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