Thursday, July 21, 2011

Updating Blog, please be patient

I've discovered blogger templates and playing aorund with how I want this blog to look. Please be patient as it goes through construction. There will be times, links don't work or even make sense. All part of the process. Thanks for your patience and I'll announce when it is over!

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Battle Report: GK vs IG

Capture and Control mission. Pitched battle deployment. Grey Knights vs Genestealer fluff, Imperial Guard. 2,000 point game. 1 objective in each deployment zone, no kill-points, only objectives matter. GK's get to deploy first and move first, IG does not take intiative.

So round one and I'm already forgetting almost all of the strategy I've learned so far in the game. Seeing him set his objective in a corner of his deployment area, I get this sudden urge to deploy all of my forces to take the edge of the table and hold him off. Least thats the plan that pops in my head. Gone is the tactic of "go second when you can" and I totally forget that I can Deep Strike with nearly all of my forces (20 regular Grey Knights and Interceptor squad), so I combat squad one of my 10-man Strike Squad, one to hold my objective, the other in a Rhino to run up the edge.

I send out one of my two Dreadknights into the middle of the table, nearly into his deployment zone via teleporter and unleash my Heavy Incinerator, forget that I could of used my Gatling Psilencer and then didn't cry when it got hosed down during his turn. Meanwhile my 3 Rhinos, 1 carrying 10 Purifiers move all out up the side of the table and blow smoke. My other Dreadknight and Dreadnaught take some pot shots and my Grand Master and Interceptor squad hang out and the GM takes an Orbital Relay Strike to.... nowhere. Yeah, not impressive at all.

Round 2 comes, I've lost a Rhino, half of a 10-man squad of regular Grey Knights, one of my Dreadknights and a couple of my interceptors and purifiers. This was the low point in the game for me. Half my army is taken out, my Orbital Relay Strike now seems like a horrible idea and have to waste it by getting my squad behind cover, cause ZOMG the tanks, I'm nowhere near assault range and I'm barely 24" to maybe a 1/10th of his troops.

The 2 remaining Rhino's move forward and pivot, offering some cover for the squads that are now deployed. Some shots and psycannon shots ring out and some things die, but nothing big, nothing major, no fireworks yet. His turn. More of my guys die.

Round 3 and I am now optimistic. I walked into this game knowing I wouldn't win. Not against my brother-in-law who has played this game forever and not against his IG that was designed perfectly to play against the GK weaknesses. He could outshot me, out distance me, and I had very little anti-tank and he had more maneuverability. But then, all I needed to do was hold onto my objective, even though I knew it would be contested and contest his objective. Another Orbital Relay Strike. Fizzled. Dual Tank Shock! with the Rhino's. Wrecked. Returned fire kills off one of my squads, nearly obliberates my purifiers and only a single guy is left from yet another squad and he's taking heavy fire. Missile launcher on my Dreadnaught goes bye-bye and it is obvious my other Dreadknight isn't a threat.

Round 4. I jump. Too soon. The other Dreadknight that wasn't a threat to him now becomes one and misses as he teleports into the back 40 of his deployment area near his objective. The returned fire... I did not cry. Only 2 regular Grey Knights are left, from different squads, one has engaged in melee assault and is doing well, making saves. The other is making pot shots and missing, but making saves like crazy. My interceptor squad is about to be in trouble and now I've only 1 regular Grey Knight left in my deployment objective. His tanks are coming and has tank shocked me.

Round 5. I breathe a sigh as I survive the round with 1 regular Grey Knight on his objective in combat, 1 regular Grey Knight on my objective and the Grand Master coming in to save that guy from the tanks. The Dreadnaught got in a lucky shot, buying me some time but it is dead now too.

Round 6 happens and the Grand Master is in range of my objective but the regular GK there dies. The other regular GK is still alive, contesting his objective. The game ends.

I have my Grand Master on my objective between two of his tanks. I have a regular Grey Knight surrounded by troops on his objective. Both objectives are considered contested. Tie game.

I cheer, as in this point of my 40K career, a tie vs my brother-in-law is a moral victory to me. I made some serious flawed mistakes, but I am happy to say I held out to the bitter end. I think the best three quotes of the night were:

Brother-in-law in response to like my 10th cover/armor save in a row: "of course you make it."

My 3rd use of Orbital Strike Relay: "What a fu-king waste of points."

My response to the bottom of the third round, when he looked at me and asked how I was doing, my reply: "I'm actually optimistic about this game." The disbelief in his eyes was awesome.

Anyway was a lot of fun and looking forward to our next match.

Friday, July 8, 2011

Dark Eldar, I'm hooked


Despite the fact that I haven't even finished my first Army yet (Grey Knights) or started my second army (Blood Angels), I am hooked on my third army for 40K.

Dark Eldar.

There is some awesome goodness that work so well together in their Codex, it just makes me smile. Here is my first Dark Eldar list:

HQ Choices:

- Duke Sliscus

Let's see, I can Deep Strike my entrie list (as you will see), roll twice for combat drugs, outfit 1 unit of my Kabalites/Trueborn with 3+ poisoned splinter weapons and has a decent stat line. I'm sold.

- 3x Haemonculus
-- 1 w/Huskblade
-- 1 w/Liquidfier
-- 1 w/Venom Blade

Elites:

- 9x Hekatrix Bloodbrides
-- 1x Shardnet and Impaler
-- 2x Razorflails
-- 5x Haywire Grenades
---- Raider
------ Flickerfield
------ Shock Prow
(Haemonculus w/Huskblade joins this squad)

This will be my main assault squad and IC hunters. Like a good Dark Eldar, redundancy is built into this list.

- 4x Kabalite Trueborn
-- 4x Shardcarbine
---- Venom
------ Splinter Cannon upgrade
(Duke Sliscus joins this squad. Ultamately will change places with a Haemonculus in a Wrack squad)

Oh sexy goodness here. I would like to be able to put the Haemonculus with a Liquifier here, but the Duke has to deploy with a Kabalite or Trueblood squad, so this is where I choose to put him. I could of possibly put him in one of my 10 Kabalite units (bringing it down to 9) and indeed may explore this option in the near future. This squad is my hunting squad.

Heavy Support:

- 2x Ravagers with Flickerfields and Nightshields

Troops:

- 9x Wracks
-- 1x Liquidfier
---- Raider
------ Flickerfield
------ Shock Prow
(Haemonculus with Venom blade joins this squad)

- 9x Wracks
-- 1x Liquidfier
---- Raider
------ Flickerfield
------ Shock Prow
(Haenonculus with Liquidfier joins this squad, though could also join the Wych squad at some point to give them his pain token and would love to get him on the Trueblood Venom and have him cruise around with them but will be ok staying on board a Raider as well. This guy could end up moving around A LOT.)

Both Wrack squads are for the obvious assaults and with the Wyches and Bloodbrides assaulting as well, gives me a lot of options or some serious concentration of power. However, the main result here is redundancy.

- 5x Wracks
-- 1x Liquidfier
---- Venom
------ Splinter Cannon upgrade

Another small but deadly hunting squad, only geared more towards assault.

- 10x Wyches
-- 2x Razorflails
---- Raider
------ Flickerfield
------ Shock Prow

This is my other main assault squad.

- 10x Kabalite Warriors
---- Raider
------ Flickershield
------ Nightshield

- 10x Kabalite Warriors
---- Raider
------ Flickerfield
------ Nightshield

Both of the Kabalite Warrior squads are designed to be mobile gun platforms. If, somewhere I was to find the extra few points, I would probably add Splinter Racks to these. In fact, I'm torn between giving the Bloodbrides the Haywire Grenades now, as this would pay for 2 Splinter Racks for these guys. I'll have an internal debate over that one for awhile.

Anyway, what do you all think?

Monday, July 4, 2011

Happy July 4th! And whhat is happening in July?

I started out in June full of aspirations and energy for this blog. It is still all there, but if you've been following 40K Newb, you know only about half of what I had originallyplanned for this month has come to pass.

The main culprit is time. Between work and summer semester at college and one fire after another in my world this last month, I've simply not had the time I wanted or needed to accomplish everything I had originally planned for June here.

Not to worry though! I will be coming back as strong as ever, though July's picking may be as slim as June's was. Stay tuned though for more army lists, work's in progress, and news. Might even have a bttle report or two!