1000 pt tournament dark eldar

Trying to catch up with posts as I've had very little Internet access recently. I'm now 5 games in with dark eldar and I really like them. For my first three I went to a tournament which was meant to be a beginner's tournament with no paint requirements hence the rapid scramble to get everything ready. In the end though they did score painting, but oh well. I didn't want to take tau anyway and I couldn't come up with anything scary with marines or guard.

My list (made of the mish-mash of stuff that I managed to assemble the night before the event):

Baron

4 trueborn with blasters, venom

5 wyches, haywire, venom

5 wyches, haywire, venom

5 kabalites, blaster, venom

5 hellions

6 reavers, 2x blaster

Ravager 

The tournament started on a downer as we arrived well on time but were told that somehow we were late, so I had to play against Paul's daemons. Then it turned out that for some reason they hadn't registered Ilya who had payed for entry and been there from the start and almost kicked him out of the event. It later also turned out that they let people who hadn't pre-registered play but turned away those who had who managed to arrive slightly later than us. Just really badly organised overall.

So Paul's list looked something like:

Fatey

2x 10 plagues

Soul grinder mon

Daemon prince mark of tzeentch

Apologies, no pictures because I only took 2 off my iPad and they are terrible.

I got first turn and perhaps too conservatively behind a wall and then spent turn 1 moving into range. Mission was kps and hammer and anvil. I managed to won his daemon prince early which took away his grimoire and a lot of his psychic powers. However he managed to snag an early lead in kill points and despite killing the soul grinder and leaving fatey on wound, on the penultimate turn fate just hid off the table so I couldn't target him and since I didn't really want to charge his plaguebearers I only managed to kill 4 of them over the course of the game. Ended up 5-4 mission-wise to Paul with vps more or less tied so 11-9 to Paul.

Game two was against Tau. Vanguard strike, big guns never tire

Farsight

Riptide with skyfire, stims, ion and fusion blaster 

10 firewarriors

20 kroot

8 pathfinders

Hammerhead with long strike

Aegis with quad-gun

I've played with this opponent before and so I anticipated a lot of rules arguments, and there were rules arguments galore. From the order of deployment/objective placing, to him doubting my reserves coming in from my long table edge, to him saying some random crap about heavy support only counting as points if you kill them while they're holding objectives... The list goes on. Whatever. So I manage to get first turn and get to place 2/3 objectives. I put one behind a Los blocker in my zone and  one on my left flank near his deployment zone so I can come in with baron and hellions to get it late game. I'm not sure if I went first or second but I think first. Basically everything went forwards and reavers bladevane his pathfinders killing most of them with the help of some venoms even though they eventually go to ground but do not flee.

He kills the reavers and manages to mop up the hellions and baron with a combination of shooting and over watch. I end up rolling over his army killing everything except 3 firewarriors who are stuck in combat with two wyches and some 10 kroot who outflanked onto an objective. Game ends turn 5 though unfortunately so we're holding one each, both have warlord, I have linebreaker he has first blood, and I have a heavy support point. Also I have a lot more vps score than him but due to the bad scoring system it's only 12-8 to me. 

Game 3 against chaos marines. It actually turned out that by this point there had been a lot of close games and if I had won this I would have come 2/3rd place.

Apostle with a mace

2x 10 cultists

2x helldrake

2x 5 obliterators with autocannons

Predator wit triple lascannons

Aegis with comms-link

So a really mean list. Mission was emperors will and vanguard strike. I had first turn and it was night so I deployed most of my stuff out in the open as far forward as possible with the plan being to kill his army before the helldrakes come in. Unfortunately he deployed in such a way that I couldn't reach most of his units and also seized the initiative with autocannons tearing into a venom and the reavers for first blood. When the helldrakes both came in turn 2 it was really game over for me. I had one shot at killing a helldrake but despite a lance penning it I only managed to stun it on the damage result. From then I focused on killing cultists but it wasn't enough and in the end I was left with the baron and hellions trying to survive in the corner out of range of everything but the helldrakes and planning to make a last turn objective grab to turn the game into a draw. Alas two turns of two helldrakes flaming away only left the baron alive, however I avoided a wipeout and lost 15-5 despite having only one model remaining.

Afterthoughts:

Really like dark eldar, they are probably the most fun I've had playing 40k in a while, tau are just plain boring. Need more venoms though. That's all for now

Oh and Ilya is now playing eldar again but became a bit discouraged after two losses and a draw at this event lol. He did beat Paul's daemons at home though

Doubles tournament: torks

Another tournament has come and gone. This report is going to be a very short one, because basically all that there is to be learnt is that I have a very hard time squaring up to Daemons. I was in a team with Ilya and this is the list we settled on after a lot of discussion and beating Paul's daemons in a 2500 point practice match. Paul was also present, playing solo and he placed 7th out of 14.

Torks:

This tournament used the allies template so one player was the captain with the warlord and the other the ally. All rules of allies applied.

Why I'm retiring my guard army

Warning: long wall of text with no pictures

Prologue:

The context of this comes after getting my worst tournament result ever with my supposedly best tournament guard army yet. So what went wrong?

The Problem

It's the same problem every time. Models and the fact that I don't own the right ones. I'm handicapping myself because when I need to play full wysiwyg and full paint I'm effectively forced to make choices I would not otherwise. 

All the extra powerswords, plasma pistols, etc add up. And added to this I don't have all the best models. Looking at the judge's list who had to step in to play ringer at the last second, he managed to squeeze in 6 vendettas, 6 chimeras and also 2-3 pieces of artillery, as well as the full array of plasma and melts vets to fill those up.

Why can't I do the same? Well I only have 2 vendettas... And 2 chimeras. I'm not planning to buy any new tanks because I already have spent my money on 3 russes... I'm not going to suddenly buy 4 vendettas or 4 chimeras in one go... I mean it's not like I'm meant to be starting a whole new army here. And while I could take the same number of veterans, it's kind of pointless if they don have anything to transport them.

The death of the blob

Perhaps power weapon blobs are not, but since I don't run them this isn't about them in particular. Guardsmen have a dilemma. Heavy weapons are good, but easily killed. Stick them in a squad of 10 expendable bodies and you've got the protection but are paying at least 60 points for just 1 useful shot. This is too expensive. 

Also when you blob up there is another problem. I opposed this idea for a long time but now I see its merit. In order to maximise the utility of these one gun squads you combine them to gain the benefit of orders for all of them in one go. The problem is that a mephiston, daemon prince or anything else that can kill 5+ guardsmen in combat comes along and then you're leadership 5 or less, get caught and have just lost 20-40 men in one assault phase. Commissars do not really help actually as canny opponents can kill off a sergeant or two before assault so then the commissar helps to delay the combat for one turn, then is killed in a challenge and the enemy is free again in their own turn.

The good news

Well there is a new guard codex rumoured to be on the horizon and because I've been motivated to paint my guard I'll have a whole army of already painted models to use when the new book hits. Perhaps if I'm still into 40k by then I may be tempted to pick up some new models.

For now it's back to tau and space marines, as well as starting my dark eldar.

ReUnion first run (tournament report)

Went to another tournament, also ETC format this past weekend (full wysiwyg and full paint). Took my guard which I just finished painting. So here's a quick rundown.

I took the following list:

CCS 2x plasmagun, lascannon

Marbo

Veterans, 3x meltas, shotguns, chimera

Veterans, 3x plasma, power sword, chimera

PCS 3x flamer, meltabomb

2x infantry squad (one with commissar power sword and plasma pistol) each with autocannon

2x infantry squad (one with commissar with power sword) each with missile launcher

Special weapons squad 2x melta, demo charge

Vendetta

Vendetta

Hellhound

Vanquisher, flamer

Executioner, plasma sponsons 

Aegis with quad gun

1850 pts Emperor's Will: SM vs Daemons

Played a game against Paul's Daemons with an experimental list for my ultras. While I'm not going to buy any new sternguard I'm just trying out what it would be like if my ones all had combi-meltas. The lists:

Lysander

Librarian (avenger, null zone)

Sternguard (5) with combi-meltas, one power fist, drop pod

Assault terminators (th/ss) in lr redeemer with multi-melta

Tactical Squad multi-melta, combi-melta, meltagun, power fist

Sniper scouts (7) with camo cloaks

2x Stormtalon with skyhammers

Storm raven with assault cannons and multi-melta

Paul ran the same list as at the last tournament (this past weekend - report is about 50% finished atm):

Fateweaver

Herald of tzeentch locus of conjuration, exalted reward

2x 3 flamers

2x 10 plagues

20 horrors

7 screamers

Burning chariot

Soul grinder

Dp, wings, ml 3, exalted and lesser reward

Bastion with icarus

Into the Breach Game 3 + wrap up

Last game and I come up against csm. Army list looked something like this:

Abbadon

Lord of slaanesh on steed with some thing that gives him and unit outflank

2x 5 noisemarines with blastmaster

3x 10 cultists

2 heldrakes

3 obliterators

3 obliterators

2 obliterators

Aegis with comms relay

Not many pics from this game. Was actually quite tired by this point and I think the two hours of sleep started to affect me :/ hence lots of stupid mistakes and to cut a long story short a 20-0 loss for me.

Into the breach Game 2

Having won 20-0 first round, I knew I would be in for some tough opposition in the second one. As predicted, this game was against a member of the Russian ETC team, Wonden, and his tau. His list looked very good and I'll probably be stealing parts of it in the future hehe.

Farsight

Shadowsun

Farsight bomb with lots of missiles, plasma, fusion blasters and a guy with multi-sensor spectrum suite and command and control node as well as PEN chip in there somewhere and lots of marker drones

Riptide, ion accelerator and fusion blaster

3x 6 firewarriors

6(?) pathfinders

2x 3 broadsides with missiles

Space marine librarian with force axe and gate of infinity (epistolary)

5 sniper scouts with camo cloaks

Guardsmen PIP

Just a quick update to how where I've got to. Not sure about marbo's missile, but I want it to stand out without being too bright or introducing too many new colours... So in sort of semi happy with it so far. Still got to do skin and faces, imperial eagles and the off bits and bobs. Oh and stripes on some of the bases.

New recruits

In preparation for the tournament next weekend which will also be ETC style, but has full wysiwyg regulations as well as full paint, I've been adding some new guardsmen that ill also be painting over the week.

Basically it's 2 vanilla sergeants, 9 regular guardsmen, a meltagunner and a new marbo (old one has been demoted to back to a veteran).

Managed to make this using one box of guardsmen and bits including the spare crew from my vendettas. 

Went pretty overboard with marbo, but I think he looks cool and is definitely wysiwyg unlike the old one (who has no knife and has a shotgun on his back).

Haven't had time to post reports but look forward to games 2 and 3 from yesterday soon.