I was unable to place in the top 4 in the qualifier tournament today. I went 2W-1L-1D, which I'm not really pleased with at all. I made mistakes against an experienced Tau player and it cost me the game during the 3rd round. Drew against Witch Hunters, and won vs IG and Daemons. Everyone brought their A-game and A-lists, and there were a lot of really tough pairings straight off the bat.
It sucks to not advance onward, but at least I have learned a little bit about fielding a mech list. Perhaps it was too ambitious to run a tank heavy list with little practice beforehand, and perhaps I would have been better off using Lamenters who have a 1st and 3rd record in the 2 tournaments they've been used in.
Onto individual unit performance...
The librarian was pretty good overall, the shield of sanguinius is incredibly sub-par (I can't roll those 5 up covers for jack) but the blood lance has been surprisingly effective. Pretty much the only good rolling I did all day was with the blood lance (I know I know, poor dice can't take all the blame).
Land Raider Redeemer is always a solid unit for me and proved to be definitely worth it. The flamestorms are always a hit or miss, some games I wont fire them and others I'll wipe a squad clean off the table... but the strength of using it as an AV14 command bunker is priceless.
Vindicators straight up SUCKED until round 4. Sure, they had some really bad luck in the first three games but I was not pleased with their performance at all. Will I get rid of them? Probably not, I still like having the demolisher cannons at my disposal. Like the redeemer they're usually hit or miss, just today they were definitely more of a miss. Some weekends they have been really nasty though. Problem is, reliability is key for tournament play- so does the random nature of the vindicator give it any merit in a tourney list?
Baal Preds were reliable, and usually always are. They aren't amazing by any means, but they are definitely solid choices. Their sheer volume of shots and versatility makes them hard to suck even when I'm not rolling so hot. I am certainly interested in getting a 3rd asscan baal for my Dragons for higher pt games.
Rhino and tac squad were pretty mediocre, but how good could they have been? Lascannon out the top hatch was a bad plan, and next go-around I won't take a heavy weapon in the squad or just opt for the free missile launcher. I do however think the 12" move - unload - double tap of the boltgun is more useful over even a free ML, and I need to trick my sergeants with either a bolter or combi-melta instead of their bolt pistols (hangovers from 4th ed when you got the +1 A bonus).
Lastly I had a single las-auto pred. It fared alright. I don't recall it going above and beyond in any games, but it's got some decent firepower and at least it's mobile (and AV13) unlike the devastator team I was previously fielding.
Did some touchups to the army before I brought it in today, and hopefully I'll get some pics up sometime of the new and improved Dragons. Even though today was a lackluster showing, I won't be shelving them for future tourneys by any means. The army could use a little more refinement to get up to competitive 5th standards, but I definitely have some strengths going on and I like playing a varied tank force in contrast to my other armies.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
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!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
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.
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.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
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
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
Monday, January 10, 2011
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.
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.
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.
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