40K League 2017 - round 2

Second round of the league is over. So how did this one turn out?

Gary (Imperial Fists) and Jon (Khorne Daemonkin). Didn't see this one personally but seems like a good victory for Jon. I'm sure Gary put up a hard fight.

Marko (Thousand Sons) vs Richard C (Crimson Fists). To be honest I knew this was going to be a walkover for Marko, so I had already plotted round 3 based on him winning and I was not incorrect. At least Richard seemed to enjoy the game.

Richard M (Ynnari) vs Dan (Eldar Corsairs). Another victory for the Ynnari. I do feel bad for Dan because for months he has been doing rather well in practice games for the league but now he's playing it for real his luck with both dice and tactical objectives has plummeted. Better luck next time.

Ian (Necrons) vs Ashleigh (Astra Militarum). I expected this game to be quite close as both Ian and Ashleigh are top notch players, and I was not disappointed. Both had nice strong lists but I think the luck was on the side of the Necrons.

Chris (Skitarii) vs Colin (Death Guard). Unlike the last time I played against Chris's army, I thought I might have a good chance here and for a half of the game were quite evenly matched. Unfortunately for me he was able to outflank some nasty units and they blasted me from my own objectives and seized victory for him.

Joel (Dark Eldar) vs Mike (Grey Knights). Joel was an evil opponent here. Using his army perfectly Joel snatched all six objectives and kept Mike's army away from them the entire game. Fantastic game.

40K League 2017 - round 1

The first round is over and done. The table shows how we stand after that round and who everyone will play next.

Dan (Corsairs) and Ian (Necrons) was a hard played draw right down to the end. The tactical objectives decks working well to keep them neck and neck.

Richard M (Ynnari) and Joel (Dark Eldar) was a really tough game but the dice gods were on Richard's side and he was able to contain Joel's pirates in his deployment zone, limiting his ability to grab the objectives.

Mike (Grey Knights) and Mark (Thousand Sons)... I didn't see a lot of this but everything seemed very much in Mark's favour. He got a couple things wrong as you will with that many psychic powers in effect but the dice were with him over the poor Grey Knights.

Gary (Imperial Fists) and Chris (Skitarii), well, I didn't expect Gary to seize victory. Chris' Skitarii army is tough as nails and should have been more than capable of tearing the Imperial Fists down. I'm guessing it fell again to luck with the cards. As I have Chris next round we'll see how it plays out then.

Colin (Death Guard) and Richard C (Crimson Fists)... this should have been an easy win for me following Richard and I's usual games, but the objectives deck was entirely in his favour not mine. He walked away with 11 VP at the end of turn four and I had just 1. Frustrating game.

Ashleigh (Astra Militarum) and Jon (Khorne Daemonkin) was a big ass game as far as I could see. Ashleigh's table side was just solid with troopers and orange jumpsuit clad penal troops. The firepower he was pouring into those poor chaos forces must have been severe but still Jon pulled an unexpected victory back.

Are Tournaments Even Playing 40K Anymore?

I run two invitational Warhammer 40K tournaments a year for my local players. I'm always looking at ways to make the events better and more appealing. After all, at some point I want to open up the events to more players at some point and make these events something good for the local region.

I run the rules as written. If it is legal in a regular 40K game then it is legal for the tournament. Forge World units and rules equally suitable. But then these events are designed to be competitive. I want players to bring their best lists and their A game.

And that is where I find my current level of confusion and surprise. I keep looking online at other event's tournament rules and scenarios for inspiration. What I find surprises me. It looks like so many tweak the rules, changing rules, disallowing perfectly fine units and options, and using bland looking home-brew scenarios. It looks to me as though tournaments are not playing 40K but some strange hybrid of their own making.

A tournament should be fun but competitive. I don't think players should not be penalized in army selection and the rule book missions are perfectly suitable for tournament play. Now I do prefer those missions which use the tactical objective cards and I can understand the point of view which says they are too random for tournament use but in the couple of occasions that they have been used for our tournaments they worked fine.

It's hard to balance these things and I guess I'll just keep looking and pondering ways to make our invitational events fun.

Midas Crusade 2016

Over the weekend we held the third Midas Crusade tournament. The last one was end of April but due to real world issues I forgot to cover it. But the third one went rather well with little in the way of hiccups. Once again Jon offered the use of his sizeable garage and we spent a day playing some 40K.

As usual it was 2000 points, fixed list, with three rounds of three hours each and tactical objectives missions. The VP's scored totalled over the day to determine the winner. Anything 40K is legal but not HH stuff.

Unfortunately we had two players drop out at separate times in the weeks running up so i had to jump in and play, and the eighth player, Gary D,  could not make it until the second round started. I set it up so I effectively played Gary D and we drew. Neither of us were playing to win anyway so it wasn't a big issue.

Armies played were:

Colin - Chaos Marines (Death Guard) with Chaos Knight ally.
Chris - Craftworld Eldar.
Jon - Necrons.
Ash - Astra Militarum with Genestealer Cult allies.
Benjo - Dark Angels.
Mike - Craftworld Eldar.
Dan - Eldar Corsairs with Craftworld Eldar allies.
Gary - Space Marines (Imperial Fists).

It was a hard fought day for the top spot but Chris' Eldar successfully spent the day claiming objectives and stole first place.

Broodlord and genestealers outflank into the Dark Angels. 

Mike brought some interesting Eldar toys with him. 

Astra Militarum gun line. 

The Death Guard prepare to surge forward. The Knight did a great job of stomping genestealer hybrids! 

 Lots of conscripts being pushed forwards!

The Eldar battle lines.

 Necrons and Eldar face off across no man's land.

The unexpected genestealer cult allies shortly before being trodden on.

What to field?

So, in a couple weeks we have the third Midas Crusade Invitational (MCI) tournament coming up and due to a drop out I am having to step up and be both organiser and the 8th player. I need to work out what to take in a 2000 point tactical objectives based tournament.

What I currently have finished is as follows:

Typhus.
Chaos Sorcerer.
20 Plague Marines with icon of despair, two meltaguns and the champion has plasma pistol and power weapon.
20 Plague Marines with icon of despair, two meltaguns and the champion has plasma pistol and power weapon.
10 Chaos Marines whose champion has a power fist.
5 Chaos Terminators with three power weapons, one lightning claw and a power fist (because of what comes in the box) and one reaper autocannon.
3 Chaos Bikers.
15 Chaos Cultists.
1 Helbrute with multi-melta.
2 Chaos Rhino.
1 Chaos Land Raider.
1 Defiler.
10 Plaguebearers.
1 Chaos Knight Errant with daemonic possession.
2x Vengeance Weapon Platforms with Punisher Cannons.
1 Bastion.
1 Aegis Defence Line with Autocannon.

Some things still to be built:

2 boxes of Chaos Raptors.
1 box of Zombies.
1 box of Plague Marines.
1 box of SM Terminators (so I can have a unit with lightning claws).
Cypher.
2 boxes of Dark Angel veterans (to be Cypher's Chosen squad).

I need some ideas what to field so I can finish building and painting before the weekend of the 24th September. Any suggestions?

40K Conquest tournament - Battle for Helle's Reach

On the edge of the Traxis sector lies a series of war-torn worlds known by the men and women of the Astra Militarum stationed there as Helle's Front. Although not rich in resources or population (or biomass) whichever faction controls these systems will be in a key position of striking at several nearby tactically significant systems. 

In order to get my local players back into playing 40K Conquest I have started organising a monthly casual event. Tonight we managed to get all six of us local peeps together to fight over Helle's Front.

Warlord Breakdown:
Broderick Worr - 2
The Swarmlord - 2
Ragnar Blackmane - 1
Nazdreg  - 1

Final Scores:
1st: Luke Townsend  (AM - Broderick Worr) - 3-0-0
2nd: Darren Davis (SM - Ragnar Blackmane) - 2-0-1
3rd: Steve Osbourne (Tyr - The Swarmlord) - 2-0-1
4th: Colin Goodman (Orks - Nazdreg) - 1-0-2
5th: Matt Gibson (AM - Broderick Worr) - 1-0-2
6th: Brian White (Tyr - The Swarmlord) - 0-0-3

My first match was against Darren Davis and this was a very tough game. I was getting resources but not the cards to spend them on. He quickly got some space wolves down and first turn started his warlord hunt against my Nazdreg. Despite both our warlords having a major scrap which I thought I was going to win, he turned the tables and forced me into a defensive game that I wasn't prepared for. I got a little flustered I think as before I knew it he had secured three planets and won.

The second game pitted me against Brian White and his Swarmlord deck. Like myself, Brian is a very casual player and we had a really good fun game. He felt a bit down I think as he had chosen what he felt was the wrong synapse unit (savage warrior prime) and he found his deck wasn't working as he wanted it to. My deck on the other hand, kicked off fantastically well and managed to score me my only win of the night.

My final opponent was Luke Townsend who is already a top notch tournament player so I never held out any hope of winning this game. He'd been at an X-Wing tournament earlier in the day so was fairly tired which I thought might give me an advantage. I managed to gain command across the board on the first turn but in subsequent turns he was able to put down more and more units than I was able to compensate for. I had real trouble deciding where to deploy units and where my warlord needed to go. In the end the game came down to him bloodying and then defeating my warlord with some very hard hitting guardsmen!

Luke's winning deck was:

Total Cards: (50)

Warlord:
1x Broderick Worr (Decree of Ruin)

Army Unit: (29)
4x Anxious Infantry Platoon (Decree of Ruin)
2x Void Pirate (Core Set)
2x Cadian Mortar Squad (Core Set)
2x Sanctioned Psyker (Core Set)
2x Iron Guard Recruits (The Scourge)
2x Steel Legion Chimera (Zogwort's Curse)
3x Elysian Assault Team (Core Set)
3x Tallarn Raiders (Zogwort's Curse)
3x Blood Angels Veterans (Core Set)
3x Righteous Initiate (Decree of Ruin)
3x Sacaellum Shrine Guard (Boundless Hate)

Attachment: (3)
1x Commissarial Bolt Pistol (Decree of Ruin)
2x Bodyguard (Core Set)

Event: (9)
2x Summary Execution (Decree of Ruin)
2x Preemptive Barrage (Core Set)
2x The Emperor’s Warrant (Descendants of Isha)
2x Muster the Guard (The Howl of Blackmane)

Support: (10)
1x Forward Barracks (Decree of Ruin)
3x Troop Transport (Boundless Hate)
2x Rockcrete Bunker (Core Set)
2x Catachan Outpost (Core Set)
2x Inquistorial Fortress.

Next month we decided for fun that we should each play a random faction so that we don't have the same matches. I've pulled Tyranids so that should be interesting as I have only played them once or twice since their release.

Midas Crusade 2015

For some time I've been planning a local 40K event. I had wanted to try and get a large scale event going but due to costs and a not so great amount of interest among local players things were scaled down. Thankfully one of our local players, Jon, offered us the use of his extremely large garage. We lost a couple players but today six players met to battle it out in a large scale series of games.

Rules were:

* 2000 point games.
* Fixed list.
* Three games with three hour time limit.
* Unbound or FOC.
* Super Heavies, Gargantuan Monstrous Creatures and Lords of War are legal.
* Warhammer 40K Only - no Horus Heresy.
* No proxies.
* Cost: £5 paid in advance so I can organise prizes.
* Missions will be Cleanse & Control, Spoils of War, and then finally Tactical Escalation.
* Victory Points will be totaled over the day to determine the winner.

Using VP's to collectively determine the winner was something new and it worked so well that I think we'll use it in future for events and leagues.

Jon  : Orks.
Jaime : Farsight Enclave.
Ashleigh : Astra Militarum.
Sylvain : Blood Angels.
Benjo : Dark Angels with Imperial Knight allies.
Brian : Orks.

The unusual suspects.

 Three Imperial Knights march to war.

 The Blood Angels 1st company seize the high ground.

The forces of the Farsight Enclave.

The Astra Militarum prepare to defend against the Orks. 

A mighty Stompa!

The day's winner with his trophy!

I think the event went well enough that I plan to do a second event same time next year. Hopefully we can get some more players and a bigger event. 

Only a half dozen weeks to go and the league is done. Really it was far too big but for the most part it is nice to see the club being active and used.  The victor at this stage still looks like Jon to me but there are friendly bets floating around that it may be Jason or Ashleigh. I feel bad for Brian though as he never has the best of luck and this league hasn't done him any favours.

Once the league ends we can have some friendlies and just chill with fun games. I'm hoping to turn a few of the old Warhammer Fantasy players over to Age of Sigmar before I start a league for that next year.

League Update

It has been a couple weeks since my last posting and the league still rumbles along nicely. On our club Facebook page I have posted all the remaining dates so we can work around the summer and holidays. This goes on till September! Next time I think it will have to ensure that the league is smaller somehow.

As we currently stand Jon is still very much in first place, and it just remains to be seen who steals second and third place. For now I think Ashleigh with his Astra Militarum will take second but third is too close to call, and you never know what fate might have in store for the other players.

2015 League round 12

Week 12 of brutal combat among the stars! Only two games this week as one player forgot he had a game. Both players are currently discussing whether to call it a win for the player who remembered or whether to replay it at a later date. I think it will be replayed for fairness.


Game 1.
Mark Thomas vs Ashleigh Granger.
World Eaters vs Astra Militarum in this game. In my mind this was always going to be Ashleigh's game and I was right. I didn't see much of the game but I figured with his experience Ashleigh would have the upper hand and I doubt Mark was prepared for a decent mechanized army. Victory to the Imperium.

Game 2.
Michael Parker vs Joel Tate.
Now this game was a shocker. Michael is a playing a Horus Heresy World Eaters list which hasn't done him very well so far while Joel's chaos daemons list had been doing so very well lately. In a strange twist of fate Michael actually built a list that won him the game, although against daemons I'm not sure how. Victory to the World Eaters.

The scores now look like this:

2015 League round 11

After another week of savage conflict the forces of Chaos have had a very strong time of it.

Game 1.
Dan Durham vs Mike Parker.
Two Horus Heresy lists clash at last. Danny's Night Lords took Mike's World Eaters apart so quickly I didn't even get chance to see this game. I'm waiting for the Dan vs Jon game as that should be one worth watching.

Game 2.
Simon Butler vs Mark Thomas.
I had high hopes that the Grey Knights would secure a good strong victory against Mark's foul World Eaters and Daemons army. It looked like a good close game throughout but Mark snatched it away through victory points from his objectives. After the fact it may be that Mark made some mistakes which we shall have to watch but he had won whatever happened.

Game 3.
Jason Locking vs Adam Townsend.
Jason's Black Legion (generic chaos marines really) took on the Blood Angels this week and secured a solid victory. Adam had quite a nice list and he put up a tough fight but by looks of it the dice and the tactics were heavily in Jason's favour. Adam T is certainly improving in his game though.

2015 League round 10

Another week of brutal warfare has come before us and I've remembered to post this. We have had some good games but with very predictable results.

Game 1

Ashleigh Granger Vs Elliot Hall.

I hate to say it but this game was over before either player set up. Not sure how many games Elliot has had before this but this week he was up against an experienced player with a very good Astra Militarum force that just surrounded Elliot's Farsight Enclave army and turned them into a very large smoking crater. At least Elliot enjoyed it and that is the point.

Game 2.

Brian White vs Jon Quinn.

Another foregone conclusion. Brian like myself enjoys basic fun and casual lists that don't do well when the opponent is actually trying. Although he was never going to beat Jon's Necron army I do feel that he could have tried a little harder. I didn't see the final round of the game but I believe Brian's Tyranids surrendered turn 3 or 4.

Game 3.

Benjo Gray vs Richard McManus.

I had high hopes for my nephew in this game but it was not to be. He had brought a list designed to deal with one sort of list and Richard played something entirely different. I don't think it helped that Richard took Eldar allies from the new Craftworld codex which prevented the Blood Angels from overwatching as they assaulted. Harsh but now everyone else will be prepared for it.

So the scores now look like this:

2015 League Round 5

Round 5 was played last week. Apologies for forgetting to post this. We only had two games played last week as we had a last minute drop out (to be rearranged). But what we did have were a pair of good games.

Game 1.
Joel Tate vs Jon Quinn.
This game is probably the ultimate decider for the league as these are the top twinky players. Joel was concerned that daemons did not have anything that could handle monoliths and other necron vehicles so he took dark eldar allies which ultimately didn't appear to do him any good. Jon had all the luck with his dice and Joel didn't have a chance.

Game 2.
Ian Turner vs Brian White.
Ian's first game in the league put his Space Wolves against Brian's Tyranids. Ian had expected many flying monstrous creatures so took a Firestorm Redoubt to blast them and Brian didn't take much flying in the end but the Redoubt still did phenomenally well. Brian's traditional bad luck held and the Tyranids were defeated quite soundly.

Yes, those are cowboy hats on those space wolves.

So, after that week the scoreboard now looks like this:

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: