Video Battle Report 2- Orks vs Sisters of Battle/Inquisition

Today, I have my second video battle report. In this game, my Orks take on Angus' Sisters of Battle in a 2000 pts maelstrom of war mission. 

Thanks to everyone who gave me feedback on the last video, I've hopefully incorporated most of the suggestions to try and improve the video. Some of the changes are:

• Less shakycam!- I got a stand to support the camera, which has hopefully improved the standard of the video. This makes panning the table easier and should help prevent motion sickness from viewing the battle report. 
• More overview- I've tried to give more of the battlefield a view with wider shots and some panning shots during the game. 
• Longer maps- I've made the maps last a big longer on the screen to allow you to take in the details. These have also been made full screen to allow more of the details to be picked up. 
• Background music- I've added some background music throughout the turns to reduce some of the noise interference from moving the camera. Let me know if this is too loud or too quiet. 
• Army list- I've added a title screen for each army with a list of the units. This allows you to get an overview of the force before it is described for each army. 
• More tactical overview- The video is a bit longer than the last one. It is still under two hours, I was aiming for closer to an hour to be honest. However, this one features a lot more tactical analysis of the game, rather than just seeing every dice roll. Angus and I discuss any major tactical decisions or choices as they come up to go through our thought processes as the game progresses. We also have a 10 minute wrap up at the end of the game about the choices made during the game and how each side could have been improved. 

As always, I hope you enjoy the report. If you have any more feedback, please don't hesitate to comment below and help me improve as I do more reports.

Battle Report 164- 2000 pts Genestealer Cults vs Adeptus Mechanicus/Space Wolves

This week's battle report sees my Genestealer Cults take on the Adeptus Mechanicus and Space Wolves in a maelstrom of war mission. We were playing the Kill Confirmed mission, which is the one with three cards per turn and kill points in addition. 

My army consisted of:

Battalion Detachment
Patriarch- Monstrous Rending Claws, Mass Hypnosis(Pt)
Primus- Needle Pistol, Bonesword (P1)
10 Acolyte Hybrids- 2 Heavy Rock Saws (A1)
10 Acolyte Hybrids- 2 Heavy Rock Cutters (A2)
10 Acolyte Hybrids- 2 Heavy Rock Drills (A3)
6 Acolyte Hybrids (A4)
15 Purestrain Genestealers (G)
5 Aberrants- Power Hammers (Ab)

Battalion Detachment
Primus- Needle Pistol, Bonesword (P2)
Magus- Force Stave, Might From Beyond (M1)
10 Neophyte Hybrids- Autoguns, Heavy Stubber (N1)
10 Neophyte Hybrids- Autoguns, Mining Laser (N2)
5 Acolyte Hybrids (A5)
Leman Russ- Battle Cannon, 3 Heavy Bolters (LR)
Goliath Truck- Twin Autocannon, Heavy Stubber (GT)

Outrider Detachment
Magus- Force Stave, Mind Control (M2)
Scout Sentinel- Heavy Flamer (S1)
Scout Sentinel- Missile Launcher (S2)
Scout Sentinel- Autocannon (S3)

I took a good mix of units in my army. The Patriarch was selected to lead the army, as a strong fighter and good support. I took two Primus units to lead in my heavy hitters, the Genestealers and Aberrants. These should hopefully allow the two units to charge from reserve. 

I took the Leman Russ and Neophytes to hold my backline, while the Sentinels could scout ahead to harass the enemy army or block enemy deep strikers. I took a strong force of Acolyte Hybrids. The two small units could be used to block out my backfield and give me enough power level to put my strong units in reserve. 

Hobby Update 27/08/18- Sector Imperialis Terrain

Today's hobby update features some terrain work that I have been planning to do for a while. Over the holiday weekend, I have been putting together some cityfight buildings that I have been meaning to build up for a while. 

I won a Sector Imperialis kit ages ago at a tournament, so have finally put some more of these together. I was inspired by some of the buildings when watching a battle report online, so mimicked some of the buildings shown in the report. 

I based them on 6 mm MDF, that I cut to shape and sanded to fit to the buildings I built. I then added some slate and rubble to liven up the bases a bit. 

2017/2018 Hobby Season Review

Another hobby season has come to an end, let's take a look back and see how I got on. You can find my original post on the hobby goals for the upcoming year in the link. 

I didn't have too many hobby goals set, as I was in the process of moving yet again and didn't want to commit to too much. 

1. Find a New Gaming Club- Completed!

Last year in September, I had just moved to Oxford, so was in need of a new gaming club. Fortunately, I was able to find a couple in a reasonable distance. 

I am currently attending the Spiky Club in Reading and the Oxford Gaming Club, in Oxford, perhaps unsurprisingly. These are two great gaming clubs that provide me with a wide range of opponents for my battle reports and to hone my gaming skills. 

The Dark Artisan- 24 hour charity streaming event

Today I wanted to bring to your attention to a great charity event that is taking part this weekend. Harry, from the Dark Artisan Youtube channel will be hosting a 24 hour hobby streaming event to raise money for Cancer Research UK. 

Here's what Harry has to say:

"As you may, or may not, know I'm looking to do a full 24 hour stream of geek. For 24 hours starting Saturday 25th of August at 9am I will live stream building and painting. I will have people popping in to see me as well as chats on Skype and the live chats on YouTube. 

At first I was doing this because it would fun. Then I thought why don't we all try and raise a bit of money for a brilliant cause. So with that in mind, I’ve set up a just giving page to Cancer Research UK. All donations will of course be going to them, makes you feel good and it'll make me feel good. 

So let's dig deep, everyone go subscribe to the channel so you get a notification of when I'm starting the 24 hour stream. 

See you all soon hopefully.

Thanks.

The Dark Artisan"

Please check out Harry's page and donate if you can. 

Battle Report 163- 2000 pts Deathwatch vs Death Guard

This week's battle report sees my Deathwatch take on Khyl's Death Guard force in a maelstrom of war mission. 

We were playing the Tactical Gambit mission. This is where you have to bet how many cards you will score in your turn (before you draw them) and draw up to four cards per turn. 

My Deathwatch army consisted of:

Battalion Detachment

Watch Master- Tome of Ectoclades, Guardian Spear (WM)

Watch Captain- Jump Pack, Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield (WC1)

Kill Team 1- 9 Veterans with 9 Storm Bolters, two Storm Shields and Chainswords, Vanguard Veteran with two Lightning Claws. (KT1)

Kill Team 2- 10 Intercessors with Bolt Rifles and Bolt Pistols. (KT2)

Kill Team 3- 5 Veterans with Stalker Pattern Bolters. (KT3)

3 Bikers- Twin Bolters, Sergeant with Storm Bolter and Storm Shield. (B1)

3 Bikers- Twin Bolters, Sergeant with Storm Bolter and Storm Shield. (B2)

Battalion Detachment

Watch Captain- Jump Pack, Relic Blade, Bolt Pistol, Lord of Hidden Knowledge warlord trait. (WC2)

Librarian- Force Sword, Bolt Pistol, Null Zone, Psychic Fortress (L)

Kill Team 4- 5 Veterans with two Missile Launcher, three Bolters, Chainswords. (KT4)

Kill Team 5- 5 Veterans with two Missile Launcher, three Bolters, Chainswords. (KT5)

Kill Team 6- 5 Veterans with 4 Combi-Meltas, Bolter, Chainswords. (KT6)

Drop Pod- Storm Bolter (DP)

Razorback- Twin Lascannon, Storm Bolter (D)

Venerable Dreadnought- Twin Lascannon, Storm Bolter

A change up to my regular Deathwatch army. I decided to go with the standard two Battalion detachment, giving me 13 command points in total. 

For the characters, I went with the standard Watch Master, accompanied by two Watch Captains with Jump Packs. One had a Storm Shield and Thunder Hammer to go aggressive. The other, I made my warlord to keep safer than the other Captain and Watch Master. 

I went with six Kill Team, many of which were my standard roll out. The first two Kill Teams had the firepower boost and would deep strike using the Teleportarium stratagem. I also took one with Stalker Bolters and two Kill Teams with Missile Launchers for some long range firepower. I also took a Kill Team with Combi-Meltas. I gave them a Drop Pod to allow them to get into range to use their firepower. 

I also decided to trial out a Venerable Dreadnought to give me some more anti-tank firepower. It would also allow me to use Wisdom of the Ancients to help out the Missile Launcher Kill Teams. I also took a couple of Deathwatch Biker units to give me some much needed mobility for the maelstrom game. 

Video Battle Report- 2000 pts Deathwatch vs Aeldri

Today, I have the very first St Andrews Wargaming video battle report. I've been wanting to try this out for a little while, and managed to get the opportunity this past weekend to play Doug and his Aeldari army with my Deathwatch. 

This was a 2000 pts maelstrom of war game, playing Cleanse and Capture. The link to the video is below:

If you are interested in video battle reports, please check it out. 

This is my first attempt, so please let me have any feedback on the report. Was it too long? Was it clear enough? What did you like? What did you not like? Are the maps a worthy inclusion, or just a distraction? I know the camera work is very shaky in this first one, hopefully, I can improve that in time!

Check out the video and follow the channel on youtube if you are interested to get all the latest updates. 

I am hoping to get a new video made every month or so. Don't worry though, the written battle reports are not going anywhere! In fact, I've got a great one coming up this week, where my Deathwatch take on the Death Guard, led my Mortarion himself. It'll be up on the blog on Thursday, so look out for it. 

Blog Giveaway- Win a Knight Valiant!

The past couple of years I have done a Birthday Giveaway for the blog. This is to thank all the wonderful readers and commenters out there who help make this blog what it is and give me great feedback and encouragement to keep going. 

This year's giveaway was a bit delayed, as I wanted to have time to sort out a great prize for one lucky reader out there. Having just finished my Imperial Knight Codex review, I will be giving away one of the new Knight Valiant models. Check out my review of the Knight yesterday to find out how awesome they are, and why you will want to get one! 

In order to win the prize you must do one of the following:

1. Follow on Facebook

Head to the St Andrews Wargaming Facebook page and follow and like it. Comment on the pinned "Win a Knight Valiant" post and answer the same question: What is your favourite model in the 40k range and why? 

2. Follow on Blogger

Add yourself as a Follower of the blog using the Follower box on the right hand side of the blog (if you are not already a follower). Also, please drop me an email at corrm83@gmail.com with your entry and username (this makes it easier to verify the winner). 

Comment below answer the following question: What is your favourite model in the 40k range and why? 

Be sure to sign in when you comment below. Otherwise, your name will come up as Anonymous and your entry won't be counted. If your screen name is different to your follower name, let me know in the comment so that I can find you. 

For those of you using the mobile site, scroll to the bottom of the page and click "View Web Version" in order to see the Follower app and to sign up. 

Competition Rules:

The competition will end on Thursday 13th September at 9.00 am, so get your entries in before then. (EDIT- the original rules said Thursday 13th August, instead of Thursday 13th September. Apologies for the error, I wanted the competition to run for more than 4 days!). 

When the competition is closed, I will pick one follower at random, who has answered the question, to win the Knight Valiant. You are free to enter the competition on both Blogger and Facebook if you wish, doubling your chances of winning the prize. 

I am willing to pay postage values up to £10 GBP to send the Knight to the winner, so please bear this in mind if you are entering from abroad and are likely to have high postage costs to send you the Knight (I'm not made of money, unfortunately!). 

So there you have it, simple enough! Get entering and spread the word! 

Imperial Knights Codex Review: Part 6- Knight Valiant

Part 6 of my 8th edition Imperial Knights Codex Review will take a look at the second of the new Dominus Class Knights, the Knight Valiant. 

Throughout this review I will be featuring photos of other hobbyist's Imperial Knights. Thanks to everyone who gave me permission to use the photos of their models, and to Chris for giving me the idea in the first place. 

Knight Valiant

The Dominus Class Knight is a beast of a Superheavy Walker. It comes with T8, 28 wounds, a 3+ save and 5+ invlunerable save against shooting. It is going to take a lot of firepower for most opponents to get through that. You can boost this even further with the Rotate Ion Shields, giving it a 4+ invulnerable save against shooting attacks, but this does come at a big cost of 3 command points.

While the Knight Castellan is armed for long range warfare, the Knight Valiant is definitely a close range Imperial Knight, wanting to get close to the enemy army to use its potent firepower. 

The Knight Valiant comes armed with a Thundercoil Harpoon, Conflagration Cannon, two Seigebreaker Cannons, two Twin Meltaguns, four Shieldbreaker Missiles and Titanic feet. The Valiant costs 618 points. 

The Thundercoil Harpoon is Heavy 1, 12" range, S16, AP-6, 10 damage. You can re-roll failed hit rolls when targeting a vehicle or monster. In addition, if the weapon inflicts any damage, the target suffers an additional D3 mortal wounds. The Thundercoil Harpoon is a close range vehicle killer. The massive strength of 16 means that it will wound almost everything on a 2+, including most other Titanic vehicles. While it is only one shot, a successful wound has a good chance of destroying most smaller vehicles, doing between 11-13 wounds. The fact you get to re-roll to hit when targeting vehicles or monsters means that you should get a reliable hit most turns and can save the command point re-roll for the wound roll. 

Imperial Knights Codex Review: Part 5- Knight Castellan

The next part of my Imperial Knights codex review will take a look at the Knight Castellan. This is the first of the new Dominus Class Knights in the new book, even bigger Imperial Knights with a ton of potent firepower.

Throughout this review I will be featuring photos of other hobbyist's Imperial Knights. Thanks to everyone who gave me permission to use the photos of their models, and to Chris for giving me the idea in the first place.

Knight Castellan

The Dominus Class Knight is a beast of a Superheavy Walker. It comes with T8, 28 wounds, a 3+ save and 5+ invlunerable save against shooting. It is going to take a lot of firepower for most opponents to get through that. You can boost this even further with the Rotate Ion Shields, giving it a 4+ invulnerable save against shooting attacks, but this does come at a big cost of 3 command points.

Not only is the Castellan tough, but it can put out a lot of potent firepower. The Knight comes armed with a Plasma Decimator, Volcano Lance, two Shieldbreaker Missiles, two twin Shieldbreaker Cannons, two Twin Meltaguns and Titanic feet. All this for a whopping 604 pts. As you can see, the Knight Castellan is a big investment in an army, but I think in most circumstances, it will more than make up for its big points cost.

The Plasma Decimator is a giant Knight Plasma Cannon. It has 48" range, S7, AP-3 and 1 damage, doing Heavy 2D6 shots. If you overcharge, it goes up to S8 and 2 damage, but each roll of a 1 to hit does mortal wound on the Knight. This is a strong weapon for the Castellan, giving it about 7 Plasma Cannon shots on average. At full strength, the Castellan has little risk from overcharging the Plasma Decimator, especially with a source of re-rolls available, either through the Household traditions or stratagems. The Plasma Decimator is a strong weapon against a range of targets in the enemy army.

Imperial Knights Codex Review: Part 4- Armiger Class Knights

Part 4 of my Imperial Knights codex review will look at the two Armiger Class Knights that are in the codex. These mini-Knights were recently introduced and serve as a good way to bolster the numbers in a Knight army. 

Throughout this review I will be featuring photos of other hobbyist's Imperial Knights. Thanks to everyone who gave me permission to use the photos of their models, and to Chris for giving me the idea in the first place. 

Armiger Helverin

The Armiger Helverin is a new class of Knight that has been introduced in the codex, and gives you a fast, mobile Knight unit with some potent firepower against a range of targets. The Helverin comes in at 174 pts and can be purchased in units of 1-3. Once deployed, they act as independent units, giving you more options on the battlefield.

It has a pretty decent statline for a vehicle. It is T7, 12 wounds, a 3+ armour save and 5+ invulnerable save. This gives it a decent level of durability, and should only have to worry about the high strength or high damage firepower that other vehicles have to worry about. It has the standard 3+ WS and BS of a Knight that degrades with increasing damage. In combat, it has 4 attacks at S6, so decent enough if you find yourself in combat, but that is not where the strength of the Armiger Helverin lies.

Armiger Helverins from Tim Reuter. 

It comes armed with two Armiger Autocannons. These are 60" autocannons (S7, AP-1) that do 3 damage each. Each Autocannon gets 2D3 shots, giving you 4D3 shots in total, so around 8 on average. The high damage of each wound is particularly useful, making it good at taking on a number of large monsters or vehicles. A standard vehicle will only take 4 wounds from the Armiger Autocannon to destroy it. Another bonus of the Armiger Autocannon is that you don't suffer a penalty for moving and firing with it, unlike other heavy weapons.

Imperial Knights 8th Edition Codex Review: Part 3- Relics

Part 3 of my Imperial Knights Codex Review for 8th edition will look at the wealth of Relics available to the army.

Relics
Sanctuary- Bearer has a 5+ invulnerable save.

This is a nice way to give your Knight an invulnerable save in combat, as the Ion Shield only applies in the shooting phase. This could be useful if you find yourself against a combat-heavy force and need the saves in the Fight phase. It can also be used with the Ion Shield stratagem to boost it to 4+ in combat.

Ravager- A Reaper Chainsword that is +8S, AP-4 and 6 damage. You also get to re-roll hit rolls of 1. If the bearer has the Cold Fury household tradition (House Krast), they may re-roll all failed hits.

This Relic gets +2S over a regular Reaper Chainsword and does the full 6 damage instead of D6. This is a nice bonus, allowing you to wound T8 models on a 2+ (on a 3+ with a regular Chainsword). The full 6 damage with each wound is also a nice bonus on the sword, rather than the random damage roll, plus allowing you to re-roll half your misses.

The Paragon Gauntlet- A Thunderstrike Gauntlet that is x2S, AP-4 and 6 damage. If a vehicle or monster is slain, pick an enemy unit within 9". On a 4+, the unit suffers D3 mortal wounds.

This is a Gauntlet that doesn't suffer the -1 to hit in combat. This is pretty good on a powerful weapon like the Gauntlet, giving you a better chance to hit. It also works very well when combined with some of the other combat bonuses that the Knights can have.