Tournament Report: Winter Assault

A week ago all three of the authors from this blog went to the 1250 point tournament winter assault. Sorry if it's not as detailed as my usual reports but I'm not sure that I can remember everything from back then.

I had managed to finish up my display board and my army and here's the list I brought:

Company Command Squad with 2x plasmagun and lascannon

Marbo

Veteran Squad with 3x meltagun, chimera

Veteran Squad with 3x plasmagun, powersword, chimera

Platoon Command Squad with 3x grenade launcher

Infantry Squad with autocannon, commissar

Infantry Squad with autocannon

Vendetta

Bane Wolf

Leman Russ battle tank with lascannon and heavy bolters

Aegis with Quad Gun

As you can see there I had changed my list up significantly from my practice games. Before the event a lot of space marine and guard players had registered which had been one of the reasons for the change. One thing I really wasn't sure about was the bane wolf/hellhound vs a leman russ eradicator, but in the end decided to take the former because of the ap 3 ignores cover. I also decided that an executioner was too expensive and took a straight up battle tank.

In other news we managed to build and paint all of Paul's daemons in time with the help of some quickshade (hopefully he'll do a post about them in the near future ahem ahem...)

1250 pts Orks vs IG practice match

Happy New and Merry Christmas to everyone. I have a few posts in the works and this is the first one of this year. It's a batrep that was in preparation for Winter Assault (tournament report later).

Mission: Purge the Alien, Deployment: pitched battle (really ought to learn the deployment names by now!!!)

My list was (I changed it after this match for the tournament):

Primaris Psyker (who got some psychic shriek)

Veterans 3x meltagun, demolitions, chimera

Veterans 3x plasmagun, grenadiers, power sword, chimera

20 man blob 2 autocannons, commissar

Platoon command squad with 2x grenade launcher

Vendetta

Leman Russ Executioner

Leman Russ Eradicator

Aegis with Quad gun

The Orks:

Warboss

20 boys with shootas and 2 big shootas, power klaw (Santa Klaws, no less), battlewagon with dethrolla

20 boys with sluggas and 2 big shootas, power klaw, battlewagon with dethrolla

3 bikers 

3 bikers

2 dakkajets (yes that's 4 fast attack he corrected this for the tournament)

Big gunz, with the standard option I think and a few grots

Can't remember warlord traits. Buildings were deployed as usual and we ended up with what you can see in the pictures.

Ilya got turn 1, and we got night. He moves everything forwards trying to hide his army.

Guard push forwards in return and almost get first blood, however one biker remains after the dust settles

Turn 2

1250 point IG list

I've got an 1250 pt tournament coming up, and I really wanted to use my Space Marines. However, after a lot of fiddling I just couldn't come up with anything that worked, so I began to despair and dread the speed-building that I'd have to get through in order to get a force of dark eldar ready.

But then I was worried about the 20 points I'd lose for not having a painted army and realised that my guard would probably be able to scale down.

So this is the list idea that I've come up with. It's good because I've just finished painting everything (including a display board for it all) apart from the defence line:

1850 pts Ultramarines vs Daemons

Mission: Emperor's Will, Deployment: diagonal

Ultras:

Librarian

Assault Terminators with Th/SS

Dreadnought with assault cannon, heavy flamer, drop pod with locator beacon

Tactical Squad Multi-melta, meltagun, combi-melta, powerfist, drop pod

Tactical Squad with missile launcher and plasmagun

Stormtalon twin-linked assault cannons and typhoon missile launchers

Stormtalon twin-linked assault cannons and typhoon missile launchers

Thunderfire Cannon, drop pod

Shas'el flamer, fusion blaster, target lock

2 bodyguards with plasma rifle, missile pod and multi-tracker

6 Firewarriors, shas'ui, markerlight

2 Broadsides with blacksun filters

Aegis Defence Line with Quad Gun

Daemons (sorry about the proxies):

Herald on chariot with daemonic gaze, mark of tzeentch (warlord)

Fateweaver

3 Flamers of Tzeentch

3 Flamers of Tzeentch

3 Flamers of Tzeentch

10 Horrors, changeling, icon

10 Plaguebearers with icon

5 plaguebearers

5 plaguebearers

3 Screamers of Tzeentch

3 Screamers of Tzeentch

3 Screamers of Tzeentch

Daemon Prince with Wings, Daemonic gaze, Breath of Chaos, Master of Sorcery and We are legion

Daemon Prince with Wings, Daemonic gaze, Breath of Chaos, Master of Sorcery and We are legion

So I managed to get a game in against Paul who had just built some of his first daemons. And so during terrain set-up I tried to block off my deployment zone and force the daemons to deep strike away from me. Paul for some reason chose los-blocking pieces and plonked them dead centre.

My Warlord got outflank and the biomancy power that gives +d3 initiative and attacks. Paul's herald got -1 to my reserve rolls. 

Paul won the roll-off and gave me first turn, we played this through to his shooting phase with me forgetting that my drop pods arrive turn 1. My techmarine fortified the big ruin where the objective was and Paul's objective was near the small bunker in the centre. So we took it back to my turn and I drop down in his deployment zone near his objective.

Then the daemons start to drop in, and this time he drops most near fatey. Let's just say I take quite a few casaulties and concede first blood killing the quad gun.

Turn 2

Ultramarines - Painting Update and new list

I've been working away on my ultramarines for my 1850 army list (yes I've played around with my 1750 one and decided this will work better) My main thinking is that 2 rhinos would have all the opposition's anti-tank going into them (at least until the stormtalons come on, so I swapped out for some drop-pods and got a flamer dreadnought for some more anti-infantry - which is what I'm worried about now)

Librarian

Assault Terminators
Dreadnought with assault cannon + heavy flamer, drop pod with locator beacon

Tactical Squad with meltagun, multi-melta, combi-melta and power fist, drop pod
Tactical Squad Missile launcher, plasmagun

Stormtalon with typhoon missile launcher
Stormtalon with typhoon missile launcher

Thunderfire Cannon (drop pod)

Shas'el with Fusion blaster, flamer and target lock
2 bodyguards with plasma rifle, missile pod and multi-tracker

6 firewarriors, shas'ui with markerlight

2 Broadsides, with blacksun filters

Aegis defence line with quad gun

I've actually painted all the lights in the cockpit but haven't got a picture of that yet..

The only problem is that I've found out that I own one broadside less than I thought (as well as one stormtalon lol) and needed to buy a thunderfire, but when I went to my local shop they didn't have any of those except a stormtalon, so a bit of a fail. Oh and I need another drop pod but for now I can use Paul's blood angel one, and I think I may try and scratchbuild a dreadnought drop-pod.

The thunderfire is quite problematic as I haven't found any decent tutorials on how to make one and so I'll have to do some thinking. I have been painting quite a bit meanwhile, finishing another tactical squad, the terminators, a drop pod, a stormtalon and re-painting the old librarian model. All I need to do now is to finish off everyone's bases.

All I really need to do now really is strip my Tau which are awful and have too many layers of paint on them.

The Viability of MSU in 6th ed

First things first, all around the internet people have claimed that MSU is now dead, I however, don't think this is necessarily the case.

The aim of the game - basic concept

5 out of 6 of the missions in the rulebook are objective based. There are two ways to handle this when making a list. Either take lots of units (not necessarily small) or take a few durable units AND have sufficient hitting power to knock out enemy scorers. This is where it gets problematic, as most codexes do not allow you to have the ability to have both a lot of units and durable units.

There comes the issue that when you kit out your army with many units, they are often FORCED to be small due to points restrictions, needing other stuff in your list, etc... Meanwhile durable/strong units are often priced accordingly and so you can only take a few.

Where MSU comes in

If you've managed to crack a list which has multiple scoring units, that's durable and works for you then congratulations, for the rest of us, this is where MSU is still viable. Some people would say that in 6th edition you definitely need at least 6 troops from 1500 pts up, (and preferably more as the points increase). I'll be more conservative and say that for 1500 you definitely need 4.

When you take less than this, as soon as one unit is gone - you're effectively screwed. Also it should be taken into account that objectives can be contested/denied, so basically:

the more troops you take = the more objective-grabbing chances you get = the more likely you are to actually hold onto those objectives.

I have seen quite a few players simply take 2 larger squads of troops and then kit out their army into wall of death. The problem with this is that I don't even need to kill the whole squad. Just shoot off 25% and they're gone. This is where fearless troops come into good use, however, it is still just 2 squads. Since they're large squads, you're probably spending quite a few points on them and all you have are 2 chances to capture. In a 5 objective game, I can just let you take your 2 and then easily hold onto 3 of my own, or even just get one and contest your 2.

Dark Eldar First List and Initial Thoughts

Dark Eldar are an army that I've had my eye on for some time now, but the story of how I manage to buy a full force starts not that long ago, when I was starting to realise that my guard aren't really working in terms of playstyle for me, that my Space Marines had taken a back-burner and that my small collection of Tau would probably not be ressurected even if the promised codex did come out which we've been waiting for due to rumours for almost 2 years now...

So, essentially, when GW came out with the megaforces, I was quite intrigued as I'd had some interest in necrons but looking at people's opinions of the contents I wasn't too impressed, however, I was potentially going to buy the megaforce and start necrons. But then I had a little ponder, and realised that GW had realeased megaforces before, and since I wouldn't be able to make an army that I necessarily liked from the necron box, maybe I should just take a look at other armies. And voila, here you go, a dark eldar megaforce pops up on my google search. I look at the contents and like what I see. I compare it with the other potential competitor to be my new army - i.e. tyranids - and the decision ways down strongly with the dark kin, who not only have a megaforce to kickstart me, but also I won't have to paint as many figures, and I get to play a super-fast shooty but also possibly assaulty force.

By the way I had also looked at daemons, as they would offer a completely new way to play compared to my other more or less point-and-shoot style armies, being fully assault, but then I thought that since it's the new best thing, it will soon be replaced by another new best thing and won't appeal to me as much in the long-term.

So with that I've now got a dark eldar megaforce and lots of stuff off ebay (10 kabalite warriors, 15 hellions, succubus, bits to make trueborn, 5 venoms and a razorwing). I proceeded to think about lists and do research on colour schemes. After some initial lists using what I have, I then asked for a second opinion on Imperius Dominatus and the new edited army will be as follows (for 1500 with lots to use to scale up):

Baron Santhonyx
Haemonculus

5 wyches with haywire in Venom with splinter cannon

5 wyches with haywire in Venom with splinter cannon

5 wyches with haywire in Venom with splinter cannon

10 kabalite warriors with blaster and splinter cannon in Raider (probably with disintegrator cannon)

12 hellions

6 Reavers with 2 heat lances and cluster caltrops

Ravager with Flickerfield and Night shield

Ravager with Flickerfield and Night shield

Void Raven Bomber (I'll start by probably using a razorwing but I've been informed that this is better)

In terms of colourschemes I'd like to emulate the classic dark eldar scheme (as seen on the box) but failing that (which is quite probable) perhaps just a similar-style one with a greenish/bluish tint and red accents but we'll see after some tests. (although I also like the idea of a purpley army) Basing will be urban/snow so that I can a) make and b) use the same display board for both my guard and DE. 

On a related note, my holidays have now officially started so I hope to at least get some of these built over the next few weeks, although I'll probably initially be making my Tau/Ultramarine combo as that needs less stuff to be finished, so if there are any upcoming tournaments I'll be able to go with something I like, rather than my now about-to-be retired guard - at least until I figure out what I'm doing with them. Plus if I do the cloaked veterans I'll need a lot of time for the conversion work, as I would like to do them properly, rather than just cobble together a rushed effort.