Stronghold V- Armies on Display

Here are some of the photos that I took of the different armies while at Stronghold V. There was a painting competition for the armies at the tournament, but very few people actually put out their armies for display and there were no entry numbers for each army, so I was not sure how I was supposed to be voting for the best army. Fortunately, I was planning on voting for one of my opponents in the end, so could just write down their name on the paper.

 

Here are some of the armies I took pictures of during the day.

Stronghold V Tournament- Army Review

As usual with any tournament I attend, I like to do a review of my army to see how well it performed and what could be changed.

 

As a reminder, my army consisted of:

COMBINED ARMS DETACHMENT

Librarian- Level 2 psyker, Bike, Hunter's Eye, Mantle of the Stormseer, Force Sword, Meltabombs

5 Command Squad- Bikes, Apothecary, 4 veterans with grav guns, stormshields and 2 with meltabombs

5 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with meltabombs

5 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with meltabombs

5 Scouts- sergeant with meltabombs

Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus missile launcher

Drop Pod- storm bolter

3 Scout Bikers- One grenade launcher, sergeant with meltabombs and locator beacon

Stormtalon- TL assault cannons, skyhammer missile launcher

Centurion Devastators- Grav cannons and grav amps, hurricaine bolters

Librarian
With the tournament being only 1250 pts, I wanted to go with a relatively cheap HQ unit and decided to go for a Librarian on a bike. He was upgraded to Mastery Level 2 and had the (almost mandatory) Hunter's Eye. As I had a few points left over, I also took the Mantle of the Stormseer to give some added protection against Psychic Attacks.

The Librarian performed OK in the tournament. For most of the games he got Psychic Shriek and Prescience. I managed to get Psychic Shriek cast a few times, but failed to roll high enough to cause any damage with it, and managed to get Prescience a couple of times. I never even attempted to cast Psychic Maelstrom from the Mantle of the Stormseer (I struggle to cast warp charge 2 powers, so trying to cast a warp charge 3 power was asking a lot).

The Mantle of the Stormseer was only really of use in game 1, where Innes was trying to target my bikers with Psychic Shriek. The other games, I was rarely targeted with psychic powers, so got no benefit from it.

The Hunter's Eye performed brilliantly as expected. Using it with either the Command Squad or Centurions ensured that the grav weapons could do maximum damage each turn.

I would say that the Librarian was only essential in the 4th game. Getting Invisibility was a game winner in that scenario and I was actually able to cast it twice in two turns.

It would have been nice to have some sort of Invulnerable save on the Librarian. I kept him out of challenges for fear of losing warlord on him, but this generally resulted in the death of the Apothecary.

I would probably have opted for Khan as my HQ unit if Special Characters were allowed, though I would have been unable to take the Hunter's Eye, which may have affected some of my games. If I was to redo the list, I would probably drop the Mantle of the Stormseer.

Stronghold Battle Report 4- White Scars vs Eldar

Welcome to my final battle report from my games at the recent Stronghold V tournament. So far, my White Scars had managed two wins and one loss, so I was keen to see if I could secure a final win from my last game of the day.

 

The final mission was a special Stronghold mission for the tournament. This consisted of a single, immobile Objective in the centre of the board. Players score a point for each turn they hold the objective. Additionally, if a player holds it for two of their consecutive turns, they also score victory points equal to the turn number. For example, if a player controls the objective for turns 2 and 3, at the end of turn 3 they would score a point for holding the objective, plus 3 additional points. This was an interesting one and I wished that I had playtested it before the tournament. I was unsure if it was better to hold the objective as long as possible or save my troops for the final turns to swamp the objective where the rewards were possibly higher.

 

My opponent for the final game was Fin and his absolutely stunning Eldar army. I had been admiring this army during the lunch break and it was great to go up against it.

As a reminder, my army consisted of:

COMBINED ARMS DETACHMENT

Librarian- Level 2 psyker, Bike, Hunter's Eye, Mantle of the Stormseer, Force Sword, Meltabombs (with CS or L)

5 Command Squad- Bikes, Apothecary, 4 veterans with grav guns, stormshields and 2 with meltabombs (CS)

5 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with meltabombs (BS1)

5 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with meltabombs (BS2)

5 Scouts- sergeant with meltabombs (S)

Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus missile launcher (LS)

Drop Pod- storm bolter (DP)

3 Scout Bikers- One grenade launcher, sergeant with meltabombs and locator beacon (SB)

Stormtalon- TL assault cannons, skyhammer missile launcher (ST)

Centurion Devastators- Grav cannons and grav amps, hurricaine bolters (C)

My warlord trait was Merciless Warrior (re-rolls on sweeping advance). My Librarian's psychic powers were Psychic Shriek, Perfect Timing and Invisibility (I actually rolled it!). Invisibility was comp'ed in the tournament so that all units shooting/attacking the invisible unit were BS1 and WS1. This meant I could still be hit with blast and template weapons.

Stronghold V Battle Report 3- White Scars vs Daemons

Welcome to the third battle report from my games at the recent Stronghold V tournament in Glasgow. With two wins under my belt, I was currently sitting in second place overall, so I knew my third game of the day would be tough.

 

The third mission was Purge the Alien with Hammer and Anvil deployment and I would be facing Martin and his Daemons of Chaos. I had previously played Martin at Rapid Fire 2015, where his Necron Decurion force demolished my White Scars in the Purge the Alien mission. I was a bit more hopeful about this game as Daemons are at least killable.

 

As a reminder, my army consisted of:

COMBINED ARMS DETACHMENT

Librarian- Level 2 psyker, Bike, Hunter's Eye, Mantle of the Stormseer, Force Sword, Meltabombs (with CS or L)

5 Command Squad- Bikes, Apothecary, 4 veterans with grav guns, stormshields and 2 with meltabombs (CS)

5 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with meltabombs (BS1)

5 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with meltabombs (BS2)

5 Scouts- sergeant with meltabombs (S)

Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus missile launcher (LS)

Drop Pod- storm bolter (DP)

3 Scout Bikers- One grenade launcher, sergeant with meltabombs and locator beacon (SB)

Stormtalon- TL assault cannons, skyhammer missile launcher (ST)

Centurion Devastators- Grav cannons and grav amps, hurricaine bolters (C)

My warlord trait was Master Rider, giving me +1 to my jink save. My psychic powers for this game were Psychic Shriek and Prescience.

Stronghold V Battle Report 2- White Scars vs Eldar

Welcome to the second battle report from my games at the recent Stronghold V tournament. After a great result in the first game, I found myself up against Aiden's fantastic blue Eldar army in the second game of the day.
 

The second mission was Crusade with 5 objectives and Vanguard Strike deployment. This is a good mission for my white scars, I could use my mobility to grab the objectives at the end of the game, assuming I could survive long enough to be able to do so.

As a reminder, my army consisted of:

COMBINED ARMS DETACHMENT

Librarian- Level 2 psyker, Bike, Hunter's Eye, Mantle of the Stormseer, Force Sword, Meltabombs (with CS or L)

5 Command Squad- Bikes, Apothecary, 4 veterans with grav guns, stormshields and 2 with meltabombs (CS)

5 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with meltabombs (BS1)

5 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with meltabombs (BS2)

5 Scouts- sergeant with meltabombs (S)

Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus missile launcher (LS)

Drop Pod- storm bolter (DP)

3 Scout Bikers- One grenade launcher, sergeant with meltabombs and locator beacon (SB)

Stormtalon- TL assault cannons, skyhammer missile launcher (ST)

Centurion Devastators- Grav cannons and grav amps, hurricaine bolters (C)

My warlord trait was Merciless Warrior, giving me re-rolls to any sweeping advance roll. My psychic powers for this game were Psychic Shriek and Prescience.

Stronghold V Battle Report 1- White Scars vs White Scars/Mechanicus

This is my first battle report from the recent Stronghold V tournament that I attended in Glasgow. This tournament was for 1250 pts made up of a Combined Arms Detachment (with optional allied detachment) and would be played out over 4 different missions. I have previously discussed some of the rules of the tournament and my initial list for my White Scars.

The first mission of the day was the Contact Lost maelstrom mission. This mission allows you to draw a card for each objective that you hold at the start of the turn, so it is important to try and hold the objectives while also scoring your maelstrom cards. I was hopeful that my fast moving, objective secured army would do well in this mission.

 

My army consisted of:

COMBINED ARMS DETACHMENT

Librarian- Level 2 psyker, Bike, Hunter's Eye, Mantle of the Stormseer, Force Sword, Meltabombs (with CS or L)

5 Command Squad- Bikes, Apothecary, 4 veterans with grav guns, stormshields and 2 with meltabombs (CS)

5 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with meltabombs (BS1)

5 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with meltabombs (BS2)

5 Scouts- sergeant with meltabombs (S)

Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus missile launcher (LS)

Drop Pod- storm bolter (DP)

3 Scout Bikers- One grenade launcher, sergeant with meltabombs and locator beacon (SB)

Stormtalon- TL assault cannons, skyhammer missile launcher (ST)

Centurion Devastators- Grav cannons and grav amps, hurricaine bolters (C)

For my warlord trait, I rolled on the tactical deck and got Master of Fate, allowing me to re-roll the victory points result for a maelstrom card where a random number of points is required. I liked this as it can be annoying to constantly roll a 1 on all your D3 victory points re-rolls for maelstrom cards. My Librarian got Psychic Shriek and Prescience for his psychic powers.

Battle Report 52- 1250 pts White Scars vs Dark Angels

This week's battle report sees my White Scars take on James' Dark Angels army. This would be another practice game for the upcoming Stronghold V tournament I would be attending. I have previously discussed the army I would be taking and my thoughts on its strengths and weaknesses. Based on feedback and another practice game, I decided to drop the attack bike and take some of my Scout Bikers that I had recently finished painting. We decided to play the Contact Lost maelstrom mission as this would be used at the tournament.

My army consisted of:

COMBINED ARMS DETACHMENT

Librarian- Level 2 psyker, Bike, Hunter's Eye, Mantle of the Stormseer, Force Sword, Meltabombs (with CS)

5 Command Squad- Bikes, Apothecary, 4 veterans with grav guns, stormshields and 2 with meltabombs (CS)

5 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with power lance and meltabombs (BS1)

5 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with meltabombs (BS2)

5 Scouts- sergeant with meltabombs (S1)

Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus missile launcher (LS)

Drop Pod- storm bolter (DP)

3 Scout Bikers- One grenade launcher, sergeant with meltabombs and locator beacon (SB)

Stormtalon- TL assault cannons, skyhammer missile launcher (S2)
Centurion Devastators- Grav cannons and grav amps, hurricaine bolters (C)

My warlord trait was Deadly Ambush (giving me +1 or -1 to reserve rolls), I re-rolled and got the same result. My Librarian rolled on the Librarius deck. These new powers will not be allowed at the tournament, but I wanted to give them a go after reviewing them recently. I rolled on the table and got Fury of the Ancients, Null Zone and Emperor's Wrath. Not the best powers on the table, but could be useful in the game.

Battle Report 51- 1250 pts White Scars vs White Scars/Dark Angels

This week's battle report features two tournament lists in a practice game for the upcoming Stronghold V. Innes and I decided to give our respective lists an airing to see how they performed. I would be taking my White Scars (you can find the restrictions of the tournament and my discussions on my list in a previous post), while Innes would also be taking White Scars with a Dark Angels allied detachment. As this is a tournament practice game, I thought I might delve a bit more into my reasoning for certain decisions as the game goes on.

I am also using some new look turn maps in this report. After almost a year of using Battle Chronicler, I finally decided to have a go putting the actual terrain and some backgrounds into the reports. Thanks to Nick from the Burning Eye for linking me the tutorial on how to do this. I think it makes a big difference to the maps, let me know what you think of them in the comments section.

As a reminder, my army consisted of (in red and white):

COMBINED ARMS DETACHMENT

Librarian- Level 2 psyker, Bike, Hunter's Eye, Mantle of the Stormseer, Force Sword, Meltabombs (with CS)

5 Command Squad- Bikes, Apothecary, 4 veterans with grav guns, stormshields and meltabombs (CS)

5 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with power lance and meltabombs (BS1)

5 Bikers- 2 grav guns, sergeant with meltabombs (BS2)

5 Scouts- sergeant with meltabombs (S1)

Landspeeder Storm- Heavy Bolter, Cerberus missile launcher (LS)

Drop Pod- storm bolter (DP)

Attack Bike- Multimelta (AB)

Stormtalon- TL assault cannons, skyhammer missile launcher (S2)

 Centurion Devastators- Grav cannons and grav amps, hurricaine bolters (C)

I rolled for my warlord trait, getting Unrivalled Hunter. I re-rolled this, but got the same result. This gives me +1S and +1A in challenges.
For my psychic powers, I first rolled on Telepathy and got Hallucination, but changed it for Psychic Shriek. I then rolled on Divination and got Foreboding. I decided to keep this after looking at Innes' list; if I was charged by his characters, I would want full BS overwatching grav guns to try and deal with them.

Stronghold V tournament- Initial List Thoughts

I have signed up for another tournament at the end of the month- Stronghold V, taking place on 30th April in Glasgow.

 

The tournament has some interesting restrictions that I think will lead to some very fun games. Some of the restrictions are:

• Armies are 1250 points.
• Armies must be must up of a Combined Arms Detachment (CAD) and may take an allied detachment.
• No more than 325 points may be spent on the allied detachment.
• Come the Apocalypse allies are prohibited.
• No ForgeWorld.
• Selected fortifications are allowed.
• No named Special Characters.
• No Gargantuan creatures or Super Heavy Vehicles.
• No more than 2 of the same unit are allowed in an army.
• No duplicate HQ characters are allowed.
• There are also several comp'ed rules for Invisibility, flickerjump, D weapons and warp charge dice. Unpainted models are allowed, but all units get preferred enemy (unpainted) for the tournament.

As you can see, there are a lot of limits on army selection. I like the restrictions put in place, it means you won't be facing many nasty tricks from formations such as a Decurion, Eldar formations or a battle demi company. As someone who regularly runs a CAD anyway, this won't be too much of a change for me.

The restrictions also mean that I won't be facing any Wraithknights or Imperial Knights (though I believe Riptides are still allowed).

 

The lower points limit of 1250 pts is also interesting. Most tournaments are 1500 pts or, more commonly, 1850 pts. This lower limit means that many choices will be important, as you cannot afford to splash out on all the biggest toys.

 

Based on these restrictions, I decided to take my White Scars. I would have like to take my Ravenwing, but the lack of formations limits that. I also think I would have struggled to build an army with my Orks or Astra Militarum. The limit on a maximum of two units the same per army I think will penalise armies such as Orks, Guard and Nids, so we may not see too many of them at the tournament. The only downside to my Scars is that I won't be able to take Khan.

 

Before I started picking my army, I took a look at my tournament army reviews for Blog Wars 9, Rapid Fire 2015 and the 6s to Hit Doubles Tournament to remind myself of the lessons there.