Been painting white parts on the csm models. Here's a chaos lord or champion type guy. It's from the possessed box, but I don't ever see me running possessed.
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Chaos Space Marines
I've been working on some Chaos Space Marines lately. This is a Chaos Champion armed with a combi-plasma standing on an apple. I'm about to hit him with some runefang steel and wanted a "before" picture.
Friday, May 23, 2014
Pedro...Calgar?
"Everybody Scores"
It's bad on a girl's T-Shirt but good in 40k. In honor of 7th edition coming out this weekend, here's a first pass at an 1850 point Space Marine list:
HQ
-
Marneus Calgar, Lord of Macragge
Armour of Antilochus
Elites
-
Sternguard Veteran Squad
2x Meltagun, 9x Veteran
-
Drop PodStorm Bolter
-
Space Marine SergeantBolt Pistol, Boltgun
-
Drop Pod
-
Sternguard Veteran Squad
2x Meltagun, 9x Veteran
-
Drop Pod Storm Bolter
-
Space Marine Sergeant Bolt Pistol, Boltgun
-
Drop Pod
-
Terminator Assault Squad
9x Swap Lightning Claws for TH/SS, 9x Terminators
-
Terminator Sergeant Swap Lightning Claws for TH/SS
-
Terminator Sergeant
Troops
-
Tactical Squad
Lascannon , Rhino, 4x Space Marine
-
Space Marine SergeantBolt pistol, Bolter
-
Space Marine Sergeant
-
Tactical Squad
Lascannon, 4x Space Marine
-
Space Marine SergeantBolt pistol, Bolter
-
Space Marine Sergeant
-
Tactical Squad
Meltagun , 4x Space Marine
- Drop Pod
-
Space Marine SergeantCombi-melta
Heavy Support
-
Stormraven Gunship
Extra Armour, Storm Strike Missile, Twin Linked Lascannons, Twin Linked Multi Meltas
What's in the list:
- Powerful scoring units
- Option to pass or fail any Morale test (thanks Calgar)
- Ability to use a single Doctrine twice in a game (thanks again, Calgar)
- A great flyer that haul dudes around to objectives
My actual troop units are very small but my opponent will have to kill every one of them to get them off an objective. I will need to be somewhat clever with objective placement to keep them out of the line of fire. Power armored models aren't that hard to erase.
The Stormraven is almost a given in my SM lists for obvious reasons. It's very good and with the new Vehicle Damage chart for 7th edition it got a little better - along with practically every other vehicle out there.
The meat and potatoes of the list are clearly the elites. They are the aforementioned "Powerful scoring units." Sterngard are Sterngard, and do what Sterngard normally do: shoot things to death. They have decent ant-vehicle power but could have more with some combi-weapons. The Assault Terminators can be a walking death star or broken up into combat squads for various nefarious purposes.
Another option is to drop the Assault Terminators for a Devastator Centurion Squad. This could help out a lot with what I feel to be a shortage of good AT shooting in the current list.
Monday, November 4, 2013
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Army Builder Space Marine files
Update (11/6/2013): My latest Army Builder patch for the new Space Marines codex is available. The major change is that Scout Sergeants, Tactical Sergeants and Devastator Sergeants can now replace both their Bolter and Bolt Pistol with items from the Ranged and Melee lists. The standard Army Builder version only allows users to replace bolt pistols, not bolters.
OK the AB40k.org folks beat me to the punch and posted the Army Builder files for the new Space Marine codex late yesterday. Kudos to them, they look really good! Now we can all go for the high score in Army Builder with the new Space Marines.
A few items of note regarding the new files:
I've uploaded a patch of my own that includes the following:
Instructions for applying the patch:
OK the AB40k.org folks beat me to the punch and posted the Army Builder files for the new Space Marine codex late yesterday. Kudos to them, they look really good! Now we can all go for the high score in Army Builder with the new Space Marines.
A few items of note regarding the new files:
- The previous Space Marine codex still appears in Army Builder. It's listed as "Space Marines" while the new codex is listed as "Codex: Space Marines"
- The files don't allow Space Marine chapters to ally with each other (yet).
- They've already released a patch for the files. Note that it does not correct the "Space Marines allying with themselves" issue - I'm not sure exactly what all is in the patch.
- The new Space Marine files don't allow alliances of any type with any other armies or vice versa.
I've uploaded a patch of my own that includes the following:
- Latest Codex: Space Marines patch referenced in the above list.
- Fixed alliance issue with Codex: Space Marines - they can now create alliances as detailed in the 40k rulebook. Note that this is not a fix for Battle Brother alliances between chapters.
- Removed previous Space Marines codex from the Army Builder army list.
- Added Farsight Enclaves rough cut. Point values are there, rules enforcing Signature System uniqueness are not. Wargear for Farsight's Commander Team is not listed, but point values are. Users of the Farsight Enclave files will need to perform manual validation of their army lists. Don't be that guy who shows up with 3 Riptides all with Earth Caste Pilot Arrays!
Instructions for applying the patch:
- Download the patch
- Make sure Army Builder is closed
- Run the patch. DO NOT place a check in the box saying delete files not updated - you will destroy the files and have to start fresh with a new 1.29 import
- You may want to install to a different game system folder to preserve your current Army Builder files (recommended)
- Start Army Builder
- Profit
Monday, September 16, 2013
Rough cut of the new Space Marine template for Quartermaster is here. I've tried sending templates to the Quartermaster support email address, but they've all been ignored. I also have a template for Farsight Enclaves (also a rough cut) if there's any interest.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Army Builder files for Farsight Enclaves
In short - I have some. They aren't pretty and do not enforce uniqueness on Farsight Signature Systems. If anyone is interested, I'll put them up on a google share. I recommend that anyone interested use the instructions here to install the current 40k files to a separate directory, then include my files. This will keep your current 40k data files from getting screwed up, plus it won't interfere with your automatic updates.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Storm talon magnetizing tutorial
This tutorial describes the tools, materials and techniques I used to magnetize my Space Marine Storm Talon. The only weapon not magnetized was the Heavy Bolter because, well, it's a Heavy Bolter. Use caution when cutting, drilling and gluing! Follow this tutorial at your own risk.
The materials and tools used: thin metal sheets (from hobby lobby in their model railroad section), scissors, hobby drill, 1/8" and 3/32" drill bits, xacto knife, file, rare earth magnets (1/8" diameter x 1/32" thick) and of course super glue. The Rio Rancho Observer (background) is of course optional.
A close up shot of the metal sheets, for the curious:
Here are the weapon bits and "pods" (rear left) for lack of a better term. You get two sets of pods with the kit: one that is more for the Skyhammer or Typhoon missiles and a second that is more for the Heavy Bolter or Lascannon. I went with the latter pod purely for aesthetic reasons.
The missile bits are in front and the lascannon bits are tipped over in the back to display where I attached the metal sheets. The magnets were placed in the pods. Here's a better picture:
I drilled out two holes in each pod starting with the smaller drill bit and then used the 1/8" bit to widen out the hole. I wound up drilling clean through the plastic with the small bit. Note that I drilled my holes right on the line that joins each pod together. For this reason, it's very important to start with a small bit. Don't jump right to the 1/8" bit because the pod will start to split. Yes, I found this out the hard way.
Once the holes are ready, put some super glue around the edge of one of the holes and carefully line up a magnet with the hole. Don't try to shove it in by hand. Once the magnet is lined up, get something hard and flat and gently press it down into the hole. You may need to mash the magnet further into the hole by pressing the pod down against a table (magnet side down). The magnets need to be flush with the surface of the pods. Repeat these steps for each magnet.
Now for the fun part - the metal sheets. Take a look at the back of the weapon bits. Fortunately, they're all the same size which simplifies things. Note: the edges of the metal sheets are sharp! Grab the scissors and start cutting a thin strip of metal from the rest of the sheet. Try to make the width of the strip a bit less than the back of the weapon bits so it will fit inside (take a look at the above pic). Note that the metal strip will curl as you cut it so be ready to flatten it out with something. I chose a dice cube but anything hard and flat will do.
The materials and tools used: thin metal sheets (from hobby lobby in their model railroad section), scissors, hobby drill, 1/8" and 3/32" drill bits, xacto knife, file, rare earth magnets (1/8" diameter x 1/32" thick) and of course super glue. The Rio Rancho Observer (background) is of course optional.
A close up shot of the metal sheets, for the curious:
Here are the weapon bits and "pods" (rear left) for lack of a better term. You get two sets of pods with the kit: one that is more for the Skyhammer or Typhoon missiles and a second that is more for the Heavy Bolter or Lascannon. I went with the latter pod purely for aesthetic reasons.
The missile bits are in front and the lascannon bits are tipped over in the back to display where I attached the metal sheets. The magnets were placed in the pods. Here's a better picture:
I drilled out two holes in each pod starting with the smaller drill bit and then used the 1/8" bit to widen out the hole. I wound up drilling clean through the plastic with the small bit. Note that I drilled my holes right on the line that joins each pod together. For this reason, it's very important to start with a small bit. Don't jump right to the 1/8" bit because the pod will start to split. Yes, I found this out the hard way.
Once the holes are ready, put some super glue around the edge of one of the holes and carefully line up a magnet with the hole. Don't try to shove it in by hand. Once the magnet is lined up, get something hard and flat and gently press it down into the hole. You may need to mash the magnet further into the hole by pressing the pod down against a table (magnet side down). The magnets need to be flush with the surface of the pods. Repeat these steps for each magnet.
Now for the fun part - the metal sheets. Take a look at the back of the weapon bits. Fortunately, they're all the same size which simplifies things. Note: the edges of the metal sheets are sharp! Grab the scissors and start cutting a thin strip of metal from the rest of the sheet. Try to make the width of the strip a bit less than the back of the weapon bits so it will fit inside (take a look at the above pic). Note that the metal strip will curl as you cut it so be ready to flatten it out with something. I chose a dice cube but anything hard and flat will do.
Once you have your metal strip get it somewhat (not totally) flattened out then take a look at the weapon bit and slice a little piece off. The piece should fit within half of the weapon bit. Slice another piece off that fits within the other half of the weapon bit. In the picture above, note that the lower weapon bit has one piece of metal already fitted - the metal for the second half of the weapon bit is sitting on the cutting board just to the left of the weapon. You will have to do more flattening and trimming to these small bits to get them to fit just right, but it's well worth it. Once you have these two small metal pieces sized just right you can use them as templates to slice up the rest of the thin strip of metal, resulting in small metal sheets that are just the right size for any of the weapon bits. Again, use caution when slicing these small metal pieces off the larger one!
After all of the small metal sheets have been sliced out, make sure they're nice and flat then glue them into each weapon bit. Wait for the glue to dry before seeing how they fit with the pods. Glue the pods to the Stomtalon chassis (per the kit's instructions) and you are done.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Strength 10
Yesterday I went to a Strength 10 Chapter get together and had a blast! I got to play on some great terrain, and met some great folks. Looking forward to the next one. I brought my Dark Eldar and got in a team game (DE and Necrons vs. Space Marines and Space Wolves) and a 2000 point game against CranberryMuffinMan (Space Marines). The xenos pulled out a close victory in my team game thanks to the Necrons. All I can say is my Wyches didn't run off the board as fast as they could have and the Necron Overlord just dominated assaults.. Until that dreadnought charged in. My 2000 point game against CranberryMuffinMan was a good time! He ran 2 bike squads with a 10-man Assault Terminator squad, a 10 man squad of tooled-out Vanguard Vets (lots of power weapons and shields!), Khan and Tigerius. It was a hard-fought battle between 2 very maneuverable opponents. The DE were eventually able to eliminate the bikes and vanguard vets, so we called it there. The rest of the game probably would have been spent scooting and shooting the terminators, and I was going to capture one objective for sure.
All in all, it was a good time! Now it's time to get ready for the Feast of Blades style tournament at Ares Wargames this Sunday (May 6).
All in all, it was a good time! Now it's time to get ready for the Feast of Blades style tournament at Ares Wargames this Sunday (May 6).
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Army Builder custom output requests?
Anybody have any? A while back I put up a post talking about custom Army Builder outputs and got a little interest. If anyone wants to see some specific output from AB, let me know in a comment!
Fat boys
I finally wrapped up my Dark Eldar Grotesque conversions using Ogres. They've got big, fat bodies with little pea-size heads due to the current blend of hypersteriods in use by my Haemonculi. They'll get it right, eventually. I suppose I should make a Grotesque with a ridiculously huge head and little stick legs, just to show them over-correcting the dosage. Anyway - pictures, or it didn't happen, right?
Before finishing and basing:
After finishing and basing:
The third butterball from the left will be an Aberration (unit upgrade for Grotesques). He will either pack scissorhands or a flesh gauntlet. The dude far left is a Grotesque with a liquifier. Anyone who's seen a Talos Pain Engine kit will recognize many of the bits used. They're not pretty, but they will work. A box of Ogres costs not quite twice as much as a regular Grotesque model, but it was worth it. If I didn't have leftover bits from the Talos kit, it would have been a more difficult conversion. If you look at the bottom picture, you will see a guy second from left - I tried to make him a mask using green stuff, and well.. Let's just say he made a good test model. These guys are coming soon, to a 6" x 4" table near you! If you live near Albuquerque, New Mexico, that is.
Before finishing and basing:
After finishing and basing:
The third butterball from the left will be an Aberration (unit upgrade for Grotesques). He will either pack scissorhands or a flesh gauntlet. The dude far left is a Grotesque with a liquifier. Anyone who's seen a Talos Pain Engine kit will recognize many of the bits used. They're not pretty, but they will work. A box of Ogres costs not quite twice as much as a regular Grotesque model, but it was worth it. If I didn't have leftover bits from the Talos kit, it would have been a more difficult conversion. If you look at the bottom picture, you will see a guy second from left - I tried to make him a mask using green stuff, and well.. Let's just say he made a good test model. These guys are coming soon, to a 6" x 4" table near you! If you live near Albuquerque, New Mexico, that is.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
A random picture from our 2000 point ETC style tourney at Ares Wargames back in December. More events can be found at Bolters con Queso. Here are my Dark Eldar versus Duncan's Black Templar:
I wound up losing that one, curse those Dreadnoughts and their Heavy Flamers! And yes, that is a real picture of Duncan.
I'm having a good time with the Dark Eldar though adapting to playing a non-MEQ army for the first time has been a bit challenging. They're fast, fast, fast and fragile, fragile, fragile. Raiders are made of paper mache soaked in gasoline. I've been running a lot of raider-borne Wych squads with attached Haemonculi, but I'm having limited success to date. The fact that most of those poor outings are due in no small part to tactical blunders committed by yours truly is beyond doubt, though I do wonder at times if I'm using the wrong tool for the job. I like having the pain token granted by the Haemonculus but I do miss that extra special weapon (A raider holds 10 models, 9 Wyches and a Haemy in my case - 10 Wyches are required to get 2 special weapons so mine only get one). I may try a suggestion from Geoff over at Warhammer 30,000: running 2 large Wych squads, each with 15 models one of whom is a Hekatrix with an Agonizer and 3 Wyches equipped with Shardets and Impalers. I've always been a fan of the shardets, and being that I usually ask my Wyches to tar pit enemy units in drawn-out assaults they would help in that regard. The only thing I wonder about is if the rules governing assaults in 40k will allow me to move my shardet wyches into base-to-base contact with more than one model when I charge. A cursory perusal of the "Moving Assaulting Units" rules leads me to believe that I can put them into base to base contact with multiple models provided they are not the first model that I move in the assault. According to my reading of the rules, the first model moved needs to be placed into base to base with a single enemy model. Subsequent assault moves must get my models into contact with unengaged enemy models - but they don't say that I must get them into contact with a single unengaged enemy model (unless I missed it somewhere?), so I guess technically I could put my model in contact with however many unengaged enemy models there are within my assault range. I wonder if I could get my shardet Wyches into contact with one unengaged model and one engaged model? Hmm, more questions for the local rules gurus. Duncan, are you listening?
I'm having a good time with the Dark Eldar though adapting to playing a non-MEQ army for the first time has been a bit challenging. They're fast, fast, fast and fragile, fragile, fragile. Raiders are made of paper mache soaked in gasoline. I've been running a lot of raider-borne Wych squads with attached Haemonculi, but I'm having limited success to date. The fact that most of those poor outings are due in no small part to tactical blunders committed by yours truly is beyond doubt, though I do wonder at times if I'm using the wrong tool for the job. I like having the pain token granted by the Haemonculus but I do miss that extra special weapon (A raider holds 10 models, 9 Wyches and a Haemy in my case - 10 Wyches are required to get 2 special weapons so mine only get one). I may try a suggestion from Geoff over at Warhammer 30,000: running 2 large Wych squads, each with 15 models one of whom is a Hekatrix with an Agonizer and 3 Wyches equipped with Shardets and Impalers. I've always been a fan of the shardets, and being that I usually ask my Wyches to tar pit enemy units in drawn-out assaults they would help in that regard. The only thing I wonder about is if the rules governing assaults in 40k will allow me to move my shardet wyches into base-to-base contact with more than one model when I charge. A cursory perusal of the "Moving Assaulting Units" rules leads me to believe that I can put them into base to base contact with multiple models provided they are not the first model that I move in the assault. According to my reading of the rules, the first model moved needs to be placed into base to base with a single enemy model. Subsequent assault moves must get my models into contact with unengaged enemy models - but they don't say that I must get them into contact with a single unengaged enemy model (unless I missed it somewhere?), so I guess technically I could put my model in contact with however many unengaged enemy models there are within my assault range. I wonder if I could get my shardet Wyches into contact with one unengaged model and one engaged model? Hmm, more questions for the local rules gurus. Duncan, are you listening?
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Army Builder Custom Output
I like Army Builder, I really do - but I quite often find myself either not needing all of the output it can provide, or wanting to paste an army list up on a forum for comments. Take tournaments for instance. Most tournament players will know that garden variety Space Marines have And They Shall Know No Fear, Combat Squads and wear Power Armor. Army Builder provides excellent output detailing every little fact about each unit in my army - the problem I have with that is redundancy and the fact I have to carefully read each entry (especially in the case of squad leaders) to see their wargear. Nothing against reading, mind you. Pictures are worth a thousand words, so take this basic Army Builder output:
And compare that picture with this one:
Both are for the same units - two assault squads (one in a Rhino) and one Stormraven. I've omitted the point costs because I don't want to get sued. In my output I get the unit stats, and stuff I bought for the unit. Note that looking at the bottom picture I know right off the bat that both Sergeants have Power Fists. I can learn that same information looking at the top picture, but it will take a little longer.
I also brought up posting army lists to forums for comments. Forums are places where unit point costs should not be posted. They also support BBCode. That being the case, I created another custom output that displays units and their upgrades without point costs in BBCode. Here are the same three units from before:
[b] Troops: Assault Squad (10) [/b]
Chainsword x 7, Bolt Pistol x 7
Meltagun
Chainsword, Meltagun
Meltagun
Chainsword, Meltagun
Sergeant
Bolt Pistol, Power Fist x 1
Rhino
Dozer Blade, Storm Bolter
[b] Troops: Assault Squad (10) [/b]
Bolt Pistol x 7, Chainsword x 7
Meltagun
Chainsword, Meltagun
Meltagun
Chainsword, Meltagun
Sergeant
Bolt Pistol, Power Fist x 1
[b] Heavy Support: Stormraven Gunship [/b]
Searchlight, 4x Bloodstrike Missiles, Twin-Linked Multi-melta, Twin-Linked Lascannon
Granted, it's not as nice looking as the pictures but you can post it on a forum pretty easily and have your squads appear in bold font. BBCode does not preserve white space (i.e. spaces and tabs in front of text) so my nice indents are gone. I'm still working on this custom output, I just wanted to provide an example of what is possible.
The built-in help inside Army Builder provides excellent information on creating custom output. I'm more than willing to provide my custom outputs to anyone who may be interested.
And compare that picture with this one:
Both are for the same units - two assault squads (one in a Rhino) and one Stormraven. I've omitted the point costs because I don't want to get sued. In my output I get the unit stats, and stuff I bought for the unit. Note that looking at the bottom picture I know right off the bat that both Sergeants have Power Fists. I can learn that same information looking at the top picture, but it will take a little longer.
I also brought up posting army lists to forums for comments. Forums are places where unit point costs should not be posted. They also support BBCode. That being the case, I created another custom output that displays units and their upgrades without point costs in BBCode. Here are the same three units from before:
[b] Troops: Assault Squad (10) [/b]
Chainsword x 7, Bolt Pistol x 7
Meltagun
Chainsword, Meltagun
Meltagun
Chainsword, Meltagun
Sergeant
Bolt Pistol, Power Fist x 1
Rhino
Dozer Blade, Storm Bolter
[b] Troops: Assault Squad (10) [/b]
Bolt Pistol x 7, Chainsword x 7
Meltagun
Chainsword, Meltagun
Meltagun
Chainsword, Meltagun
Sergeant
Bolt Pistol, Power Fist x 1
[b] Heavy Support: Stormraven Gunship [/b]
Searchlight, 4x Bloodstrike Missiles, Twin-Linked Multi-melta, Twin-Linked Lascannon
Granted, it's not as nice looking as the pictures but you can post it on a forum pretty easily and have your squads appear in bold font. BBCode does not preserve white space (i.e. spaces and tabs in front of text) so my nice indents are gone. I'm still working on this custom output, I just wanted to provide an example of what is possible.
The built-in help inside Army Builder provides excellent information on creating custom output. I'm more than willing to provide my custom outputs to anyone who may be interested.
Monday, August 15, 2011
2011 'Ard Boyz List
Here's my 'Ard Boyz list. More later..
HQ: Mephiston, Lord of Death
HQ: Librarian in Terminator Armour
+ Storm Shield
Elite: Terminator Assault Squad (7)
2 Terminator with Lightning Claws
3 Terminator with Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield
1 Sergeant + Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield
1 Land Raider Crusader + Extra Armor + Multi-melta + Searchlight
Elite: Furioso Dreadnought
+ 2 Blood Talons
Elite: Sanguinary Priest (2)
2 Sanguinary Priest in Power Armour + 2 Power Swords
Troops: Assault Squad (10)
7 Assault Squad
1 Assault Marine with Meltagun
1 Assault Marine with Meltagun
1 Sergeant + Power Fist
1 Rhino + Dozer Blade + Searchlight
Troops: Assault Squad (9)
7 Assault Squad
1 Assault Marine with Meltagun
1 Sergeant + Power Fist
1 Rhino + Dozer Blade + Searchlight
Troops: Assault Squad (9)
7 Assault Squad
1 Assault Marine with Meltagun
1 Sergeant + Thunder Hammer
1 Rhino + Dozer Blade + Searchlight
Troops: Assault Squad (10)
7 Assault Squad
1 Assault Marine with Meltagun
1 Assault Marine with Meltagun
1 Sergeant + Power Fist x1
Heavy Support: Stormraven Gunship (1)
Heavy Support: Devastator Squad (7)
Missile Launcher x4
HQ: Mephiston, Lord of Death
HQ: Librarian in Terminator Armour
+ Storm Shield
Elite: Terminator Assault Squad (7)
2 Terminator with Lightning Claws
3 Terminator with Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield
1 Sergeant + Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield
1 Land Raider Crusader + Extra Armor + Multi-melta + Searchlight
Elite: Furioso Dreadnought
+ 2 Blood Talons
Elite: Sanguinary Priest (2)
2 Sanguinary Priest in Power Armour + 2 Power Swords
Troops: Assault Squad (10)
7 Assault Squad
1 Assault Marine with Meltagun
1 Assault Marine with Meltagun
1 Sergeant + Power Fist
1 Rhino + Dozer Blade + Searchlight
Troops: Assault Squad (9)
7 Assault Squad
1 Assault Marine with Meltagun
1 Sergeant + Power Fist
1 Rhino + Dozer Blade + Searchlight
Troops: Assault Squad (9)
7 Assault Squad
1 Assault Marine with Meltagun
1 Sergeant + Thunder Hammer
1 Rhino + Dozer Blade + Searchlight
Troops: Assault Squad (10)
7 Assault Squad
1 Assault Marine with Meltagun
1 Assault Marine with Meltagun
1 Sergeant + Power Fist x1
Heavy Support: Stormraven Gunship (1)
Heavy Support: Devastator Squad (7)
Missile Launcher x4
Friday, July 1, 2011
Blue Lysander comes out to play
I was finally able to play a game last Saturday and try out my Stubborn Master Plan. I wound up playing a doubles game, me and Sean (Grey Knights) versus Todd(Tau) and Bret (Chaos Space Marines). We had 2000 points per player, and yes it took forever. Here's my list:
HQ: Captain Darnath Lysander
Troops: Tactical Squad (10 models, 240 pts)
+ Meltagun
+ Multi-Melta
+ Power Fist
Rhino
+ Dozer Blade
Troops: Tactical Squad (10 models, 240 pts)
+ Meltagun
+ Multi-Melta
+ Power Fist
Rhino
+ Dozer Blade
Troops: Tactical Squad (10 models, 255 pts)
+ Meltagun
+ Multi-Melta
+ Power Fist
+ teleport homer
Rhino
+ Dozer Blade
Troops: Tactical Squad (10 models, 250 pts)
+ Flamer
+ Missile Launcher
+ Power Fist
+ teleport homer
Rhino
+ Dozer Blade
Troops: Scout Squad (10 models, 190 pts)
+ BP/CCW for all scouts
+ power fist
+ combi-melta
+ teleport homer
Elite: Terminator Assault Squad (8 units, 320 pts)
+ 5 Thunder Hammer/SS
+ 3 Lightning Claws
Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (90 pts)
+ Typhoon Missile Launcher
Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (90 pts)
+ Typhoon Missile Launcher
Elite: Dreadnought (125 pts)
+ 2 x Twin Linked Autocannon
HQ: 1
Elite: 2
Troops: 5
Fast: 2
Heavy: 0
Yup, that's a big blob of Scouts with a powerfist toting sergeant. I had 10 extra points, so I gave him a combi-melta.
We played Nova (objectives - kill points - table quarters were the goals, in order), Pitched Battle deployment. Scouts were kept in reserve, and would enter battle by outflanking. Our opponents had the first turn, and promptly blew up one of my Rhinos, both of Sean's, and pinned one of each of our squads. He wasn't encouraged. Our turn one, the rest of my Rhinos rolled up the left flank and popped smoke, the Grey Knights pushed forward. Todd and Bret seemed content to shoot us to pieces then charge us with angry Chaos dudes once we got close enough.
Turn 2, more shooting. A Chaos Rhino filled with Berserkers pushed towards my Rhinos on the left. Tau suits hopping out and then back into cover. Broadsides, well, being Broadsides and Obliterators shooting stuff up. I did really well on cover saves, no Rhinos lost - I think I had a weapon destroyed but no big deal.
Our turn 2, scouts come in. Thank God they came in on my left, there was nothing but trouble on the right - Chaos Terminators and maybe a squad of Fire Warriors if I was lucky. The scouts wanted to get into CC with a Broadside, but there was no way I could guarantee getting a charge off there so they snuggled up next to the Berserker's Rhino that had moved at the top of turn 2. The scout's big brother's pulled up in their Rhino next to the Bererker's ride, and hopped out. Another tactical squad disembarked another Rhino before it moved, and advanced on a cowering squad of Fire Warriors - the now empty Rhino pulled back to pick up the squad that was pinned in turn 1. The first tactical squad popped the Berserker's Rhino with their meltagun (this was a tactical error, I should have let the scout sergeant try first and then have the Tac squad rapid fire the survivors). The scouts shot up the survivors, then charged the rest. I finally got to put my Stubborn Master Plan to the test! If I could tie up the Berserkers, the tac squads could quite possibly get into the the Tau backline and cause trouble. Khorne Berserkers weren't the optimal units to charge with Scouts, but I had no illusions of them winning the combat outright, just tie them up long enough for the rest of my army to take advantage of it. The scouts wound up losing everybody but the sergeant, and the only Berserker left was the Aspiring Champion so they did pretty well. Had it not been for a very errant Plasma Cannon shot on the next turn, they probably would have killed each other. As it was, the Scout sergeant failed his cover save and died to the plasma cannon, thus allowing the Champion to charge the nearby Tactical Squad and take out 3 guys before being taken down himself.
Sean and I wound up pulling it out after getting a solid grip on 3/5 objectives. Remaining highlights of the game (for me, anyway) included Blue Lysander and his terminator cronies teleporting in for a great landing (thanks to the homers) and cleaning up 3 Oblits, a Fire Warrior squad and 3 Crisis Suits; a big slap fight between a Tactical Squad and some Vespids; and a Tactical Squad ambushing some Noise Marines, then rolling lots of 1's and 2's to hit with their bolters.
What did I learn?
As for the list - I was pretty pleased with it. There isn't a whole lot of long range shooting but that's not something Space Marines excel at anyway. The scout squad was expensive - Scout Snipers are also a possibility as they could get a 2+ cover save with Lysander's Bolster Defenses skill, but I kind of like the potential for them to get in close and allow my Terminators a safe landing right up in the enemy's grill.
HQ: Captain Darnath Lysander
Troops: Tactical Squad (10 models, 240 pts)
+ Meltagun
+ Multi-Melta
+ Power Fist
Rhino
+ Dozer Blade
Troops: Tactical Squad (10 models, 240 pts)
+ Meltagun
+ Multi-Melta
+ Power Fist
Rhino
+ Dozer Blade
Troops: Tactical Squad (10 models, 255 pts)
+ Meltagun
+ Multi-Melta
+ Power Fist
+ teleport homer
Rhino
+ Dozer Blade
Troops: Tactical Squad (10 models, 250 pts)
+ Flamer
+ Missile Launcher
+ Power Fist
+ teleport homer
Rhino
+ Dozer Blade
Troops: Scout Squad (10 models, 190 pts)
+ BP/CCW for all scouts
+ power fist
+ combi-melta
+ teleport homer
Elite: Terminator Assault Squad (8 units, 320 pts)
+ 5 Thunder Hammer/SS
+ 3 Lightning Claws
Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (90 pts)
+ Typhoon Missile Launcher
Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (90 pts)
+ Typhoon Missile Launcher
Elite: Dreadnought (125 pts)
+ 2 x Twin Linked Autocannon
HQ: 1
Elite: 2
Troops: 5
Fast: 2
Heavy: 0
Yup, that's a big blob of Scouts with a powerfist toting sergeant. I had 10 extra points, so I gave him a combi-melta.
We played Nova (objectives - kill points - table quarters were the goals, in order), Pitched Battle deployment. Scouts were kept in reserve, and would enter battle by outflanking. Our opponents had the first turn, and promptly blew up one of my Rhinos, both of Sean's, and pinned one of each of our squads. He wasn't encouraged. Our turn one, the rest of my Rhinos rolled up the left flank and popped smoke, the Grey Knights pushed forward. Todd and Bret seemed content to shoot us to pieces then charge us with angry Chaos dudes once we got close enough.
Turn 2, more shooting. A Chaos Rhino filled with Berserkers pushed towards my Rhinos on the left. Tau suits hopping out and then back into cover. Broadsides, well, being Broadsides and Obliterators shooting stuff up. I did really well on cover saves, no Rhinos lost - I think I had a weapon destroyed but no big deal.
Our turn 2, scouts come in. Thank God they came in on my left, there was nothing but trouble on the right - Chaos Terminators and maybe a squad of Fire Warriors if I was lucky. The scouts wanted to get into CC with a Broadside, but there was no way I could guarantee getting a charge off there so they snuggled up next to the Berserker's Rhino that had moved at the top of turn 2. The scout's big brother's pulled up in their Rhino next to the Bererker's ride, and hopped out. Another tactical squad disembarked another Rhino before it moved, and advanced on a cowering squad of Fire Warriors - the now empty Rhino pulled back to pick up the squad that was pinned in turn 1. The first tactical squad popped the Berserker's Rhino with their meltagun (this was a tactical error, I should have let the scout sergeant try first and then have the Tac squad rapid fire the survivors). The scouts shot up the survivors, then charged the rest. I finally got to put my Stubborn Master Plan to the test! If I could tie up the Berserkers, the tac squads could quite possibly get into the the Tau backline and cause trouble. Khorne Berserkers weren't the optimal units to charge with Scouts, but I had no illusions of them winning the combat outright, just tie them up long enough for the rest of my army to take advantage of it. The scouts wound up losing everybody but the sergeant, and the only Berserker left was the Aspiring Champion so they did pretty well. Had it not been for a very errant Plasma Cannon shot on the next turn, they probably would have killed each other. As it was, the Scout sergeant failed his cover save and died to the plasma cannon, thus allowing the Champion to charge the nearby Tactical Squad and take out 3 guys before being taken down himself.
Sean and I wound up pulling it out after getting a solid grip on 3/5 objectives. Remaining highlights of the game (for me, anyway) included Blue Lysander and his terminator cronies teleporting in for a great landing (thanks to the homers) and cleaning up 3 Oblits, a Fire Warrior squad and 3 Crisis Suits; a big slap fight between a Tactical Squad and some Vespids; and a Tactical Squad ambushing some Noise Marines, then rolling lots of 1's and 2's to hit with their bolters.
What did I learn?
- Don't push up with a scoring unit when my teammate has an objective well in
hand. Don't know what I was thinking. - When two squads can shoot at a loaded transport, let the "best" shooters go last if the other squad can possibly pop the vehicle. Maybe they will have infantry to shoot at instead of light armor.
- Lysander smash!
As for the list - I was pretty pleased with it. There isn't a whole lot of long range shooting but that's not something Space Marines excel at anyway. The scout squad was expensive - Scout Snipers are also a possibility as they could get a 2+ cover save with Lysander's Bolster Defenses skill, but I kind of like the potential for them to get in close and allow my Terminators a safe landing right up in the enemy's grill.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Stubborn Lists
So my articles on using Stubborn effectively weren't groundbreaking. What did I find out? Play lots of tactical squads, basically - stuff I was going to do anyway when playing Space Marines. The good news is I don't feel like I'm missing out on much by replacing Combat Tactics with Stubborn, I just have to take advantage of enemy units stuck in combat. With that in mind here are a few army lists featuring Pedro and Lysander (the dudes who make Space Marines Stubborn):
Blue Lysander and some Bikes (2000)
HQ: Captain Darnath Lysander (1#, 200 pts)
1 Captain Darnath Lysander, 200 pts
HQ: Space Marine Captain (1#, 165 pts)
1 Space Marine Captain, 0 pts
1 ...in Power Armour, 165 pts = (base cost 100) + Space Marine Bike 35 + Relic Blade x1 30
Elite: Sternguard Veteran Squad (11#, 295 pts)
9 Sternguard Veteran Squad, 235 pts = 9 * 25 (base cost 25) + Combi-Meltagun x2 10
1 Sergeant, 25 pts
1 Drop Pod, 35 pts
Troops: Space Marine Bike Squad (6#, 225 pts)
4 Space Marine Bike Squad, 120 pts = 4 * 25 (base cost 25) + Meltagun x2 20
1 Attack Bike, 50 pts = (base cost 40) + Multi-Melta 10
1 Sergeant, 55 pts = (base cost 40) + Power Weapon 15
Troops: Space Marine Bike Squad (6#, 235 pts)
4 Space Marine Bike Squad, 120 pts = 4 * 25 (base cost 25) + Meltagun x2 20
1 Attack Bike, 50 pts = (base cost 40) + Multi-Melta 10
1 Sergeant, 65 pts = (base cost 40) + Power Fist 25
Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 240 pts)
9 Tactical Squad, 152 pts = 9 * 16 (base cost 16) + Meltagun 5 + Sergeant 51
1 Sergeant, 48 pts = (base cost 23) + Power Fist x1 25
1 Rhino, 40 pts = (base cost 35 + Dozer Blade 5)
Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 235 pts)
9 Tactical Squad, 147 pts = 9 * 16 (base cost 16) + Sergeant 51
1 Sergeant, 48 pts = (base cost 23) + Power Fist x1 25
1 Rhino, 40 pts = (base cost 35 + Dozer Blade 5)
Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 225 pts)
9 Tactical Squad, 147 pts = 9 * 16 (base cost 16) + Sergeant 41
1 Sergeant, 38 pts = (base cost 23) + Power Weapon x1 15
1 Rhino, 40 pts = (base cost 35 + Dozer Blade 5)
Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (1#, 90 pts)
1 Land Speeder Squadron, 90 pts = (base cost 50) + Typhoon Missile Launcher x1 40
Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (1#, 90 pts)
1 Land Speeder Squadron, 90 pts = (base cost 50) + Typhoon Missile Launcher x1 40
Composition Report:
HQ: 2 (1 - 2)
Elite: 1 (0 - 3)
Troops: 5 (2 - 6)
Fast: 2 (0 - 3)
Heavy: 0 (0 - 3)
That's 60 models, not a bad haul. I normally don't like taking multiple HQ's. The Bike Captain gives me another type of Troop choice, which I like. I'm not overly fond of Lysander and the Sterngard dropping in on the first turn. It will probably work out if I go second or my opponent deploys a juicy target. I'm also apprehensive about their lack of melta weapons. Not sure if 2 combi meltas will cut it. Another option is dropping the Sterngard and a Tactical Squad, then adding a Land Raider and Assault Terminators. That puts a big hit on my model count, though.
Here's a list featuring Both Pedro and Lysander:
Total Roster Cost: 2000
HQ: Chapter Master Pedro Kantor (1#, 175 pts)
1 Chapter Master Pedro Kantor, 175 pts
HQ: Captain Darnath Lysander (1#, 200 pts)
1 Captain Darnath Lysander, 200 pts
Elite: Sternguard Veteran Squad (11#, 330 pts)
9 Sternguard Veteran Squad, 240 pts = 9 * 25 (base cost 25) + Combi-Meltagun x3 15
1 Sergeant, 55 pts = (base cost 25) + Combi-Meltagun x1 5 + Power Fist x1 25
1 Drop Pod, 35 pts
Elite: Sternguard Veteran Squad (11#, 340 pts)
9 Sternguard Veteran Squad, 245 pts = 9 * 25 (base cost 25) + Combi-Meltagun x2 10 + Heavy Flamer x1 10
1 Sergeant, 55 pts = (base cost 25) + Combi-Meltagun x1 5 + Power Fist x1 25
1 Rhino, 40 pts = (base cost 35 + Dozer Blade 5)
Elite: Sternguard Veteran Squad (10#, 280 pts)
8 Sternguard Veteran Squad, 210 pts = 8 * 25 (base cost 25) + Combi-Meltagun x2 10
1 Sergeant, 30 pts = (base cost 25) + Combi-Meltagun x1 5
1 Rhino, 40 pts = (base cost 35 + Dozer Blade 5)
Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 235 pts)
9 Tactical Squad, 147 pts = 9 * 16 (base cost 16) + Sergeant 51
1 Sergeant, 48 pts = (base cost 23) + Power Fist x1 25
1 Rhino, 40 pts = (base cost 35 + Dozer Blade 5)
Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 210 pts)
9 Tactical Squad, 147 pts = 9 * 16 (base cost 16) + Sergeant 26
1 Sergeant, 23 pts
1 Rhino, 40 pts = (base cost 35 + Dozer Blade 5)
Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (1#, 90 pts)
1 Land Speeder Squadron, 90 pts = (base cost 50) + Typhoon Missile Launcher x1 40
Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (1#, 90 pts)
1 Land Speeder Squadron, 90 pts = (base cost 50) + Typhoon Missile Launcher x1 40
Fast Attack: Attack Bike Squad (1#, 50 pts)
1 Attack Bike Squad, 50 pts = (base cost 40) + Multi-Melta x1 10
Composition Report:
HQ: 2 (1 - 2)
Elite: 3 (0 - 3)
Troops: 2 (2 - 6)
Fast: 3 (0 - 3)
Heavy: 0 (0 - 3)
I like the second list pretty well. It's got the same potential downside as the first, a Turn 1 Drop Pod. Pedro rides in the Rhino with the third Sterngard Squad. The lack of invulnerable saves worries me - Lysander and Pedro each have one, but that's it. In the first list the bikers can at least get a 3+ cover save by turbo boosting. Obviously, I like Land Speeder Typhoons, they're in both lists. I felt I needed some decent long range threats against light armor and infantry.
Apologies for the army list format, I copied it straight from Army Builder. It's a great program, I just don't like the default custom outputs. That being the case, I'm making my own - but that's another post.
That's it for now. I may try that second list out this weekend, I've been itching to run Pedro again.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Finding a use for Stubborn - Part 2
In my last post I got inspired by a recent article and starting thinking about how vanilla Space Marines can take advantage of the Stubborn USR. I covered what I feel are the keys are to using Stubborn effectively in my last post: Redundancy, Killing Power, Target selection and wound allocation. In this post I will try to pick out units in the codex that can accomplish all of these keys to the maximum extent possible, thus enabling Blue Lysander to see the light of day. Or the light of the local game store, either way.
Redundancy is the first key. If I want to maximize the benefit of Stubborn, my models need some staying power. Space Marines aren't IG, so I can't run a 40 man unit and eventually whittle down an opponent in close combat. Furthermore, if one of my units gets stuck in I can't let that wreck the rest of my plans. I need redundancy both in terms of staying power and tactical flexibility. Space Marines can't achieve staying power through numbers, but they're fairly durable in terms of armor saves and toughness. I believe those characteristics in a 10 man squad gives me some decent staying power. As for tactical flexibility, the more squads I have the better. I'll still be able to accomplish a goal if I have a squad stuck in, and it may buy my other squads time to exploit emergent situations.
Killing Power is up next. Yeah, Stubborn will allow my units to stick around in combat for a while and allow me to tie up an opponent's unit, too. But I don't want to sit there the whole time getting my ass kicked. I need to eventually kill off his unit or at least greatly diminish its combat effectiveness. Space Marines are absolutely not as good in close combat as other armies, so how can Space Marines kill stuff with a reasonable degree of certainty in close combat? The short answer is power fists, STR 8 power weapons that hit at initiative 1. Put one on a Space Marine sergeant and he's got good chance of causing at least one wound with no armor save allowed every time he's in hand-to-hand. Is it as good as some other armies can pull off? Hell no. But the goal here is to buy time for my non-engaged units and gradually whittle down the opposing unit. Normal Power weapons also prevent armor saves and they're 10 points cheaper than a fist. In short, they can give your sergeant more opportunities to cause wounds by virtue of more chances to hit, but fists have a better chance to wound when they hit.
So far it looks like 10 man squads are best at meeting the Redundancy key, and slapping power fists or power weapons on models can provide some decent Killing Power. Looking at the codex, I see that any unit except a Command Squad can go up to 10 members; and any unit at least has the option of obtaining some flexibility but using transports, infiltrating, outflanking, etc. That's good, but it doesn't help me pick units that can best take advantage of Stubborn. Ditto for Killing Power - any sergeant can take power weapons or fists, and both Honor Guard and Vanguard Vets can spam the crap out of them. Time to move on to the last two keys, maybe that will help me narrow down my choice.
Target Selection is third. Some enemy units will always be better to tar pit than others. "Pick your battle" so to say. For Space Marines satisfying the Target Selection key is a two-fold process. As the mighty general, roller of dice and mover of little men I have to 1) pick a good enemy unit to tar pit and 2) be able to get that unit into the tar pit. The best unit type to tar pit will change based on opponent and game type, so the tactical flexibility I should have by meeting the Redundancy key should help here. Actually picking out the tar pit target? That's largely dependent on experience.
Last up is Wound Allocation. I think this one is pretty straightforward: try to keep the guy with the highest Leadership value around. For Space Marines, this is typically a sergeant which has the added bonus of keeping some Killing Power in my squad. With a leadership of 9, I have a 75% chance of staying in a combat so I can tar pit my opponent longer.
So far the keys I've outlined largely align with basic Space Marine characteristics: durability, flexibility, and decent killing power. Good Target Selection is comprised of experience (which isn't dependent on unit characteristics) and flexibility. Stubborn certainly isn't one of those USR's a player is going to go out of their way to use, like Furious Charge. Its job is to mire units in close combat, period. Stubborn will not win a battle or even a close combat by itself, and choosing an HQ based solely on the fact they make an army Stubborn isn't a good plan. Is it always advantageous to have a unit stuck in close combat? No, not at all - but remember, it's not always advantageous to the opponent, either. As a matter of fact, it can be a downright disadvantage with good Target Selection. The thing Stubborn Space Marines should probably try to avoid in most cases is being multi-charged. One enemy unit charges my two Tactical Squads, for example. That could be bad as sticking two Stubborn units in close combat will almost certainly hamper my flexibility, as they may both be there for a while.
I'm still not any closer to identifying the *perfect* unit to take in a Stubborn army and quite frankly I'm not sure there is supposed to be one. Sure, I can take 30 Assault Terminators and they would have both staying and killing power, but they aren't the most flexible of units in terms of moving around. Plus 30 terminators doesn't leave much points for anything else. Wish me luck trying to capture an objective, too. The ubiquitous Tactical Squad is another choice and seems like a pretty good one in this case. They're Troop choices, and I can give them wheels for flexibility and a hidden power fist/weapon. Bikes are another possibility, though I'll need a Captain on a bike to get the most out of them. Toughness 5 Troop choices that can move 24" in a turn, and bring along 3 melta weapons and a power fist? Seems good. They will be pricy, but not outrageous; and their flexibility isn't going to be hampered by losing their transport. They also provide more Target Selection flexibility thanks to their mobility.
Next post will have some army lists that feature Pedro Kantor and (Blue) Lysander.
Redundancy is the first key. If I want to maximize the benefit of Stubborn, my models need some staying power. Space Marines aren't IG, so I can't run a 40 man unit and eventually whittle down an opponent in close combat. Furthermore, if one of my units gets stuck in I can't let that wreck the rest of my plans. I need redundancy both in terms of staying power and tactical flexibility. Space Marines can't achieve staying power through numbers, but they're fairly durable in terms of armor saves and toughness. I believe those characteristics in a 10 man squad gives me some decent staying power. As for tactical flexibility, the more squads I have the better. I'll still be able to accomplish a goal if I have a squad stuck in, and it may buy my other squads time to exploit emergent situations.
Killing Power is up next. Yeah, Stubborn will allow my units to stick around in combat for a while and allow me to tie up an opponent's unit, too. But I don't want to sit there the whole time getting my ass kicked. I need to eventually kill off his unit or at least greatly diminish its combat effectiveness. Space Marines are absolutely not as good in close combat as other armies, so how can Space Marines kill stuff with a reasonable degree of certainty in close combat? The short answer is power fists, STR 8 power weapons that hit at initiative 1. Put one on a Space Marine sergeant and he's got good chance of causing at least one wound with no armor save allowed every time he's in hand-to-hand. Is it as good as some other armies can pull off? Hell no. But the goal here is to buy time for my non-engaged units and gradually whittle down the opposing unit. Normal Power weapons also prevent armor saves and they're 10 points cheaper than a fist. In short, they can give your sergeant more opportunities to cause wounds by virtue of more chances to hit, but fists have a better chance to wound when they hit.
So far it looks like 10 man squads are best at meeting the Redundancy key, and slapping power fists or power weapons on models can provide some decent Killing Power. Looking at the codex, I see that any unit except a Command Squad can go up to 10 members; and any unit at least has the option of obtaining some flexibility but using transports, infiltrating, outflanking, etc. That's good, but it doesn't help me pick units that can best take advantage of Stubborn. Ditto for Killing Power - any sergeant can take power weapons or fists, and both Honor Guard and Vanguard Vets can spam the crap out of them. Time to move on to the last two keys, maybe that will help me narrow down my choice.
Target Selection is third. Some enemy units will always be better to tar pit than others. "Pick your battle" so to say. For Space Marines satisfying the Target Selection key is a two-fold process. As the mighty general, roller of dice and mover of little men I have to 1) pick a good enemy unit to tar pit and 2) be able to get that unit into the tar pit. The best unit type to tar pit will change based on opponent and game type, so the tactical flexibility I should have by meeting the Redundancy key should help here. Actually picking out the tar pit target? That's largely dependent on experience.
Last up is Wound Allocation. I think this one is pretty straightforward: try to keep the guy with the highest Leadership value around. For Space Marines, this is typically a sergeant which has the added bonus of keeping some Killing Power in my squad. With a leadership of 9, I have a 75% chance of staying in a combat so I can tar pit my opponent longer.
So far the keys I've outlined largely align with basic Space Marine characteristics: durability, flexibility, and decent killing power. Good Target Selection is comprised of experience (which isn't dependent on unit characteristics) and flexibility. Stubborn certainly isn't one of those USR's a player is going to go out of their way to use, like Furious Charge. Its job is to mire units in close combat, period. Stubborn will not win a battle or even a close combat by itself, and choosing an HQ based solely on the fact they make an army Stubborn isn't a good plan. Is it always advantageous to have a unit stuck in close combat? No, not at all - but remember, it's not always advantageous to the opponent, either. As a matter of fact, it can be a downright disadvantage with good Target Selection. The thing Stubborn Space Marines should probably try to avoid in most cases is being multi-charged. One enemy unit charges my two Tactical Squads, for example. That could be bad as sticking two Stubborn units in close combat will almost certainly hamper my flexibility, as they may both be there for a while.
I'm still not any closer to identifying the *perfect* unit to take in a Stubborn army and quite frankly I'm not sure there is supposed to be one. Sure, I can take 30 Assault Terminators and they would have both staying and killing power, but they aren't the most flexible of units in terms of moving around. Plus 30 terminators doesn't leave much points for anything else. Wish me luck trying to capture an objective, too. The ubiquitous Tactical Squad is another choice and seems like a pretty good one in this case. They're Troop choices, and I can give them wheels for flexibility and a hidden power fist/weapon. Bikes are another possibility, though I'll need a Captain on a bike to get the most out of them. Toughness 5 Troop choices that can move 24" in a turn, and bring along 3 melta weapons and a power fist? Seems good. They will be pricy, but not outrageous; and their flexibility isn't going to be hampered by losing their transport. They also provide more Target Selection flexibility thanks to their mobility.
Next post will have some army lists that feature Pedro Kantor and (Blue) Lysander.
Finding a use for Stubborn
A great local 40k player posted an interesting article on his blog regarding the Stubborn Universal Special Rule (USR) last week. After reading it, I felt challenged to find something - anything! - useful about Stubborn for units in the Space Marine codex. After all, I can't let my fancy blue Lysander go to waste, right? First off, how do Space Marines get access to the Stubborn USR? Both Lysander and Pedro Kantor replace Chapter Tactics with Stubborn. The fluff behind these two characters is that their primarch, Rogal Dorn, was a defensive genius. The Stubborn USR pretty much goes hand in hand with defensive oriented tactics. It allows a unit that loses a close combat to use their base leadership value for their morale test. So for example if I lost combat by 4 wounds, I will take my morale test at 9 instead of 5 (I'm assuming my sergeant is still alive). The problem with defensive tactics is that more often than not the best defense is (of course) a good offense.
Here's a little background on the characters who make Space Marines Stubborn: Captain Darnath Lysander leads the 1st Company of the Imperial Fists chapter, and is the only other Space Marine character aside from Marneus Calgar who has the Eternal Warrior USR. A model with Eternal Warrior is not affected by Instant Death, so that's good. He has 4 wounds, same as Mr. Calgar; wears terminator armor and is equipped with a STR 10 thunder hammer and a storm shield. Lysander has some other spiffy abilities as well. Pedro Kantor is the master of the unfortunate Crimson Fists chapter. In addition to granting an army Stubborn, he makes Sterngard Veterans scoring units and is armed with a Power Fist and suped-up Storm Bolter.
The main disadvantage of Stubborn is that units can stay in combat for a very long time when you may not want them to. The plus side is that any unit engaged in close combat with a Stubborn unit could also be in combat for a very long time. If the humble Astartes wish to take advantage of Stubborn, we must identify both the keys to maximizing its potential and the units that can do so to best effect. What are the keys to taking advantage of Stubborn? First is redundancy. Horde-type armies can take advantage of Stubborn through sheer weight of numbers. They can tar pit a unit and eventually kill it even after losing a lot of their own. I think the second key is sheer killing power. Horde armies also achieve this through weight of numbers. Quantity has a quality all its own. Target selection is the third key. If I can identify the optimal enemy unit to tar pit, that helps me win in the end because I've maximized the potential of one of my units while decreasing that of my opponent's unit. The last key is wound allocation. Keeping a squad leader with a good Leadership value around for as long as possible is important - not only for purposes of not failing a morale test, but because more often than not this is the guy we can pimp out with special weapons that can help us eventually win the combat.
In my next post I'll talk about what units I think can best take advantage of the Stubborn USR using the keys I listed. Are these keys set in stone? No. Are they even the right keys? I don't know for sure. I make no claim of being the world's best Space Marine player, not by far! Got ideas, post 'em up. Help me use Blue Lysander as something other than a paperweight!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
My first Blood Angels game
Technically, they're Flesh Tearers colors but I unwisely didn't get any of the shoulder pads from GW. And my freehand leaves much to be desired, so for now some have plain black shoulder pads, and others have Death Company shoulder pads. Anyway, I showed up hoping to play 1750 or 2000 points, but my opponent could only muster 1500. He was trying out the new Grey Knights codex, and ran 3 strike squads, one 5-man purifier squad, one interceptor squad and a couple of HQ's (a regular librarian and a Grand Master if I recall correctly - whoever he was, he had a power that allowed D3 of his units to be scoring units, which was amazing).
My List was:
Reclusiarch
meltabombs
2 Sanguinary Priests
Tactical Squad
Missile Launcher
Flamer
power fist
Razorback
Assault Squad
meltagun
meltagun
power fist
Rhino
Assault Squad
meltagun
meltagun
2 Lightning Claws
Rhino
Death Company (10)
power fist
power fist
Storm Raven
TLAC
TL Mutli-Melta
Extra Armor
Land Speeder
Heavy Flamer
**
I had some model limitations - I was playing WYSIWYG. I really, really should have been running some power weapons they really would have paid off. So on to the fight!
We rolled Pitched Battle / Capture and Control, I went first. I deployed everything but my StormRaven and Landspeeder. This turned out to be a really dumb idea - the only thing my opponent had that could take out a Raven were his Purifiers who I could have avoided with a simple middle-table deployment, and turn 1 turbo boost. I am terrible at deployment! I combat squadded my Tactical squad, putting the sergeant, flamer 3 other dudes and a Priest in the Razor back near my objective and the Missile Launcher squad also near the objective. Both of these squads wound up shooting at the same Strike squad the whole game. My assault squads were in their Rhinos behind cover. First turn, I moved the Rhinos toward the middle of the board. A whole 12 inches. Yes, I forgot they can go fast and I'm used to Space Marines. My second lesson learned: know your army. And here's a third: put your priest somewhere he can do some good. I had it in my head that the priest needed to be in a vehicle, so he wound up riding with the Death Company and doing nothing but soaking up a wound. I should have stuck him in a Rhino with a 9-man assault squad, but I was far too excited about getting to run a troop choice with 2 meltaguns. In my defense, the 1750 and 2000 point lists each had a Land Raider Redeemer instead of a second Rhino, and the plan was for a priest to ride in that with a 10-man assault squad. Next lesson learned: If you have to make a new list, don't just chop things out of an existing list - put some thought into it!
He wound up winning by capturing my point. My Death Company and Land Speeder made sure he didn't hold his point.
So first impressions of Blood Angels? Overall, very good. I need to be more careful with how I use my priests, and I need to learn how to decide to deploy or reserve a Storm Raven. I hadn't planned on running any Death Company, but I was pretty awed once they rolled up a Strike Squad, Purifier Squad and part of an Interceptor Squad. Furious Charge from the priests is nice. Feel No Pain was great when they shot at me, but didn't help in close combat as all GK have power weapons. Yes, ALL of them.
First impressions of Grey Knights? They're really good. Everybody has Strength 5 Storm Bolters and a power weapon (aside from the Purifiers who can see through friggin walls and shoot S7 Heavy/Assault weapons with Rending instead). The storm bolters will glance the crap out of a Rhino, no problem. One of the HQ's has a power that grants both he and the unit he's with Initiative 10, and the Strike Squads can give themselves S5 which was a potent combo. You really need to take them out on the charge or at least put the hurt on 'em as they can slowly whittle you down when stuck in.
All in all, I had fun and learned a lot about both armies. I'm looking forward to my next matchup with this yet-to-be-named Blood Angels successor chapter of mine.
My List was:
Reclusiarch
meltabombs
2 Sanguinary Priests
Tactical Squad
Missile Launcher
Flamer
power fist
Razorback
Assault Squad
meltagun
meltagun
power fist
Rhino
Assault Squad
meltagun
meltagun
2 Lightning Claws
Rhino
Death Company (10)
power fist
power fist
Storm Raven
TLAC
TL Mutli-Melta
Extra Armor
Land Speeder
Heavy Flamer
**
I had some model limitations - I was playing WYSIWYG. I really, really should have been running some power weapons they really would have paid off. So on to the fight!
We rolled Pitched Battle / Capture and Control, I went first. I deployed everything but my StormRaven and Landspeeder. This turned out to be a really dumb idea - the only thing my opponent had that could take out a Raven were his Purifiers who I could have avoided with a simple middle-table deployment, and turn 1 turbo boost. I am terrible at deployment! I combat squadded my Tactical squad, putting the sergeant, flamer 3 other dudes and a Priest in the Razor back near my objective and the Missile Launcher squad also near the objective. Both of these squads wound up shooting at the same Strike squad the whole game. My assault squads were in their Rhinos behind cover. First turn, I moved the Rhinos toward the middle of the board. A whole 12 inches. Yes, I forgot they can go fast and I'm used to Space Marines. My second lesson learned: know your army. And here's a third: put your priest somewhere he can do some good. I had it in my head that the priest needed to be in a vehicle, so he wound up riding with the Death Company and doing nothing but soaking up a wound. I should have stuck him in a Rhino with a 9-man assault squad, but I was far too excited about getting to run a troop choice with 2 meltaguns. In my defense, the 1750 and 2000 point lists each had a Land Raider Redeemer instead of a second Rhino, and the plan was for a priest to ride in that with a 10-man assault squad. Next lesson learned: If you have to make a new list, don't just chop things out of an existing list - put some thought into it!
He wound up winning by capturing my point. My Death Company and Land Speeder made sure he didn't hold his point.
So first impressions of Blood Angels? Overall, very good. I need to be more careful with how I use my priests, and I need to learn how to decide to deploy or reserve a Storm Raven. I hadn't planned on running any Death Company, but I was pretty awed once they rolled up a Strike Squad, Purifier Squad and part of an Interceptor Squad. Furious Charge from the priests is nice. Feel No Pain was great when they shot at me, but didn't help in close combat as all GK have power weapons. Yes, ALL of them.
First impressions of Grey Knights? They're really good. Everybody has Strength 5 Storm Bolters and a power weapon (aside from the Purifiers who can see through friggin walls and shoot S7 Heavy/Assault weapons with Rending instead). The storm bolters will glance the crap out of a Rhino, no problem. One of the HQ's has a power that grants both he and the unit he's with Initiative 10, and the Strike Squads can give themselves S5 which was a potent combo. You really need to take them out on the charge or at least put the hurt on 'em as they can slowly whittle you down when stuck in.
All in all, I had fun and learned a lot about both armies. I'm looking forward to my next matchup with this yet-to-be-named Blood Angels successor chapter of mine.
Friday, March 4, 2011
A sad day
I just found out last night that my friendly local game store, The Inquisitive, will be going out of business soon. I will always remember the good times I've had there, and Tim's awesome frozen Caramel Macchiatos. I have many fond memories of hauling my Space Marines into the shop to die gloriously for the Emperor, safely nestled in their egg cartons (yeah I used egg cartons to carry my minis, I've since upgraded) - at least until the bullets started flying.
So now I've got to find a new haunt. The only viable options at this time are either Active Imagination or Ares Wargames, both across town. Compounded with the facts that a) they only play on Sundays at both shops and b) I have a 18 month old at home I think my 40k time is about to plummet. Monday was the "40k day" at the Inquisitive, so I need to figure something out here.
Such is life, I guess.
So now I've got to find a new haunt. The only viable options at this time are either Active Imagination or Ares Wargames, both across town. Compounded with the facts that a) they only play on Sundays at both shops and b) I have a 18 month old at home I think my 40k time is about to plummet. Monday was the "40k day" at the Inquisitive, so I need to figure something out here.
Such is life, I guess.
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