Hero for a Day: Game 7- 1850 pts White Scars vs Tau

Game 7 of Hero for a Day saw my White Scars taking on Nick's Tau. Tau are always a tough match up for my White Scars. All the high strength firepower with access to Ignores Cover is tricky for Space Marine Bikes. It didn't help that they would be ably commanded by Nick (check out The Burning Eye for Nick's army and battle reports). 

The mission was Cleanse and Control. This is the maelstrom mission where you draw up to 3 cards each turn. The mission was also using Vanguard Strike. Thanks to the mission special rules for Hero for a Day, the Attacker (Nick) got first turn automatically and I could not seize the initiative. There were one or two gentle ribbings about the fact Nick's team got the automatic first turn in the game. I was not concerned, going second with Bikers against a Tau gunline, what could possibly go wrong?

As a reminder, my army consisted of:

Scarblade Strike Force

Stormlance Battle Demi-Company

Khan- Moondrakkan (with BS1)

5 Tactical Marines- Bolters, Flamer, Meltabombs (T1)

Rhino (R1)

5 Tactical Marines- Bolters, Grav gun, Meltabombs (T2)

Rhino (R2)

5 Tactical Marines- Bolters, Meltagun, Meltabombs (T3)

Rhino (R3)

5 Devastators- 4 Grav Cannons, Combi-grav (D)

Razorback- TL Assault Cannon (Rz)

Attack Bike- Multi-melta (AB1)

Hunting Force

Chaplain- Bike, The Hunter's Eye, Meltabombs (with BS2)

6 Bikers- 2 Grav guns, Power Axe, Meltabombs (BS1)

6 Bikers- 2 Grav Guns, Meltabombs (BS2)

6 Scout Bikers- Meltabombs, 2 Grenade Launchers (SB)

Attack Bike- Multi-melta (AB2)

Stormbringer Squadron

Landspeeder- Multi-melta, Typhoon Missile Launcher (L)

5 Scouts- Meltabombs, Combat weapons, Bolt pistols (S1)

Landspeeder Storm (LS1)

5 Scouts- Meltabombs, Bolters (S2)

Landspeeder Storm (LS2)

My warlord was Khan, giving me Scout for my army. This would be great for closing with the Tau as quickly as possible.

40k Humour- Spoof Codex Reviews

I have recently been writing a number of articles for Frontline Gaming (check out the articles tab above for links to the various posts). 

I wanted to highlight one series of articles that I have been working on, the Army Review series. These articles are a spoof on some fictitious codices that exist in the 40k universe, taking a tongue in cheek look at popular army builds and some of the trends in the game. 

The first article looked at Codex: Grav. The newest race to 40k has grown in power significantly since they were introduced in 6th edition. 

The next examined Codex: Deathstar. Who doesn't love a good Deathstar? This article looks at the Deathstar army and some of the common misconceptions that players have for this most maligned army. 

The latest article is the ever popular Codex; Scatbike. Everyone is aware of how bad the Eldar are in the current game. Finally, the Eldar get a new supplement to make them slightly more competitive on the table, but no so overpowered as to dominate the game. 

I hope you enjoy the articles. Are there any other army builds that deserve some ridicule? Comment below and let me know what you would like to see. 

Guest Post: Infinite Patience- or the long winded road of how I got into playing Infinity and why you should, too.

The second Guest Post on the blog comes from long-time reader, Chris Rhode. Chris is a frequent commenter on many of my battle reports and even suggested that I should get some guest posts on the blog. When I started organising guest posts for the blog, Chris jumped at the chance to contribute. His first (of hopefully many) guest post details his thoughts on Infinity from a long-time 40k player. 

Infinite Patience- or the long winded road of how I got into playing Infinity and why you should, too. 

A Guest Post by Chris Rhode.

Most people that play in a gaming club probably know that guy. You know, that one person always trying to get you to play "his" wargame. That keeps telling you how it is the best and most balanced game ever, and that he'd love to play one or five introductory missions with you to show you how it works.

At least in my club we have him. Don’t get me wrong - he's a great person and he isn't really pestering us to be honest, and if he ever ends up reading this I hope he'll forgive me for painting such a picture, but I'm not exaggerating by that much.

So anyway - let's call him Joe - Joe has been successful in getting everyone in my group to play at least one game of ‘Infinity’ - his baby, so to speak - the only game he plays now that Warhammer Fantasy is dead. And, much to his displeasure, nobody has liked it. Most of the time you hear something like "yeah well, the sculpts are really good, but the gameplay...". 

This is the story of my introduction to Infinity, and like in all good stories, the main character, which would be me, has to go through some low points along the way before hopefully emerging victorious in the end. 

Hero for a Day: Game 6- White Scars/Blood Angels vs Chaos Space Marines/Sisters of Battle

Game 6 of Hero for a Day was another doubles game. This time, I was paired up with Rob (of 30Kplus40K fame) and his amazing Death Company Blood Angels army. We would be facing Jack with his Sisters of Battle and James with his Chaos Space Marines. 

This mission was "Ambush". Rob and I would need to deploy in the centre of the board, at least 12" from all four table sides. The Attackers (Jack and James) would then deploy second, within 12" of any board edge. For this game, victory points were awarded for each unit destroyed; HQ units were worth 3 pts. Elites, Fast Attack and Heavy Support units were worth 2 points each, Troops were worth 1 point each. The secondary objectives were Slay the Warlord and First Strike (like First Blood, but could be scored by both players, but only on turn 1). 

My army consisted of:

Khan- Moondrakkan (with B3)

5 Bikers- Meltabombs, 2 Grav Guns (B1)

5 Bikers- Meltabombs, 2 Grav Guns (B2)

5 Bikers- Meltabombs, 2 Meltaguns (B2)

6 Scout Bikers- Meltabombs, 2 Grenade Launchers (SB)

5 Scouts- Bolters, Meltabombs (S)

Landspeeder Storm (LS)

Khan is my warlord and gave me Scout.

Hero for a Day: Game 5- Kill Team White Scars vs Chaos Daemons

Game 5 of Hero for a Day was another Kill Team mission. This time, my White Scars would be taking on Tom and his Chaos Daemons. 

The mission was "Behind Enemy Lines". In this there would be four objectives placed in No Man's Land (outside of our deployment zones). I would score a point for each objective destroyed, while Tom would score a point for each objective remaining. Objectives were destroyed by controlling it for two player turns (does not need to be same unit, but must be held consecutively). 

In addition, Tom would gain a point for each model that he destroyed and I would gain a point for each model that survived. 

This would force me to try and take out the enemy army and the objectives, as well as not losing much of my Kill Team in the process. 

My Kill Team consisted of:

Biker- Power Sword, Rage, Zealot (B1)

Biker (B2)

Biker (B3)

Scout Biker- Grenade Launcher (SB1)

Scout Biker- Grenade Launcher (SB2)

Scout Biker (SB3)

Scout- Bolter (S3)

Scout- Bolter (S4)

Scout- Combat weapon and bolt pistol, Fleshbane (S1)

Scout- Combat weapon and bolt pistol (S2)

Scout- Camo Cloak, Sniper Rifle, Shred (SS)

My Kill Team leader (the Biker sergeant) got Zealot on the leader table. This would be very handy with the Rage bonuses. 

Hero for a Day: Game 4- White Scars vs Sisters of Battle

Game 4 of Hero for a Day was an 1850 pts single game featuring my White Scars taking on Jack's Sisters of Battle. I had last played Jack in the Kill Team game in mission 2, so was keep to see how I would fare against the full army. 

The mission was "Outflank". Players deployed in table quarters with three objectives on the table; one in the centre and one in the centre of each unoccupied table quarter. In this mission, only fast attack units could be deployed at the start of the game. Any vehicles could arrive on turn 1 on a roll of a 4+. Secondary objectives were First Strike (like first blood, but could be scored by both players on turn 1), Linebreaker and Slay the Warlord. 

My army consisted of:

Scarblade Strike Force

Stormlance Battle Demi-Company

Khan- Moondrakkan (with BS1)

5 Tactical Marines- Bolters, Flamer, Meltabombs (T1)

Rhino (R1)

5 Tactical Marines- Bolters, Grav gun, Meltabombs (T2)

Rhino (R2)

5 Tactical Marines- Bolters, Meltagun, Meltabombs (T3)

Rhino (R3)

5 Devastators- 4 Grav Cannons, Combi-grav (D)

Razorback- TL Assault Cannon (Rz)

Attack Bike- Multi-melta (AB1)

Hunting Force

Chaplain- Bike, The Hunter's Eye, Meltabombs (with BS2)

6 Bikers- 2 Grav guns, Power Axe, Meltabombs (BS1)

6 Bikers- 2 Grav Guns, Meltabombs (BS2)

6 Scout Bikers- Meltabombs, 2 Grenade Launchers (SB)

Attack Bike- Multi-melta (AB2)

Stormbringer Squadron

Landspeeder- Multi-melta, Typhoon Missile Launcher (L)

5 Scouts- Meltabombs, Combat weapons, Bolt pistols (S1)

Landspeeder Storm (LS1)

5 Scouts- Meltabombs, Bolters (S2)

Landspeeder Storm (LS2)

Khan was my warlord. I was lucky in this mission as the majority of my army was fast attack choices, the rest were vehicles that could potentially arrive on turn 1.

Hero for a Day: Game 3- White Scars/Mechanicus vs Daemons

Game 3 of Hero for a Day was the first doubles match of the day and saw my White Scars paired up with Martin and his Mechanicus, going up against Tom and MJ who were both playing Daemons.

The mission for game 3 was "After them Lads". This was Hammer and Anvil deployment with four objectives and 800 pts in each army. Two objectives had to be placed in the central third of the board and two in the attacker's third (the Daemons). Each player draws 2 tactical objective cards each turn (up to a maximum of 2). The objectives in the central third could only be scored on turns 1-4 and were worth more points for scoring on the later turns. The objectives in the Attacker's zone could only be scored in turns 3-6 and were worth more points for later turns. In all honesty, I think we forgot about the bonus points for this game and just played them as worth their regular points.

My army consisted of:
Khan- Moondrakkan (with B3)
5 Bikers- Meltabombs, 2 Grav Guns (B1)
5 Bikers- Meltabombs, 2 Grav Guns (B2)
5 Bikers- Meltabombs, 2 Meltaguns (B2)
6 Scout Bikers- Meltabombs, 2 Grenade Launchers (SB)
5 Scouts- Bolters, Meltabombs (S)
Landspeeder Storm (LS)

Khan is my warlord and gave me Scout.

Hero for a Day: Game 2- White Scars vs Sisters of Battle

The second game of Hero for a Day was a Kill Team mission.

The Kill team set up was 200 pts to spend on your force. No 2+ armour saves, no flyers and certain vehicles were disallowed. The mission was Covert Strike. You scored a point for each enemy model you killed that was within 6" of the table centre and one point for each of your models within 6" of the board centre at the end of the game. Three of your kill team were specialists and could be given certain special rules.

My White Scars would be taking on Jack and his Sisters of Battle kill team.

My kill team consisted of:
Biker- Power Sword, Rage (B1)
Biker (B2)
Biker (B3)
Scout Biker- Grenade Launcher (SB1)
Scout Biker- Grenade Launcher (SB2)
Scout Biker (SB3)
Scout- Bolter (S3)
Scout- Bolter (S4)
Scout- Combat weapon and bolt pistol, Fleshbane (S1)
Scout- Combat weapon and bolt pistol (S2)
Scout- Camo Cloak, Sniper Rifle, Shred (SS)

I decided to go for my numbers with my Kill Team. Bikers and Scout Bikers would be great, giving mobility and toughness for the force. I also took 5 Scouts with a variety of weapons, including a sniper rifle and camo cloak.

Guest Post- Why would anyone play that List? On Competitive Warhammer 40,000

There are many different ways to play 40k. I, myself, enjoy many different aspects of the game; I love a good narrative match or campaign game, and love a game which results in a narrow win, draw or even a narrow loss, as long as it was fun and tense. 

I also love a good tournament. There is nothing better than testing yourself and your army against some top players, trying to come up with tactics and a battle plan to beat your opponent in a competitive setting. 

Recently, I attended Caledonian Revolution. From what I had been told, this was a pretty hardcore tournament and would really test my skills. The first game of the tournament was certainly a swift, sharp education! You can find the battle report for the game here. 

My first game was against Sid's army. It was a proper tournament list featuring two Riptide Wings (6 Riptides), some Grey Knights (including 2 Dreadknights) and a Cullexus assassin. I was thoroughly trounced in that game, getting tabled by turn 5, but essentially the game was lost after turn 2. Despite my thrashing, it was still a great learning experience, Sid was a great player and very friendly and I did not feel as bad as I have done after other tournament loses.  

The battle report received a lot of comments (in fact, all my battle reports from Caledonian Revolution are amongst the most commented on in my blog's history). Many were along the lines of "that is such a tournament list", "that is not fluffy" and "such a WAAC list". Most of the comments were against that kind of tournament list, most simply as it was not seen as fun to play against. This is completely understandable. I see St Andrews Wargaming as a hobby blog. Yes, I do go to a fair number of tournaments, but I think most of my readers are fans of the more casual side of gaming. 

One of the players from my local club (Dundee Wargames Club) saw the report and comments and it prompted him to write an article of his own. Innes is very much a tournament-style player. He had featured in a few of the battle reports on the blog, most recently in a game where his tournament Deathstar list completely crushed my tournament White Scars.

Innes wrote an article about his style of play that I found really interesting. I decided to copy his article here (with his permission of course!) so that it could be the first of my Guest Post articles. You can check out more of Innes' work on his blog, Knight Erratic. 

Why would anyone play that List? On Competitive Warhammer 40,000

by Innes Wilson

‘Why would anyone play games like this?’

‘I’d rather have friends.’

‘That army makes no sense, that would never happen’

I’m no stranger to statements like the above when it comes to Warhammer 40,000. There’s a certain mentality that likes to poke its head up whenever someone starts talking about playing competitively, and it’s one that seeks to point out the flaws in people’s way of enjoying the game. One of the players in my Local Playgroup (Dundee Wargames Club) has a blog, and I’ve shown up on that blog a couple of times now, to more or less the same reaction time in and time out. People don’t like the way I play. And I get it, sort of. Not everybody wants to play cut-throat games of 40k that end on turn 1, need an 80+ Page FAQ document (ETC FAQ) to make it work, and where even the least lore-abiding citizen’s wildest dreams are a reality. Michael’s most recent post (Found Here) features him playing at Caledonian Revolution, a 2 Day, 5 Game tournament which we both attended. The army he played against was 6 Riptides, 2 Dreadknights, a Culexus and some ancillaries. I’ll allow you to read the comments there yourself, but I feel like they’re the prime examples of exactly what I want to talk about, and the reason I decided to write this post.

Hero for a Day: Game 1- White Scars vs Chaos Daemons

I recently attended Nick's 24 hour charity gaming event, Hero for a Day. This day provides seven awesome battles (based on Nick's custom scenarios) and raised a lot of money for a great cause. The theme for the day was a Xenos invasion on an Imperial world. I took my White Scars, so was placed on the defender's team. 

The first game was against Tom and his Daemons. The first mission was Planetfall. This consisted of three objectives in the centre of the board and used the tactical objectives deck (all cards except the objective-based ones, two cards per turn). The attacker's army (the Daemons) must start in reserve, with half the units arriving on turn 1. The rest of the army shows up as normal and the defender cannot seize the initiative. The defender's army had to set up in the centre of the board. 

The first game was 1850 pts. My army consisted of:

Scarblade Strike Force

Stormlance Battle Demi-Company

Khan- Moondrakkan (with BS1)

5 Tactical Marines- Bolters, Flamer, Meltabombs (T1)

Rhino (R1)

5 Tactical Marines- Bolters, Grav gun, Meltabombs (T2)

Rhino (R2)

5 Tactical Marines- Bolters, Meltagun, Meltabombs (T3)

Rhino (R3)

5 Devastators- 4 Grav Cannons, Combi-grav (D)

Razorback- TL Assault Cannon (Rz)

Attack Bike- Multi-melta (AB1)

Hunting Force

Chaplain- Bike, The Hunter's Eye, Meltabombs (with BS2)

6 Bikers- 2 Grav guns, Power Axe, Meltabombs (BS1)

6 Bikers- 2 Grav Guns, Meltabombs (BS2)

6 Scout Bikers- Meltabombs, 2 Grenade Launchers (SB)

Attack Bike- Multi-melta (AB2)

Stormbringer Squadron

Landspeeder- Multi-melta, Typhoon Missile Launcher (L)

5 Scouts- Meltabombs, Combat weapons, Bolt pistols (S1)

Landspeeder Storm (LS1)

5 Scouts- Meltabombs, Bolters (S2)

Landspeeder Storm (LS2)

I decided to go for a reasonable competitive army, but not a tournament style list that I would take. I was keen to try the Stormlance Battle Demi-Company and see how useful the command benefits would be.