Blood Dragons are GO

Here it is, the army I'll be using in an upcoming 1500 pt tournament. First time ever I've used a completely mechanized list. Well, it's not really mech - more like 2 tac squads and tank spam.

I think one of the real hidden jems of BA is not only are Baal preds excellent units but they're fast attack slots (got the pair of vindis when the new codex dropped and the baals were no longer heavies). This means BA players can field 3x nice AV13 heavies on top of whatever baals are in the force, and of course land raiders are dedicated transports now too. If someone told me that an army like this would be LEGAL just three years ago I would have thought they were insane. But this is now the meta of 5th edition, and codexes have gotten alot stronger. At least BA aren't the worst culprit when it comes to heavy tank spam (cough guard).

The Predator with auto/las and Rhino are recent additions to the force, along with that single unpainted dude up front. That's my Librarian I got from Hurricane James, a local space wolves player and tourney winner. Lets see how well he does against this AV13 steel wall!

More to come!

INCOMING: 1500 pt qualifier tournament

So the store in my area is hosting a 1500 pt qualifier tournament in conjunction with 3 other stores in the region. The top 4 players of this 16 person event will advance to a 16 person regional final tournament. Effectively it's a 64 person event, so it's pretty serious and I'll be needing to bring my A-game, and A-list.


This means no-go on the Lamenters. They've had their glory in the last 2 tournaments placing 1st and 3rd but I feel that they won't cut it against the best players from the other stores if I do end up advancing in the qualifier.

My Dark Eldar aren't nearly battle-ready, Guard & Eldar are at home in NY and Grey Knights are shelved until the new codex drops.

I have been itching to get my Blood Dragons on the table again. They've really been collecting dust since I last used them in November-ish. I got some new models today, (one of which is a super duper awesome forgeworld librarian given to me by the champion Hurricane James) which I will be adding to my Dragons force in order to 'WAAC-it-up.

Army plans for the 1500 event is as follows:
(1) HQ - stock Librarian, w/ Shield of Sang and something else, not sure what yet. Blood Lance maybe?
(0) ELITES- none
(2) TROOPS -  10 man tactical squad w/ powerfist and meltagun, inside a land raider redeemer with a MM upgrade.
- another 10 man tactical squad, w/ lascannon and meltagun, inside a rhino.
(2) FAST - 2x baal predators, both with assault cannons and heavy bolter sponsons.
(3) HEAVY - 2x vindicators, and a predator with autocannon /las sponsons.

So on the table will be a land raider redeemer, a rhino, 2 vindicators, 2 baal predators, and a regular predator. First ever parking-lot / mech list I've made :P



Assault squad would be the better option in the LRR but I don't have the models. Oh well, I think this is a hard hitting and durable list anyway.

1250 pt Tournament Results

Well, I ended up bringing my Lamenters for a second tournament. They're the most fun to play out of all of my armies so I can't really resist using them. There's a 1500 pt regional tournament with a qualifier tournament happening soon in the area (yeah it'll be pretty intense, the top 4 players from 4 different stores advance to a regional throw down to see who's champion in the area) and I'll probably end up using Lamenters again.

So, down to what I used in the 1250:
Captain w/ Jump Pack, 2x Assault Squads w/ Jump Packs, 10 man terminator squad, and a Land Raider. Simple and tiny. I either castle up or deep strike everything depending on my opponent.

Round 1: Vs. Imperial Guard - Seize Ground - 3 objectives. This game was close up until about turn 4 when an earthshaker cannon hit my assault marine squad (with captain) which was to hold 2 objectives, caused an Ld test, and I rolled an 11 and ran off the board. Totally sucked, but that's 40k for you. My mistake for hanging out so close to the edge. I ended up losing this game, IG held 1 objective, I held 0.

Round 2 Vs. Blood Angels - Capture and Control. This poser totally copied my style and decided to use 10 shooty terminators in his force, albeit with assault cannons instead of CML. Vindicator, baal predator, scouts, Librarian.... All comers list pretty much. Lamenters made it known who the superior successor chapter was. Objectives held 2 - 0.

Round 3 Vs. Space Marines - Kill Points. I knew all along this game was going to be a breeze as the army I had selected is well optimized for this mission. I had 5 killpoints in my force, over half of my army invested into a Land Raider and Terminators. I castled up and killed a drop pod, predator, and attack bike squad. I lost an assault squad but my Terminators and Land Raider took a lot of punishment and lasted throughout the game. 3-1 KPs.

Round 4 Vs. Tyranids - Assassination. Enemy general was a Hive Tyrant. I hid my captain with 5 terminators behind the Land Raider.. While everything else surrounded the Hive Tyrant, who died on turn 3 before even being assaulted. Lascannons on the Raider + infernus pistols... Yeeeeah, no invo sucked for that dude.

So I ended the tournament with a 3-1 record and nabbed 3rd place. I'm happy with that. Army thoughts? The internet is wrong about Land Raiders! My LR amassed about 5 or 6 vehicle kills the duration of the tournament and never died on me while soaking boatloads of long range str 8-9 fire. The winner was of course Hurricane James, the fleebsy space wolf player I crushed from Round 4 in the first tournament! I'm out for blood now...



More to come

Incoming 1250 pt Tournament

Lamenters brought the pain last time, but my Blood Dragons could use some love too.

Then there's these guys... lurking in the shadows... waiting to make their grand entrance.

Standard Land Raider

Godhammer, vanilla, whatever you want to call it - this article is about the straight up regular land raider and why I think it's easily one of the best vehicles in the game.

Players don't give too much credit to land raiders in these dark days of 5th ed 40k. Overcosted some say, since it's near impossible to make its points back in a game and you'll likely get punked via a meltagun by turn 2. That's if you're using average joe tactics by trying to cram your land raider up in your opponents grill with terminators+lib/chap inside. It can work in a pure deathwing list, but I am inclined to believe it is better suited for chilling at safe ranges and soaking fire.

Versus melta, AV 14 doesn't mean too much. But it's really only vs. melta & other close range nasties where AV14 becomes vulnerable. Railguns and Vanquishers are perhaps an occasional hindrance, but relatively speaking there are few mid to long range weapons capable of laying the hurt down on a LR (if such threats exist, wipe them off the table first). If you get stunned by a lucky missile or lascannon, big deal. Machine spirit keeps you firing every turn.Weapon destroyed? No biggie. Immobilized? Probably wasn't going to move it anyway.

An LR will make its points back by soaking up str 8-9 long range fire from a clueless opponent wasting his effort on your "centerpiece" target. The vast majority of competitive armies take meltas / pod combi meltas or chainfist as their answer to the all-too-common and poorly played LR. I screen my LR with terminators to keep it secure every game. You want to get close? Get through over 400 points of my tough as-nails elites first. Most players opt to take the aformentioned route of spamming all their ML and Las into AV14 rather than getting close to tons of termies.

You can take a multi melta on your regular land raider. It's 10 points, there is no reason not to take one. First and foremost, it is a deterrent as it has potential to scare off vehicles from getting close to your castle. If you get a weapon destroyed you'll still have enough firepower return the favor.

My Land Raider is critical to the entire deployment and tactics of my army when I choose to field it. Protect it from 2D6 pen rolls, force your opponent waste shots better used on the rest of your army, lay down the hurt. Leverage in units, set traps, there are tons of ways to make a LR more than pay for itself by changing the flow of the game to your advantage.

1000 pt Tournament results

There was an awesome turnout for the event... I showed up at 8:30 AM, and there was already a group of people standing in the freezing cold outside. By around 9 'o clock, an hour before the store was opening, all sixteen spots in the tournament were full.Entry fee was 10 bucks, swiss system for pairing. (First round random) Game type & deployment was pre determined by the round number so that there was variety in missions.

Round 1: Seize ground, spearhead... 3 objectives. By far the largest challenge for me to overcome, as my force had a mere 2 scoring units consisting of 7 marines each. I got paired against chaos space marines running a land raider, 2 rhinos filled with big squads of plague marines and a chaos sorcerer. A tiny army like mine, but also an army unsuited to deal with what I was rolling with. My flamestorm baal worked like a champ, first time I had ever used it I get a successful ram using outflank and pop a rhino. His plasma wielding plague marines were unable to stop the baal after they lost their transport and next turn the flamestorm lit 'em up really well.

Chainfists turned out to be an extremely worthwhile investment as my termies were able to drop his land raider by turn 3. At the end of the game I held 2 objectives and contested the third. Much to my surprise, all my units did what they were supposed to making the first game smooth sailing.

Round 2: Capture and control, dawn of war. This game saw me pitted against a nasty hand to hand horde guard army featuring a stubborn 50 man squad with tons of power weapons, plasma, and all sorts of other goodies. The whole game was basically one huge melee fight involving most of my army and most of his. When the dust settled, most of our forces were dead, but my weapon destroyed baal pred managed to contest his objective turn 5 for the win. If the game did not end on turn 5, it would have most definitely been a draw. I really got lucky in this insanely close game...

Round 3: Annihilation, pitched battle. Now we're talking... No more objective holding, it was time to go balls out and crush my opponent with my full force. Up until this game, I had been deep striking all of my infantry, and outflanking with the baal. This time I deployed my assault squads on the table and kept my termies and baal in reserve. This game was vs. Eldar, using a wraithlord, 2 squads of dire avengers, farseer, avatar, and fire prism. Definitely a balanced list that had me on the ropes for the first three turns... Fortunately, the mobility of my army played to my advantage and I was able to withdraw weakened squads away from the fight to save KPs, ending the game 3-1 KPs in my favor.

Round 4, the last round... At this point my record was 3-0, so this was really the finals of the tournament. It turned out I got paired against the mighty Hurricane James, who I had expected to win the whole thing from the start. Game type was assassination, deployment spearhead. Game ends upon the turn of the first general's death, so if a general dies top of the turn there's a chance to draw by killing the enemy general in the same game turn. You could also draw by the standard mission of 5-7 turns ending before any general had died. My general was my captain, his general was his rune priest, so I had a little advantage regarding resiliency. However, to get to his general required me fighting through a mechanized force consisting of 3 rhinos filled with grey hunters supported by a tllc razorback and longfangs. There would be no mind war trickery to pull an easy win here... Hurricane James deployed his vehicles in a protective castle convoy making it impossible to isolate his rune priest without clawing through his entire army first.

The rules of the game also required your general to start on the board. I started the game with my captain attached to an assault squad behind some cover. However, the table didn't have too much terrain and there were no good hiding spots in my deployment area. I spent my first 2 turns charging up along the long table edge towards his force while behind cover in order to get saves against his krak and las shots. By the time the rest of my army made it on the board, there were just 2 marines left in his "bodyguard" squad. I was able to link up with my deep striking and outflanking forces, and had my captain take refuge with my terminator squad for the rest of the game.

This is where things got bloody quickly, and soon the entire battle shifted to an area of only about a foot in diameter. I don't think in playing 40k I've seen so many hostile units in such a compact area... The composition looked almost like something you'd see in a staged GW photo. Target priority was the immediate threats to my baal predator and terminators, so anything with high strength and armor punching ability had to die to keep me in the game. I went for his razorback and long fangs and managed to wipe them out quickly. The baal predator was able to do some nasty damage to a grey hunters squad, killing 9 dudes in one hit before the battle completely shifted to melee. I surrounded the rhinos as best as I could to prevent them from escaping while killing a few in the process. The baal predator effectively killed about one third of his melee strength with that one shot, so I was able to outmatch the rest of his army with my terminators and remaining assault troops. In a last ditch move, Hurricane James decided to assault with his Rune Priest and last grey hunter squad into my 6 or so remaining terminators with captain. In the final showdown, I came out on top... Not even the sons of russ can stand up to that many powerfists. Great game, and the fight taking place in such close quarters gave me the edge I think... That and my captain was mobile with the jump pack and couldn't be so easily punk'd compared to a rune priest.

Coming in first got me a fat stack of 75 bucks in store credit... I really didn't expect to do so well, or even win half my games... My army turned out to be surprisingly balanced and just what I needed to pull through in all my match ups. Props to Quarterstaff for such an awesome event. Terrain was great, good atmosphere, and well administered. Good games all around to everyone I played. Definitely got my sights on the next tournament in January of 1250 pts.

Some pictures of the final showdown between my Lamenters and the Space Wolves led by Hurricane James!

More to come

Lamenters 1000 point tournament force...

This is the 1000 pts of Lamenters I will be using for a tournament in a few days. I could explain what's exactly here, but on the off chance someone from my local store actually discovers this post... I want to keep things a little secret, not that it's difficult to discern what I'm using from the picture. There's gonna be some good competition, and by no means do I have a real chance at winning. This army is all about in-your-face surprise attack... If I was gearing up for my best effort at taking first I'd probably be using my Dragons instead, who are better optimized for lower point games.

 

New unit built & painted today :)

More to come