2015 League round 4

Round four was played last week and we had three very good games. All were fairly expected results but that didn't detract in any way.

Game 1.
Joel Tate vs Adam Townsend.
Daemons vs Blood Angels. Joel's extremely twinked up daemons list was always going to win this one but Adam did play a land raider and storm raven which the daemons had trouble dealing with. Unfortunately Adam didn't really use them to his advantage and Joel claimed an easy victory.

Game 2.

Dan Durham vs Adam Winstanley.

HH Night Lords list vs Dark Elder with Astra Militarum allies. Again, this was a game where Dan was always going to win. Adam's usual list now just isn't strong enough I don't think to deal with a HH list. He would have been better focusing on a pure Dark Eldar list with more lance weapons to pop tanks. Unfortunately Dan had a far better list this time.

Game 3.
Jon Quinn vs Michael Parker.
Necrons vs HH World Eaters. Mike doesn't have much luck lately against Jon's Necron army in friendly games and this one was no exception. He had a nice list but the Necrons outnumbered and out-fired him. Mike put up a good fight but his World Eaters were cut down.

To top it off, here are a couple photos of some of Mike's awesomely painted HH World Eaters.

At the end of round four, the scoreboard now looks like this:

Elliot and Ian get their first games in the next few weeks. Due to real world conflicts they have had games that needed to be rearranged.

2015 League round 3

I wasn't about to watch the matches of round 3 as our venue was holding a pub quiz and I'm rather partial to a good quiz. However, three matches were played and this week we saw one player climb the dizzying heights to hold a definitive first place.

Game 1.
Jon Quinn vs Benjo Gray.
Necrons vs Blood Angels. I don't want to be harsh to my nephew but Benjo never stood a chance. He has been playing for a good while but still has a lot to learn about army builds and handling whatever a game throws at you. He had a bit of a grumble about fearless units being locked in combat with something they can't hurt. Well done to Jon for the win.

Game 2.
Richard Mcmannus vs Simon Butler.
I was a bit disappointed with this game. Harlequins with Dark Eldar allies is a nice new force on the table but I remember when Grey Knights used to mop the floor with everyone and I feel sorry for Simon. I am pleased to see that the new Harlequins codex is able to hold it's own weight though.

Game 3.
Ashleigh Granger vs Jason Locking.
Unfortunately due to the pub quiz I only managed to see half the game. Ashleigh played a nice mechanised AM list against Jason's chaos marine army. Only saw enough of it to see that Jason was having trouble punching through the army. Game ended in a draw.

After three weeks the scoreboard now looks like this:

2015 League round 2

Week 2 of the league kicked off well. No draws this week thankfully, with three definitive wins. Three really good games as well.


Game 1
Joel Tate vs Adam Winstanley
Joel's impressive daemons army finally takes to the field in the league against the combined Astra Militarum/Dark Eldar force of Adam's. Joel's list was very competitive and easily overwhelmed his opponent's army. Joel must work harder on speeding his game up though. Victory to chaos.

Game 2
Jon Quinn vs Adam Townsend
Jon is playing a Necron army and Adam the mighty Blood Angels. Jon is perhaps the player most topped to win this league so far even with only a handful of total games played. His list proved very effective and secured him a win. I didn't see all of the game but it looked like Adam was trying more for the kill rather than for objective capturing.

Game 3
Benjo Gray vs Brian White
A proper grudge match here. Brian's tyranid army (genestealers mostly) against Benjot's formidable Blood Angels force. In the past neither player seems to do very well so this was always going to be interesting. Despite a very close game all the way through, Benjo eventually won simply because the objectives fell in his favour.

With these games added to the league table it now looks like this:

2015 League round 1

 So, the first round of the new league kicked off last night with some interesting and unexpected, by me at any rate, results. It makes everything more interesting as a result.

Game 1.
Dan Durham vs Simon Butler.
Dan is playing a Forge World army from the Horus Heresy AKA 30K, while simon has a Grey Knights army. Now, I know that GW had sort of screwed over Grey Knights but even so on any day I would have put down money on a Simon victory (were I a betting man) but it was not to be. The game ended turn 3 if I remember right with Dan wiping everything of Simon's army from the table. Danny never does this well so thumbs up to him. Unexpected.

Game 2.
Ashleigh Grainger vs Richard Mcmannus.
Ashleigh fielded a nice Imperial Guard army with a fair mix of troops and tanks. Richard played the new harlequin codex with dark eldar allies. I didn't see much of this game but by the end of the final turn there were just points in it and it came down to a random VP roll on the tactical objectives to decide who won, and the dice fell in favour of a draw. Tight game and I don't think either player will complain with that.

Game 3.
Mark Thomas vs Jason Locking.

Jason fielded a basic mixed Chaos Space Marine force (counting as Black Legion for the narrative campaign) against Mark's Thousand Sons army. Mark was copying a fellow player who uses his army to summon huge numbers of daemons to the table. It didn't work out so well as I gather. He is also a bit of a "i must win" type player so when time was called at the venue and a draw was agreed to, Mark wasn't happy. We have since realized that he made some mistakes copied from the last edition of the rules but keeping the game a draw seems fair.

A win for Danny who doesn't normally do so well, and a pair of draws was not what I had expected from the first round. Will Dan keep his lead throughout? We shall see.

I also managed to get a friendly game in against my mate Richard Curr and his Dark Angels army. I was trying out the Death Guard army that I have and so expected to come a cropper. And I did. My dice hated me rolling 1's and 2's on attack rolls throughout the whole game. Richard had come with a mechanised list and through no planning on his part systematically took down all the melta weapons I had except the helbrute which was left immobilized on a hill doing nothing. Good game but definitely drove home that playing fluffy Nurgle doesn't leave you with much in a 1000pt game!

Quick Thoughts on Unbound

Pondering on it, I think that something else that ultimately clinched my return to 40K was the opportunity to play Unbound lists. Unbound would have made such a difference to my enjoyment of the hobby over the last few years because ever since I came back to playing the game in about 2007 I have felt stifled by the regular force organisation chart. I could never field exactly what I wanted to play.

Unbound basically lets you turn up with whatever you want from your collection regardless of any sort of force organisation, although despite not finding it in the rule book I assume you still need to have a War Lord. It is sort of Apocalypse light and best of all, though some may disagree, it is a legal force to play against a regular FoC list.

My new Death Guard and Nurgle Daemons army that I am slowly building is unbound but I'm not taking the Micheal with it. My lists will still be something recognizable as a fair list. Unlike my nephew who wants to field a pure dreadnought or devastator squad army for his Blood Angels. That to me is crossing the line because all he wants to do with it is win, with no interest in there being a fun game for the opponent. That is the problem with Unbound. If one player uses it purely to win at all costs then there is a problem. Is this something else that Games Workshop hasn't properly play tested and balanced out?

I'm hoping that unbound takes off but in a nice way.

Club League 2015

Last year I started reporting on the club league and then stopped as my enthusiasm died on me. But this week sees the start of the 2015 Primarchs club Warhammer 40K league and although I'm not playing (focusing on building and painting my Death Guard this year) I am quite excited to watch the games and see how thing play out under the new rules.

We have some top notch players and a good mix of armies being played which always makes things more interesting.

* Elliot Hall: Tau Empire (Farsight Enclave).
* Mark Thomas: Chaos Space Marines - Thousand Sons.
* Ashleigh James Grainger: Astra Militarum.
* Simon Butler: Grey Knights.
* Adam Winstanley: Dark Eldar.
* Adam Townsend: Blood Angels (Baal Strike Force).
* Benjo Gray: Blood Angels.
* Ian James: Space Wolves (Champions of Fenris).
* Michael Parker: Chaos Space Marines - World Eaters (Horus Heresy list).
* Brian White: Tyranids.
* Jonathan Quinn: Necrons.
* Joel Tate: Chaos Daemons.
* Dan Durham: Chaos Space Marines - Night Lords (Horus Heresy list).
* Richard Mcmanus: Harlequins.
* Jason Locking: Chaos Space Marines - Black Legion.

The first games are this week where we shall see:

Mark Thomas vs Jason Locking

Ashleigh Granger vs Richard Mcmannus

Simon Butler vs Dan Durham

As usual, all games will go towards the club narrative campaign: The Midas Crusade.