FtW Bloggers Group

Wednesday 28 September 2011

Eldar Corsairs- First warrior squad done

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Here you go guys, feel free to comment. No flash was used in this image. I'm fairly happy with the new colour scheme. I have a tournament coming up in a couple of weeks and I'm intending to repaint the entire army in time for it. Just need to try out painting tanks with the airbrush.

Tuesday 27 September 2011

Eldar Corsairs? New DE colour scheme

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Today, I found myself fiddling around with a possible different colour scheme for my eldar. The current scheme is good imo, but I wanted something that would really pop on the battlefield, and I've been thinking about learning to paint tanks with my airbrush. I came across the idea of painting an eldar corsair fleet. It would also better justify the venom conversions that I did before the models came out. Here's my test model. I'm gonna paint up a warrior squad and a ravager and then report back to you with the findings. The flash messes the model a little, but the picture should give you guys and idea of what the model looks like. The main colour is close to ice blue. The layers are hawk torquise, ice blue, astronomician grey and skull white. Feel free to comment.

Thursday 22 September 2011

Midfield presence, is it important?

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So, how important is midfield presence to an army in the game of 40k?

Well, we can first look at the pros. You have a shorter range to points on the board (objectives, opposing forces etc.) and you increase your threat range to cover a rather large area. This does give an advantage to almost every army. There are few armies that can really deal damage efficiently just from a corner of the board, and that can snatch objectives effectively without midfield presence.

In addition, midfield supposedly gives you the advantage of better using terrain. This is especially true on boards that have losblocks in the middle of the table etc.. The theory is, that by being close to the terrain, one can take cover from it and shoot without giving cover, or atleast only pop out of cover once you want to melta stuff etc.. In my view, this is more situational, but a good point to keep in mind.

Having a strong midfield presence not only gives advantages to you, but puts your opponent at a disadvantage. If you can dominate midfield, your opponent will have more inefficient threat ranges and a harder time making it to objectives.

On the negative, some armies suffer from giving away side armour shots. This depends on the army, but can have a major impact on the game. It also puts you in harms way, placing you essentially within small arms fire. Sometimes it is better to preserve your forces, deploy back (or possibly even refused flank) and try to outshoot your opponent (or outlast him). Some armies are better at staying back and disrupting the opponent (like tau). Against CC armies, this is especially true. You'd rather hang back and shoot for as long as possible.

My observations have shown that most armies gain an advantage from holding the midfield. Most marine armies are unaffected by side shots (due to the nature of a rhino hull) and armies like DE Venom Spam need to move up to get those blasters in range. Towards the end of the game the player that holds the midfield has an advantage in objective games, as he has more objectives within reach, and can extend his threat range further to stop the opponent from taking objectives.

Sunday 18 September 2011

Baron+Incubi, Is there synergy?

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I don't think you've seen my baron yet? There he is, hanging out with the incubi. I feel kinda funny for not thinking of this before, but the baron works well with incubi. The baron is a good addition to any DE army, because it gives you a higher chance of deciding who starts the game. However, it's good to also make use of the baron on the table. Hellions are ok, but I personally don't like them (expensive, not a true cc unit, rather a midfield shooty unit). Incubi work pretty well. They get stealth to make them a little more survivable (although they already have 3+ against small arms fire). More importantly, however, the baron gives ld buff, grenades all around and can block out power fists or power weapons with his shadowfield. Worth giving it a spin.

Thursday 15 September 2011

GUEST POST: Tyranids: Both sides of the table

"Hmm.. Facing the 'Nids. Those dirty little buggers. The models look so tangled too. What should I shoot.. Or assault? Can I assault? What can they actually do.."

"Damn those tankparks.. How should I deploy to counter those blasts and get cover, too.. Should I infiltrate or outflank the 'stealers.."

Tyranids, with their 5th edition codex, are not an army that is to be taken lightly when playing against. Or with. The Codex isn't nearly as good as the Imperium books, but really has it's tricks when facing the tankparks of 40k nowadays. The codex does "rock" in some way, but definately does not autoplay the games. That's part of the magic, I quess. Good listbuilds are not so variable as they could, too. In my opinion, the "Best" list atm contains some 55 genestealers, 9 hive guards, tervigons and few gaunts. Prime is a good addition, too. Let's look at the topic first from the Nid-cam. A list example:

HQ:
Tyranid Prime: Pair of boneswords 95
Tervigon: Catalyst, Sacs, Glands, Spines 195

Troops:
Genestealer Brood (20) 280
Genestealer Brood (20) 280
Genestealer Brood (15) 210
10 Termagants 50
Tervigon: Catalyst, Sacs, Glands, Spines 195

Elites:
3 Hive Guards 150
3 Hive Guards 150
3 Hive Guards 150

= 1750

So, at first how to deploy, and whether to go first or second? These questions are always important, but how to deal with them?

Who goes first: In general, a good tip is that in objectives, you shouldn't go first as you get the last turn. But how about your genestealers? Do you want them to be shot at 1 extra turn? And pushed back too? Probably you do not. So, a good advice with this list is to go first when you can, ofc depending on your opponents firepower. If you think you can take the extra turn of shooting against you, go for the last turn, and you get better chances to clean up those rhinos and chimaeras having tank shocked into objectives.

How to deploy then: When going first, deploy your Hive guards front, and because of the seize in cover, if the worst case scenario happens. You definately want to harvest that rhino-parking lot or venom-thicket in the enemy deployment zone, and to do that being in range helps. A centrally based formation is well fit, and leaves you with more options. In objective games one would really like to secure the objects to own end of the table to be able to swarm the midfield efficently. 20+20 genestealers probably want to inflitrate to cover in a string, bases 2" apart if your opponent has template weapons. Remember to leave a tail on the units so the tervigons are able to throw FNP to genestealers every turn. The small unit usually should outflank, ofc depending on the opponent. When going second, be wary you are going to be shot before throwing FNP or moving to cover, so make sure genestealers get the 4+ coversave or they are screwed. There are times you just have to hug cover and hope you don't lose that bad, and it's ok. Daemons deserve a special note on deployment. String your units in a string 12" from table edge (pitched and DOW). Then string the stealers in evenly spaced strings through the field. This SHOULD give the Daemon player some headache with deepstrikes. Worked somehow against me when I played Daemons against nids, atleast. This tactic ofc should be varied on Spearhead.

Gameplay: Move aggressively and time your assaults well. The field works in waves of infantry models working in synergy. Gaunts shouldn't be spawned first turn, but later on because they are easily shot down first turns. The gaunts linger midfield or in your own table-edge, and tervigons go where needed. Hive guard should be in cover, or behind a LOS-block using their wonder-aim, especially against Dark Eldar and Grey Knights which can blast the bugs to next week. Prime offers either psydefence or reinforced combat abilites, or just synapse. He's the everyman of the list. Genestealers are rocking against almost anything, but are pretty fragile in the end. Be careful not taking on too much same time. The outflanking unit hopefully assists the weakened flank of genestealers. It's common to deploy using refused flank tactic against nid who have deployed in the middle, and the outflankers balance this out 2 times out of 3. Ahh, sound so Daemonic... ANYWAY, keep focused on distances all the time, remember your Move Through Cover, Fleet rolls and Synapse tricks, and don't get stupefyed by the firepower thrown at you. It'll weaken when you get to harvest the parking-lots.

Winning:
Objective games require contesting and clearing out the field with genestealers while taking the objectives with tervigons and spawned gaunts. Beware of the tank shocks, which shift your infantry pretty badly off the targets. Just charge the tanks with wrong facings so they can only shock forwards which should help. Also keep on blasting them with hive guard. In kill points you should be careful on those spawn-gaunts, as they offer up pretty easy points. Just be more careful and try not to give anything voluntarily. Playing 10-10 right from the start and then aiming higher if the opportunity rises is a good tip.

This is just the basic overview. Everything varies depending on what you face, but as a smart player one should be able to figure out what to do every game ;) Be strict and focused on the movement and target saturation, and things should turn out well. And yeah, beware land riders. There is very little you can do exept maybe stun or shake, with luck immobilize these hulks. Tervigons can bust through them, but good luck with that. Those nasties really give Nids hard time. Again, sounds like Daemons... Really, what's wrong with me always playing these move and get shot + Land Rider allergic -armies... : P How about the Opponent-cam then?

Going First or Second: Going first is good as your get more shooting phases before assault units reach you. But, usually with tanks in your army, you probably want to get the objectives too. So don't be afraid to get the second turn and slow those stealers down with sacrificial units, leaving stealers in the open against your full wrath, and later on tank shocking to contest the objectives. Whatever you do, plan it ahead.

Deployment: Against 'stealers you should really try to push them back. Scout moving units are great for this, but starting the game also works. Also a sacrificial rhino or chimaera or whatever is good. Put those units on the edge of deployment zone, to push the 18" inflitrate range further away. Then zoom back to your table edge and watch them crawl under your firepower. It's great to position yourself in the corner or in the middle, depending on the terrain and your army. Ah, everything depends on everything, doesn't it.. Beware the outflankers.

Gameplay: Hard to cover out everything but in general preserve your units and try to keep your firebase(s) up as long as you can. Going to melee against Genestealers requires dedicated assault troops, and maybe additional support of another units. Thinning the tide with shooting and assaulting weaker genestealer units also works. After you have dealt with stealers, move midfield to push the Nids off the table and start cleaning up the trash. Missiles and lascannons, lances etc are best to be pointed at those tervigons and hive guard. Target saturation is really important here, and so is planning your movement. If the stealers die but you are stuck in the corner you are not in a good shape.. Try to remove their antitank as soon as you can.

Winning?: Play your own game, and ofc, avoid mistakes. Make those shots count, and try to set up certain counter-attacks and charges. I can't underline the target saturation enough. Keep the game in your hands and don't be the passive reacter, and you have the game in your oyster. If the dice are against you, look Aleksi's post on law of large numbers to find the solution ;) If that doesn't help, don't mind. It's a game, after all! Tyranids want to win sometimes too, youknow! x)

Whew. This turned into a wall of text. Hope you find something useful out of it. I probably have forgotten to mention so many things, but anyway... Try to fill the holes with your own knowledge. Remember that things mentioned here are sometimes one of the options, and the game-situation demands to do it differently. If you see the opportunity, just jump for it! Sometimes something off-the-box is the essential key to win.

Toni Salenius, aka Joo-o

Wednesday 14 September 2011

Venom Spam with Rammer Raiders

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Hi guys,
lately Stelek has been strongly recommending shock prow raiders for dark eldar. It would seem that he has been coming to the same conclusions as I did back in this post. I've been contemplating how I could effectively get shock prow raiders into my venom spam list, without losing too many venoms. This list has 8 venoms, and only loses one blaster (gaining potentially two dark lances) when compared to the baron list I ran at that recent tourney. Ofcourse, some stuff had to go, like the hekatrixs' ld buff (the power weapon is very hit and miss).

Archon with blaster @ 75pts.

Court with 1 Sslyth, 1 Ur-Ghul, 1 Lhamaean, 1 Medusae @ 75pts.
Raider with shockprow, aethersails, tormentor grenade launcher @ 75pts.

3 Trueborn with blasters @ 81pts.
Venom with 2x cannons @ 65pts.

3 Trueborn with blasters @ 81pts.
Venom with 2x cannons @ 65pts.

3 Trueborn with blasters @ 81pts.
Venom with 2x cannons @ 65pts.

5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Raider with shockprow, aethersails, tormentor grenade launcher @ 75pts.

5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

5 Wyches with haywire grenades @ 60pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons, grisly trophies @ 70pts.

5 Wyches with haywire grenades @ 60pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons, grisly trophies @ 70pts.

Ravager @ 105pts.

Ravager @ 105pts.

Ravager @ 105pts.

Total @ 1748pts.

Raiders either move 12"+disembark stuff t1, start empty and ram t1, or move up with aethersails to block and drop ld (e.g. against grey knight psychic powers). Not sure whether I like this quite yet.

Saturday 10 September 2011

Quantity is quality; a look at basic probability

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Hi guys,
This post will be concerned with what is called the law of large numbers in mathematics. According to this theory, the larger the sample size, the closer to the expected average (or mean) the results' average should reach. As an example, rolling 2d6 repeatedly has an expected average of 7. However, if there is a small sample size, and you roll snake eyes (which has a very low probability) it will immediately affect the average of the results (and give an impression that the average is lower then 7).

How does all this translate to WH40K? Well, in it's most basic form, the more you are rolling, the less of an impact one bad die roll will have. You should be expecting to achieve results closer to average. Lets look at two weapons: a bs3 shuriken cannon (guardian), and a bs3 missile pod (tau). The missile pod has a probability of 0.5 at glancing a rhino, meanwhile the shuriken cannon is marginally worse (about 0.49). Which one do you think is going to perform better over the course of the entire game? The missile pod should be better, as it has a higher probability, but it rolls less dice (and thus at least in theory would take longer to achieve its expected average). The shuriken cannon, on the other hand, rolls an extra die. This means that one roll, whether good or bad, has less of an impact on the entire results. If the missile pod is rolling well, then it's a good thing, if it has some bad rolls, they will have a larger effect then with the shuriken cannon. At least in theory.

However, this perhaps works better when viewing the army as a whole. An army that rolls lots of dice (like venomspam) will be more reliable in its anti-infantry fire then an army that rolls less dice (e.g. paladins). I have really liked the predictability of my venom spam when it comes to cleaning up infantry. It allows you to better plan your shooting phase, moves etc.. For a strategist, migitating chance is an important factor. Chance is random and cannot be affected. By limiting chance, a player has more control.

This doesn't only hold true in the shooting phase. An army that has a lower model count, will generally suffer more from bad rolls then an army with a high model count. A paladin army will be greatly hindered by a bad ld test or bad armour saves. On the other hand, grey knights msu will be less hindered by the loss of one of its squads to bad armour saves. This has less to do with the law of large numbers, but has a similar mentality. One random event will have less of an impact on your entire game if the procentage of your army affected by that roll is low.

How scientific is all of this? Not very. Just some thoughts and feelings I've been having lately, justified by wikipedia ;).

Wednesday 7 September 2011

1750 Venom Spam, another version

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It's really pretty much finetuning by now, but I'm tempted at taking a blaster archon instead of the baron. I've done okay with reserving my army if going second, and the blaster archon adds perhaps more to the army (an extra blaster and flickerfields on the ravagers), besides I get to use my archon model :D. Any thoughts are welcome

Archon with blaster @ 75pts.

4 Trueborn with 4 blasters @ 108pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

4 Trueborn with 4 blasters @ 108pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

4 Trueborn with 4 blasters @ 108pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

5 Wyches with haywire grenades incl. hekatrix with power weapon @ 80pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

5 Wyches with haywire grenades incl. hekatrix with power weapon @ 80pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

5 Wyches with haywire grenades incl. hekatrix with power weapon @ 80pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

Ravager with flickerfields @ 115pts.

Ravager with flickerfields @ 115pts.

Ravager with flickerfields @ 115pts.

Total @ 1749pts.

Sunday 4 September 2011

1750 Venom Spam @ a tourney; takes 3rd

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First off, the list I took was slightly changed from the 2nd draft, I dropped the portal in favour of more blasters:

Baron Santhonyx @ 105pts.

4 Trueborn with 4 blasters @ 108pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

4 Trueborn with 4 blasters @ 108pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

4 Trueborn with 4 blasters @ 108pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

5 Wyches with haywire grenades incl. hekatrix with power weapon @ 80pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

5 Wyches with haywire grenades incl. hekatrix with power weapon @ 80pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

5 Wyches with haywire grenades incl. hekatrix with power weapon @ 80pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

Ravager @ 105pts.

Ravager @ 105pts.

Ravager @ 105pts.

Total @ 1749pts.

The list worked pretty well. I played 4 games, winning 3 and losing one, earning me 3/16. The wyches provided some good mopping up units (there were no matchups where I would have needed tarpit but they can do that aswell) and the haywire grenades were nice to have. 4-man blasterborn squads are very nice, even though they are an easy target for opponents. Only thing that didn't do well was Mr. Baron, who died to zoanthropes and meltaveterans in combat and didn't even help me go first. Here is a very brief breakdown of the games

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First game was against reserve nids. 3 objectives, dawn of war. He got to place 2 objectives and placed them towards opposit edges. I won roll-off and made him go first. None the less, the nids managed to cut down two shooting phases from me (which I realised is very important for venom spam lists against hordes). Had he rolled better for his outflanking sides (he even had the swarmlord's reroll!!!) he could have made it a more difficult game. In the end however, only around 20 stealers and two podding zoaney squads came to threaten me. I was holding two objectives to his one.

Second game was vs mech ig. 5 objectives, pitched battle. He won the roll off (he only needed a 6) and I was forced into reserve. I rolled well for reserves, but was hampered by an inability to damage tanks (I destroyed a total of 3 tanks in that game, 2 in combat with haywire grenades). t5 would have been a draw, t6 I lost and the game ended.

Third game was annihilation, spearhead against a green tide list. His list wasn't optimised by any means, but didn't bleed killpoints like mine did. I won the roll off and went first starting to fall back towards my short table edge (keeping at 36" from the closest targets). Once I reached the edge I blasted 108 poisoned shots a turn at the oncoming tide, waiting for the game to end. In the end I killed maybe a little under 100 orks and won killpoints 7-1.

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The Final game was against mechanised Grey Knights; bases and pitched battle. 8 razorbacks, triple dreads and fortitude. As a little bit of background info, I have never won GKs with anything other then GK. My DE normally keep playing until t3 and then we call it. I was not feeling confident going into this game, but it was a matchup I had thought about beforehand, and in that sense I was better prepared then my opponent.

He won the roll off and I reserved. I placed my objective in the opposite corner to his and he put all his PA marines on the flank opposite of my objective. He had 3x3 acolytes on the other flank (3 guys holding the base behind a big losblock). He gunned forward reaching my deployment line with his lead PA greyknights. I rolled well for reserves and came on the other flank, opposite the GK objectives. 3 venoms zoomed to all threaten charges next turn. Ravagers and trueborn destroyed a dread, razor and immobilized another razor.

He was very divided and couldn't get all his guns to bear. He moved 12'' and deployed 2 squads of PA GK and brought the dreads to firing positions. His shooting only destroys one ravager. My reinforcements destroy come on. I destroy 5 razorbacks and both PA marine groups that were on foot. I charge the acolytes on his objective and take it after a second combat phase.

I almost messed it all up with my final batch of reserves, forgetting Coteaz's "I've been expecting you". I took needless losses and got pinned trying to bring forces onto my own objective. Game ended on t5 and I was able to contest my objective with a venom, holding the GK player's one.

Jesus this has turned into a wall of text. Anyway, a miracle happened. I won GKs with my DE. overall I'm happy about the tournament. I rolled crap against mech ig all game, but I rolled too well in my game against GK.
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