1500pts IG vs Eldar The Scouring

Before a tournament report, I still have 2 pre-tourney matches to write up so here's one (plus some other misc stuff perhaps):

Mission: The Scouring, deployment: whatever you call it when your table edge is the short edge, hammer and anvil I think.

Armies: Tournament army I used last match here it is again.

1500 pts of guard:

Company Command Squad with 2x plasmagun, medic

Veterans: 3x melta, demolitions, chimera with heavy flamer and multi-laser

Veterans: 3x plasma, grenadiers, chimera with heavy flamer and multi-laser

Plastoon Command Squad with 3x flamer, power sword and plasma pistol

Infantry Squad with Grenade launcher, autocannon, commissar with power sword and plasma pistol

Infantry squad with grenade launcher, autocannon

Infantry squad with grenade launcher, autocannon

Vendetta

Leman Russ executioner: heavy bolter (as modelled), side sponsons with plasma cannons

Leman Russ Eradicator Nova: Flamer

Leman Russ Vanquisher: Lascannon

Ilya: Trying out an idea for eldar, with farseer, 3x 10 dire avengers, striking scorpions, wraithlord, 2x 5 pathfinders, falcon, some warlocks... apologies for proxies.

Terrain placement: d3 method if I remember correctly or maybe it was semi-pre-set from a match Paul and Ilya had played just before and we sort of agreed on a few changes...

Unfortunately I can't remember the warlord traits (probably was something useless as usual), oh and all practice matches incl. this one were played without myst. obj and terrain - not because of any personal hatred of them (although there is that too) but it's really too much to remember, esp. when learning a new edition.

I deployed 2nd and was going to go second, so I sort of mirrored his deployemnt a little.  Put the blob between two objectives one of which turned out to be worth 4 and the other 2. Chimeras slap bang in the middle to react and objective harvest. Tanks weighted towards the left flank. Ilya then infiltrated in with the scorpions. As soon as objectives were revealed, I knew what I had to do... Since I had the objective worth 4 vps within reach, if only I could claim one worth 3, then Ilya would have to get ALL the others just to get a tie.

Ilya then deployed some infiltrators in my deployment zone and scout moved with his pathfinders (the tactical marines are the stand ins for them)... (btw warwalker = wraithlord)

I then seized the initiative the army moved out. The blob moved as fast as possible into the crater with the 4vp obj. closely followed by the eradicator behind which hid the ccs. Veterans fanned out. 

Shooting face commenced with a first blood kill from the executioner. The vanquisher sniping somone across the field and heavy casaulties inflicted by the eradicator. The blob, aided by some orders ran through the crater.

1500pts IG vs Space Marines: The relic

My 2nd matchup for 6th and Ilya's 3rd... This time we decided to bump up the points level to 1500 as there's a tournament on the 26th that hopefully all three (Paul, Ilya and I) should be able to make.

1500 pts of guard:

Company Command Squad with 2x plasmagun, medic

Veterans: 3x melta, demolitions, chimera with heavy flamer and multi-laser

Veterans: 3x plasma, grenadiers, chimera with heavy flamer and multi-laser

Plastoon Command Squad with 3x flamer, power sword and plasma pistol

Infantry Squad with Grenade launcher, autocannon, commissar with power sword and plasma pistol

Infantry squad with grenade launcher, autocannon

Infantry squad with grenade launcher, autocannon

Vendetta

Leman Russ executioner: heavy bolter (as modelled), side sponsons with plasma cannons

Leman Russ Eradicator Nova: Flamer

Leman Russ Vanquisher: Lascannon

So I basically took my standard 1750 pts list and trimmed it down a little. I decided to try the command squad instead of a psyker like last match. Also dropped all the voxes, and extra bits, etc and the hellhound because I can't really justify one as it costs the same as the vendetta. Plus I've modelled mine to have a hull heavy bolter instead of a heavy flamer and flyers are so much better now.

Ilya took: 

2 squads of 10 man terminators one or two had heavy flamers which combat squadded down

Thunderfire cannon

Tactical Squad with missile launcher and flamer

Scout squad with sniper rifles, camo cloaks and missile launcher

A terminator librarian

A multi-melta attack bike and I think that that was about it. Oh yeah and a defence line with a quad gun.

This army had basically been made to scare me after I showed him a troop heavy marine army that I was going to use this game but I decided to use my guard since they're what I'm more likely to need to use considering the amount of stuff painted.

Mission: The Relic, Deployment: Pitched battle (note to self: must lookup the real name!!!)

Terrain setup: I tried to get a fair bit of open space in the middle and some los blocking terrain, hopefully not in front of the objective but Ilya got to place first so it was not to be. However I proceeded to waste terrain in his flanks placing a piece of impassable and difficult terrain in each corner which he would never use. However he still ended up with quite a strongly fortified position in the centre.

Deployment was where Ilya made a couple of mistakes, as he place his troops first and spread everyone out across the length of the board. Meanwhile I learning from the previous game actually refuse flanked him. Placing the blob in the corner to do some shooting, and my squishy tanks out of los, or behind the AV 14 russes. Plan was to weather first turn fire and then take the objective and retreat. One thing I had to think about was the blob, having initially placed the terrain for the blob's camping spot, I realised that it would have probably been better deploying them further forwards, however with the terrain already placed there was not much I could do as I did not really want them in the open especially with the thunderfire cannon around.

 We rolled on warlord traits and Ilya got his to be counter-attack in his deployment zone, while my CCS became scoring.

Then good things happened before turn 1 as I seized the initiative and the advance began. I decided to try to go for first blood, but having pulverised the terminators on my left flank to a single man who ran away but not quite to the board edge (shooting which might have been better spent elsewhere as they were already well out of position) I tried to go for his troops killing several. Meanwhile the rest of my army advanced.

Return fire saw the blob suffering moderate casaulties as well as the eradicator nova which was leading the charge. Also my plasmagun veterans' chimera was downed and a few were killed in the resultant explosion.

IG turn 2 and all forces commit to taking the relic, as tanks crash through the walls of the nearest ruin and veterans make a grab. Mixed firepower kills quite a few scouts.

Psychic powers: initial thoughts on divination

Please note: This post was written a while ago (i.e. almost a month ago) before any games of 6th had been played - still while my general opinion may have changed, I still think that telepathy is the best psychic lore, for reasons I may later disclose, although on 3++ they have already done a pretty good review of all the lores now

This may actually end up as a bit of a rant, but you have been warned. What I really don't get is why people all over the Internet say that divination is the best psychic discipline. Ok so your primaris power lets ONE unit re-roll it's to hit rolls... yeah great, because I mean thats so worthwhile to take a psyker such as a space marine librarian for over 100 points just to do that?! Really?

Then we have the powers which are generated randomly. Let's take a look:

Foreboding: while giving you full BS on overwatch is nice, it's very situational and to be honest if thats what you're using psykers for, you're probably wasting your points

Forewarning: this is actually not bad, however in some situations and armies it can be a bit pointless (I.e. where all/most of the army already has the same/better invulnerable save or vehicle heavy armie)- still, this is possibly the best power here

Misfortune: re-rolling successful saves, well that's cool unless you're Eldar and already have pretty much the same power and even if you're not it's rather underwhelming if that's the only effect you're psyker has on the game

Perfect timing: the psyker and unit ignore cover, hmm interesting - great if you're planning to have your  psyker standing near a bunch of plasma guns, not so great if its a ton of lasguns...

6th ed. SM digital codex review part 2

Ok, so now for one of two posts which should have been posted ages ago...

I've been reading through my Space Marine codex and thought that I'd discuss some more of the things that I've noticed. First of all, as I said before old mistakes have been corrected, which is great, but there are still plenty of typos (well yeah, not plenty but still quite a few), ok maybe it's nothing major but for such an expensive product which is mostly made up of lifting text from other sources this in my opinion is simply not good enough.

However it's not all negative. There is a significant amount of new artwork in COLOUR and also some older images which used to be black and white have also been given to us in colour. Examples of this are the tech,arise entry and the stormtalon.

We are also given some new space marine colour schemes and given some more information about existing chapters (its not a lot but at least its something that gives them a little character), which is nice especially if GW continue to add to these, one or two examples below.

1000 pts IG vs Eldar Crusade

First 6th ed batrep, here we go:

IG army list:

Primaris psyker with rulebook powers (got puppet master and psychic shriek)

Marbo

PCS with 3x flamer

20 man blob, 2x autocannon, 2x grenade launcher, commissar with plasma pistol and power weapon

Veteran squad with 3x plasmagun, grenadiers, power sword and chimera with heavy flamer

Vendetta with heavy bolters

Hydra (just trying it out in 6e)

Leman russ battle tank with lascannon and heavy bolters (another experiment)

Ilya had 3 quite large dire avenger squads, a farseer, a few warlocks, a warwalker, a falcon and some striking scorpions

Mission was crusade, deployment was the standard pitched-battle style one. We did everything in the order of the rulebook and one thing I noticed was that the terrain was a lot denser than how we usually play it. It also took a fair amount of time to set up. I tried to create areas of los blocking stuff down the middle for hiding and some open firelanes. Ilya was to deploy first and I didn't manage to seize the initiative.

Can't remember what my warlord trait was but it was worthless in any case, Ilya's was to kill my warlord with his (although since then I've read it more carefully and it should have been to kill him in a challenge)

Considering this was the first battle of 6th ed, all tactics went straight out of my head and I spread my army, allowing Ilya to sort of refuse flank me. Also the blob and the Leman Russ ended up having a very limited field of fire.

He moves up a little and begins to cast spells and dish out a bit of firepower... It turns out that the primaris psyker I was hiding behind what seemed to be a LOS blocking piece of terrain could be seen through a crack and he suffered a wound.

IG painting progress: Army wide report

As I mentioned before, there has been a LOT of painting progress... Whole army has been painted grey, touched up and highlighted. Everyone has the standard camo which was either added or re-done on some rushed models. Now all there is to do is add faces to some people, paint and wash metal on those who haven't had that done yet, and decide and finish painting details on the second veteran squad. On another note I need to finish the camo on the vendetta and base almost everything... The zoom button is at your disposal

As a reward for doing all of the above I also did some work on my primaris psyker. He's almost done just the skin on his hands, basing and one or two touch-ups.

IG army display

Back to posting again (had a few problems with blogger + a lack of time to type), and here is my whole 1750 pts IG army which is very nearly finished. Will be posting some painting progress, batreps and more as I experiment with them in 6e. Pics have been taken with my 'good' camera so feel free to open them in new tabs and zoom in and such.