Feast of Blades '13

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Conflict GT Set in Stone


Hey all, just bought my ticket and got the days off so Ill be at th Conflict GT at the Palisades mall in the middle of Janurary. I will have my Storm Wardens army done by that point and I amvery excited to get back into the GT circuit after an extremely horrible performance of mine at the Colonial last April, which I may just attend again this year because MasterMoulder is a pretty awesome guy and Event Organizer...just the cost currently scares me from last years hotel bill lol and since they got a new group to run the 40k side of things since I, as well as many others, had issues with last years 40k staff makes me only see bright things for the 40k half of that awesome GT...and who knows mabye Ill play in my first fantasy event with the new probably Vampire Counts book....

So I am also excited about the Conlifct as I get to use my new army specifically built for it. I ran it in a few test games and the hybrid mech/static shooty design with the biker command squad has won me all of my test 1750 games so far. So who else is attending the GT...its so close with such early ending and late starting times I am debating actually just commuting the hour+ change there and back each day but I might get a hotel and visit my bro at West Point which is just down the road......regardless it will be a fun time for all....also I may be looking for a team to go with me...any takers?

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

The Necron List to beat (1850)

Ok here again to mash up a few thoughts about necrons after a few games against them...For one I probably will not buy this army atleast anytime soon this is just based of the facts, some playtesting and some hard thinking........For one they are a lot better on table than on paper (BTW the command barge is way worse on the table than on paper as its impracticle and hard to get off those sweep attacks and by then you get blown up and waste a good 175+ unit including lord..anyway)....After some thinking I will throw out the tournament list I'd be buying (as of a FAQ to back it up without a nerfing first) as of now.....first a list...(hmmm looks familiar to something a few posts back....)

Total 1850
HQ
1.       Imhotek the StormLord- 225
2.       Destroyer Lord, mindshackle Scarabs- 145
*Court
-Cryptek Harb. Of Destruction, solar pulse - 65
-Cryptek Harb. Of Destruction- 45
-Cryptek Harb. Of Destruction- 45
-Cryptek Harb. Of Eternity, Chronomotron – 50
Troops
1.       X5 warriors-  65
2.       X5 warriors-  65
3.       X5 warriors-  65
4.       X5 warriors-  65
Fast Attack
1.       X10 Scarabs- 150
2.       X10 Scarabs- 150
3.       X6 Canoptek Wraiths, x5 particle whips- 265
Heavy Support
1.       X3 Canoptek Spyders- 150
2.       X3 Canoptek Spyders- 150
3.       X3 Canoptek Spyders- 150
Ok this list takes a simple concept and expands upon it.....it comes in waves....

Wave 1.) Scarabs and Wraiths/D Lord deathstar...honestly I do not need to talk about scarabs....although as my friend plays it, and I concur, the scarabs would attack upon the weakened armor not on the original armor (before entropic).....which eats any armor it touches....Also the scarabs tend to get knocked on the internet by only being beasts and not jetbikes but that 6"+ D6"+12" assault is pretty quick...but they cannot go up levels in ruins which is kind of funny...regardless a tough and fairly fast unit without the spyder adding more to the front congo line shenanigans which will get FAQ'd obviously fairly soon...The wraiths and the D Lord just pillage anything they tend to touch.....the whips as well as mindschackle scarabs realisticly makes this unit win every single combat no matter what.....Now Wave 2.) The wall of Spyders......these monsterous creatures of course do thier spawning thing pumping out up to 9 scarabs (realisticly atleast 7) a turn.....This wall of spyders, by being monsterous creatures, forms a wall of very hard to kill models with very good mop up potential.....they also screen Wave 3.) Which is all of the warrior units each with a cryptek with an eldritch lance to fire off some odd S8 shots at vehicles as they move as well as the Stormlord with the Chronomotron cryptek just in case we lost the thing that really makes this list scary....night fight.....night fighting is key as it makes the first wave almost impossible to stop (realisticly it gets into combat usually by turn two....at most turn 3....regardless the solar pulse is there to make sure it continues so that by the time its gone your opponent is missing most of his army...Also the 4+ to sieze thing...yep..some might complain that the msu warriors is too little but by being the least threatening unit....as well as being behind a wall of monsterous creature cover....these guys will not take too many shots if any at all.....All in all this list is a machine of optimisiation...it is very scary and I would buy it now if I had the funds... something similar to this will deliver us our first reported Necron Tournament wins..speculation away....this of course has my flavor added by having the wraiths and D Lord instead of more scarabs but thats my spin.....more on this later.....

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Now Commissioning Tournament Display Boards

Hey all Kevin here to show you my new tournament display board prototype I made for my Storm Wardens Army I hope to bring for the Conflict GT. After a lot of thinking I have decided to throw out there that I am willing to do a few more boards for commission. The board you would get would be a 23"-17" bi-leveled dispolay board that has been textured, painted, and flocked. This board can fit up to 2500 points (of course depending on your style of army) and is less than 2 pounds so it is perfect for tournaments. I can personally pick up this board with one hand with my entire army on it. It also has a good grip on the base of the models so a little leaning will not send your army tumbling on to the floor like some other smoother boards you might see being used. I will be selling the basic painted and flocked (2 color) bi-level 23
-17" display boards for only $65 and $75 (all plus shipping and handling) with some basic terrain, such as trees, shrubbery, etc.


 So Why buy a board from me when you can get boards from other comapanies? Well my boards are signifigantly cheaper with the only company selling boards for a similar price come unpainted or textured so you end up spending another $20 on paint, flock, and other features jsut to get it up to spec. This as well as any painting commission services for other boards running up into the 3 digit price range for the cheapest quality.
 I am willing to do other specifications as a Tier 3 including some buildings, trenches, advanced terrain, as well as even some blended in static models for a more cinamatic experience. These boards will be done seldomly but I am willing to commission a few. A price will need to be quoted on a case by case basis as including other model kits will cause the price to fluxuate. (Tier one being basically textured, painted and flocked while tier 2 being with small terrain features such as trees, shrubbery, etc...)
All in all you get a good quality, lightweight display board for tournament play to display your army on. I am willing to use a variety of color scheme and flock types to match your army. I am ready to either duplicate the prototype shown (tier 2 deadworld) as well as do a standard GW brown texture with standard color flock (same as GW grass mat... Tier 1 Standard).....Anything else will come as per request and eventually I hope to have a good list of the different boards I can do...Want to commission one? Leave a comment below...send me a youtube message at youtube.com/kevinmcd28 or email me at the email address shown on the right in the contact me section. I will only start commission ing boards if I get 3 requests...if not it will not be worth it unfortuantly. So contact me and set up a project...I will probably be running this for atleast the winter....more on this later...

Monday, November 21, 2011

Menoth Army for Sale!




Hey all, there are days in your life when you realize you have too many projects and not enough funding to get them all done....today is one. I am looking at trying to support the Storm Wardens and all of their future expansions with the probable expansion of my Chaos army after GW nerfs anything we do have left next summer as well as the probable realigning of my Vampire Counts army when I start to play them after they get their update this year. Currently I am looking at getting a new Marines, vampires, and black templar update (with Dark Angels not far behind) as well as the realiginment of power after 6th edition hits that will probably cause expansions in all of my armies....its nice to get updates but when they come all at once it can be a pain.....so enough moans and groans....I am looking at the need to drop a project and with little time to devout to them, as well as looking at not playing them at all anytime soon I see myself forced to sell off my Protectorate of Menoth Army. It is 44 points + warcasters currently and up for sale on ebay....above are some pictures and below is the link to the ebay auction.....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/150703557339?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

A Full Warjack heavy Protectorate of Menoth Army for Warmachine and Hordes with a retail value of $300. Included is the following
High Allegient Amon Ad-Raza
2x Crusader Heavy Warjacks (one fully painted and professionally painted and one plastic)
A Vanquisher Heavy Warjack (unpainted)
A Revenger Light Warjack (partially painted)
A Devout Light Warjack (partially painted)
A Repenter Light Warjack (partially painted)
A full 6 model unit of the new Choir of Menoth (unpainted and rand new product)
A full 6 model unit of Daughters of the Flame (unpainted)
A Vassel Mechanik (unpainted and new)
A FULL Protectorate of Menoth Faction Deck including multiple cards for every model above
A full set of Amon Ad-Raza counter tokens
A Kreoss model (missing weapon, will include if found and partially painted)
Will awnser any questions about listing.

Current price is $275 as buy now with the bid at $200...a fairly good deal since you get a very warjack heavy Amon Ad-Raza menoth list.....with this sell I plan on funding the tail end of my Storm Wardens for the Conflict as well as the Conflict itself and mabye fund an expansion for the Storm Wardens.....I just finished painting my display board so look for that also with the possibiliy of starting a display board making buisness...look for that soon....so check out the auction and leave any questions in the comments below.....as well as if you are looking for a blog to write at I am currently looking for other authors....more on this later...

First Game vs. The New Necrons

So I played a game the other day against my buddy Marcus at the Dragonhead in Bethlehem, Pa, whule a proffessional wrestling match went on upstairs. He was testing out some new models with a list that kind of looked like this.

Basic Overlord in Command barge, warscythe

3x10 warriors each with a cryptek with an eldritch lance
10 Immortals with a cryptek with an eldritch lance

8 scarabs
9 scarabs

2x Doom Scythes
3 heavy destroyers

First of all I really did underestimate a lot of the units in the codex. Those eldritch lances made fairly ignorable units pretty annoying and even though the new scarabs are not jetbikes being beasts makes them fairly fast....yet they cannot go up levels in ruins which is kind of funny. They did not even need to  weaken any of my vehicles as just thier own attacks with entropic touch ended up wrecking a laundry list of razorbacks. I ran my Conflict list and I had some issues from the start. I would've lost if it not were for my Biker command squad saving the day yet again. The Doom Scythes can be very scary, especially against vehile lines and bunched up death stars. I would say they got one good solid shot before they get shot to death so I am gonna agree with my compatriot that keeping them in reserve or on deepstrike is good in some scenerios where you know they will get shot up. The command barge I see as overated a little bit. It suffers from being defendable against as the sweep attack only has 24 inch range and if you play your cards right the model cannot finish its move with enough room so it cannot move in a way to get off these attacks, and even then it would just get shot up..... I won't write a batrep up because we ended up screwing up the game a little bit near the end. I am going to have another battle first before I do a write up.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

New Vampire Counts Codex Next Year!




Ok everyone I was talking to the owner of a local FLGS of mine. He tends to be fairly spot on to predicting codex releases based of feedback he gets from GW. From what he tells me GW has stopped production and selling of all Vampire Counts codex's and models to independant retailers. GW only does this when a new codex is set to be released within 6 months (up to a year at the extreme maximum)...So that is the fact speculation would set this up as a probable March-May release (prior to 40k 6th edition release in the summer)...From what I know this contradicts a lot of rumors, mostly putting Wood Elves and Brettonians next....yet if this is the case with the VC then this throws a monkey wrench into the gears of one of those codices......I do play Vampire Counts so I am currently stopping production of that army until I see a good set of rumors or even a codex for that matter.....please take all with a grain of salt as the above is speculation based on one single fact....that production and selling to retailers has stopped with them.......more on this later...debate in comments!

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Anyone know anything on the Conflict GT? Bloggers WANTED!.... and other news....



Hey all normally I do not seak information on the blog, I will probably have an article up later tonight if not tommorrow morning. I am looking for info on the Conflict GT at the Palisades Mall in New York state this january. There website lacks info on how much it will cost and I am trying to plan out my 40k finances for this winter. Also if anyone is going to be at that GT let everyone know in the comments. Also any feedback from previous years would be cool as well. I had a decent experience at my last GT at the Colonial but it ended with a sour note with a tournament orgaizer getting pretty pissed off at the overall event organizer and taking it out on my friend and I when we asked how we could do better with our presentation (not painting) scores....I don't want any more A-H organizers taking out frustration on me when I am spending a lot of money for an event and a good time. I've heard good things about the Conflict and would like to know more on usual attendees and who runs it. I've been to the location it is at quite a bit and love the place....






In other news I am revitalizing the blog, anyone interested in submitting some freelance work or even come on as an official guest writer let me know in the comments as I am always looking for content. Also since there was a large gap of time where I lost a lot of readers from my lack of posting I need to get the word out that I am back into the writing game so any blog plugs, or blogroll adds will be appreciated and I will do the same back happily. Thanks everyone for reading. I hope to soon hold contests for some models or prizes soon enough if subscriptions reach certain levels or I get a good constant reading basis like I had a year ago. So please everyone throw me some thoughts and ideas and I will be happy to include you. I am gonna redo a majority of the layout and images since recent additions...also I am pretty sure my blog art violates someones copyright....look for that soon... Thanks!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

40k Tactics: How to Play Any Space Marine Counter-Meta Army in the Current Game [Oppinion]



Hey all welcome to another discussion that has been coming up in a lot of my articles recently. It started with the Chaos Space Marine article update here and later I included some thoughts on the subject in my Land Raider article here. With Grey Knights taking the top seat in competitive play the older marine books need to compensate. For the purpose of argueing I am gonna be talking about Black Templar, Chaos Marines, and Codex Mrines in this post. It is of my oppinion that a defensive LAnd Raider build is one of the toughest anti-meta game lists that can currently be run as GK tend to lack a good way to compitently get rid of AV14 and most armies, exception to this rule being Dark Eldar which is the scissor to this paper, have a hard time of getting rid of AV14 when it is used as a defensive bunker instead of as an assault vehcicle. I have run lists like the following since GK has been incepted with a great degree of success. If you refer back to my chaos article I have had two straight 2nd place results with a duel defensive Land Raider build. So it is of my oppinion that building a list around a couple of Land Raider ment to hold scoring units on objectives, while providing fire support in the form of anti-tank shooting, is vital to throwing a monkey wrench into the machine that is the current meta. Lets start off with your basic build....using lets say Codex: Marines.....






We need to start off the army with someviable shooting....unfortunatly we lack the mroe efficient ability for small 5 man squads to take cheap lascannons like BLack Templar.....I am a fan of combos so our current choices include small 5 man RB squads or 5 man scout teams with cloaks, snipers and a missile launcher.....I always tend to run a mix so lets say for now a 2x2 mix is good for our troop support. A scout squad with the above profile is 100 points on the dot per unit. A 5 man razorback squad with a TL Lascannon is 165 points per unit....so we take two of each....now you cannot get a reliable ammount of spammed out S8 shooting from a basic marines dex cheaply. So I tend to run with an above average ammount of lascannons to promote more efficient shooting....From thier on out lets take 2 75 point cheap scout squads to hide inside of the two Land Raiders that each cost 260 points with a multi melta. From here we need a good counter to the all so common assault land raider...I am a fan of multi melta attack bikes but speeders work...a unit of two bikes costs 100 more points. From here we need a good counter assault unit to hide amongst the Land Raiders to jump out just in case our opponent decides to assault us....a terminator librarian with a storm shield for 140 points and a Termie assault squad for 200 points fills this gap...At this point it tends to be all filler. I like to add twin linked lascannons to add efficiency on dreadnoughts with flamers attached to the DCCW for added anti horde as well as mech and a good unit to tie up enemies making a move on your bunkers. Another temie added in as well as some cloaks or a missile or two on the extra scout squads rounds this army up to a nice 1850.






Black Templar can run a more efficient version of this list with their 95 point 5 man crusader squads with pistols and ccw's with a lascannon....with some basic crusaders to hide inside of the Land Raiders. This combined with the emerpors champion and a reclusiarch in a terminator squad handing out preferred enemy and furious charge as an even more effective combat unit. They also can have regular termies with a couple cyclones and tank hunters effectively giving you 4 S9 shots from an 2+ save unit.....






As long as you elimate any Storm Ravens, or other random melta, in the GK army this runs very well against the GK armies of today, as well as many other armies that have a problem of getting rid of AV14 at a range. This type of army tends to be weak against Dark Eldar and Tau but both tend to be more rare, atleast in my area, as a matchup these days. Now this is all in my current style and I tend to run the lists above, with a few changes, very effectively and I believe you can too. So dust of your favorite vanilla flavored dex and go searching in a dig site for those fossils, Black Templar and Chaos Marines, of a codex...more on this later....oppinions welcomed

Monday, November 14, 2011

The Proper Use of a Land Raider



Hey all, here again to talk about a sore topic of competitive discussion...the Land Raider.






Now the once popular, then unseen, now suddenly again popular AV14 vehicle that seems to be in every persons power armored army has always been used as part of the death star....and lets face it, it can be good at that.






Who doesn't want something that can hold between 1-16 models (depending on pattern) and drive forward their probable assault terminator squad forward unmolested, and for awhile that worked. This seemed to always work until you ran into a guy sporting a dozen meltaguns and then your AV14 suicide tank just seemed a waste of points. Heck I can say I have been dillusioned in the past by filling up my favorite Land Raider Crusader full of dudesmen in big boy armor to drive down my opponents throat. Whether it was the above LRC, or the Vulkan happy Redeemer this can work....but only in games where the matchup is good can the death star delivery system work....and it can be expensive...






Yet melta still exsists and it does punish your taking of a 245+ point model now and then. So where can we find a strength for the AV14 gun boat?






IT seems to be that the Land Raiders only weakness tends to be melta....the only other (in terms of the most common enemy of marines) weapon that can damage it is the S9 lascannon.....this is unreliable as it still needs a 6 to penetrate the Land Raider and with the typical abilites for Land Raiders to become resistent to shaken and stunned results we can leverage the lack of long ragned anti-AV14 out there.... We also have the nice mobile bunker of the lesser to be seen Godhammer pattern Land Raider. Being equipped with power of the machine spirit as well as two twin linked lascannons and a TL heavy bolter (also the probable multi-melta) this is a bunker that should be more utilized. We can utilize this as a viable option by haveing a scoring unit hide inside of the Land Raider. This gives us a scoring AV14 vehicle that is for the most part only vulnerable to melta weapons which (unless they come in in deepstrike form, which has its defences against as well) has to go through a good bubblewrap to get into 2D6 range. This is also a good way to counter grey knights because as soon as you eliminate any possible Storm Ravens they cannot touch your Land Raider easily, minus luck, at all giving you an edge.






With a couple scoring land Raiders holding up our backfield the marine player definatly has a defending advantage. With some good anti-melta practice you can keep these now scoring vehicles shooting thier lascannons downrange and holding a good position. I have ran many duel Raider lists as both Chaos and Marines and now rarely lose one of them....This can give us an advantage in Capture and Control as well as Sieze ground missions...also do not forget these are two hard killpoints in a probable tough killpoint army....more on this later.....

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Lists Heard 'Round the Web Part 1: Necron "Flying Circus"

Hey all Kevin here starting a new series on Lists, a majority will be necrons, I have heard around my FLGS's that people will be taking to tournaments....




First up to bat is what I have been hearing as the Necron Flying Circus....here is a breakdown of the basic list...at 1850




HQ


1.Imhotek- 225


Troops


1. X11 Immortals, Night Scythe- 270
2. X10 Immortals, Night Scythe- 270
3. X10 Immortals, Night Scythe- 270
4. X10 Immortals, Night Scythe- 270



Heavy support


1. Doom Scythe- 175
2. Doom Scythe- 175
3. Doom Scythe- 175




My first thought is wow that is not that much. The army relies on the supersonic special rule coupled with the Stormlords ability to have night fighting continue throughout the begining of the game. It also relies on the ability for the Doom Scythe to "dry fire" since it technically does not need to target a specific unit and therefore does not need to be able to see it.




It zooms up 36" turn one into places relatively safe due to night fighting. Turn two it moves into position and everything jumps out to start shooting while the doom scythes get into position to blast lines of vehicles. Then the immortals shoot up the contents. Hopefully night fighting continues until turn 3 or 4 and then everything opens up....The Tesla destructos bruning up remaining vehicles witht he deth rays and large Immortal groups target infantry.






Nice things about the list? Very mobile while being technically the fastest list in the game, for the most part. This coupled with continued night fighting makes it very hard to pick off your vehicles with flat out saves. The Doom Scythes take advantage of night fighting and thier death ray rules, which need an faq, slaughter whole chunks of vehicles....Also large sets of 10 immortals are hard to push in general.....A very simple list while being sort of competitive.....It does lack a large ammount of compitent long range anti-vehicle shooting as well as any assault prescense what so ever.....I see this as a nice shock list that can take advantage of some players never seeing something like this before....but not top tier in GT competitiveness....thoughts?....more on thsi later.....

Why Black Templar Can Still Win Tournaments




Hey all Kevin here sitting in New York Penn Station and hating every minute of it, but hey I am a Rangers fan...Anyway that's pretty off topic today I am gonna talk about why Black Templar players currently do not want a codex update and how they can still win after the recent win of Nick "Darkwynn" Rose at the Feast of Blades.



Almost a year ago we saw the big FAQ shakeup greatly increasing the viability of both the Dark Angels and Black Templar books. Now we were all greatly mystified at the new shiny Deathwing viabilty and saw the Dark Angels come back on to the tournament scene with the now ever so typical Deathwing build of 5 or so thundernator squads equipped with a cyclone missile launcher, a chainfist or two with some fast melta in either speeder or attack bike form. This for the most part distracted the online community as we saw these lists do fairly well for a small period of time, one of these lists with in the first week of the FAQ won the Templecon Singles tournament with ease and skill. We all did kind of ignore a new power house back of the line book still abusing some of the cool things from 4th edition with new updated wargear options. We can see this with some awesome Black Templar builds.



How many of you would love 5 man tactical that can still take a cheap lascannon? how many of you would love the ability to still have tankhunters on their missile launchers? How many of you would still love lightning claw terminators with furious charge and army wide preferred enemy? Then why are you taking Black Templar?



Now the newer Blood Angels book is a good signal for what will happen with the Black Templar book when it comes out. An ability to still take heavy deathstars with a lack of the cool old abilities and a few new units. Lets go over what you get with Black Templar compared to a vanilla marines equivalent.



For 95 points you get 5 crusaders with a lascannon. To even get a lascannon in a marine aquad you need to buy 10 marines first and then a expensive lascannon running you up to 215 points....and your vanilla marines dont have preffered enemy and access to a razorback that can take power of the machine spirit and extra armor effectively making it a fast unstunable/shakeable vehicle.....although for a hefty price of 120 points.



speaking of which this codex actually makes vindicators really scary with a combination of power of the machine spirit and extra armor letting them move 12 inches and still fire while ignoring shaken and stunned results for all realistic purposes. You also have the ability to get a LRC with blessed hull...the ability to stop the things that easily penetrate AV14 can be huge....




Did I mention you can have a squad of terminators with a couple cyclone missile launchers and tank hunters effectively getting a terminator squads with four S9 shots a turn....



Also we see the ability to take Terminators in a drop pod. with a lack of an ability to get your terminators into combat early and safely this could be a way to work out easy/early assaults for your terminators.




For my 1850 list this is about what I take....granted not as efficient as it can be..




Thunder hammer/storm shield Reclusiarch in Artificer armor

Emperors Champ, AAC



4x 5 crusaders with lascannon, one with a TL LAS POTMS/EA razorback





5 Sword Bretheran Terminators with x2Cyclones and tankhunters


5 Sword Bretheran Assault Terminators w/2 LC's and 3 TH/SS, Furious Charge inside of...




Land raider Crusader w/Blessed Hull


Vindicator w/ POTMS/EA




This list leverages a lot of S9 shooting and some pretty good death star punch. The one thing this book still has is cheap troops but expensive assault options....It is an issue as much as a blessing.



Still with some of the old abilities still lingering around this book can play fairly competitive against the current meta....It will have trouble with Death Cultists although....In my opinion it still has enough where it counts beat a lot of the msu transport spam of today....more on this later....

Friday, November 11, 2011

1750 Conflict GT Codex: Space Marine List



Ok all, Kevin here to lay out my 1750 Storm Wardens Army. I have been building and painting this army in secret since August as my new project. After a few games I have hammered out the list I will be running, saying things get cemented in, at the Conflict GT in January. here it is...

1750 point Space Marines

HQ
1. Space Marine Captain, bike, artificer armor, power fist, digital weapons - 185
-Command squad, bikes,
1x Apothecary
1x Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield
1 x Melta gun/Storm Shield
1x Storm shield/lightning claw, melta bombs
1x Storm shield/lightning Claw -335
Elite
1. Dreadnought, Twin Linked Las, heavy flamer/CCA -145
2. Dreadnought, Twin Linked Las, heavy flamer/CCA -145
Fast Attack
1. X1 Attack Bike, x1 multi melta -50
Troops
1. Scout Squad, camo cloaks, x4 snipers, missile launcher -100
2. Tactical Squad, powerfist -190
-Razorback, TL Las
3. Tactical Squad, combi melta -175
-Razorback, TL Las
Heavy Support
1. Devastator Squad, x2 lascannons, x1 missile launchers -175
2. Devastator squad, x2 lascannons x1missile launcher -250
-Razorback, Las/Plas

Ok the first thing most people will notice is I am using a Biker Command Squad.....I get a lot of wierd looks for running it to. It is a unit I have wanted to run ever since I got back into the game a few years back but was always scared of the points and conversion cost. Let me say one thing to all of those that say this unit is overated....used in a proper way this is one of the best units in the entire game. It is very mobile so it lets me choose my battles. Each model in the unit has unique warear to help me in wound allocation and it is loaded with T5 3+ 3++ 4+++ love. I have yet to lose this unit in a game and for my oppoenent to just knock out one model is a hard task. I got assaulted by 60 ork boyz in a tournament and I wont he combat with only losing one biker...I will save all the details and tactics with the unit for it's own article in the future.

We also see my prefered three scoring units.....typical two small msu razorback squads and a camo cloaked scout sniper unit. I have always been about castling up on one or two objectives and holding them with more than one scoring unit being protected by my refered pattern of dreadnought (tl las and heavy flamer/dcc arm) in which you see duplicated in the list as well as some solid static shooting in which we see the the two devastator squads. I like the dev squads because the signum lets me shoot one of the lascannons with BS5, by the way which is probably the most forgotten about piece of wargear in the book.

With this list another detail comes out, what is with all of the lascannons? We have 9 lascannons in the list, 4 of which are twin linked. I can explain using such a expensive peice of wargear due to my year with Dark eldar....after you cannot manage to peetrate anything with S8 spam you tend to get annoyed with anything S8. I still have a bunch of missile launchers in the army but the lascannon is the most prominent weapon in the list. In all my practice games with this army I have yet to lose a game. It is very similar to my old "poor mans" Imperial Fist Army I ran a couple of years ago in hich I always had a ton of success with.

So why Storm Wardens? Wel I have always loved painting blue and if I was ever to paint another marines army it was going to be a blue and silver army. Plus I had some awesome inspiration from a ton of great painters on the web. I used the Storm Wardens Army project as a good starting point and went on from there. I also wanted an army that was not legion based so I can run it with Black Templar as well as Dark Angels when they came out, since the Wardens have an unkown history and founding.

...well more on this later, including BatReps and unit breakdowns.....

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Making Chaos Space Marines Competitive in 5th Edition: UPDATED!


Ok all, Kevin here to discuss once again, as a follow up to an older, very popular, post about how to make our current old Chaos codex work, atleast for the last 6-12 months of it's existence. The other day I took a solid second place at my FLGS tournament, which does boast a lot of GT contenders including some fairly seen club members. I was using a list concept I have been running since August. My background in Chaos solely lays on the latter half of 5th edition. I have played the army for two years and honestly have had more success with this army than any other of my armies with tournament victories and a handful of 2nd places. Overall My win loss percentage is around 3 victories for every defeat I have had with this book...In this article I will discuss the codex' weak points, its few strengths, how it stacks up to current books and what we can do to counter them until we get the legions book next year..... But first lets look at the codex' issues...

For one we are dealing with what is becoming one of the oldest books in the game. It deals with the older 4th edition concepts of minimization, simplicity, and high points costs. Also it lacks a good counter to the current meta without a cheap scoring unit on an effective weapons platform of a transport. This is probably the biggest problem with the army as we have no solid way to mimic or counter the current razorspam filled market. Instead we get expensive troop units that can only take rhinos with no solid way to spam vehicle laden heavy weapons. Also a few of the tricks it use to abuse are out of date and not as potent with our current meta...such as duel lash....

So we have to take a step back and look at our current meta in order to find a decent way to counter it. Yet, lets look at our strengths.....We still have lash and it can still work....there is nothing wrong with two winged princes with lash.....its one of the few things we can still abuse as a special ability almost exclusively with our book (the other being the weaker daemons ability)....we also have the untestable daemonic possession (downsides being a pricey points cost as well as a BS 3 downgrade)....if our codex is gonna have a small model count it needs to be durable and all of our weapons need to be able to shoot every turn they are living. This can be leveraged with a durable AV14 as well as the twin linked weapons offsetting the BS3 with an actual higher probability of hitting than a BS4 normal model. We also have the slightly expensive, but best, option for heavy support....the obliterators.....we have the ability to swap between lascannons at range, plasma cannons for groups of tough baddies, and twin linked weapons for close range rapid fire....as well as the buffers of 2+5+++ and 2 wounds....Lastly we have the ability with the marks to add new, yet expensive as per usual, upgrades to units.....so how do we leverage these abilities against current codices?

Well today we face Grey Knights, razorspam/longfang spam space wolves...blood angel deathstars, etc.....One major feature in tournaments is an efficiency model of maxing your force org. chart with msu of troops with light transport and a high number of S8 shooting....

So what I see out there is a high amount of AV11 and S8.....we do manage to see what strengths we can leverage in these cases...to counter the AV 11 spam I suggest a high level of lascannon to easily de-mech our opponents....I also would like to point out with such a high reliance onS8 we need to leverage land raiders with daemonic possession. AV14 can only be glanced by these weapons and glancing rolls of 1-4 do nothing to our land raiders which still get a 75% chance of hitting with twin linked 4+ to hit rolls. With a proper bubblewrap of durable foot units we can protect these raiders from melta countering.

In August I ran a duel Raider chaos list in a 1500 point tournament. I nearly had a flawless tournament coming out with a tied second place finish. The entire tournament I did not lose a single Land Raider....So how do we get the Obliterators needed with Land Raiders as heavy choices? I had a new concept of running small 3 man terminator squads with reaper autocannons.... using them as tough/small anti av11 spam defence as well as a way to fit both Raiders and oblits int he same list. With a combo of either the Tzeentch or nurgle marks we can leverage my prefered T5 nurgle icon or the 4+ invulnerable from tzeentch....What this gives us is a good bubblewrap screen of small t5 terminator units in front unshakable/unstun-able duel land raiders and a few obliterator squads.....This backed up with LAsh princes to throw away melta coutner units as well as rounding up units for the oblits to punk is a great combo. People tend to run land raiders as death star deliverers when the greatest strength a land raider can run is as a weapons platform that is unmovable as a scoring unit. We do this by loading the Land Raiders with small plague marine squads. The only threat we see at this range for the most part is lascannons which have a dismal chance of destroying the Raiders....we can do this with little risk of melta as normal. Finally backing this up with a handful of khorne berserkers to act as counter attack we have a very tough rock of an army...Now we have an army leveraging a lot of T5, 2+ saves and AV14...all with a lot of lascannons....this army is a rock to try and move as it is very hard to shoot this army to death and can hold its own using a combo of lash and good assault units to counter attack anyones moves against it. It also has good field presence with a strong core...as well as it is good with nova style tournaments by being a low/tough killpoint army that can manage to succeed very well in these games....so this is about what we are looking at

one or two lash princes with wings
2 land raiders with daemonic possession
2x5 plague marine squads
A 7-10 man khorne berserker unit
2 or 3 squads of obliterators
2 or 3x3man termie units with IOS or ION with reaper autocannons

In conclusion it leverages all of the strengths we still have in the codex left that we can abuse against a lot for the current meta. I have had a lot of success with builds made up of these elements and while not being too exclusively new it has some concepts not normally seen in the normally assault heavy chaos book.....I'll add more on this later...Now go change your assault minded thoughts to those of a tough/armored/strong rock of an army.....

The New Competitive Necron Tournament List



Here is my personal flavor of the new Necron GT List.....comments to follow



"Canoptek Crusher" List


Total 1849



HQ



1. Imhotek- 225
2. Destroyer Lord, mindshackle scarabs- 145



Troops



1. Immortals x6- 102
2. Immortals x6- 102
3. Immortals x5, tesla carbines- 85
4. Immortals x5, tesla carbines- 85



Elite




1. C’Tan Shard, Writhing Worldscape, Lord of Fire- 220



Fast Attack



1. X10 Canoptek Scarab bases- 150
2. X10 Canoptek Scarab bases- 150
3. X6 Canoptek Wraiths, x6 particle casters, x6 whip coils- 305




Heavy Support



1. X2 Canoptek Spyders, x1 gloom prism, x1 tl particle beamers- 140
2. X2 Canoptek Spyders, x1 gloom prism, x1 tl particle beamers- 140






Alright so we have a very simple concept army that does what almost all competitive lists currently do...which is only one thing and very well....The concept is Imhotek keeps the darkness up while scarabs jump forward, start to eat tanks in a multi assault while the spyders feed them more bases...Once in range, and out of night fighting, the Immortals easily punk the then very low armor value targets in front of them. Then the Wraiths with the Destroyer Lord sweep forward and clean up abusing the fact they go at higher initiative than everything from the whips......very simple, clean and efficient. The Spyders also offer some fire support and psychic defence... Only 2 sets of Spyders due to only haveing two sets of scarabs.....Destroyer lord is just there to boost the wraith squad and nothign more...easily instead could be substituted from some rez orb lords or crypteks to be more efficient....The C'Tan is just there to hopefully punk some flame weapons before they kill all of the scarabs and writihing worldscape can discourage castleing armies as well as those looking for the benefit of cover....He also can easily be replaced in the list for it to be more efficient






This is just the 1850 version....and you can expect to see a few lists similar to this for atleast the rest of 5th edition on the GT circuit.....Ways to defeat it? IF you can sweep the scarabs there is little this list can do and relies on them.....the spyders just have to be ignored, avoid combat with anything against the wraiths as they can even steal the lunch money of death cultists....I am not a huge fan of Imhotek because of his points cost I just need his ability to enact night fighting....his other abilities are good although...I am more of a fan of Trazyn myself but this list is designed to win gamesand can be boring......Once the scarabs are gone the spyders are pointless and just assault the immortals to easily get rid of them.....So find a way to kill a 30 wound unit under the cover of night fighting and being very low to table easily getting cover and this list can go down....more on this later.....

Friday, November 4, 2011

A Not Very Competitive Necron Army List 2000 Points

(Editors Notes: In Retrospect this list sucks, I wrote it the day before the codex came out...meh its more fun than anything...please go to my main page for a real competitive 1850 list)
Don't ask where I got the list or rules.....this is legit though


HQ






  1. Trazyn the Infinite -175


    *Royal court- 265


    -Cryptek of despair, veil of darkness, nightmare shroud


    -Cryptek of destruction,gaze of flame, solar pulse


    -Lord, Rez Orb, hyperphase sword


    -Lord, Rez Orb, hyperphase sword


Troops




  1. Immortals x5, night scythe- 185



  2. Immortals x5, night scythe- 185



  3. Immortals x5, night scythe- 185


Elites




  1. C'tan shard, lord of fire, writhing worldscape- 230



  2. x5 Lychguard, swords/shields- 225


Fast Attack




  1. x5 scarab bases- 75



  2. x5 scarab bases- 75


Heavy Support




  1. Doom Scythe-175



  2. Doom Scythe- 175



  3. Canoptek Spyder- 50


Simple Air assault list....using trazyn with the shroud cryptek to jump forward into the enemy...scarabs eat stuff with spyders crankin out more....attach lords and other cryptek to immortals.....other than that shoot shoot and shoot.....pretty fun and balanced list but this new necron book is wayyy too elite for its own good in the way that it goes against the endless legion mindset....I would say the cost limits the overpowering but still a good threat to GK ad current meta...more on this later....