Imperial Agents: The Hobbyist's Codex

I picked up Codex: Imperial Agents last week, mostly because I bought the four assassin models a while ago and I wanted to have their rules in a hardback format. As I flipped through the book, I realized that the codex is ideal for those who want to add some fluff to their games as well as for hobbyists who want to try their hand at painting other models without starting a new army.

The fluff aspect is pretty obvious; any number of 40K stories feature small teams of Grey Knights, Deathwatch Kill Teams, assassins, or inquisitors fighting alongside Space Marine Chapters or Imperial Guard divisions. The new Codex finally gives us the rules to recreate these scenarios.

But what really drew me to the book was the fact that it allows modellers to paint up a single squad from certain armies and to use them in normal games of 40K. If you want to build a single Deathwatch Kill Team composed of Astartes from a variety of Chapters and field them alongside your Imperial Guard, Codex: Imperial Agents allows you to do that. They can even bring one of their unique flyers with them. If you find the Grey Knights paint scheme interesting but you don't want to build an entire army of ornately decorated Marines, you can build a single squad of Grey Knight Terminators or Interceptors. The Codex even allows you to field a Dreadknight or a Land Raider with the infantry.

I already intended to build a Deathwatch army, so I'm rather happy that I can slowly build the army squad by squad and start playing them alongside my Ultramarines before finishing more than a handful of models. Even better, I've wanted to paint up some Grey Knights models for years, but I've never seriously considered starting an entire army of them. I would very happily build a single squad of Grey Knight Terminators, though, and I wouldn't mind having a Dreadknight either. It could be fun to combine them with a Space Marine Librarius Conclave just to put a few more Warp Charges on the table.

Grey Knights, Rumors, Warhammer Fantasy, and New Armies in the Cabal

Recently I've spent a lot of time preparing models for my traditional pre-winter priming, meaning that this blog and my general interest blog have been thoroughly neglected. Fortunately, there's nothing like a post of miscellanea for keeping the blog current:

Grey Knights

GW's release of the Grey Knights codex certainly took the community by surprise. After months of whispering about Dark Eldar, Space Wolves, etc., the rumormongers somehow completely missed that Codex: Grey Knights was to be the next release.

It was also a bit surprising that the Grey Knights received no new models or units. I supposed it made some sense; Grey Knights already had a lot of beautiful plastic models from 5th Edition whereas many of the new models that other armies got with their 6th or 7th Edition codexes were actually just plastic replacements for Finecast or pewter models rather than new units. Still, I half expected Grey Knights to get a pre-existing kit like the Stalker.

I still haven't played against Carl's Grey Knights under the new codex, so I don't know how much of a challenge they'll be. From what I've seen of the rules, though, I'd hate to play Daemons against them.

Rumors
And speaking of unexpected releases, it seems like the accuracy of rumors has become extremely poor in recent months. With Space Marines, we knew the entirety of the Space Marine codex a month in advance. The rumors nailed several details of the Tau and Eldar codexes early on. And the general idea of Imperial Knights was circulating almost a year before their release. Several rumors even predicted that we'd see a 7th Edition well before it was expected, and they even got some of the details right. However, certain rumors about 7th were aggressively wrong. Remember when a "reliable source" insisted that 7th Edition was moving towards a percentage-based force organization with "sideboards" catering to the tournament crowd? Fortunately, it didn't take long for White Dwarf leaks to show us that the truth was the exact opposite and we were going to get a ruleset that gave us extremely permissive "Battle-forged" armies and even more permissive "Unbound" armies.

I'd seen plenty of inaccurate rumors in the past, but it seems like they've been particularly bad recently. Rumormongers have been completely missing huge releases while giving us outrageously incorrect information and downright fantasies.

Where's my plastic Thunderhawk? Oh, right, GW
is still trying to get it to fit on six sprues.

How often did we hear that Guard would finally get those artillery kits that were previously available only from Forge World? It was only on the eve of the codex's release that we heard that, instead of new models, those artillery units had simply been removed from the codex. In their place, Guard ended up with the Wyvern. The Tyranid release was similar; units that were rumored to be getting models instead disappeared from the codex.

Were any of the long-standing Ork rumors true? (Grot-based armies? Choppas that had an AP value on the charge?) Did any rumors predict the Gorkanaut or the drastic changes to Mob Rule before the White Dwarf leaks? How often did we hear of a Dark Eldar/Blood Angels starter set before the Ork/Space Wolves collection and the Sanctus Reach Campaign took us by surprise?

Until the White Dwarf images leaked, how many rumors anticipated Logan Grimnar's chariot or the Stormwolf? Even while GW was rolling out new Space Wolves products, rumors incorrectly predicted that certain HQs would be getting plastic models.

And then Codex: Grey Knights, enormous Warhammer Fantasy kits, and the Nagash book simply dropped out of the sky while those with "inside information" were yammering about Dark Eldar, Necrons, Blood Angels, and Brettonians.

I've reached the point where, unless a rumor is  accompanied by photos, I simply don't believe it.

And Speaking of Fantasy...
The models of Nagash and his Mortarchs are absolutely amazing. I love my Space Marines' model line, but the Fantasy players seem to get some of the best toys. If I weren't already overwhelmed with piles of unfinished Ultramarines, these new releases (and earlier releases like the Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon or the Coven Throne) would almost certainly convince me to start an Undead army.

They almost tempt me to play Fantasy

Several of the Cabal members are seriously considering starting Fantasy armies. Interestingly, as was the case with 40K, none of us are interested in the same armies. Bryce would do a Goblin-dominated Orcs & Goblins army, Jon would do Dwarves, Jake would field Lizardmen, and (if I were a faster modeler) I would want a Vampire Counts army led by Nagash.

Army Changes In the 40K Cabal
In the right column of this blog is a brief introduction to the members of our gaming group and the armies they play. After staying nearly constant for a while, I've had to update it recently (and learned this week that I'm going to have to revise it again) due to shuffling in some of our members' armies.

A few months ago, Bryce sold his Tau army to Jake, who is now trying to sell his Dark Angels to fund the Greater Good. Jake had really wanted to field a Ravenwing bike army but found that the Dark Angels' 2nd Company isn't particularly competitive on its own. When he played one or two games with Bryce's Tau and finally got to look through their codex (where he realized that he loved the fluff), Jake knew that the army was for him. It's always sad to see a friend fall into heresy.

In the meantime, always eager to try a new army, Bryce has since started a Raven Guard Space Marine army led by Shadow Captain Shrike. Although he hasn't actively played Space Marines in years, Bryce has loved the Raven Guard's fluff for quite some time. After playing Tau and Imperial Guard for so long, it's entertaining to watch him try to get used to an assault-oriented army again.

I've considered starting a second army for at least a couple years, but I've finally conceded that I'm rather fond of my Ultramarines and that I should actually put a dent in my pile of unfinished models before I start a new army. However, I do have a couple of unbuilt Imperial Knight models, which are eager to join the Ultramarines as an Imperial Knight Detachment.

Finally, to the great surprise of the rest of the Cabal, our Ork player bought the last Stormclaw box from Jake's HobbyTown this week. No, it wasn't for the Ork models (except for Face-rippa, he wasn't really impressed with the selection of greenskin units); it was for the Space Wolves. He even picked up the Space Wolves codex while he was there. That's right, one of our most diehard Xenos players will be bringing another loyalist Space Marine army to our tables, conveniently replacing the soon-to-be departed Dark Angels.

Although Jon claims it could be a year before he actually plays them, he's so excited about his new models that I predict that we'll be seeing Space Wolves a lot earlier than that.

Astartes vs. Orks Lessons Learned

The weekend before last, Carl, Jon and I got together for some Astartes-vs-greenskins action. Carl and I each brought 1000 points of Grey Knights and Ultramarines, respectively, while Jon fielded 2000 points of Orks. The game was pretty long and I was too tired to remember it well enough to recount it with my usual level of detail, so I'll simply put down what we got out of it.

The game was pretty much a wholesale slaughter and we called it at around 12:30 AM. A quick count showed that, cumulatively, Carl and I had about 500 points on the table compared to Jon's 600 points. Although Jon had more points left, it was hard to declare anybody the winner or even to guess what would have happened if we had time for one or two more turns. Most of Jon's remaining points were in two Loota Squads and his Blitza-Bommer. At the time we called the game, Carl's remaining Grey Knight troops and my undamaged multi-melta Dreadnought were one turn away from engaging the Lootas. Meanwhile, my fully intact 5 man Scout Squad was taking potshots at them. On the other hand, the Marines were limited in what they could do to the Bommer thanks to the range of the weapons they had left. The only option for a Marine victory would have been to wipe out the units on the table and to wait until the Bommer ran out of room and had to leave.

"I Lost as Soon as I Made My List"
Well, the subheading is probably an exaggeration, but I wasn't too pleased with my list when I finally got to the table. For starters, I brought my lascannon Razorback. This is typically a decent choice and a good way to bring a twin-linked lascannon to the table. However, I only had 1000 points to play with and I knew that I would be facing Orks. You don't need a 40 point vehicle with a 35 point lascannon to take down Ork armor when much cheaper missile launchers will easily pop a Killa Kan. Heck, now that troops can land grenades on walkers based on their weapon skill, I could easily have brought down Jon's Killa Kans by assaulting them with Tactical Squads. The 75 points I spent on the Razorback would have been better spent elsewhere.

I also brought a five man Tactical Squad to increase the number of bolters on the table. Given that a standard bolter round needs a 4+ to wound even Boyz, I clearly should have skipped the Razorback and the small Tactical Squad and rolled the points into a stand-in Sternguard Squad (the Cabal is pretty forgiving of substitutions). Hellfire rounds would have made short work of Jon's mobs. Similarly, I skimped on my Captain by giving him a power sword rather than a relic blade. A Space Marine Captain's stats may be pretty good, but when his strength 4 means that he needs a 4+ to wound lowly Ork Boyz, he's going to be overwhelmed pretty quickly. I lost 13% of my total army when the Captain fell. He probably would have lived longer if I had spent 15 more points for a strength 6 attack.

Carl's list was a bit more effective. He skipped on the Terminators to be able to put more troops on the board. His Interceptor Squad was able to neutralize one of Jon's three Loota squads by teleporting immediately behind them and dismantling the mob within a couple turns. Carl's only regret was that he didn't have ten Interceptor troops so he could combat squad them and really give Jon a hard time.

Wrong Airplane
Jon has built his Ork flyer so he can play it as a Dakkajet or a Blitza-Bommer. He's often tempted to play it as a Blitza-Bommer so he can drop a bomb during the movement phase and then turn his guns on something during the shooting phase. Unfortunately, he has rarely been able to pull this off effectively. In fact, I can't remember his Bommer killing a single model that night. Jon regretted not bringing the Dakkajet for this game.

Astartes that Stay Together, Slay Together
Carl and I had won the roll-off for first turn, so I spread the two Combat Squads formed from my 10 man Tactical Squad and the troops in my five man Tactical Squad across my half of our deployment area with the intention of making any approaching mobs take heavy fire during the entirety of their march. Unfortunately, Jon successfully seized the initiative and was able to get two mobs of Boyz a respectable distance across the table before even taking a casualty. A nagging voice in my head said that I should consolidate my Marines and that I should concentrate my fire on the nearest mob while slowly retreating from the farther group. Ideally, this would neutralize the closest mob and keep my troops at full strength for the inevitable assault by the second mob.

Instead of paying attention to that voice, I divided my fire between the two mobs in the hopes that I would wear each one down enough to survive close combat. Some less than stellar dice rolls combined with the swiftness of the Ork's approach meant that each squad was quickly swamped. Jon took heavy losses, but my Marines were decimated.

40K Cabal Battle Report: First Allies Game

Although we have multiple tables, it's not unusual for our 40K group to play in teams of two. Typically each player brings an identical number of points to the table and we pair off, rarely considering whether the pairs make any sense or not. However, this past week Jon, Bryce, Carl, and I decided to try out 6th Edition's allies rules. Each of us brought a 1000 point primary detachment list and a 750 point allied detachment list. To make things interesting, we decided to randomly determine which armies would play as the primary detachments and which would be their allies. The alliances themselves were also randomly decided through dice rolls. The same was the case for the mission type and the deployment map.

In the end, Jon's Orks formed one primary detachment with Bryce's Tau army serving as allies of convenience. (Bryce had been neglecting his Tau army until he concluded that 6th Edition belongs to the shooty armies and added several Battlesuits to his existing force.) Carl's Grey Knights were the other primary detachment while my Ultramarines were his allies of convenience. The mission turned out to be the The Scouring while the deployment map was the Hammer and Anvil. One primary objective marker worth two victory points ended up on the Astartes side of the board while another marker was immediately between both armies.

My 750 point force included a Captain, a vanilla 10 man Tactical squad, a five man Sniper Squad with a missile launcher, five Terminators with an assault cannon, and a Vindicator. Carl brought a Brotherhood Champion, a Land Raider, two Terminator Squads, a heavy bolter Razorback, and a Purgation Squad. By luck, the Purgation Squad started out on top of one of the two objectives.

Jon brought his usual mob whose size boggles the mind of an Astartes player. He had a Big Mek with a Shokk Attack Gun, a three man Warbiker Mob (with one Nob), a Killa Kan, two squads of Lootas, a DeffKopta, and two 20 man mobs of Boyz. Bryce's force consisted of a Commander in a Battlesuit with a fusion blaster, his three man Crisis Battlesuit Bodyguard, a 12 man Fire Warrior Squad, a three man Stealth Team, a Piranha Skimmer with a fusion blaster, and a three man Broadside Battlesuit Team. The maddening amount of firepower and Battlesuit-granted durability that a "small" Tau army can bring makes me wonder if the 6th Edition Tau Codex will have more than a few points adjustments.

Rather quickly Carl and I realized that we were in trouble. For starters, the arrangement of the alliances reminded me a lot of a game we played earlier this year, In which Bryce's Imperial Guard and Jon's Orks faced off against my Ultramarines and Carl's (at the time) borrowed Grey Knights. In both games, a long range shooty army joined with a close combat army to fight against smaller, more elite Space Marine armies. And once again the Marines had to go second. Then there was the deployment map; we were playing on a 4'X8' board, so the Hammer and Anvil arrangement left us with a table just 4' wide and 8' long, which benefited both the Tau as well as the Orks.

Bryce was able to take advantage of the table's length to position his Broadsides with their long range railguns well outside of our range; he hammered our armies throughout the game with impunity. His other Battlesuits also started beyond our guns' range and used their mobility to close in quickly. In the meantime, the narrowness of the map gave the Orks a significant advantage. While a standard deployment on a 4'X6' or 4'X8' board forces Orks to spread out and gives their opponent room to maneuver and to more easily attack their flanks, a narrow map like the Hammer and Anvil allows them to stretch from table edge to table edge and sweep down onto their opponents like an enormous green bulldozer. Even if we wanted to rush the Tau forces, we would have to punch through a greenskin wall to do it.

Carl's list proved to be another unexpected liability. While 2+ armor saves excel against most armies, the cost of the Terminators meant that he had very wounds or shots on the table. With Orks bearing down on you and strength 10, AP1 railguns laughing at your fancy Terminator armor, the Terminators didn't have much of a chance.

Turn 1
Turn 1 ended up with night fighting rules, which denied the Broadsides their opening salvo. The Orks made their usual charge while the Tau troops stayed mostly behind the green wall. A squad of Lootas poured fire into the Grey Knight Terminators who failed way too many 2+ armor saves. My Snipers, who had to forgo camo cloaks due to point limitations, took advantage of the 3+ cover save granted by the nearby Imperial Statuary. Unfortunately, the neophytes still failed several cover saves.

The Piranha successfully hit the Vindicator's front armor but the result was merely a glance. It was during this game that I gained an appreciation for the new hull point rules. Under 5th, a glancing hit from an AP1 weapon would have a good chance of preventing the Vindicator from firing in its following turn. Under the new rules, my Vindicator got one step closer to being wrecked, but it still had a chance to hit back in the following turn.

The Marines suffered from a lack of long range fire, but they still did some damage in their turn. The Vindicator's Demolisher cannon missed the Piranha but hit the Killa Kan, which lost a hull point and was stunned, and killed several other models. The Tactical Squad once again took advantage of the new rapid fire rules and took a small toll on the oncoming mobs. The Grey Knight Terminators tried their best, but their storm bolters seemed to do little damage (Carl's rolling that night was atrocious). The Purgation Squad had a lot more luck and was able to inflict some damage. Jon's new Warbiker Mob was wiped out, which gave the Marines a victory point for destroying a Fast Attack unit. Realizing that marching into the face of railgun fire would be suicidal, I kept the Ultramarine Terminators in reserve in the hopes that I could teleport them in the next turn and tie up the Broadsides.

Unfortunately, the Astartes long range firepower lay in the Grey Knights' Land Raider, which was hampered by the night fighting rules. The tank was mostly wasted gunning down models of lower points value. Given how many enemy models were on the table, a Land Raider Crusader probably would have been more useful.

Turn 2
The Piranha's fusion blaster penetrated the Vindicator's armor on the second turn and achieved a weapon destroyed result (my disappointment was mitigated by the fact that we finally got to use my new vehicle damage dice). Another change to 6th is randomization of which weapon is destroyed; unfortunately for me it was the Demolisher cannon rather than the storm bolter. Although the Broadsides laid into the Land Raider, several missed shots and low penetration rolls ensured that the tank kept going. Carl's Terminators took even more shooting casualties before Jon declared a Waaagh! and hit one of the two squads with nearly 20 Boyz. The Grey Knights' fancy force weapons are wasted on Boyz so we all got to witness the effect of 45+ strength 4 attacks against three Terminators (the Terminators lost).

Despite 6th Edition's more forgiving reserve rolls, the Ultramarine Terminators had to sit out another turn. Those Astartes on the table struck back and wrecked the Killa Kan while the Piranha exploded under a hail of Purgation Squad fire. The Ultramarines wreaked vengeance on the briefly victorious Boyz by hitting them with fire from both the Sniper and Tactical Squads. One of the most remarkable shots of the game occurred when the Tactical Squad's flamer hit nine Boyz and killed eight of them. The survivors were charged by the Ultramarines, who made short work of the Xenos scum.

Turn 3
With nearly all the Ork units except for the Lootas having taken heavy casualties, the Tau began their advance in earnest. Fire warriors, the Crisis Battlesuit Bodyguard, and the Stealth Team eliminated the last of the Grey Knight Terminators and the Purgation Squad. The Broadsides again failed to destroy the Land Raider, but succeeded in destroying a twin-linked lascannon. The remaining mob of Ork Boyz and a power klaw Nob assaulted the Land Raider, but the power klaw was unable to glance or penetrate its armor. Heavy fire and poor cover save rolls reduced the Sniper Squad to a single Marine. The Grey Knight Razorback was soon wrecked.

The Ultramarine Terminators finally arrived from reserves, but with so few friendly units on the board there was little reason to even try to take on the Broadsides, particularly since the Broadsides were being covered by two nearly intact Loota Squads. The Terminators therefore landed within range of the Fire Warriors. My Munitorum dice, which had been pretty lucky up until that point, failed me during the shooting phase while Bryce made most of his armor saves. That left my unit within rapid fire range of ten Fire Warriors with as many strength 5 weapons. My Tactical Squad charged the Ork mob that had previously assaulted the Land Raider but, again, the dice did not cooperate. The sergeant who was left standing found himself surrounded by Orks.

Turn 4
As Jon and Bryce began the turn, it occurred to me that the only scoring units the Marines had left was a lone Sniper Scout and a sergeant that was probably going to be killed in the next round of close combat. It was clear that the Emperor wasn't going to be saving the Astartes and so we called the game.

All in all it was an interesting game. Although the Marines ended up in the worst possible position (i.e., playing against a strong combination of allies on a table that most benefited the enemy forces), a comparison of victory points showed that it wasn't a total rout. The Marines earned three victory points for destroying all Ork and Tau Fast Attack units. (This might not be a fair comparison since the Marines didn't bring any Fast Attack units for the Tau and the Orks to score off of.) Although Bryce and Jon never actually held the two primary objects, we obviously attributed the six victory points to them when we called the game.

As for the bloodletting part of the game, I was surprised by how well my Ultramarines did. Although I effectively had 520 points of Marines (the Terminators showed up too late to influence the game), the allied force may have killed more points than Carl's primary detachment. A lot of the Grey Knights' 1000 points was invested in Terminators that drew a huge amount of fire and died without having earned their points. The Purgation Squad, which benefited from its ability to target units without having line of sight, seemed to do better, but its 24" range left the squad vulnerable to fast moving Tau units. With the Broadsides out of its range and only cheaper Ork units nearby, the Land Raider ended up being an enormous points sink. Under other circumstances I think the Grey Knight army would have been formidable, but it didn't have a prayer against the Ork/Tau alliance.

After the game I thought of ways that the Ultramarine Terminators' 230 points could have been better spent. It occurred to me that a ten man Sternguard has nearly the same cost (i.e., 250 points without upgrades), can put out almost as many shots when it's between 12" and 24" from the target, and can put out nearly twice as many shots when it's within 12" of the target. With Hellfire rounds the Sternguard would be killing Orks on a 2+ rather than a 4+, the AP4 Kraken rounds would match the Fire Warriors' weapons range while denying them their armor saves, and AP3 Vengeance rounds could deny armor saves to most Battlesuits. Each Sternguard Marine is slightly more likely to die than a Terminator, of course, but the Squad makes up for it by having twice as many troops. All the more reason for me to pick up the pace on that Sternguard Squad I've been sporadically working on for months.

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?

Ultramarine Scouts First Night Out

Last night the Ultramarines faced off against Carl's Grey Knights. Unfortunately my army is still a vanilla build of vanilla Marines. Combine that with the fact that one of Carl's Venerable Dreadnoughts and a Land Raider exploded one Vindicator and immobilized another in the first shooting phase and you have one very sad bunch of Ultrasmurfs. I wonder if it wouldn't have been a lot more effective to hold both Vindicators in reserve, thus encouraging him to move his Purifiers and Paladins closer to my troops, and then roaring the tanks in to deliver some mid-field blasts. Come to think of it, anything would have been more effective than getting my heavy support blasted to kingdom come in the first round of shooting.

*sigh*

On a much more positive note, my recently completed sniper Scouts had a pretty decent first outing. I had originally intended to sic them on a Dreadknight, but when Carl brought two Venerable Dreadnoughts instead, I had to change my plans. The five snipers were able to do some damage to a Purifier squad, which nearly earned their points right there. Unfortunately, I soon failed four 3+ cover saves and lost most of the squad in a single turn, leaving one sniper and Telion. Despite those losses, that lone sniper would have finished earning back the cost of the squad had Carl not made a cover save against a rending shot.

He's got a bolter round with
your HQ's name on it

However, the Scouts' shining moment came when Sergeant Telion used the Eye of Vengeance rule to target Castellan Crowe in the middle of his squad and knocked a wound off him. If you count a half-wounded Crowe as a half-value Crowe, Telion earned his points in a single shot. Had a couple of Telion's later rolls been rending, my 50 point sergeant probably would have killed a 150 point HQ.

I definitely need more sniper Scouts.

Strange Alliances

Just over a week ago Bryce, Jon, Carl and I played our biweekly game of 40K. Bryce and I had gotten together a few hours earlier to watch an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. The movie we watched, Gamera vs. Guiron is a complete disaster. In fact, it's such a mess that it reminds me of how Carl and I did that night against Jon and Bryce.

Since I'm trying to determine what I want my post-Space Marine army to be, I played with a borrowed Tau army rather than with my beloved Ultramarines. Since Bryce has recently equipped his basement with two playing tables, he had planned for us to play two separate 1000 point games. At one table we would pit the Tau against Carl's Grey Knights (also borrowed from Bryce) while at the other table Bryce's Imperial Guard would fight Jon's Orks. However, Jon recommended that we play in teams instead. Since he and Carl had been teamed up before, he further recommended that the Orks and the Imperial Guard ally against the Tau and the Grey Knights. Thanks to the roll of the die, the Ork/Guard alliance got the first turn.

[Image found on the Web]

Before the first shot was fired, Bryce and I knew how the game was going to turn out. Jon's Orks alone outnumbered both the Tau and Grey Knight forces. Once combined with Bryce's substantial number of Guardsmen, there would be too many targets for Carl and I to shoot at. Our best weapon against huge clusters of troops was the sole template weapon provided by the Tau Hammerhead (i.e., one of the largest targets on the board). In addition to their overwhelming numbers, Bryce brought along a Leman Russ with a Demolisher canon, a Manticore, a Basilisk, and two Sentinels with lascannons. The combination was devastating; not only would Carl and I have to face an enormous horde, we would also have to worry about tanks firing multiple high strength large blast templates at us from across the table. In other words, our opponents consisted of elements from the best long-range army in the game combined with one of the best close combat armies in the game. Our force, on the other hand, was a fraction of the size and consisted of more specialized and elite units.

The first shooting phase saw the destruction of my Hammerhead, Carl's Land Raider, and one of three Broadside Battlesuits. One of my two Fire Warrior squads was near the Land Raider when it exploded. The Dice God (who I'm pretty sure is Tzeentch) was definitely not on my side that night; in what proved to be my highest series of rolls that evening, all six rolls to wound yielded fours, fives, or sixes. I lost half the squad when the armor save rolls included the ones, twos, and threes that didn't turn up previously. One failed leadership roll later and the squad's survivors ran off the table (once again I found myself missing my Marines). When Carl and I finally got our turn, the Broadsides showed that they got their name from the fact that they couldn't hit the broadside of a barn, the "elite" Fire Warriors found themselves ineffective at shooting the quickly approaching green mass, and the Grey Knights' storm bolters proved to be too few in number.

Carl and I kept up the fight, although it was a lost cause. Jon had brought his new 15 man squad of Lootas armed with strength 7 AP 4 deffguns. On a lucky streak, he frequently rolled a five or six when determining how many shots the Lootas would get (a deffgun fires D3 shots per turn). By the second turn, a quick count showed that the Lootas' 45 shots outnumbered all the shots that the combined forces of Tau and Grey Knights could muster. There weren't enough Grey Knights to handle all of the Orks and Guardsmen. The Broadsides were therefore forced to join the Fire Warriors in targeting the nearest Greenskins rather than the Guard's tanks to prevent themselves from being overrun. Carl's Dreadknight, my two Crisis Battlesuits, and our lone remaining vehicle (a Devilfish Troop Carrier) did as much damage as they could, but it simply wasn't enough. The Demolisher shells, Earthshaker shells, and Manticore rockets from Bryce's tanks gradually pulverized those units that weren't in danger of an assault by Ork Boyz while Imperial Guard squads with demolition charges joined in with a squad of Burna Boyz to whittle down the number of Grey Knights.

The outcome was inevitable. Bryce had once shared with me his opinion that Tau could not beat the Imperial Guard in a long range fight. As for the close combat-oriented Grey Knight contingent, my own experience has been that a Space Marine army at or below 1000 points will struggle due to a lack of firepower and wounds. (Admittedly this may be due to my inexperience.) I very nearly called the game when the Orks and Imperial Guard got the first turn and, thanks to a very lucky series of rolls, destroyed much of our heavy support. Those initial losses represented about 25% of our total points and much of our tank-killing ability. Once the Orks started to fall on our units, it became apparent that we had set up a very broken game by combining Imperial Guard and Orks.

As we all know, Games Workshop has designed each army with built-in strengths and weaknesses. Shooty armies like the Tau and the Imperial Guard tend to be weaker in close combat. The difference between the two is primarily that the Tau are more mobile and their troops, while smaller in number, are better armed. Orks and Tyranids, on the other hand, are designed for close combat and have fewer effective long range weapons. This is similar to one of the most popular forms of ancient Roman gladiatorial combat in which a heavily armored fighter equipped with a short stabbing sword was pitted against a lightly armored gladiator armed with a long lance and a net that could be used to snare his opponent's weapon.

[Image found on the Web]

By forming armies composed of a Tau/Grey Knights alliance and an Ork/Imperial Guard alliance, we eliminated several weaknesses from each army. Unfortunately, the Tau and the Grey Knights did not form as good a combination as the Orks and the Imperial Guard. The Grey Knights could partially compensate for the their ally's poor close combat ability, but there were very few of the elite Marines. The Tau brought some heavy weapons to the army, but railguns are not built for horde-killing and aren't as good at tank-busting as ordnance weapons. The Tau/Grey Knights army had the major disadvantage of relatively small numbers and a lack of blast templates. Unfortunately for Carl and me, the Ork/Guard army had few weaknesses.

The Orks and the Imperial Guard both contributed a huge number of troops. The Guard's tanks easily compensated for the Orks' lack of tank/squad-killing weapons and the Orks compensated for the Guard's limited close combat ability. The Guard's ordnance weapons proved to be superior to the Tau's railguns. When railguns miss, they miss entirely, whereas ordnance weapons can drift and yet still do some damage. Additionally, the ordnance weapon rule in which armor penetration is determined by rolling two D6s and picking the highest result gave a huge advantage to the Guard tanks. Since the ordnance weapons were able to dispatch our most threatening units early on, they were able to assist the Orks in eliminating the rest of our forces. By sheer force of numbers, the Orks and Guardsmen were able to overwhelm the Grey Knights. By more effectively eliminating the built-in weaknesses of their respective armies, Jon and Bryce hit us with a nearly unbeatable force.

The end result was not as bad as the infamous Tyranid vs. Imperial Guard battle, but it was pretty close. That being said, I was not as disappointed in the Tau as I was in the Tyranids. While the big bugs were wiped from the table in a relatively fair fight, the Tau were defeated under less than ideal circumstances (i.e., the deck was stacked against them). I'll probably be giving the Tau another chance this coming weekend.

The Implacable Grey Knight Paladins

[It didn't take much effort to get Bryce to agree to contribute to the blog. In addition to some of his excellent modeling work, I hope he'll also share some of the tactics that have made him so successful (yes, I do have ulterior motives, what of it?). -James]

Last weekend the group got together for another rousing game of Warhammer 40k. The scenario; take and hold mission. Luckily I completed another gaming board so there were two games going; Dark Eldar vs. Ultramarines and Grey Knights vs. Imperial Guard. I was the poor sap who faced off against the Grey Knights (my Grey Knights by the way, a friend was borrowing the army) with my poor "deer in the head lights Steel Legion".

Turn 1 - The game did not start well, the guard just couldn't land a hit except a VERY lucky Hydra Flak Tank landing two wounds on the Dreadknight, but luckily enough the other team didn't do much either.

Turn 2 - The Grey Knights Land Raider unloaded five spooty Paladins on my command squad and they ate soylent green for dinner that round. Not to mention that Castellan Crowe and a purifier squad now held the objective.

Turn 3 - Guards Revenge. Dreadknight...dead. Land Raider...exploded. Castellan Crowe...the way of the Dodo. But now the paladins held the objective.

Turn 4 - Manticore is now out of ammunition. Down to one Sentinel, heavy bolter squad, hydra flak tank, and a Basilisk. He's got a four man Paladin squad. The question now is who will win (you might be thinking the guy with the most guns)? WRONG!

Turn 5 - The Paladins hold out, successfully making 11-2+ armour saves and 1-5+ invulnerable save and the Grey Knights pull through to win the game.

Moral of the story, never underestimate the staying power of Paladins and the uncanny ability for your foe to roll AMAZING armor saves. The Guard went home with their tails between their legs that night.

[Models by Games Workshop]

Another Warhammer 40K Death Match

Bryce very selfishly ran off to Hawaii with his wife last weekend, so this past Saturday marked two weeks without playing a game of 40K. However, last night we were finally able to get together for yet another round of our favorite unhealthy obsession. Saturday night's game of 40K was notable for a few reasons. First, it was our first game played at my home rather than at Bryce's. Second, it was my first game played entirely with my own figures rather than with a mix of my models supplemented by some of Bryce's. Finally, I showed that an army of standard Space Marines can take on the elite Grey Knights and make it an extremely close fight.

This time around I took the "Sir Robin" approach to the battle; i.e., I bravely ran away while shooting everything I had. Since the Grey Knights are geared towards close combat rather than a shooting fight, this approach significantly leveled the playing field. I lost by a small margin, but the game could have ended very differently if a single dice roll had resulted in a three instead of a two. My Dreadnought simply needed to score one more hit against Bryce's Dreadknight, after which it could have turned its heavy weapon against his remaining two Knights. Unfortunately, I had burned up a lot of my luck earlier in the game, the shot missed, and the Dreadnought was forced into close combat with the Dreadknight. The two Dreads duked it out and annihilated each other. Considering that his model was worth a lot more points than mine, I wasn't too sad about the outcome of that particular fight.

Dreadnought vs. Dreadknight: Grudge match of the week
[Models by Games Workshop]

Space Marines vs. Grey Knights

Bryce and I played two scenarios last weekend between his Grey Knights and my Space Marines. In the first I attempted to defend one quarter of the board while he set up on the opposite corner. I was allowed 30% more troops while he was allowed to set up after I did while also making the first move (usually the one who sets up first is the one who goes first). I made the mistake of setting up too close to his position, which allowed his Knights to charge directly into my forces. The Grey Knights are good in a shooting fight but are excellent in close combat. Since my forces outnumbered his Grey Knights, I had the advantage of having significantly more guns on the board. Unfortunately, I couldn't benefit from this because he was able to charge into close combat almost immediately.

In the second scenario we played a quick 400 point game Bryce called a "soul grinder". This time I was smarter and used my scouts to their fullest extent while taking advantage of the number of guns I had. This game turned out a lot different.

More Warhammer 40,000

The Dreadknight
[Model by Games Workshop]

On Friday night Bryce and I played two games of 40K. For the first game Bryce fielded his brand new and still unpainted Grey Knights army. The Grey Knights are a specialized (and heavily armed) Space Marine chapter. His enormous "Dreadknight" killed four of my Raven Guard Space Marines in his first turn. A horrendous series of dice rolls utterly doomed my army, although at one point I came very close to killing the Dreadknight with a partially crippled tank. Next weekend I hope to do better against that particular army.

Space Marines vs. Space Marines

Captain Shrike didn't do
much for me this time
[Model by Games Workshop]

In the second game my marines faced off against a Tyranid swarm (a huge army of figures with relatively low point values) with significantly better results. Bryce did give me some general advice and allowed a do-over when I made a serious tactical error with Captain Shrike (a high value character who didn't end up doing a whole lot anyway), but I think my victory was mostly fair. Although I believe Bryce is coaching me mostly because he's a nice guy, I also think that he's motivated to train me into being a more challenging opponent. As I mentioned before, he hasn't really had anyone to play against in several years.