Sunday gaming vs Space Wolves

This weekend I got in 3 games against different players. No pictures unfortunately, but here is a breakdown of what happened..  2 of these players were SW...

Game 1: vs. Space Wolves Logan-Wing 1850 pts

This list I was playing against used Logan, Termy Librarian, Bjorn, 5x TH/SS, 15 terminators (2x CML, 1x Asscan) and a naked AC pred.

3 objectives seize ground.

I was running a slight variation of my 1850 Dragons tournament list. Captain w/ PFist, Combi Plasma, HG w/ 4x plasma in Lasback, 2x Baals, 2x Vindis, Auto Las Pred, LR Redeemer w/ Tac Squad, Rhino w/ Tac Squad.

First 2 turns of shooting were pretty pathetic on my part. 10 plasma shots coming from my HG + captain managed to kill ZERO terminators. Vindicators scattered pretty hard, I think both netted a grand total of 1 kill. Baals were getting stunned back and forth; they seemed to be his target priority. The LR managed to flamestorm 1 TH/SS guy to death and survived the next turn's assault. TH's don't really do much to a moving LR.

By turn 3 though my dice started to pick up the slack. Plasma was doing its job for once and the vindicators started hitting. The whole game I was basically kiting in and out of a corner and avoiding assaults whenever possible. I managed to wipe most of his army by turn 5 with the loss of a Baal, and a few weapon destroyed results here and there. Otherwise there were minimal casualties on my side and the game ended with 1 objective controlled by me, 0 by him.


Game 2: vs. Space Wolves Hurricane James 1850 points.

Some background to this battle. Me and James had been talking trash all week about how we were going to crump eachothers armies. James has a solid space wolves list that he pretty much rips from spacewolves blog (Haha JK..). Long fangs, grey hunters, rune priests, speeders.. Can't go wrong. He did use a Godhammer LR this time though - but so what, he doesn't get any sympathy from me! As I almost always use a Redeemer in my Dragons and Godhammer in my Lamenters...

Anyway, we made a bet to go along with the battle. If he beat me then I would have to start playing warmachine. If I beat him, he would never complain about clubbing people and admit the Blood Dragons are cooler than Space Wolves. Grudge match begin!

I used the same 1850 list as mentioned above but swapping the Captain for the Librarian and adding stormbolters on tanks.

Pitched Battle. Capture and Control. James won roll off and decided to go first. He deployed Longfangs in flanking positions on each corner to get easy side shots on me, LR and las-plas razorbacks near his objective and rhinos with troops on the other side. I deployed in a corner so that I could negate one of his longfang units completely while keeping my front arc in his line of fire. I didn't bother trying to sieze as I had deployed for being bombarded anyway. Scout moved + smoked baals in front of the formation, LR was in the middle, vindis to the sides, rhino+razor in the back. Auto las was in the very corner on top of a hill with a good firing position.

First turn James pummels the crap out of me despite my cover saves and AV13. Bad saves on my part, good rolling on his part. He knocked out a vindicator, immobilized a baal, and stunned a few other things. Not looking good!

My turn 1 retaliation was rather pathetic. With alot of things stunned / out of range, I managed to only stun one of his razorbacks and immobilize another. Remaining Vindi tried to quickly eliminate the closer long fang squad facing me but scattered completely off.

Luckily, Hurricane James got through most of his good rolls on that first turn so I wasn't hit bad again. His speeders jumped on my LR which moved up to midfield with smoke. Penetrated with multi-melta but my smoke saved me. Stunned a few more things, including my razorback again. Most of his lascannons on his razor/LR also went after my LR but failed to penetrate. He did blow off the gun on my remaining vindicator though.

My turn 2 I finally evened the odds a bit. Plasma Guard in the Razor zoomed up next to the close long fangs to do the job that the Vindicator failed at. Double tapped, killed 5 of 6 dudes with plasma so that was a success. Gun-less vindi rammed at a las plas razorback mid field and stunned it, but got immobilized in return. Baal's and Tac Squad shooting out of the Rhino hatch got rid of his 2 speeders.

The rest of the game was back and forth potshotting. I managed to keep his incoming Rhinos at bay with my Baal's, Auto-Las pred and Tac Squad which were holding my objective in the back corner. However, James parked a LR on his objective and I was really unable to take it out. Game ended turn 5 with 1 objective each...

At least this means I don't have to start warmachine yet. The rivalry continues...


More to come

Dark Eldar - Mech or Portal

Can't decide on the direction to take my Dark Eldar. Fortunately I still have time, because either way I need to wait for new models to come out (Venoms / Talos / Grotesques please?).

After reading this article: http://kirbysblog-ic.blogspot.com/2011/04/dark-eldar-review-part-10-heavy-support.html by kirby from 3++ I can say that I shared the same opinions about the DE heavy support choices which are really going to be the core of either list I decide to make. I don't want to use Ravagers, even though admittedly they're the best option. But they're boring to me.. The blandness reminds me of the auto las pred.

The deciding factor will probably be if the Talos does come out before the Razorwing. But then again, if the Venoms are really badass I will probably go mech. It mega sucks that my mech plan (cookie cutter DE... blah) is just 3x trueborn w/ blasters in venoms, 3x razorwings, rest of points filled with raider warriors + archon most likely. However, the webway portal list seems like it would be a lot more fun to play but a lot less competitive vs. other competitive lists which is my problem. The dual webway list (2x haemonculus, minimized 3 man wrack squads in raiders, rest of points in 3x talos and 3x tooled up hth elites, maybe some beasts thrown in) would adequately crump a hobby list but struggle vs. meched foes. Please please please give us new grotesques models... I don't care if they're metal or plastic (but GW is phasing out metal, right? o_O)

If the talos is plain ugly (unlikely) I'm going to pass up the webway idea and wait it out for the "summer of flyers."

More to come

40k FFA Battle Report

Very casual 3 player game at our FLGS... I apologize for the shaky cam / vid quality, this was filmed on my phone.

Stormraven Deathstar - another perspective

The Stormraven bomb found on the web is pretty much one of three things: Death Company, Assault Terminators, or Mephiston. Is there another way...?

Unit Review: Plasma Honor Guard

So this weekend was the debut of my most recent addition to my Blood Dragons army - Plasma gun honor guard.

Weekend of 40k gaming... and being clubbed

Usually I get in a few games a week by playing on Sundays, but this weekend the 40k playing was hardcore. Friday was getting my list ready for an 1850 point tournament the next day in NH a few hours away. I got my Honor Guard and their Razorback built and painted in a little under 2 days, while getting in a few practice games for next weeks 1500 pt tournament on the 2nd (that just got canceled... drama in the community). I am definitely burnt out!

Blood Dragons army review

So I thought it was about time to make a review for all the units I have been using in my first Blood Angels army. I have gotten quite a bit of games in with these guys, lost count a long while ago. They have gone through some changes since I first conceptualized the force.