Monday, December 8, 2014

Haemonculus Coven vs. Astra Militarum Armoured Fist

Hey guys.  I was dying to try the Haemonculus Coven and just had not been getting the chance to play any games with my Dark Eldar.

However I finally did get my chance when a friend of mine who likes to do his battle reports on Youtube hit me up for a game.  His Channel is PBMKingpin.  Some of you have seen me on his other battle reports as well.

Anywho, here is the report we did, for those of you who have some interest in the viability of the Coven OR just love the idea behind an Armoured Fist company landing to wipe out the fetid Covenites.


Enjoy and comment freely.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Warhammer 40K: In a World Without Heroes

I was remembering the past with a friend.  I suppose now that I am 40, I am allowed to officially claim at least a modicum of perspective and perhaps even a touch of nostalgia.

We were remembering the days of Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40K, when we had a tournament within a couple hours of us and they featured some of the most unusual rules, one of them being "no named characters".

Now back then, the game was very much more about the heroes than it is now.  Clearly the Elites of most armies have taken over preeminence.  However, until 8th Edition Fantasy and 5th Edition 40K, there really was a highly heroic bent to the game and you could argue that this was true in 5E for a while until newer and newer codex supplanted the older ones.  The game company still claims the HQ is your avatar in the game, representing you, as you command your vicious Lizardmen or tirelessly thirsty Chaos Daemons across the landscape to numerous victories.

This Hero led feel was so true that the OLD euphemism for Warhammer 40K was "HeroHammer".  Many were those that scoffed at the imbalance such characters could introduce and anything above a Space Marine Captain was reason for consternation.  The mere idea that you would dare introduce, say, Aun'Shi instead of a normal Ethereal was seen as proof you didn't "care about" the other players fun.

The Codex's recognized this sentiment in players, and so the Tyranid Codex, the old Necron Codex and others featured things that could only be taken with opponent permission.  

Well this became a sort of rallying cry for some players.  They formed a tournament wherein such abominations and abuses would not be tolerated, where you were there by invitation and you could just as easily be UNinvited if you didn't "get" what they were trying to accomplish, which more or less came down to the use of fluffy and essentials-only type forces with maybe a touch of fang and claw here or there, but nothing overly offensive.

The success of that tournament to date has been tremendous, but some overly competitive voices have crept their way into the conversation and last years tournament, after a couple years of evolution in that direction, was an all out Forge World and Escalation fest.  Civility is still the watch word and good play and calm demeanor still demanded.  But gone are the days when this last redoubt of hope for those who enjoyed the idea of a world without heroes (the overwhelming bad kind of course), so to speak.  Gone are the armies clashing while spectators could actually see the FULL panoply of the codex represented.  The line was overrun here locally at least and perhaps it cannot be reformed.  We shall hope and see.

I know of no other tournament like it and mourned bitterly its demise.  Don't get me wrong.  The tournament itself is bigger than ever, courting more people and more games, in fact, than ever before.  The concept of it attracts people even if the reality doesn't live up to the ideal, and a new concept has emerged to replace the old.  One thing is for sure:  it may not have been a "competitive" tournament before but it certainly is now.

As my friend and I spoke about all this, he said "You know...  you might not have a lot of people in the blogosphere that listen, but...  maybe you could remind people of how fun those things were and how much the concept, made manifest, really meant something to you".

So here I am!  Telling you that it did.  Maybe its silly to be overly sentimental about a game, but lets face it, if you even care to read this, you've probably got a lot more invested in the game than you're willing to admit.

My hope is not for a grandiose outcome.  I'm a realist.  I know you can't go back in time and have what you had before.  No relationship is the same after a while.  But let me tell you that there is a Tournament format out there that is very much catching a little fire and might be the answer.  The Highlander Tournament.

Highlander format is in essence a tournament format that recaptures the idea of seeing the codex on display and commanded as it should be:  A combined arms force.

The rules are simple.  You can only take one of anything.  In some you have to fill the Force Organization slots once before going back to a slot.  Troops are the exception in most of them, but you cannot take two of a troop type unless you've taken all the troop types available in the list.  

The net result is a tournament in which you will never see nine Broadsides, nine Lictors nor nine of much else.  You'll see codex representative armies and the problems of HeroHammer and Elite-Hammer are solved essentially simultaneously.

There will never be a world without heroes again, at a tournament at any rate.  But the Highlander tournament format could make a lot of guys like me (and maybe you?) fall in love with competitive play again, something that has driven many a gamer away from the hobby.

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Necrons vs. Tau Empire Battle Report!!!

I've done a spate of battle reports lately as I've been testing an army for a friend more so to show him how it works.


Below are the three videos that constitue this one Battle Report.  I hope they will teach you a little something about NON spammy Tau lists.  Note that the only unit I have more than one of (except troops of course) is the Pathfinders.  You might also note that the Pathfinders in this list never fire their Markerlights!

Enjoy.  And yes.  I know.  I need to get better at combining videos.  Dang battery or my memory both crapped out on me.


First:  The Setup, Click this link!

And now the main event:









and the final portion!


For more Tau:

Tau flyers

Thoughts going into 7E

Friday, November 21, 2014

Haemonculus Coven Book



Well I have a few thoughts about how to use this book.

First Impressions

My first impression was a little luke warm.  I wasn't really negative so much as wondering about Whether the Coven being so much different was going to play well without the help of certain fairly iconic units in the Dark Eldar Codex.  So let's start there.

Big Differences

The biggest difference Dark Eldar players will feel in my estimation is the Power From Pain chart. 

The Covens book uses an entirely different chart.  For the uninitiated, the Power From Pain rule is essentially a clock.  On X Round, you get Y benefit for all models in the army that have the Power From Pain Special Rule.  Unlike before, there's no need to kill a darn thing.  You just become progressively more frenzied by the blood orgy you're perpetrating (more or less).  The Power From Pain chart for Dark Eldar grants (eventually) Feel No Pain, Furious Charge, and Fearless (and even Rage if the game goes that long, which IS new to the new Codex:Dark Eldar) to the models with the rule, just as before only on a clock.

In the Coven book, it's totally different.  The Power From Pain list includes Eternal Warrior, Fear, It Will not Die, Fearless, and Zealot (not necessarily in that order).  Since the Coven lists only allow you to take units that already have Feel No Pain, the Coven chart had to change.  This Coven chart really makes the units allowed in the list truly frightening.  Fearless makes the Grotesques impossible to break; and once they attain the Fear rule, as I will explain, there is a real chance that the enemy WS could be reduced to 1!  IMagine a unit of Grotesques that, when it chargers in round 2, has It Will not Die and it's natural Feel No Pain?  Hoboy.

Fear is the Mind Killer...


The thing that makes the Fear rule work better in a Coven list is that pretty much everything in this Codex Supplement has a rule called Freakish Spectacle which is a 12" bubble of -1 Leadership. 

This coupled with Fear makes the units in the force have a real chance of actually affecting the enemy.  This could be the difference in an assault at a critical time against an excellent melee unit. .  Units that have And They Shall Know No Fear (ATSKNF) or the Fearless special rule won't care.  However there's a lot of units that will be affected. 

Aside from that, normal morale checks will be affected in any event.  This ability dove tails nicely with any Dark Eldar who ally with the Coven with their Armour of Misery and its aura of -2 Leadership.  The combination of the two could make the Soul Fright ability of Torment Grenade Launchers extremely valuable (albeit again, not to Fearless units or those with ATSKNF).  The Torment Grenade Launcher act like a Psychic Shriek type of attack that is done on normal 2D6 and of course isn't psychic.  Even without normal Dark Eldar allies, one must admit that Fear can be a real X factor for this army to wield.

Building your Coven

The only units allowed in the normal Coven lists are Haemonculi, Wracks, Grotesques, Talos, the Cronos and their dedicated transports.  That leaves you with a lot of holes in your list you don't normally see.  The Force Organization chart allows up to 4 Heavy Support, 6 HQ's and 8 Elites, and requires two HQ's and two elites minimum but only those units I mentioned can fill the slots.  

The six Formations you can use from this book all include the same units, only in various combinations.  Each Formation, predictably, has it's own special benefits.  One really interesting thing here is a 7th Formation.  The 7th Formation, called the Carnival of Pain, is literally all six Formations combined.  If you have the models to pull this off, then the entire army gains the Carnival of Pain special Rules:  While Urien's alive, his clock spinning ability called Master of Pain affects all non vehicles, plus the Carnival of Pain will then re-roll 1's to wound in close combat!  To be fair the Carnival of Pain takes about 2500 points to play, BUT it can technically be built with about 2K.

The Most Interesting Formation

The most interesting Formation is perhaps the most deceptively uninteresting.  The Formation is called the Scalpel Squadron and is simply a pair of Wrack units and their Venoms.  That's it.  If a member of this squadron gets first Blood, it gains D3 Victory Points instead of just 1!  but that's not the interesting thing (although it would seem to be).  What is different is that they must be placed in reserve and Deep Struck round 1 in their transport.  Why does it matter?  Well anyone who has read my articles knows I am a very big proponent of the Null Deployment concept and with the Scalpel Squadron, you can literally deploy nothing...nothing...at the beginning of the game.

Why do it?

Well because if you choose to go second, the enemy cannot hurt you for two entire rounds while the clock winds on your Power From Pain chart.  Not only that but the enemy MUST start thinking about objective on the top of round 3, and will be fragmenting his force for you.  Care must be taken to keep the Scalpel Squadron safe until the Cavalry arrive so don’t be overly in a hurry to get First Blood with them.  It can wait.  Keep them safe and use the time to draw the enemy into bad decisions, or indecision.  This isn't going to be advisable every game, but the ability to do it is priceless against Drop pod forces, and you WILL see those at tournaments.

Beware the Dark Holes...

I mentioned that there were holes in the Coven.  Anti-air is one and really only an Aegis is available to fix that problem.  This presents a danger for sure and means that the army must come to grips with its enemies quickly and without hesitation.  There is normally going to be nothing fancy about this army because once the gloves are off, they better come off fast, faster than Dave Semenko when anyone got cheeky with Gretzky.

Another hole is ranged anti-tank workers.  Like Orks, the Coven prefers a slug fest and it shows in every rule.  If your plan is to use the Coven to load up on Transports that shoot, it's probably a very terrible idea.  You could have done that without the Coven book and better.  So the army HAS to embrace SPEED as its weapon of choice.  Not long range shooting.  Which means the army should by and large prefer Raiders because of the advantages of having another Hull Point.  The army should also use Aethersails, another reason the Venom isn't probably the tool of choice.  The Raider allows the army to set up 43" away and then on their turn, move 36" plus the distance of turning in place (the age old trick in 40k).  This puts you squarely nose to nose even when you go second and keeps you out of the range of 36" weapons to start the game.  Once you're up their nose, they will kill two or three transports.  Accept this fate before you play a Coven list or don't play it.  However, once you're nose to nose, its time to start punching it.  Often.  Your fists need to be your anti-tank in a Coven list.  You won't have many grenades and Raider Lances are never going to get it done in the numbers you'll have them, especially if you're utilizing their speed.  Getting stranded is a fate worse than death for this force so don't waste time getting into a shooting match.

Please feel free to ask questions, since I have not covered everything here.  I'd also like your thoughts on the article and anything in it or even requests.  Share it if you liked it.

Friday, November 14, 2014

Tau Empire vs. Eldar Battle Report

I did a battle report and struggled mightily to put this video together.  Who knew video editing could be so annoying?

Anywho, Thought I'd share the hard work with you even though I will never claim to be an expert with the camera.  =)  The lists are below the Battle Report.





Here is the list I used:



Total Roster Cost: 1994

Heavy Support: Hammerhead Gunship (1#, 145 pts)
   1 Hammerhead Gunship, 145 pts = (Submunition Rounds + Disruption Pod)

Heavy Support: Sniper Drone Team (6#, 84 pts)
      3 Firesight Marksman,  
      3 Sniper Drones

Heavy Support: XV88 Broadside Team (3#, 114 pts)
      1 Broadside Shas'ui (Twin Linked Plasma Rifle + Velocity Tracker)
         2 Shield Drone

Troops: Fire Warrior Team (14#, 216 pts)
      11 Fire Warriors(EMP Grenade, Carbines)
      1 Devilfish (Disruption Pod)


Troops: Fire Warrior Team (14#, 216 pts)
      11 Fire Warriors(EMP Grenade, Carbines)
      1 Devilfish (Disruption Pod)


Troops: XV8 Crisis Team (Mandatory) (3#, 144 pts)
      1 Crisis Shas'ui [Tau](Flamer x1 + Twin Linked Fusion Blaster x1+ Bonding Knife Ritual 1)
      1 Crisis Shas'ui [Tau](Flamer x1 + Twin Linked Fusion Blaster x1+ Bonding Knife Ritual 1)
      1 Crisis Shas'ui [Tau](Flamer x1 + Twin Linked Fusion Blaster x1+ Bonding Knife Ritual 1)

Elite: XV104 Riptide (1#, 230 pts)
   1 XV104 Riptide (Elite) [Tau]  (Ion Accelerator+ Velocity Tracker+ Talisman of Arthas Moloch)

HQ: Cadre Fireblade (1#, 60 pts)
   1 Cadre Fireblade (HQ) [Tau]


HQ: Aun'Va (3#, 100 pts)
   1 Aun'Va

HQ: Commander (3#, 162 pts)
   1 Commander(Flamer x1 + Drone Controller + Stimulant Injector+ Command and Control Node + Positional Relay+ Onager Gauntlet+Neuroweb System Jammer)
      2 Marker Drones

Fast Attack: Drone Squadron (4#, 56 pts)
      4 Marker Drones, 56 pts = 4 * 14

Fast Attack: Pathfinder Team (13#, 295 pts)
      5 Pathfinders(EMP Grenade+ Rail Rifle x3)
         1 Pathfinder Shas'ui(EMP Grenade)
            2 Shield Drone
      1 Pulse Accelerator Drone
      1 Recon Drone
      1 Devilfish(Disruption Pod)

Fast Attack: Pathfinder Team (9#, 172 pts)
      5 Pathfinders(EMP Grenade+ Rail Rifle x3)
         1 Pathfinder Shas'ui( EMP Grenade)
            2 Shield Drone
      1 Pulse Accelerator Drone

Here is the list I faced:

 Wraith Knight

2 Fire Prisms

3 Shooty Wave Serpents (with Dire Avengers in them)

 5 Kabalites

Unkillable Deathstar:  Asurman+Eldrad+Archon (Husk,Shadowfield, Soultrap)+ 3 Incubi in a Raider (Dark Lance)

Eldrads powers:  Executioner, Doom, Fortune, Guide, Mindwar

Crimson Hunter


 

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

The Ork Bowling Ball

As my friend has kindly shipped me all his orks more or less, I have been entertaining ways to use them and also kind of poking at the army in the general way.

A few things.  First, this codex is extremely typical of GW's new direction.  The codex is meant to play as it "should" with less regard (but not NO regard) to whether that happens to be uber powerful or not.

Their obvious focus was to make the hordes more common in games of 40K.  Hordes aren't.  While the Blob squad is the well known break with that, lets face it, even Tyranids don't tend to horde that much, nor do Chaos Daemons and Sisters of Battle don't do it that often either.  Are there exceptions?  Obviously.  But am I wrong?  No.

So one of the most interesting things I noticed BEFORE this codex was just how massively effective Meganobz were.  With that in mind I notice that the Ork codex allows you to ball up 100 orks, of which 10 are Nobz, and roll them like a bowling ball at someones army!  Now having seen the carnage 10 Meganobz can do, this idea has REAL appeal because the ablative wounds of the bowling ball make the MegaArmour unnecessary, really.  Plus you can make their little buddies into Ard Boyz which makes a BIG difference in the power of that bowling ball!

I was very enamoured of this and tried it out just as a what if.  I rolled it across the field to the 22 inch mark on round one.  Because of 4+ armor and cover, I lost just 8 orks from the unit, most of it from exploding trukks I used to cover my approach sicne only the things right in frotn could see us and they were mostly gunning for vehicles.

In round 2 I rolled the bowling ball forward again to the 30 inch mark (2" on the run) and moved another trukk and my only Battle Wagon up for cover.  Here again, lost about 16 orks and the enemy started scattering except the land Raider which held its ground trying to kill the Battle Wagon.

So when I finally hit the enemy with it, in round 3 on a WAAAAAAAAGH, I engulfed the Chaos Space Marines front lines with so many Klaw attacks that at the end of it, there were two dead predators that just couldn't escape, a dead Chaos Space Marine unit, a dead Abaddon and dead Chaos Land Raider plus the orks had the AA gun!!!  Wowa.  WS 5 to the unit (from the Warlord) and like 45 Klaw attacks was more than enough.  At this point the game was essentially over but there were the usual civilities of allowing him his bottom of the third turn to turn it around.

I was expecting pretty good results, but that is just toooooooo many orks to deal with and if you have a way to block lines of sight (and Trukks + BatWagons + Buggies does do a nice job of at least obscuring it) the unit is just like a bowling ball thrown flawlessly at the poor unfortunate wooden pins.

Now certain tournaments will not allow more than one Formation and so at most you'll get one bowling ball and it really is a lot of points.  But is that not the most orky thing you can imagine?  And the fact that its near impossible for the Nobz to get hit until its far too late is simply awesome.  The unit loses none of its essential killing power; and the rest of the army is mostly in charge of advancing and cutting off escape.


Wednesday, October 8, 2014

My New Dark Eldar!

Okay well I have had time to modify my plans given the new information in the codex, along with some notes as to why and whats changed.  Enjoy.

Updated now that the new Dex is out.

240pts  Court of the Archon (6 Sslyth, 3 Medusae, 1 Ur-Ghul)
75pts  Raider (Night Shield, Enhanced Aethersails)

The Ur-Ghul gives this hard hitting unit Fear.  The unit now pumps out 3 more STR 5 attacks than it did before (34), possibly without significant return blows if Fear works and with the Archons Armor of Misery, iot might well do so.  The Medusae STR 4 AP 3 Eyeburst template is no joke either and more reliable than before, overall.  Being in a Raider at point blank range by round 1, the templates could prove devastating if the battlefield situation doesnt call for disembarking.

265pts  BeastMasters (3 Beast Masters with Agonizers, 4 Clawed Fiends, 2 Razorwing Flocks)

The Beasts run up the field like they are shot from a cannon and Beast Masters have 3 Agonizer attacks on the charge, which means they can conceivably take out a WraithKnight over time with a bit of luck.  Clawed Fiends lost a wound in the new Dex, and with it they went down 5 points (a fair exchange).  Their high STR makes them important for pounding hulls and xenos alike into the ground and now that they have Rage I don't have to play wound shenanigan games with them.  They are hitting with a whopping 6 attacks on the charge each AND you also don't have to worry about majority toughness issues anymore.  This unit got way better for the way I used them.

190pts  4 Grotesques (Liquifier Gun, Aberration w Agonizer)
75pts  Raider (Night Shield, Enhanced Aethersails)

These guys took a step back, losing their easy to gain Furious Charge and their Master Haemonculous Upgrade.  What was once a STR 7 beast on the charge is now STR 5, POSSIBLY STR 6 in round 3 if Urien is with them.  That hurt since a big reason for me taking them was their ability to annihilate enemy hulls, sometimes several at once.  but okay fine.  Still not bad at it.  However what they gave us is Poisoned Instant Death Weapons.  Well...  when you're str 6 on the charge, you're re-rolling to wounds.  And if their unit is smaller than the enemies unit numerically, they get to Rampage which is just silly.  because you of course realize that the enemy hulls will most likely never outnumber us.  In the end analysis, I think we came out ahead on hull bashing from that perspective.  But Dreadnoughts are now going to be a major issue.  At STR 5, we can be locked up indefinitely by a Dreadnought.  Not so excited about that.  Ironically, we now can kill a WraithKnight easier than a Dreadnought.  Fortunately, Dark Eldar probably won't prompt more people to want to play Dreadnoughts.

125pts  10 Kabalite Warriors (Splinter Cannon, Shredder, Sybarite w Phantasm Grenade Launcher)
75pts  Raider (Enhanced Aethersails, Splinter Wracks)

125pts  10 Kabalite Warriors (Splinter Cannon, Shredder, Sybarite w Phantasm Grenade Launcher)
75pts  Raider (Enhanced Aethersails, Splinter Wracks)

This is experimental because I've not used Kabalite warriors, ever.  I am forced by the Codex, for now, to use Kabalites as my troops.  If I have to have them, may as well make them do damage.  So I have given them three weapons to hammer the enemy with at close range.  The Shredder is a fairly good and probably underrated weapon.  The Phantasm Grenade Launcher (and its brother the Torment Grenade Launcher) are interesting weapons when the Archon is around with his Armor of Misery.  What's more fun is that if someone has a character that they are using to tank wounds that has fearless or ATSKNF, they cant have wounds allocated to them.  I thought "How dumb, that means the weapon is nigh pointless against Marines other than the SouldFright" but then after thinking about it, I realized that the Soulfright could not only be damaging at times but it gets through the Techpriest whose tanking, for example, or the Wolf Guard that joined the IG blob or what have you.  Also, Daemons arent actually Fearless, nor are Zealots.  So they won't be spared.  The more I thought about it the more I thought it might actually be worth taking.  Regardless, the Shredder and the Cannon will do damage as will their rifles so I expect some marginal production for the Kabalites against breakthroughs; and some scoring we hope.


130pts  5 Kabalite Trueborn (4 Blasters, Dracon w/ Haywire Grenade)
65pts Venom (Additional Splinter Cannon)

Someone has to pop the transports early.  Kabalite Trueborn are on the job.  Not much to say here:  5 chances to get er done.  The Trueborn lost access to Haywire Grenades which to my way of thinking was a pretty big deal.  No longer are they able to run up, then next round shoot AND/or charge to kill tanks in melee.  Now it's just more shooting and throwing a grenade.  Not as assured anymore.  So I am considering Dark Lances for the unit and changing them to a red herring for the backfield but I want to see if it is necessary, since Dark lances, already a suspect weapon at times, got more expensive to get.  unfathomable really.  I note a very large number of changes that have reduced our anti-tank capability.  I really do think this is a ripple effect of Knight players perhaps not liking how quickly the behemoths can go down with some luck.  Thats beside the point right now though.  We will stay with blasters for now.

135pts  Archon (Huskblade, Armor of Misery, Shadowfield, Plasma Grenades, Haywire Grenade)

So much I want to do with him but he gets expensive fast.  He will wallop people with this version and he does a lot for the force's LD manipulation.  Shadowfields got way better, not ending til the turn is over even if you fail a save.  STR 6 will make that irrelevant as it did before so...  There's that.  One hopes we will have enough to keep the enemy busy until he can do his grisly work.

140pts  Urien Rakarth (Casket of Flensing, Ichor Gauntlet+Close Combat Weapon, Clone Field)
.
Less Expensive, does less and...  He's okay I guess.Clone Field no longer makes him the challenge monster he was (but he dropped 50 points so...)  He gained a lot in shooting, as his casket is now solidly STR 3 ap3.  Not game changing, but at least you can kind of know when to use it, as compared to agonizing (see what I did there?) if you should or shouldn't use it because the variable str always made you unsure.

140pts  Razorwing Jetfighter (4 Monoscythe Missiles, 2 Dark Lances)

Purely taken as anti-air and I'll be frank, it feels like a pretty limp wristed measure at that.  Two shots usually don't take flyers down.  That's just math for ya' but hey the sun shines on a dogs butt once in a while.  No flyer will fail to kill IT.  Its anti-infantry weapons are okay and anti-TEQ is probably their strong suit but its just so limited in where it can be placed on the field, assuming you don't dedicate considerable effort to first killing the anti air.  I didn't even bother upgrading it other than the Dark Lances.  It'll be a crushing weight of fire when it comes in...if it survives coming in.  Big if.  It's worth 140 points to try though and at least it allows me not to totally concede the skies ot my enemy.  Flying Daemon princes and the like are a SERIOUS problem and even if I take one out with Disintegrator cannon fire, or dare to dream kill two of the big boys, well...

120pts 5 Scourges (4 x Haywire Blasters)

Reliable anti-Imperial Knight Hull Points is a good thing.  Nothing works better than haywire blasters at it and Imperial Knights are a thing.  So getting behind their shields is important and Scourges can do it and kind of force the question of where that shield is going to go.  Between the Scourges to the rear and Trueborn to the front, one hopes we can nuke a Knight.  Scourges are also just fine at starting the fun on transports in turn one on the approach.  A lot of good things to say about Scourges, compared to the last Codex, and I think you'll see many more of them swooping in.

Points:  1985
Kill Points:  15
Models:  60

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Militarum Tempestus

My most recent painting project is the Militarum Tempestus. list I have been developing.  As this is a little seen army that we even had trouble finding a General for, for the upcoming ElvenSword Ambassadorial Tournament, I felt it was a perfect army to start tackling and chronicling here on this blog.  Lets face it, you really cant find an online source of useful information on this force and facing it is probably as mysterious as finding someone who plays it.

I'll start by telling those who don't know what they are.  The Militarum Tempestus are essentially Storm Troopers from the Imperial Guard codex (Codex: Astra Militarum), renamed Scions for some reason but fundamentally unchanged.  They feature an elite Deep Striking unit that can carry a STR 3/AP 3 18" range rapid fire rifle, plus the unit carries two special weapons (such as flamers or meltaguns) even with only five soldiers in the unit.  These units are always led by a Scion Command Squad who can give orders to them and the Command Squad themselves can carry FOUR special weapons in their five man squad!  The Scions (again, previously known as Storm Troopers or Kasrkin) have a unique weapon called a Hot shot Volley Gun that is particular to them and it fires a STR 4 version of the same deadly weapon characteristics but is Salvo 2/4 and a 24" range instead of 18".

The Taurox and Taurox Prime transports are available to some units in the Codex: Astra Militarum (Imperial Guard, same diff) but they were really specifically designed to complement the Scions.  In fact, the Codex: Militarum Tempestus actually dropped before the Codex: Astra Militarum, a first in GW's long history.

So that brings you up to speed pretty well on how they are normally seen in the IG codex.

Now Codex: Militarum Tempestus is very unusual.  Like all supplements, the rules are like all of 5 pages or something, primarily relying on you to own the Codex: Astra Militarum to use the Scion list (GW's marketing machine at work).  Unlike most Supplements, they limit you very strictly to Commissars/Lord Commissars, Militarum Tempestus Command Squads and Scions, plus some Transports!  As transports they only allow you Valkyrie Squadrons (non dedicated Fast Attacks) and Taurox Primes (Dedicated Transports unless taken in the Ground Assault Formation which I will talk about).  Not even the normal Taurox is available to them.  So again highly unusual in its strictures.

So if you ever had collected a ton of Storm Trooper, Inquisitorial Storm Troopers, or Kasrkin models, but were constantly disappointed in how they performed or compared to their peers in the codex, this Codex was your chance to release the Kraken!

So why bother?  I mean you can already take Scion Command Squads and up to 30 Storm Troopers to go with them, all as just one Elite choice in the Codex: Astra Militarum and by doing so afford yourself far greater numbers of choices in other areas.  35 Scions (total) is already quite a few and they occupy a slot that is, to say the least, underused by Imperial Guard players.  It almost doesn't make sense why you'd make a much more limited codex for them right?

Well it does now that 7th Edition is out and fully understood.  Codex: Militarum Tempestus was written  with 7th Edition in mind.  They already knew you would be allowed in battle Forged Armies to take as many Combined Arms Detachments (or allied Detachments and/or Formations for that matter) as needed and so the strictures were far less meaningful than they appeared to the incredulous people who paid for the book and then stared at its stark emptiness.  Clearly it was written with 7E in mind.

But there's more to this force than you would think.  It does more than just allow you to play more Scions than you could otherwise.  In fact, after play testing it a bit, I have come to realize that this is actually a fun army to play and the trick to it is in the orders they have.  They are very different from those in the Codex: Astra Militarum, and very specifically to give the force a much more powerful punch than a STR 3 gun would suggest on first reading.

The orders are fantastic.   Let's start there.  The Scions are BS 4 already and can issue an order to twin link their weapons.  This requires the usual LD check like all orders, and can't be countered unlike Prescience!  This order makes the units HIGHLY reliable.

On the other hand perhaps you are looking at that BS 4 and thinking "hey...  that's already pretty good...  Maybe I want a little help wounding with those STR 3 AP 3 flashlights".  Great.  You can instead take Preferred Enemy.  It lets you re-roll half your misses but gives you a shot to re-roll 1's to wound.  Not a bad trade off.

Scions are typically seen as a shooting force and that's pretty much correct.  The time will come though when the enemy simply gives you no choice but to duke it out and sometimes you'll charge just to get free movement.  Regardless of your motivation, the Militarum Tempestus Command Squads can give a unit the order to receive the Crusader rule, which can make a charge with init 3 soldiers a much nicer prospect.  When those nasty Xenos get broken you put them down hard with the Crusader rule, overcoming the otherwise pedestrian INIT value of 3 you have to work with.

In my most recent game, I NEEDED to roll well on my charge; not just to get the charge off, but I needed to be able to wrap around the vehicle as completely as possible to be within reach of the objective.  The command Squad can issue an order to make you Fleet!  This is a big deal for a few reasons.  One, running improves and when you're deep striking, you really need to be able to make sure you can spread out at times because you're not always right next to enemies and you don't want large blasts ending your 4+ armored hides.  This order helps you do that.  In addition it makes charging them a higher percentage play

Of course it has probably occurred to most people who've thought about it, that the STR 3 guns are puny and useless against larger monstrosities, and what on earth can the army do with STR 3 against a Tough 7 Talos?  What about a WraithKnight?  Absolutely zilch.  Could be a problem.  The answer?  The Scion Command can give a unit the order to switch ammo on their Hot shot Lasguns (only) and they now become a one-shot AP3 sniper with the pining rule!  This is absolutely fantastic because now when the Night Bringer or WraithKnight shows up and wants to tango, you can unload on him and actually wound him.  Big boys bearing down?  Change ammo is the order boys.  When the Webway portal opens up revealing the fearsome visage of the Talos, Imagine how surprised that Talos will be when he gets pummeled by our AP 3 pew pew guns.

Riptides (and DreadKnights for example), because they are a 2+ save, still remain a problem right?  And two meltas aren't going to be enough when you drop in even if he doesn't have the Intercept ability to bomb you out of existence.  Gonna' need help.  Well the Militarum Tempestus are up to any job and they can here again give an order which then allows them to change ammo; and now their weapons rend against vehicles or Monstrous Creatures.  So even the Riptides can face a torrent with Rending shots along with those Meltas.  Suddenly the unit of 8 Scions plus 2 Melta Scions can pump out 1.78 Rending hits plus 1.11 Melta wounds and imagine what Rending Plasma can do!  Thats probably 3 wounds on the drop from just the one squad.  So two squads can do a Riptide in quite unexpectedly with a little luck on the saves.  DreadKnights create a similar issue obviously.  Scions can execute some of these maneuvers and feats just as easily by jumping from their fast moving vehicles if they aren't deep striking.

So as you can see the Militarum Tempestus comes equipped to face any challenge using their excellent armory and their preparedness for any foe.

Most of their Warlord Traits are highly useful as well.  One makes the Warlord and his grenades/bombs Twin Linked, with Monster/Tank Hunter.  This would have been very useful in my last game where we got embroiled in a melee with a Furioso for three Combat phases.

Another Trait makes everyone stubborn within 12" of the Warlord which is great when the enemy comes screaming down upon you and there's no escaping them.  This makes the Commissar (if she's your Warlord) an effective 12" bubble instead of just his own unit.  Alternatively it takes away the sting of not having a Commissar if you chose not to have one.

The BEST Warlord trait is one that allows you to Re-roll reserves and to deep strike only D6" off target.  Hilariously, this did not seem to help when I mishap'd 4 different units.  Three ended up in the far corners of the board and the fourth went into ongoing reserves...  Nonetheless, this is an incredibly useful Warlord Trait and it's the one I always roll to get if I can.

 Another cool trait is the one that gives those within 12" an added +D6" range on their lasguns.  I have to say, that's a big deal for the short ranged strike force.

Not as cool is the +1 LD Warlord Trait upgrade.  Now keep in mind: the Clarion Voxnet all Scions are able to benefit from lets them use the Warlords LD for their various checks within 18".  So a 10 is huge, especially if the unit just lost a combat (and one can easily imagine this happening).  I have to say though, Scions get beaten relatively definitively in combat or they win.  There is rarely a lot of Scions in the in between.   This Warlord trait will help if you do not use the kind of list I do a lot more.  So I don't want to poo poo it too much.  It definitely is useful if you take a pure Militarum Tempestus force, with no outside help.  Otherwise, its probably one you'll want to re-roll for.

So you can see that the force is actually far more potent than their simple "We're an army of Storm Troopers" title would suggest.  it is a multifaceted strike force that relies on its commanders a great deal and with that thought I strongly recommend that you make sure you have at least three Militarum Tempestus Command Groups, which means probably using a separate detachment of them.  You can also use the Ground Assault Formation instead of another Combined Arms Detachment (CAD) if your tournament organizers are only allowing one CAD.

Now the Taurox prime is really worth mentioning.  I personally use the version that has a Taurox Battle Cannon and Twin-linked Autocannon on it.  After play testing this version ,it seems very reliable at whittling the enemy tanks down.  I generally hit three times per Taurox Prime, and at STR 7, AP 4, that's not a small thing.  Over the course of the first two turns that takes a real toll on peoples forces, especially if you are fielding a fair number of the little beasties.  Their three firing points on the sides allow quite a fusillade from within.  They aren't well armored and you are well advised to keep cover between you and the enemy whenever it's posible to do so while affording the enemy none, but having said that, they really do mount up the damage.  The Taurox Primes biggest feature is that they are Fast.  That means so much more in Maelstrom Missions.  They are all over the place in a heart beat. In normal missions this is no less important and what you find in playing them is that the Taurox Primes really do allow the rest of the army to kind of advance or Deep Strike around them for maximum support because the Command Groups are giving out the orders that the rest of the force needs so badly.

Militarum Tempestus actually reminds you somewhat of how much the Tau Empire can come to rely on its Markerlights to operate the way they are meant to.  A similar thing happens with these guys.  So long as the orders flow, the army has a good answer for everything.  But making sure you're in range to receive the orders is an issue, as it is for Tyranid Synapse.  The similarities kind of hit you as you learn to play the Militarum Tempestus force.  Don't ever underestimate the importance of your Command Groups and always protect them to the extent it is possible to do so.  This concern led me to completely change my armies original form after a couple games.  Whereas I had put an emphasis on protecting the Troops until they could spring their traps on the enemy, I quickly found out that without the Command Squads presence we had serious problems.

The trouble with Deep Striking the Command Squads in, which was the first idea I had, with lots of Meltas, was that they were not Objective Secured, and they WERE going to be put directly in harms way.  I was NOT going to be able to use their orders later when it mattered, or else not often enough.  Also, having them operate so far forward meant being far enough away at times from the troops they needed to give commands to, that it just wasn't always possible without moving the Taurox Primes into untenable situations.  So I ultimately abandoned this practice of putting the Command Squads far forward via Deep Strike..

My next thought was, how then do we make the command Squads available pretty much for SURE so that the troops would be supported.  The answer was to kick the troops out of their transports, put the command squads in and keep firing until the cavalry arrives.  This worked well but the Meltas being on the command squads were now rarely doing their definitive job.  Meanwhile the troops that were carrying the Volley Guns were now forced to Deep Strike in and this made the Volleyguns far less useful (since they volley).  So I switched the meltaguns to the normal Scions and the Volleyguns to the command Squads.  Same points, superior effect because now once a Taurox comes to rest, it isn't just an anti-tank platform but it worked kind of like the way Chimera Veterans did when they had all those Firing points.  This turned out to be a very good solution.

Now two Command Groups just was not enough orders flying around.  In order to make tournament organizers less unhappy, I decided to go with the Ground Assault Formation.  It consists of 4 Taurox, 1 Commissar, and four Militarum Tempestus units, all of which can roll for reserves as one.

This is not optimal since the Taurox are not Objective secured This way and this is not how i would prefer doing it.  But in the name of making sure I take only one CAD, one Allied Detachment and one other Detachment/Formation, I did it this way.  However, don't do it this way if you don't have to.  By far you are better off making your many troops Objective Secured.  Two Combined Arms Detachments and an Allied Detachment of Astra Militarum is the best solution because it eliminates the "fat" of the added Commissar which is a bit of a tax that rarely does anything for you but absorb wounds and at T3, it's not even really great at that job.  The point of the exercise is to end up with more than two Command Groups that can give Militarum Tempestus orders.

Below is the list as it has developed thus far using just the one Combined Arms Detachment and it is rather complicated to use.  The number of special rules, Psychic powers, War Hymms and orders is a bit bewildering at first, as is keeping track of which units are actually Objective Secured and which are not etc..  It would be very easy to get a bit befuddled trying to keep it all straight and I'd highly recommend having an easy way to account for all of it to remind you as you go whose got what on them.  This army was one of the reasons I started pulling my hair out and asking the question:  does just one CAD even make sense anymore?  This codex, and also grey Knights, both really force you to ask that question because they were really written with the 7th Edition Detachment structure in mind but TO's at the time of writing this, had not loosened the reins on the number of CAD's you can take.

Total Roster Cost: 1999

Combined Arms Detachment

         4 Tempestus Scions, + 4 Hot Shot Volley Guns
         1 Tempestor Prime


         4 Tempestus Scions, + Flamers x4
         1 Tempestor Prime


         7 Tempestus Scions (2 Melta Guns)
         1 Tempestor


         4 Tempestus Scions (Grenade Launcher)
         1 Tempestor


Allied Detachment

   Commissar Lord (Power Maul)

   1 Primaris Psyker (Mastery Level 2)
   1 Primaris Psyker (Mastery Level 2)
   1 Primaris Psyker


   1 Ministorum Priest
   1 Ministorum Priest
   1 Ministorum Priest

2 Hydras

      7 Veterans
      1 Veteran Sergeant
      1 Veteran Heavy Weapons Team(Missile Launcher + Flakk Missiles)
      1 Chimera

Militarum Tempestus Ground Assault Formation

       4 x Taurox Prime 

         1 Commissar

       4 Tempestus Scions, + Hot Shot Volley Guns x4
         1 Tempestor Prime

         7 Tempestus Scions (2 Meltaguns)
         1 Tempestor (Power Fist)

         7 Tempestus Scions (2 Meltaguns)
         1 Tempestor (Power Fist)

         7 Tempestus Scions (2 Meltaguns)
         1 Tempestor (Power Fist)

So what are we doing with this mess?

Well if it hasn't already occurred, the Priest+Psyker added to a Militarum Tempestus Squad makes the unit a fearsome melee combatant.  The Psykers are Divination Psykers, hoping for Forwarning but benefiting the units a great deal with all manner of the Divination powers.  Regardless of which Psyker powers you get, here's what you are looking at:  a unit that re-rolls to hits on the first round of combat (Priest), is effectively fearless (Zealot), re-rolls all its saves (War Hymn) and can use Forewarning to make them stand up to even a Furioso with their re-rollable 4+ (Forewarning power) Invul saves.  Without the priest, they can use Prescience for future rounds of combat.  The units with Priests and Psykers carry Power Fists, a Force Weapon (Psyker) and the Priest can Smash (STR 6 AP 2) if he's willing to skip the re-rolling of the units saves, while still going on normal INIT 3.  One can also equip the Psyker with the Force Mace or Force Axe if you wished; and of course, the Psyker can cast Force.  This is simply a very scary proposition for any enemy unit to be embroiled with because even if you can get through all that 4+ re-rollable save nonsense and do wounds, its dishing it out too.  If the enemy is truly impressive, have multiple Priests and/or Psykers join the unit and charge in as a supercharged force of nature.  Recently this happened and I defeated a unit containing Asdrubael Vect, an Archon AND their Incubi.  His mini Deathstar was very resilient as you might imagine, but the lowly Scions were able to take him out eventually.  Their victory will be sung about in the Scion Halls of Victory for many Aeons.

When not in close combat, the fact that the Zealous units won't run is strong.  Again given prescience, they can skip the Twin linking orders to take other orders and the Ground Attack Formation Twin links your weapons when you disembark!  Foreboding makes them incredibly potent on Overwatch, which I got to witness in one game.  Just the threat of that was more than enough to get the enemy to rethink even trying to engage me in melee in the first place.  Talk about a rock and a hard place.  That power saved two of my whittled Militarum Tempestus Squads from sure defeat in close combat because the enemy simply wasn't willing to risk hitting a unit with Foreboding on it that can fire that much and with that kind of AP.

The army has a few issues.  One is that by starting in the trucks, and having to wait for the Deep Strikers, then jumping out and joining to them, the Priest and Psykers must until then bide their time and run the risk of being too far away to join their appointed units if the battle situation calls for an immediate drop far from the Taurox Primes.  After all, you can only disembark if the vehicle moved 6".  Given that restriction its easy for you to see how the Militarum Tempestus units could get far afield despite our best efforts and not be able to be joined.  This is the primary tactical problem i have faced in my games.  Ultimately the same problem exists as existed before I switched out the Command Squads in the Taurox's.  Only now, its the Psykers and priests being left behind!  Ironic.  so some level of bravado is required to play this list no matter what you do. Risking the transports seems almost a given.  Shying from it early may keep the Taurox's alive and in some fights this is totally advised.  But when the chips hit the table and its time to count 'em up, its the troops that do the work and you gotta support them or they will fail their mission.  I have seen the price you pay if you do not and it was a lesson well learned.

I could write more on this but I'll let this much sink in and attack it again at another time.  Your thoughts are welcome on it, as I experiment and test.

Interested in Astra Militarum?  Astra Militarum stuff


Saturday, September 13, 2014

Night Lords Wrap up.

Readers know I love these fellas.  I DROPPED half my army and cried for a while, so I don't think I ever revealed its final form to you.  The form I am posting here was extremely successful, pretty much losing to just one force:  Flying Chaos Daemon Circus.  No shame in that!  Seems to be the bane of quite a few forces.

I covered most of the tactical thoughts in the recent blogs on it, but I will add that I found that fully deploying the Raptors was generally my best bet.  Deep Striking them only works with very wide open areas (though there is definitely a time and a place for it and the option to do so is nice).

I also have learned to respect the positive effects of Hammer of Wrath in breaking the enemy in charges. Though you will find Raptors to be average combatants (Hard to kill and competent at it) their big plus is the margin they can win by on the charge because they are so tough.   So you need all the hits you can get and Hammer of Wrath tends to push the unit over the top against some of the tougher melee combatants.

Obliterators played this way are money.  Mutilators played this way are money also.  They made ALL the difference in the world to my Chaos forces and I have been SO pleased with their performance.

The army is potent in Maelstrom missions, potent in normal ones.  Its one struggle is in KP missions, but the army does exchanges extremely well and so what looks on paper like a little bit of a vulnerable spot in that regard ends up not being as pronounced in games as i thought ti would be.  The enemy is usually either having to put several hundred points into getting one thing dead or they are spending several hundred points failing.  Both ways turn out well for me.

Melee is far from dead in 7E.  I'm enjoying the ride.

1996 Pts - Chaos Marines Roster - 2000 Night Lords

   1 Obliterator (Mark of Nurgle)

   1 Obliterator (Mark of Nurgle)

   1 Obliterator (Mark of Nurgle)


   4 Chaos Space Marines
      1 Aspiring Champion
      1 Chaos Rhino (Dirge Caster)


   4 Chaos Space Marines
      1 Aspiring Champion
      1 Chaos Rhino (Dirge Caster)


   4 Chaos Space Marines [BL] (Veterans of the Long War)
      1 Aspiring Champion (Veterans of the Long War)
      1 Chaos Rhino [BL], (Dirge Caster)


     1 Mutilator (Mark of Nurgle)


   1 Mutilator (Mark of Nurgle)


   1 Mutilator (Mark of Nurgle)


   1 Sorcerer (Mark of Nurgle + Melta Bombs + Increase Mastery Level x1 + Aura of Dark Glory)


   1 Chaos Lord [BL](Mark of Nurgle + Blight Grenades+ Melta Bombs+ Sigil of Corruption+ Combi-Meltagun + Gift of Mutation + Veterans of the Long War) + Chaos Bike
      1 The Eye of Night [BL]
      1 The Hand of Darkness [BL]


   13 Raptors (Mark of Nurgle+ Meltagun x2)
      1 Raptor Champion (Melta Bombs+ Mark of Nurgle+ Power Axe x1)


   13 Raptors (Mark of Nurgle+ Meltagun x2)
      1 Raptor Champion (Melta Bombs+ Mark of Nurgle+ Power Axe x1)


   1 Heldrake

Friday, September 12, 2014

A question to the readers.

I want to ask you a question.  As the Dataslatres like the Assassins and the Inquisition/Grey Knights split, you now have to have at least a CAD, Allied and an Assassins Detachment just to play your old list and for that matter to play some future competitive lists.

The LVO and BAO posted up what at the time was a "House Rule" type of thing for list construction However, their method is quite illegal by the books standard.  And moving forward now that the Grey Knights kind of shattered all their traditional allies away, should we expect that Dual CAD and the like will just simply have to be accepted?  Will two CAD's be enough?

As one who has more or less championed simplifying things and staying within the codex force org chart and maybe an allied Detachment, I now find that I simply cant do it that way.  the codex's and Dataslates plus supplements were clearly foreseen when 7E began allowing multiple detachments of various types.

Do you oppose multiple Detachments?  Do you have a limit?  or do we need to just move towards accepting that the rules is the rules?

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Tournament Standings!



Final Standings for our warm up Tournament yesterday for the much larger and more spectacular Elvensword Ambassadorial Tournament!!!   Congrats to all the winners of this warm up and we'll see you October 25th at the big 'un!


Name Provided
Record
Best Painted Votes
Favorite Opponent Votes
Matt Stevens
Eldar
3-0
0
1
Steven Tanzy
Eldar
3-0
1
3
Derrick
Tyranids
2-1
3
0
Chancy
Tyranids
2-1
0
2
Scott Mason
Eldar
2-1
1
1
Peter Lovejoy
Space Wolves
1-1-1
0
1
Jeremy
Chaos Daemons
1-1-1
1
2
Kyle College
Tyranids
1-1-1
0
1
Glen Ray
Necrons
1-1-1
0
0
Conner
Dark Eldar
1-2
0
0
Dan Barringer
Space Marine Iron Hands
1-2
0
2
Blake
Eldar
1-2
0
0
Mike Matt
Blood Angels
1-2
5
1
James Barrett
Chaos Daemons
1-2
0
0
Travis Emery
Blood angels + Imperial Knights
0-3
2
1
Brian Pengel
Blood Angels
0-3
0
0