Ork finalists and Christmas goodies

My Orks made it to the final of our Tale of Gamers, where they were on the back foot from the start against Henry's White Scars list with added FW Sicaran. Once the Centurions had whittled down my Stormboyz, the Battlewagon was immobilised and I lost the Trukk things got even harder.  I almost managed to claim the D3+3 maelstrom VP card for controlling every objective, but those dev cents actually won combat against my depleted burnas and meks and consolidated onto the last objective I needed.  It was game over from then on, with the final score 9-19.

My horde got a good number of reinforcements under the Christmas tree, including 30 Boyz, 5 Warbikers and 5 more Stormboyz - one box from Tim in the store as past of Matt's gift box idea.  The highlight however was a Morkanaut from an anonymous donor!  (I have a good idea who it was though.)  I was very happy with that haul, as I'm normally lucky to get one box.

I started building the Stormboyz from my daughter, so I was able to field 'Da Vulcha Skwad' from the Ghaz supplement in a doubles game yesterday.  We rolled for random pairings and my partner was George with his drop pod marines against Nick's guard and Oli's DE raiders.  My Trukk got immobilised first turn, which meant my Warboss and Nobz had to footslog across the board.  However, all of our reserves came in on time with minimal scatter, so our opponents were pretty much forced back into their corner.  They also had terrible luck with their reserve rolls, with the Valkyrie and Scions not arriving until turn 3, when the Scions mishapped and we got to place them in the corner.  Also, the Raider with 4 flamer weapons (I forget the name of the unit) on board stayed away until turn 4.

Who needs a 6x4 board anyway?

We threw everything into assault with the Talos / Cronos / Haemonculus formation, starting with a Chapter Master and Tac Squad, backed up by the Warboss and Nobz, the last few Stormboyz and Warbikers and killed the engines in combat for the first time ever.

The game ended with us holding all the objectives.  Drop pod marines seem to complement orks very well.  Although they are Come the Apocalypse allies, we ignored the allies matrix for both sides in this game.  I had been considering some Tyranid allies for my ork army, as that was always in their fluff, but I may work out my own list using an allied SM detachment in a drop pod or two to keep the opponent busy while the greenskins move up the board.  I have plenty of Howling Griffons already and wouldn't need to worry about the restrictions on deployment.

I wonder if I would be accused of abusing the allies rules...?

All of the Orks

Waagh Zogsmasha has reached the end of GW Newbury's Tale of Gamers.  There are now just some final games to play to decide the winner.

At over 100 figures at 1500 pts it certainly has the highest model count of any of the armies.  If you have never tried Orks, well you should give them a go.  I just love picking up handfuls of dice when they get into combat. It is a fun army and I find them a competitive force too.

Final Orks for Tale of Gamers

Last month threw up a bit of a surprise for me with the Tale of Gamers painting challenge.  I was aiming to enter my new bubble-chukka on a scenic oval base (from a flyer).  However, the base was stuck in the shop and took a bit longer than expected to finish, so I was behind on painting the artillery piece come judging day.  As a result I decided to put in my Warboss from month one instead, which won by one vote!

For the final instalment of the competition I decided I needed a bit more anti-tank beyond the 2 Meks with killsaws I added last month.  I am now nearly finished with 10 Tankbustas to do this job.  Boss Zagstruk makes up my last 65 points.  He gives me another character in my Stormboyz, and has the potential to remove a character with his hammer of wrath attacks.

The final challenge was to either enter Armies on Parade with the army, or enter it for a separate best painted army competition this weekend.  As I didn't have time to paint any more scenery, I have opted for the latter.  Having seen many of the entries from a number of stores this year, which seemed to be simply an army plonked on a realm of battle board, I might as well have done the same.  The lack of a national competition at Games Day this year seems to have discouraged many people from putting in much effort on terrain pieces.

I played a game with the full 1500 point army yesterday against Taff's Salamanders /  Grey Knight alliance.  This was another fun but very close affair, with the relic changing hands a couple of times, as neither of us could get away with it, although I lost it at the end of the game.  The deciding factor was his seemingly immortal biker captain, which spent most of the game on his last wound, but just would not die.  At one point I  allocated all my attacks from 13 boyz against him, but rolled just one 6 to wound, which of course he saved!  My tankbustas had a good game though, by killing the Dreadknight sat on the relic with their meltabombs.  That also got me first blood, which ended up being my only VP.

After the competition has finished I have a few more Nobz and Gretchin from Stormclaw to make, as well as 6 Killakans.  At some point I shall probably get another unit of Stormboyz, so I can field the formation from the Ghaz supplement with Zagstrukk.  1500 points is as many as I normally play anyway, but out would be good to get to 1850 or 2000, if only to give me more choice of units, instead of every greenskin I have.

Orks have taken over.

This blog may have been quiet lately, but my Ork army has been growing steadily and I played quite a few games with them over the summer holidays, which have all been great entertainment. There have been quite a few welcome convincing wins, which makes a bit of a change for me. With most current armies geared for shooting, my speedy horde has to get across the board quickly and hit hard, which it has done quite well so far.

Since my last update I have finished the Lootas and added a unit of Gretchin along with a couple of Nobs, including a power klaw and Waagh banner.  For my birthday in August I was given a Mek Gun, so next up is a Bubble Chukka and a unit of Burnas with a couple of killsaw-armed Meks.

The Lootas have added some dakka to the army and initially did very well by taking out a Fire Prism on their first ever turn.  They have not done quite so well since then, but opponents always seem to be wary of their potential for carnage.

Getting to shout 'WAAAAGH!' is one of the perks of the army. Unfortunately our GW manager is ex-Army and has politely asked me not to make unexpected loud noises in the shop. Shame!

With my force now reaching 1250 points, there will only be another 250 points until the last part of our Tale of Gamers is declared.  I have enjoyed the competition a lot so far and I am very pleased to have a new army, which is completely different from my Howling Griffons.  I would definitely recommend this type of event to all sorts of gamers, whether in a store or amongst a gaming group.

Orks vs Orks

My summer project for this year is my new Ork army for GW Newbury's Tale of Gamers.  We are now at the end of the third month and our forces have reached 750 pts.  I am just putting the finishing touches to my latest units, adding 10 stormboyz, 15 slugga boyz and a trukk to my force.

This week I have played 2 great games against other Ork players.

For the first one Wiggy wanted to play 1500 points.  Luckily, I found my son's old Black Reach army from when he briefly got into the hobby a few years back. He had more figures than I thought! In fact there was enough for me to field the Warband formation and another Horde detachment. This allowed me to give a weirdboy a try, as I could fit in more HQs.

We rolled Big Guns with 2 objectives each, so my Battlewagon would be worth 1 VP.  Wiggy had a Gorkanaut and a unit of Lootas.

During deployment I put most of my army on the right flank opposite his two Units of Boyz on Trukks, with 3 units of Gretchin as a meatshield across the whole front and the rest of my Boyz and my Wierdboy spread out behind.

Wiggy went first and it was an eventful turn for the psykers.  His weirdboy rolled Perils straight off and his Lootas then shot up my weirdboy's unit and they promptly ran off the board for first blood (note to self- make sure you get bosspoles!)  So much for testing the psyker...  My battlewagon was also immobilised before it could do much.

On my first turn the right flank started a sequence of charge and counter-charge, as Wiggy had put a Trukk in range. My bikes were sent fleeing (again no bosspole..) but the combined charge of Nobz and Boyz was too much for his Boyz.

During Turn 2 he advanced his Gorkanaut and disembarked the Burnas inside to threaten my right flank. Instead of the obvious charge with my Nobz I called what I hoped was my first Waagh of the game then sacrificed a unit of gretchin to soak up the wall of death from the burnas before the stormboyz overwhelmed them with 52 attacks.  I then charged my Warboss and his Nobz into the Gorkanaut with support from another unit of Boyz with my only Power Klaw. This was enough to kill the big walker and score me a VP, however the combat and resultant explosion saw the end of the Warboss too. A VP conceded too and no more Waaghs. However I knew my only way of dealing with armour was in combat I had little choice.

With our most threatening units gone the rest of the game became a war of attrition, although his big unit of shootas with weirdboy and warboss were still a worry.

Moving all the boyz around certainly takes longer than with marines, but I am sure I will speed up. In the end we just had time to get to the end of turn 5. A couple of my units were down to 2 models, but there were too many targets for Wiggy to finish them off. As I had the last turn I was able to use my last biker and my fast trukk to contest both of his objectives whilst I still held mine. The final score was 7-3 to me, but the result may well have been different if the game had continued.

The second game was a quick 800 pts played on the 4'x4' board at GW Newbury. I took my core force and swapped in 2 power klaws in my nobz unit. I played against Nick, who was mainly using shootas as well as more lootas.  With the smaller board, more of my army was in range of his guns, so he won 8-3. The craziest moment came when my 20 boys failed a 5" charge into woods against his lone warboss before killing him with sluggas on the next turn.

So what have been the lessons from these games?

1. Gretchin are great nuisance units for soaking up overwatch, clinging onto objectives, distraction etc.

2. I probably need more power klaws and certainly need more dakka! Ranged anti-armour would also help. Lootas are next on my list.

3. The warband formation is no good if the warboss dies in the first wave. Maybe get another warboss to hang back and call the Waaghs?

4. Orks are fun!

New Orks - Battlewagon and 20 Boyz

Waagh Zogsmasha is growing! Month 2 of our Tale of Gamers is now completed. Although I had the points for tabletop standard painting, I have now finished the Blood Axe camo and details to a standard I am happy with.  The Nobz are already in the window at GW Newbury and I would like these to join them too.

Next up are 10 more Boyz and 10 Stormboyz, which are now assembled.  The Stormboyz are really good fun to build and I will probably expand the unit further. A Trukk is also on my list for month 3.  It may even get the Nobz closer to combat before it gets wrecked!

The Ork codex is here - finally. Back to the drawing board now...

After what seemed like the slowest 40k release ever, the long-awaited Ork book is now out. So what is my initial verdict?

We are now used to the hardback codices with full-colour quality printing. As this is the first  7th edition book, GW has introduced a few changes to the layout.  Each unit is now represented on a single-page datasheet, instead of a unit description on one page then all the points elsewhere in the book. The points for many of the generic upgrades are still only listed on the wargear page, but there is a bit less page-flipping. The datasheet format also means there are now Lords of War (Ghaz and the Stompa), a 40k formation (Ork Warband) and a new detachment type (Ork Horde Detachment) also listed. Both of the latter give units of 10 or more models Hammer of Wrath IF they roll an unmodified 10 or more on their charge distance. Whilst this feels very Orky, I am not sure it compensates for losing Objective Secured. Even with a 30-strong mob, how many of those will get into base contact for an extra S3 hit when charging at extreme range? Perhaps 9 super-scoring troops (plus dedicated transports) would have been too much, but we'll have to see how useful these impact hits are in games.

Mob Rule has also changed and is more random. Instead of simply being Fearless at 11+ models, any units with this rule now roll on the Mob Rule table if they fail a morale or pinning test.  If they are locked in combat, they ignore the failed test on a 1. If there is a character in the unit, a 2 or 3 inflicts D6 S4 hits to ignore the failed test.  A 4-6 gives the same result if there are 10+ models in the unit.

My personal interest with the new book is how it affects my Tale of Gamers army. My first impression was disappointment. Even after only the second month, with the force at 500 pts, I already have to drop models. Both the Painboy and the Battlewagon have gone up in points. Whilst the Painboy is now a separate HQ and so can join any unit, instead of being an upgrade to my Nobz, at 50 pts he is now too much with the Warboss as well at this level.  Nobz are also no longer troops with a Warboss.  As we are now supposed to be playing 500 pt lists, I will either have to drop a couple of boyz and keep the big mob in the Battlewagon in an unbound list or take two units of 10 Boyz and reduce the Nobz unit instead. I also now need to declare month three.

I think I will stick with the normal FOC for the time being and carry on building up my Boyz. I will stick with Slugga boyz for now, as Shootas are also a point more expensive. Trukks are also slightly cheaper, if still only AV10, so I will try one of those too. I am also very tempted by Stormboyz. At only 9 pts each they can now be taken in units of 5-30 and now run up to 2d6", although this triggers a Dangerous Terrain test.  Combined with the new Waagh rule ( run and still assault once per game) this will surprise an unwary opponent.

Whilst Mob Rule is a big change, I think the combos in this book, as with the Astra Militarum book, will change how the army plays in the future.  There are some very nice new models in the Ork range, but many of the options seem designed around taking large numbers of boyz as the core of the army.  Again, this fits the character of the army. And of course GW also wants to increase sales.

Tale of Gamers - first month complete

My first 250 points of Orks for the GW Newbury competition are done.  Warboss Zogsmasha has a boduguard unit of Nobz with 3 big choppas and a Painboy.  I am very pleased with the camouflage on my Blood Axes and the technical paints are brilliant.  Typhus Corrosion on the metal with judicious Blood for the Blood God came out really well.  I have noticed a couple of details that I have missed, but I got the full 3 points for assembly, basing and painting.

We got in a few games on Saturday, but so far a draw has been my best result.  Having played Space Marines I need to get used to Ork armour and making the most of all available cover.  Even with feel no pain and two wounds each not enough of them were making it into combat to finish off the Necrons I was up against.  With the meta in early 7th still favouring shooting, this is no real surprise.

For June I will be adding a Battlewagon and 20 Boyz, which will give me more cannon fodder and force my opponents to make some decisions.  I am enjoying starting this new army and having great fun building the force.

The new Ork models also look very entertaining.   Although only the Gorkanaut has been announced officially, there are a few glimpses of new kits in the current White Dwarf.

40k 7th Edition - first game

Instead of a full review of the new rules, which I'm still reading, here is a quick summary of our first game we played on release day afternoon.

We only had one copy of the books between us, as the digital versions did not go up until later in the day, which was a bit frustrating. I can see that the physical release was the priority for GW, but pressing Download on the Black Library site and then repeatedly seeing Preorder was disappointing, especially with no indication as to exactly when the electronic version would be available. At least I have the epub now.

For our game my marines were teamed with Aaron's Eldar against Matt's SM and Pete's guard. At 600pts per player the game took about twice as long as usual, as we wanted to check each rule as we played.

We were keen to try the Maelstrom of War missions with the tactical objectives. With the 6 numbered objectives in play and relatively small game, my initial thought was that the game would be static with everyone camping objectives. However, with the 3 objectives you draw being scored per turn and cards changing as they are scored or useless ones discarded, there are no automatic points just for holding any objectives, even at the end of the game. As 18 of the 36 cards require you to take a particular numbered objective, you can end of only being able to score by controlling your opponent's objectives.  Matt had 4 drop pods in his list and 2 of them came down in scoring distance of 2 of our objectives. As even dedicated transports for troops count as super-scoring units, these proved to be a real pain.  Mobile troops therefore also are really useful when you need a different objective. My bike squad helped us get back in the game late on, but not enough to beat Pete and Matt.

There is certainly a bit of accounting involved keeping track of the points, which can rack up quickly, especially if you are able to score multiple cards simultaneously, some of which are D3 or even D3+3.

With 4 psykers on the board, we were hoping for exciting psychic phases, but poor rolls, useless powers and psykers being killed for objectives meant that we will have to wait and see on this.

My obligatory Stormtalon killed a couple of units before dying to Pete's Hydra. The changes to Jink are interesting. It is now a 4+ cover save, but must be declared before rolls to hit are made. Other vehicles have also gained jink, but everything can now only snap shot the turn after jinking. The Stormtalon has also lost Pinning from the Strafing Run rule, as have snipers. I will have to re-think my 600 pt shooty list, which had used the talon with snipers.

The new challenges with tactical objectives made for an interesting game, in which units were forced to move around across the board. I recommend giving the Maelstrom of War missions a try and I certainly want to work out some new lists for these games.

We wanted to try the unbound army rules too, but again we ran out of time, so we are looking forward to seeing how they work in a future game.

My background story for GW Newbury's Tale of Gamers

WAAGH ZOGSMASHA

REPORT FROM INQUISITOR BALKHAUSEN, ORDO XENOS

Date : 972.M41.157

Location : Alendry IV

I continue to investigate the activities of Warboss Zogsmasha.  Until now his motives were unclear, even to myself.  There seemed to be little pattern to his vicious attacks on various agricultural facilities and jungle worlds across fourteen systems.   However, our glorious Emperor has proved beneficent in enabling me to capture and interrogate a so-called ‘Painboy’ of Zogsmasha’s Blood Axe tribe during the successful defence of the main grey-algae production vat complex on Dreah.  This action was undertaken by the heroic Mitorian XIII supported by elements of the Howling Griffons’ 9^th Company Ancorae Mancorae, under the overall command of Captain Leomar Adler.

My interrogation of this creature, which refered to itself as ‘Skabrippa’, quickly revealed that Zogsmasha is deliberately attacking worlds in the path of  hive fleet Thanatos.  After my initial scepticism at this seemingly suicidal strategy, Skabrippa was then persuaded to reveal that Zogsmasha has heard tell of a mythical greenskin called ‘Grom the Flabby’.  (I initially believed this name to be in the correct form, although I have always been wary of xeno-linguistic servitors).  According to Skabrippa, this Grom creature is said to have gained remarkable healing powers by consuming parts of other beasts with regenerative abilities.

(After exhaustive research I was able to uncover a reference to a similarly named ‘Grom the Paunch’ in the heretical tome [CENSORED BY ORDER OF THE IMPERIUM])

It appears that Zogsmasha is attempting to gain similar powers by capturing and dissecting one of the larger Tyranid organisms with the capacity to self-heal.  His quest represents a significant threat to the Imperium in a number of ways.  Were Zogsmasha to be successful, an unkillable warboss could see the rise of a large Waagh.  If this ability could be passed on to the entire Waagh, they would require significantly increased firepower to resist.   Even if Zogsmasha  is unable to locate a suitable organism or his painboys cannot perform the required procedures, the prospect of Thanatos absorbing the biomass from a sizeable Waagh is even more dangerous.

I request the assignment of a Deathwatch squad to eradicate Zogsmasha and his currently small group of followers believed to be en route to my location in the Alendry system, before his Waagh regains momentum.  Only his toughest warriors survived Dreah, but they will surely grow in number again, if left unchecked.  I know that Brother Elias, formerly of the Salamanders chapter would welcome the opportunity to bring his weapon known as the Wyvern’s Breath to bear against these foul xenos.

Thought for the day: Power resides in the will of the Righteous

by M.Hewitt

Warboss and Nobz - work in progress

40K 7th Edition - rulebook decisions

So the rules update for 40K is now officially 7th edition, rather than a version 6.5.  With many of the rules already rumoured online, we will soon know for real what rules have changed, as we re-learn the game for the second time in as many years.  I think I may need to finish all the Librarians I have started for my Howling Griffons.

Of course, with my new army, I was looking forward to a new Orks vs BA starter box.  However, with today's White Dwarf stating that Dark Vengeance will be re-released with a new rulebook, an entirely new box seems unlikely in the very near future.  I wonder if it might be worth putting on my birthday list in August?

When 6th Edition arrived I ended up getting both the hardback rulebook and the mini version in DV, which always seemed a bit of a waste.  This time around, I was hoping just to get the starter set.  However, I will definitely not get DV again, as I still have all the sprues unmade in my first box, but will need the new rules to compete in the Tale of Gamers at GW Newbury with my new boyz.

A digital version seems the best compromise, although even the cheapest £40 for the epub version still seems excessive, when I really want the A5 softback.  I already have a couple of dataslates on my Samsung phone, but I just hope the full rulebook is easy to navigate quickly on my phone.

I am looking forward to the newest version of the game, but I wish GW would release the starter box at the same time, rather than hoping the staggered dates mean many gamers will end up buying both.

PS- A background story on my fledgling Orks will appear soon!

Howling Griffons WIPs

Over the Easter break I have been trying to get some figures finished. This is the current backlog of my assembled Space Marines:

Here is the list:

Stormwing formation (=Stormraven + 2 Stormtalons)
2 Drop Pods
5 Vanguard Veterans
7 Sternguard Veterans
Biker Captain
Biker Command Squad
Dreadnought
Marneus Calgar (counts as figure)
4 Honour Guard (counts as)
2 Librarians
Tigurius
Sgt Telion

This does not include the Ork Nobz and Gretchin I have assembled and basecoated for GW Newbury's Tale of Gamers, but I keep promising myself to get everything finished, before I buy any new models.  That will never happen, but at least I know what I have to do now.  Wish me luck..

First impressions of Astra Militarum (aka Imperial Guard)

The Astra Militarum codex has arrived.  The internet has of course been focusing on the nerfs.  For example, Vendettas cost 40 pts more and can only carry 6 now, Chenkov has gone meaning no more recyclable conscripts, no Penal Legion, Colossus or Medusa and Leman Russes losing Lumbering Behemoth.

Knowing the rumours were not all bad, I picked up a copy of the new codex this morning to see if it is worth digging out my existing army.

Chenkov heads for retirement, with his replacement rumbling onto the scene

For me the stand out innovation is the HQ Tank Commander, which can be accompanied by 1-2 other Leman Russes and can even be upgraded to Pask.  He can issue tank orders to his own unit.  There is nothing in the codex about challenges or look out sir, but this could enable an army of 12 Russes, with each one costing quite a bit less, 120 to 170 pts, depending on the type, plus an extra 30 for the HQ.  I would suggest making the HQ one of the Demolisher variants, due to the slightly better rear armour, although Pask gives each variant a special rule.  Troops still have to be infantry, but with the improved rules for firing from Chimeras, you could field an all-armoured army... at least until an APC is destroyed.

I did wonder if the Baneblade would appear in this book, but it remains accessible through Escalation.  Of course the lost artillery pieces are also in the relevant FW books too.

Orders and platoons were the defining features of this army and this is still the case.  Of course, elite stormtroopers, sorry Tempestus Scions can now be taken in platoons too.  Heavy weapons squads are a good fraction cheaper now.  Orders have also been updated to 6th Edition, with most now referencing a USR.  Like the Ultramarines doctrines on my Howling Griffons, using them well will be the key to victory.  Note to self - don't forget to use orders!!

Some of the combos of units will also become more important.  For example, a Priest in a blob squad or cheaper conscript squad will be very useful, as will a Enginseer, which can now give a vehicle POTMS, which will help Leman Russes use their full range of weapons, including Ordnance, more effectively.

Armoured sentinels are also much cheaper - for example, the plasma cannon version is 2/3 the cost of the old previous incarnation.  I suspect we will be seeing a lot more of these.

No more Penal Legion!

Hydras finally have a Citadel model, although leaving one open-topped seems like asking for trouble.  Whilst they no longer ignore jink saves, they do of course have skyfire and 4 twin-linked shots should give some decent anti-air.  The same box can also build the Wyvern.  After some initial scepticism, this is growing on me and I would like to see one in play for the amounts of saves it can force.

The models for the Ogryns are very characterful and I shall probably get a box at some point to add to my converted Ogres.  I think the more defensive and also expensive Bullgryns will also be useful, with a choice between +1 cover and 5+ Invulnerable save, depending on loadout.

Those are my initial thoughts on the new book.  My next job is to work out a few lists.  Perhaps I will try some armoured allies for my marines.

On first look, there are some interesting options here, but only time will tell how much fun and/or effective the new guard are to play.

Revenge of the Imperial Knight

Last night I played George again.  Having won our last game I wanted to try out a different sort of 1000 point army.  This time my list was 2 Tactical Squads,  with one in a Drop Pod, a basic Librarian joining 6 Sternguard in another pod, a third pod with an Ironclad and finally a Stormtalon as the only flyer.  We hadn't discussed what armies we were taking, but I had a reasonable suspicion he would go with the same army as last time.  I was almost correct.  Although George was mostly using the same figures, he had swapped in some heavy weapons, including a flakk missile to counter my air force.  He was also running his Sons of Horus as Imperial Fists instead of Chaos.

In the morning I assembled a new Drop Pod for the Dreadnought and proxied the other two from my Salamanders and Space Wolves.  I knew this would be a tougher game and when we rolled Purge the Alien with Hammer and Anvil deployment the odds were really against me, as with the 3 Drop Pods I had 9 KPs on the board to George's 5, including his super-heavy walker.

My deployment was a single squad in some ruins. George put his Knight right of centre, his Librarian in one squad behind a bastion left of centre and the other two tacticals on each flank.

As I was going first, I had to decide what to do with my first two pods.  My pre-game plan was to go for the alpha-strike with both elites and bring down the tacticals later.  In hindsight, perhaps a more defensive strategy would have been called for, but I opted to put the Dread down behind the squad on George's right, just in melta-range of the Knight, and the Sternguard next to it nearer his right board edge.  Both pods were on target.  In my shooting I reasoned that my four combi-meltas and one combi-grav would be best served against the 10-man squad using vengeance rounds, although perhaps I should have use the heavy flamer first, but I wanted more rapid fire shots.  In the event I lost one figure to 'Gets Hot', but took out six marines, including the flakk gunner.  A HK missile from the Ironclad also took a point off the Knight, but the melta-gun proved useless.

We had some discussion about the Ion shield going up, as it can easily be missed before the shooting starts.  I had no problem with him declaring it during my shooting, but I would suggest in a competitive match both opponents agreeing to declare when the movement phase ends, to enable the Knight player to deploy the shield at the right time.

In his turn George advanced his tacticals towards my end of the board, away from the pods, which he sent the Knight to deal with.  The battle cannon killed a couple of Sternguard and he cannily fired a heavy stubber at the Ironclad.  Even though this weapon couldn't damage it, this allowed him to declare a charge against the Dreadnought.  Although both were I4, the Dreadnought's weapons failed to scratch the Knight.  However, the Knight's D-weapon obliterated the poor ancient, and then the Stomp attack danced all over the Sternguard and a Drop Pod, with only the Librarian surviving, thanks to 'Look out sir'.  Again a rules question arose when the Librarian fled.  Normally, the Knight would have caught the Librarian, but my HQ was nowhere near base contact in the combat, but had run because of the stomp attacks, so the Librarian carried on fleeing instead of regrouping in combat.

George was already 4-0 up and it looked like he would quickly get another 2 for my warlord.  Luckily I could still use his +1 to reserve rolls trait, and both my Stormtalon and last Drop Pod came on in my second turn.  This pod went down on target again behind his other two full squads and the flyer came on just 18" to face the Knight's rear arc, just in its 24" weapon range.  Again we made sure the Ion shield went up at the right time, but I chipped away a couple more HPs.  My Librarian was doomed but heroically tried to kill one of the squad of 4 remaining from the Sternguard fight with his pistol and then failed the 12" charge needed to get into the relative safety of combat.  The Tactical squads then spent the rest of the game trading fire, trying to whittle each other down, helped by storm bolters from my pods.

In George's second turn he got 3 heavy stubber hits on my Librarian, who then promptly rolled 3 twos for his 3+ armour saves....  The Knight then turned its attention to smashing up another Drop Pod, helpfully allowing my Stormtalon to keep flying into its rear arc on the next turn, before hovering to finish it off on turn 4.

By Turn 5 I had managed to kill off two of his three tactical squads, helped by a lucky precision shot from my last sergeant, which accounted for a plasma cannon.  I had 6 marines, a pod and an undamaged Stormtalon to his 7 tacticals and terminator Librarian left when the game finished at the end of turn 5.  George was a clear winner 8-3 on kill points, but I was pleased my army was back in the game after a bad start.  With a bit of luck, I could still have tabled him.

Multiple flyers are definitely the answer to Knights, which need support from a reasonable amount of anti-air.  It would still interest me to see how multiple knights perform.  Practice with Drop Pods is something else I definitely need.

GW Newbury Tale of Gamers - time to start Orks

A week is a long time in this hobby.  For once I am not talking about the latest releases, although there must be plenty of mileage in the stormtrooper ice-cream van.

Back on topic, Matt wanted suggestions last weekend for instore events and I mentioned the classic White Dwarf series of a Tale of Four Gamers, which were always favourites of mine. I am not sure how many times they ran this with the different GW systems, but a 40K version sticks in my mind.

Having requested six players on Tuesday, we now have ten confirmed and raring to go.  For my choice of army I considered Tyranids, which no one else had chosen.   However, the underwhelming reception to the codex and the lack of potential to ally with any other army finally put me off.  With most people opting for power-armour of some sort, Orks were another untaken race, which I have decided to go with.  We already have quite a few Orks in the shed from when my son dabbled with 40k a few years back.  This includes all of the Black Reach figures painted very basically, as well as some Stormboyz, Lootas and a Battlewagon.  They are always a fun army, but what clinched it was the rumoured new codex out in June, along with whispers of Orks in an imminent new starter box for 40k.

Each month for six months there will be a challenge for the players to complete.  Officially, we aren't starting until 3rd May, but many of us are getting underway already.  In the first month we need 1 HQ and 1 Troop choice completed worth 250 points.  We will be marked on assembly, painting and basing.  My first Orks will be a Warboss and a unit of Nobz.  Having made my first box of Nobz, I decided to convert a Warboss also from a Nob, rather than ordering in a Finecast one, as there were none in the shop.  Hopefully there will be some new plastic characters out soon.

My next task will be to write a proper 250pt list before I build the next box and the Painboy I got today.

40k School League Regional Finals at Warhammer World

Having qualified from the local heats for the second year running, I took our team of four with a couple of reserves up to Nottingham on Thursday. A day off school to play toy soldiers- what could be better?  I was pleased our Head not only agreed to us going, but also stumped up the cost of a minibus and driver.

A couple of the older lads went last year, so knew their way around Warhammer World, but the younger ones were impressed with the rhino outside, the gaming hall and the display models upstairs.

Our team's 600 pt armies were inspected after we arrived.  As we were all prepared with equipment and I had made enough objective markers for 6 each and also made sure all the figures had at least 3 colours, we got most of the army points.  We lost a couple for the bases, as some were textured but not painted or were just painted.  Apparently unpainted sand does not count. I think it is a ploy to sell more textured paint, so I duly obliged and told the kids to get started, just to scrape together another point or two.

We had a Tau player, who had 2 Riptides, a Cadre Fireblade and some Fire Warriors. Another was using Dark Angels from the starter box with a Land Raider. The third had added a Vindicator to his starter Chaos models and the last army was Grey Knights including Coteaz and Henchmen as troops.  They played 4x40-minute games each.

Teachers were supposed to stand back and let the players play.  This sounds straightforward, but I found it hard not to say anything if they were completely ignoring objectives and merrily blasting away! Some members of school staff got told off by the GW bods for interfering, including me when I was answering a rules question one of the other team had asked me.  I was trying to be impartial and helpful...  Honestly!  One or two teachers were being a bit too competitive though.

As for the team, they did well in the first two games before lunch, with an even 3 wins, 2 draws and 3 losses.  Most of them were playing with objectives in mind, or at least starting to.

The afternoon was not as pretty.  Of the 30 teams there, they drew the eventual winners and the team that finished third, who were using some very good lists.  The winning team for example had Eldar with 2 Wave Serpents, Necrons with a flyer, Tau with a single Riptide and a nasty Daemon list, including the Portalglyph.  Although we lost every game in the afternoon, our Tau player was unlucky on the last game of Purge the Alien.  He was one assault marine away from tabling his opponent in combat with his Riptide on 3 wounds when the game ended.

The obligatory quiz, before results were announced, was just for fun and was an enjoyable way to end the day especially the 'say what you see' round.  The pictures of a neck and Rupert Grint were hilarious.

With our collapse in the second half we came 26th, so the boys were all disappointed with the overall results. It was a shame that only 3 teams progressed to the National Finals.  It seems mainly the power-gamers will be there, but I hope my boys, some of whom are only really just starting the hobby, aren't put off and are inspired by this visit.

Beating an Imperial Knight

My Howling Griffons played in a quick 1000 point game against George's new Imperial Knight tonight. He was using it allied to his FW Sons of Horus army, using the Chaos codex. We knew this combo was not official, but it was just a trial game.

The rest of his army was 3x10-man squads with 2 plasma guns each and a terminator sorceror, all of which he had also just finished assembling.

I reasoned that if he was using a super-heavy, I would use my Stormwing formation, along with a 10-man tac squad, a 5-man tac, 5 sniper scouts, a rifleman dread and a basic librarian.

We played Big Guns with 5 objectives on a 4'x4' board. I got to place 3 objectives and also deployed and went first. Even so I did very little first turn, as I just hid in my deployment zone out of range or sight of his units.

George advanced his units first turn, but the Knight couldn't see the tactical marines and failed to kill any scouts either, as they went to ground for a 2+ save with their cloaks.

Luckily my formation turned up turn 2, so I put the Raven in front of the Knight and the two talons either side.  Of course the Ion Shield went up facing towards the Raven. I knew the Stormtalons weren't facing it with their Skyhammers, but fortunately their assault cannons can fire 360°. The Ion Shield saved him from the multi-melta but the assault cannons took off 3 HPs.

George's outflanking squad from his warlord trait then arrived on the scouts' side of the board and also started trying to shoot the young marines off their objective.  Again the 2+ cover made the snipers hard to shift.  He also backed off the Knight, so I couldn't get all 3 flyers shooting armour 12.

Turn 3 I unloaded my dread and meltagun combat squad from the Raven and then hovered all the flyers circling the Knight to make sure I could use all their weapons.  In the end this proved to be overkill.  The Ion Shield went up towards the Raven and one Talon, but the meltas, autocannons and the other Talon accounted for its last 3 HPs.  First blood to me, although I did get worried the apocalyptic blast would catch the hovering flyers, but they were quite safe.

At that point we both had two objectives and linebreaker, but my first blood meant I was 8-7 ahead.  We called it there, as our time had run out and George couldn't really do much against my flyers, beyond some lucky plasma shots.

Knights can't touch flyers with armour 11 or more unless they hover, so really need protection with some anti-air allies and a more balanced army to guard their flanks and rear from multiple threats.

It was very satisfying to kill off the Knight, but it did feel a bit like playing rock-paper-scissors.

White Dwarf and Imperial Knights (and my 50th post)

Was it really only issue 4 of White Dwarf out today?  Have all the monthlies been forgotten?

Anyway this issue has been my favourite of the weeklies so far.  I may have been playing about with my Fantasy army this week, but I still consider myself primarily a 40K player.  This issue is 90% Imperial Knights, including background, tips on both assembly and painting, rules and even some advice on strategy.

The weekly mags are now closely tied in with the release schedule, which has shifted.  The familiar pattern had been everything kept under wraps until WD came out just before pay-day at the end of the month (well mine at least..), with pre-orders then up for the following week, and possibly another wave of the same release a couple of weeks later.  Now releases are being drip-fed over the whole month, presumably to get us all into our GWs regularly.  They are now live on the GW site by 7pm (UK time) on the Friday evening and I know of at least one GW store (Reading) staying open until 8pm to help people pre-order and cash in.  Imperial Knights have heen timed for 1st March, so will be in shops just when lots of people have the most disposable income.

Even so, I shall not be rushing out to get one of the mini titans. Yet.  Imperial Knights now appear as an army in their own right on the GW website and WD tells us they can form a primary or an allied detachment.  However they seem to ignore the FOC in their formations. Fair enough - you could field 4 at 1.5k - but I am not sure if they can claim objectives, but give away 2VPs each if destroyed.  I assume one would have to be your warlord too, if they were your main force.  I expect this will all be clarified when the codex is released.  Until then the welcome rules in WD will get everyone started.

Before I splash out, I will look at the models and see how they perform.  A titan has always been on the wish-list and this is a lot more reasonable than the Forge World alternatives.  My head tells me I should at least finish my Stormwing formation (which cost the same money), but my wife will tell you I tend to let my heart rule my purchases, especially with Warhammer.

I am sure GW's current business strategy is relying on our hearts too.  How else would they expect anyone to buy 5 Imperial Knights in one click?

Kill Team, a 2K pt game and Warhammer Empire.

A fairly mixed bag of gaming to report, just to keep things interesting.

First off, the B team from our school club just missed out on the Regionals at Warhammer World in March by one point.  They were well ahead on painting and gaming after 2 of 3 games, but complacency and silly mistakes meant they lost all four of the last round of games.  With most 40K games currently based on objectives, they need to learn where to put them so opponents have a hard time even contesting them.  Also, charging off of an objective in your last turn to assault a unit of terminators is BAD.

In my own gaming I played 3 games of Kill Team last Monday using 8 Assault Marines.  My first game was a very cagey match against DE Reavers, which ended up out-manoeuvring me.  After losing my second game too the last match against SW required me getting my marines off of the opposite table edge.  After killing his Thunderwolf Lord I escaped with 3 marines, which meant we drew.

After that we had a 3 vs 3 Marines vs Xenos game, where I managed to charge the biker warboss, which sent the rest of the boyz running and gave us a comfortable win.

The day after that I went to Pete's new house to try out his gaming garage.  He played 2000 pts of Guard, including a lot of anti-air, as he knew I wanted to try out my Stormwing formation.  We rolled the Relic on diagonal deployment.  Pete is always a good sporting opponent, so it was more for fun than anything.  I made loads of mistakes, like forgetting to leave a tac squad in reserve to go in the raven!  To balance that up I also forgot about Strafing Run causing pinning.  Near the end of the game my raven was on its last HP so I flew it off the table.  Having survived when it first turned up, I completely forgot about Interceptor when it came back on again.  Oops!

One of my tac squads had the Relic and Pete was trying to kill off every last marine.  The sole survivor fled 5 inches, which I thought meant he kept hold of it, but of course he should have dropped it automatically.  I claimed victory for having the Relic, but shouldn't have.  I have promised Pete a rematch.

Finally, I have started dabbling in Warhammer Fantasy again.  There has been an ongoing campaign at GW Newbury, so there has been more Fantasy happening there.  I have dusted off the Empire army from Bögenhafen I started back in about 2007, but never finished or played.  Having not played this edition (8th?) I had a quick practice game on Saturday but didn't really get very far in the hour we had.  I have now also assembled ten more swordsmen and a hellblaster to get me closer to the 1600 pts the campaign is now at.

My thoughts on the new White Dwarf and Warhammer: Visions

White Dwarf has always been a big part of the hobby for me.  I even remember it including RPG games from other companies back in my teens.  Of course, it has long been a GW-only publication.  Even with it becoming increasingly a marketing tool, I have kept a subscription for a few years now.

Despite a re-launched format only 18 months ago, this month there is an even more radical change, with a now weekly White Dwarf and a monthly called Warhammer: Visions.  As a subscriber I got both today with a letter saying I will just be getting the monthly in future, with the weekly not currently on a subscription basis.  I have no idea without trawling through the GW website how much the subs will be, but the cover price is £2.40 for the weekly and £7.50 for the monthly.  It seems they want me to pay a lot more than my previous £9 per quarter.  Is it worth it?

Visions is 230 smaller pages, slightly wider than A5 size.  As the name implies it is mainly pictures.  The only text is short flavour descriptions on most pages in English, French and German.  The first 70 pages are given to new releases, with quite a range of colour schemes, angles and detail shots. A further 70 pages roughly are for Army of the Month and Golden Demon pictures, again with multiple shots of different units.  Apart from the Store Finder (do we really need that in print?) the last 40 pages are for a useful Paint Splatter, this one showing various hive fleets, including some variant splinter fleets.  In between those sections are Blanchitsu (never grabbed me), Kit Bash (pretty good conversions of various Trukks) and a very disappointing battle report. It's mainly pictures of  models crammed together on a dark table, presumably for atmosphere, with no reference to the mission, points values or any kind of tactics, strategy or dice rolls.  No fun at all.

I think the small format doesn't help with a visual magazine.  Double-page spreads are dominated by the centrefold, which ruins any wow-factor.  Single pages are confusing, with a random mix of multiple shots or full pages of different orientations, either landscape or portrait.  It's not easy to flick through, as the eye constantly needs to re-adjust.  I suppose we are supposed to study each page for inspiration, but Visions does not inspire me.

White Dwarf weekly at 32 pages has more of the feel of a disposable flyer- certainly not something I would have to get regularly.  There is obviously more writing in this mag, with the new release dwarfs featured mostly.  There are some actual rules for one of their special characters.  For 40K players the 4 pages on the different types of Nid army are probably most interesting.

I would say White Dwarf is now more of a pocket money purchase for kids or would be more useful for beginners.   For example there are two pages on glues.  Casual players might like Jervis' mini-game alternative to rolling for the first turn.

Visions seems to be aimed at more experienced painters and modellers, but seems to lack visual impact.

Where is the strategy or tactics for the older gamers?  The advice for tackling Hive Crones? "Shoot them down as quickly as possible." Thanks for that.

I don't just want to see other people's armies.  I want a bit of personal interest. How they have evolved, which units they love playing and how have they fared on the battlefield?

The new mags deserve a bit of a chance.  Things change and we all moan.  But decent battle reports and tactica are a lot cheaper online.

Howling Griffons Stormwing Formation

Flying machines have always been one of my passions and I have regularly used a Stormtalon in my Space Marine lists.  In addition to my Storm Eagle I have now assembled my Stormwing formation and also started basecoating it.  This will be fun!

Even with the new rules allowing Forge World models, I will rarely get the chance to field all 5 flyers at the same time, unless I play more Apocalypse.  So I'm trying to work out how best to include the Stormwing in 1.5K points.

All of my Stormtalons have Skyhammer missiles, as they always do well for me and aren't too expensive.  The Stormraven has the multi-melta, assault cannons and hurricane bolters.  My basic formation would therefore come to 480 points, so nearly a third of the total.

The next problem is that I now can't decide if it's worth putting any other units in the raven. Even a basic Tactical Squad and Dreadnought would be exactly half of my points stuck in reserve, possibly until Turn 4.

The rest of my list will need to soak up all the opposing fire until the flyers show up, so a fortification with a comms relay might be needed to give me a solid firebase.

Anti-air is another worry, especially Riptides, so a Command Squad on bikes with grav guns might be my best option, although my usual HQ is a biker MOTF with a conversion beamer. I would either need a different HQ or take two.  This would again limit my points for other units.

I have some decisions to take, but I plan on having fun testing out my options, whilst I get the models finished.