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.

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.

 

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.