2 games vs Iron Hands

Long time no bat rep... well, I've been lazy and busy but I've had time to play some! Unfortunately these games are 1-2 months old so I can't really remember the details... Instead I'm going to let the pitctures paint the story!

This first one is a 1500 point game, my first one against the new Iron Hands, and my first game using the Black Legion supplement. I went for Chosen in Rhinos, a couple of bikes, a couple of Obliterators, the Sorcerer with the Nova-power, a Lord and a Maulerfiend. The idea was to rush him basically.

He had lots of Tacticals (one melta squad in a Rhino), a squad of Assault Marines Deep Striking, Devastators and Centurions, a Storm Talon and the Eternal Shield Commander.

Hammer and Anvil, Emperor's Will.

The Drop Pod Melta came in turn one and totally whiffed everything. 

My Bikes turned around and got First Blood from the Pod. Killed the Melta Gun in the Explosion... The next turn the surviving Marines walk up right next to the Rhino... and all four of these super humans with their years of training completely fails to hit the rear armour of the Rhino. To add salt to injury three out of the four die to the four overwatch shots when they charge in...

Assault Marines came in and got assaulted by the Maulerfiend. They stand there forever. The Nova power hit every single of his squads, but he passes all blind tests and just loose a model here and there. 

Centurions and Storm Talon does work on Rhinos.

If you can't tell, my Chosen are simply barging through his stuff. Except for the Centurions and the Shield-Commander (who regained two wounds and splashed my Warlord).

Unfortunately I took no more pictures of this... so you don't get to see the glory that happened with the Maulerfiend. But after the slapfight with the Assault Marines all game the last three finally fled and were not caught. This free'd up the Maulerfiend to run to the other side and make a 11" charge at the now hovering Storm Talon that was withering down my Marines sitting on a Objective. It was exploded. The turn after the Maulerfiend run right back across the board once again and stops the regrouped Assault Marines from taking Line Breaker. Meaning I win the game since I contest his Objective, hold my own and have First Blood. What a hero!



So, let me throw in another game here, just because. This time I wanted to try out my Tau (who are shamefully very unpainted)... I had to ally in some Eldar to get the points up to a good size though. Basically I went with Farsight Enclaves, having a Fire Cadre, 12 Fire Warriors, 3 Stealth Suits, 3 Crisis Suits with Plasma&Fusion, two squads of Pathfinders with both kinds of special weapons, 1 Broadside, 1 Piranha and allied in 10 Guardians in a Wave Serpent with Illic and some Pathfinders.

I faced off against a Land Raider with a Chaplain in Terminator armour and Assault Terminators, Razorbacks, Centurions and a bunch of Tacticals as well as some Assault Marines.

Vanguard Strike and Emperor's Will once again. I got to chose side so I deployed a gunline in the ruins and told him to come at me. Which he gladly did with Assault Marines and Land Raider.

I totally miss-placed Illic. I forgot those Assault Marines had Flamers... and Flamers are nasty for a 5+ armour dude relying on Shrouded... he died turn 1 and gave up First Blood. Bah.

From my last game against the Iron Hands I learned that the Centurions put out a lot of fire power. So they got the pleasure of eating a lot of shots until only one remained (on the hill) at which point he wasn't very effective any more.

At this point I had shot about 8 Fusion Guns at the Land Raider, which was within half range. It refused to die, and it regenerated 4 Hull Points. Bah!

You can't really see it, but 5 Assault Terminators and the Chaplain stepped out of the Land Raider at this point... failed their charge (lost two to all the Overwatch...). The next round all but the Chaplain died. The Chaplain died to Overwatch. Ridiculous. 

Pathfinders Outflanked on the right hand side. You never see them... as it should be. They picked at the Marines in the forest holding the Objective, didn't do much. They also refused to die for quite some time, keeping the Marines distracted.

At this point the Land Raider is immobilized and has lost two guns (the ones that would have been useful). So it's finally out of action, but it simply refused to die!

Wave Serpent turbo boosted forwards and dropped off 10 invisible Guardians (this was turn 7 so couldn't be bothered to unpack them) who contested his Objective in the forest and made sure I won by holding my own, slaying warlord and getting Linebreaker.


So, two games against the Iron Hands! And what did I learn? They have gotten a lot more annoying to kill. Especially those Characters and vehicles with It Will Not Die. It's really frustrating at times! Big boost for them for sure!

I also learned that playing Chosen is fun. They wreck face and rock and roll with the best of them, especially against Marines. The Nova-power is also very much awesome.

In the second game I made two huge deployment mistakes. Losing Illic so early sucked, and the other one was putting the Broadside way off. He was blocked from shooting most of the game really. I should've put him more forward to have been able to take advantage of his shooting more. I also learnt that Tau are very forgiving to play. Just point and roll dice, it'll be okay. I don't think I'll play them much until I've painted them at least, so I can at least look good on the battle field.

More games to follow! Have a bunch of pictures...

First Look at: Dataslate Cypher & The Fallen Angels

So he's finally here! Cypher, the man! Of course I had to get this as soon as I saw it. So lets have a quick look at this one.

First of all, it's not only Cypher. Those who remember his old rules might also remember that you were allowed to take him with a unit of Fallen back then... and this is true now as well! You get two choices of how to field him. Either alone as an option that takes no Force-org slot, or as part of a formation (only for CSM) which is him and 1-3 units of Chosen whose special rule is Infiltrate! So in other words, back to the old codex version of Chosen!
In addition, models from this Formation within 12" of Cypher gets to use his Leadership as well as gain And They Shall Know No Fear! Let's that sink in for a bit while we look at Cypher's special rules for a bit.

So the other way to field him is as a lone model... but in what armies? This is a pretty odd one for me personally at least! I'll just cite the text here:

Cypher can be selected as part of a primary detachment from the following codexes: Codex: Adepta Sororitas, Codex: Blood Angels, Codex: Chaos Space Marines, Codex: Grey Knights, Codex: Imperial Guard, Codex: Inquisition, Codex: Space Marines or Codex: Space Wolves. Cypher does not take up any slots from the detachment’s Force Organisation chart. He may not be included in an army that includes any models from Codex: Dark Angels.

...so you can't ally in Cypher (notice primary detatchment in the wording). And a lot of Space Marines get him. What? And another point, he can never be the Warlord of any army... and in addition to that he gives your Warlord -1Ld. He really does sow confusion and dissent all around him!

Points wise he's quite expensive, almost 200 points, but he's quite a beast for being a single Power Armoured model. His statline is pretty insane with WS7 and BS10 as well as I8. Only 3A though (he does have 2 pistols though, and I'm not sure if that'd give him +1A?), but he is still pretty capable of going up against a monster. Speaking of his Pistols, he uses them for everything, even in close combat. Which means that half of his attacks (rounding up) are S4 AP5 and the rest are S7 AP2. Narrative mechanic? Yes. What about shooting the guns then? He can shoot each pistol twice in the Shooting Phase, or he can run AND shoot one shot from each. His Plasma doesn't get hot, and his Bolt Pistol has 16" range instead of 12". In addition to this he shoots Overwatch on his FULL BALLISTIC, however the way the rule is stated it seems like only one shot from each gun there. He does have the sword as well, but he can't use it - instead it grants him Eternal Warrior and Shrouded.

In addition to this he also has And They Shall Know No Fear, Hit&Run, Infiltrate, Fleet and Independent Character special rules. I see the potential for Deathstars infiltrating up the board who can't be held up in CC unless you want them too (because I8 and Hit&Run!). Cypher will also make sure that if you break, you will be swept (again, I8 is hard to run away from!). Adding ATKNF is also a huge boon to CSM, meaning they in turn can't be swept or truly broken! I see some interesting combinations emerging here that's for sure.

However, I'd not call this a competitive character - he's most definitely a narrative one. Full of Cool basically. Especially since he also has some special rules that grants Zealot to Dark Angels and Victory Points for capturing him alive to any army etc. But with that said I do believe you can make some mean lists with him included. But he's lacking an invulnerability save and only has Power Armour, so despite being Eternal Warrior he's not that durable.

The rest of the book then? I've not read it yet, because there's actually quite a lot more than I expected here. There's quite a lot of background actually, some ten pages or so maybe? Which both includes the story of Cypher and a timeline of events as well as short stories where he's involved. Really neat!

And it that's not all either, there's also 3 Altar of War missions as well as 3 Echoes of War mission included! Ie, three generic scenarios where you can include Cypher and three more specific ones! The generic ones have some really funky special rules, such as forcing reserves to come on on turn 4 and having Cypher hidden in a unit and the point is to get him off the board or a really cool one where you generate a normal mission from the BRB and adds an additional Objective (Cypher's Objective) which then has a random effect. I really like the look of these missions and I look forward to testing them in action!

In other words, this dataslate is packed with stuff. So I can totally recommend it if you want to add some variety in your games, or fielding a really cool character. For competitive play I'm guessing CSM will have the most use out of him, as he does add some cool boons there, especially with the Fallen Formation. But again, these are my first impressions so I might very well have missed something. :)

First look at: Be'lakor dataslate

So I just saw that Black Library released some rules for Be'lakor in 40k. I all ready own the model and absolutely love it (when I first got back in the hobby it was one of the first models I bought to paint because it's so nice). I've been using it as a normal Daemon Prince... but now we have some new rules for him, so I thought I'd check it out.

My version of Be'lakor

So, what's in the dataslate? There's some backstory, the rules to use him and a mini-gallery. The backstory is basically equivalent with a normal Codex entry for named Characters, ie some general history of the Character. Nothing in depth. There's also a short story in there. Basically exactly what you'd found had this Character been in a codex.

So, on to the rules. First off you can take him as an HQ-choice in either Codex: Chaos Space Marines or Codex: Daemons. He costs the same as a fully decked out flying Daemon Prince, so he's not cheap. But he has some tricks of his own that he can use.

His statline is exactly the same as the normal Daemon Prince in the CSM-codex, except for the fact that he is Ld10 (like all Princes should be!). He is also the only Daemon Prince that doesn't have any allegiance to any Chaos God. He has a better invulnerable save than normal, as he has 4++, on top of that he also has Shrouded. But most important of all, he is Eternal Warrior. So in other words, he's more durable than most Princes, even if he lacks armour.

Be'lakor comes with a Warlord trait of his own, which simply won't have any effect in most games.

More interesting, he is also a Level 3 Psyker and he knows all powers in Telepathy. This is huge. No need to hope for that Invisibility any more! No need to luck out on powers... you all ready have them! This is really a huge deal I think, as it'll make a lot of strategies a lot more reliable. He also has a bit of a gimmicky special rule that gives him an additional D3 Warp Charges if the enemy failed one or more Morale tests the previous turn. Could certainly be useful, but I don't think it'll affect many games even if it combines well with his Warlord trait.

On top of that he has his own special Etherblade, the Blade of Shadows, with the following profile:
Range: - S: +1 AP: 2 Type - Melee, Armourbane, Fleshbane, Master-crafted, Specialist Weapon


So what I see is a damn solid Character. His one big downside is taking up a HQ-slot in a Daemon army, which means it'll be tricky to use him there as he obviously fits very well with a Flying Circus... but usually you all ready need those two HQ-spots for Greater Daemons. However, if you go Daemons Primary and ally in CSM I see him as a nice replacement for that Black Mace Prince that everyone and their grandmother likes to take... and he doesn't have to take one of the less desirable Psychic Powers from the CSM book!

I'd recommend getting this dataslate if you're all ready into Daemon Princes. I'd liked to have seen some more backstory on this one, but what you get is still pretty nice. I also find it intriguing that Black Library now releases a single Character to use in games... will this become a new trend? For some new units as well perhaps? I'm hoping Cypher is next in that case...

When you run out of glue...

 

So I got my hands on a Wraithknight. The base has to be something special right? So I had just built a Daemon Prince and had some extra bits left over... and then I ran out of glue. Ahwell. A good start at least!

My gang of big guys is starting to look pretty nice... but I do hope the rumours about new Greater Daemons is true... my Keeper of Secrets is starting to look very small in this company...

2v2: Necrons and Blood Angels vs Imperial (Traitor) Guard and Black Legion

So, time for some 2v2 action! Not much thinking went into my list, I basically just wanted to try out the Black Legion supplement. So I went for Chosen troops, going elite all around. Even adding some extra Power weapons, hoping to get them into the assault and take advantage of those 2A base and also getting a chance to use the Dark Vengeance models as they look... And for that reason I also brought Rhinos to ride around in. And after that there wasn't much points to play around with! So I decided to continue the expensive theme and added a Daemon Prince and Decimator...

Knowing I'm playing together with IG I'm counting on them to bring anti-air and manpower... I'll try to go against the Blood Angels myself, trying to take advantage of my Hatred that I had to pay for anyway. We'll see how it goes, but with such a compact force it should be easy to concentrate the attack at least...


Lists


Black Legion

HQ
Chaos Lord - Gift of Mutation, Veterans of the Long War, Sigil of Corruption, Melta Bombs, Spineshiver Sword
Daemon Prince - Daemon of Slaanesh, Wings, Mastery Level 3, Spell Familiar, Gift of Mutation

Troops
7 Chosen - Veterans of the Long War, 2 Meltaguns, Pair of Lightning Claws, Champion w- Power Axe
+Rhino - Havoc Launcher, Dirge Caster
7 Chosen - Veterans of the Long War, 2 Meltaguns, Power Axe, Champion w- Power Maul
+Rhino - Havoc Launcher, Dirge Caster 
5 Chaos Space Marines - Veterans of the Long War, Plasma Gun
+Rhino - Havoc Launcher, Dirge Caster 

Elites
Decimator - Butcher Cannon, Siege Claw and Heavy Flamer


IG

HQ 
Company command squad - Regimental standard, Vox caster, 2 flamers, Carapace armour 

Troops 
10 Veterans - 2 plasma
+Chimera
10 Veterans - 2 plasma
+Chimer
Platoon Command squad - Vox caster, Platoon standard, 2 flamers 
10 Guardsmen - 1 Flamer 
10 Guardsmen - 1 Flamer 
10 Guardsmen
6 Special weapons squad - 3 Flamers 
6 Special weapons squad - 3 Flamers 

Fast Attack 
Vendetta 

Heavy Support
Leman Russ - camo netting 
Leman Russ - camo netting 

Fortifications 
Aegis Defence Line + Quad Gun

BA

Dante

Sanguinary Guard - Deathmasks, Chapter Banner

5 Death Company

10 Assault Marines

2 Baal Predators

N

Overlord

Royal Court - 2 Lords

5 Immortals

6 Warriors

Nightscythe

7 Warriors

Nightscythe

3 Wraiths 

8 Scarabs

Annihilation Barge

Pre

Emperor's Will, Hammer and Anvil. Both scoring Warlords. Move Through Cover (Ruins) + Fear. Iron Arm, Puppet Master, Slaanesh nerf. No gift for Lord, Crusader for DP.

Won roll off to chose sides. Lost to go first, but they gave us first turn to be able to counter deploy. Didn't steal. Night Fight turn 1. Baals scouted forward. Sanguinary Guard+Dante started in reserve.

Sanguinary Guard in reserve. Our Objective among the IG-blob, theirs in the bunker at the top left.

CSM + IG T1

Sorry for switching sides...

Objective turned out to be sabotaged.

Moved forward with Rhinos + Chimeras, supported by Decimator. One Rhino took the other flank... and immobilised itself on the terrain. Iron Arm'd Daemon Prince flew up and cast Puppet Master on one of the Baals, flaming some Scarabs. Inefficient IG-shooting due to Night Fight.

BA + N T1

Objective turned out to be sabotaged as well.

Baals continued forwards. Scarabs and Wraiths followed on the same flank. The other flank had Assault Marines and Death Company move up towards the Rhinos, preparing for a charge once the Chosen got out. Immortals and Overlord followed behind them.

Annihilation Barge and Immortals tried their luck against the Daemon Prince, but he just shrugged it off.

CSM + IG T2

Another Rhino immobilised itself on terrain... so I decided to get out and shoot instead. Supported by Havoc Launchers. Half of the Assault Marines died, and one Death Company. Decimator tried to charge Assault Marines, but failed. Daemon Prince Puppet Master'd Annihilation Barge and killed a Assault Marine, then the DP charged it and caused it to shoot Snap Shots next turn and more importantly got rid of Living Metal.

On the other flank the Vendetta came on. Combined shooting with the Leman Russes killed the front Baal. Chosen got out of their Immobilised Rhino and melta'd the other Baal. First and Second Blood, no surprises there! Those Baals are too scary to keep around for much longer!

BA + N T2

One Night Scythe came in, and the Sanguinary Guard. Dante found a tiny spot behind the huge IG-blob which was just enough to Deep Strike into. Lots of Guardsmen died to the inferno pistols.

Assault Marines charged normal CSM and Death Company charged Chosen with Lord (who got shot at by the Nightscythe first, killing a couple). My CSM Champion won the Challenge, but the fight was a stalemate. My Lord had nothing to Challenge and I thought his Power Weapon would cut through the unit... but instead he just killed one. But the Lightning Claws and finally Power Axe took care of the remaining three (but not without loosing 3 Chosen in the process).

Wraiths charged Chosen on the other side. Lots of attacks from the Chosen who piled in and was thus not affected by the coils... and amazingly killed two of the wounded Wraiths off. The remaining Wraith being Fearless stayed in combat however.

The Necron Overlord and his retinue of Immortals decided to charge the Daemon Prince. Turned out to be a bad move. I passed MSS, killed three Immortals and the rest fled... and try to run away from I9+D6+D3 (for Crusader). The Overlord also failed to come back - so Slay the Warlord!

CSM + IG T3

The one remaining Chosen with the Lord and the Decimator went to help the CSM locked in combat with the Assault Marines... the Lord killed all four with his 6 extra attacks for Daemon Weapon. That's more like it. Suddenly it was very empty on this side of the board and the Chimeras drove up to capture the enemy objective.

The IG used First Rank Fire! Second Rank Fire! against Dante of course... killed all but Dante and one Sanguinary Guard. One Rhino managed to repair itself, the other failed. The third one killed off another base of Scarabs (48" range is nice!). The Vendetta killed the Annihilation Barge in front of the Daemon Prince, stealing my glory.

The lone Wraith held another round against the Chosen, but took some wounds.

BA + N T3

The second Nightscyhte came on, and it decided to take a route on the far side of their own objective planning to come back in a later turn.

The other Nightscyhte moved up towards our Objective and let out their Warriors who took a Hull Point off one of the Leman Russes.

Dante and his buddy in a daring move jumped over the large IG blob, aiming for the combined Command Squad... wanting to atleast take an enemy Warlord with him. And at this point we also realised we had forgot about Dantes ability to nerf an enemy character... and since the IG Commander was the only one who hadn't been in any fights yet it had to be him. The charge was successful, but the last Sanguinary Guard fell to Overwatch. In an attempt to limit Dante he was challenged by the Commander... in retrospect it'd been smarter to use the Sergeant that was also around... but that wouldn't have been as epic. Of course Dante cut him down. The squad failed morale... but Company Banner saved them with the re-roll.

...and the Scarabs charged a Leman Russ... exploding it easy. Which killed enough Guardsmen to cause a morale test... which he failed. Despite the re-roll. Gah! Some 30 Guardsmen ran off the table... because of 4 bases of Scarabs. Unbelievable. 

The Chosen killed off the last Wraith.

CSM + IG T4

At this point the Scarabs somehow held the Quadgun... So the Daemon Prince used Puppet Master on the Nightscythe and killed the Quadgun. The Arc killed a couple of Guardsmen as well as Scarabs... Of course we blame it on the Necrons. It was their guns after all. Flamers took care of all but one base of Scarabs.
In the middle I was a bit at loss at what to do with my stuff, so they simply decided to move towards the closer objective which was in the enemy deployment zone. Being well aware of the fact that the newly arrived Nightscythe could easily drop off troops anywhere on the board... Speaking of which, something shot it (I don't remember what, I think the Decimator?) and Locked it's Velocity.
The Vendetta flew off the board as it didn't have any targets. Dante killed two Guardsmen... who failed their Leadership... and then passed on the re-roll again.


BA + N T4

The Velocity locked Nightscythe flew off the board, the other one turned around to start shooting at the stuff at their home objective.
The lone scarab charged the Leman Russ... caused two glances which was enough to Wreck it... of course. No explosion this time at least.
Warriors shot at Chosen, killing all but three who failed their morale... Dante killed another two Guardsmen, who failed morale and passed on re-roll...

CSM + IG T5

We consolidated on the enemy objective... but forgot to disembark the IG Veterans... so could've been bad had the game ended here.
Chosen regrouped, shot at Warriors and killed one. IG Flamers went up and finished off those troublesome Scarabs. Vendetta came in and shot down the Nightscythe that was still on the board.
Dante killed another two Guardsmen and... yeah, you guessed it. They pass on re-roll.


BA + N T5

Nightscythe comes back on and drops Warriors on top of their own objective. They unload Rapid Fire Gauss on the Chosen, kills him and puts a wound on the Lord. The Nightscythe kills all but one CSM from the squad behind.
Dante kills two Guardsmen and they pass their morale on the first attempt this time! Woot!

The game continues, luckily for us - since the fail to unload Veterans could've cost us dearly here.


CSM + IG T6

Daemon Prince Puppet Masters the Nightscythe and kills 2 Warriors and 3 IG Veterans who had just unloaded (again we blame the Necrons of course!). The Vendetta comes on and shoots down the other Nightscyhte... who crashes on top of the objective killing a couple of IG as well as Warriors. The Veterans unload their Rapid Fire and kills the rest of the Warriors and Lord... who doesn't pass his Everliving save.
Chosen on the other side of the board moves up and shoots Warriors and drops another one. Flamers tries to grab the objective.
Dante kills another two Guardsmen... and finally they fail their morale and gets swept. Dante consolidates towards the objective... remember, he's Scoring thanks to Warlord trait.


BA + N T6

Dante jumps over the Flamers to grab the Objective, the Necron Warriors shoot the Flamers off the board.

The Objective on the CSM+IG side

The Objective on the BA+N side

At this point we have one objective each, Linebreaker, and one Slay the Warlord each. CSM+IG also has First Blood. Does the game end? It does not.


CSM + IG T7

Vendetta goes down into hover mode and shoots it's three Lascannons at Dante... But his Iron Halo saves it like a boss.
I decide to charge the Chosen into the Necron Warriors, judging their chances to kill them and consolidate close enough to contest Dantes objective larger than trying to roll a 6 on Difficult (and Dangerous) Terrain (the Leman Russ wreck) and then run... and it would've worked nicely if it wasn't for Champion of Chaos forcing me to Challenge the Lord... I still win the Challenge despite Mind Shackle Scarabs (and is turned into a Spawn for the trouble) but all those high S AP4 (Power Maul) attacks that could've chewed up the entire squad is wasted... ahwell.


BA + N T7

The only thing that happens here is the one remaining Chosen locked in combat with 4 Necron Warriors... now... had my Champion not been turned into a Spawn... Anyhow. My guy kills a Warriors and takes no wounds, but the Warriors stay. Last turn, the game ends!

CSM + IG win with First Blood! 6-5 (One Objective, Linebreaker, Slay the Warlord)


Lessons learnt

Champion of Chaos is getting really frustrating to be honest. So close to screwing us over! All though we had the advantage anyway, it's still such a frustrating rule.
Anyhow, this was a game of two faces. We totally dominated the first half of the game, which I guess has a lot to do with the fact that our opponents had quite a significant part of their forces in reserve. Our plan to run up on mainly one flank worked out really well also - as they spread out their stuff pretty much. When we saw this we should probably have pulled back at least one of the Chimeras with Veterans to the other side I think. As it were we completely overwhelmed my flank. Turns out Chosen are pretty tough dudes. They're still very expensive though, so I wouldn't call them competitive. But given the right targets (Space Marines! Hatred is very nice to have) they'll chew through most stuff in combat. They really have a lot of attacks so even without special weapons they're deadly.
My Daemon Prince rolled absolutely perfectly for Powers. Couldn't have asked for better really. Iron Arm made him safe all game and Puppet Master gave him some range so he was part of the battle all the time despite being far from the action in the second half of the game. Also fun to have an excuse for killing my allies...
I was kind of occupied on my side of the board... but in the future make sure Scarabs die if you have armour. Do not let them cross the board... ever. I thought it'd be enough to whittle them down a bit... but they have so many attacks per base it doesn't really matter. You have to kill them all. Four bases almost turned the game...
Also, I need to be more careful in the deployment. Since I helped with setting up the IG troopers, and I was eager to start the game I put them up quickly. Didn't cross my mind that we had Dante on the other side with no-scatter-Deep-strike. Don't leave a hole behind your lines. That move combined with the lucky Scarabs made this game a lot closer than it should've been after that start.
Also, I see why Nightscyhtes are considered so damn good. Having Troops appear out of nowhere is really powerful. Make sure to anticipate your opponent when playing against them. Move where you think he will drop his Troops. Don't try to chase after him. Be prepared.
I also quite enjoyed having Havoc Launchers on the Rhinos. Really nice to just chip away at stuff when you all ready have the Rhinos anyway. Really nice upgrade! Sadly the Dirge Casters had no impact what so ever in this game... but ohwell.

Anyhow, really fun with a 2v2 game for a change. They have some different dynamics, and weird situations. Hopefully more of those in the future!

A bit of a showcase

Long time no post... again. And no game this time! I'm actually soon at 400 painted models (model no 400 will be a Daemon Prince, it's work in progress). So I thought this would be a good time to put some pictures on some of my own favourite models online. Hope you enjoy!

Let's start with my Chaos Lord since CSM is my main army. I painted this guy before Dark Vengeance was released... and had chosen turquoise as my complementary colour for my Black Legion before that... and to my surprise GW did the same thing! Bah! Stealing my originality! :P

Let's go on with some more CSM stuff.

 

My first attempt at lightning effects. This Berzerker Champion rarely sees battle... but at least his sword looks shiny!

 

One night when I couldn't sleep I made this one... out of paper and various bits. It's even magnetised, since when I made it your "mark" was decided by the banner so I thought I could make different ones! Then the new codex hit and nothing more came of that... :P

 

Because freehand shoulder pads and Daemonic weapons are fun.

 

 

Much like my Berzerker Champion Khârn doesn't get to fight much... but I love the model. Hard to believe it was sculpted over 20 years ago. I tried to make his skin quite red, as if his blood is boiling. Quite happy with the result.

I totally love this model. But everything is metal on him, which makes him a bit tricky to paint. I tried to use various different tones on all the metal bits to have some variety at least... and the blue wash didn't turn out well at all on picture... but ah well.

On to some Daemon perhaps?

 

This is probably my favourite GW model of all time. I just love the head and horns of it. It was so easy to paint really, because the sculpt is so good you could kind of do pretty much anything...

 

I wish they would re-make these ones in plastic... best Daemon-troops by far! I only have ten of these old sculpts, so I took the time to make the Slaanesh-symbol on their loinclothes to add some extra detail.

 

Picked this model up from Coolminiornot just because I liked it. Then I started playing Daemons, and thought this would be a very good Herald of Slaanesh... I decided to make her more purple than my other Slaanesh-stuff because I wanted her to stand out a bit more, even if the large base does that. 

Now, let's look at some random models I've painted over the years...

When I started this hobby some ten years ago I played Fantasy (6:th edition). After the starter box I went for a Night Goblin army (I have some 150 of the little buggers. Undefeated too!). This was my first really big model as well as conversion. Perhaps not up to the same standard I can do today, but I still really like it. I even sculpted the shield myself!

 

Even if I started the hobby ten years ago I've not been active for all that time... I actually had a break for seven years. This is the second model I painted after the break (the first one was a random Goblin I had laying around). Such an awesome pose. I also had a very limited palette back then as all my paints had dried out, so did a lot of colour mixing here. I really like the cold blue tone the cape got for example.

 

And this was the third model after the break... Heinrich has always been one of my favourite Fantasy models. So when I got back to painting he had to be one of the models I made. I tried to make his skin look really old, while his coat should be fleshy and fresh. Pleased with the effect!

 

Wood Elves has always been one of the coolest looking armies in my opinion (looking forwards to the new models that are on the horizon according to the rumours!. This one I spend a lot of time with the face and hair. The lips are even red, and the eyes are blue. Probably one of the best faces I've ever painted.

 Another elf, and another of my better faces! Went for very natural colours for this one, and for contrast I made him albino.

 

I like painting green. I mean, I have all those Goblins, so I have some practice at it... this one I took extra care to make him look battle damaged. I like how the paint looks chipped away and old on the shoulder pads.

 

Snikrot is one of the coolest Orks around. Made an experiment with the skin tone here... it's some five or six layers, starting with brown and gradually mixing in more and more green. He looks way more leathery than my other Orks, and considering his age, that's appropriate!

 

And finally, another Champion of Chaos. Loved this model when it came, painted it some 8 years later. Again, as a Champion of Khorne he's constantly angry and boiling blood... so a red skin tone felt right.

So, there you have it! Some of my favourite models I've painted over the years! Hope you liked! Stay tuned for model number 400... taking my time with it, hoping it'll really stand out...

1210p: Necrons vs Tau/Eldar

So, time for revenge! Last time I played against Necrons with my Eldar I got my ass handed to me, so a new game this time! Unfortunately I haven't added anything to my Eldar collection since I've been slow with painting... but I put D-scythes on the Wraithguard at least! So since my friend had build a lot of new Necron stuff I had to fill out with Tau... basically not much thought here. I just took what I have...

On to the battle!

Lists

Eldar
HQ
Farseer - Shard of Anaris, Runes of Warding, Runes of Witnessing, The Phoenix Gem
Spiritseer - Firesabre
3 Warlocks - Singing Speer

Troops
5 Wraithguard - D-scythes
5 Rangers

Heavy Support
Wraithlord - Scatter Laser, 2 Flamers, Ghostglaive

Tau allied detatchment
HQ
Fireblade - Shield Drone

Troops
12 Fire Warriors

Fast Attack
6 Pathfinders - 2 Railrifles

Heavy Support
1 Broadside - Marker Drone, Bonding Knife Ritual, Seeker Missile, Shield Generator


Necrons
HQ
Overlord - Warscythe, phylactery, mindshackle scarabs, sempiternal weave, resurrection orb, phase shifter.
2 Lords - 2× warscythe, 2× sempiternal weave, 2× mindshackle scarabs, 2× resurrection orb, 2×phase shifter.

Troops
10 Warriors
10 Warriors
5 Immortals - Tesla Carbines

Fast Attack
3 Wraiths - Whip Coils
8 Scarab Swarms

Heavy Support
Annihilation Barge - quantum shielding, twin-linked tesla destructor, tesla cannon.


Pre

We rolled for mission, got Big Guns Never Tire with 4 objectives (really nice for me!) and Hammer and Anvil deployment (because of the points we used an almost square board anyway...). He won to chose sides, and to go first. He rolled Furious Charge in my deployment zone as Warlord trait, I got run 1" extra. My Farseer got Guide, Executioner and Doom. My Spiritseer got Destructor/Renewer and Empower/Enervate, and my Warlocks got Conceal/Reveal, Destructor/Renewer and Enhance/Drain.
There was Night Fighting turn 1, and I didn't steal initiative.

Pathfinders scouted up, Rangers Infiltrated the forest. There's Warriors behind the mountain on the left... the dice row on the right shows where the board ended.

Turn 1 - Necrons

Not much happened here really, his Warriors and Immortals completely failed to move (I think they got like 3" in total with difficult terrain and run moves combined?). Both of his objectives turned out to be re-roll ones when shooting though. Scarabs moved up on one flank and the Wraiths took cover in a forest on the other. Annihilation barge moved up in range of the Broadside since that was the only thing threatening it on the board... and killed the Markerdrone but the rest was saved. The Tesla-arc also killed a nearby Fire Warrior.


Turn 1 - Eldar/Tau

Prescience on the Rangers, Doom on the Wraiths (which was denied) and Conceal on the Seer Ccouncil. The Wraithguard and Wraithlord moved up, followed by the Seer Council.
Shooting. Markerlights on the Scarabs gave me two markers, and the Rail rifles insta-killed one base. Then the Fire Warriors who had been stationary fired at the Scarabs, two shots each thanks to the Fireblade and the Markerlights removed their cover. Killed all but 3 bases. Yikes. The Broadside fired at the Annihilation Barge and blew it up for First Blood and 1VP for killing Heavy Support. Wraithlord missed all his shots... but the Rangers managed to put two wounds on the Wraiths and incredibly he rolled two ones killing one! Yay, they did something! The Wraithguard ran, again followed by the Seer Council.

Turn 2 - Necrons

The Warriors and Immortals continued to be stuck behind the mountain pretty much, they were really lazy this game apparently. The Wraiths and Scarabs moved up to make their charges though. Scarabs tried to charge Pathfinders, but came out short despite Fleet. The Wraiths made their charge against the Rangers though, killing all but one who managed to escape.
The Immortals shot at the Wraithlord also, causing a wound. The Warriors also put one wound on the Wraithguard who I of course failed to save.

Turn 2 - Eldar/Tau

So, Guide on the Pathfinders since I planned to moved them, Conceal on the Seer Council and Doom on the Wraiths (which I forgot to use...) and Enervate on the Wraiths (which was denied). I also cast Renew twice on the Wraithlord, rolled 11 with the Spiritseer, but the Warlock passed his Ld7 fine and healed the Wraithlord back to full.
Movement, the Fire Warriors rolled a two on their Difficult Terrain (since one of them stood on the hill...) ruining my plan of trying to take the forward objective on his side. At least they were still out of Necron gun range. Pathfinders moved into the ruins, Wraithguard moved up to surround the Wraiths and the Wraithlord move up towards the Scarabs. Oh, the lone Ranger fled off the board.
Pathfinders put one Markerlight on the Warriors on the hill, the Fire Warriors with increased BS managed to kill three of them. The Broadside + the Wraithlord killed of the Scarabs, while the Wraithguard flamed the Wraiths to the Warp.
At this point I was in a very commanding position with one objective held by the Broadside (who was pretty much untouchable up on his hill with a objective halving the charge distance...) and two additional VP's.

Turn 3 - Necrons

The Warriors and Immortals finally started to come into decent range, killed three Wraithguard (they managed 4 wounds in total I think...) with their Gauss weapons but failed to wound the Wraithlord. The other Warriors shot at the Pathfinders forcing them to Go to Ground and killed one of them.

Turn 3 - Eldar/Tau

Guide on the Fire Warriors this time. The Spiritseer left the lone Wraithguard and joined the Seer Council instead, the Wraithguard moved into the Forest... which was a Razorwing nest. I knew this beforehand, but I figured T6 would be plenty. Four hits and a Rending later the Wraithguard was no more...
The Fire Warriors instead moved up towards that forest, thinking to claim my own objectives at least. Increased BS from Markerlights (despite the Pathfinders shooting Snap Shots!) and Guide plus the Broadside then killed 6 Warriors and the Necron Lord. Two of them got back up, but the Lord didn't. Woo!

Turn 4 - Necrons

Immortals shot the Wraithlord to no effect, then tried to charge... and lost one guy to Overwatch flamers... Warriors shot everything at the Seer Council and killed the Spiritseer and one Warlock.

Turn 4 - Eldar/Tau

The Fire Warriors kept moving towards the Objective, and everything except the Broadside shot at the Warriors holding the Objective on the hill. Killed all but three, who fled denying my Wraithlord his glorious charge. The Broadside shot his Seeker missile and everything else at the Immortals who I had Doomed but once again forgot to use... and no Immortals died since I rolled a 1 with the to wound on the Seeker missile.

Turn 5 - Necrons

Warriors rallied, and ran up to grab their objective once again. The other Warriors were about one turn away from grabbing my objective in the forest by now... they shot at my Fire Warriors, killed just enough to cause a Ld-test... and despite the Fireblade being there they ran off the board. Bah. Can't trust them Tau apparently.
The Immortals and Overlord charged the Wraithlord. Ld10 isn't good enough vs Mind Shackle Scarabs, since he killed himself (once again...).

Turn 5 - Eldar/Tau

Seer Council moved up to use Destructor on the Immortals and killed one guy. Then charged in. A Warlock challenged the Overlord and passed Mind Shackle Scarabs (Ld7 is apparently plenty to pass where Ld10 isn't...). He was still cut down by the Warscythe though. One Immortal fell and didn't get back up making the fight a draw with one Warlock and the Farseer vs one Immortal and the Overlord.

We made a mistake here, thinking this was only turn 4, so forgot to roll for if the game ended or not.

Turn 6 - Necrons

So the Warriors who had rallied finally managed to re-take their Objective and the other Warriors moved closer to my Objective while killing another Pathfinder. In the assault the Warlock was in base contact with the Overlord and failed his Ld and put a wound on the Farseer, he was then cut down by the Overlord. The Farseer was Fearless with his sword though, so he stayed.


Turn 6 - Eldar/Tau

The Broadside let loose on the Warriors coming closer and managed to kill just enough to cause a Ld-test which was failed on a double six, making sure they couldn't reach my Objective after all. In the assault my Farseer passed the Mind Shackle Scarab-test and survived the Warscythe.

Then we rolled to see if it ended, and it did. Eldar/Tau victory! 5 (First Blood, Heavy Support, one Objective) vs 4 (One Objective, Heavy Support).


Lessons Learnt

Tau shooting is strong. The Eldar did their part and took care of the Necron stuff that came piecemeal and close, but it was definitely the first round of Tau shooting that won the game. It was also the Tau cowardice that was close to losing me the game as well...
What I learnt though was that Executioner is a really crappy power (I did use it I just forgot to write which turn above and it didn't do anything both times anyway so...). And I rolled it twice when choosing Powers... bah. Also, the Shard of Anaris... don't know if I would ever take this in a list where I'm not trying to get as many points as possible. No AP-value really hurts. Sure, Rending is nice... but you only get two attacks with a Farseer... so... Now, the Fearlessness was somewhat useful in this situation though. But it feels very situational.
This configuration of a Seer Council is really weird and hard to use in any way... I think I need to get a couple of more Warlocks if I'm going to run them on foot, and maybe then they'll be powerful enough to have a purpose. In this game I just ran them around, making sure the Farseer was where I needed him... I guess extra wounds for the Farseer isn't that bad... but then when I really needed them to do something they were too few in number. I still want to try a Seer Council on foot though, but I wonder how many more Warlocks I need...
Broadside... what a reliable unit. Even with just a single one he dominated the field. And in this mission he was just perfect as he could score at the same time! And with First Blood and one Heavy Support killed he actually claimed all of my VP's in the end...!
Wraithlord needs some kind of support though. Maybe another Wraithlord would be nice. As when he's all alone he gets really vulnerable to these nasty tricks like Mind Shackle Scarabs... Maybe some Scorpions or Banshees would complement him well though? We'll see what I come up with.