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.

Pestilence and Decay

Two months ago I thought about trying to get back into 40K by changing my play style and developing a new space marine army, the Scions of Mars. Well, that never got going and my enthusiasm waned yet again. At the end of January I had a bit of a boost. I was watching my friend Joel and his daemons army crushing a Thousand Sons force by utilizing the new malefic psychic powers. Swarm after swarm of pink horrors warping onto the battlefield and it lit that spark again.

This time it isn't for those loyalist marines but for an unbound Chaos force. Specifically Death Guard and Nurgle daemons. Always had a bit of a soft spot for the pestilent one and I am surprised to say that my enthusiasm is still strong.

I thought I'd take this late night moment to post some WiP photos. Sorry for the quality. All I have to take them with is my camera phone.

Typhus himself. I decided that rather than the usual green colour scheme that I would go with something more resembling the old pre-Heresy colours. I figure it'll make him stand out a bit on the battlefield. I'm also pondering giving him a terminator bodyguard squad and I may paint them the same colour.

Cholic, sorcerer of Nurgle. This is a very much WiP figure as I can't quite get the face and horns right. He's the fantasy chaos sorcerer figure but I wanted something to look a bit different than the regular models. Somewhere I have the normal 40K chaos sorcerer figure (painted as Emperor's Children I think) who shall be redone as Ebolas, favoured sorcerer of Typhus.

This Helbrute I bought ages ago when I was thinking of doing Chaos marines before. I almost sold him and I'm glad that I didn't. He's the figure so far that I am most pleased with. 

Other than these I also have enough figures to build two twenty man Death Guard squads. Mostly regular CSM but with a handful proper plague marines thrown in for appearance. There is also a box of plaguebearers sitting on the shelf to join them as well.

Not sure how I feel about vehicles yet as traditionally the Death Guard are ground pounders whose tanks fell apart centuries ago. I also don't want any of those silly daemon engines. I just can't see the Death Guard utilizing something like that too much. 

Tomorrow night is going to be a painting evening to get some of those plague marines done. Photos as I get them done.

Scions of Mars

Although my interest in Warhammer 40K has waned considerably over this past year for various reasons I haven't fully dropped the game. In preparing our clubs upcoming 2015 league I have had thoughts about coming back fresh with a new insight to the game. I feel that I've been too hung up on a few things about the new edition.

I'm not going to be partaking in the league this time around. Instead I am going to be using 2015 to design and build a new army. Last year I tried playing Tau for the first time and was horribly disappointed. It does seem that space marines are the only army that I enjoy playing. I have my Sons of Tantalus (about 1750pts worth) but I want to try something different. I normally rush through these things but I am going to use this year to slowly build and properly paint a new chapter, the Scions of Mars.

The idea for them came about because the Sons of Tantalus chapter I built used the Ultramarines chapter traits which quite frankly I found next to useless. I don't think I have ever had the opportunity to use them during a game. One test game using the Iron Hands chapter tactics proved far more effective although I still lost the engagement. Using the B&C marine painter webpage I came up with the image above as my chosen colour scheme for them. As I want them to be closely aligned with the Cult Mechanicum of Mars I am going to need to get my hands on as many of the mechanicus shoulder guards as possible.

Conquest Basic Faction Overview

I've been playing Conquest on and off for a few weeks now. Losing mostly, but that's because my opponents have bought more than one starter and at the moment I can't afford to do so. Even so I am finding it a very entertaining game although I wish I could get my head around exactly what I need to do with each faction to win. This is my thoughts on the factions available right now.

Space Marines.
I love Space Marines in 40K and always have so I have been trying to get these to work more than any other faction. On paper they seem quite strong and the area effect mechanic that some have is really good. Some units seem a little over costed though but I have that issue with most of FFG's card games.
Space Marines seem to be the faction to go all out on securing the three planets first and foremost. Hard hitting enough to snatch one early on and force your opponent to catch up.

Astra Millitarum Imperial Guard.
Sorry, not calling them Astra Millitarum. They are the Imperial Guard. At first glance this faction looks good but in truth they seem weak in actual play. So much so that I've used them as allies in my Space Marine deck because I don't think they'll work as the primary for now.
Lots of cheap-ish units that allow you to deploy over multiple planets thus allowing you the chance to secure resources before trying to snatch planets from your opponent.

Eldar.
As in the war game the Eldar faction is a little too good though not broken. A mix of handy units though low in wounds as it should be. Eldar seem more driven to wasting your war lord than winning through planets which I find irksome. If I remember right they are also the only faction that can easily return cards from the discard which gives them a big advantage.
Eldar are able to go straight for the Planet win or play the long game gathering resources. My experience is that they tend to just go for your war lord and win that way though. Boring.

Dark Eldar.
I haven't played this faction yet but have played against it many times. This faction isn't very strong at the moment but it can be very infuriating. They exhaust (tap) units and reduce attack values until your forces are worthless. As I say, it makes playing against them just frustrating and boring to play against. They do work well as an ally for the Eldar making them even worse.
I'm sure exactly how Dark Eldar should be played. I am guessing they go for the long game or the war lord kill same as the craftworld Eldar.

Orks.
The Ork faction is an odd one. By looks of it your units should get themselves wounded and then run roughshod over everything your opponent has. My experience is that they get to do it once and then get killed off meaning that you have to play things in waves almost. At the moment I am more likely to play them as allies to Chaos or the Imperial Guard.
Orks are like Space Marines in that they are probably best played to snatch the first planet as quickly as possible and force your opponent to catch up.

Chaos.
Chaos seems to be to be the strongest faction in the game right now. A mix of very hard units and some extremely powerful combos involving daemons should see them smash through any non-Chaos opponent. They are another faction that I really don't want to play against until I can get some more cards or another starter. It may well be that if my regular foes were using one starter that Chaos might not be so bad.
The Chaos faction seems to have the ability to go for the first planet win, capture resources and focus on the enemy war lord making it difficult to handle them.

Tau.
I quite like Tau from playing them in a couple games. They seem comparable to Space Marines but with more shooting and less area effect cards. They really need a second starter though to get the important cards. I've seen them played with some effect as allies to Eldar and Space Marines so maybe for now that is the way to play them.
Tau look like they are better at securing resources first and foremost before trying to grab planets. With enough resources they should be able to plonk down their big units and annoying cards and win.

Now to wait for the first set of expansions and the arrival of the Necrons and Tyranids.