London GT 2016

I recently attended the inaugural London grand tournament, with a total of 86 attendees this was quite a large tournament, and the largest that I have attended. I took my Tau as per my previous post. I’ll just post a quick run through of my games rather than a detailed account of the action.

Game 1, vs chaos sorcerer cabal and zombie horde. With Typhus and cypher.

So this game I was playing against ~120 plague zombies with the sorcerer cabal having five level 3 sorcerers. With their ability to take control of one of my models for shooting. With the obvious target of the Stormsurge of this power, I was hesitant to deploy too much of my army. My opponent deployed two large zombie blobs one with two sorcerers and the other with typhus and a sorcerer. He had a large squad of chaos spawn deployed behind typhus's blob. Cypher and one sorcerer were outflanking with one of the zombie hordes.

I deployed my storm surge and ghostkeels far apart to prevent the sorcerer cabal taking too much of a toll in the first turn. Keeping the rest of my army in reserve.

He marched his hordes forward in the first turn, successfully using the storm surge to kill a drone from the ghostkeel unit. But failing to cast invisibility on himself. He then made what I thought was a mistake by gating next to my storm surge. In my turn I used to wall of mirrors to kill a couple of the chaos spawn before charging into his gated unit with the storm surge and stomping all over them until there was only a single zombie left. In the following turns in managed to six out Typhus with a D hit that he failed to look out sir. When his reserves arrived I intercepted them with a lot of my army to reduce their numbers and then charge in with a riptide to tie them up. The tide survived on a single wound and he hit and run out of combat. In his final turn his remaining models killed the riptide and then I retaliated by killing the rest of his unit. Wiping him out for a full win.

Game two.

In this round we were playing end game objectives and a the maelstrom mission where you generate objectives based on the number of objectives you control. I was playing battle company...

My opponent had the battle company with basic upgrades, an entire parking lot of razorbacks and the vindicator formation along with some drop podding dreadnoughts for flavour.

My opponent won first turn, which gave me a chance at the end game objectives. I knew that I wouldn't win the maelstrom for the secondary's against that many obsec units, but fancied my chances at the end game. My opponent started by moving up into the mid table grabbing as many objectives as possible. I took the fight to the enemy with the ghostkeels excelling in killing space marine vehicles. Three tanks a turn fell to these elite vehicle hunters. The Stormsurge unfortunately spent a lot of the game tied up with a single marine in combat (I rolled double 1 to wound three turns in a row).

The rest of my army was slowly chewing its way through the marines, being careful to stay in a mutually supportive position. My opponent didn’t have a huge amount of weapons that posed a significant threat to me once the vindicators were taken care of.

We had to rush through the last turns to try and get to the end of the game, but I ended up holding four objectives to the space marines 1. However the maelstrom went completely to the marines. Had we had time for another turn, I would have killed the two remaining marines and the final drop pod to table my opponent. As it was the game ended on a narrow victory for myself.

Game 3

With two wins under my belt I was doing a lot better than I expected. But the narrow win against the battle company meant I dropped down through the rankings. The next mission was kill points. (battle company would have been a great opponent in this one).

In this round I was facing Grey Knights using the new angels of death powers. With an allied skyhammer annihilation force running lots of grav cannons. The grey knight portion of the army composed of two nemesis dreadknights and two large terminator squads with attached librarians.

I got the infiltrate warlord trait and infiltrated my Stormsurge and stealth cadre to get some shots on his dreadknights. My commander infiltrated into a building to get in range with the markerlights so I could D shot his dreadknights.

The game started well for me with both of his dreadknights being torn apart by destroyer missiles and D shots from the pulse blastcannon. I intercepted his skyhammer devestators taking all the grav cannons from one squad while the other squad remained untouched. One of the assault squads mishaped on the deepstrike going into ongoing reserves.

His return fire put the grav cannons into one of the riptides who survived on one wound thanks to his nova charged shields. The assault squad charged into my commander and drones keeping them tied up in combat for most of the game, with the commander eventually emerging victorious.

In later turns the game boiled down to a combat between his remaining terminators and the Stormsurge, riptide and ghostkeels. By the time the combat had ended my Stormsurge, two ghost keels and a single riptide were victorious. Leaving my opponent with a drop pod and he conceded.

So at the end of game three I was 3-0 up on wins, so even if I lost my next two I would have still achieved the 3-2 I set out to at the start of the tournament.

However this also meant that I would be facing the top tier tables in the next round...

Journal of a Sentient Grot: A change of scenery

*This is a narrative series of posts I've run on my other blog to accompany my last Tale of Some Gamers I did with Orks, and as I'm posting on this blog about my current tale, I've decided to transfer this across to here. If you wish to read up on the old posts, follow the link.

Greetings once again fellow travellers. So much has happened since I last had the chance to address you, so here goes a quick update.

We ploughed across the Corvus subsector for a bit, but then followed Wazzdakka as he continued his trail across the galaxy. The fuel heavy nature of our operations meant we spent a lot of time attacking ice worlds stealing promethium, and quite frankly I was getting sick of my knackers always being on the point of frostbite. So while sharing a space hulk with another tribe for a spell, I slipped across from one camp to the other during one of the inevitable fights. Bad Moons are notoriously wealthy, and therefore there will be richer pickings for me to finance my revolution. Bugrit meanwhile has continued his Promethium hunting Waagh, always in search of enough fuel to continue following Wazzdakka. As for wazzdakka, he waits for no ork... he's carried on riding, perhaps into legend.

Rode off into Legend, we hope for his eventual return.

Anyway, as for myself I've continued with my experiments trying to reproduce the effect that led to my own genesis. Thus far unsuccessfully. All I have managed to achieve was some gravity warping effects that had an unpleasant effect on some of my colleagues, but on the bright side we have been able to weaponise it into a makeshift anti aircraft battery. We've also managed to get an old truck running again, and are working on some air support for our little warband. We also have some Mega-Armour suits to fix up (an interesting prospect, I may have to see if one could be modified to be worn by one of my own kind - such a thing would be very useful come the revolution) and various vehicles in various states of readiness.

More lads are joining this Waagh by the day, all drawn to the legendary leadership of this particular warboss, one Galaktika Thrakkit. I have yet to cross this orks path, and this is something I am keen to avoid - I'm as likely to get eaten as stepped on, and not knowing whether either action was deliberate or an accident would be of little comfort. I shall keep my head down, keep tinkering, and one day, one glorious day, our time will come...

*In other news, I have completed my Traktor Kannons, and am working on the grots. That just leaves the Dakkajet for this periods allocation of the Tale. I can do this... just try not to get distracted by the shiny new Nagash stuff. Pictures to follow in another post.

A Tale of Trukin

So I recently started a Tale of Some Gamers, and have started work on my army. I've completed a squad of boyz, a mek, a runtherd... but I've painted plenty of Orks before, the only real difference is this time there is a splash of yellow instead of red for this tribe. The one I was more concerned with was my first vehicle.

One, it's my first time painting yellow. Tricky on the little patches on the infantry, but on a vehicle, with large blocks of colour, more of a challenge.
Two, I wanted to try my hand at that salt weathering technique. So, a new colour scheme AND a completely new method of painting. I think I may have a masochistic streak... should be painting Dark Eldar.
Three, I also wanted to try out a couple of the new technical paints, and some weathering dusts. Just because.

Anyway, the first truk is done. Overall I am happy with the result. The yellow took a lot longer than I anticipated, but it wasn't as bone achingly long as the line highlights on my Necron vehicles (a method that I liked the effect of, but have never bought another vehicle for that army since doing two annihilation barges and one Doomsday ark - and if I'd painted the annihilation barges first I wouldn't have painted the Doomsday Ark, cos I never use the bloody thing!)

This leaves me with a dakkajet, 3 mek guns, and about 30 gretchin/ammo runts/ grot oilers etc to do before the last Tuesday in September. That sounds achievable. Pics of the finished truk are below.

Da Plan

So I'm sure many of you have done this before but is kind of a first for me... I have planned an army that I want to build. Yeah, I know, to most gamers not exactly newsworthy, but I've always been a sort of absorbing hobbyist - I'll absorb any new releases into my burgeoning collection and figure out what to do with them months down the line. This can lead to some boxes I still have sat on my shelf, unloved, unused, but if I ever fancy painting something a bit different, it's there ready to go, even if I'm broke when the mood does strike me.

Anyway, as I mentioned in my last post, I am thinking of doing a Bad Moons ork army to enable me to get all the new ork toys I want that just don't fit with my Speed Freaks army (such as artillery and meganobz - and yes I know meganobz can have a transport but it's just the idea of putting a unit with the "SLOW and purposeful" rule into a SPEED freaks army has always felt wrong to me)

So, I am going to put the list, then make a few points as to what my thinking is, then note down what I have and what I need to get, and finally some notes on future development.

LOW - Ghaz - 225
HQ - Big Mek, Mega Armour, Kustom Mega Blasta, Power Klaw, Kustom Force Field, Da Lucky Stix, 3 Grot Oilers 1 Ammo Runt - 168
HQ - Painboy, cybork body, grot orderly - 60
bonus HQ - Mek - 15
T - 20 Boyz, shootas, Nob PK Bosspole -180
ded tran truk, ram -35
T - 20 Boyz, shootas, Nob PK Bosspole -180
ded tran truk, ram -35
T - 20 Boyz shootas - 140
T - 10 grots, runtherd - 35
E - 7 Meganobz, 3 Killsaws, 3 Kombi skorchas, 1 Bosspole - 330
ded tran - Battlewagon, ram, grot riggers, 4 big shootas, extra armour, boarding planks - 170
HS - Battlewagon, Deffrolla, 2 big shootas, grot riggers, boarding planks - 155
HS - Battlewagon, Deffrolla, 2 big shootas, grot riggers, boarding planks - 155
HS - 3 Mek guns, Traktor Kannons, each with +2 gretchin crew and an ammo runt -117

So, Ghaz, the meganobz, the big mek and the painboy all ride in the meganobz (well, Ghaz really) Battlewagon with a 5++ save, It Will Not Die, and a chance of fixing parts that fall off, looking to get stuck in and beat face. The unit has FNP and is a little bit hard. The Lucky Stix grant the unit +1WS as well as giving the Big Mek some rerolls (that with the downside being fail too many and he's dead, I shall only use sparingly) The two units of Boyz led by a nob will ride in support in the other Battlewagons.

The spare Mek I plan to join with the artillery to give those grots a bit of a Leadership boost. There's also a unit of Grots and a mob of boyz for looking after objectives in the backfield area.

 The traktor Kannons are the anti air for this list, though if there aren't any enemy flyers then I'll take pop-shots at ground targets too - hitting on a 6 isn't anything an ork player is generally going to cry about.

The only thing that might not be immediately obvious is the truks. Well I'll be honest, it was the local store manager that clued me in to this little trick, and as I had some points spare I decided to give it a try. Now sure, those truks won't be carrying those boyz mobs any time soon (though they could rescue the survivors if they ever take too much of a kicking!) but as they are bought for a troop that makes them also a troop, and as this army is built using the standard force org chart, this gives it objective secured. So I can tank shock an enemy off an objective and, if he doesn't have objective secured, steal it right from under his very nose. On a fast vehicle that's fairly handy!

So, what is the state of the army right now?

Well, I've got Ghaz. I've just finished converting his Battlewagon. I also have a couple deffrolla battlewagons sat around, need to do a couple bitz on them (mainly the wargear options) and they'll be good to go too. I also have all the boyz I will need for this. I've picked up one Mek Gun so far (I wanted to have a look at the kit, see how easy it is to magnetise... that aint gonna happen, though I have heard that with the spares and a truk kit you can jerry rig the other three guns in a suitably orky fashion, which I may try at some point.) I also *might* have a box of grots somewhere, but I may have used them on a conversion, so maybe not.

Needed? Well, the big mek and meganobz are required, so 3 boxes of meganobz. I also want the new painboy. I could use one I already have, but the new one is nicer. I also need a mek, I may look at the new one or just convert something. I need 2 more Mek guns. I also need two truks. Possibly one, I definitely have one spare that I got off a friend, but it's part assembled, and not very well done, so I may save that for the mek gun project and get fresh truks. I was also eyeing up the enclosed cab truk on forgeworld and thinking something snazzy like that would suit Bad Moons down to the ground.

I don't really NEED it for the above army, but I do WANT to get the new Shok Attack Gun at some point. Consider that on my shopping list for future development, when I wish to expand beyond my planned 2k list.

As for other future developments, well I still have tucked away 2 looted wagons, a dakkajet, lots of deffkoptas, lots of Nobz (including many with cybork bodies if I wanted to do a unit that looked like it had received the attentions of mad dok grotsnik) a crapton of Lootas, some stormboyz, 3 kans, 1 deffdred, 1 mega dred and 2 stompas. So plenty of room for expansion there...

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering how I have amassed such an unpainted collection of Orks, it's because when friends quit the hobby, I have a massive urge to offer their armies homes. When it's armies I have no interest in< I can usually fight the urges and let them go to a better place... when it came to pretty much doubling the size of my ork army... yeah, I caved.

Waagghhheeeeerrree do we go from here?

So, the new Ork codex is out and I've had a quick look through it, plus had plenty of time to appreciate the look of the new models that have been dribbling out over the last few weeks (whilst having no idea how they'd play and if I wanted them, so instead I spent my money on X-Wing this month, your loss GW)

Having looked at all they have on offer, I feel that my current Ork army has been mistreated somewhat. My usual warlord, Wazzdakka, gone. My using of Wazzdakka to make Bikers Troops, gone with him. The bikes being out of Fast attack to free up plenty of spots for Stormboyz, deffkoptas, dakkajets etc, gone. And the small units of boyz in truks barrelling towards the enemy, well it seems the new mob rules will encourage Ork players to take large units of orks... which won't fit in truks. Truks are now the specialists ride, Boyz are either Battlewagons or on foot. It leaves the look and feel of my entire Ork army a bit battered, and hoping for a Speed Freaks supplementary codex at some point in the future to bring them back to their glory... that is in my wishlist with a Catachan codex, so who knows when these will arrive.

In the meantime, I'll still want to play Orks. And they've got all sorts of shiny new toys that I DO like... but just don't fit into a speed freaks army. I love the new Meks guns, but we don't need Artillery pieces holding us back. I like the new Meganobz kits, but a unit with the "slow and purposeful" rule does not make an ideal bedfellow with a speed freaks army. Sure you can give them a transport, but it just doesn't feel like the big buggers would fit the theme...

So I have been thinking of taking a new direction with any future Orks I paint. I still have a job lot to do that I picked up cheaply from a friend who was quitting 40k (again, already looking to get back into it less than a year later) so perhaps they can be the core of a new, second force. From a different tribe.

The two other tribes I have looked at and liked have been the Deffskulls and the Bad Moons. I played around with some lists tonight, and with the deffskulls I picked what I wanted and got to roughly 1700 points. I normally aim for 2k. By this time I'd filled my HS and my HQ, had more than the minimum troop requirement, and had at least one of anything associated with Deffskulls... Lootas, Looted Wagon, Tankbustas, Meks. The problems? Well, for one, not enough points. Two, that looted wagon is the only vehicle in it apart from a flyer, so will be dead turn 1 guaranteed. And Three, there was an awful lot of shooting in the list. Sure, it can work for the Orks, don't get me wrong... but it didn't feel like why I wanted to play Orks. I got Speed Freaks to go rushing towards the enemy and headbutt them. If I want to sit back and shoot, well I've got my guard for that. Now admittedly half the time I send my guard rushing across the field to headbutt someone, but just because they attempt something out of their comfort zone doesn't mean these guys have to as well.

Which brings us to the Bad Moons. The list came to around the 2k mark. It's based around Ghazkull (or a Bad Moon counts as) and a big unit of MegaNobz plus meks in a pimped out Battlewagon, flanked by Battlewagons of Boyz. I've got some of the new traktor kannons in the list, as well as a dakkajet, some deffkoptas, and some boys and grots on foot to mind home side objectives.

There are some downsides to Bad Moons. For one, all that YELLOW. That is intimidating to paint. But with the new paints from Games Workshop I've heard it is easier now... I may have to do some test models to see just how easy it has become to see if this is something I could feasibly do. The other downside is that I was considering basing the second ork army in the same way as the first, so that both tribes could be part of a greater waaaaagh on the same iceworld if I wanted to. But I think the bright yellow bad moons would look better against a darker base colour, and the snow splatter effect that looks good up my bright red truks wouldn't look quite as effective on a yellow battlewagon. Dark mud sprayed up the side of a bright yellow vehicle, different story. So perhaps it may be time to give the poor Vahallens some rest, and to take my Waaagghing elsewhere for a while. Of course, only time (and a test model or two) will tell. If I can't do Bad Moons, I'm likely to return to the Deffskulls... and Blue works just fine on an ice world...

*Pictures of Deffskulls and Bad Moons borrowed from ebay, apologies if I've picked up someone elses models, as explained in the post above I haven't painted any of my own in these colours yet and wanted something illustrative.

First game of 7th: Review

Last night I played my first game of 7th edition, including the use of the new "Tactical Objectives" cards. We didn't quite do it right as we only had one deck, and technically whilst one person can't draw the same objective twice, each opponent could do so - sharing a deck meant that once an objective was gone it was gone for both. However we found simply drawing cards from the deck to be far quicker than rolling on the tables and marking down which had been used or not.

With that small modification taken into account, I have to say 7th edition looks great. This game was the most fun game I've had of 40k in ages. Now admittedly part of that was due to some random shots with a Manticore providing some entertainment, but I put more of it down to the feel of the game. Instead of simply looking to blast my opponents scoring units off the table for a few turns then get into a good position about turn 4/5 I had to react to what the tactical objectives threw up. Sure I might have a nice firebase, but if I can rush out and secure objective 4 I can earn a point. It made the game into a far more fluid affair. My opponent had started to advance his entire army towards me, but he got the chance to score on his own objective, so nipped some units back to do so. The game felt far less predictable, and because we were scoring as we went along we both felt like we were always in the game.

The psychic phase is a good mechanic. No more do you look across at your opponent throwing blessings around and feel you have no part to play. Now you can deny his power even if they don't effect you, both players are involved in the psychic phase - even if you have no psykers, you still have to choose which power to throw your dice at to try to stop. The fact that you throw more dice at a power means you're more likely to get perils, which are a lot worse, so the ability to get more powers off is tempered by the inherent risk involved in such an approach.

There were no flyers of FMCs in this game so we didn't playtest the changes to their rules, so I can't comment on that just yet.

If the rumours be true and they are bringing out race specific tactical objective cards that allow you to modify your deck to something more suitable to your army, I think that will add a fantastic dynamic to the game. I eagerly await the Ork release to confirm these rumours.

As for the game, well I was up against a tough army. Wraithknight, 2 wraithlords, 3 units of wraithguard a unit of fire dragons and a spiritseer, all in 4 wave serpents. I had brought a Manticore, a Wyvern, and a couple of 50 man blob squads. Yarrick was in the army, but as I had a Company Command too they were in charge. Nork Deddog was looking after the warlord, I also had a couple Divination level 2 Psykers and a couple priests. By blobbing the squads, I would have two 50 man blobs that the priests would make reroll to hit and possibly reroll to wound in combat whilst automatically passing all morale checks. The psykers were using their powers to give the squads reroll to hit, and one squad could also be given fire overwatch at full BS and another good power I had was ignore cover. Then when you threw in the orders that could give me tank hunter, monster hunter, or perhaps split fire, or ignore cover for the other squad if need be... those units presented quite the threat. I had the company commands loaded with flamers in chimeras, and I had a couple lascannon heavy weapon teams too. The blobs had missile launchers and flamers.

I set up aggressively but my opponent seized the initiative, and then took First Blood to take the lead. He also drew TO44, score D3 objectives for controlling any three objectives. Start of turn 1 with an Eldar army, that was very easy to do, and he scored a 3. 4-0 halfway through turn 1. In return I was already sat on objective 5 so got one for sure, and while my opponent had just taken objective 3, it was with the firedragons... they didn't have Objective Secured, whereas my infantry platoon command section did - they nipped up and stole the objective for a second point. 4-2 to Dale at the end of turn 1.

Turn 2 saw Dale with a bad draw as he moved forwards, and unable to complete any objectives this turn. He had however moved his army forwards, leaving him only holding two objectives. I was sitting on three of them, and drew TO45 giving D3 for controlling twice as many objectives as my opponent. A swift chimera advance onto an uncontested objective secured this for me, but I rolled a disappointing 1... Dale still leads 4-3. This turn also had a critical point when his wraithknight tried to assault my blob squad. Overwatch fire took it down a wound, leaving it with 2 (it had lost 3 the previous shooting phase) but it was assaulting my grav wave generator needing a 4... and rolled a 4. Half the roll, failed charge. Phew! This was a bit of a turning point, as I then shot and killed said wraithknight, and he could have locked that unit up for quite some time given neither Yarrick nor Nork was around to put anything capable of hurting the thing into the mix.

Turn 3 Dale responded by killing my Wyvern, which was a tactical objective for him that turn. I had TO53 which would give me point for killing enemy units (potentially up to D3+3, but against a small elite army like Dales that was very unlikely to happen.) I grabbed one point for killing one unit. I also scored a point for successfully manifesting a warp power, however I missed out on scoring D3 points for manifesting three as I failed to get a power off on 4 dice! Turn 3, 5-5.

Turn 4 Dale got an easy one, home objective, to retake the lead. I then took back a point for holidng the central objective. Turn 5 Dale nipped round the flank to secure his left objective, and also used his flat out moves and run moves to get three of his units within 12" of his table edge (none of my units were in the same band - TO43) I scored one for again having the central objective. I was desperately trying to get into a Linebreaker position, needing a 4 or more on my run... I got a 2. Dale was winning 8-7 at the end of turn 5...

We rolled...

There was a turn 6. During turn 6 Dale drew several attempts to grab the objectives deep in my deployment zone - no chance. So Dale scored nothing. I then drew a card that would give me one point for getting a unit into Linebreaker, and D3 if I could get three or more units into that position. That would tie the game, and potentially win it... though Linebreaker itself at game end could also win it... but there could always be a turn 7...

The psychic phase proved very useful in this turn. I cast a power that let me sacrifice a TO card and immediately activate a new one. I got TO41 - score a point if all the mysterious objectives have been revealed by the end of the turn. This late in the game, that was done long ago! Tied score even without Linebreaker.

As for the linebreaker gambit,I broke the priest off from the main horde and ran him. He made it. So did the horde. The command section that had narrowly missed out last turn moved into it this turn. That got me three units, the D3 came up with 2. End of turn 6, I'm winning 10-8.

We rolled...

The game ended. Linebreaker gives me an 11-8 win.

This was such a great game and a lot of fun for both me and my opponent. It was really close all the way through and had some fantastic cinematic moments. I am looking forward to more 7th edition.

There was one query...

Jink now says you don't have to move to claim it, however you must declare if a unit or vehicle that is targeted will jink BEFORE rolling to hit. So when I aimed my manticore at one of his wave serpents, he chose to jink. When the Storm Eagle rocket scatted 8 inches and hit another Wave serpent, my opponent and I agreed that as  the To Hit roll had already been made, he couldn't jink. The Wave Sepernt was caught off guard as it were. Luckily for him the shield downgraded it to a glance anyway.

In turn 2 I shot at the same wave serpent, that had moved forward and was now NEXT to the second wave serpent. This time he wanted to jink both. Now you could query if he could choose to jink a vehicle I wasn't actively targeting, but as I had placed my template to try to catch both of them I thought it only fair that I allow both vehicles to jink... which proved to be totally irrelevant as it scattered 7 inches and landed atop a third, non-jinking wave serpent. Again, the serpent shield rescued him. By the time turn 3 came around, it didn't matter where I fired, my opponent was jinking every serpent... "but that one is 27 inches away from the targ..." "I DON'T CARE, I'm jinking anyway" Hell even my guardsmen were ducking when that thing started it's launch sequence.

So that does beg the question, can a vehicle that is not the target of a template attack choose to jink if the template is placed so that it touches it? And can any vehicles in the vicinity choose to jink also, just to be on the safe side? Or do you have to be the actual target of the attack? Your thoughts?