I've been sorely lacking. Finally, I've pulled my Ironclad Dreadnought kit out of storage. I've had a bit of luck landing an assault cannon Dreadnought via a drop pod behind or near the rear lines of Jon's Orks and look forward to doing so with AV13, an additional attack, and twin heavy flamers.

I wish I could finish models as quickly as before

Unfortunately, my grand schemes have been delayed by this year's unusually cold winter, which isn't ideal for undercoating any of my models. Once things warm up, though, I'll have quite a few models ready for painting.

Recent Battles
Space Marines/Tau vs. Orks
A couple weeks ago saw 1250 points of my Ultramarines allying with 1000 points of Bryce's Tau against 2250 points of Jon's Orks. The fighting was brutal as the shear number and variety of Ork units nearly overwhelmed our joint armies. The dice gods were fickle as my Tactical Squad's sergeant was again killed by his own plasma pistol while the rest of his squad couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. The Captain tried to shield his men with his artificer armor, but an unfortunate series of ones quickly took him out. The only bright light of the squad was a lone special weapon Marine who swept his flamer over the onrushing mob and removed an above average number of greenskins. On the other end of the spectrum of luck, Telion and his men made a bizarre number of 3+ cover saves while drawing the Orks' fire turn after turn.

The drop pod with my assault cannon Dreadnought fell exactly where I wanted it and the walker started to chew up Jon's Lootas in his rear lines. Unfortunately, the fire from two Loota squads and a missile from a wayward DeffKopta immobilized and stunned the Dreadnought, preventing it from charging the Orks. Since the Dreadnought now sat with its guns pointing away from any useful targets, Jon thought it was safe to leave it alone...

Although Bryce's Fire Warriors were lost early on, the Broadsides, the Tau commander, and the commander's body guard wreaked havoc. A lucky snap shot brought down the Ork's Dakkajet while Jon's new Battlewagon was destroyed by a Broadside's guns. The Warboss and his Burna Boyz were unceremoniously dumped into a crater where they failed their pinning test. The Tau whittled down the Burna Boyz and left an angry Warboss in the rear of the mob with one remaining wound. The Emperor must have been smiling on my Dreadnought; the stunned walker successfully snap fired at the Warboss, scored a wound, and the Warboss failed his Look Out Sir roll and a cover save. Although crippled shortly after entering the game, the Dreadnought nearly won back most of its points with that single lucky shot.

(In case anyone is wondering, the Imperium denies that the Tau killed more points than the Space Marines did that night. Any reports to the contrary are clearly Xenos propaganda.)

Space Marines vs. Dark Eldar
The same 1250 point army I took against the Orks was used against the Dark Eldar this weekend. The Ultramarines had the first turn but accomplished almost nothing when the dice wouldn't cooperate. Fortunately for me, the Dark Eldar had the same problem and very little damage was done to either side.

With a brief prayer to the Emperor, my Munitorum dice began to cooperate and my army started to do some serious damage. Dark Eldar Venoms and Raiders exploded or were reduced to wrecks thanks to lucky assault cannon shots, my Razorback's lascannon, the heavy bolters and autocannon of Spear of Talassar, Vastator's demolisher cannon (the shot was a gamble since the Terminators were only a few inches away from the expected blast), and the Tactical Squad's missile launcher. Marine losses were relatively light, although the Dreadnought was quickly dispatched by haywire grenades and Telion and his squad were wiped out when a Venom got behind their position and peppered them with poison shots.

With all the skimmers down, the Marines faced off against the transports' contents. Kevin's Wyches assaulted the Terminators while the Tactical Squad turned its guns on the Kabalite Warriors. The Terminators took seven wounds but saved all of them; the Wyches weren't so lucky and the survivors were sent running. Storm bolters and an assault cannon ensured that they wouldn't be coming back. The Marines' bolters dispatched all but three Kabalite Warriors. However, the Ultramarines were denied a clean victory; with the three survivors keeping the Dark Eldar in the game, Kevin was finally able to make his reserve rolls and bring two Voidraven Bombers (Razorwing models filled in for the soon to be released flyer) onto the table.

Spear of Talassar isn't too effective against power
armor, but it usually makes short work of Xenos.

The Voidravens, which are AV11 and can't be brought down by bolters, spent the bulk of their time trying to destroy those units that could actually do damage to them. The Razorback was first to go while the Predator survived multiple shots with some damage. By the end of the fourth turn it was obvious that the Marines weren't going to bring the flyers down before the end of the game while the bombers would be unable to significantly reduce the number of surviving Marines. We finally called the game in favor of the Space Marines, recognizing that they would certainly have the most units and points left by the end of the theoretical sixth turn. The game was fun and I came out with the victory (which is rare), but it wasn't particularly satisfying.

Now that three members of our Cabal play with flyers (Kevin has two Razorwing models, Jon occasionally fields a Dakkajet, and Carl's Grey Knights have a Stormraven), I just might have to buy those Stormtalons I've been wanting.

First 6th Edition Game

Last night was the Cabal's first game under 6th Edition. Jon's Orks and Kevin's Dark Eldar faced off against Carl's Grey Knights and my Ultramarines. Since we were already trying to figure out so many other new rules, we didn't bother with the allies rules.

The game was close, although Jon and Kevin had the most kill points left when we finally called the game. The Marines had the misfortune of being unprepared for the fight. Each player was limited to 750 points, meaning that we couldn't bring some of our meaner units to the game. Also, Carl was using a highly experimental list that proved to be uncompetitive. Finally, both Kevin and Jon brought flyers, which Carl and I were totally unprepared for. Although the Ork Bommer and the Voidraven didn't do too much damage, they attracted a lot of fire that would have been better directed elsewhere.

My overall impression of 6th was very good. It didn't take too long to get used to new rules like the revised wound allocation since most are pretty intuitive. I even took advantage of it by placing a Captain with artificer armor in the front of a squad. Jon initially laughed at me for putting my most important model directly in the line of fire (he put his Warboss in the middle of his mob) until he realized that the multi-wound model with the 2+ armor save was deflecting nearly everything he could throw at it in order to protect the rest of the squad. When the Captain got down to a single wound, he started taking advantage of the Look Out Sir rule.

I'm also a fan of the snap shot. One Ultramarine successfully fired a missile launcher while on the move, killing an Ork. And a Razorback with a twin-linked lascannon was able to get around an obstacle blocking its line of sight by moving at cruising speed and then successfully hit a Dark Eldar Venom, immobilizing it. Even though you usually have only a 1 in 6 chance of hitting something with a snap shot (a little better than that if you have twin-linked weapons or weapons that put out a lot of fire), it's nice that we're at least allowed to make an attempt under 6th Edition's rules.

For me, the biggest change (and best improvement) was the revision to the rapid fire weapon rules. Now that the range of rapid fire weapons is unrestricted by movement, Tactical Squads, Sternguard Squads, and Scouts with bolters no longer have to avoid moving just so they can get in that one 24" shot. Last night, when my Tactical Marines found themselves 26" from an oncoming Ork mob, they were able to move forward just enough to get in their shots. Under the previous rules the turn would have been an utter waste for the Marines. Between the new rules and my new Destructor-pattern Predator a mob that would have completely overrun my squad before was whittled down to a single boy and a wounded Warboss (the Warboss was promptly dispatched by a Dreadnought).

By the end, the other Cabal members said that they liked the new rulebook. I don't think they liked it quite as much as I did, though.

Catching Up with Battle Reports

I neglected to blog about the games of a couple weeks ago, so here's the synopsis:

Kevin and Jon went head to head with Dark Eldar and Orks, respectively. Jon was utterly amazed at how many shots a loaded Venom can put out and took heavy losses early on. Although Jon's new Killa Kans made a good effort at knocking the skimmers down, Kevin was pretty lucky with his 5+ saves. Despite the initial losses, the Greenskins evened up the score once they had finally crossed the table. I'm not sure which of the two officially won, but apparently the score was too close to really declare either player the winner.

Kevin puts a lot of work into his models

Jon's experience with his Killa Kans was mixed

For the second game night in a row I played the Cabal's Daemon army (by that I mean the Daemon army purchased by Bryce for use by the Cabal members). I went up against Carl's Grey Knights and discovered that a) Carl had been reading his codex and b) Grey Knights have a lot more advantages over Daemons than Daemons have over Grey Knights. Carl took advantage of Warpquake, which causes enemy units trying to deep strike within 12" of a Grey Knight squad with the special rule to have a mishap. This was devastating to the Daemons since the shooty units were too far away to do much damage on the first turn and the close combat units had to crawl across the table under fire. This, combined with the fact that the Grey Knight's have the preferred enemy rule over Daemons, meant certain doom for the denizens of the Warp. Carl has since purchased a Soulgrinder for the Cabal's army in the hopes that it will help to even things out a bit.

The Cabal's Daemon army

Bryce used heavy blue washes for the Grey Knights

The Bloodletters are supposed to be tainted by another
god of Chaos, hence the blue color

This past game night saw a four way, 1000 points per army free for all on our new 4'x8' table. (While I had remembered my camera for the previous game night, I forgot it for this one.) As usual Carl had his Grey Knights and Jon brought his Orks. Bryce and I, who regularly alternate between armies, played Eldar and Ultramarines, respectively. Carl and I set up across from each other while Bryce and Jon set up on the far end of the table. I had first turn and used a partially assembled Drop Pod to land a multi-melta Dreadnought within melta range of Bryce's Wave Serpents. I love this gambit, which not only strikes fear into the hearts of your opponents, but can be very effective. Unfortunately, when it fails it can fail spectacularly since you leave a unit in the open having earned none of the 140 points you just expended trying to pull it off. I thought the Dreadnought was doomed when I missed the opening shot. I turned out to be very wrong, much to Bryce's frustration.

On the other end of the table I had taken advantage of the terrain to set up my Snipers within range of Carl's Dreadknight. Unfortunately I was only able to inflict two wounds, one of which was rending, and Carl was able to save both. On a subsequent turn, the Snipers inflicted two rending shots on a Grey Knight Purifier squad while my Tactical Squad's missile launcher killed another. My decision to attack the Knights with half my squads while dedicating the other half to fight the Eldar turned out to be a serious tactical error. Carl kept most of his forces together and hit me with everything he had while Bryce had enough units and shots to occupy both me and the Orks. Although he made his first kills against the Orks, Carl saw my Scouts as a threat and sent the Dreadknight after them. It inflicted six wounds on the six models, all of which had 3+ cover saves. In my unluckiest roll of the night, I rolled a four and failed all the remaining five cover saves (this is not the first time my Scouts have been decimated by failed 3+ cover saves). The five-man heavy weapon half of my Tactical Squad met a similar fate when they failed five out of six 3+ armor saves.

On the opposite end of the spectrum of luck, a Grey Knight Venerable Dreadnought and an Ultramarine Vindicator traded shots back and forth for several turns. Twice the Vindicator stunned or shook the Venerable, but it was neutralized by the Psychic Pilot. And twice the Venerable was destroyed and then saved by the Venerable rule (remind me why so many Space Marine players think Venerable Dreadnoughts aren't worth the points?). Although unable to destroy the much more expensive Venerable Dreadnought, the Vindicator was able to survive multiple lascannon attacks that either didn't penetrate its armor or that merely shook or stunned it. When finally forced to use smoke launchers, it made every 4+ cover save against both the Venerable and the Dreadknight. Finally, the Vindicator was immobilized and, in the subsequent turn, lost its primary weapon. It gave up the ghost when the Venerable Dreadnought and the Dreadknight smashed it to pieces.

In the meantime, Jon fully dedicated his Orks to fighting the Eldar, although he lost his Lootas early on to Carl's Dreadknight. The Orks pressed forward against heavy Scatter laser fire and eventually got into combat with Asurmen and his Dire Avengers. Although I didn't closely follow that fight, it seems that Asurmen made an incredible number of armor and invulnerable saves and that his squad made a big dent in the Ork mob. I had been marching my Terminators, a heavily upgraded Captain, and the close combat half of my Tactical Squad towards the Eldar when Carl teleported a five-man Grey Knight Strike Squad into range of my forces. I directed my fire towards them and eventually killed four of the five. After that delay, I was able to get three surviving Terminators close enough to a Wave Serpent to destroy it, took two more casualties from bright lance fire, and then lost the final Terminator when he tried to assault an Eldar walker across dangerous terrain. My remaining Tactical Marines were wiped out by Scatter laser and Psycannon fire coming from two different sides. I lost my very expensive captain when he was hit by a bright lance and failed his invulnerable save (he spent most of the game trying to cross the table and did almost nothing else).

And then there was my Dreadnought. After failing to hit anything upon leaving the Drop Pod, I had given it up for lost. But for multiple turns Bryce poured all his bright lance fire into it and manged only to stun it, shake it, and destroy both its close combat weapon and its multi-melta. Still it kept on going until it finally limped into combat with two Eldar walkers and destroyed both. When it started its march towards a Wave Serpent, Bryce again opened up his bright lances on it... and failed to penetrate its armor. Bryce was reduced to yelling, "Why can't I kill this Dreadnought!?! Somebody please kill this Dreadnought!" Finally, Carl's Venerable Dreadnought shot it from behind and succeeded in immobilizing it. Bryce declared the Dreadnought the game's MVP for soaking up so many shots and still earning back its points. You don't get to be a Dreadnought by being a quitter.

With the Orks gone and the Ultramarines reduced to a single immobilized Dreadnought, Bryce and Carl finally went head to head. The Eldar bright lances eventually carried the day, although Bryce pointed out that had we called the game at the traditional six turn mark, the Grey Knights would have won based on the number of points remaining.

Lessons Learned

Much of what we got out of this game simply confirmed what we learned from other games. For example, the survivability of Venerable Dreadnoughts and the indirect value of a unit (who knows how much my Dreadnought earned in the form of Bryce's expended opportunity costs). For me, the biggest lesson was...

Beware of Dividing Your Army
Although the game was a four way free for all, there was no reason for us to attack everyone else simultaneously. It wasn't too surprising that it was just Carl and Bryce left at the end. Jon was fully dedicated to attacking Bryce (who designed his Eldar army to take on hordes), Bryce ignored Carl because he didn't pose an immediate threat (they were on opposite corners of a 4'x8' table), and I divided my forces between Bryce and Carl. Originally I had intended to send the entirety of my army against the Eldar, but I saw the opportunity to take shots at the Dreadknight, figured that I should back it up with something, and dedicated a large chunk of my army to fighting the Grey Knights. This isn't the best idea given how few in number Marines usually are. Other than wiping out the Lootas that weren't shooting back, the Grey Knights mostly avoided a two front war and instead focused on a part of my army. Had I thrown all my forces against a single opponent at a time, I think I would have done a lot better, especially since a headlong rush at the Eldar would have meant that Jon and I would have been attacking Bryce almost simultaneously. As it was, the Eldar were able to whittle down the bulk of the Orks before redirecting their fire at my partial army.

Orks and Imperial Guard vs. Ultramarines, Part I

This weekend's gaming saw a rematch between Carl's Grey Knights and Kevin's Dark Eldar as well as a vicious 1500 point face-off between the Ultramarines and Bryce's and Jon's unlikely Guard/Ork alliance (500 points of Guard and 1000 points of Orks). I've written about this kind of alliance before; it's hard to beat since each army reinforces the weaknesses of the other. These two games were marked by a major change: larger gaming tables. In the past, when most of us couldn't muster much more than 1000 points, we were playing on 4'x4' tables. This time both games were played with 4'x6' of space (one of the tables can be extended to 4'x8'). Given how cramped our games had gotten, this was a good change. It also showed Jon and me that our armies are severely lacking in one thing: transports. The time it takes to footslog across a 4'x6' table while under fire can ruin plans and decimate units.

The Guard/Orks/Marines game ran from about 7:30 PM to 12:30 PM and kept me pretty occupied, so I wasn't able to see much of the Grey Knights/Dark Eldar game. During their previous 1000 point match a few weeks ago, a lack of long range heavy firepower prevented Carl from taking out Kevin's flyers. Kevin was therefore able to dictate the conditions of close combat, avoided nearly all small arms fire, and greatly benefited from his Wyches' dodge saves (which neutralize the effectiveness of force and power weapons). The Grey Knights were wiped out while taking only 200 to 300 points of Dark Eldar with them. After the utter annihilation of the Warriors of Titan at the hands of the Pointy-Eared Perverts, Carl swore vengeance (well, as much as Carl would ever swear vengeance; he's the most mellow of us by far and a great sport).

This time Carl's prior weakness was compensated for by two shiny new Venerable Dreadnoughts with twin-linked lascannons. The Venerables blasted the flyers out of the air, spilling the Wyches out and exposing them to a fusillade from storm bolters and the Dreadknight's Gatling Psilencer. Also, inspired by my past success with Telion and his ability to individually target units of high importance, Carl proxied a Vindicare assassin who did some serious damage. From what I overheard, one of the game's highlights saw a group of Wyches attack a Venerable Dreadnought with haywire grenades. A lucky hit caused the Dreadnought to explode with the resulting explosion killing most of the Wyches (Jon loses a lot of Orks this way, too). By about 10 PM the Grey Knights had won day.

Things didn't go quite as well with the Ultramarines, although I was reasonably pleased with the night's game. Unfortunately, it's been a long time since I wasn't embarrassed. Last time Carl had the majority of his army left when he wiped me out. Going further backward in time we have the game where the Tau got completely clobbered by the Orks, the slaughter of the Tau and the Grey Knights at the hands of the Orks and the Imperial Guard, and back in December we had the massacre of the Tyranids by the guns of the Imperial Guard. In fact, the last time my army put in a good showing was in late December when the Ultramarines defeated the Orks by an extremely narrow margin.

Xenos scum *spit*

I was worried early on when I found myself facing the Guard/Ork alliance again. Fortunately, Bryce took pity on me and brought his Basilisk rather than the Manticore. I've already faced the combination of huge mobs of Orks with furious charge, a large number of attacks, and Marine-level toughness and weapons skill with the multiple strength 10 large blast templates of the Manticore. I would have been tempted to sit out the game if I had to face it again.

The Guard and Orks won the initial roll off. As usual, Jon's army filled their entire deployment zone. In the past I've typically distributed my Marines along the boundary of my own deployment zone. I've since realized that this merely serves to overstretch my forces. It ensures that I can't concentrate my firepower while allowing the Orks to charge me along a broad front over the shortest distance possible. When outnumbered, Bryce tends to sweep the majority of his army in a arc around one side of the table. This allows him to take on the enemy in smaller, more manageable pieces. I decided to attempt something similar while taking advantage of the larger board. Except for my reserve units, I set up the majority of my army in the left half of my deployment zone, which was dominated by area terrain and obstacles that blocked line of site. This had the advantage of distancing me from Bryce's lascannons and his Chimera, protected most of my forces from Jon's Lootas, and forced one of the Ork mobs to march a significant distance across the table while under fire.

I failed to seize the initiative and the Guard and Orks went first as expected. Fortunately the Emperor briefly smiled on me and their first round wasn't nearly as effective as it was last time. Although I was left with most of my army intact, my sniper Scouts were a prime target and I managed to fail four 3+ cover saves. Telion and the remaining Scout did next to nothing during the subsequent rounds, in part because I parked my Venerable Dreadnought immediately in front of them. (I felt particularly stupid about it since it wasn't the first time I've done this.) My missile launcher-carrying Devastator Squad was also a popular target and was killed off pretty quickly thanks to the Guard's "Fire On My Target" rule, which required me to re-roll successful cover saves. Like the Scouts, the Devastators did not earn back their points.

I never did trust these guys

At the beginning of my first turn, I landed a glass bottom stein... uh, my "drop pod", immediately behind enemy lines and within melta range of the Basilisk that had been hidden behind the ruins where Jon's Lootas were stationed. My multi-melta Dreadnought marched out, made the shot, and penetrated the Basilisk's armor. I rolled a two on the vehicle damage table and, thanks to the AP 1 and open-topped modifiers, I managed to... immobilize the Basilisk. That's right, the whole gambit worked perfectly so that I could immobilize a vehicle that Bryce never moves. It wasn't even denied another round of shooting. In the very next turn the Dreadnought was stunned, which ensured that one of Bryce's squads could march right up to it and destroy it with melta bombs. Never has a ploy simultaneously worked so right and yet gone so wrong. However, the tactic very nearly paid off and, had the Guard squad not destroyed the Dreadnought, I could have had a second chance to destroy the Basilisk with a close combat weapon. It's definitely a technique that's worth trying again.

By the second turn I brought the Vindicator in from reserves. Putting the tank in reserves in the first place is what I call a Maginot Line Mistake; i.e., I did with the Vindicator what I should have done during my last game against the Grey Knights. I had been worried about losing it to artillery or anti-tank weapons and kept it off the table until the second turn, which ensured that Jon's Boyz could progress far enough across the board to assault the tank after it got off a single shot. The Boyz were in cover when the Vindicator fired and Jon was able to save most of his mob. During Jon's assault on the tank, a single Boy was able to land one lucky glance that kept the tank from firing the next turn, which would have caught the Boyz in the open. Another assault caused the tank to explode, which actually killed more Boyz than the Demolisher cannon did. If Jon had not rolled that six, the Vindicator might have gone on to do a lot more.

These guys look good even when they're losing

At the halfway point I thought it was going to be a rout. I had lost a Dreadnought, my Devastator Squad had been decimated, and my Vindicator was gone. None of those units had even remotely earned back their points, although the Dreadnought failed to do so only because of the oddities of the vehicle damage table. Jon's Lootas kept my Venerable Dreadnought stunned through most of the game and eventually took both its assault cannon and its close combat weapon (I don't think I ever got the chance to fire the assault cannon). My troops weren't doing great on their armor saves or cover saves and, despite the fact that my forces inflicted a remarkable number of wounds on the Orks, Jon was making an amazing number of 4+ cover saves. It wasn't until the last third of my army was left that the statistics evened out and I started rolling fours instead of twos, Jon stopped making quite as many cover saves, and his leadership rolls started failing. The biggest break I got was that the Basilisk's shots drifted all over creation. Even when the Basilisk managed to hit the Land Raider, Bryce kept rolling "weapon destroyed" on the damage table and the Land Raider kept moving.

Next Time: Will the Greenskins and their traitorous Guard allies defeat the Emperor's Angels of Death?