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.

Space Marines with Tau allies list

Ok so time to put away the guard (at least until I decide what I'm going to change... although there are a few cheeky daemon allies ideas going round the interwebz, and while I'm tempted I really shouldn't be buying new models since I've just acquired a large load of dark eldar - army list later) and dust off the space marines and more specifically my tau.

The tau are going to need a repaint and some weapon changes but at least I have all of this except for 1 single broadside which I can always buy.

So the original idea I was having for SM in 6th was to continue with my sternguard flying around the field accompanied by a gated librarian, but after a few lists that I didn't really like I tried to experiment with bikes and then realised that they cost loads of points. I then attempted to make a hybrid bike and tac marine list to be similar to the one I faced in Offence 6th, and it didn't really look so threatening.

After my last tournament I finally know what I'm doing or at least I hope so...

Librarian (null zone and another power which I'm not decided on yet but suggestions are welcome)

Assault terminators with thunderhammers and stormshields

Tactical Squad with Multi-melta, meltagun, combi-melta, powerfist, rhino
Tactical Squad with missile launcher (might switch for a plasmacannon) and plasmagun, rhino

Stormtalon with typhoon missile launcher and assault cannon

Stormtalon with typhoon missile launcher and assault cannon

Thunderfire cannon

Allies:

Shas'o with cyclic ion blaster (will switch to twin/single missile pod if cheaper but don't have codex on me), plasma rifle, and shield thing that gives him an invuln (plan to probs change)

3 crisis suits with plasma rifle, missile pod and target lock (thing that lets them shoot both, one might get multi-tracker or whatever lets it shoot a different unit)

6 firewarriors (honestly as many as fit, if points allow in the end would take 2 squads)

3 Broadsides

Fortification: Aegis Defence line

This list is in the region of 1750 pts, but I haven't really managed to include everything I want but it's the best one I've managed to make so far in my opinion. While I would love to add a land raider, a quad gun, some pathfinders and a few autocannon dreads - I can save that for higher points values.

Now to explain everything...

3000pt Doubles Tournament Report: Call to Arms

On Sunday, Paul, Ilya and I all went to a 3000 point doubles tournament. You were allowed to go on your own and Paul and I went as a team with Blood Angels and Imperial Guard and Ilya was on his own with Orks. It wasn't going to be a big tournament with 11 players signed up originally but there were 8 of us altogether on the day.

1750 Orks vs Chaos Space Marines Proxy Madness

Mission: Emperor's will, Deployment: Diagonal 

Paul can't be bothered to do this batrep so from now on it'll be from me as far as I remember (Dimitry): 

Coach-wars continue as not all the orks fit onto the table so the reserve pile mounts up.

Ilya's list is several 30 man squads of orks each with a power klaw nob and three rokkit launchers. The terminators are nobs I think.

On Paul's side there's:

Typhus

2x Hellbrute with multi-melta and powerfist

2x 5 man plague marine squad with 2x meltagun
2x 5 man plague marine squad with 2x plasmagun
Plague Zombies x16 (proxied as guardsmen)

2x Maulerfiend (flying stands)
Defiler (drop pod)

n.b. for this battle each paint counted as an ork.

Paul's recently renovated dreadnought strides into battle (as a hellbrute)

Imperial Guard in 6th list change ideas

As you probably know if you read this blog, my IG haven't been doing very well despite some very interesting, close-fought games, resulting in a in a 6th ed w/d/l record of 1/3/5 so far, which quite frankly isn't very good. Especially if you compare it to my 5th ed record of 7/2/4.

My win/loss now therefore is 0.2 compared to the 1.75 in 5th, so I've been thinking about how to change this. As you may or may not know I follow Ailaros and he's been thinking about using conscripts in 6th and how they work. While I had considered this idea when first making my army in 5th ed, I can't really bring myself to make models that are basically recyclable cannon fodder. I do have 30 spare guardsmen lying around not yet assembled, but I think I'd much rather build veterans rather than conscripts. Not only are they more useful, but the conversion possibilities are lot better. My third option is something I've been thinking about for a while and that is adding a small outflanking blob with either meltaguns or flamers.

Scratch-built Terrain: Generator Finished

Just finished off the scratch-built piece of terrain, long-time readers will remember this. Here's how it was built if anyone is interested. Basically a pretty simple paint job, lots of washes, drybrushing, static grass and some vallejo water effects. Tried to add the patchy, weathered rust sort of idea to it and I think it worked to an extent. Oh and of course no piece of terrain is finished without a generous dolloping of static grass. :)

What I really need to add is maybe a highlight to the water effects, and maybe use the gw ones because they don't come colour-specific (unlike this where I need to mix blue with yellow and that loses some of effect I think). Oh and the whole thing may be a bit too dark for my taste so maybe I'll drybrush some boltgun metal over the top. Still quite good for a "free" piece of terrain.

Building process can be found here...

1750pts Imperial Guard vs Battlewagon Orks - the Scouring

Apologies as pics somehow seem to be missing/not in the right order... Don't know why. Anyway, so it seems that we have now progressed to bed wars... Don't ask why! (lol) I used the same list as last time, which can be found here.

Ilya was running orks. 

Wazdakka

A few bikers

2x 22 (yes I know they don't fit in a battlewagon but he was being very persausive and by the time Paul came and told me that transport cap is only 20 we were halfway through the game) boyz with rokkits in there as well as some klaws

21 orks with rokkits and a klaw or two

3 dedicated transport battlewagons

1 heavy support battlewagon 

(all proxied bar 1, have same gear)

2x dakkajet (stormraven stand and empty flying base)

Mission was scouring with the diagonal deployment (how do people mark this by the way??)

Terrain placement involved me setting up a nice defensive perimeter in one corner with the rest of the field being pretty open. I also managed to disrupt some of Ilya's side. However he got his revenge by placing some barricades in the bunker that was meant to be occupied by my blob, making things quite annoying simply in terms of placing models for me.

Objectives: Most were placed towards my side which was good for me. We unveil them and I get 4, 2 and 2, with a one in the small bunker nearby and a 3 in the centre. Ilya's hidden objective is a 3. Things look good for me :)

As I said pictures are missing but basically Ilya deploys first and goes first. Battlewagons bunch up in the middle and bikes zoom from behind them behind the small bunker and alunch an assault on my plasmavet's chimera. Gretchin stay behind on objective. Chimera dies, veterans spill out. Blob takes a few casualties. He has first blood

I retaliate and kill wazdakka and all the boys with some focussed fire and do some minor damage to 2 of the battlewagons (the ones with the boys). Here I'm hoping to get them down in the centre to stop any nasty charges from coming at me, while shooting a few blasts at them while they bunch up as they come out of their transports.

Turn 2

He then continues to push up, killing the executioner with a dethroller attack. A few guardsmen die in the blob and the trucks generally move forwards. Also combined rokkit launcher firepower destroys the vanquisher cannon.

My two vendettas arrive and I really start to do some damage to the battlewagons (it helps shooting back armour too. Boys spill out and I manage to rout one squad and kill many orks in another squad.
My backfield shifts around a bit too

1750 pts IG vs BA the Relic

Paul and I finally got round to having a match up and we planned to basically take the armies we used at the tournament but could make some small changes. Also we had 250 extra points to play with.

My list looked like this (additions to 1500 points in bold):

Company Command Squad with 2x plasmagun, medic

Veteran Squad with 3x plasmagun, grenadiers, chimera with multi-laser and heavy flamer
Veteran Squad with 3x meltagun, demolitions, chimera with multi-laser and heavy flamer

Platoon command Squad with power sword, plasma pistol, 3x flamer
Infantry Squad with autocannon and grenade launcher and commissar with power sword and plasma pistol
Infantry Squad with autocannon and grenade launcher
Infantry Squad with autocannon and grenade launcher
Heavy weapons team with 3x missile launchers

Vendetta
Vendetta

Leman Russ Vanquisher with Lascannon
Leman Russ Executioner with plasma cannon sponsons
Leman Russ Eradicator with 3x heavy flamer

Paul's list was:

Mephiston

5x Terminators with heavy flamer

Tactical Squad with meltagun, lascannon in razorback with twin heavy bolters
Scout Squad with snipers and missile launcher
Scout squad with close combat stuff

Stormraven
Furiosio Dread

Allies: Lord Commissar with power sword and bolt pistol
Stormtroopers with meltagun (sternguard count as)
Penal Legionnaires (counted as assorted guardsmen)
Medusa with bastion breacher shells (counted as by whirlwind)

Terrain setup: I was worried about terminators and after he placed the big building in the centre I tried to keep his two flanks open and cover some of my flanks. This didn't work out so well but at least I was able to reinforce the hill in the centre of my deployment zone

Paul was going to be going first so I let him setup (see pictures). I carefully measured range from Mephiston and decided to do a similar thing to what I had done against Ilya only more centrally. My blob deployed a few inches out of Mephiston turn 1 assault range. Tanks were spread on two flanks. Chimeras centre followed by command squads which were hoping to dash out of sight under the bunker from the medusa. 2 Vendettas empty and in reserve.

Scout squads infiltrate close to the relic.

However, I quickly seize the iniative and try to capitalise.

Turn 1

Chimeras drive up aggressively, and command squads pass the line of sight of the medusa. Heavy tanks push up both flanks. Massed shooting sees some sniper scouts dead, the medusa dead and five tactical marines who were formerly on the hill dead. First blood has been seized successfully.

1500 pt Tournament IG

Sorry about not posting lately, but hopefully we can get this blog back into action in no time. So to start from where we left off... I had finished painting my whole 1500 pt force, all done apart from one or two details on the kasrkin veteran squad. Enjoy. Feel free to click for larger images. I'll be trying to go for some regular posting once a week.

Blood Angels vs Eldar: The Relic

Mission: Relic 

Deployment: Table halves (pitched battle)

I was running my tournament army so:

Mephiston

Stormraven

Tactical Squad meltagun and lascannon

Dante and Sanguinary guard

Furioso dread

Razorback

Scout snipers

Ilya just ha loads of dire avengers and some allied space marines (mainly terminators)

A few pre-Offence 6th ed wips

Here's a few painting wips from before the tournament. As I said before I had actually finished my painting my whole 1500 guard force but I don't have pics of that. Here's some other progress though...

I found these in my Independent Stockist in Russia, they were Resin and I thought that althought they were a bit piratey, if I added to them they could be more grimdark.

I had tidy up some air bubbles with liquid greenstuff. Some of the crates were worsethan others...