FMC Daemons: 1850 Tournament Report

Yes, I have been pretty much off the grid for the start of 2014 (happy new year everyone :D). Unfortunately, I can't really promise a change to that. Finishing my bachelor's degree and all that. This is however, my 200th post.

So, last weekend was another 1850 tournament held by NjT in Espoo. It was a nice venue, the tourney fee included food (which received some critic for being "basic food" but I really liked it) and overall it was pretty well handled in my opinion. I played almost the exact same list I've been playing up until now:

Fatey
LoC, ml3, 2x greater rewards
11 Horrors, 1 extra, champ
10 Daemonettes, champ
Daemon Prince of Tzeentch, ml3, wings, armour, greater and exalted rewards
Daemon Prince of Tzeentch, ml3, wings, armour, greater and exalted rewards
Daemon Prince of Tzeentch, ml3, wings, armour, 2x greater rewards

Game 1

Game one was against one of the ex-captains of the Finnish ETC team, Pekka. He was running pseudo Daemons (csm/dae) with a csm prince, fatey, grimoire prince, 2x cultists, 2x daemonettes, 2x drakes (one hades) and screamers. Oh, he also had a bastion with comms. The missions were all BAO, this was Big Guns, Relic with Hammer and Anvil. 

Pekka made me go first and the start  of the game was pretty uneventful. Pekka got outflank for his warlord and managed to keep him off until t4. That really restricted me and his screamers did a good job of preventing me from getting the relic. I went aggressive with fatey t4 despite not having the grimoire, and got punished. Then I vector struck some helldrakes only to realize that now I couldn't fire 2 witchfires at his grimoire prince (which I was looking to kill). Silly mistakes on my part but Pekka also forgot GtG when I took FB from his nettes t2 and left a gap for my DP to run and contest the last objective t7. I won Big Guns because of killing the grimoire prince and otherwise the secondaries were a draw. 14-6. I caught a huge break.

Game 2

My opponent was playing a DE/ELD list. It wasn't really optimal and the game was pretty much over before it began. He also wanted to go first because he feared I would fly up and smash his bastion holding scourges inside. Not much to comment on in this game. I don't want to sound arrogant but he was playing with a borrowed army that he wasn't as familiar with, which wasn't on the same level as my own. I waited until t4 and secured the missions (purge and scouring). He managed to keep linebreaker, I had all the secondaries. 19-1.

Game 3

I was up against Roni. He had NEC/TAU. D-lord with wraiths, overlord and haywire-tek, 3 scythes with warriors, 2 anhi barges, buff commander, riptide, 15 sniper kroots and 2 broadsides with missile drones. Mission was big guns, relic, vanguard strike. 

I got to go second but Roni put 2 wounds to my grimoire prince with his ion accelerator. T2 the grimoire came back behind some losblocking terrain with his buddies, but the riptide ripplefired with the buff commander scoring 7/8 hits and killing him off. Not a great start. The glyph prince died to one scythe and an anhibarge on t5. Overall I managed to limit what he could shoot and he left one objective with just a barge to hold it. Despite being a scoring unit, it still isn't a denial unit, so my Daemon prince snatched it from him earning me a 13-7 victory.

Game 4

Jukka is a veteran CSM player. He's been around the block for all the ETCs. This time he had CSM/NEC. sorceror with spawns, 3 cultist squads, 2 baledrakes, 3 oblits, d-lord with wraiths, 2 warrior scythes and an anhibarge. Mission was Scouring, Purge, Hammer and Anvil. 

Jukka made me go first and I deployed aggressively. The tourney used the actual rulebook scouring, so ofcourse Jukka got the 4-pointer in the back of his deployment zone :/. He deployed the wraiths and spawn behind a fortress of redemption (it was just as terrain) and his barge on the opposite flank. I pushed 4 MCs up next to his spawns and fatey towards the barge. His spawns and wraiths fell back, realizing slay the warlord and first blood might be right around the corner, but the barge decided to move up and snapshot a prince. I gambled with fatey and moved up to fire rear shots while the other guys flew off. Destroyed the barge and luckily the wraiths failed their 8" charge to fatey after he'd been grounded by cultists coming from reserves.

The crucial moment came my t5 when his last scythe with 1 hp left denied 3 times in a row. The warriors zoomed up to harass my horrors and eventually take their objective, earning Jukka scouring. I won Purge and got slay the warlord off the warpstorm table. Both had linebreaker. 11-9.

Game 5

Last round was against the same guy as in the last tourney report I did here, Allu. He had the exact same Taudar list. Buff commander, 2 riptides (one skyfire burst, one ion), 2x kroots (one big), broadsides with missile drones, farseer on bike, 2x5 avengers in serpents and a wraithknight. Mission was crusade, emperor's will and dawn of war (only dawn of war in the entire tourney).

Allu made me go first. The game started like the last one but this time allu pushed very aggressively towards my deployment zone. The table had a nice row of impassable terrain to jump on top. It kept fatey safe, but it also kept the riptides and wraithknight free with Allu going second. T2 fatey puppet mastered the iontide to shoot at the broadsides with farseer. Result: 1 broadside and 1 drone left. Nice! T5 allu would have snatched a win with crusade (managed to clear one objective) but it went on to t6 where I forced the draw on both missions and snatched all the secondaries. Allu had linebreaker so 12-8 for the Daemons.

End result? Won all my games and came in 3rd. Oh well, gotta love battlepoints. Jukka ended up drawing with Eetu on points so their was a quiz regarding the Winter War (which was the theme of the tournament) to decide the winner. Eetu was off by about a year regarding when the Winter War broke out, whilst Jukka was only 2 weeks. It was actually a pretty funny way to decide the winner, we had a good laugh about it.

Some final thoughts. I was forced to go first 3/5 matches and still won them all. So Daemons aren't dependant on going second. My wins were never big (well if we leave out round 2) which is probably because I hide away for most of the game. The list is really strong and wins all the time, but it can't really smack the other guys head in when given a good matchup. I used the winnings I got to buy a bastion, but I'm also considering revisiting the screamer star. You can use it conservatively (hanging out and shooting stuff) and break it off to 4 contesting units t5, but you can also jam it at the other guy if he can't deal with it. I do loose FMCs in the trade, which means more limited flickering fires (FMCs are more manouverable) and less skyfire. The screamers would just add a threat onto the table, have more manouverability with contesting (not being limited by facings and actually making most of their move in the shooting phase, after you've cleared bubblewrap) and provide that autowin button if you happen to stumble into the right matchup. Dunno if it'll be better. So far I've always returned back to the good old 5 fmc list.

Fatey
Herald with ml3, exalted locus and disc
Herald with ml2, exalted reward and disc
Herald with ml2
10 Horrors
10 Daemonettes
8 Screamers
Daemon Prince of Tzeentch with ml3, wings, armour, exalted and greater reward
Daemon Prince of Tzeentch with ml3, wings, armour, exalted and greater reward
Bastion, comms

1850 Daemons tournament report

Hey guys,

The past weekend I played at an 18-man local tournament held in Lauttasaari, by NjT. The missions were similar to BAO, just with battlepoints. Primary objective 4 points, secondary 3 and the rulebook secondaries each worth one. The difference between the two players gave each a score between 0 and 20. Here was my list:





Fateweaver
Bloodthirster (2 greater rewards)
10 Daemonettes
10 Plaguebearers (champ, instrument)
Daemon Prince (tzeentch, wings, armour, mastery level 3, exalted and greater rewards)
Daemon Prince (tzeentch, wings, armour, mastery level 3, exalted and greater rewards)
Daemon Prince (tzeentch, wings, armour, mastery level 3, lesser and 2 greater rewards)

Nice and simple. I slept in and missed the first round, rightfully getting 0 points :D.

Round 1

...zzZZZZZzz... (Megan Fox oiling my bumblebee) ...zzZZZZZzzz...

Round 2

I was playing against IG/SW. A 50-man blob (that didn't combine in the matchup), marbo, 3 vendettas, 2 manticores, LRBT, 2 runepriests and pod with hunters. CCS, PCS and veteran squad went into the vendettas. Mission was Relic (4), Big guns (3) with vanguard strike. I went first, blew up both of the manticores with flickering fire side shots, as they had deployed too far forward. Then I flew off with all but fatey, anticipating the vendettas. I came back ensuring the vendettas would overshoot. They in turn flew off. T4 step one, I grimoired fatey and cast invisibility on all the DPs. Next step, clip area terrain. Third step, 4 guys with 2+ rerollables. Like a boss :D. T5 I took the relic with daemonettes, held an objective with plaguebearers and contested his objectives. Didn't get slay the warlord, so 19-1. The guy was new to 40k (although he's played FB) and felt a little lost with all the daemon shenanigans. He would win best painted.

Round 3

Necrons with dual wraiths and d-lords, triarch stalker, immortals and 2 warrior squads (no scythes!!!), 2 annhi barges and a doom scythe. We played crusade (4) and emperor's will (3) with dawn of war deployment. He seized on me and shot the grimoire prince down to 1 wound. Prince would play keep away and since fatey had rolled misfortune, I went to work on the wraiths with the rest. He didn't ground me, I pounded the crap out of him. Epic movie moment: fatey was grounded and caught by the warlord and wraiths. being the fluff bunny I am, i challenged the dlord into a dual of the warlords. Next round the bloodthirster rolled in, allowed fatey to take the MSS and made a heroic intervention, netting me slay the warlord. I lost 1 prince, maybe the thirster can't remember. In the end I had all the points, 20-0.

Round 4

My original opponent was a no show for day 2. The organizer played me instead. Another 3 vendettas (with veterans),  3 plasmavets in chimeras, plasma ccs in chimera, demolisher and manticore. Purge the alien (4), scouring (3), vanguard strike. It was nightfight so i gave him first turn and deployed out of los, over 36" from the manticore. Fatey flew up with iron arm and 2++, the rest flew off waiting for the vendettas. I couldn't pass a grounding test whole game. T2 it didn't really matter, fatey wasn't dying any time soon. T3 mr. thirster almost felt like giving up first blood (luckily didn't). T4 the grimoire prince took a demolisher to the face. T5 the thirster did infact bite the dust. However, by the end of t5 I had destroyed all the vendettas and forced the CCS to flee. I killed 2 of the vendetta vet squads, the last passed their ld5 against nettes in combat keeping linebreaker. I let him have one objective (all were worth 2 points) and contested the rest, earning me all the points. KPs didn't need counting, I had squads and transports plenty with only 7 units in my entire list. His linebreaker meant it ended 19-1.

Round 5

Taudar: buff commander, 1 skyfire bursttide, 1 iontide, 2x kroots, 3 broadsides with missile drones, jetseer, 2x davu in serpents, 6 warpspiders, wraithknight. Big Guns (4), relic (3) with hammer and anvil. Big gunz is a little tricky for me. it gives me great mobile scoring, but it also means I bleed points from my princes. That's why I prefer scouring. Anyway I give my opponent 1st turn in nightfighting and deploy 3 monsters (fatey, grimoire and the non-exalted prince) out of range of all but his single iontide. iontide does a wound on the grimoire. Fatey powers up with 2++, heading down a flank and eyeing the spiders for first blood. The rest fly off. 1 Spider survives fatey. One of his kroots comes on from outflank, right next to fatey. 

My t2 everything comes on. Nettes lose 7ish to intercepting but none of the monsters are aimed at. I focus on the kroots, bringing them down to below 25% and breaking them. Still no first blood. It got super intense when my opponent was pounding my grimoire prince t3 (brought it down to 1 wound) and only had the resources to bring the nettes down to 2 models remaining. The second kroot squad came up on the opposite flank to the last one. 

All FMCs flew off. My premium assault unit, the plague bearers, took invisibility and charged into the kroot. 3+ to hit (and 5+ for the kroot) coupled with poisoned saw the kroots obliterated. First blood!!!! My opponent was just left with lesser daemons to shoot at, killed all but 1 plague bearer. My t4 saw all the FMCs come one. Dropped the portaglyph and spawned 6 nettes. Intercepting forced me to use the fatey reroll to keep the grimoire alive, fatey failed grimoire. I finished off the lone spider. 

T5 my opponent killed off fateweaver and snatched the relic with some avengers. All game I'd been trying to puppet master the wraithknight to kill the burst tide. Unfortunately, no 6s to wound were rolled. I had stripped a couple of wounds with flickering fire but also given him a 5+ fnp (need to do some math and figure out if it's worth using flickering fire to strip wounds off a wraithkinght). Now I grimoired a warpspeed reroll invul prince and went into the wraithknight, assisted by the 6 nettes from the portal last turn. He was sitting on an objective and worth a point. Brought it down to 1 wound (damn you fnp!!!). Thirster was let lose on the bursttide and commander (who had monster hunter, not stubborn). He rolled 3 sixes to wound and instagibbed both of them giving me slay the warlord. Flickering fire killed the avenger holding the relic. 

Game went on to t6. My opponent killed off the thirster but despite his best efforts the grimoire prince wasn't gonna stop partying. he did get grounded and was charged by the jetseer. I finished off the wraithknight, securing big guns and killed off the avenger who'd again picked up the relic. One FMC also flew to get linebreaker. The grimoire prince might have died to the jetseer, it wasn't relevant. I got all the rulebook secondaries and big gunz, neither had relic and he had slay the warlord and linebreaker. 15-5 victory.

I wrote a more in depth report of the last game since it was the most intense, and it was a good test of evasion as a tactic against taudar. Some minor things both of us should have done differently, but overall it was a great game. It came down to those critical 2 shooting phases (t3 and t5) where my opponent just couldn't do quite enough damage.

Almost forgot to mention my final standing. Due to the small amount of players, battle points and sheer awesomeness the daemons flew in 2/18. Closing thoughts? Troops are for pussies, min troops ftw. Playing with 5 models is awesome! Piotr was wrong in saying that herohammer isn't fun. Seriously though, I've come to the conclusion that FMC spam always pisses off either the daemon player or his opponent. Due to the nature of the rolls, the daemon player will only get pissed off 1/3 of the time whilst his opponent will be glowing 2/3 of the game.

Daemons Tournament Report

So last weekend I went to a tournament in Hyvinkää. The weekend had multiple tournaments in different places and with the Finnish scene already being so small, we only had 12 players there. We (the etc players) decided to go to Hyvinkää because they were a new organizer, and it's always good to support new tournaments. Ofcourse, it turned more into a training weekend with a 25e price tag on it. I was rocking my Daemons/CSM:

PRIMARY DETACHMENT: Chaos Daemons

HQ1: WARLORD: Fateweaver (300) = [300pts]

HQ2: Bloodthirster (250), exalted reward (30), greater reward (20) = [300pts]

TROOP1: Plaguebearers of Nurgle (90) = [90pts]

TROOP2: Daemonettes of Slaanesh (90) = [90pts]

HS1: Daemon Prince, daemonic flight (40), warp-forged armour (20), exalted reward (30), greater reward (20), daemon of tzeentch (25), mastery level 3 (75)) = [355pts]

HS2: Daemon Prince, daemonic flight (40), warp-forged armour (20), lesser reward (10), 2 greater rewards (2*20), daemon of tzeentch (25), mastery level 3 (75)) = [355pts]

SECONDARY DETACHMENT: Chaos Space Marines

HQ1: Chaos Sorcerer (60), force axe (0), 2 additional mastery levels (2*25) bike (20) = [130pts]

TROOPS1: Chaos Cultists (50) = [50pts]

FA1: Chaos Spawn (30), 4 additional spawns (4*30), mark of nurgle (5*6) = [180pts]

TOTAL = [1850pts]

Jukka (our CSM player from last year) was also flying high with two csm DPs (all the 350 points worth of trimmings) and IG battlepsykers. We were both pretty horrified to find out that the boards at the venue had pretty much zero losblock. It's great for all those Taudar lists running around but we weren't feeling it.

Game 1: Taudar

Allu's list had a buff commander, 2 riptides (one ion, one skyfire burst), firewarriors, 2x kroots, pathfinders, skyray, broadsides (with markerdrones and target locks), farseer, 2 davu serpents and a wraithknight. We were playing 5 objectives and dawn of war. I stacked 3 objectives on one side and took it. I think I also took first turn. The ruin in the bottom right of the image above might have hid one fmc but I didn't really fancy my chances any way I looked at it. I tried to bum rush the Taudar, but ended up with one plaguebearer alive on t5 when it ended. 0-10 (first round used halfed battlepoints)

Game 2: Space Marines

This was still using the old 'dex. After loosing the 1. round so horribly, I was playing against the ringer, who'd picked his list in something like 15 minutes from whatever he had. Basically 6 tactical squads, 4 rhinos, 8 devastators with no heavy weapons, chaplain and jump pack captain. It was purge the alien and we didn't need to play it until the end. 20-0.

Game 3: Necrons

Lauri was rocking imothek, obyron, 8 warriors with chronotek in a pirate ship, 2x5 warriors in scythes, 2 squads of wraiths, 1 scarab squad, 2 anhibarges and 3 spyders. We were playing emperor's will and relic. Lauri made me go first. I moved up slightly, and Lauri moved his wraiths forward on his t1. I'd rolled 2 enfeebles and quickly started making flickering fire minced meat out of one of the wraith squads. Spawns tied up the second wraith squad. Lauri tried to counter this by tying up my thirster with his scarabs, but as he didn't get grounded, scarabs went into the spawns instead. Obyron veiled towards my troops that had come on (with the spyders) but scattered back. I enfeebled them and charged in with my tzeentch staff + iron arm str10 guy. Killed off 2 spyders but they managed to veil out again.

Rest of my stuff concentrated on shooting down flyers with flickering fire and charging the av13 ground vehicles. My plaguebearers deepstruck towards Lauri's emperor's will objective, but scattered out. One plaguebearer would live untill the end of the game. The spawns were tied up until t6 in the scarabs, but the sorceror hallucinated the spyders a couple of times. Daemonettes finished the squad off as they suffered a 3-4 result from hallucination. T4 I dropped the glyph next to the relic and rolled up 2 plaguebearers to go grab the relic. Decided to use fatey's reroll on it, and ended up with just 1 :D. Eventually my daemonettes would take the relic (one guy left holding it t6 after the last scythe shot his friends), cultists hold my emperor's will (although a dp had to clear out some warriors that would have been contesting t5) and the chronotek passed his protocols to contest the last objective. 19-1 victory for me.

Round 4: Necrons

Eetu was playing a scarab farm list. He had a destroyer lord, overlord on ccb, 2x5 warriors in scythes, 10 immortals and haywiretek in scythe, 10+3 scarabs, 6 wraiths and 3x3 spyders (one prism in each). This was a really harsh matchup as it had lots of smash attacks and mindshackle scarabs. I didn't feel pressured since I'd already lost once and decided to try taking him on nonetheless. We were playing 4 objectives and he won the roll to go second anyway. I moved up t1, and he came at me. Fateweaver failed his grimoire t2. This was huge as I had been hoping to tie the wraiths with him. Instead I flew him and the glyph prince (with flickering fire) in reserve, to hunt his scythes later on. Thirster went into once squad of spyders (leaving 1 with 1 wound), staff of tzeentch + iron arm str10 dude went into a second enfeebled squad and killed them all. Spawns combocharged the wraiths, last squad of spyders and the squad that the str10 prince killed off. Despite the sorceror being out of challenge range first round, I wanted to link up the prince for followup rounds to stop the sorceror from killing himself agains the dlord.

 Linking up is one of the reasons why I like other then just 1-model units in a fmc list. Eetu's scarabs tied up the thrister (and dropped his pants) while the mss went into the big combat and the prince died in 1 round to the overlord. Spawns eventually died aswell and my last chance was to keep the remaining monster alive and kill his scythes. I only dropped one and took 2 hullpoints off the other. Eetu dropped and killed both monsters on t4 and it turned super ugly. 0-20.

Round 5: Necrons

I continued my necron tour, expertly dodging the taudar and eldar lists. Roni had 2 destroyer lords in wraiths, 4 scythes, 2 anhibarges, sorceror in cultists and a heldrake. We were playing killpoints and quarters (extra kp for holding  a quarter, quarters were held like they were objectives). I chose to go second and deployed out of his guns. I rolled 3(!!) enfeebles and roni didn't feel like pushing forward. I stacked my powers on one prince, fatey and the spawns to prevent first blood and flew the other 2 fmc into reserve (I kept 2 enfeebles on the board to discourage any charges from the wraiths). 2 scythes came on and killed 1 or 2 spawns with the barges. I dropped both scythes and started moving out. Roni just couldn't drop my monsters and t3 I double enfeebled one squad of wraiths, tied up the other with spawns. I made a mistake in deepstriking the plaguebearers in this matchup, leaving them vulnerable to the heldrake that came on t4 and flamed all of them (didn't pass a single invul). Despite this slight setback, and the second wraithsquad not dying (my dp managed to kill off the destroyer lord once, but after it stood back up I failed every mss check despite saving fatey's reroll for it) I ended up on top. I won killpoints by 4, neither had a quarter (didn't expect to have any with the way the rules worked) Roni had linebreaker, I had all the secondaries. 16-4 victory.



with so few players and the way things worked out, Daemons snatched 3rd place despite 2 very ugly losses. I guess you have to be satisfied with every trophy you get. Interesting things to note: The DPs rolled biomancy 4/5 games (with a couple of flickering fires thrown in). Against Eetu, even the sorceror rolled biomancy as I initially didn't get enfeebles (the other 2 cron games made up for that by rolling above average enfeebles). If the sorceror rolls well on his telepathy, you don't need any more from the princes in certain matchups. I didn't play for lategame objective grabs in any of my games. With some morelosblocking terrain that would certainly be the way to go in tougher matchups (and the ability to fly into ongoing etc. is one of the reasons why I think fmc spam is so adaptible as a list). against Eetu, I should have done it anyway but we had some laughs with the bloody close combats where everybody exploded. Overall, I like the list, just need to work on the player ;)

Team Finland off to Serbia

Everything is ready and today I'll be heading off with the rest of Team Finland towards Serbia, and ETC 2013. Apparently the official blogger for ETC 2013 has already predicted us as the underdogs in our first round matchup against Wales, but who doesn't like an underdog story? This trip has even more significance for me personally, as I am yet unsure of whether I'll be applying for the team next year. Mandatory military service (and the possibility of a military career) are looming. I'm not expecting miracles this year, but am rather  looking forward to nice tight games and a fun time with other gamers. It'll be great to see Team Sweden and USA again, we had a good time at Adepticon. Goal #1, don't be the worst player on your team :D.

Ropecon 2013 tournament

 This weekend's 4-round tournament is behind us and I snatched a couple of pictures from it. Here's a brief recap. I played my sm/tau. Attack bikes, some ordnance, a broadside bomb with ninja commander and a riptide.



Round 1 was against a fairly new player. He was playing tau with some deep striking crisis suits, a riptide, longstrike and a lot of fire warriors. We were playing Big guns never tire and he got first turn. It ended on t5, he had his suit commander left. 13-0 victory.



Round 2 was against Roni. He had just whooped our Captain's nids with his Crons. Double wraiths with d-lords, 4 scyhtes, 2 a-barges, bastion and some immortals to camp the comms. We were playing purge the alien with vanguard strike. Turkhey shoot, although he got first turn. My broadsides picked a target and destroyed it. T1 it was slay the warlord, first blood and 2 killpoints from one wraith squad. Then the second squad, 2 scythes, a-barges and the last scythes. The deployment allowed me to just shoot everything. I think I won 11-5.





Round 3 was against ovv and his Tau. Suit commander with crisis suits forming a markerlight/ignores covers squad, broadsides in bastion, 2 skyrays, 2 riptides, 2 devilfish but very light on troops. It was emperor's will and relic. He won the roll of to go first and I was back to camping in a corner :D. T1 he got one attack bike squad (broadsides were out of markerlight and thus ignores cover range). I reacted by destroying both devilfish and all but 1 of the 12 fire warriors inside. Next ovv would shoot my broadsides and riptide but I would react by killing the fire warriors ontop of his bastion (suit commander + hb attack bikes ftw). The most epic moment was when my multimeltas exploded his bastion, killing the broadsides inside!!!! I had been very slow with my deployment and the game ended on t4. I should have checked ranges to the objectives the turn before but since I hadn't I didn't make it to either of the emperor's will markers. Tau win with first blood 2-1.



Final round was against Antti and his Necrons. Crusade with 5 objectives was the worst mission for me. Antti played it very well, giving me little targets until t4 when his flyers came on and nuked my troops. Silly me was too preoccupied with keeping my characters in the broadside bomb, fearing the wraith, when they should have been tanking/giving ld to my troops. My large kroots also came on the wrong side of the board despite rerolls and were left in the breeze behing Antti's entire army (the game had turned from vanguard strike into hammer and anvil at some point). When I contested objectives on t5, I had to shoot one warrior squad off of an objective. Cryptek stood back up and the game was a tie. Secondaries for me, one objective for Antti, 3-3.



So overall I came in at 10/38. Still alright but I'm kinda dissappointed with the mistakes I made day 2. Not to take anything away from my opponents, but I shouldn't be making careless mistakes. Ofcourse 2 tight games and 2 major victories would have been better at a battlepoint event or the etc. Ropecon had victory points as a tie breaker but was WDL.

Finally, our team's necron player, Frenzy, had worked up his space sharks for ropecon and they were looking great. Had to use a flash so it doesn't give credit to the painting, but look at that display board!

 

Adepticon 2012: What a ride

Still recovering from Adepticon, but how was it? The 40k Championships were rough. I played against mech IG (1-2), Mech BA (3-0), GK (0-3) and finally SW which I lost on tiebreaker. The last game had some bad luck on t6 turning the game, but other then that, it was really just the matchups. Venomspam is very RPS, that's the way it is. I scored 36/40 on painting though, that was pretty darn awesome! I also played at the FB championships, going 2-2. The FB players were especially great sports and had a blast, I even played against a player last round that remembered reading about my venoms on my blog.

Ofcourse, Adepticon is a lot more then the tournaments. Americans are really nice people, atleast when you share a common love such as miniature wargaming. I had a blast with everyone I met, even getting on 40k radio's Adepticon coverage for maybe 2 minutes. The size of Adepticon is just huge. In Finland, a 60 man tournament is REEEALLY big. Suddenly there are over 400 players playing at the 40k Team Championships (which apparently sold out in 17 hours). The swag bag was really awesome aswell.

Regarding the differences between the US and Finland. GK and IG numbers were the two highest at Adepticon. In Finland, GKs win tournaments, but aren't that large a procentage of the players. IG is even less common. That certainly was not a good start for DE. The more interesting difference was with the terrain. That picture above shows the only table where I could actually hide venoms (and not very many taking into account the long fangs on the third storey of a building up forward). The terrain tended to be very low. Hills were just large enough to block loss to Rhinos, but not skimmers. Just getting over 100 tables together for an event is a major feat, but low terrain seemed to be an interesting trend.

The missions themselves weren't that different, except for one (imho) silly thing. Objectives were placed in conjunction to the roll off. The player who won first turn could put 3 objectives on his side of the board and he knew he would be getting that side. Seemed a little silly to me.

There wasn't much wrong with my list (in fact, the silly stuff like the razorwing and night shields were just awesome when deploying second against space wolves). DE are just very hit or miss for singles tournaments, and Adepticon was a miss. I would have really liked to have watched a DE player play at the finals, to learn something new, but it would seem like the other DE players ran into the same problems.

Just a quick update as real life is being a bitch. I will be taking the weekend off to throw some dice. I'm trying to take my crons to the tournament, as I'm a little burned out with DE. It's gonna be a silly list with the more special rules then in the entire Dark Angles codex (imotekh, Orikan, C'tan, you catch the drift).

Adepticon, here we come

Tomorrow I'll be leaving for Adepticon as part of the Geek Nation Tours group. I'll be playing at the 40k championships (dark eldar) and FB championships (dwarfs). I'll try and get myself a cap that has the Finnish flag on it. If you see a 18 year old guy walking around with a Finland-cap on, then say hi. I won't know anybody from there, so any social interaction is a bonus. If I'm not busy with a tournament, I'd be more then happy to play a pickup game.

DE: 3-Game tourney in Porvoo

Hi guys,
            Adepticon is just around the corner (I'll be leaving early Wednesday morning) but April has been filled with tournaments every weekend. Yesterday I went to one of the "preliminary" tournaments hosted by mygamestore.fi, a company that has gaming stores around Finland, that was one ina series of tournaments that will climax at the end of the summer in a 30-man tournament in Helsinki where you can win 400e (which is REALLY huge by Finnish standards). The TO is a fellow blogger (warheadfrenzy.blogspot.com) and overall great guy, who's really committed to giving the Finnish tournament community something special. The top Five in each preliminary round earn an automatic spot in the Finals (whilst others will have to scramble for the remaining 15 spots). This tournament wasn't very big, but had 12 players competing.

I decided to take a razorwing out for a spin. It's very handy against necron scarabs, and I was trying to protect myself against Jabbdo's scarab farm list, but it turned out to be pretty nice anyway.


My first game was against another member of the ETC team, Jouni, with his Ork Kan Wall. Mission was DOW, Capture and Control (20 points) and Victory Points (10 points). Each mission objective at this tournament scaled depending on the amount of objectives in your possession etc., which was an interesting break from the sort of WDL victory conditions We've been playing a lot lately. In this mission, I had no intention of trying to contest the Ork objective, since it wouldn't earn me that many points overall and would put my victory points at risk. Instead, I concentrated on Gazzy, 30 boys and a trukk with 5 meganobz that had come in to threaten my own base. We never got past t3, but by then I had destroyed gazzy and his 5 nobz and dropped the boyz down to ~7 models (who were hiding behind a ruin). My hellions were dropped down to 1 man by gazzy, and I lost one venom. I marginally won on victorypoints, almost making it to the second bracket, but only winning by 16-14.

Second game was against an ETC veteran, Jukka who was playing BT. He had 6 speeders, crusader squads on foot and some elites loaded out with termies (including a deep striking termie assault squad). It was KP (20), table quartes (10), spearhead. I was in for a tough match but won the roll off. My opponent opted not to bunch up in the corner and take away my t1 shooting, fearing the 48" range missiles on my razorwing. Instead, I got to start shooting at templars from t1. I was lucky at the start of the game, suffering relatively few casualties (although my ravagers died t1) and getting to work with the templar infantry. My opponent had a string of bad luck as his marshal just couldn't pass armour saves and was eventually sniped out of a crusader squad by a venom that rolled 7 wounds. He failed a shitload of ld checks and a lot of guys just ran off the board. By t4 all he had was 5 typhoons (one without rockets) and we ran out of time again. I won by 2 killpoints and held all the table quarters. 22-8 victory.

My last game was against Henri, who usually sports a paladin list. GK were comped at this tournament, so that GK were limited to 1650 points (1850 for everyone else) and only 1500 points if the army included a special character. No wonder he was borrowing a space wolf army. He had the usual triple long fangs, 2 rune priests, 4 rhino hunters, 2 razorback hunters and a squad of 3 twc. The game was 5 objectives (20), KP (10), pitched battle. I won the roll off and went first. My opponent didn't protect his longfangs and I got all but 2 single missiles off the table (one squad ran away with 2 missiles). After that, he tried to push midfield, but my blasters were rolling hot and I stopped the majority of his vehicles. He did the right thing and got all his guys out at the same time, as some were already forced out by vehicles being destroyed. I managed to kill off quite a few of his squads whilst taking little damage in return but was somewaht forced to overstretch on t4 as we had to end the game there due to timing (again). My razorwing went supersonic and contested and objective, I managed to barely claim two objectives and my opponent claimed one. I won by 6 KP and 1 objective, 22-8 victory.

Timing was certainly an issue, but I haven't had problems in most of my games in Kouvola (where the rounds are the same length as in Adepticon). None the less, I'm gonna have to be super efficient whilst playing in there, and keep my eye on the clock. I should also remeber to check it in advance and agree with my opponent at the start of the turn, if this will be the last. I got myself in a slightly uncomfortable situation the week before at a team tournament, where we ran out of time on t4, where my opponent was clearly winning. I decided to call it there as lunch was starting, but for a reason my opponent was a little unhappy since he hadn't anticipated the game ending.

In the end, I finished 2/12 and won best painted. It's really nice, as I haven't won a painting award before. I also got my spot at the final tournament and won all my games. Overall, a very good tournament. I liked the razorwing. I was only sporting 19 dark light weapons, which is really light, but I seemed to make do with it. The hellions are good backup for antitank and the single squad of wyches I had is invaluable when you need to surpress a vehicle, but can't afford to use 6 lances to achieve it.

DE Tournament Report

Hi guys,
       On Saturday, I went to a small 3-game 1850 tournament in Kouvola. There were 14 players and ETC style missions. 8 points are awarded for primary, 4 points for secondary and 8 points for KPs (max points at 1201+ VPs). I played my Venomspam+Hellion blob and came in tied 3rd place. Overall, it was another fun experience, and a good chance to practice 2h 15min rounds that are the norm in Adepticon (rounds are often 3+ hours in Finland).

First game was Capture and Control primary, KP secondary with Pitched Battle. I was playing against a full foot SW list (2 TWC lords, 5 TWC, 4x10 Grey Hunters and 3x5 Long Fangs). I won the roll off and the terrain was concentrated in the deployment zones. My opponent had no other choice then to move forward into the open. He should have still tried to give cover to his long fangs on t1 with grey hunters or TWC. Now I shredded his guys with ravagers followed by venoms. In the end, he got his twc into combat twice, destroying 2 venoms. I killed everything else (making some wounds to the deathstar) and we called it on t5. 20-0.

Second game was against my co-writer, Joo-o and his eldar. He had 2 falcons, 3 serpents, 3 walkers, avatar and 2x3 bikes. The serpents had 2x5 firedragons and a big avenger squad with eldrad. The mission was 3 objectives on the centre line, Capture and Control, Dawn of War. I won the roll off and deployed my hellions to threaten his base, the Baron with wracks further back. Here I should have deployed the haemonculus with the hellions. I realized on t3 that I couldn't get that second pain token. Idiot! Anyway, Joo-o deployed Eldrad's car and held the bikes in reserve. I came onto the centre, a little to the right flank where Joo-o's base was. Two ravagers tried to shoot the serpent but didn't see it. Joo-o abandoned his base and came on the left flank. There was no los-block and the objectives were on my side, but he did threaten my base.

We played really slowly and only made it to t3. Joo-o had a good t2, destroying 2 ravagers and a couple of venoms. I killed off the avatar and a serpent on t1-2. Joo-o got both his jetbikes on t2 and brought one onto his base as harassment. My t3, I suppressed almost all his vehicles (one falcon only lost a weapon) and charged the hellions into the walkers to keep them from shooting. Unfortunately, the game ended on t3. Joo-o managed to contest my base and my warriors were still fighting against one jetbike on his base. However, 3 wracks were holding one objective far away from the fighting on the right flank and VPs were a draw. 12-8 victory to the Dark Eldar.

The third game was KP primary, 3 objectives on the centre line secondary and Spearhead. My opponent had Njal, wolf scouts, a rhino, 2 Crusaders and a Godhammer. I once again won the roll off and started out hot, immobilizing two land raiders (the godhammer and a crusader). His return fire concentrated on the ravagers (destroying one). After that, I just couldn't roll with my lances (not too surprising) and didn' destroy anything. Luckily, his wolfscouts rolled a 2 and came on the worst flank possible, trying to destroy a venom and failing. Hellions got their third token from them and prepared to move in. My opponent brought out njal with a hunter squad on t4. I concentrated all my fire on the squad, but his was rolling hot with his saves, leaving a wounded Njal and 5 hunters.

The hellions charged the hunters and the rhino. Destroyed the rhino but Njal passed 5 saves and sticked with 2 hunters in combat. Chain Lightning wrecked 5 venoms and a trueborn squad died in the explosion. Nasty! There was some debate at the time, and afterwards about using the power from combat, but I might have been wrong in assuming I was safe with Njal in combat. The game ended on t6. I snatched another grey hunter squad with the hellions (after dealing with Njal and his buddies) and failed to destroy any raiders. My hellions got 5 killpoints, but I lost royally thanks to a well played chain lightning. I did win secondary and victory points were 200 points in my favour (not enough to give me extra points). 8-12 loss to the dark eldar.

The final loss bumped me down, but paint scores got me to tied 3rd place. Overall, I had a lot of fun at the tournament, and after that hanging out with the guys. I made some screwups (e.g. the hellions in game 2) and maybe had some bad luck/ unfamiliarity with rules in the last game but that is life. Certainly, I'll go there again!

Venom Spam 2nd at a small tournament

The last game was a game of cat and mouse.

So, yesterday I took a train to Kouvola, a small town with an active 40k community. They have a really nice flgs, which also holds tournaments every month, taking turns with 40k and fantasy. I took my venomspam build, with the hellions and incubi. The tournament was a small 14 player and 3 round event. Each round had a primary objective (worth 8 points), secondary objective (worth 4 points) and victory points (worth max 8 points with 300 points intervals).

HQ1: Baron Santhonyx @ 105pts.
HQ2: Haemonculus @ 50pts.

Elites1: 4 trueborn with 4 blasters @ 108pts.
Elites2: 4 trueborn with 4 blasters @ 108pts.
Elites3: 5 Incubi @ 110pts.

Troops1: 3 Wracks @ 30pts.
Troops2: 5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Troops3: 5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Troops4: 5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Troops5: 5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Troops6: 16 Hellions @ 256pts.

HS1: Ravager @ 105pts.
HS2: Ravager @ 105pts.
HS3: Ravager @ 105pts.

Elites1: Venom with extra splinter cannon @ 65pts.
Elites2: Venom with extra splinter cannon @ 65pts.
Elites3: Venom with extra splinter cannon @ 65pts.
Troops1: Venom with extra splinter cannon, grisly trophies @ 70pts.
Troops2: Venom with extra splinter cannon @ 65pts.
Troops3: Venom with extra splinter cannon @ 65pts.
Troops4: Venom with extra splinter cannon @ 65pts.
Troops5: Venom with extra splinter cannon @ 65pts.

Total @ 1847pts.

Round 1:
My opponent was playing a Dark Angels army with 3 godhammer land raiders, 2 regular and one ven dread. The regular dreads had lascannon/missile launcher and the ven dread had an assault cannon. The raiders contained 2 tatical squads and 1 death wing squad made troops by belial. The mission was Spearhead, capture and control (prim.) and killpoints. My opponent made me go first. I deployed as far forward as possible and moved up to get as many blasters into my opponent as possible. Over the course of the game, I destroyed both regular dreads, immobilised the ven and one raider, and tore a lascannon off another raider. Not a whole lot. However, my opponent was playing very static and didn't drive to surround his base in time, as I turbo-boosted stuff forward on t4 to stop the raiders from moving. In the end, VP were a draw, I lost KPs and won capture and control. 12-8.

Round 2:
Against Eldar. He had a good list. Eldar, avatar, 2x5 dragons in serpents, 10 avengers in serpent, 2x5 avengers in falcons, 3 bikes and 3 warwalkers. Mission was pitched battle, capture and control (prim. again!?!), 3 objectives towards the centre of the board. I won the roll to go first, and weighed my options. Eldar skimmers are the masters of contesting, but in the end I decided I would be better off reducing the eldar firepower before Eldrad gets fortune off and went first. Our bases were placed on the same flank, and I deployed trueborn venoms on the deployment line, ravagers at the centre of the board. He deployed opposite my blasters and was alphastruck pretty badly. I took out his firepower and charged my hellions forward. He had to bring out scoring models to torrent the hellions,and then my other infantry units zoomed up and charged his infantry. T4 I already encircled my base objective with vehicles. t5 I also zoomed troops onto all the objectives and the incubi killed off the 3 jetbikes that had zoomed in from reserves onto one of the secondary objectives. Game ends with vp draw and me winning both objectives. 16-4.

Round 3:
This game was against a Space wolves dual raider list: Lord on bike with trimmings, rune priest, 2x lone wolves, rifleman, 2x rhinos, 2x10 grey hunters, 2x5 hunters, 1 godhammer, 1 redeemer and 5 long fangs. Mission was Dow, killpoints (prim.) and three objectives on the centreline. I chose to go first, although with hindsight this wasn't so beneficial. I deployed the hellions with the haemonculus and brought all my stuff on my right flank. Terrain was very limited, so I decided to build my postions behind the two rock boulders that you can see in the image above.

My opponent brings most of his stuff up the opposite flank, but he decides to bring his redeemer, a rhino with 10 hunters and long fangs up the centre. This was the sort of weak point I was looking for. I attacked the centre units meanwhile trying to minimize return fire. His shooting elements are slightly out of range at the start of the game, and aren't rolling too hot. I manage to tear up his stuff in the centre and ensure that the lone wolves don't do anything but scratch some fast moving venoms.

The game ends on t5. I have the secondary objectives, victory points by a 500 point margin and won by 3 killpoints. I made a gamble and brought in my hellions and baron to assault an immobilized rhino in my opponents deployment zone. He reacted by bringing his grey hunters to beat me up, and this way I ensured that I got the secondary objective. However, I should have detached the baron to reduce killpoints and victory points from the squad.

So I finished 2/14
Overall, the event was a blast. First place went to the tournaments only GK player, our very own Joo-o, congratz to him. All the people were very nice and laid back, the shop and terrain were very nice and that last game was very exciting. My last opponent was a very talented player, and in the end it came down to a simple mistake, some bad dice on his part and good dice on my part. The great thing about DE is that it's a very fragile army. This keeps you sweating and the immense mobility allows you to attack targets of opportunity or overload your opponent depending on the situation.

1850 DE list for tournament on Saturday

I'm taking my Dark Eldar for a 3-game tournament on saturday. It'll be fun playing with Dark Eldar again. The list I'm taking is a little different to what I've run before, but is in essence a similar venomspam.

HQ1: Baron Santhonyx @ 105pts.
HQ2: Haemonculus @ 50pts.

Elites1: 4 trueborn with 4 blasters @ 108pts.
Elites2: 4 trueborn with 4 blasters @ 108pts.
Elites3: 5 Incubi @ 110pts.

Troops1: 3 Wracks @ 30pts.
Troops2: 5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Troops3: 5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Troops4: 5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Troops5: 5 Warriors with blaster @ 60pts.
Troops6: 16 Hellions @ 256pts.

HS1: Ravager @ 105pts.
HS2: Ravager @ 105pts.
HS3: Ravager @ 105pts.

Elites1: Venom with extra splinter cannon @ 65pts.
Elites2: Venom with extra splinter cannon @ 65pts.
Elites3: Venom with extra splinter cannon @ 65pts.
Troops1: Venom with extra splinter cannon, grisly trophies @ 70pts.
Troops2: Venom with extra splinter cannon @ 65pts.
Troops3: Venom with extra splinter cannon @ 65pts.
Troops4: Venom with extra splinter cannon @ 65pts.
Troops5: Venom with extra splinter cannon @ 65pts.

Total @ 1847pts.

As you can see, I've got the big squad of hellions and a small squad of incubi. The incubi are still on the watch list, the extra blasters from trueborn could come in handy. In the two games I played with this list yesterday they were really good. Overall, this list has more counter assault options then my previous lists (which had 5-man wych groups, but they are more glasshammer) which is great. The hellions also bring shooting, which is great. I'm just gonna have to see whether the 21 lances and str5 hellions in cc will be enough antitank (or whether the third trueborn squad is necessary).

The wracks and haemy are for getting two paint tokens on the hellions at the start of the game. They still have issues with ld (and I only have one grisly trophy) but finishing off a squad with shooting/cc will give them fearless. After that they really become great. HnR makes them mobile and capable to leave bad combats without breaking first. However, hellions are more of a counter cc unit, and not a deathstar. That's something that I need to remember. They are good against a lot of units, but not able to survive alone. They have to be used carefully. They are also very valuable towards the end of the game, with their high movement and HnR.

Adepticon 2012, here we come!

Hi guys,

no pictures, since this is just a quick announcement. Next spring I will brave the cold and dangerous Atlantic Ocean in a luxurious economy-class airplane seat, invading Lombard and the Adepticon 2012 40k Championships.

This will be my first tournament outside of Finland, and I'm really looking forward to attending such a large convention. In Finland, a 60 player tournament is big, but over 200?? That is insane. I can express how happy I am about this. I signed up for the Geek Nations tour, so if any of you are on it, you might just have to sleep in the same room with me.

I'll also play in the Fantasy championships on saturday, but I suck at FB and expect to lose every game. Not that I'm expecting to do well in the 40k Championships. I would probably be a little sad if I lost every game, but if I can't win a 30-man tournament, then 200 seems very unlikely :D. I've reserved Sunday just for looking at the finals, hoping to learn something from the pros (something you don't have the time to do in regular tourneys since you're playing).

Perhaps the biggest concern with me is the time limit. 2h and 15min for a 1850 game? We generally play three hours, even three and a half! I need to start training (*Eye of The Tiger Intro*)....

Dark Eldar @ tourney; getting trumped by GKs

Sorry, that's the only pic I got this time. The entire army deployed to get seized and obliterated by GKs. More about that later. I'm just gonna go through each game and add some overall thoughts at the end.

Each game played seize ground (worth 10 to the winner), bases (worth 10 to the winner) and victory points (worth 10 to the winner) at the same time. Deployment and objective placement varied.

The list (this tourney comped out any triple chloices in elites, fa and hs):

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.

3 Wracks @ 30pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons, grisly trophies @ 70pts.

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

5 Wyches with haywire grenades incl. hekatrix with venom blade @ 75pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

5 Wyches with haywire grenades incl. hekatrix with venom blade @ 75pts.
Venom with 2x splinter cannons @ 65pts.

3 Reaver Jetbikes with blaster @ 81pts.

3 Reaver Jetbikes with blaster @ 81pts.

Ravager @ 105pts.

Ravager @ 105pts.

Voidraven Bomber @ 145pts.

Total @ 1848pts.

First game was against Orks. The guy was very nice, but his list was weak. He had 3 shooty battlewagons (with 4 big shootas and a kannon), some big gunz, koptas and lootas. His troops were one 3-man slugga squad, a deff dread (that according to the TO was scoring) and a squad of grots. He had a biker boss and kff mek. I didn't realise the wagons had no rollas and wasn't expecting him to castle up in a corner and shoot me. He seized on me, but I won the game with full points (30-0).

The second game was against Tau. Dawn of war deployment and 3 seize markers. I elected to go first and placed my base on my left flank next to two of the three loot counters. He placed his base in the opposite back corner (right flank). I decided to threaten his base instead of driving onto my own, and brought all my tanks onto my right flank (close to my board edge to prevent the tau shooting much of my tanks down). The reavers zoomed up the left flank to deny any random tau units coming on unsupported meanwhile the rest castled on the other side.

The Tau came on the left flank leaving their base for me. Their shooting didn't kill all the reavers (I had rolled fnp) and the remaining reavers locked a crisis squad for a turn. I have pretty good board control, but am badly placed for a shooting battle. All my vehicles zoom towards the tau as fast as possible, the baron trying to be a bullet magnet. In the end, the tau had a couple of bad shooting phases and didn't wipe enough of me. I managed to kill of his scoring units with a combination of combat and shooting, and won bases and objectives. Tau won victory points clearly. 20-10 victory.

Third game was against mech ig. He had a pretty regular setup, with a griffon and couble manticores in HS. Spearhead deployment. I won the roll off and he reserved his vendettas. I turboboosted the wyches, wracks and a couple of warrior groups, disembarking the trueborns and remaining warriors after moving, to get blasters into the lead chimeras. IG shooting wasn't good enough in the first (and to a lesser extent, second) shooting phase and I managed to drive over his army. My reavers charged wittled down veterans and command squads, meanwhile wyches charged manticores, the griffon and some chimeras. The rest shooted chimeras and vendettas crippling my opponent. However, I lost almost all my scoring models and when my opponent wanted to stop on t3 and suggested 25-5, I was happy with the outcome. 25-5 victory to Dark Eldar.

After the first day, I was in third place. However, my luck changed and was up against GKs in my last two matches.

First game of the day was with pitched battle. My opponent is a friend and he knew to give me first turn, so that I wouldn't reserve. Probably should have still, but I deployed. He proceeded to seize with coteaz and blast me off the table. 0-30.

Last game was against Jabbdo with GKs. His list was a henchman list with 20 PA knights (purgation knights and purifiers)+2 dreads. This time I win the roll-off and pass it to him. Spearhead and I placed my base in my back corner, his was at the center of his board edge. He made the mistake of driving in a diagonal front (similar to how he deployed in spearhead). His right wing (that was next to my board edge) was vulnerable and I rolled well for my reserves. I come on and try to smash him. My blasters slightly fail, but I get some damage (including one purifier squad wiped off the table). The rest of the game my opponent retaliates and I try to wipe off his PA grey knights. The baron jumps off to tie up dreads and HnR out of the combats.

At the bottom of four it looks like I can win 25-5. Jabbdo can't do much to the baron who is in combat with a ven dread next to his base. I have another 3 venoms that can swoop to contest objectives if need be. My base is safe. VPs is really tight. On his 5th, Jabbdo destroys or imobilises all my venoms and kills the baron with 5 henchmen that charged out of a razorback. Disaster! Jabbdo has a 100 point VP lead (over the required 200 points to win) and I only manage to contest one objective with wracks. Luckily the game ends and I only lose 20-10. Dark Eldar are brittle and this is a reminder that major turning points towards the end of the game can turn the tide quick.

Overall, I didn't feel happy with the Baron. He was only really good in the last game against Jabbdo. The wyches were good, I liked the setup. Venom blades are often enough for the purpose that I'm using them. I also liked the reavers. I played them a little different in many of the matches. In the test games, I had used them similarly to tau crisis suits. However, I found myself zooming them straight into my opponent's face, or charging weak infantry squads. It's probably because I'm slowly starting to master the list and know my army's units better. I can be more aggressive with my small units, like the reavers, as I know my limits. They also fit in with the msu mindset. Alphastrike, target saturation, win. That's why I'm gonna try them with heatlances, something that I've seen pop up in DE lists lately (etc, german team tournament and other places).

Overall, I feel slightly let down by the second day. I play against those guys weekly, and it felt slightly useless going all the way (well maybe 150km) to play, and play the second day against people you know and a matchup you know is bad. The first day went very well, and I am very happy about beating mech ig. The tournament was certainly fun, but the second day was a slight letdown.

1750 Venom Spam @ a tourney; takes 3rd

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



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.



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.

MSU Orks @ 2k tourney

Hi,
This past Saturday I took an Ork list based off of MVBrandt's Ork list to a 3-game tourney. Here's my modified list:

Big Mek w/ Kustom Force Field, Bosspole - 90 points

3 Mega Nobz w/ 1 Kombi-Rokkit, 1 Kombi-Scorcha - 130 points
Battlewagon Dedicated Transport w/ Deffrolla, Big Shoota - 115 points

3 Mega Nobz w/ 1 Kombi-Rokkit, 1 Kombi-Scorcha - 130 points
Battlewagon Dedicated Transport w/ Deffrolla, Big Shoota - 115 points

10 slugga boyz + Power Klaw/Bosspole Nob - 106 points
Trukk Dedicated Transport w/ Reinforced Ram - 40 points
10 slugga boyz + Power Klaw/Bosspole Nob - 106 points
Trukk Dedicated Transport w/ Reinforced Ram - 40 points
10 slugga boyz + Power Klaw/Bosspole Nob - 106 points
Trukk Dedicated Transport w/ Reinforced Ram - 40 points
10 slugga boyz + Power Klaw/Bosspole Nob - 106 points
Trukk Dedicated Transport w/ Reinforced Ram - 40 points
10 slugga boyz + Power Klaw/Bosspole Nob - 106 points
Trukk Dedicated Transport w/ Reinforced Ram - 40 points

3 Warbuggies w/ Twin-Linked Rokkit Launchas - 105 points
3 Warbuggies w/ Twin-Linked Rokkit Launchas - 105 points
3 Warbuggies w/ Twin-Linked Rokkit Launchas - 105 points

3 Killa Kanz w/ Grotzookas - 135 points
3 Killa Kanz w/ Big Shootas - 120 points
3 Killa Kanz w/ Big Shootas - 120 points

Total= 2000 points

I won all 3 games coming in tied 5th. Only 10 points were awarded for each round and 5 points (which almost everyone got) for painting. This led to 3 players going past me even though they didn't win all games.

I won my games 7-3, 7-3 and 6-4. The missions were hard to win big on (all 5 objectives or a 10kp lead) and I wasn't familiar with the list. Thus, my wins weren't big enough. The rounds were also a little tight for what I'm used to (normally 3h for 1.75k and there it was 2h 45min for 2k), which combined with my unfamiliarity with the list led to all the games either going over the limit or ending on t3-4. None the less, I had fun, and here is a fast breakdown of the games.

Game 1: BA with single stormraven DC bomb, razorbacks, vindis and a baal, furioso, and meph. 5 objectives with dawn of war (and a longer night fight). He went first boosting all his stuff onto the board.

Now there was a highway running straight across the board on the table, that was maybe 10 inches above the ground floor. We agreed that only skimmers and jump infantry could jump up there. He brings the storm raven with dc dread, dc and reclusiarch on there, and bang all my buggys drive on and open fire. In the end the raven goes down to the first buggy squad, but theatrical none the less :D.

He still had meph (which I failed to charge and tie up 3 times in a row) but most of his stuff just died to rokkits, klaws or deff rollas. Meph finally dies at the start of t5 and at the end of 6 he had 1 objective, and I had 3. 7-3 victory.

Game 2: BA double storm raven (what is it with all these ravens?) with jumper ba. He is also the writer of a blog: Bringers of Dawn. There were dreads in the ravens and a single autolas pred. Spearhead with 5 objectives. All units have stealth for the first 2 turns (hello kff!!!) and one squad can outflank.

He goes first, but being unfamiliar with my list, zooms right at me. I manage to roll over his army pretty bad, but the game has to be ended on t3. I hadn't remebered to check the time and wasn't on all the objectives I could have been, so I have 2 objectives, he has 0. 7-3 victory to me.

Game 3: Second table against DA dualwing. Pitched Battle, Killpoints. The table was horrible for me. There were large closed buildings that we agreed tanks couldn't drive through all across the board, making manouvering with 25 vehicles very difficult. However, I had some luck in this game.

The KP were modified so that HQ:s were worth 2 and there were 3 objectives worth 2 KP. Each HQ alive at the end gives its owner a further 1 KP. He seizes on me and advances aggressively. He brings his sammael+command squad too close (he misunderstood and thought the battlewagons were not opentopped) but the mega nobz don't do much. There is a grinder at the middle of the table, where I'm bottlenecked by terrain. However, the lucky bit comes when a trukk mob and 3 kans that I was moving up the left flank alone, destroy 3 attack bikes and a 3-man double melta bike squad that had come on from reserve, only losing the trukk (the nob was the sole survivor of the trukk mob).

In the end, I had one objective and killed sammael, earning me a 12-9 victory in killpoints, and thus a 6-4 win (which I thought was a little harsh, 3 kp difference and 6-4 victory? Even with the modified kp's).

That brought me to tied 5th, but more importantly I went through it undefeated (only the tournament winner did the same, atleast within the top6). Overall, I'm very happy. The list was fun and it worked, but boy do I need to learn how to play it faster and better.

Next I need to scale it to 1750....

Ork Battlewagon list at a tourney

Hi guys,
this weekend was Finland's largest roleplaying/wargaming convention. I took my Ork battlewagons for a rumble. My results rocked back and forth. My games went 30-0, 0-30, 25-5, 10-20. So 2 wins and 2 losses, for a final rank of 17.. I'll maybe write some more detailed aftermath thoughts later. For now, here are pictures of the army and the armylist.

HQ1: Gazghkull Thraka – [225]
HQ2: Big Mek, Kustom Force Field – [85]

Elite1: 3 Mega Nobz, Kombi-Scorcha, Kombi-Rokkit - [130]
Elite2: 3 Mega Nobz, Kombi-Scorcha, Kombi-Rokkit - [130]
Elite3: 3 Mega Nobz, Kombi-Scorcha, Kombi-Rokkit - [130]

Troops1: 3 Mega Nobz, Kombi-Scorcha, Kombi-Rokkit - [130]
Troops2: 19 Ork Boyz, Nob, Power Klaw, Bosspole – [154]
Troops3: 10 Gretchin, Runtherd – [40]
Troops4: 10 Gretchin, Runtherd – [40]
Troops5: 10 Gretchin, Runtherd – [40]


Heavy Support 1: Battlewagon, Deff Rolla, Armour Plates, Big Shoota, – [125]

Transport 1: Battlewagon, Deff Rolla, Armour Plates, Big Shoota, Grot Riggers, Elites1 – [130]
Transport2: Battlewagon, Deff Rolla, Armour Plates, Big Shoota, Grot Riggers, Elites2 – [130]
Transport3: Battlewagon, Deff Rolla, Armour Plates, Big Shoota, Grot Riggers, Elites3 – [130]
Transport 4: Battlewagon, Deff Rolla, Armour Plates, Big Shoota, Grot Riggers, Troops1 – [130]

[TOTAL = 1749]