Wednesday 28 December 2011

League Game #3

On the distant world of Xanthia Prime the Imperial mining colony came under attack from a despicable band of chaos warriors. Descending from the stars they murdered and rampaged their way across half the planet before help came from the Salamanders. Descending to the surface en masse, the 3rd company led the assault the foul sorcerer who led this motley band.

So today I got my third game in early. This time against Richard with his foul Chaos marines. Our mission was a simple kill points one with a pitched battle deployment. Maybe I was just over confident but Richard is one of those players who I rarely have any trouble defeating, and I figured this game would be no different.

As with all my games lately it has been really atrocious dice rolls on my part that hurt my game. I don't think there was anything I could have done differently. Or at least with the dice rolls it wouldn't have mattered anyway. He was playing heavy plasma spam in his list and his rolls were spot on. I think he lost one marine to a over-heating plasma gun and that was it. Otherwise his rolls to hit and wound were well above average. I lost three thunderhammer/storm shield terminators to four shots from plasma in one round of shooting. Just terrible. I evened out by taking down his sorcerer lord and terminator escort with ease.

I'm not going to grumble about how poor generic marines are in close combat but as with any time I play against chaos marines it was assault that wipes my units out. He did good targetting the rhino's, which promptly wrecked or exploded, and then assaulting the poor unit as it emerged.

However by turn 5 I had equalised our kill points, and then turn 6 jumped one ahead. Richard then equalised at the end of turn 6. The game went to the final 7th turn where I assaulted his remaining rhino destroying it in a nice explosion that killed the remaining terminator and gave him the winning KP.

Good game but frustrating.

Tuesday 27 December 2011

League Game #2

Just before Christmas I got my second early league game done. Jon played his Ultramarine army. I'll edit this post tomorrow to include his list. Our mission was First Contact from the battle missions book with myself as the attacker.
Jon rolled for his random deployment and most of his army ended up deployed in one corner. He didn't do what I expected. I did expect a newbie move to place his units in the center of his sections auto holding the objectives. He didn't do this and instead deployed on the edge of the board. My units ended up on the same corner as his which was not helpful at all.

I didn't do too badly I think. Lysander went down under a series of thunder hammer blows and I did a grand job whittling units down, but the dice and an untouched land raider were all in Jon's favour. The game went to turn 6 if I remember right, and Jon won with three objectives to my one.

Was a good fun game but I still got mullered primarily by close combat. I just couldn't seem to make armour saves even on a 3+. So that's two losses so far. Not a good start. I have a reasonable list but it's causing me to have doubts now. Not that I even had a chance of winning.

Better luck next time.

Tuesday 20 December 2011

More Chaos Legions rumours

As always take with a pinch of salt...

They're expanding the current story line greatly, and including much of the inner alliances, distrust and full fledged war within the 9 Traitor Legions. References to the Black Legion and their "arrogance" will help better paint the picture.

Models...interesting that a previous poster (i forget their name) mentioned Cult Terminator Shoulder pads...because i've recently been told that there is a NEWISH sprue to be released along with several boxed sets of Chaos Marines. The ability to build any Legion out of the basic NEW boxed set along with Legion specific sprue sets which are to include just heads and shoulder pads. I also hear that the Terminator version will also be available, but not sure if they'll come with power armor sprues. Suppose to be Direct Only.

I got a lil' more news on the upcoming Monstrous Creature...can have Marks of the Gods, but not all Legions can take it. Apparently Night Lords and the Alpha Legion prefer more subtle and stealthy approaches.

Death Guard gain a new ability (maybe Chosen squads only ?) that allows their poisoned attacks to ignore Armor Saves on a roll of a '6', much similar to Rending without the extra Armor Pen.

Daemonic Mounts actual are useful now! The undivided version will be "worth while" for the non-Marked Legions.

Thousand Sons will be VERY pleased with their new found speed.

Iron Warriors become "siege specialists" which equivalents to Tank Hunters and reducing cover saves on enemy units!

Word Bearers are "zealots" and benefit from Chaplains as well as Turn 1 Daemon Summoning. New Daemonancers models are suppose to be SICK looking, but I believe just unit champ upgrades.

Emperor's Children have a haughtiness to them, but prideful, which may give them counter charge (on top of their already higher Initiative). More heavy weapons upgrades per squad, and their Chosen will be...scary fast!

Alpha Legion apparently have the greatest access to Imperial style vehicles, as well as more of an unlimited Force Org slot selections, next to the Black Legion. Much of their Army will be able to upgrade to "Infiltrators".

Black Legion, aka Sons of Horus, aka Luna Wolves are tentatively stubborn, and have greatest selection amongst the units/vehicles. HOWEVER, they're not fully trusted, not sure how this works out in game terms.

World Eaters truly become the combat monsters they're story lined to be. Marked Dreads, and Daemon Engines will be a prime staple in most Armies...

I can't say that the Thousand Sons basic troop will get heavy weapons per say, but their new psychic upgrades will pretty much "counts as".

Thursday 15 December 2011

League Game #1

The hated Eldar have appeared from nowhere and swept through the Coronas sector, obliterating Imperial holdings on every planet they reach. World after world has fallen. The local system governor sent an urgent call for assistance. The Salamander's second company responded and set down to halt the alien advance.

Since my friend Joel and have had handed in our tournament lists we decided to help speed things up a little and played our league game early last night. Our mission was Black Crusade from the battle missions book, a mission that neither of us had ever played before. A learning experience for us both. Special rules were that any non-vehicle units that are destroyed return to reserves and can come in again, non-fearless units are stubborn and everyone has preferred enemy. Kill points determine the winner. Neither of us had lists that favoured this mission but my opponent's choices gave him the edge here.

Enemy forces:
Eldar - Iyanden

HQ
Eldrad Ulthran (counts as).

Troops
10 Wraithguard, Spirit Seer with Conceal.
10 Wraithguard, Spirit Seer with Conceal.
10 Dire Avengers with Exarch, extra Avenger Shuriken Catapult & Bladestorm.
With dedicated transport - Wave Serpent, Spirit Stones, Twin-linked Shuriken Cannons & Shuriken Cannon (replacing Catapults).

Heavy Support
3 War Walkers, 2 Scatter Lasers each.
Wraithlord, 2x Flamers, Bright Lance, Eldar Missile Launcher.
Wraithlord, 2x Flamers, Bright Lance, Wraithsword.

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A very tough game for me. The mission certainly favoured close combat armies and I didn't have that sort of list. Neither did Joel but the toughness of his forces worked in his favour to even that out. I lost my predator tank first turn before it got to do anything, and I went through my terminators about four times and I don't how many times my tactical squads were recycled.
After the match Joel and I talked about the game as we packed it all away, and I don't think there was much more that I could have done. Joel thinks his list is just a fun list and hardly competative, and he may be right, but it's going to be a tough list for most players in the league to take down.

My opponent won with 13 kill points to my 4.

The Imperial forces were decimated under the relentless Eldar attack. Then as suddenly as they had appeared, the war host vanished leaving a trail of devastated worlds in their wake. It is unclear at this time what the reason for their attack were, but the survivours of the Coronas sector watch the skies fearful that they may return.