Kill Crush Destroy!

Played a 2000 pt game against Dalton last night and totally obliterated him. It was nasty.

We were pretty even halfway through turn two and then his entire army whiffed, killing no marines. All he did was destroy the lascannon on my dread. On turn three my obliterators and terminators arrived from reserves and began the job of ripping apart his army in short order. Turn four the Furies arrive and ended up driving two marines squads off the table. It was a phenomenal collapse, and not entirely Dalton's fault. Bad luck for him and good luck for me played a roll.

He gets a chance at revenge today though, a quick lunchtime match of BFG.

UPDATE: I scored a narrow victory in BFG due to time contraints.

Need a Secretary

Arranging games is a tough business. Last minute cancellations, finding a suitable location, making sure you finish on time, it all leads to a certain amount of stress. My schedule for games over the past couple weeks and next two weeks keeps changing on me due to real-life events and opponents. Right now its shaping up like this:

Tomorrow: unknown. I have the time free and originally a game booked with Chris. (Actually, the game was booked for last week but I had to cancel due to a relative passing away.) He cancelled so I went to other people waiting for games and at the top of the list was Al. He's busy, so I'm trying Dalton, and failing that I'll see if Andrew is free for a game of Axis and Allies. If I strike out on those guys, I'll go public and hope someone can step up. Yeesh!

Thursday: lunchtime game of BFG versus Dalton.

Next Tuesday: I have a game against Al and Corey. Well, I thought I had a game against Al but I just realized he thought it was today and not next week! Hope he realizes his mistake or gets my message in time. Poor guy. The game against Corey is a reschedule of the game we were supposed to have last week that I had to cancel (again, the wake).

Assuming I manage to get through this week and next, I have one more game scheduled for April 13th against Dalton. Another BFG game, this time larger points value.

---

Speaking of BFG, the Thursday game is pegged at 750 pts per side and I must admit a large degree of relief. In smaller games I always feel under-equipped in BFG, like I need more vessels to operate properly. At 750 pts I can take the ships I like and not feel like I left a gaping hole in my selection. On Thursday I plan to field:

Caligo Eternus - Archeron Heavy Cruiser
Elucius Rex - Devastation Carrier Cruiser
Capricorn Retaliation with the 8th Company of Marines - Slaughter Cruiser
Cosmic Fire - Slaughter Cruiser

That comes to 745 pts and has the firepower, lances, and attack craft I feel necessary. Since Dalton is fielding Chaos Marines as well, I'm interested to see what he brings out to the party. I suspect he'll show up with two Slaughters and a Devastation, as well as an Escort squadron. But we'll see. Its hard for fleets from the same list to differ too much at lower points values, and I'm really looking forward to our first 1500-2500 pts games. Truly epic clashes in the silence of space they will be.

Facts of (Warhammer) Life

Recently a Khorne Chaos player complained that his army has a hard time playing against Eldar due to skimmers that can't be taken down in HtH combat and lots of shootiness. Tau players complain that playing against Khorne is hard because they get chopped up in close combat.

*pause*

Well, DUH!!!

Am I the only one who thinks that when you choose to play an army with an extreme style, whether it be all close combat or all shooting, you leave yourself vulnerable to an army able to negate that style? That's not a big secret, you know. Its called playing to your strengths and to your enemy's weaknesses.

Personally I think balanced armies are the key to solid gaming and all round fun, and I scorn extreme armies of either shooting or close combat. Fortunately, I've learned how to operate my army well enough that when faced with an extreme style army I can try and exploit its weaknesses. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I do not. But at least I don't complain about it.

This and That

• The Gahmorra Campaign has seemed to have stalled. I suspect the slow moving nature of the campaign combined with a mostly invisible map to factions has created a feeling of being alone in space and not in a grand conflict. Improvements for next year I guess.
  


• Dalton is going for a chaos fleet in BFG instead of Imperial and running it like an older Imperial marine fleet. Fluff-wise its possible although some Imperial scholars claim that the reason older variants were abandoned was because their engine configurations promoted heretical thinking more than current designs. But that could just be rumour or usual Imperial propaganda. It will be interesting to see what Dalton can do with the chaos ships. I'll get a taste Thursday.
  


• I play Corey and his Eldar soon, 3000 pts against my Lost and the Dooooooomed. I expect I'm in for a thrashing.
  

 

Victory!

So I met Dalton at Megapower games and we had at it. I took a Slaughter and Murder to go up against his Gothic and Lunar. We agreed all leaderships to be 7 and no admirals or lords.

I think I surprised him a bit by not taking a Devastation to counter his torpedoes but it was a calculated risk to see if I could force him to start bracing early on and lose the reload ability. It worked only because he had some leadership issues and I got the Gothic hurt early on.

Dalton did hit my Murder hard and got a critical, blowing away my shields (!) but I still had one point left and was able to lock on and cripple the Gothic. He got the Murder next time but the Slaughter was in perfect position behind the enemy fleet to dog them and pound them into submission.

In the end the Lunar and Slaughter faced off but Dalton's lack of any luck for BFI rolls dogged him to the end and the Lunar lost the duel.

Next week we start the real thing, same bat-time, same bat-channel!

P.S. Dalton wielded the Imperial ships better than most experienced Imperial Admirals I have faced. Once he gets the mechanics down pat, look out! He's gonna be deadly.

Skirmish In Space

Currently on Deep Space, the person I've known and played against the longest is DMan, aka Dalton. In fact, he was the second regular opponent I ever had starting back in my third year of university. He regularly kicked my ass so hard for years that I was forced to become a better player for it. During my year long Infamous Losing Streak, Dalton and his Imperial Guard were the main architects of many a humiliation. The Infamous Losing Streak ended when I finally found a way to beat him.

We lost touch when I moved to Barrie for a couple years, and he left the hobby for a while. I'm glad he was wooed back as he is simply one of the best guys I know in this town.

All that being said, I fear him and his voodoo Warhammer playing ways. He is one of those Warhammer Savants: those that can read the rules and see the optimal way to play almost immediately. By contrast, I am one of those learn-by-getting-ass-kicked-multiple-times players. I've had decent success with Battlefleet Gothic and my chaos fleet, but Dalton presents a crafty foe unlike most others I have faced.

Today we are doing a mostly intro game to get him into the rules and some practice. Hence, I expect I will get thoroughly smashed and beaten. Sigh, its almost like a flashback.

Possessed Marines

A couple posts back I was talking about obliterators and how they were one of two choices I had for Elites in my Undivided Exclusive army.

Well, that's not true at all. I forgot about Possessed Marines.

I have a squad of eight possessed marines converted and have used them a couple times in the past. Overall, they never impressed me over much because they are awfully expensive for a handful of models running around for close combat duty, especially when I have perfectly servicable chaos marines for half the price.

Still, if I ever get them painted I'd be willing to trot them out for action for the sake of variety.

Current Battle Card

Got some games lined up.

Mar 23 evening - Chris, Epic game, 4000 pts
Mar 24 morning - Corey, 40K grudge match, 3000 pts
Apr 5 all day - Epic or BFG against various opponents
Apr 6 evening - Al, 40K Challenge Game, 2500 pts

Additionally, either April 17 or 24 there is going to be a Chaos versus Chaos Megabattle, looking about 10000 pts per side.

I'm also going to try and do some demo games of BFG with Dalton if possible. And try to slip in an evening to go visit Andrew and beat his ass at Axis & Allies: D-Day.

Another Great Victory!

Well, sort of.

Dalton and I played a game of Horus Heresy with me defending and the Imperials attacking. It was fun but we had to end it early due to time constraints. I had the positional advantage and Horus died so techinically I won but I felt it was more due to Dalton's inexperience with the game than to my battle prowress. I owe him a rematch.

 

Obliterators

I use Obliterators quite a bit in my army. For me they are the ultimate tactical unit, capable of targeting any enemy unit and having a great chance at neutralizing it with shooting, and being decently armed for close combat to boot. Add on top of that excellent survivability and deep strike options all for a decent price and its almost a no-brainer as an elites choice.

Another reason why obliterators often make an appearance in my army lists is because I don't have a lot of choice for elite slots. In fact, I have two: obliterators or Chosen. All the cult troops (Berserkers, Thousand Sons, Plague Marines) are not valid options for me. So let's compare a 5 man terminator squad with Mark of Chaos Undivided, squad leader, autocannon, and a smattering of power weapons and power fist (about 233 pts) to a squad of 3 obliterators (210 pts):

Obliterators have:
- 6 wounds at toughness 4(5)
- 3 heavy weapons of varying type
- 2+(5+) save
- Deep Strike, no upgrades, Slow and Purposeful, and Fearless

Terminators have:
- 5 wounds at toughness 4
- 1 heavy weapon
- 2+(5+) save
- Deep Strike, normal movement, normal leadership with re-roll

For less points the Obliterators have more wounds at a higher toughness and pack a more powerful heavy weapon punch. The terminators may have an advantage in close combat and move a bit faster, but otherwise the Obliterators are a superior choice.

(As an aside, don't bother bringing up Chosen in power armour as a valid third choice. The only valid reasons for taking a Chosen in power armour squad over a normal Marine squad are totally offset by their expensive costs. Who cares if I can get three heavy weapons in a squad of Chosen? You have to pay +3 points per model to get the Chosen and then pay Havoc squad prices for the weapons! Why not just take the freaking Havoc and use the points save for the models to get a fourth weapon? No, the only good reason to take chosen in power armour is as a bodyguard for the chaos lord so that they can come in from reserve together. And in that case... they count as HQ.)

Justifying an Expansion to the Fleet

I recently added a battleship and 4 cruisers to my chaos fleet and I'm trying to figure out how to do it in the fluff. I added a Desolator variant that I'm calling the Despicable class battleship which is big on firepower with dorsal lances. I also added an Archeron heavy cruiser (my second), a Devastation cruiser (my third) and two Slaughter class cruisers (numbers 3 and 4 in the fleet).

I have a couple angles that I'm thinking:
1) Make them a small fleet that chooses to ally with the Black Storm. Advantage: I can paint them slightly differently.
2) Makes them a fleet that the Black Storm takes over through brute force. Advantage: they will match the rest of my ships in terms of paint scheme.

I was leaning towards #2 but I'm now in the #1 camp simply for variety. Trouble now is coming up with a decent paint scheme that is still complimentary and allows me to use the ships without feeling silly. I'm thinking dark blue.

Fear the Iron Warriors

I've been thinking a lot about Winston (aka Dead) and his Iron Warriors a lot recently, especially since the campaign started. We are both "leaders" of chaos faction, we both play chaos armies that are more oriented to shooting and rely more on Undivided troops as opposed to Cult units and daemons. Yet people live in abject terror of Winston's Iron Warriors and not of my Black Storm.

Some of the reason for that is that I am a good player but not an excellent player. But to be honest, I don't think Winston is a brilliant player either. Yes, he's good and in the top 20 of Deep Space, but I've played him using his Khorne army three time and beat him twice. He's good, but not undefeatable. However, when he's using his Iron Warriors he rarely loses. I however, do not have that problem (benefit?) with my Black Storm Chaos Marines.

So what's the difference? Let's assume that Winston and I are fairly equal in 40K skill (wildly debatable I'm sure but work with me here) and analyze the differences between Iron Warriors and the Black Storm.

1) Extra Heavy Support slot in exchange for Fast Attack slot. Since I rarely use all my fast attack and almost always use all my heavy support, I can see that being a large benefit to the Iron Warriors codex.

2) Ability to take corrupted basilisk and vindicator. Used to be a big deal before Chaos got access to the defiler, but still a significant advantage for no disadvantage. Especially when combined with (1).

3) Can take multiple obliterator squads. Whoa. Really? Wow, that's crazy. Currently obliterators are under priced by about 20 pts per model in my opinion so the ability to take more than three and even to divide them into 2 or 3 squads is huge.

There are other minor advantages and such, but no disadvantages other than restrictions on what cult units and daemons can be used. Basically, the restrictions Iron Warriors face are less severe than the restrictions I place on my own army lists.

Basically my opinion can be summarizes as thus: due to the three abilities listed above Iron Warriors are more powerful than a similarly themed chaos army not using Iron Warrior rules. Are they overpowering? Judging by Winston's win-loss record I think they are very close to it but its hard to say. I'd have to see the army used by other players before I'd go that far.