Tabletop Nation 'Eastern Edge II' Tournament

Thanks to deciding to skip Black Library's Weekender (more on how money-grabbing and unfriendly BL have been in a later post) I was able to instead go to the Eastern Edge II tournament at Tabletop Nation today.

This was a one day, 1200 points, 40k tourney. The aim was for four games to be played, hence the low points limit. It turns out however that there is some kind of hard limit of points in 40k, whereby any points cost over said limit does not really reduce playing time. Thus, even with small armies, we still only managed three games each in the time allotted.

Lets get the good news out of the way first - I came second :) I got a nice little voucher to spend in the store and a certificate to add to the trophy shelf (there isn't really a trophy shelf, I just put it on a bookshelf for now). I was actually genuinely surprised to do so well. I had thought I was in with a good chance at best painted army, to be honest. But still, a prize is a prize :)

There was a fairly good selection of armies at play. Alongside three Blood Angels armies were Orks, Daemons, Space Wolves, and Necrons. Daemons placed first with three wins out of three while the Orks came in just behind me.

A brief summary of my list and three games then.

I took a Librarian with psychic powers from the BRB, going with Prescience every time and a random TK power too that never got used. I had a Furioso with Frag Cannon and two Sanguinary Priests as Elites. Two tactical squads for troops, one with a las-cannon, one with a plasma cannon, and, finally, two Stormravens, each with plasma cannons and Typhoons, one with sponsons.

Top: difficult to budge Tactical Squad and Bottom: fleeing Grey Hunters!

First game was against Space Wolves. It was Kill Points. My opponent had Grey Hunters in Rhinos and Long Fangs with rockets and Long Fangs with plasma, which might have been problematic had we not got a) deployment at the short edges, and b) night-fighting on the first turn. So his Long Fangs were neutered on turn one, and unable to hit my flyers on turn two ( a combo of templates-can't-hit-flyers and poor dice rolling there ). My flyers and long range shooters, by contrast, were able to take out two Rhinos and suppress the third. We did end up with a couple of combats but, surprisingly, his GH packs, even when, on one occasion, being backed up by charging Thunderwolf cavalry, could not shift my tactical squads. I even got one squad to run away! Cut to Turn 5 then, and my Furioso dismounts and frags a Long Fang squad to death. The two Stormravens nuke another couple of Rhinos for more easy kill points and its a win for the boys in red.

Second game was the saddest of all things - red on red violence. My opponent this time also had Blood Angels but in a list I wish I had had. For one thing he took and Aegis. At 1200 points I didn't think anyone would want to fit that into a list, but then he also had five man assault squads taking las-preds with 35-point discounts so it all fit. Two Librarians too, one on a bike, also spelled doom for my boys, with both of them taking Divination powers to make their shooting infallible. We were playing the Relic and I combat-squadded my troops to have a better chance of grabbing the relic. But it was not to be - giving his quad-gun Ignores Cover and his assault bikes rerolls to hit made short work of my army. A Stormraven was predicatably cut to pieces by the quad on arrival and it all went downhill from there really.

Third game was a bit more fun. Fun for me, that is, because it generally went all my way. I had chosen to take BA's over my usual favourite for competitive play, Space Wolves, because the last tournament winner at TTN had taken 'Cron Air. Five flyers had apparently made easy work out all comers so I wanted some built-in Skyfire. Today's 'cron player only had one flyer though, and no other competent anti-air. Playing Big Guns Never Tire, with five objectives on the table, I started claiming two, one of which, in ruins already, improved my cover save by one. One of his was sabotaged so he had to shift off it pretty sharpish. My Stormravens were able to polish off one of his Heavy Support tank-things (sorry, I really can't remember all the silly names GW gives their toys) for First Blood and a bonus victory point. And, for me at least, it was all uphill from there. The 'crons just couldn't stand up to marine shooting or the Stormravens - Power of the Machine Spirit is the only thing GW failed to nerf on these machines. I even hit the 'cron flyer with my las-cannon in the last turn causing it to fly off the board and onto the post-game kill points column. A good win.

Salamanders vs. Space Wolves. Not everyone brought Space Marines though, honest.

Just time for a couple of quick observations and thoughts on the armies I saw and played today then.

As I suspected, the Stormraven does now largely suck as a transport for anything without jump packs. In 5th you could roll halfway across the table and then charge out of its belly to assault your enemy. In 6th you can only do this if it moves 6" or less. It excels as a gunship though. The rules for flyers work really well for the Stormraven - it has so many guns, plus PotMS, and can put out massive amounts of firepower, lots of which can be twin-linked. Lots of talk has been made of melta being redundant as noone takes Armour 14 any more. the necrons have great access to Arm 13 though and, sometimes, I wish I had had las-cannons on the flyers. But even without them, the SR has loads of rockets built in, the option for more, is hard to hit when flying and can Evade, is easier to hit when hovering but can Jink. Its got everything you want from something with 'Gunship' in its name.

The Aegis line with quad-gun is just great. I highly expect to be buying one soon for use at 1750 and above. There is no reason not to take one and, particularly if you twin-link it with a psyker, has the power to ruin an enemy's day and list.

Assault marines and more Predators are pretty nifty too. They make a staple of 5th, one which is still very valid in 6th, very cost-effective. Thinking about the great value they are and how deadly my las-Pred Space Wolves are makes me drool a little.

Finally 'crons. I was not super-impressed by these guys. The units that came into range of my tactical marines were really easy to kill. Even the big hard ones with shields went down to plasma bursts and a Frag Cannon  quite quickly. The Deathmarks were probably the scariest, hitting marines very reliably and with some silly rule that allowed them to wound me on twos. But ten marines in cover, with a Priest, turn out to be very hard to shoot to death. In return they obliterated the 'marks in two turns of shooting. The flyer was a bit more worrying, largely because it is very manouverable. It also has that silly beam-down ability which could be a problem if it is filled with the right unit. I think it managed, over three turns, to take out a Stormraven, and nearly did some major damage to a tactical squad before being las-cannoned off the board. Again, Aegis line....

Overall then, a good day out. For what was billed as a 'casual' tourney, some players played remarkably aggressively and not everyone took losing in, shall we say, and 'admirable' fashion. Some were out the door as soon as the last dice settled when they had lost a game, i.e. they didn't think they could 'win' the tournament so there was no point in sticking around. But most people had a fun few games, drank a lot of coffee and rolled a lot of dice. Many many plastic men gave up their lives, often repeatedly, for our pleasure and enjoyment, and that, after all, is what its all about.

Thoughts on vehicles in 6th Edition 40k

The latest edition has been out a few weeks now and I've had a chance to play a half dozen games and wanted to share a few observations on one aspect of the new meta in particular - vehicles.

In 6th Ed, vehicles were pretty much king. Marine armies were often built around Land Raiders and Rhinos, Orks raced across the field in Truks and Wagons, Tau were nothing without a few Hammerheads, and so on and so on. Lets not even get started on Imperial Guard lists....

The conventional wisdom is that all this was likely to change in 6th though. The fact that glancing hits can now remove a tank in as few as three shots should make your Razorbacks and Falcons much more vulnerable, greatly reducing their lifespan. Not being able to camp in a vehicle on top of objectives also reduces the utility of these mobile boxes. But is that how the new game is playing out?

In my last six games I have played with Eldar, Space Wolves, and a mix of Space Wolves and Blood Angels. I have beaten Grey Knights (tabled them twice), a mix of Marines and Dark Eldar, Blood Angels (tabled again) and pure Eldar. Yeah, so far, I'm unbeaten in 6th Ed :) But the point I actually want to make is I've seen a fair variety of vehicles and infantry at play.

My initial verdict: vehicles are by no means done with and are still extremely valuable additions to most armies.

Take my Space Wolves list. I have a fairly aggressive and competitive list. It involves a couple of units of Long Fangs, three Lazerbacks, a las-Pred, and usually a las/missile launcher Dread'. In the three or four games I have fielded them, I have not lost more than two vehicles in the entire game. In fact, I have only ever lost two on one occasion.

Even in last night's semi-Apocalypse game of 4000 points a side, I only lost one Razorback. The other two were on one Hull Point each, true. But my side still also had two las-Preds and a Vindicator untouched by enemy fire.

My Space Wolf tanks aren't even in cover!

So far, it seems, the same principles of the 5th meta hold true for 6th. That is to say, multiple redundancies and correct threat projection will mean your enemy won't be able to target and destroy enough of your vehicles fast enough to stop you doing what you want to with them. How does this work?

1. Multiple Targets.

First, if my army has 11 missile launchers and 7 las-cannons, several being twin-linked, many of which are in cover or obscured, but all of which are pointed at you, as well as tactical marines with meltas and plasma guns running towards you, how do you choose which to shoot first? Unless you also have lots of high powered weapons, or at least weapons powerful enough to Glance from range, its  a difficult process.

2. Cover Saves

Eventually you will prioritise a target though. First you have to roll to hit. you might miss or scatter. Then you have to roll to wound or penetrate. Then I get to make cover saves/invulnerables etc. I'm not saying you can't or I won't make any of these rolls. The point is there are lots of rolls to make to do some damage. And I'm not even using a Aegis or Skyshield yet...

3. Hull Points Aren't As Easy To Take As It Seems, Or Multiple Targets Part 2

So all hits now take hull points from vehicles. But the most common ones come with three. So my semi-mech Space Wolves have a total twelve hull points between them. Even for Necrons, who I hear can take out a tank a turn, will need a few turns of good shooting to eliminate all of them. By which time I will probably have done what I needed to do with them.

That last sentence is key to understanding vehicles, and infantry for that matter, in 6th. As much as your opponent needs to be clear on which targets they can and should attempt to take out first, you need to know what you are going to do with yours because you must assume they will get destroyed eventually.

But what about fliers?

The Eldar list I have been playing in 6th only includes three vehicles. Thats a single Wave Serpent and two fliers. In the hardest game I have played in 6th to date, I lost both the fliers and the Serpent to Orks. That said, I did misuse my Phoenix Bomber horribly, wasting its shots on an Ork Battlewagon, instead of taking out the 15 Looters that then proceeded to shoot it out of the sky. But hey ho, it was the first time I used it and I was a little panicked by the fact my opponent had two Baneblades-as-Wagons racing across a 4x4 table at my squishy Troops. A bit of an aberration then.

Against Grey Knights, the same Eldar obliterated 1750 points in four turns for the loss of two, yes two, Wraithguard...

But, for all that, flyers haven't really percolated down into the meta around here that deeply.

I shot down my Grey Knight opponent's solitary Stormraven with a lucky snapshot from a missile launcher before my Nightwing even got on the board. Last night my Dark Eldar opponent's Voidraven bomber scattered a Mine almost entirely off the board, then took a penetrating hit that removed a lance, and then failed to hit with its remaining gun in the last turn. Still, the strategy of shooting jets like that with las-cannons still seems, to me, the best alternative to a Skyfire weapon.

Until quad-cannons and Icarus lasers and flakk missiles become commonplace its probably too early to tell how deadly flyers will be in the long run. I suspect they will become fairly key in armies designed around them and taking out the aforementioned AA guns will be a high priority for controlling players though.

Eldar Nightwing Conversion/Liquid Mask/Sun Blitz Botherhood

Every time I try to get out - they pull me back in...

One of the combinations of armies I want to try in 6th Edition 40k is Codex Eldar and Eldar Corsairs. The Corsairs army list is given in Imperial Armour Volume 11: Doom of Mymeara. It is a fast attack list. Apart from some compulsory cannon-fodder infantry, the list features lots of fast movers, from jetpack walkers and jetbikes, to fighter and bomber aircraft. Since reading the book I've had a yearning to field an army with flyers in it and, as 6th Edition features these vehicles, now's the time.

The downside of this list though is the cash cost. Both the Nightwing fighter and Phoenix bomber are Forgeworld models and quite pricey. When trying to decide if I really wanted to commit more than £100 on two models it suddenly hit me that the Edar Razorwing is very similar to the Nightwing, in shape at least. A minimal amount of kitbashing later, and we have this:

Its not a perfect match, but its good enough. The Nightwing doesn't have the central dorsal fin and does have moving wings. But my model cost half as much as Forge World's, so I'll keep the £30 and use mine, thanks very much.

It is simple enough to switch the Dark Eldar Lance's out for some surplus Eldar ones from the bits box. They require a bit more effort to secure, not having the nice little square peg the supplied parts do. The forward Shuriken Cannons are also quite simple to make from chopped down tank weapons and a couple of other spare parts.

For the paint scheme I have decided to go with the Sun Blitz Brotherhood, also found in the IA11 book.

I based the model with a black primer. On top of this I sprayed a Mechrite Red base coat, then a layer of Blood Red, and then a couple of coats of Vallejo's Game Colour Gold Yellow. I have blended up some of the more raised areas with a mix of Gold Yellow and Iyanden Darksun and edge highlighted the panels with Sunburst Yellow. Sadly, most of these paints are no longer available, but Vallejo probably do passable equivalents of the GW colours or you could just use Air colours.

The next step is to add the red spirals that marks this vehicle out as a Sun Blitz flyer.

When planning this I saw two ways to do it. Either, having sprayed the thing with the reds, mask off the spiral shapes before spraying on the yellows, or spray all the colours, mark out the spirals and then respray the reds. I went with the latter for two reasons: my airbrush is not that great (nor is my technique) and it was late at night when I started painting so there was no way to get hold of some liquid mask.

Here is how the model looks with the Liquid Mask (also by Vallejo) painted on:

I have never used the mask before so here's a couple of things I have learnt:

• It looks like a fairly watery paint on the palette
• It can be painted on to a model pretty much like a paint, having a consistency similar to thinned PVA glue.
• It dries more quickly than a paint. Beware of using your good brushes for application - it will form a gum between the bristles really quickly, so use an older brush you don't mind writing off if you can't get all the mask off.
• It takes longer to dry on the model than an acrylic paint. I'm not sure how long you're supposed to leave it until painting over, but its been on my model for about twenty minutes now and still feels a little tacky in places. That said, I've seen videos where people sprayed over it almost immediately so I'm going to go ahead and spray it now.

Thats all there is for now. When I have sprayed on the spirals I'll take some more pictures and write about removing the mask.

Slightly more traditional Blood Angels list

I have made a habit of playing some frankly ridiculously small Blood Angels armies. Using Dante's ability to make Sanguinary Guard into Troops, I've fielded two squads of them, two Stormraven's, two Furioso librarians, and five Death Company with a Dreadnought.

As well as providing a tactical challenge (to both players), this has largely been an excuse not to have to paint a lot of miniatures. More recently I have pushed that tactical challenge even further, replacing Dante with a Terminator Librarian, along with assault termies in a Land Raider. That means 0 scoring units - I can only win by tabling the opponent (although I tend to take draws as a win too!).

I even went so far as to tell a friend I would not buy any more Blood Angels, particularly not Tactical Squads. My reasoning there was to keep my army lists themed around what I see as the flavour of the codex - fast moving squads with lots of deep striking and jumping around the board. Tactical flexibility over tactical marines, if you will.

But one should almost never say never. This week I have ordered two tactical squads and a couple of special models in order to field the following list:

HQ
Librarian

Elites
Furioso Dreadnought with melta and frag cannon

Furioso Dreadnought Librarian

2 Sanguinary Priests

Troops

6x Death Company with Boltguns, one of whom is Lemartes

Death Company Dreadnought with Blood Talons

Tactical Squad with flamer and plasma cannon, sergeant has a powerfist

Tactical Squad with a plasma gun and a las cannon, sergeant with chainsword and pistol

Heavy Support

Two Stormravens, each with las cannons, multi-meltas and hurricane sponsons, plus extra armour.

This list is based on one that appeared in White Dwarf last March. The thrust of it is a two-pronged killing machine assault with the Death Company in one 'raven and a tactical squad and dread in the other. The Death Company are more or less guaranteed to clear any infantry unit in the game off an objective, leaving it to be held by the tactical squad.

In addition to the Dwarf list I have two Priests to give Furious Charge and Feel No Pain to my marines (and possibly the dreadnoughts too). I have taken Lemartes because a)I have the model and it looks cool, and b)he has cool rules and makes those raving loonies he's with even more insane in combat.

Similarly I have the Librarian dread in the list because a)I have two of them and they both look cool, and b) they are dreadnoughts with 20ft long force weapons! (On a more rational note, the Blood Angels have access to some great psychic powers and the only thing better than one powerful psyker is two!)

Another strength of this list is the amount of firepower it can put down in a turn. Angelus boltguns are great and all, but I have looked on in envy as my fellow Marine players have have used their two or even three tactical squads to gun down vastly superior numbers. With this list I have lots of strength 4 shots, plus lots of really nasty close combat power. The dreaded ork hordes may not be a problem any more!

Actually trying to take and hold objectives with two full sized squads is going to take some getting used to though and don't get me started on combat squads - the potential to take on four objectives all at the same time? Unheard of!

I started repainting an old dread as a Furioso last night and the other new models are on the way. Should be able to start playing them next week :)

Eldar List of the Walking Dead

My previous Eldar List is a fairly traditional one - it ticks all the boxes of multiple small units, lances, psychic powers, and different aspect warriors. This list is more of a themed list, that is, its based around my Wraithseer rules for which are in the (Apocalypse Second Edition).

Although the Wraithseer is genuinely powerful he does present a few challenges in a standard 40k army list. As well as taking up an HQ slot without actually qualifying as an HQ choice (meaning you have to take another HQ choice as well) you have to take at least one unit of Wraithguard as well. I guess the idea is he's like the shepherd for these borrowed souls. He does give them, and Wratihlords, some potentially great abilities, but the points cost means these guys are likely to be the centre of your army.

So, what did I come up with?

HQ
Wraithseer with D-Cannon
Farseer with Runes of Witnessing, Spirit Stones, Doom, and Guide.
3 Warlocks with 2 Singing Spears, and Enhance

Troops
6 Dire Avengers including Exarch with sword and pistol and Bladestorm
Wave Serpent with Missile Launchers and shuriken cannon

6 Dire Avengers including Exarch with power weapon and shimmershield
Wave Serpent with Missile Launchers and shuriken cannon

5 Rangers with Pathfinder

10 Wraithguard

Heavy Support

2 Fire Prisms, each with shuriken cannon

Wraithlord with Sword and Missile Launcher

In games of two objectives, I see the collected Wraiths being extremely hard to dislodge from my one. There's also a decent amount of ranged and mobile firepower to send after my opponents. In games of more than two objectives, the Wraiths and Rangers are there to hold those on my side of the board while I have the Serpents to clear and shock my opponent's. Six Dire Avengers with a Shimmershield, a Farseer and three Warlocks, Enhanced and Guided against a Doomed opponent is a pretty scary opponent to get assaulted by for most units in the game.

The only problem is I don't have any Wraithguard yet and they are very expensive new. Ebay may be my best friend on this one but frankly the appeal of all these spirit warriors probably means a little expense is going to be worth it :)

Eldar Army List - 1750

So here is the Eldar army list I have been using in recent weeks. It is largely based on what I already had built and bought when I decided I wanted a change from Marines, with a few extra units brought in to make it viable.

HQ
Eldrad
Farseer with Runes of Witnessing, Spirit Stones, Doom, and Guide.

Troops
6 Dire Avengers including Exarch with sword and pistol and Bladestorm
Wave Serpent with Missile Launchers and shuriken cannon

6 Dire Avengers including Exarch with power weapon and shimmershield
Wave Serpent with Missile Launchers and shuriken cannon

5 Rangers with Pathfinder

Elites
6 Fire Dragons including Exarch with Pike and Tank Hunters

6 Howling Banshees including Exarch with Mirror Swords and Acrobatic
Wave Serpent with Lances

Heavy Support

2 Fire Prisms, each with shuriken cannon

Falcon with shuriken cannon, holofields, and bright lance


I put Eldrad in with the Shimmershielded Dire Avengers and the other Farseer in with the other squad. The Fire Dragons ride in the Falcon and the rangers hoof it.

So, how does this list do? Well, I've played five games with them and the record is 2-2-1. However, two of those games, the draws, were missions from the Battle Missions book.

One placed a bunch of Space Marines on a single objective and made them fearless - I had to shift them off. I forced a draw through tank-shocking the marines off it in the last turn, and, if it weren't for how we had agreed the terrain the objective was placed on should be treated, I would have had the win. Still, the Fire Dragons reliable popped a Land Raider, stranding its Terminator-armoured passengers miles from the objective and the Rangers popped a Predator while the Falcon took out a Baal, meaning I was able to deal with the big armoured threats quite easily.

The other Battle Mission made me face an Ork horde with Endless Waaagh! That's right, Waagh for as long as the Ork player wants it. This, and five fairly closely placed objectives made it a war of attrition on a 4x4 table. There's no point having fast tanks when everything is a foot away from everything else. Not much opportunity to take out charging trukks or force your opponent to spread his forces either. Still, Eldrad took out a trukk that had destroyed and immobilised a couple of my vehicles with its whirling blades of crappy games design and the Prisms and Serpents did manage to destroy one of my opponents two scoring units, leaving us drawn at one objective each.

The two wins came against firstly 1500 points of Blood Angels. Fast tanks versus fast Rhinos - my fast vehicles could shoot, fly and ignore terrain though leaving my admittedly underpowered opponent chasing me around the board for kill points. The other win was against 'nids, this time on a proper sized board though, meaning I had time to shoot down his hoards as they charged my single objective, held as it was by Rangers. I then used three of my tanks to block the path of his deep-striking monster gribblies, while the Dire Avengers snuck around to the rear of his objective to end the game contesting it.

The only out and out loss the Eldar have suffered was against 'nids though. On a 4x4 board, I lost due to a lack of knowledge of the enemy. We were playing for kill points so I held my edge of the board to whittle them down as they ran towards my guns. I didn't count on his three packs of Ymgarl Genestealers outflanking (with rerolls due thanks to the Swarmlord) and absolutely creaming the rear armour of all my lovely tanks though. A disastrous loss, but you live and you learn.

My overall impressions of playing Eldar then, albeit with limited experience? Firstly, you need to have a decent sized table to really play them properly. As I said earlier, fast skimmers are practically worthless in games where the objectives and units are all a foot away from each other. The long ranged guns, particularly the 60" Fire Prism cannons, also need to be at a distance from the enemy to get the most out of them.

Secondly, Pathfinders are worth every point. 3 feet of range, a 2+ save in cover, and rending on a 5 or 6 - whats not to like? Oh, and they're a scoring unit. Similarly, Fire Dragons are a reliable way of destroying pretty much anything on the board. Just be prepared for them to be wiped out by angry passengers :(

Thirdly, Howling Banshees - not so great. Unless you can get Guide on them and Doom on their target, their low Strength makes actually causing a wound hard against most enemies. Sounds easy enough, but there is competition for those psychic powers - your Dire Avengers, tanks, or other shooty units may need the help more.

I have another list finished that uses the Wraithseer I bought last year along with a unit of 10, yes, 10, Wraithguard as a scoring Death Star and will put that up as soon as possible.

Until then, any thoughts or suggestions are welcome :)