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)..........................

Two months left and counting...

Well it's pretty 2 months to the day when I will be at the first Independent UK Grand Tournament, and I just submitted my final list last night, so with out further ado here it is:

Space Wolves 1,750

HQ (210)

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

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

Elites (292)

5 Wolf Scouts, Melta Gun =80

5 Wolf Scouts, Melta Gun =80

4 Wolf Guard: 2 Armed with a power fist and a combi melta each, 1 with a combi melta and a bolt pistol, and one with a combi flamer and bolt pistol = 132

Troops (655)

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

5 Grey Hunters, 1 Flamer =75

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: 1,747

I've gone with a combi flamer on the 4th Wolf Guard for close encounters with hordes (Orks are my bogey army). Wolf Scouts in my experience have been a case of 2 or none as 1 will always end up on the most far away board edge. Rest of the army is pretty straight forward.

Sadly none of my regular club mates play at 1750! So I have had to strip the list down to 1,500 - basically I have dropped the two 10 man Grey Hunter units to 5 men each and drop the 100 point Jaws Rune Priest.

It works after a fashion but I need to learn to use the Land Speeders better as they tend to die quickly with out doing much damage.

Also I have Vassal so if anyone fancies a game on there drop me message!

Playtesting 101

Well after seeking some advice from Kirby and the idea of dropping a couple of Grey Hunters and a Rune priest for 2 Razorbacks with Lascannons and twin linked plasma guns for the Long Fangs seems quite obvious now (Yay for hindsight!)

So this means some play testing. Now play testing should be a piece of piss for me, as those of you who know me should know that I use to be a computer games tester for Free Radical Design before they went bust. I did not work on this. Honest. No sirree George.

 
Anywayyyyyyyyyyy...................... 

while at work today during a quite period I started to write down to pros and cons of each group:

1 Rune Priest + 3 Grey hunters vs 2 Las-plas-backs (Lascannons, TL Plasma gun Razorback).


So the Pros for a Rune Priest and 3 Grey Hunters are:

Pros:

• Psychic Defence
• 2 Psychic Powers (living Lightning + X) 
• Runic Weapon
• +3 Scoring Bodies
•  Need 3/4 Shots/hits to kill off
• Flexible - can shoot stuff and assault stuff

 Cons:

• Vulnerable to small arms (lasguns, bolters etc)
• Can fail important leadership test
• Grey Hunters only have standard kit
• Rune Priest can be shut down by enemy psykers

And for 2 Razorbacks:

Pros:

• Has an armour value so is pretty much immune to small arms fire
• Can move and fire a heavy weapon
• Lascannon and TL Plasma guns gives me much needed Long Range Ap2 fire
• Can't be locked in assault
• Can tank shock and ram
• Is a spare transport for other grey hunter units if their Rhinos get wrecked
• Can get my Long Fangs into good spots in Dawn of War set ups
• Have a 1/3 chance of being destroyed thanks to the damage chart (1/2 vs melta/Ap1)
• Can insta kill MEQ characters.

Cons:

• Can be killed in one lucky shot
• Low armour value
• Hard to give a cover save to
• I have no experience in using them! (note to self: this is what play testing is for dip shit)
• Must be stationary to fire at full effect

At the moment it seems like a decisive victory for the Razorbacks so far, but we have to consider the rest of the army these units are working with:

2 More Rune Priests, 2 Full unit of Grey Hunters with melta and Rhinos, 2 small units of Grey hunters with Rhinos and wolf guard, 2 units of Wolf Scouts with melta guns, and combi melta Wolf Guard, 2 Units of Long Fangs with Missile Launchers, 3 Land Speeders with Multi Meltas and Heavy Flamers.

So 2 Rune Priests offer up a lot of psychic pandemonium already a 3rd is more fun but it would mean 2 in a rhino and reducing that Rhino's Grey Hunters to mere passengers as the Priests "psych out" of the hatch.

I can't see 3 more scoring bodies going that much further, granted I bet there will be times where I rue not having them there but being in the right place at the right time is more important.

2 more vehicles to join a mass of rhinos and land speeders will/should/could help dilute enemy anti-tank fire - this has certainly been the case with my Imperial Guard in the past.

The added Lascannons can take some of the Anti Tank/monstrous creature weight off my poor long fangs and they are mobile too. Then add in the Twin linked plasma guns for when they hit 24" range and rapid fire at 12" then it looks good. Also they add so much needed AP2 fire power out side the 12"/24" my melta weapons.

So I will definitely get 2 Razorbacks and play test around with them and see what works and dose not work, so a slightly reworked list will look something like this:

HQ (210)

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

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

Elites (292)

5 Wolf Scouts, Melta Gun =80

5 Wolf Scouts, Melta Gun =80

4 Wolf Guard (2x Power fist, 4 Combi Meltas) = 132

Troops (655)

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

5 Grey Hunters, 1 Flamer = 75

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

1747

Till next time folks!!!!!!!!!!!!

Evolution of the Army List

Well I had my first two games at 1,750pts yesterday. It's a bit of a strange points cost for me as my friends and I tend to play 1,500, 2,000 or Apocalypse.

So I wrote a list with models that I have (bar 2) and this is what I used yesterday:

HQ (315)

Rune Priest, Living Lightning, Murderous Hurricane, Saga of the Beast Slayer = 110

Rune Priest, Living Lightning, Storm Caller, Wolf Tail talisman = 105

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

Elites (204)

5 Wolf Scouts, Melta Gun = 85

3 Wolf Guard, 2x Power fist + Combi Melta, 1 x Wulfen = 119

Troops (820)

10 Grey hunters, 2 Plasma Guns, Wulfen, Wolf Standard = 185

10 Grey hunters, 1 Flamer, 1 Plasma Gun, Wulfen, Wolf Standard = 175

10 Grey Hunters, 2 Melta Guns, Wulfen, Wolf Standard, Power Weapon = 195

Rhino = 35

10 Grey Hunters, 2 Melta Guns, Wulfen, Wolf Standard, Power Weapon = 195

Rhino = 35

Fast Attack (230)

Land Speeder Typhoon, Heavy Bolter = 90

Land Speeder, Multi Melta, Heavy Flamer = 70

Land Speeder, Multi Melta, Heavy Flamer = 70

Heavy Support (180)

4 Long Fangs, 3 Missile Launchers = 90

4 Long Fangs, 3 Missile Launchers = 90

1749

In my first game I played my friend Liam's Eldar. He had:

Eldrad and Seer Council in a Wave Serpent with TL Shuirkan Cannons and hull mounted cannon too.

A Farseer with Guide

2 War Walkers with 2 Missile Launchers each.

11 Storm Guardians, 2 Fusion Guns, Warlock with Enhance and a Wave Serpeant as above.

Guardian Defenders, Bright Lance, Warlock with Conceal.

7/8 Striking Scorpions with Exarch with twin chain sabres.

2 Vibro Cannons

Game was Capture and Control (1 objective each) with Spearhead deployment (Table Quaters).

In other words the classic "draw" scenario that plays in to a fast army's hands (ie Eldar)

Liam reserved his whole army so the first 2 turns nothing really happened. His army turned up on turn 3 (nasty). Short of the story was that Liam hasn't played in a while and was in a "6 turn game" mind set so didn't have my objective contested and just wasn't close enough to hold his, so when he rolled for turn the game ended in 5 and he lost.

So a bit of a hollow victory to be honest but if there was to be another turn he would of lost the last of his scoring units more than likely, and I might have his objective while mine is contested (dice permitting).

2nd Game was against my friend Ben's Imperial Guard. I'm a BIG guard player myself so I know his bag of tricks and what's to come. He had:

Primaris Psyker

2 Squads of Veterans with 3 Plasma Guns, Lascannon, in a Chimera with 2 Heavy Bolters

2 Squads of Veterans with 3 Melta Guns, Lascannon

2 Vendettas, with Heavy Bolter Sponsons (Melta Vets ride in these)

2 Leman Russ Demolishers with 3 Heavy Bolters

2 Banewolves

Mission wise we got a good old fashioned slaughter - Pitched Battle, Annihilation.

All my melta guns did jack shit (3 missed, and one rolled snake eyes for penetration). But Living Lightning 3 times over and the Land Speeder Typhoons missiles did a lot of damage. Ben squeezed out a 7-5 win by getting his last 2 KP in the last turn.

So what have I leanred?

Well vs the Eldar, Rune priests are so damm good. I didn't get many powers off due the Runes of Warding, but when I did stuff died. But on the upside 4+ to stop psychic powers reduced Eldrad's effectiveness massively - he only got off 2 out of 8 attempted powers.

Wolf Banners and Mark of the Wulfen ruin most people's days. In a combat vs the Striking Scorpions the banner reduced my casualties by 50% and when the Wulfen rolls a 1 for his number of attacks *bang* re-roll that, oh look its a good roll (4). And vs Toughness 3 my 5 Marines where wounding on a 3+ re-rolling 1's!

Vs the Imperial Guard:

I need to mech up everyone, or they are going to sit still and do nothing and probably die - even if I'm going to camp on a objective all game.

Again Living Lightning kicks ass, but I could do with some Choosers of the Slain to beef up the Rune Priests roll's to hit as I did roll a lot of 2's.

Take a page for the Guard book, send 2 units to do 1 units job. I sent my melta units in piece meal and they paid the price.

If I'm going to take wolf scouts then I should take 2 units (or 3) or none at all. As in both games the unit rolled poorly for their out flank and either died vs the Eldar or did nothing vs the IG. - Again goes back to 2 units doing 1 units job.

So after some note taking and some tinkering around this is the list I want to try next but I lack the extra 2 Rhinos, a melta gun or 2 and 2 missile launchers, and a Land Speeder:

HQ (315)

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

Rune Priest, Living Lightning, Storm Caller, Wolf Tail Talisman = 105

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

Elites (292)

5 Wolf Scouts, Melta Gun =80

5 Wolf Scouts, Melta Gun =80

4 Wolf Guard (2x Power fist, 4 Combi Meltas) = 132

Troops (700)

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

6 Grey Hunters, 1 Melta Gun, Mark of the Wulfen =110

Rhino = 35

5 Grey Hunters, 1 Flamer, Mark of the Wulfen =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 (230)

5 Long Fangs, 4 Missile Launchers = 115

5 Long Fangs, 4 Missile Launchers = 115

1747

I feel its better, I've basically dropped a few men and power weapons for transports, scouts, and wolf guard.

On the painting side of things I've 'dipped' 90% of the models now in the Army painter strong tone varnish and they look pretty nice even in a half arsed state. So I just to renovate 2 Land Speeders, buy a 3rd, 2 Rhinos, and some melta guns and I'm good.