Saturday, 20 April 2013

Invasion 2nd April 2013

An early April Tuesday was my latest trip to Warhammer World with GW Newbury for Invasion - a 3-game 2x600pt doubles tournament.  I took my Howling Griffons with jump chaplain, 5 sniper scouts, a 10-man tactical squad with multi-melta and flamer and a 9-man assault squad with a plasma pistol and my new sergeant.  This squad leader was kitted out with a storm shield and lightning claw.  No pistol unfortunately, but the idea was to use him to soak up / dish out challenges and free up the chaplain to work through the unit and keep the fearless as long as possible.



My partner was one of the boys from school, who took a basic librarian, two tactical squads (one with plasma and the other with a missile) and 5 bikers.  'Look out, Sir!' seemed an appropriate team name for us!

Our store had made a deliberate effort to get more of the younger players along and actively encouraged mixed pairs of an older and a younger player.  Other stores seem to have also been wanting more young players, as two of the three teams we played were both kids, and the other was two brothers, including a young teenager.  That might have had as much to do with our results and with the fact that it was a weekday during the school holidays.  Because of my school club, I am quite used to playing kids anyway.

Our first game was against a nids / DA combo against a nice couple of lads.  The winged Hive Tyrant proved particularly troublesome with Iron Arm meaning we could barely scratch it.  However, we made a few rules mistakes, like letting him zoom across the board on Turn 1.  Very silly!  My biggest error was believing his gaunts on the 4-point objective were fearless, as long as the tyrant was on the board.  It was only in about turn 4 I realised they were actually out of synapse range, when I couldn't do much about them. We lost 8-4.

The second game was probably the most enjoyable, as the elder brother knew the rules, which helps!  They had a Plague Marine / Thousand Sons tag team we played length-ways with two objectives.  It ended up as a draw, as two Thousand Sons managed to keep out of combat on the last turn and got onto their objective. We would have won, if we had made the charge and tied them up.


After a loss and a draw, the last game was a bit of a reversal, but was not the most satisfying victory ever.  We were up against two more kids with GK and DA (a lot of which were unpainted).  The GK player had a Dreadknight, librarian and two small power-armour squads.  The DA player was nowhere to be seen for a few minutes once we started setting up, then he turned up with Sammael, 3 squads of bikers and a razorback.  He was surprised that he couldn't take the razorback without any infantry, as was I that nobody in the first two games had noticed!

We basically stood back and let them advance towards us, with only my jump squad moving to meet the bikes, which they managed to pretty much tie up for most of the game.  He only remembered late on that they had Hit and Run.  The Dreadknight almost managed to make it into combat before being shot up, largely by rapid fire, and then the rest of the GK folded.  It was then just a case of grinding down the DA bikes, including killing Sammael with a lucky snapshot from the MM.  In the end there were only two DA bikes left and most of our army was still intact for a 10-2 win.


With 15 points for a win in the last game and a decent painting score, we ended up 9th, which was a pleasing  standing, especially after our first game!

Monday, 8 April 2013

New Howling Griffons models

A report form last week's Invasion will follow shortly.

Whilst up at Warhammer World I treated myself to a Contemptor Dreadnought.  The Mortis pattern has BS5, Skyfire and Interceptor, so I also got 2 Kheres Assault Cannons - Heavy 6, S6, AP4 to sort out any flyers!

I am also working on a Landspeeder Storm, including the 6 scouts onboard and another unit of BP/CC scouts.  These are proving quite time-consuming, with the quartered colour-scheme, but I'm enjoying myself anyway.


At the weekend I picked up the new Tau codex, as as I might start some battle brother allies to my HG.  I could even be tempted to start a new army.  GW Newbury's new manager Matt (Quinn has been promoted to GW Swansea) has organised a painting competition using the new Cadre Fireblade model.  That is the only Tau model I got at the time, as there wasn't much left in store by the time I got there on Saturday.  


I have been reading the rules and fluff to decide first of all on which sept and colour scheme to go for.  My HG bases have been desert-style, if I want to go for allies, so a brown camo would make sense, but not the standard scheme.  On the other hand, I have a hankering for painting orange for a change - a mix of red and yellow of course!  The Borkan Sotek Green sept seems quite good fluff-wise.

Monday, 1 April 2013

Invasion time again!

Tomorrow will see me off to Warhammer World with GW Newbury again.  My Howling Griffons will finally be getting involved!  I shall be teaming up with one of the lads from school, who is taking Dark Angels with two tac squads and a biggish biker squad.

My troops will be a full tactical squad and 5 sniper scouts, but I can't decide what else to take.  I'm torn between my original jump chaplain with a 9-man assault squad or an assault terminator squad with thunder hammers plus the new termie chaplain I'm just painting.


Then the question would be whether or not to deep-strike with either unit.

I may just roll off to decide when I get there.