As Dawn Approaches We Make Ready For War...

The final night before the 'Ard Boyz Preliminaries. My list is fine tuned at this point and I'm feeling confident. I'll need to buy some new dice when I get to the store for speed rolling, and I pray they are blessed by mighty Khorne. I need to put together one last Priest before bed for my army to be completely WYSIWYG.

Are you ready?

High Hopes for 'Ard Boyz

Any one else notice that putting the "H" in 'Ard Boyz makes it sound completely wrong?:P

So, I just got back from 40k nights at my FLGS and am feeling pretty good. Only played one game as I was playing 2500pt only, and by time the first finished every one was either already playing or didn't think we had time. Oh well, I was pretty tired anyways.

So I played against this fellow who runs 'Nids. Same guy I beat two weeks ago, slightly tweaked list for him and totally revamped list for me. Rolled for scenarios and got scenario one. Bummer, I really wanted to try out either two or three, but I got a taste of both anyways.

On the objective placement we situated them all on one quarter of the board. In my deployment zone too for the most part. Haha. I won the roll to go first btw. Strarted off with two Stormravens moving 6 inches and unloading a total of 8 missiles into some MCs. Managed to down one of 'em right off the bat to my opponents dismay. My third Stormraven jetted across the table and unloaded the Death Dread on some unsuspecting Termigaunts who were promptly slaughtered.

Honestly, every turn afterwards was me jetting around and running Dreads out of Stormravens and into assault. I tabled the guy by turn five... well, he had a squad of Ymgarl Genestealers in reserve, a Tervigon and Carnifex left, but he conceded at this point. I on the other hand had only lost one Death Dread, five Tac Marines (of ten), and 6 Death Company Marines (of a squad of eight). I scored well over 1000 victory points, claimed two (woulda been three) objective and gave him near nothing.

My thoughts.... Stormravens ROCK!
Think about it.... Alpha strike capabilities with four 72" missiles, anti-melta armor, fast skimmer, PotMS, free twin linked melta and your choice of either TL Lascan, Plascan or Asscan. Throw in twelve passengers and a dread along with it being an assault vehicle... Its worth every point. Manuever them around a bit, pop transports and pick and choose who, where and when you want to assault. These things are beasts!

My list looked something like this:

HQ
-Astaroth

Elites
-Chaplain (with Assault Squad)
-Sang Priest x2  Power Weapon//Combi-Plas (one with Assault Squad, one with Tac Squad)
-Furioso Dread w/ Hvy Flamer and Blood Talons (in Stormraven with Assault Squad)

Troops
-Death Co w/ Lemartes (2 PWps, 1 Inferno Pistol, 1 PFist) in Stormraven
-Death Dread w/ Hvy Flame and Blood Talons in Stormraven
-Death Co w/ Astaroth (2 Pwps, 1 Inferno, 1 Pfist) in Stormraven
-Death Dread w/ Hvy Flame and Blood Talons in Stormraven
-Assault Squad (8 man, PWpn Sgt w/ Pwpn Sang Priest and Chappy) in Stormraven
-Tac Squad (Plascan, Plasma, Combi-plas Sgt w/ Combi-plas Sang Priest)

Tac squad was reserved and walked onto the board. Their concentrated plasma fire, especially at rapid fire range (nabbed a squad of genestealers with 'em) is deadly! FNP makes them great. Papa Nurgle would be pleased.

Over all, very satisfying game. For me at least. My opponent was cool as always and helped me out with punching the numbers as thats my one weak point in this game still. I always struggle to remember what rolls to hit and wound are unless I have the WS and S/T chart in front of me. Great guy.
Having performed so well in what I expected to be my weakest scenario I am rather confident that I'll do fairly well this weekend. Only time will tell.

'Ard Boyz Scenarios Out

GW just released the scenarios for this years 'Ard Boyz, which can be found here.

Mission one is a five objective counter sort, which bodes ill for me with my two scoring units. Best I can manage is a Major Victory, but that's only if I slaughter my opponent off the objectives and claim two to zero.
Mission two is Victory Points, which could bode very will with me as my units are all very killy... Or very bad as my death stars are pretty expensive. :O
Mission three is KPs, but units than can move more than 6 inches in a single phase of a turn are worth 6. Yikes! Very bad for me despite my low model count. I think I can manage it while keeping my scoring units out of harms way though... Trying to figure out what changes to make to cut down the KPs I bring to the table though.
Over all I'd say I'm running a good 30% to 50% chance of performing well... Tomorrow's test runs will see...

Also, learned that the Stormraven has some nice alpha strike capabilites. The four bloodstrike missiles count as seperate weapons! That means so long as I move 6 inches or less, I can fire 4 missiles and everything else! With a 72 inch range on 'em, S8 and PotMS, I can hopefully drop 3 tanks on turn one and cripple my opponents mech abilities. If I manage that I think moving flat out and creating a double envelopment shouldn't be too hard and I can just mop 'em up. Seventy two inces is the entire length of the board after all... on a 4'x6' board anyways.

It's Like Plucking the Heads Off Dandalions

Made my way out to my FLGS today for some more 'Ard Boyz practice and paired off against a fairly nasty looking Nids list. Not entirely sure what all was in the list, I just know it had 24 deep striking elite choice genestealers, a tun of termagaunts, a tervigon, and some really big bugs that shot large templates at me. Tyranofexes maybe? Not really important in the long run, they're skulls grace the throne of Khorne now. :P

Anyways, as I forget the majority of the game's details there will be no bat rep today. Just know I slipped by with a last turn objective grab and contest with my fast rhino and razerback. Highlights of course were my Death Co Dreads slaughtering termagaunts and genestealers in mass. My Lemartes Death Co also performed well, but Astaroth and his Death Co were unfortunately cut down as their transport was surrounded by two mobs of genestealers and blown up.

My Vindicator actually accomplished a bit today too as my opponant was graciouos enough to concede to my belief that the Demolisher Cannon is intended to be a Large Blast weapon. Managed to blow away a hand full of Gaunts and Warriors with it. Yay boom stick!

And that brings us to the next bit.... Rule bending power gamers. There's a discussion going on my gaming groups forum about the rules for the BA Vindicator. The big wigs of the gaming group, who come off as WAAC players to me, all side that the D Cannon is a S10 direct shot weapon. This couldn't have anything to do with them playing IG platoon mobs or Nid swarm lists could it? Very irritating. Below is my response in the forum.

I'm a late comer to this, but I gotta throw in my two cents.
It's obviously a misprint. Who in their right mind will take a 140ish point tank thats a one trick pony? Yeah its S10 and Fast, but it's just not worth it. Would it really surprise you if it was meant to be a Large Blast? Seriously, take a look at other "broken" things, Blood Talon Death Dreads and re-rolling Death Co for example.
Also, while I was at the Springfield GW yesterday they insisted on the ruling being a Large Blast and that I play it that way. Unfortunately for me, a direct shot would have benefited me greatly, but I'm definitely going to side with them on that one. Heck, even one of my friends from Wien (currently working at Germany's GW HQ) claims this is a misprint in the ruling and will be faq'd.

Essentially, to deny your opponent the Blast template when he's shooting at your blob of models is cheese. Its a load of rubbish rule bending and power gaming. Personally, I don't care what any one would think of me for doing this but if another player were to refuse me the blast template I'm going to pack up my plastic soldiers and move on. If winning is so important to you that you're going to bend the rules in your favor then I have no desire to play with you. Period.

And there you have it, my stance on the matter.
Thanks for reading.

Those Who See a Titan Shall Never Live to Tell the Tale...

First and foremost, today was a day of heavy spending. Not as painful on the wallet as it would have been if I had bought from GW, but weighty enough. Three new Razerbacks and a Valkyrie to buff my forces up to 2500 pts for a 'Ard Boyz list. While I don't particularly care for 'Ard Boyz, and highly doubt I'll even place in the prelims, I do want to be able to play prep games with my community and attend as well for the sake of just gaming.

My splurge of spending didn't stop with mere plastic tanks though... It went on to sheets of plastic board, 110lb size card stock and a bit of 1/8 x 1/8 balsa wood. What all could it be for? Well, as the post title hints, a Titan! A Warhound first as it's my initial attempt at scratch building, and later possibly a Reaver and/or a Warlord! :O

And without further ado, my 'Ard Boyz rough draft.

Total: 2498pts

HQ: 430pts
220pts Astorath the Grim
210pts Honor Guard with Chapter Banner, Melta and Razerback dedicated transport

Elites: 298pts
180pts Sanguinary Priests (x3) with Combi-Flamers (x3)
118pts Chaplain with Power Fist and Storm Bolter

Troops: 990pts
215pts Death Co (x8) with Power Weapon, Power Fist and Inferno Pistol
215pts Death Co (x8) with Power Weapon, Power Fist and Inferno Pistol
135pts Death Co Dread with Blood Talons and Heavy Flamer
135pts Death Co Dread with Blood Talons and Heavy Flamer
145pts Assault Squad with Melta, Lightning Claw and Razerback dedicated transport
145pts Assault Squad with Melta, Lightning Claw and Razerback dedicated transport

Fast Attack: 200pts
200pts Vanguard Vets with Lightning Claw (Sgt), Lightning Claw, Inferno Pistol and Razerback dedicated transport

Heavy: 430pts
215pts Stormraven with Extra Armor
215pts Stormraven with Extra Armor

The Stormravens will carry my Khorne Berserkers (Death Co) and Dreadnaughts. Astorath will accompany one squad while Lemartes of course augments the other. Both will bring a ton of hurt.

The goal of this army is to charge in fast and hard and hope that I can table my opponent. The two assault squads are there to claim any objectives possible, and the Honor Guard are around to buff them with extra attacks in lieu of Sanguinator's absence. The Vanguard Vets were selected to help fill out the points... and extra killiness.

As I said earlier, I'm not expecting much in terms of results for me but it should be fun to play regardless. :)