Underdog, Scalper, or Clubbed Seal?

So this weekend it's the Caledonian Uprising and the draw for the fist round was made a few weeks ago and I have been drawn against the UK Number 1 and England ETC Captain Josh Roberts.

Yeah....

hey you at the back there stop digging that shallow grave! I'm not dead yet!

So having had too long to think (yes I get that bored at work), listening to podcasts, and having a ponder at the mission pack here's my thoughts on what or what not to do but first what I can gather what josh's Grey Knights are packing:

 

 

Inquisitor Coteaz

 

10 Purifiers. 4 Psycannons, 3 Halberds, 2 Daemon Hammers, Knight of the Flame with Halberd

Razorback, Twin-linked Assault Cannon, Psybolt Ammunition

10 Purifiers. 4 Psycannons, 3 Halberds, 2 Daemon Hammers, Knight of the Flame with Halberd

Razorback, Twin-linked Assault Cannon, Psybolt Ammunition

Venerable Dreadnought, 2 Twin-linked Autocannons, Psybolt Ammunition

Henchmen Warband: 5 Death Cult Assassins

Razorback, Twin-linked Heavy Bolters,  Psybolt Ammunition, Search Light.

Henchmen Warband: 5 Death Cult Assassins

Razorback, Twin-linked Heavy Bolters,  Psybolt Ammunition, Search Light.

Henchmen Warband: 3 Warrior Acolytes

Razorback, Twin-linked Heavy Bolters,  Psybolt Ammunition.

Henchmen Warband: 3 Warrior Acolytes

Inquisitorial Chimera, Multi-laser, Heavy Flamer, Search Light

Henchmen Warband: 3 Warrior Acolytes

Dreadnought, 2 Twin-linked Autocannons, Psybolt Ammunition

Dreadnought, 2 Twin-linked Autocannons, Psybolt Ammunition
Dreadnought, 2 Twin-linked Autocannons, Psybolt Ammunition 

 

Give or take a few points or a slight change in transports.

 

 

Hell of a lot of dakka to take of care of a horde of foot slogging Guard but the mission is Dawn of War with a corner to corner line splitting the board, Primary mission is 5 objectives (8 points), Secondary Kill Points (4 points) and another 8 - 0 points based on the victory points diffrence.

But on the up side the recent batch of FaQ's for most of the 40k armies does mean that I can deploy 2 whole platoons in Dawn of War! But the big question is do I blob up or not as at first glance it seems like a 5 objectives and dawn of war mission but 14 of the 20 games points are to do with killing stuff so I could forget about the objectives and try just to blow stuff up.

If I blob up all it takes is just 1 unit of purifiers to make combat and I'm shafted due to cleansing flame, but I could try to match the MSU style by playing the platoons as normal, or have a couple of 20 man blobs with a few 10 man units as bubble wrap/chaff to get in the way.

If he wins the roll of to deploy and forces me to deploy first I will just shove 1 unit forwards to keep him back, but if I deploy second I can see where he goes before I deploy my full strength.

As for target priority it's Purifiers, Purifiers, Purifiers! And then the razorbacks, not fussed about the Dreadnoughts unless they try to make combat with me. I aim to use the Strom Troopers as disruption - hopefully they can bag a razorback and take out the acolytes inside if it goes boom. As for the assassins they charge a unit, kill it and then die to lasfire - happy days, but I think they will skulk around and mop up units or sit on objectives.

 

I reckon that the purifiers will combat squad and hijack other transports and try to rush me with 4 units in effect, most of the time purifiers will go into a shoot fight and mop up in assault but with so many bodies they cannot win a shooting fight so have to make combat IMO.

The problem (hopefully) for the GK will be that I can knock out razorbacks quickly and his work is left to the Purifiers who could be left isolated if I play for kills, but playing for kills is risky as the game points for the objectives is 8 for a win or 4 for a draw, but kill points is 4 or 2, and a variable scale on victory points so it's a hard choice to make because if I set up purely not to take objectives I could lose big as I'm set in one way but if I go for objectives I could be diluting my fire power.

I will have to wait and see how I feel is the best way to play it - plus this is only game 1 in a 6 game tournament so it's no good obsessing over this one too much. If I lose badly I should hopefully get a easy game in round 2.

 

Time will tell!

Oh and hi to Ben :p

I'm Back!

Hello again folks. Now since the Space Wolves blog is now officially in hibernation until the Wolf time it's now back to flying solo.

After the last year life has not been kind to my girl friend and I, but on the upside we are now living together and are keeping each other (in)sane. Oh and the spare room has been taken over my several boxes of plastic and metal toy solders!

Hobby wise I haven't played much, but I have had a few games in with my Ultramarines 1st Company (Deathwing) and my Space Wolves. But with a whole new Marine army to build the Wolves are taking a back seat for the foreseeable future. I have tickets to the Scottish ETC team's annual tournament The Caledonian Uprising, the Indy 40k UKGT in March and Open War 17 in April, and hopefully Blog Wars 3 in June, and some more Open Wars later in year.

In the last 3 months I have been to Open War 16 and got it's first ever Slaughter Award (first max points victory) against a double Jetbike seer council (remember when they where scary!?), and eventually came 13th out of 43. In December I went to Blog wars ran by Alex over at From the Fang and came 11th out of 22 - perfect mid table obscurity!

Despite my lack of social/weekly games due to crappy shifts at work (as well as working the odd night), I have gotten into pod casts, and at the moment my favourites are the 40kUK and 11th Company Pod casts, and non hobby wise BBC Radio 5 Live's Fighting Talk and Kermode and Mayo's Film Review. I have found the 40k pod casts to be really useful as I have not played against the new Necron Codex or much experience against dirty Grey Knight lists.

Despite working on a all new Marine army (Captain Model), for Caledonian I'm taking my first true love - Imperial Guard. But don't worry it's not leafblower - I don't even own a single Hydra or Vendetta! But I've gone mad and gone for pure foot sloggers!

HQ
Company Command Squad, Regimental Banner, Lord Castellan Creed= 155
Company Command Squad, Regimental Banner = 65

Elites
5 Storm Troopers, 2 Melta Guns = 105
5 Storm Troopers, 2 Melta Guns = 105
5 Storm Troopers, 2 Melta Guns = 105

Troops:
Platoon 1:
Platoon Command Squad, 2 Melta Guns = 50
Infantry Squad, Autocannon, Plasma Gun = 75
Infantry Squad, Autocannon, Plasma Gun = 75
Infantry Squad, Autocannon, Plasma Gun, Commissar = 110

Platoon 2:
Platoon Command Squad, 2 Melta Guns = 50
Infantry Squad, Lascannon, Plasma Gun = 85
Infantry Squad, Lascannon, Plasma Gun = 85
Infantry Squad, Lascannon, Plasma Gun, Commissar = 120

Platoon 3:
Platoon Command Squad, 2 Melta Guns = 50
Infantry Squad, Lascannon, Plasma Gun = 85
Infantry Squad, Lascannon, Plasma Gun = 85
Infantry Squad, Lascannon, Plasma Gun, Commissar = 120

Platoon 4:
Platoon Command Squad, 2 Melta Guns = 50
Infantry Squad, Missile Launcher, Plasma Gun = 80
Infantry Squad, Missile Launcher, Plasma Gun = 80
Infantry Squad, Missile Launcher, Plasma Gun, Commissar = 115

1850


Why I have I gone pure foot slogging? Well the "meta" is based around killing mass light transports or heavy armour with melta, or at least suppressing it, this leaves many lists lacking against large numbers. While mass St6 Razorback spam will hurt it's not going to kill 170ish models in a game. So hopefully I might be able to catch many people out. But also I'm a bit mad, but my IG have always served me well - even before they where cool!

Here's to a new year of oldish blogging!