UK Indy GT: Game 4: Salamanders

So Game 4 vs Salamanders (Vanilla Marines).

This will see me pitted against Thomas Jackson in Capture and Control (bore draw) and pitch battle - same combo as game 2.

Overnight the tournament organisers had the brilliant idea of reversing the table numbers for day two i.e. Table 1 is now the bottom table, the bottom table became 1. This was to stop the top players getting use to the same handful of tables and generally shake everything up for everyone.

So the Salamanders had:
Vulkan Hestan
Terminator Librarian in Terminator armour, storm shield, avenger and null zone
5 Assault Terminators (4 sets of hammers and shields)
Ironclad Dreadnought with a heavy flamer and a drop pod with a locator beacon
10 man Tactical squad with a missile launcher, flamer, melta bombs on the Sergeant. in a Rhino
10 man Tactical squad with a multi melta, melta gun, combi meta, all in a drop pod
5 Scouts with a Sergeant with a Power fist, combi melta in a.....
Land Speeder Storm with a Heavy Flamer
2 Vindicators
Thunderfire Cannon
Land Speeder Typhoon with a Multi Melta

So a real mix bag of units, but with multiple tools for every job.

So Deployment saw me shove my objective behind a building in my right hand corner while Thomas put his out in the open just over to my left - I would of gone for behind the 2 buildings on the left but hey and set up his army in a general gun line. I set up with the two 10 man units up on the left to go up and around to his objective (it worked in game 2!) and left everything else to defend mine in a anti deep strike set up (Thanks to Tom's Daemons) The Thomas I was playing Turbo boosted his Land Speeder Strom for his scout move.

Deployment out of shot on the far right are my 2 10 man squads

So Turn 1 saw the Land Speeder Storm fly in to try and toast up a Rhino. The Vindicators and the Terminators advanced at full pelt. The Drop Pod with Vulkan and a Tactical Squad went to land on the other side of the building my objective was behind but scattered 11 towards my board edge and off it! But where only delayed. My 1st turn saw my flanking units fly up the left hoping to make the most of the buildings in future turns. It takes all my shooting to kill the Land Speeder Storm and the scouts :/ but their Kamikaze attack run had to be stopped.

Turn 2 sees both drop pods arrive on time and spot on. The Vindicators open up on my flanking Rhinos but a combination of poor rolling and smoke launchers saved them. Vulkan's Tactical squad combat squads for multiple scoring units in my face while the Sergeant's combi melta wrecks a Rhino. The Thunderfire cannon lets rip on a unit of Long Fangs and kill all bar 2!

This is a problem....

My Turn 2 sees both my Scout units in and wanting to make up for their no show vs the Tyranids in Game 3. Not only do they blow up the Rhino holding the Tactical Squad camping his objective but also smash up the Tactical squad wholesale in combat as my flanking Rhinos start to reach cover. Meanwhile over near my objective a Land Speeder tryies to dish out some flamer based irony to Vulkan's combat squad to no effect, but my 2 Long Fangs brighten up and destroy the Thunderfire cannon while the 2nd unit take down the Ironclad before it became a really big problem.

The Scouts do what they do best - Surprise Attack!!!!

In assault the Grey Hunter Squad and the Rune Priest who was with them smash up a combat squad and the last man flees.

Things seem a lot rosier now

Turn 3 sees the Vindicators hit reverse as they lose contact with the Tactical squad in the back line, but the Scouts hide well in the Rhino's crater. The Terminators close the gap by charging a Land Speeder and Vulkan's combat squad charge the Grey Hunters and Rune Priest. Vulkan pretty much Solo's the entire unit in his and my assault phases. A Vindicator manages to stun a Rhino sneaking up the left, but the lead Rhino gets away and is ready to take his objective come turn 4. The Land Speeder Typhoon shoots the same Rhino but to no effect. I choose to pile in the unit of Long Fangs (who killed the Ironclad) into Vulkan's combat to a) slow him down, b) get more attacks on his few reaming Tactical Marines, and c) they had bugger all to shoot at. It's a good job I did as the last Grey Hunter legged it and left the job to the Veterans - with the heavy weapons! The Techmarine charges the Scouts only to be dropped with a sneaky blade into a soft spot.

Start of Turn 4

Turn 4 sees the stunned Rhino finally receive some real damage and become immobilised. The Rhino now near his objective is destroyed but the Grey Hunters remain ok. The Grey Hunters on my left jump out and melt the Vindicator with a sneaky shot under the Land Speeder as 2 scouts manage to take out the 2nd Vindicator. Vulkan finishes off the Long Fangs but the time they brought was vital.

Things on the left flank for the Salamanders go from bad.......

......... to worse

Turn 5 sees my Land Speeders form a line to block the Terminators who have had a rotten time as they keep on fluffing their rolls vs the lightly armed skimmers. My last Grey Hunter squad defending my objective jump out along with a Rune Priest needing only to kill Vulkan's two friends as they are his only true threat - as scoring models. The 2 Tactical marines die in a flurry of flame, melta, and psychic blasts - and Vulkan finally takes a wound. With the result of the game already decided I pile in my Grey Hunters and Rune Priest in an attempt to drop Vulkan.

Turn 6 sees me destroy his Land Speeder and continue on blocking his Terminators with my Land Speeders. Vulkan keeps on chopping up Wolves but the battle is lost.

Salamander objective - in Wolves hands

Vulkan keeps chopping away but he's all alone

So what did I learn from this game:
Same as Game 1 and 2 - Aggression
Don't be afraid what your opponent can do to you, concentrate on how you're going to mess him up
Sitting on objectives from turn 1 isn't always the smartest move - as long as you get there or jump the enemy by turn 5 you will be fine

Games 5 and 6 will posted together tomorrow as I have no pictures for game 4 (as my opponent didn't want any) and game 6 was really quick - but both are filled with stupid mistakes on my part.

So what will happen against the Blood Angles in Game 4? And can I repeat another massacre on the Orks again??

UK Indy GT: Game 3: Tyranids

So Game 3 then!

This round saw my Space Wolves pitted up against Tim King's Tyranids. Tim is the Scottish ETC captain so I knew this was going to be a close game.

The mission for round 3 was Annihilation, spearhead deployment.

Tim's list was:
3x Tervigon, Catalyst, Cluster Spines
3x2 Hive Guard
2x 10 Termagants
2 Trygons, Adrenal Glands
Trygon Prime, Adrenal Glands
9 Genestealers, Toxin Sacs

Tim won the roll for deployment, set up in the middle, but kept his 20 Gaunts in reserve and out flanked with the Genesteakers. I didn't seize the initiative.

Deployment

So turn 1 sees the Nids advance and the 6 Hive Guard only being able to stun rhinos at best. In my first turn my Long Fangs and Razorbacks team up to drop a Trygon as my Jaws Rune Priest attempts to Jaws a line of 2 Trygons and a Tervigon - with only the Tervigon falling down a hole.

Turn 2 sees the Hive Guard turn things up a notch a take out 3 of my Rhinos in a flurry of death along with a Land Speeder and many Gaunts coming in from reserve to fleshbore the Jaws Priest for killing their mummy. While in reply I drop a 2nd Trygon (leaving only the Prime) while one of my Land Speeders dish out some flamer based death on the Gaunts who came on from reserve. Thankfully for me both remaining Tervigons spawn a unit but run dry!

Start of my 2nd Turn

Turn 3 sees the Genestealers come in and combi charge a unit of Long Fangs and a Razorback (whihc is destroyed). The Land Speeder from turn 2 kept on buring Gaunts and effectively made both of his 10 man units flee alone. Sadly the Genestealers finished of the Long Fangs in my turn 3 and the Trygon Prime started to eat Grey Hunters :(

Genestealers arrive eyeing up lunch

Turn 4 sees me trying to kill the Hive Guard and then realising that they are T6, S5, WS4 and with a 3+ save!!!! The Trygon Prime moves into another unit of Grey Hunters after my Long Fangs goes on strike, but as he drops the last Grey Hunter and my last Rune Priest, my Rune priest manages to wound the beast and drop it with his force weapon despite being in Shadow of the Warp range and testing on 3D6!

My Wolf Scouts finally turn up to pick on the Genestealers but not much else as the game was over bar the shouting.

The Wolf Scouts turns up - the lazy blaggards!

Turn 5 sees Tim closing in for the kill as I try to keep away and drop anything that was vulnerable enough.

The game ends at the end of Turn 5

Tim wins 15 - 9 on kill points but in Victory Points there was only a 7 point difference!

A good game against a really great guy in Tim who knew how to use his army.

So what did I learn in this game:
I set up too aggressive and being in Hive Guard range from turn 1 did not help me one bit!
After practise games against Nids I didn't see the Genestealers as a threat due to being in cover - wrong!
I need to play better Nid players - 4th edition Nidzilla is dead
Hive Guard hurt, and for a shooting unit are really tough
Maybe more Long Fangs, a 3rd unit can really pick up the slack when 2 of them fail
When the Scouts fail - they fail big time!

So after day 1 I'm set in mid table obscurity with a Draw, a Win and a Loss.

Saturday night saw the traditional pub quiz where I, Tim (who I just played), my mate Walter and seemingly most of the Scottish ETC team managed to come 2nd in the quiz and get a pint each! :D

Game 4 Tomorrow will see my pitted against the only Salamander army in the field, controlled by Thomas Jackson, in another game of Capture and Control (bore draw), pitch battle (again).

Come back tomorrow to see who wins - Vulkan and friends or the Wolves of Fenris?

Hear me Ramble

Well I finally got a decent microphone so after so long of threatening to bore you all to death with my monotone voice here it is.

40k For Old Men Episode 11: Hungry like a (tic tac) wolf

This is pretty much me talking about the history of my Space Wolves and their not some humble birth from a bath full of Dettol.

I hate the sound of my own voice..........

UK Indy GT: Game 2: Orks

Well after a lucky draw vs Sisters of Battle game 2 saw my Space Wolves pitted against Ben Harris's Orks

The Mission was Capture and Control (bore draw), pitch battle.

Ben's list was:
Ork Warboss, with Meganobs in a trukk,
Old Zogwart in a mob of 30 boyz
3 Mobs of Orks in Trukks
2 Sourchas
3 Buggies
15/20 Grots
3 Killa Kans with rocket launcher

I won the roll for deployment and set up first:

My objective was in the bottom right corner below the large trench system, Ben's was up in a small trench behind the big grey building.

Turn 1 saw Ben steal the initiative and come straight for me down the middle between the 2 buildings and down the right flank.

In my turn I used my 2 land speeders in the middle and a Rhino. My shooting was devastating, I took out the Socrchas on the far right and immobilised a trukk, and killed 2 of the 3 buggies in between the 2 buildings and another trukk as well.

 

The middle quickly turns into a scrap yard

Turn 2 saw saw the Trukk boys on the right disembark from their immobilised trukk and charge the Long fangs who took out 5 orks before they could even swing! Ben kept pushing Zogwart and the 30 boys towards my objective.

In my 2nd turn I got my Rune Priest with Jaws out to make Zogwart disappear down a hole - so no lot's of Wagghhhhhhhs! for him. I push a Rhino down the left flank to threaten his objective. Meanwhile a unit of scouts come in, fluff thier melta shots and have to take out the Warboss's Trukk with grenades. The 2nd unit of Trukk boys on the right lose some to thier Truk being destroyed and some random storm bolter shots and flee. My Land Speeders take out his remaining mobile transports. Combat sees my Long Fangs on the left finished off by the Trukk boys, but the Orks have paid a heavy price for their assault.

Things start to get messy

Where is Zogwart gone?

Turn 3 sees the Warboss and the Meganobs destroy the scouts who had the nerve to trash their ride, the Killa Kans try to open up the Rhino near them but kept rolling 2's to penetrate Av11. The Big mob of Boys give the Jaws Priest a krak missile to the face in revenge for Zogwart, but it was a price worth paying IMO. I tank shock on to the objective but the Grots hold. The Land Speeders kill two Meganobs with the Mulit meltas,

The Killa Kans fluff their rolls against the Rhino

Turn 4 sees my 2nd unit of scouts turn up who between them and the Rhino squad now sitting on the Ork objective melt 2 kill kans. The Grots hold from the tank shot of the Rhino. My Long Fangs way over on the right flank start 2 turns worth of Frag Missiles at the really big unit of Orks.

I push a 2nd Rhino full of Grey Hunters up the left flank.

Reinforcements are en-route

Turn 5 sees my Scouts kill the last Kan in combat and the big unit of Orks on the right are held in the trenches by a 10 man unit of Grey Hunters and a Rune priest but pass their double 1,1 leadership test despite losing 13 Orks in combat!

From this......

.... to this!

Turn 6 sees the Warboss kill of my last unit of scouts but not before they kill him too. With no Grots left to herd the runt Herder legs it off the board and I hold the Orc objective. I pile my Long Fangs into the combat with the (formerly) large unit of Boys

The Scouts and Warboss kill each other as the Grey Hunters take the trenches

The Long Fans pile into the combat in the trenches.......

.... and make the difference as the Wolves consolidate, and hold their objective

So what did I learn from this game, I can beat Orks - despite them being my "bogey" army.
Aggression! Aggression! Aggression! - It pays to be aggressive.


Game 3 will see my Wolves against Nids in Annihilation, Spearhead. The Nid's will be controlled by Tim King - Captain of the Scottish ETC team.

This will be one mad game and should not be missed tomorrow! (All being well).

UK Indy GT: Game 1: Sisters of Battle

Well here we are, the reason I started blogging! Now I will admit that overall I did poor - 74th out of 120, I was hoping the top half but over the next few days/posts you will see why!

First of here's my list for the weekend for those of you who don't know:

HQ (210)

Rune Priest, Living Lightning, Murderous Hurricane, Chooser of the Slain = 110

Rune Priest, Living Lightning, Jaws of the World Wolf = 100 

Elites (279)

5 Wolf Scouts, Melta Gun =85

5 Wolf Scouts, Melta Gun =85

3 Wolf Guard: 2 armed with a power fist and a combi melta each, 1 with a combi melta and a bolt pistol 109

Troops (670)

10 Grey hunters, 2 Melta Guns, Wolf Banner, Mark of the Wulfen = 180

Rhino = 35

10 Grey hunters, 2 Melta Guns, Wolf Banner, Mark of the Wulfen = 180

Rhino = 35

5 Grey Hunters, 1 Melta Gun, =80

Rhino = 35

6 Grey Hunters, 1 Flamer =90

Rhino = 35

Fast Attack (210)

Land Speeder Tornado, Multi Melta, Heavy flamer = 70

Land Speeder Tornado, Multi Melta, Heavy flamer = 70

Land Speeder Tornado, Multi Melta, Heavy flamer = 70

Heavy Support (380)

5 Long Fangs, 4 Missile Launchers = 115

Razorback, Lascannon, Twin linked Plasma gun = 75

5 Long Fangs, 4 Missile Launchers = 115

Razorback, Lascannon, Twin linked Plasma gun = 75

 Grand Total: 1,749

So game 1 vs the only Witch Hunter player in the field Gary Marsh, regular tournament player and a pro with Sisters of Battle. His list was:

Elite choice inquisitor with 3 Heavy Bolter sevators and some advisor's who didn't do much

2 Canonesse's with Jump Packs, Artificer armour and Executioners

3 Exorsists

1 Unit of 5 Seraphins

3 units of sisters with Rhinos and Sister Superiors with Executioners  

Callidus Assassin

Gary's lovely Sisters of Battle

Game 1 was Seize Ground (5 objectives) Dawn of War.

The first was both forces getting on the board and into position. My plan was just to get stuck in and contest/kill anything of Gary's - that was until he started shooting!

First shot of the game, a hand flamer on a Flat out Land Speeder - 6 followed by a 6 :(

Also due to the was Gary had castled up in the middle to deny my scouts a chance on his exorsists pretty much took the scouts out of the game for the most part.

End of turn 1

Things look good in my 2nd turn....

.... but then go horribly wrong buy the end of turn 4

Turns 3 and 4 saw me trying to shift the Seraphims and Canonesse's, but using his faith to give the Characters a 2+ invulnerable was a real pain in the side!

Turn 4 wasn't any kinder to my lead elements

In turn 5 the remaining sisters and exorcists laid waste to my two 10 Grey Hunter units, while the Canonesse's whittle down my smaller units

The fight for 3 of the objectives hot up...

... while a unit of sisters make a break for a 4th

Turn 6 saw me lose pretty much everything in some pretty shocking rolling for me and even some failed leadership tests I would not recover from.

One unit of sisters went for an objective on the far right earlier in turn 4 but had gotten bocked of by a Razorback and contested by a single scout Gary had a hard choice kill the Razorback and the Scout or Kill the Razorback and run at the scout to be with in 3. Gary choose to kill both the Razorback and the Scout in hope for a turn 7....

Mean while on the left side I was down to 7 models but had finally finished of the Canonesse's.

With us both controlling 1 objective each a 7th turn would see Gary win either by 2-1, 2-0 or wipe out..... but it ended in the 6th.

So with only 3 Grey Hunters left, 3 Long Fangs and a Rune Priest (or Witch as Gary calls them) I got lucky.

Gary had 2 Exorcists left, a Rhino, his Callidus Assassin, Inquisitor and 2 unit of sisters.

All I had left!

So close but yet so far......

So what did I learn from this game?

1. There will be no easy games

2. I HAVE to be more aggressive - I did this in many practise games against my friend Ben's Imperial Guard but didn't in this despite the Sister's packing much less fire power and mobility!

Thanks to Gary for the game he was a top bloke to play against and who knew how to use his units well.

Game 2 will see me play Mech Orks controlled by Ben Harris in Pitch Battle, Capture and Control (bore drawn)..........................

Sometimes there are more important things in life.......

Well tomorrow I'm off to the UK Indy GT and that's the whole point of why I started this blog of my mad ramblings, but today I am posting about Japan and the fallout from the Earthquake and the Tusanmi.

Well my favourite band Feeder have thier charity single for Japan up for pre-order/download

I don't think you even need to like Feeder to have a good reason to get 'Side by Side' - it's quite a belter of a tune too. Rarely does a song come along that is apt and powerful for it's cause - this is one of them.


You can get the song from HERE it cost's less than a large chocolate bar. All the profits are going to the Japanese Red Cross.

 

All your bases belong to me!

Well after deciding on how to base my Paladins of Steel army I thought I will share how I am making the bases - in a surprisingly quick and effective manner.

First off I brought some scenic kits

Cut to fit base

Now cut/trim/file the plastic scenic piece to size of base

Paint as you see fit!

Now repeat X number of times!

Simples!

And don't forget to visit my my friend's blog!

Say Hello to my friend......

Tom!

My good friend Tom aka Fitzbaron has started a blog of his own following his progress of a purely plastic Daemon Army for 40k.

Plastic Daemons of 40k

If I am the gamer then Tom is the artist.

I am his Sun Tzu, he is my Michelangelo, Shock & Awe to Watercolour, but this is not to say he's a bad gamer - far from it.

So go over there and check out his conversions and his painting - NOW!

And here's a peek at what he's up to:

Paladins of Steel: WIP Captain (Tycho)

My WIP on my version of Captain Tycho (or a Captain with a Power weapon and Combi Melta)

Hell this model/character isn't even in the original army list but I wanted a bionic character who wasn't a Libby or a Chaplain!

The Paladins of Steel: The First Dreadnought

Well here's the first (nearly finished) Dreadnought in that army I've been planning:

I'm curious of what you guys think of the base as I'm after a sort of dry, cracked desert feel.

It's On Like Donkey Kong!

Sorry for not updating sooner but as ever real life takes over plastic men (most of the time).

Over the last week and a bit I have been in the process of adding the final touches to my Space Wolves and playing a lot of games! 8 over the last 2 weeks, with 7 wins and a loss - so not too shabby! I just hope I can do as well at the UK Indie GT and also Open War XV

I have also done a few test models for my Paladins of Steel Space Marine Chapter, and I have moved on to the first proper model for the army which is obviously a Dreadnought. Sadly I'm at my Lady's place so no pics at the moment.

Also the chaps over at From the Fang have had the idea of an "all bloggers" tournament aka Blog Wars! This has the potential to something very special and very crazy at the same time, but it will off a excellent chance for UK based 40k bloggers to get together, roll dice, kick ass and have a few drinks at the same time.

Now if only we could get Stelek and Kirby over........