Moving forward, Allies and which to take?

Now that 6th edition has been around for around 7th months and for most of that time I've either been playing straight Imperial Guard or IG with Grey Knight allies.

My Armies

Imperial guard, i love my big guns and lots of shooting which is my favorite aspect of the game. Love my Soviet theme and everyone i play seems to get a kick out of it too.

Pros: 
Big guns and lots of them
Manticores!
tons and tons of cheap troops

Cons:
All those troops are very squishy
nothing good for assault

I want to keep playing my Russians but they need tougher friends


Grey Knights, are my first army and i still enjoy playing them, my biggest problem is they're one of the most expensive "elite" armies point-wise and in a 6th edition world where having the most bodies on the board is the way to go going straight GK isn't that strong of a choice in my opinion.

Pros:
great in assault
good in shooting
great psychic powers
Coteaz
Dreadknights

Cons:
not battle brothers with anyone
expensive point-wise

The biggest reason to me to not take them is the lack of battle brother choices, don't get me wrong it makes perfect sense fluff-wise but being unable to target and be targeted by psychic powers hurts big time.


Necrons, i bought about 1500 points of Necrons when they first came out... and they've been sitting in my basement still in box ever since. I know they pair up well with GK and are strong codex, i just haven't gotten around to them and honestly haven't excited me as much as other options


Dark Angels, i love just about everything in this new codex, strong new options, cheap troop choices, the flyers and specialist speeders are garbage and overpriced in my opinion but I've got tons of bikes, troops and deathwing and I'm looking forward to trying out all the options.

Pros:
highly mobile army
battle brothers with most of my armies
really great diverse units
new specialist equipment options other codexs don't have access to (like infravisor for 5 points letting a whole dev squad ignore night fight)
awesome allies combos such as Azrael making a 50 man blob squad  fearless with a 4++ save

Cons:
i really don't see any glaring ones

I've got a lot of exciting ideas for them that pair up well with IG and with the resin bases, shields, shoulder pads and other touches I'm tricking them out with they are going to be an outstanding looking army.


Blood Angels, they have some exciting infantry, fast vehicles and strong dreadnoughts, not to mention some of the strongest HQs in the game.

Pros:
HQs
Dreadnoughts (Furioso, death company, Libby dread)
Sternguard
Fast vehicles
Battle Brothers with most of my armies

Cons:
Expensive infantry choices

I don't claim to be an expert on Blood Angels, far from it. All i know is they have some exciting unit choices and I'm itching to try them out. I've got 30 Horus Hersey era troops inbound from forgeworld, my plan was to use them as Sternguard and possibly paint them up with a Soviet them allowing me to use them as a pseudo Blood Angels successor chapter or Vanilla Marines chapter. I also have a couple more contemptor dreads on the way which will look great as furioso and death company dreads.

Vanilla Marines, again I'm no expert on vanilla. If i went with them over Blood Angels it would be because of Pedro Kantor making Sternguard troop choices. Possibly Ironclad dreads but i need to do more research.

Pros:
Scoring Sternguard? yes please
Unique Space Marine units not found in other codexs
Battle Brothers with most of my armies

Cons:
Expensive lackluster HQs

Primary? or Allied Detachment?

Grey Knights: Definately allied detachment if i even take them

Imperial Guard: This is a much tougher one.. in primary i get to take 3 heavies which is arguably the best part of the IG codex. However with much stronger troop and elite choices elsewhere i think I'm going to have to relegate them to an Allied Detachment role

Necrons: I have no plans to assemble them and stick them in an army list but if i did it would likely be an Allied Detachment

Dark Angels: i think they need to be in a primary role, their HQ choices are best suited to be warlord and while i can't see me taking more than 1 heavy support choice i would be servery limited with only 2 troops and 1 elite or 1 fast attack.

Blood Angels: the problem with them being an Allied Detachment is the same as Dark Angels, BA also have strong HQ choices better suited for a warlord and i could easily take 3 elite slots with BA.

Vanilla: I'm positive they will be an Allied Detachment, the only real plan i have for Vanilla is Kantor with multiple scoring Sternguard and perhaps a dread or something.

Another thing is if i decide to go with Blood Angel or Vanilla Marines i plan on using drop pods, so i guess i know what I'm spending my store credit winnings from the doubles tournament on. 

2000pt Doubles tournament at Battlegrounds

This past weekend Battlegrounds Abington held it's inaugural 40k event in the new store. It was an interesting event with well designed missions and good opponents, they also allowed Forgeworld units which was nice to see some of the different things Forgeworld offers.

The event was doubles where each partner brought 1000pts and was limited to 2-3 troops, 1 from every other slot and each team member allowed to double a slot, just not the same one. For example i brought double heavies and my partner bill brought double fast attack.

My list

HQ: Company Command Squad 50, +4 Plasma guns 60, +chimera 55 = 165

Troop1: Veteran squad 70, +3 plasma guns 45, +chimera 55 = 170

Troop2: Platoon, 4 Infantry squads 200, +commissar 35, +1 sgt with meltabombs 5, Platoon Command Squad 30, +4 flamers 20, +chimera 55 = 345

Heavy1: Manticore = 160

Heavy2: Manticore = 160

Bills list

Chaos Lord 65, Juggernaut of Khorne 35, Mark of Khorne 10, Axe of Blind Fury Replace CCW) 35, Sigil of Corruption 25, Buring Brand of Skalathrax, (Replace Bolt Pistol) 30

200

Chaos Spawn 1 30, More Spawn 4 120, Mark of Khorne 5 10, 160

Maulerfiend 125

Heldrake 170, Baleflamer 170

Khorne Bezerkers 5 105, Extra Guys 4 76, Chain Axes 6 18, Rhino 35, Dirge Caster 5, Dozer Blades 5, 244

Cultists 10 50

Cultists 10 50

Game 1

Triangle corner deployment, 

Primary objective: Relic

Secondary: marked for death, 5th edition kill points

Tertiary: Victory point differential

Our opponents were a father and son team (a nice thing to see, a father and son bonding over a wargame). They each brought new Dark Angels, the son fielding tac squads, devastators, and a librarian. The father brought ravenwing, Sammael, bikes, Black knights, and a flyer (the name escapes me)

Our biggest mistake this game was the secondary, we had to choose a "half" of their army to be marked for death and whomever had more kill points at the end wins. We didn't read the packet that well and had assumed it was 6th edition victory points so we chose the ravenwing half and while we destroyed everything sans the flyer, 1 bike and almost killing sammael they beat us on kill points because they smartly chose my IG to kill.

My manticores were uncharacteristically horrible this game, they went after their sole Rhino first turn to get first blood only to find out the Librarian was granting it a 4+ invuln save. The only other decent hit they got all game was 11 hits on the dev squad which the son promptly passed all 11 2+ armor saves lol

My plasma and flashlights did some decent damage to the bikes but couldn't kill sammael, whom at the end of the game after killing all the khorne beserkers and several guardsmen on top of the relic caused my commissar to fail her morale check... twice... and they ran away and died.

While that was going on Bill's lord and entourage were running rampant through the tac squads and rhino and such. The Helldrake showed up turn 2 and flamed a good amount of bikes... then promptly died to flakk missiles from the Dev squad. The Maulerfiend surprisingly lived almost until the end and definitely earned its points back.

Results:

The game ended with neither of us having the relic, our opponents won kill points as secondary, we got a few more points then them on victory point scale and scored linebreaker and (i think) we slayed his warlord the librarian

20 out of 49 points

Game 2

Standard 12inch deployment

Primary: objectives (which have to be held by a troops choice from each "half" of the army

Secondary: Kill points i think?

Tertiary: Victory point scale

Our opponents were brothers (i think) and both brought Vanilla marines, total of 2 Vindicators, a rhino, 2 Razorbacks with Lascannons and Sternguard inside, scouts and some heavy hitting HQs, a libby who had access to every psychic power in the codex and i forget the other.

Nightfight, our opponents went first bringing all their armor up 12 to bring the Vindicators into range for turn 2. I belive their only shooting was a couple of lascannon shots our way that nightfight cover saves took care of.

Our turn 1 is where my Manticores redeemed themselves for all the Game 1 nonsense. I got a triple shot with my first which penned both Vindicators and both Razorbacks and while my damage chart rolls were lackluster it did stun both the Vindicators so they wouldn't be dropping Str10 Ap2 pie plates on us turn 2 which is what we wanted. My second manticore destroyed 1 of the Vindicators and Razorbacks while my plasma took out the rhino, some more plasma fire whittled down a sternguard squad and some scouts. Bill's Helldrake came in early again and vector striked and ruined some marines day.

Results:

We tabled our opponents around turn 4, it was a fun game for us but i did feel a bit bad because their armor heavy list played into our strengths.

49 out of 49 points

Game 3

Short edge table deployment

Primary: objectives

Secondary: table quarters

Tertiary: Victory point scale

We were paired up against Space wolves which was pretty much 1000 points of space marines on wolves with stormshields and an aegis defense line and Ravenwing with Sammael, bikes, attack bikes and some scouts.

We went first and again we had a good counter to our opponents army in the Manticores vs the stormshield marines, the Str10 making their toughness 5 and 2 wounds meaningless. The manticores took our 4 of them turn 1 and another 2 or 3 turn 2. between that and plasma fire only the wolf lord and 2 of his guys made it into assault with Bills heavies. Up until now whenever bill's lord ran into somebody in assault he quickly killed them but the wolf lord was certainly his match, in the first turn challenge they wounded each other a couple times and the squad took out the rest of the wolves. Round 2 of they assault they killed each other.

I had deployed the blob spread out as best i could to block his outflanked bikes from arriving anywhere near our side of the board and objectives. When they did come on the multi melta attack bike took out my Chimera  and his bikers with plasma went after the Khorne beserkers. My next round of shooting i aimed my 4 flamers and 4 double tap plasma guns at the bikes that were left and killed all but 1 who failed his morale and then auto rallied next turn. The Maulerfiend was less impressive this game not earning his points back in things killed but he did suck up a lot of fire so he did his job.

The helldrake didn't show up until turn 4, vector striking the other attack bike, dodging the interceptor autocannon fire and flaming some scouts. At this point all our opponents had on the board were some scouts,  Sammael (who did very little the game as his plasma cannon kept scattering onto Bill's Rhino and then not even glancing) and some wolf pups (i've no idea what their actual name is, my apologies) in the back. Our opponents conceded the game.

Results: 

49 out of 49 points

There were 27 teams there so 54 people overall which is a great showing for a BG event. The prizes were...

Best Generals

Second Best Generals

Third Best Generals

Players Choice

Best showing (painting)

Second Best

Third Best

Bill and i initially thought we had no chance after our poor showing game 1, but in the end we won Third Best Generals!

I was surprised that Bill didn't place at all in the painting competition since his painting skills are above par, a decent display board, top shelf resin bases and the only guy there to go the extra mile of putting LED lights in several of his models. But hey, we did win 3rd place so i can't complain

As of posting this BG hasn't posted full results yet and will update the other awards when they do.

The Soviet Imperial Guard invade Templecon!

So I'm a bit late posting this and the details are fuzzy but here goes. The Templecon 40k Onslaught GT was February 2nd and 3rd. The missions were interesting and well thought out, i liked the way they incorporated "first blood", "linebreaker", and "kill the warlord" were part of the victory point scale.

My List

HQ1: Company Command Squad 50, Chimera +55, 4 Plasma Guns +60 = 165

Troop1: Veteran Squad 70, 3 Plasma Guns +45, Chimera +55 = 170

Troop2: Veteran Squad 70, 3 Plasma Guns +45, Chimera +55 = 170

Troop3: Platoon Command Squad 30, 4 flamers +20, Chimera 55 = 105

            Infantry Squad 50, Power Axe +10 =60

Infantry Squad 50, Power Axe +10 =60

Infantry Squad 50, Power Axe +10 =60

Infantry Squad 50, Commissar +35 =85

Infantry Squad =50

 

Heavy1: Manticore =160

Heavy2: Manticore =160

Heavy3: Leman Russ Demolisher =165

 

IG Total: 1410

 

Detachment (Grey Knights)

HQ: Inquisitor Coteaz = 100

Troop1: Grey Knight Strike Squad x10 200, +2 Psycannons +20, Nemesis Hammer +10 = 230

Heavy1: Nemesis Dreadknight 130, Heavy Incinerator +30, Greatsword +25, Teleporter +75 = 260

 

GK Total: 590

Army Total: 2000

Round 1 vs IG / Space Wolves

The game started out well for me, I'd say my biggest mistake of the game was getting my dreadknight into assault too soon with his blob, i was doing serious damage with the incinerator and my blobs massed lasgun fire, by getting into assault i did minimal damage due to the "challenge" rule and stopped the damage i was doing in the shooting phase. Lesson learned

As i said i was doing excellent, blew up most of his vehicles my first turn and decimated his blob, however due to poor rolling and cover/smokes saves he still had 2 chimeras full of guys that got to my side of the board objectives. My Grey Knights were sitting on the Relic in cover... and then his 3 vendettas showed up. My weakness with this list is the lack of anti-flyer, the only semi-effective thing i have is psycannons twin linked from Prescience, the 3 Vendettas with lascannons and heavy bolter sponsons whittled down the grey knights into turn 6 or 7, the psycannons were taking out early and while they were in cover you can only pass so many saves before bad luck catches up.

Results: 6 out of 20

Round 2 vs Tau / Space Wolves

Played against John Walsh, his tau vehicles getting  their crazy cover saves were very effective and his broadsides in cover did pretty good damage to my guys. My manticores decimated most of his firewarriors and devastator squad, and my Dreadknight quickly annihilated his drop pod squad but then his space wolves (grey hunters?) infiltrated from the side and having a stealth cover save stopped most of my plasma and lasgun shots. The game ended with me only having Coteaz left on the board, well done John

Results: 0 out of 20

Round 3 vs IG

Fought against another mech guard army (woot for no flyers), he had 2 hellhounds which never got in range of my guys, a Plasma Leman Russ which did some moderate damage to my grey knights, a couple Griffin mortars which killed a dozen or so of the blob. The dreadknight did amazing destroying a leman russ, a chimera and a ton of troops, heavy weapons teams, and his company command squad. Brought down in the last turn by lascannon fire...RIP. The game ended with him only having a few troops on the board and max points for me (finally a win)

Results: Max points

Round 4 vs IG / Space Marines

As I'm horrible with names i don't remember most of my opponents names, i believe this gentleman was one of the Cold Steel Merc guys from CT.

I was a bit concerned going into this one as he had a full squad of storm shield termies up close, 3 flyers and a bunch of mech guard. Fortuently i went first and did some severe damage to his termies with massed plasma fire, popped his whirlwind before it got a shot off and did some damage to his Chimera. I also jumped my dread into his midst and flamed a scout squad.

I think this was another relic mission, most of my vehicles were still alive at the end, his only troops were a squad that came out of his vendetta last turn. My grey knights were mostly gone from his Vendetta and 2 Storm Talons.

Results:  18 or Max points (cant remember)



Round 5 vs Chaos Space Marines / IG

The primary for this mission was collecting points for sitting on objectives throughout the game, i brought down his manticore right away, he had a small squad of bikes i plasma'ed and his HQ was brought down early by psycannon and storm bolter fire. He had a huge monstrous something or other (the name eludes me) that got into assault quickly with my blob and stayed that way for the game (which was fine by me, he did a moderate amount of damage to the blob and tied him down all game). Ended with me winning the primary, we tied the secondary (marked for death kinda thing) and close to max for victory points tertiary.

Results: 14 out of 20

Weaknesses

Flyers: obviously i need to get some anti-flyer in the list, even if it's only a Aegis Defense Line and Quad Gun
High Toughness Creatures: Still having a problem with Tyranids
Assaults: The power axes i added to the blob help in certain instances, but STR 4/AP 2 still isn't that useful
Armor saves: Need SM allies bad, more to follow

Stormtroopers in 6th Edition

Things have changed since 5th edition. The changes to armor and deepstrike coupled with more opponents taking less transports and putting more bodies on the field have made me think about using stormtroopers.

Lets look at some pros and cons

Cons:

• Expensive point wise 
• 5 vs 10 man base squads
• shorter effective shooting range
• not scoring
• only 2 heavy weapons

Pros:

• More effective at killing space marines with their AP 3 Hot Shot lasguns and 2 special weapons per squad
• Deep strike with scatter re-rolls if you decide to take that "special ops" mission
• Infiltrate ability
• Scout ability
• Better armor save (4+)

Lets talk about weapons

• The Stormtroopers Hot Shot Lasgun may have AP3 but is still only STR3 needing 5s to wound normal Space Marines.
• For special weapon choices they get 2 per squad either flamer, meltagun or plasma gun. My army is already plasma heavy and i know it works so perhaps it's time to put some Plasmas in a deepstrike platform instead of inside their boxes. Flamers would be great for horde armies. Meltaguns are nice, but since i'm planning on using these in an anti MEQ role and my army has other ways of countering armor i'm not sure Melta is the way to go

Lets talk about uses

• The ability to deep strike (with re-rolls) next to a squad of MEQ out in the open and rapid fire the crap out of them is an obvious benefit
• Deep striking units late game loaded down on points to take a table corner or contest an objective is another great use.

Deep Strike vs Infiltrate VS Outflank

• Deepstrike anywhere on the board with re-rolls on a 3+ isn't too shabby and spending 30 points for Telepath makes that a 2+
• Infiltrate could still get you within 9 to double tap on turn one but that really depends on terrain hiding.
• Infiltrate could also allow you to get a Chimera deep into enemy territory turn one. 12 inch no line of sight could be difficult depending on terrain but 18 could still be helpful
• Outflanking can be a useful tool especially with the astropath giving you a 2+ reserve roll and re-rolls on table edge

I plan on running them in a practice game Thursday in preperation for Templecon next month. I'll let you know how they do.

Battlegrounds Invitational battle report

The Battlegrounds invitational was yesterday, BG invited all the players who had won a qualifying event throughout the year or had scored enough points at those events throughout the year to qualify. A fun event with the best general and players choice each winning $400 in store credit.

Finally getting my ass in gear getting my vehicles painted up to Red Army standards, i still have a lot of detail painting and such to do before it is all ready for templecon. Hopefully Bill who is painting the Vostroyans can get them all done in time.

Here's the list i brought

1850 Invitational

Imperial Guard

HQ 1: Company command Squad 50 + 3 Plasma guns 45 + Chimera 55 + Medic 30 = 180

HQ 2: Primaris Psyker = 70

Troop 1: Veteran squad 70 + 3 Plasma guns 45 + Chimera 55 = 170

Troop 2: Veteran squad 70 + 3 Plasma guns 45 + Chimera 55 = 170

Troop 3: Veteran squad 70 + 3 Plasma guns 45 + Chimera 55 = 170

Troop 4: Infantry Platoon: 5 Infantry squads 250 + 3 Sergeants with power weapons 30 + Commissar 35 + Platoon command squad 30 + Grenade Launcher 5 = 350

Troop 5: Infantry Platoon: 2 Infantry squads 100 + 2 Autocannon Heavy weapon teams 20 + Platoon command squad 30 + Chimera 55 + 4 flamers 20 = 225

Heavy Support 1: Manticore =160

Heavy Support 2: Manticore =160

Heavy Support 3: Leman Russ Demolisher 165 + Multi Melta side sponsons 30 = 195

Round 1: VS Tyranids

I played a very similar Tyranid list 2 weeks ago and didn't do that well against it, this was mostly a repeat of that lol..Lots of Gargoyles,  3 Tervigons, Doom, etc

Deployment: Vanguard Strike Primary: Objectives Secondary: Kill points Tertiary: Vicotry point differential

Psyker powers: Endurance (woot woot FNP for my blob) and warp speed

I went first thankfully, no night fight which allowed me to put a early hurting on him with lots of Manticore pie plates and the demolisher.

What worked:

The manticores and demolisher performed well throughout the game doing heavy damage

The primary blob did well aided by FNP from the Psyker

Plasma and Multilasers did decent damage

Blob deployments ALMOST stopped doom from deep striking in

What Didn't

A ton of MCs was hard enough, with iron arm on most of them boosting it to T7,8,9 it became a near impossible task

Need to remember orders, another round of 1st rank, 2nd rank fire wouldn't of hurt

Results:

Scored 3 points out of 8 on the Tertiary for still having a lot of stuff on the board when time ran out. We only made it to turn 3 due to both of us having so much stuff to move around

Round 2: VS Grey Knights

My opponent didn't have a really optimal list for this since he was helping BG out by filling a slot at the last minute. Huge Draigo with all the goodies, Coteaz, kitted out strike squad, Psyrifleman and Dreadknight.

Deployment: 5th E Spearhead Primary: Objectives Secondary: Warlord in enemy deployment zone Tertiary: Victory point differential

Psyker powers: Nothing helpful, both witchfire powers

I was able to go first again even with Coteaz, dropped a bunch of pie plates from the manticores and demolisher on the Draigo bomb, killed the Apothecary giving FNP with my first shot helping me greatly. Got some plasma fire in first turn so pretty good. Psycannon fire stunned my Demolisher and the Dreadknight with jump back finished it off in the second turn. Dreadkight was brought down by over 100 lasgun shots from the blob. Sustained Plasma fire stopped Draigo and his Paladins from ever making it into assault. My opponent conceded Turn 4.

What worked:

Again the manticores were all stars

Plasma is my friend against 2+ saves

Mobility of the CCS was able to get it all the way to the opponents deployment zone.

What didn't:

The demolisher was brought down early

The aforementioned demolisher hulk and a destroyed Chimera penned up the blob for the most part (need to think about positioning better)

Results:

Max Points

Round 3: VS Sisters of Battle/Grey Knights

My opponents list was 2 Exorcsists, a bunch of lady marines, the ever annoying Celestine, and 2 rhinos. With GK allies of a strike squad, kitted out Dreadknight and Coteaz and some space monkeys. Bastion with Lascannon

Deployment: Standard 12inch Primary: LATERAL table quarters Secondary: Most units in no mans land Tertiary: Victory point differential

Psyker powers: Nothing helpful, both witchfire powers

Went first again even with Coteaz (burned up all my luck in this tournament) used my Manticores to stop his Exorcists from going after my armour in turn by destroying the weapon of one and stunning the other. The Demolisher damages the building and killed a few but couldn't destroy it. His turn one took out my Demolisher with some snap shots from his Multi Meltas. Second turn i was able to destroy the Bastion with a manticore and kill just about everyone inside. Plasma and Multilaser fire opened up both rhinos. The rest of the game was a bit of back and forth blowing up Chimeras and shooting Lady marines, the blob being bogged down with Celestine and her retinue. Last turn i was able to get everything into position for the lateral table quarters but lost my entire blob to the dreadknights flamer and 2 flamers from Lady Marines combined with some assault action.

Results: The Primary WOULD of been a tie if i would of READ the packet better and saw that to hold quarters the troops had to be OUT of their transports lol So needless to say my opponent won. I won the secondary, also won the tertiary by having a few hundred more points left than my opponent

What worked:

Manticores are once again MVPs

Plasma is still my friend

What didn't:

I need to pay more damn attention to the packet lol

target priority: i should of taken out his rhinos first so his ladies would of been footslogging

lost the blob, but i still think it did it's job

My Thoughts:

Company Command Squad with Plasmas still work, the 30 points for FNP i may need to shave off since it didn't do much. Going to be mission packet dependant.

Primaris Psyker Was great first game when he got the powers i needed, other 2 games was a waste of points

Plasma Vets did a great job as usual

Big blob did well, the commissar is a no brainer and the addition of a couple power axes didn't hurt.

The small blob i may just cut, its nice to sit on an objective and spread out to stop deep striking but once somebody gets into assault with them they're gone and before that happens they don't do much

Manticores are still MVPs and will be staying in the list as is

Demolisher was good, Multimelta sponsons weren't that great at BS 3 and 30 points, may add extra armor to combat all the Stunned effects i'm getting
Flamers didn't see much action, could of been poor placement, but this is becoming a theme
High toughness opponents not sure how to combat this, i've got a lot of plasma and STR 10 pie plates already
Flyers wasn't an issue this tournament as everyone i fought had the same opinion i have of them
AV14 dealt with some AV 14 and 13 and it really wasen't an issue with what i have equipped

Dropping Vendettas completely was the right call i think, the TL lascannons would of come in handy once or twice but probably would of sat in reserve until turn 4 and those 130 points were better spent elsewhere in my opinion.

Going forward i need to pay more attention to missions packets (which is obviously dependent on how soon organizers get them out) and i need to put together a 2k list for this Thursday 40k to get some practice in for templecon a month from now