Works in Progress...

Khornate Marine Tester #2

With a nice new red scheme this time. I like this one a lot better, what about y'all?

Railhead Rumble 11' Day II

So I arrive on Sunday morning to find out I am matched up against Hulksmash and his nasty Space Wolf army. The mall complex was a lot more calm the second day, and it was a nice change of pace. On the day the Primary would be scored W/D/L 16/8/4, the Secondary was W 4 (last mission having D 2), and up to 4 bonus points per round.

Game I v. Brad T.'s Space Wolves

Dawn of War

Primary Objective Markers (5)

Secondary Table Quarters

Bonus Kill a chosen HQ

Brad had a very competitive and well built Razorback list with Logan Grimnar w/ big Wolf Guard Terminator squad (2 Cyclones, assorted wargear), 2 Lone Wolves (TDA, Storm Shields, and Chainfists), 2*Greyhunters (Meltagun, Wolf Guard w/ Combi-melta, HB Razorback), Greyhunters (Meltagun, Wolf Guard w/ Combi-melta, AC Razorback), Greyhunters (Flamer, Wolf Guard w/ Combi-flamer, AC Razorback) , and 3*Long Fangs (5*Missles, AC Razorback).
I always really enjoy playing against really strong opponents and trying to learn from such games, this was just such an instance, however, I honestly played horribly. We'll go through it at the end. Brad got first turn and deployed his big unit of Terminators with Logan in the center of the board, hidden behind the platform seen above. The objectives were one in the middle and one in each quarter roughly. I fly my Stormraven straight down the middle onto the platform. My Devastators take positions on either flank, and my Rhino hide behind the other side of the platform. The Flamestorms outflank.
Turn two the Wolf Guard wreck the Stormraven with Tank Hunting missles (thanks to Logan) and charge the Furioso (seen above). Menoloth uses Wings to get out of there and charge his Long Fangs in the middle, while my missles are ineffective.
The Flamestorms come in and roast a Long Fang pack, while his Terminators wreck the Dreadnought. I am eventually able to kill all the Wolf Guard, but Logan kills all my scoring units, while the Lone Wolves go tag Menoloth. Bottom of six I have my Priest and one missle laucher Marine.
That is when things are interesting. Brad is so ahead that he didn't move onto more than one objective, an objective that happens to be about 8" away from my lone Devastator. So I need a Difficult Terrain test plus a run to equal 5" to get a draw on the Primary. DT roll, snake eyes, run, 2. C'est la vie. That didn't lose me the game. I think I lost in the first turn with my Stormraven placement, I should have never sent it head on into the Wolf Guard, I mean, seriously. It should have gone down the left flank to threaten his Grey Hunters and Long Fangs, and potentially forced him to choose between it and my Assault squads. As it was I gave him the best of both worlds. I made other mistakes, but none of them would have ever happened if I hadn't made that first mistake. 4 points.

Game II v. Mark M.'s Blood Angels

Spearhead
Primary Annihilation
Secondary Most units outside either deployment zone.
Bonus Highest cost unit/HQ with in 12" of the center.

So I played Mark again Day 2. You can see his list on the Day One post. After our game we had talked about him going away from his initial game plan in our first game and splitting up his forces. He got first turn and I held the Stormraven in reserve and all the Baals outflanking. His shooting was super hot through the first two turns, as he wrecked all of my Rhinos. After I had no reserves come in turn two I started to wonder whether I'd have much left by the time they came in.


My Assault squads destroyed one of his jumper squads. He did a great job keeping his army centralized and away from the flanks, but one of my Flamestorms got into his flanks. Then Menoloth came in and got crazy again, killing his Librarian, a Razorback, and an Assault squad while claiming the middle. The Furioso Dreadnought finished off that flank. If Mark made any mistake in the second game it was not finishing off remnant units, as I had multiple squads of less than three models in my KP win. 24 points.

Game III v. Mike K.'s Chaos Marines

Pitched Battle
Primary Capture and Control
Secondary Reduce all enemy units to half strength.
Bonus 4 marked enemy units are worth a point each.

I got a lot of pictures of this game because Mike's army was so awesome looking, and I didn't have to worry about more pictures for later games, so the battery wasn't an issue. He had two Daemon Princes (one Lash, one Tzeentch/Warptime), 5*Chosen (2*Melta, 2*Flamer), 8*Berserkers (Rhino, Power Weapon), two 8*Plague Marines (Rhino, Melta, Flamer, Power Fists), 9*Thousand Sons (Rhino, Wind), 2*Defilers, and 2*Obliterators.
We set up our objectives in opposite corners and both deployed strong objective taking forces. His Chosen infiltrated near my objective. I outflanked my Flamestorms.

So I have a hazy memory of the game at this point, but I was able to take his objective after Menoloth and an Assault Squad handled the Daemon Princes, and the Furioso tore through the Plague Marines. I was able to zoom back to contest my home objective with fast Rhinos


Here are pictures of the final objective positions. I got the Primary, and three bonus points for 19.




***
So all in all a great tournament. I don't know where I finished overall exactly, as the final standings haven't been released yet, but I did win Player's Choice! Thanks to the players that voted for me!

Railhead Rumble 11' Day I

So this past weekend I played in the Rail Rumble at AKON (which is apparently some well known anime and gaming convention) put on by the Heroic 28s Podcast. It was held in this megalithic hotel/mall complex, which was a pretty cool venue. It was a two-day seven game event, with the first day being pure win/loss to determine brackets for the second day battle point based finals. So Day I each game had three equally weighted objectives, the player with more got the win. There were no ties so if mission objectives were tied, it went to Victory Points. My camera was almost out of battery and I had no extra/charger, so you'll see the number of photos vary greatly from game to game. Saturday was the day the convention had their costume contest, and let's just say the people watching between games (the hall had some comfy chairs perched over three stories of packed people right outside the door) was... interesting...

Game I v. Mark M.'s Blood Angels

Dawn of War

Objectives

Annihilation

Objective Markers (3, one in the center of the board, one in each deployment zone)

Kill opponents most Costly Unit

Special Rules

The center objective will explode mighty powerful-like on a D6 chance every turn, a 3+ after turn four (4+ wound with no armour, vehicles penetrated on a 4+ within 6")

Mark had a hybrid Jumper/ AV13 Wall kind of list w/ a Librarian (Jump Pack, Shield of Sanguinius, Blood Lance), a decked out 215 point Honor Guard, a naked Priest, two naked 5 man TL lascannon Razorback Assault squads, two ten man Assault Squads (dual melta, PF), decked out 220 point Vanguard, two AC Baals, two LC Predators, and a Vindicator.
We both placed our objectives on the right flank. I lost the roll to go first and Mark made the mistake of splitting his forces far apart on the far flanks (you can see the left flank above). In return I moved my Assault squads on around the objective (the Techmarine seen below), and my Devastators in the middle. I outflanked the Flamestorm Baals and bum rushed his left flank with the Stormraven. Turn 2 both Baals came in and roasted an Assault squad while Menoloth charged in and killed pretty much everything seen above (eventually), and a Devastator squad popped his Vindicator. On his turn the Vanguard came in and killed a Devastator squad.

On the flank with the objective, I surged forward with two Assault squads, leaving one to claim. In return Mark had a decent concept in trying to bottle up my Assault squads, but didn't really know how to handle the Rhino Rush. The Assault Squads inside wrecked both Predators with their Meltaguns and went on to kill the Razorbacks, and their occupants, taking that objective.

The Furioso hitched a ride back to the deployment zone and killed the Vanguard before they could contest any objectives. Mark didn't have much left. 3/3 Objectives. 1-0.

Game II v. Brian B.'s Dark Angels

Spearhead

Objectives

Assassination (kill chosen HQ)- Chaplain

Objective Markers (5)

Table Quarters (most points in a quarter to control it, units holding objectives don't count for points)

Special Rules

Two of the objectives are placed within 12" of the enter of the board, a player must control one of these to take any other objectives, and they may only be contested by scoring units.

~~~

Brian's army was mostly Doublewing w/ Belial, a Chaplain, and an upgraded Deathwing squad in a Crusader, two Deathwing squads(2*Storm Shield, Cyclone, Chainfist), two Deathwing squads(2*Storm Shield, Assault Cannon, Chainfist), two separate Typhoons w/ Multi-Meltas, three Bikes w/ 2*Melta, and two Autocannon/Heavy Bolter Predators.
I played Brian last November in an RTT, but his army got a lot better with the improved Dark Angels. Things could be worse, but I really learned over the course of the tournament that this army really doesn't have many ways to handle Terminators (makes me wish I had found a way to fit in the 4*Plasma Honor Guard). I managed to handle all his non-Terminator units, but he was definitely ahead all game.
My Flamestorms are not good against Terminators, so I parked them both in a corner for a quarter. However, my scoring units were gone, and he had an objective. Then Menoloth went crazy again, and charged his command squad (after it killed the squad seen below) killing the Chaplain (an Objective), then Belial, then most of the squad, while not ever dying. I got two missions to one, giving me the win. 2/3 Objectives. 2-0.

Game III v. John C.'s Chaos Marines

Pitched Battle

Objectives

Recon (most units in opposing deployment zone)

Objective Markers (3, two in opposing corners 12" in, one placed outside deployment zones)

Table Quarters (as above)

Special Rules

Warp Rift: In each movement phase a player may Deep Strike a single unit anywhere on the board (including out of combat), though this Deep Strike may not be aided in any way. (both my opponent and I completely forgot this rule unfortunately)

John had a cool Chaos army w/ two Slaaneshi Daemon Princes (one Lash, one Warptime), two squads of Chaos Marines, two squads of Plague Marines (all troops with melta, power fists, and Rhinos), and nine Obliterators.
I got first turn and John held everything but his Obilterators in reserve. I deployed my Devastators on either flank and the Stormraven in the center with the Assault Squads and the Baal. Both Flamestorms outflanked. The Stormraven went right up the middle and soaked nine lascannon shots on Johns turn, while the Assault Squads went for an objective in the middle to the right.
Turn two I charged the Furioso into his middle Obliterators and killed two. The missles on the right flank killed an Obliterator. On his turn a Daemon Prince charged the Furioso, but didn't wreck it. Three of his troop squads met mine at the objective, while the last claimed the objective in his corner. The second Daemon Prince came in and wrecked the Furioso, but was then charged by Menoloth. The other Daemon Prince went into the middle objective area to help. The Prince was able to kill Menoloth, but limped out of the fight. Obliterators immobilized the Stormraven, and it let it's Bloodstrikes fly on the wounded Daemon prince and killed it. Seven exploded Rhino hulls littered the area around the middle objective, we both firmly controlled our corner objective. Out of the smoke comes five Plague Marines and three Assault Marines, the Plague Marines claim the objective, and my three Assault Marines run into his deployment zone to win me the Recon objective. I also claim quarters 3-1. 2/3 Objectives. 3-0.

Game IV v. Jesse P.'s Hounds of the Legion (SW)

Dusk of War (like it's sister, but with Night Fight coming in Reserves starting turn 4)

Objectives

Annihilation

Assassination

Kill opponents most Costly Unit

Special Rules

Setting Sun (explained above)

So being 3-0 and already assured the top bracket I just goofed around with my opponent (lots of Baals jokes) and fed my troops into the meatgrinder, I was mentally exhausted at that point. Jesse had a really gnarly army w/ two Thunderwolf Lords, each with 15*Wolves, 50 Grey Hunters (in 5 squads with 2*Melta and a Rhino), a single SS Thunder Wolf, a Vindicator, and three Lone Wolves (TDA, Power Fist, Combi-Melta). Not really much to report with this one besides just having a really nice and fun opponent.

AKON List, Consistence equals confidence

Instead of trying to craft some new list, I decided to stick to a tried and true concept which I have performed well with before. I am confident enough in its ability to believe it handles a variety of armies.

Mephiston
Furioso with Blood Talons, Heavy Flamer
Sanguinary Priest w/ Combi -Flamer
10*Assault Marines w/ Power Fist, 2*Meltaguns, Rhino
10*Assault Marines w/ Power Fist, 2*Meltaguns, Rhino
8*Assault Marines w/ Power Fist, Flamer, Rhino
Baal w/ Flamestorm
Baal w/ Flamestorm
Baal w/ Assault cannon, Heavy Bolters
5*Devastators w/ 4*Missle Launchers
5*Devastators w/ 4*Missle Launchers
Stormraven w/ Extra Armour, Multi-melta, Lascannon,