Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Almost king

So game 1 of Gore Swirl is done. I didn't win.
BUT, nobody else did either. Battle report over at Goreswirl, so I won't go into the details. This game was mine, well probably, but of course when I need a game to end, it doesn't, and(as in this case) when I need it not to, it does.
At games end, the forces were as follows:
Tyranids: whiped, excepting a single spore pod.
Sisters: A land raider still in thier corner, a unit of sisters partially on the objective, and an HQ something dead center.
Tau: ~Half strength firewarriors on objective, a lot of crap back in own deployment zone.
CSM(me): 2 1k sons and Asp Sorc in immobilizes rhino on objective edge. Another 1k sons well within range of the objective and an obliterator and some terms also in range. I had also failed to use my replacements asset.

My plan for the following turn was to spawn the firewarriors, hopefully leading to a flee. Shoot the sisters with my 1k sons and obliterator, also hoping for flee and maybe whipe. The terms job was the HQ. Barring the FWs in the Tau zone making the objective, and the troops surviving my fireing and assaults, it should have left me the dominant force on the table. I doubt the FWs would have moved foward, though they would have unloaded on my rhino, it had been a recent theme.
But alas, all of this is idle speculation, as we will never know what turn 6 would have brought.
Likely a turn 7 which would have ended up with the Tau moving foward and contesting again *sigh*

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Chaos forever!!!

Or at least a while. So, I'm back in 40K. CSMs have changed my melancholy back to joy. I might have been able to sell my Tau today, but since that will never happen...
The game went well. I don't think I can find any fault with my current list. At least not yet. Thousand Sons do go down just as fast as White Dwarf says. The saves are awesome, but they still go down. Nurgles might help with extra toughness, but that ain't gonna happen, so. Marines seem to fall more frequently on this side, then the did on the other, but I think that's a point of view issue. They did take a lot to go down.
Today's game was a three way, CSMs(me), Dark Angels, and Sisters. The Sisters deployed, then me, then the Raven Wing Dark Angels didn't. It was quadrants, with Sisters in the north west, myself in the south west, and the Dark Angels not in the South East. I managed to seize the initiative, sweet.
First turn I rolled blood rage on my dread and he goes tearing forward. I move 1 thousand sons rhino eastward, the other 2 head north with a defiler between them. My other defiler, that was pointed due east at the empty DA deployment, turns north, and heads to cross a hill. My Daemon Prince follows the single rhino and heads toward the hill in the center, which is the only objective. I drop a battle cannon on a unit of flagellants and another on a large soritas(?) unit. I killed 3 flages, and a couple sisters.
The DAs do nothing.
The sisters promptly blew up my dread, officially making him do nothing all game. Still have no idea if I like this guy.(Though thanks to the TEG staffer who let me use his model) The rest was moving foward trying to pick a fight. My northbound defiler also eats it this turn.
My second defiler goes on to cross the hill take a rhino chassis something, lose its gun, get immobilized in combat with 2 penitents, who is eventually kills. Then it just sits there making noise till destroyed on 5th turn.
One rhino got popped by some flagellents, who were beat down by my shooting and lesser deamons. The deamons went on to do some serious damage more than earning their points and place in my army. At just 13 points each and 78 for the squad, I think they doubled their points.
My sorceror died to a sniper shot and me accidentally reading the ASPIRING sorceror line and crying '1 wound, what the hell?' Turns out 3 wounds and should have cause more havoc. *sigh*
My Daemon Prince gets killed on the hill from combined DA and Sister shooting.
My Term squad takes down 2 term squads(1 to shooting on deep strike, another to CC), some sisters, and finally dies to his HQ squad. I think I may switch to dual lightning claws, but I don't know where to get the points. Perhaps the dread...
My Obliterators didn't do a whole lot. 1 did death or glory and Immolater, managing to immobilize it. However, forgot to shoot the next turn, and missed the turn after. Some Thousand Sons were able to finish it off in assault in the end though.
The Thousand Sons were pretty awesome. I love the fluff, and I think the invul and especially the AP 3 bolters are fantastic. I didn't keep track, but I am pretty sure they made their points, if not in kills, in what they held up. I am definately sticking with them. Noise marines keep calling, but I don't think I will like them as much.
The game came out a draw end of turn 6. We would have had a turn 7, but the store was closed. I only had a few sons left and a rhino. He had a good chunk. The main thing for me was that the DAs laid into me pretty heavily, so that at the end of 4, when the DA player left, I was missing a chunk of my force already, where as the Sisters hadn't lost much I hadn't killed. After that it was pretty even, with me mostly holding my own. I think turn 7 would have seen me load the last remnants in the rhino and bunker it out until the end. I believe I was in range to Gift of Chaos his HQ jumper, which would have been my first spawn, and a hell of a prize. I don't think he could have gotten troops on the hill, as they were towards the west edge where they had taken one of my sons squads down. He would have contested, but still a draw.
All in all a good game. Things I would change, nothing. I would have liked to see my dread in action, but its dieing didn't hurt me that much. My first defiler making combat, and my second doing a little more destroying would have been nice as well. Also getting my sorc right would have really helped. Maybe I do need army builder.The Daemon Prince in actual combat, I wish I could have.
Things I liked: my squad of lesser daemons, a definite keeper. I don't see more being added, either to this squad, or more squads, but one is very nice. My defiler(it was my scratch built, too) was awesome in combat, I still like them. I don't miss the pred, the obliterators seem more than capable of doing the job. I do, however, think that they need to be deployed, not deep struck. The lascannon gives them plenty of range, and slow and purposeful means they can mostly keep pace with the rest of my army. The term squad was awesome, even though they aren't relentless and thus can't shoot and assault(need to check this), did some awesome damage. Being 9 strong definitely helps. I was wondering if the rhinos are a waste, but I think I will stick with them, they help keep my sons alive into rapid fire range.
I won't be changing this list much before next game.
On a side note, I found the perfect dice for my army, both in looks and the fact that they seems to roll awesome!

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Chaos Space Marines

Well, I am firmly within the thrall of Tzeentch. I have a good start on my first defiler, I have offered to by another players CSM models, and am discussing what I am to do with the Orks from the Black Reach box.
I have already revised my list a bit, dropping the pred and moving to 9 man squads. The predator I think is a bit of over kill that I don't need. I have my obliterators if I am facing strong armour, I also have my defilers' battle cannon should I need more range, and a dread with a pair of claws and two defilers with quad claws if I need it up close. Also, the 4+ invul of most of my army should help against heavy weapons, with my rhinos being the most vulnerable.
As for the squads of 9, I just found an old White Dwarf(circa 2002) with a chapter approved on Thousand Sons, stating that the number 9 is sacred to Tzeentch, which I had forgotten. Thus, 9.
I should have pictures of my defiler up soon. I don't want to WIP this one, because the process is kinda ugly, and iffy the whole way.