Monday 30 November 2015

Medusa IV Campaign- Turn 3, Battle Phase 1 results

The battles have been fought, blood has been spilled and territory has been captured. Turn 3, battle phase 1 of the campaign comes to an end, here is how the map now looks:

 
 
The Ork horde continued their advance south through the forest. While they were having much fun smashing through the trees, they came upon a Tau outpost that promised even more fun for the Boyz.
 
As they were getting ready to attack, they were joined by some Chaos Space Marine allies, newly arrived to the area. The Warboss decided to be magnanimous (not that he knew what the word meant) and let the Chaos Boyz join the attack (after all, once the Tau were out of the way, they could always scrap with the Chaos followers).

Sunday 29 November 2015

Hobby Costs- October 2015

As part of my ongoing look at my hobby costs for the year, here are October's numbers:
 
  • -£11.30 Sold Landspeeder (ebay)
  • -£8.80 Sold Landspeeder (ebay)
  • -£12.80 Sold Chimera (ebay)
  • -£5.36 Sold Catachans (ebay)
  • -£11.70 Sold Chaplain and bikers
  • -£19.47 Sold Commissar and Tactical marines
  • -£5.70 Sold Scouts
  • -£5.50 Sold Attack bike
  • £28.00 Large carry case (ebay)
  • £53.00 White Scars cards and War zone Damocles: Kauyon
  • £16.80 Ebay postage costs
Totals for October = £17.17
Running Total = £930
 
Damn you GW! I was doing so well this month until I read the new rules for the White Scars in the War zone Damocles: Kauyon expansion and picked up the book and the White Scars datacards to go with them. Really looking forward to trying out the new formations and Relics when it arrives. I also managed to find a cheap large carry case on ebay for transporting my Ravenwing in one case.
 
I managed to sell a lot of stuff on ebay in October which helped to pay for the new stuff that I purchased. 

Thursday 26 November 2015

Battle Report 33- 1850 pts Ravenwing vs Eldar

This week's battle report comes from a practice game that I had the night before Blog Wars X. When I arrived in Stockport on Friday night, I had a game against Pete's Eldar army in preparation for the tournament the next day.

My army consisted of:
 
RAVENWING STRIKE FORCE
Sammael- on Corvex (with CS)
Interrogator-Chaplain- Space Marine Bike, Mace of Redemption, Auspex, Meltabombs (with BK)
 
5 Ravenwing Commnad Squad- Ravenwing Company Banner, Apothecary, Grenade Launcher (CS)
 
5 Black Knights- Grenade Launcher, Huntsmaster has Meltabombs (BK)
5 Ravenwing Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant has Meltabombs (RB1)
5 Ravenwing Bikers- 2 plasma guns, sergeant has Meltabombs (RB2)
5 Ravenwing Bikers- 2 meltaguns, sergeant has Meltabombs (RB3)
Dark Talon- Rift Cannon, Two hurricane bolters, stasis bomb (DT)
Ravenwing Landspeeder- Multimelta, Typhoon Missile Launcher (RL)
 
RAVENWING SUPPORT SQUADRON
Ravenwing Darkshroud- Assault Cannon
3 Ravenwing Landspeeders- Heavy Bolters, Assault Cannons (RSS)

As a note, due to the comp rules of the tournament, a 2+ re-rollable save (cover or invulnerable) became a 2+/4+ save. This reduced the effectiveness of the Darkshroud by a marginal amount. My Warlord trait was set with Sammael, giving me +3" to charge and turboboost moves.

Pete's army consisted of:
Prince Yriel (with W2)
Spiritseer- Rune Armour, Shuriken Pistol, Witch Staff (with W1)
4 Windriders- Shuriken Cannons (WR1)
4 Windriders- Shuriken Cannons (WR2)
9 Wraithguard- Wraithcannons (W1)
5 Wraithguard- D-Scythes (W2)
Wave Serpent- TL Scatter lasers (WS1)
5 Wraithguard- D-Scythes (W3)
Wave Serpent- TL Scatter lasers (WS2)
6 Swooping Hawks- Exarch (SH)
Wraithknight- Suncannon and Scatter Shield, Scatter laser (WK)

Pete's force was Wraith-heavy and was going to be tricky to deal with. Putting the D-Scythe Wraithguard in the Wave Serpents was problematic, as he could jump out and most likely eliminate any unit he wanted with their flamers. The Wraithknight would prove problematic too, as my Ravenwing army lacked the grav heavy set-up of my White Scars, but hopefully the massed plasma could deal with it.
Pete's warlord trait gave him -1 to my Reserve rolls and his Spiritseer got Cleansing Flame, Hammerhand and Banishment.

We decided to play the kill points mission, as I thought this would be the toughest challenge for my Ravenwing against Pete and wanted to test them.

Wednesday 25 November 2015

Blog War X- Ravenwing Army Review

Once I have completed a tournament, I like to take a look over my list and battle reports to see how the army performed; what units met expectations and which units didn't really do much in the game. With my battle reports from Blog Wars X now finished, it is time to review my list and see how it performed.
 
As a reminder, my list was:
 
RAVENWING STRIKE FORCE
Sammael- on Corvex
Interrogator-Chaplain- Space Marine Bike, Mace of Redemption, Auspex, Meltabombs
 
5 Ravenwing Commnad Squad- Ravenwing Company Banner, Apothecary, Grenade Launcher
 
5 Black Knights- Grenade Launcher, Huntsmaster has Meltabombs
5 Ravenwing Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant has Meltabombs
5 Ravenwing Bikers- 2 plasma guns, sergeant has Meltabombs
5 Ravenwing Bikers- 2 meltaguns, sergeant has Meltabombs
Dark Talon- Rift Cannon, Two hurricane bolters, stasis bomb
Ravenwing Landspeeder- Multimelta, Typhoon Missile Launcher
 
RAVENWING SUPPORT SQUADRON
Ravenwing Darkshroud- Assault Cannon
3 Ravenwing Landspeeders- Heavy Bolters, Assault Cannons

First off, my results at Blog Wars X were way better than I was expecting. I didn't think I had taken that tough of a list to the tournament and was really surprised with how well some of my games went. I don't know if this was due to some great dice rolling from me and some poor rolls for my opponents, but I don't think I faced any weak armies over my three games (in fact, Matt's army was specifically designed to counter lists like mine). With that said, let's take a look at my units and see how they performed.

Sammael
The Ravenwing Chapter Master was a compulsory choice for my army (in that I wanted to take the Ravenwing Strike Force and needed a special character), but I probably would have taken him anyway.
Sammael was my Warlord in all three of my tournament games (as well as the practice games), mostly due to the fact that he is a tough character (T5, 4+ invulnerable and Eternal Warrior) and for his guaranteed warlord trait (+3" to charge moves). His warlord trait is very handy, allowing me to risk long range charges with a greater chance of success.

His plasma cannon can be pretty powerful, but it does come with risks. In game 1, he almost killed himself firing it during the game, taking two wounds when it overheated. In fact, a lot of the time, I never got to fire the Plasma cannon as I was too busy Jinking with his unit.

In combat, Sammael was quite successful too. He did fight in a couple of challenges, but these were against low level sergeant models. In game 1, he slaughtered a power fist wielding sergeant to help save his squad from harm and took out several of the enemy Command Squad too. In game 2, he wiped out a unit of Eldar Jetbikes in combat and secured an objective on his own. In game 3, he took out some Pink Horrors in combat, but them embarrassed himself by being slaughtered by a lowly Thousand Sons Champion in a challenge.

Sammael certainly works better when provided with re-rolls to hit in combat (he does get one with the master-crafted sword), as occasionally you will roll poorly and struggle to get many hits with him in combat. His strength of 4 is also a bit unfortunate as he can often struggle to take on more powerful characters or even bike-mounted foes.

Overall, Sammael worked very well in the army, only dying in one of the three games. I would definitely take him again.

Monday 23 November 2015

Blog Wars X- Armies on Display

Hi everyone, here are some of the photos of the armies on display at Blog Wars X.
 
First up we have some of the entrants for best army.








Sunday 22 November 2015

Medusa IV Campaign- Turn 3, Battle Phase 1 Moves

With turn 2 coming to an end, the players made their turn three moves, some taking the opportunity to build new structures with their hard-earned resource points. The Medusa IV campaign continues, with the map now looking like this:

Saturday 21 November 2015

Medusa IV Campaign- Turn 2, Battle Phase 2 results

Turn 2 in the Medusa IV 40k map campaign came to an end a couple of weeks ago, I've just had too much to post with recent tournaments to update the progress until now! Here's how the map looks:

Friday 20 November 2015

Blog Wars X: Game 3- Ravenwing vs Chaos Space Marines/Chaos Daemons

Welcome to the third and final battle report from my games at Blog Wars X. Game 1 and Game 2 had seen two solid victories for my Ravenwing, meaning that in game 3 I found myself at the lofty heights of table 1 for the final game of the tournament. What was even scarier was that I actually had a shot a winning the whole tournament!
Game 3 was a maelstrom mission using a modified Blog Wars tactical objectives deck. There were 18 cards in the deck, three drawn each turn and six turns in the game, so you could potentially score every card during the game. The six seize objective cards were worth 2 pts each, the other cards were worth 1 or 2 pts depending on what the card was. Impossible to achieve cards were discarded before the game began (cards that became impossible to achieve as the game went on had to be kept) and one card could be discarded at the end of each turn.

I was exceedingly nervous going into this game, given how high I was placed in the rankings (I must have been either 1st or 2nd). I was even more nervous when I saw that I was playing Matt and his Tzeentch Chaos Space Marines and Chaos Daemon army. Matt and I had chatted during the day and I found out that my army was the exact kind he expected to face at Blog Wars and had designed his army as a counter to it. He had at least three AP3 flamers in the army and all his psykers would be taking psychic shriek (great against bike armies), with Ahriman being able to cast it 3 times in one phase. To say this was going to be a tough game was a little bit of an understatement.
As a reminder, my army consisted of:
RAVENWING STRIKE FORCE
Sammael- on Corvex (with CS)
Interrogator-Chaplain- Space Marine Bike, Mace of Redemption, Auspex, Meltabombs (with CS or IC)
5 Ravenwing Commnad Squad- Ravenwing Company Banner, Apothecary, Grenade Launcher (CS)
5 Black Knights- Grenade Launcher, Huntsmaster has Meltabombs (BK)
5 Ravenwing Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant has Meltabombs (RB1)
5 Ravenwing Bikers- 2 plasma guns, sergeant has Meltabombs (RB2)
5 Ravenwing Bikers- 2 meltaguns, sergeant has Meltabombs (RB3)
Dark Talon- Rift Cannon, Two hurricane bolters, stasis bomb (DT)
Ravenwing Landspeeder- Multimelta, Typhoon Missile Launcher (RL)
RAVENWING SUPPORT SQUADRON
Ravenwing Darkshroud- Assault Cannon
3 Ravenwing Landspeeders- Heavy Bolters, Assault Cannons (RSS)

As a note, due to the comp rules of the tournament, a 2+ re-rollable save (cover or invulnerable) became a 2+/4+ save. This reduced the effectiveness of the Darkshroud by a marginal amount. My Warlord trait was set with Sammael, giving me +3" to charge and turboboost moves.

Matt's army consisted of:

CHAOS SPACE MARINES:
Ahriman (with TS1)
Chaos Sorcerer- Level 3, Spell Familiar, Meltabombs, Skalanthrax (with TS2)
9 Thousand Sons (TS1)
Rhino (R1)
9 Thousand Sons (TS2)
Rhino (R2)
Helldrake- Baleflamer (H1)
Chaos Predator- TL Lascannons, two Lascannon sponsons (P1)
Chaos Predator- TL Lascannons, two Lascannon sponsons (P2)

CHAOS DAEMONS:
Lord of Change- level 3 psyker (LoC)
10 Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (H2)
Burning Chariot of Tzeentch- Blue horror crew (FC)


His warlord trait allowed him to Infiltrate one unit. For the plethora of psychic powers, he got:

Ahriman- Tzeentch's Firestorm, Boon of Mutation, Endurance, Life Leech, Psychic Shriek
Sorcerer- Life Leech, Enfeeble, Psychic Shriek
Lord of Change- Flickering Fire, Cursed Earth, Sacrafice, Dark Flame, Summoning
Thousand Sons 1- Tzeentch's Firestorm, Breath of Chaos
Thousand Sons 2- Tzeentch's Firestorm, Breath of Chaos
Horrors- Flickering Fire, Infernal Gaze, Summoning

Wednesday 18 November 2015

Blog Wars X: Game 2- Ravenwing vs Eldar

Welcome to my second battle report from Blog Wars X. Having won my first game, I found myself at table 4, going up against Tess' Eldar/Dark Eldar army.
 
The mission was the Emperor's Relic; a modified Relic mission with an immobile Relic in the centre and one objective for each player in their own deployment zone. The Relic was worth 10 pts, your own objective was worth 5 pts and your opponent's was worth 15 pts. Secondary objectives were also in play.
This was one of the missions I was worried about , as I only had one objective secured unit in my list (the tournament rules grant Sammael objective secured for this mission), so would have to completely control any objective I wanted to grab.
 
As a reminder, my army consisted of:
 
RAVENWING STRIKE FORCE
Sammael- on Corvex (with CS or S)
Interrogator-Chaplain- Space Marine Bike, Mace of Redemption, Auspex, Meltabombs (with CS or IC)
 
5 Ravenwing Commnad Squad- Ravenwing Company Banner, Apothecary, Grenade Launcher (CS)
 
5 Black Knights- Grenade Launcher, Huntsmaster has Meltabombs (BK)
5 Ravenwing Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant has Meltabombs (RB1)
5 Ravenwing Bikers- 2 plasma guns, sergeant has Meltabombs (RB2)
5 Ravenwing Bikers- 2 meltaguns, sergeant has Meltabombs (RB3)
Dark Talon- Rift Cannon, Two hurricane bolters, stasis bomb (DT)
Ravenwing Landspeeder- Multimelta, Typhoon Missile Launcher (RL)
 
RAVENWING SUPPORT SQUADRON
Ravenwing Darkshroud- Assault Cannon
3 Ravenwing Landspeeders- Heavy Bolters, Assault Cannons (RSS)

As a note, due to the comp rules of the tournament, a 2+ re-rollable save (cover or invulnerable) became a 2+/4+ save. This reduced the effectiveness of the Darkshroud by a marginal amount. My Warlord trait was set with Sammael, giving me +3" to charge and turboboost moves.

Tess' army consisted of:

Prince Yriel (with FD)
Farseer- Singing Spear (with W)
3 Windriders- Scatter lasers (W1)
3 Windriders- Scatter lasers (W2)
3 Windriders- Scatter lasers (W3)
6 Fire Dragons- Exarch (FD)
5 Wraithguard- D-scythes (W)
7 Warp Spiders- Exarch (WS1)
Wave Serpent- Scatter Lasers (WS2)
5 Dark Reapers- Exarch (DR1)
5 Dark Reapers- Exarch (DR2)
2 Warwalkers- Bright Lances (WW)

Archon- Webway portal, Shadowfield, Haywire Grenades (with W)
5 Kabalite Warriors (KW)
Raider- Nightshield (R)

His warlord trait gave him +1 to seize the initiative and re-rolls on his reserve rolls. His psychic powers were Eldritch Storm, Will of Asuryan and Mind War.

Quite a tough Eldar list to face. The Archon/Wraithguard/Serpent combination meant the unit could deep strike anywhere on the board and D flame a unit of his choice. The Fire Dragons would embark on the Raider to deep strike also. Jetbikes are a pain as they are really fast and can put out a lot of firepower. Dark Reapers are great against Bike armies as they are AP3 and ignore Jink saves, meaning my Ravenwing would be in trouble.
Thanks to the +1 to reserve rolls from the Autarch and the re-rolls to reserves from the warlord trait, the Eldar reserves were practically guaranteed to arrive on turn 2.

I won the roll for table side and chose the side with the Ruins to deny them to Tess. I won the roll for deployment too and elected to go first, hoping to hit the Eldar hard before they could strike. I deployed everything forward, the Ravenwing support squadron covering the Command Squad.

In reply, Tess set up only three units. The Warp Spiders and warwalkers deployed in the rocks to my right, with the Kabalite warriors deploying to the left at the back.
Deployment and Scout moves. The shields represent the objectives.



Monday 16 November 2015

Blog Wars X: Game 1- Ravenwing vs Dark Angels

Welcome to the first of my battle reports from my games at Blog Wars X (run by Alex at From the Fang). This was the second time that I had attended Blog Wars, the first being Blog Wars 9 earlier in the year. Last year, I finished 13th out of around 50 gamers, so was keen to see if I could equal or beat my result this time around. It is an awesome event (not just for bloggers) and I got the chance to meet up with some fellow bloggers and some friends I made at the last tournament.
 
A big thanks to Luke (from Darksun Life), Pete and Daniel for letting me join their (rather sizeable) contingent this year at the tournament and for being great company over the weekend.
 
I also have to mention all the wonderful bloggers I met up with (it is called Blog Wars after all);
  • Luke from Darksun Life. I met Luke and his mates at Blog Wars 9 after chatting on the 40k addicts facebook page. It was nice to finally meet them and have someone to hang out with for the weekend. We even faced each other in the final game of Blog wars 9. I lost, but it was a great game. Luke had recently got back into blogging (and started vlogging) after a long absence and I look forward to seeing what appears on the blog from now on (as well as going back and reading his older stuff).
  • Rob from "From the Horus Heresy to Infinity and Beyond". I feel a kindred spirit with Rob as we both started blogging about 40k at pretty much the same time (he beat me by 10 days!). Rob brought a fantastic Death Company army and was a great bloke to finally meet and chat to.
  • Dave from Confessions of a 40k addict. Dave's blog was a great inspiration when I was starting mine and he brought his fantastic Nids army once again to Blog Wars.
  • NafNaf from Objective Secured. NafNaf had his amazing Thunderwolves army with him again. We actually faced one another in the first game at Blog Wars 9. It was a bloody affair, full of terrible dice rolling on both sides.
  • Alex from "From the Fang". Last, but by no means least, the power behind Blog wars. Alex has put on 10 Blog Wars, two of which I have been fortunate enough to attend. I always have an amazing weekend when I have gone and hope to keep going to his events in the future.
  • Everyone else from the weekend who I may have missed and everyone who made it such a great weekend. Special thanks to Leicester Sabres who welcomed me in to the ranks and for the staff at the North West Gaming Centre for all they did during the weekend and for putting on an amazing game of Werewolves on the Friday night.
 
Last time round, I took my White Scars to Blog Wars, this time I wanted to give my Dark Angels a go. As Blog Wars is a friendlier list event (particularly filthy lists are returned to the owners for modification and only 2 detachments are allowed with no multiple detachments such as Decurion and Battle Company allowed), I decided to take my all Ravenwing force as a nice thematic army that still packed a good punch. I posted my list earlier, highlighting my choices and what I saw as the strengths and weaknesses of the list.

The first game of the tournament was good old "Purge the Alien" using Hammer and Anvil deployment- kill one another with Blood Points awarded for killing each enemy unit (equal to the victory points cost of the unit if destroyed or half points if taken below half strength/wounds/hull points).
 
Fresh-faced on Saturday morning, I found myself at table 14, facing Ian and his own Dark Angel's army, consisting of the Ravenwing Strike Force and Deathwing Strike Force, but with his own Guardians of the Covenant army featuring a Razorwing/Doomwing force. This would be an interesting match up; I would get to see how annoying my re-rollable Jink saves were going to be first-hand.
 
As a reminder, my army consisted of:
 
RAVENWING STRIKE FORCE
Sammael- on Corvex (with CS)
Interrogator-Chaplain- Space Marine Bike, Mace of Redemption, Auspex, Meltabombs (with CS)
 
5 Ravenwing Commnad Squad- Ravenwing Company Banner, Apothecary, Grenade Launcher (CS)
 
5 Black Knights- Grenade Launcher, Huntsmaster has Meltabombs (BK)
5 Ravenwing Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant has Meltabombs (RB1)
5 Ravenwing Bikers- 2 plasma guns, sergeant has Meltabombs (RB2)
5 Ravenwing Bikers- 2 meltaguns, sergeant has Meltabombs (RB3)
Dark Talon- Rift Cannon, Two hurricane bolters, stasis bomb (DT)
Ravenwing Landspeeder- Multimelta, Typhoon Missile Launcher (RL)
 
RAVENWING SUPPORT SQUADRON
Ravenwing Darkshroud- Assault Cannon
3 Ravenwing Landspeeders- Heavy Bolters, Assault Cannons (RSS)

As a note, due to the comp rules of the tournament, a 2+ re-rollable save (cover or invulnerable) became a 2+/4+ save. This reduced the effectiveness of the Darkshroud by a marginal amount. My Warlord trait was set with Sammael, giving me +3" to charge and turboboost moves.

Saturday 14 November 2015

New White Scars Rules Review: Part 2- Formations

Welcome to part 2 of my review of the new White Scars rules in War Zone Damocles: Kauyon. Part 1 covered the new Warlord Traits, Relics and tactical objectives cards in the supplement, part 2 will look at the new formations available to the White Scars (and other marine chapters).
 
FORMATIONS
Several new formations have been included in the new expansion book for the White Scars to utilise. These focus on the fast-paced, highly mobile style of war that the Scars are famous for and includes a new multi-formation detachment known as the "Scarblade Strike Force".
 
Stormlance Battle Demi-Company
This formation consists of:
1 Captain/Chaplain (can be replaced by Khan)
0-1 Command Squad
3 Tactical Squads
1 Devastator Squad
One unit of Assault Marines, Bikes, Attack Bikes or Landspeeders
 
All infantry units must be mounted in a Rhino or Razorback at the start of the game.
 
The formation gets two special rules:
Clear and Sweep- provides re-rolls to Hit when shooting at enemy units controlling an objective
Mobile Firebase- allows bikes and jump unit to move 2D6" after shooting and infantry units to move D6" after shooting (unit cannot assault). Also allows units to re-embark in a transport if they can all get within 2" of an access point.
 

Friday 13 November 2015

New White Scars Rules Review: Part 1- Warlord Traits and Relics

I recently purchased the new 40k expansion War Zone Damocles: Kauyon. I'm looking forward to reading through the story and taking a look at the new missions, but my main focus for buying the book was to access the brand new rules for the White Scars.
 
I really like my White Scars army, they play great on the table and it is really easy to put together a thematic force that is still very powerful on the table. I thought I would take the time to review the new rules that have been released for them.  

Part 1 will look at the Warlord Traits, Relics and new Maelstrom cards for the Sons of Khan. Part 2 will look at the new formations available for the White Scars (and other chapters).
 
The Chapter Tactics for the White Scars remain unchanged in the new rules. Considering they are one of the best available in the current Space Marine Codex (at least, in my humble opinion), this is a good thing.
 
So, without further ado, lets get on to the review.
 
WARLORD TRAITS
White Scars armies now have access to their very own warlord traits table that they can roll on instead of the Space Marine table (or Rulebook ones).

 
1. Master Rider
Grants your warlord +1 to his Jink save if on a bike (if not, you get 2 instead).
 
A really useful trait, giving your Warlord a 2+ Jink save (no longer just for the Ravenwing). A tooled up warlord with Artificer Armour, Shield Eternal and this trait will be a tough nut to crack in an army, able to tank most wounds and keep going.
 
2. Deadly Ambush
Get +1 or -1 to reserve rolls when your Warlord is on the table or still in reserve.
 
A very useful trait for ensuring that any reserves arrive on time or delaying them later in the game for some objective grabbing. Shame it cannot be combined with Khan's scouting ability to give you Outflankers that arrive very quickly on the board, so only useful for Outflanking Scouts or Scout bikes. Nevertheless, reserve manipulation is normally pretty great in the game, but there are better ones on the table.

Thursday 12 November 2015

Rapid Fire 2015- White Scars Army Review

Having posted all my battle reports from Rapid Fire 2015, I thought I would take my usual look at how the army performed at the tournament and what could be improved next time. For context on the army review, check out the battle reports from Rapid Fire 2015 in the Tournament Reports tab if you have not already.

Khan
Almost an auto-include in a White Scars army, Khan did very well in my list. His ability to give Scout to bike units was extremely useful in game 6, allowing me to close with the Eldar army very quickly and cause huge casualties in the first turn. Outflanking was less useful, the outflanking unit generally being surrounded and destroyed by the enemy army quickly after arriving, or not getting to arrive at all (such as in Game 3). I will probably avoid using Outflank in the future, but it all depends on the game and objectives.

He joined the Command Squad in every game. I think this was a good choice as he boosted their combat potential. I tried not to put him in combat too often, but they few times he did get in to combat, his AP3 sword and (sometimes) instant death attacks proved quite useful.
 
His new Warlord Trait allowed morale check re-rolls was also very useful, saving my units a few times during the tournament.
 
I would probably use him again in a tournament list (depending on whether the new White Scars formations grant Scout without him).

Wednesday 11 November 2015

Rapid Fire 2015- Armies on Display (pic heavy)

Welcome to my Armies on Display post from Rapid Fire 2015. There were some amazing armies taken to Rapid Fire and I managed to get photos of a lot of them.
 
First up is my own White Scars. I was very fortunate to get some compliments on my army over the weekend, nowhere near some of the amazing standard on display, but very nice to get nonetheless.


Tuesday 10 November 2015

Rapid Fire 2015: Game 6- White Scars vs Eldar

Welcome to the final battle report from my time at Rapid Fire 2015. Game 6 saw my White Scars taking on another Eldar army in the mission Crusade (5 objectives) with Dawn of War deployment on table 10.
I started the game in position 19 on the rankings, just below the half way point- I would need a good result in this game to make it into the top half of the table.

As a reminder, my army consisted of:

Kor'sarro Khan- Moondrakken (with CS)
Librarian- Mastery Level 2, Auspex, Meltabombs, Force Sword, Bolt Pistol (with C)
5 Command Squad- Mounted on bikes, 4 grav guns, 2 storm shields, Apothecary (CS)
5 Bikers- 2 Grav guns, sergeant has meltabombs (GB1)
5 Bikers- 2 Grav guns, sergeant has meltabombs (GB2)
5 Bikers- 2 Meltaguns, sergeant has meltabombs (MB)
10 Tactical marines- Meltagun, sergeant has combi-melta and meltabombs (TS1 and TS2)
Drop Pod- Storm Bolter (DP2)
5 Scouts- Bolt pistols, close combat weapons, sergeant has meltabombs (Sc)
Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus Missile launcher (LS)
Drop Pod- Deathwind missile launcher (DP1)
Stormtalon- TL assault cannons, skyhammer missile launcher (ST)
2 Attack Bikes- Multimeltas (AB)
5 Devastators- 4 Missile Launchers (D)
Rhino- Storm Bolter (R)
3 Centurions- Grav amps and grav cannons, hurricane bolters (C)

My Librarian ended up with Psychic Shriek and Misfortune after rolling on Telepathy and Divination.

Monday 9 November 2015

Rapid Fire 2015- Game 5: White Scars vs Daemons/Chaos Space Marines

After the kicking I took in the last two games, I found myself at the lower end of the tournament listings, playing my next game on table 12 against Jason's Daemons and Chaos Space Marine army. This mission would be Deadlock with Vanguard Strike deployment. Deadlock is a maelstrom mission where you draw 6 cards on turn 1, 5 on turn 2, etc., so it is very important to start scoring points early on as your opportunities to score decrease each turn (impossible cards to achieve could be re-drawn without penalty).

The battlefield looked to be a blighted wasteland with a large building in the centre and a couple of hills and rock formations scattered around the board.
 
As a reminder, my army consisted of:
 
Kor'sarro Khan- Moondrakken (with CS)
Librarian- Mastery Level 2, Auspex, Meltabombs, Force Sword, Bolt Pistol (with C)
5 Command Squad- Mounted on bikes, 4 grav guns, 2 storm shields, Apothecary (CS)
5 Bikers- 2 Grav guns, sergeant has meltabombs (GB1)
5 Bikers- 2 Grav guns, sergeant has meltabombs (GB2)
5 Bikers- 2 Meltaguns, sergeant has meltabombs (MB)
10 Tactical marines- Meltagun, sergeant has combi-melta and meltabombs (TS1 and TS2)
Drop Pod- Storm Bolter (DP2)
5 Scouts- Bolt pistols, close combat weapons, sergeant has meltabombs (Sc)
Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus Missile launcher (LS)
Drop Pod- Deathwind missile launcher (DP1)
Stormtalon- TL assault cannons, skyhammer missile launcher (ST)
2 Attack Bikes- Multimeltas (AB)
5 Devastators- 4 Missile Launchers (D)
Rhino- Storm Bolter (R)
3 Centurions- Grav amps and grav cannons, hurricane bolters (C)

For this game, my psychic powers were once again Presecince and Psychic Shriek.

Friday 6 November 2015

Blog Wars Bound and 500 comments!

 
This morning I am setting off to Stockport with my Ravenwing to attend Blog Wars X (run by Alex at From the Fang).
 
Good luck to everyone heading there. If you read my blog and are going to blog wars, please stop by and say hello, always nice to meet people at tournaments and put a face to the name.

Also, in another arbitrary milestone, this morning I hit my 500th comment on the blog! I promise, only a small fraction are spambots (and only about half of them are my replies)! Thanks to everyone who contributes to the comments, it makes a difference to know that people are interested in what I am posting and really helps keep me motivated to posting regularly. 

Wednesday 4 November 2015

Rapid Fire 2015- Game 4: White Scars vs Necrons

Welcome to my battle report for game 4 from Rapid Fire 2015. This was the first game on the Sunday and I was hoping to add some victories to my tally of games.
 
On a side note, the Saturday night before was when the clocks changed in the UK. Idiot that I am, I managed to put the clock forward instead of backwards. So, instead of getting up at 7 am to travel to Stirling,  I wound up waking at 5 am. Needless to say, I went back to bed for a couple of hours to try and get some more rest before my journey!
 
The first game of day two was Purge the Alien with Hammer and Anvil deployment. My opponent was Martin and his Necron Decurion army. This was possibly one of the worst missions to face against the Decurion. I know from experience how durable the Necron Decurion formation can be and knew this would be a hard fought game to try and wipe out the enemy army.


As a reminder, my army consisted of:
 
Kor'sarro Khan- Moondrakken (with CS)
Librarian- Mastery Level 2, Auspex, Meltabombs, Force Sword, Bolt Pistol (with C)
5 Command Squad- Mounted on bikes, 4 grav guns, 2 storm shields, Apothecary (CS)
5 Bikers- 2 Grav guns, sergeant has meltabombs (GB1)
5 Bikers- 2 Grav guns, sergeant has meltabombs (GB2)
5 Bikers- 2 Meltaguns, sergeant has meltabombs (MB)
10 Tactical marines- Meltagun, sergeant has combi-melta and meltabombs (TS1)
Drop Pod- Storm Bolter (DP2)
5 Scouts- Bolt pistols, close combat weapons, sergeant has meltabombs (Sc)
Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus Missile launcher (LS)
Drop Pod- Deathwind missile launcher (DP1)
Stormtalon- TL assault cannons, skyhammer missile launcher (ST)
2 Attack Bikes- Multimeltas (AB)
5 Devastators- 4 Missile Launchers (D)
Rhino- Storm Bolter (R)
3 Centurions- Grav amps and grav cannons, hurricane bolters (C)

For this game, my psychic powers were once again Presecince and Psychic Shriek. I decided not to combat squad the tactical marines- no point giving up additional Kill Points.

Monday 2 November 2015

Rapid Fire 2015- Game 3: White Scars vs Eldar

Welcome to battle report 3 of my games from the Rapid Fire 2015 tournament. After winning Game 1 and Game 2, I found myself on the lofty heights of table 4 facing up against James' Eldar.
 
The third mission was a special one called "The Emperor's Relic" using Dawn of War deployment. This mission featured a Relic in the centre of the board (which could be moved) and a fixed objective for each player to place in their deployment zone. The Relic was worth 5 pts, while each objective was worth 3 pts.


 
As a reminder, my army consisted of:
 
Kor'sarro Khan- Moondrakken (with CS)
Librarian- Mastery Level 2, Auspex, Meltabombs, Force Sword, Bolt Pistol (with C)
5 Command Squad- Mounted on bikes, 4 grav guns, 2 storm shields, Apothecary (CS)
5 Bikers- 2 Grav guns, sergeant has meltabombs (GB1)
5 Bikers- 2 Grav guns, sergeant has meltabombs (GB2)
5 Bikers- 2 Meltaguns, sergeant has meltabombs (MB)
10 Tactical marines- Meltagun, sergeant has combi-melta and meltabombs (TS1 and TS2)
Drop Pod- Storm Bolter (DP2)
5 Scouts- Bolt pistols, close combat weapons, sergeant has meltabombs (Sc)
Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus Missile launcher (LS)
Drop Pod- Deathwind missile launcher (DP1)
Stormtalon- TL assault cannons, skyhammer missile launcher (ST)
2 Attack Bikes- Multimeltas (AB)
5 Devastators- 4 Missile Launchers (D)
Rhino- Storm Bolter (R)
3 Centurions- Grav amps and grav cannons, hurricane bolters (C)
 
My Librarian rolled on Telepathy and the first roll came up with Invisibility! I continued to roll on the table and got Hallucination and Psychic Shriek. I think this is only the second time I have ever gotten invisibility (albeit a comp'ed version at this tournament) as I rarely roll on Telepathy.