Caledonian Uprising

Pah, the masters was cancelled. I know the invitations couldn't be sent out until the rankings were known but the date of the masters could have been publicised so that likely attendees could plan around it. Nevermind.

So now I am looking forward to Caledonian  Uprising in just over a week.

Caledonian allows forgeworld so my list is a sort of half-way house between what I have taken to the GT and what I was planning on taking to the masters. In short I kept the flyers but cut baron and the hellions for a seer council.

Caledonian List - Dark Eldar with Eldar Allies.

HQ:
50 - Haemonculus
188 - Farseer, Jetbike, Doom, Fortune, Runes of Warding, Runes of Witnessing, Singing Spear, Spirit Stones
388 - 7x Warlocks, 7x Jetbikes, 5x Destuctor, 1x Enhance, 1x Embolden, 1x Singing Spear

Troops:
30 - 3x Wracks
72 - 8x Warriors
66 - 3x Guardian Jetbikes
66 - 3x Guardian Jetbikes

Fast Attack:
304 - 9x Reavers, Arena Chamion, 3x Heat Lances, 3x Cluster Caltrops
304 - 9x Reavers, Arena Chamion, 3x Heat Lances, 3x Cluster Caltrops

145 - Nightwing Interceptor

Heavy Support:

235 - Phoenix Bomber, Nightfire Missiles

Total: 1848 Points

Hopefully I can use the speed of the army to keep it alive and force my opponent to either spread out so I can pick on isolated units, or sit back in a corner and let me control the board. The 8 warriors are there because I couldn't quite afford a 8th warlock and they have enough shots to cause grounding tests on flyrants and the like. 

It does look however as if caledonian may see the return of mech in a significant way. This could cause me real problems as if there are no foot sloggers for my reavers to kill I may not have enough time to pop transports and kill the contents. 

On the friday there is a little 3 game 1000 point tournament: 

I am determined to find a way to use my grey knights so I am going to try this list. At 1000 points it is impossible to cover all the possible bases, people could bring flyer heavy armies, hordes, mech, forgeworld silliness etc so I haven't even tried to.

1000 Points Grey Knights

HQ: 

100 - Coteaz

Troops:

35 - 7x Acolytes with bolters

345 - 8x Terminators, 1x Brotherhood Banner, Assorted hammers and Halberds

Heavy Support:

260 - Dreadknight, Personal Teleporter, Heavy Incinerator, Great Sword

260 - Dreadknight, Personal Teleporter, Heavy Incinerator, Great Sword

Total: 1000 Points

Terminators push mid, henchmen get out their deck chairs and bouncy bouncy dreadknights burn things/ hit stuff/ win me the game. Not a great plan but it will be late and there will be drink for most of my opponents so you never know.

2013 Masters

I really am no good at this blogging stuff so I am going to ignore the fact that I didn't get round to finishing any of my previous tournament reports and just get on with setting up another one.

I achieved my aim of getting an invite to the masters in January. I am really looking forward to it as there is still a significant proportion of top players I am yet to play. The only way to get better is to play them and the masters is a perfect opportunity.

So far I only know that it will be 1850 points. The list I have been enjoying most in 6th is my dark eldar with eldar allies but up to now it has included a couple of eldar forgeworld fliers. I don't have a huge amount of time to sort out new units before the tournament so I decided to try and write a FW free list just in case it isn't allowed so that I have time to get the new units sorted.

Here is what I am thinking for a no-forgeworld tournament. If it works I might drop the fliers even at tournaments that allow them as I think this might be more fun anyway.

Dark Eldar Primary:

HQ:
105 - Baron Sathonyx
50 - Haemonculus

Troops:
30 - 3x Wracks
30 - 3x Wracks

Fast Attack:
304 - 9x Reavers, Arena Champion, 3x Cluster Caltrops, 3x Heat Lance
304 - 9x Reavers, Arena Champion, 3x Cluster Caltrops, 3x Heat Lance
318 - 5x Beast Masters, 19x Khymerae, 2x Razorwing Flocks

Eldar Allies:

HQ:
188 - Farseer, Jetbike, Singing Spear, Spirit Stones, Runes of Warding, Runes of Witnessing, Doom, Fortune
388 - Seer Council, 7x Warlocks, Jetbikes, 5x Destructor, 1x Enhance, 1x Embolden, 1x Singing Spear

Troops:
66 - 3x Guardian Jetbikes
66 - 3x Guardian Jetbikes

1849 in total.

In the last couple of tournaments I have been to, I have had 20x hellions instead of the seer council. To be honest they performed pretty poorly. They didn't contribute very much and have a horrible tendency to run away. They now suffer a lot from the reduction in cover saves, and the reduction of FNP to a 5+. I can't recall a game where they survived and a 30 point wrack unit couldn't have had the same impact. The seer council should be more survivable with fortune and a 48" move.

So the idea behind the list is hopefully not entirely obvious. Nathan on the 40KUK podcast said that he didn't really know what to expect from it and if I can confuse him then hopefully I can confuse most people.

Essentially.. Reavers rock. With a pain token from wracks via baron/farseer or haemonculus they will have a 3+ cover and feel no pain, add in the ability to hide from most of the enemies army easily with a 48" move and this makes them pretty survivable. They on average put out 14 wounds on T4 units when they fly over them, that's as close as makes no difference to 5 dead marines. 2 units on a doomed target (for example wraiths) is a unit gone. Because of the way they move and do their fly-by attacks they project a vast area which enemy units will be very vulnerable in. This often leads to opponents being very defensive. This in turn means that my very meager amount of scoring units tend to be safe. 

I unfortunately have no way of practicing between tournaments so I have not play tested the seer council or beast masters  The way I foresee using the seer council is to soak up fire that would be directed at the reavers. Use the farseer to doom targets for the reavers and getting stuck in to large units such as blobs and horde orks or cultists with the destructors. Unlike the hellions they replaced they are not scoring in any mission so they can be used as a throw away unit and because of their weaponry they have a reasonable chance against most targets even vehicles which is a big weakness of this list.

The beast masters I think will be another element that could catch an opponent off guard, with a 12" move that ignores cover and stealth and grenades from the baron they project quite a large threat range which will help the reavers get me control of the centre of the board. This keeps my scoring pretty safe. Also they can charge flamers and screamers with impunity due to the khymerae's 4++ which is a bonus as daemons can be a pain as I don't want the reavers toasted or tied up in combat by screamers. Lastly they have a good chance of at least holding up more powerful units such as wraiths or terminators etc. sheer number or attacks and a decent invulnerable as well as 5 characters to absorb nasty characters via challenges.

The list can't deal with flyers. It simply can't. However I can only think of one flyer I am scared of and that is the new chaos one with the flamer (reavers don't like flamers). Vendettas can lascannon away all game and I don't mind, the necron ones would be lucky to kill more than 2 reavers a turn and oddly I can out manoeuvre them. A grey knights storm raven would be a pain due to the mind strikes but luckily they suck against everyone else, I know, I've tried them. Most flying monstrous creatures will come down to do damage and those that don't I will simply have to get lucky grounding them.

Missions:

Kill points - This list only has 11, there are a couple of easy ones but most lists have more. However because there are no objectives to go for it is easier for the enemy to play defensively which makes it hard for me to pick them apart, however I am so fast that they shouldn't be able to get much off me if they simply sit in a corner.

Relic - This mission has pros and cons for me. The relic is in centre of the board meaning my opponent needs to go there with scoring units which gives me an excellent chance of killing them, but they can keep all their units together and support each other which can be a challenge. Ideally I will try and kill any of their units near the relic and go for it late game with the eldar jetbikes.

Bore Draw - Hold mine with wracks, kill anything that tries to get across to my objective with reavers and beas tmasters, contest theirs with one of 5 jet bike units.

Standard objectives - One of my best missions as if my opponent has to spread out and come towards the centre of the board I can pick him apart with the reavers. I am unlikely to get more than 2 objectives but with the speed of my units I can contest any objective in the later turns.

Big guns - Similar to above only I may have to deal with killing some tough vehicles, the bonus is that I have no heavy support to give away points and my opponent probably will.

Scouring - Perfect mission, I suddenly have 3 more scoring units that are tough and very fast, even more objectives which makes it much easier to grab some late game.

First Blood - I have some very easy kill points but 3/4 will be in reserve in most games and my army is pretty adept at picking on little units without having to fight through bubble rap and units that would be hidden from shooting. I don't always get it but I am not too worried.

Warlord - This is a big weakness, the baron may have a shadow field but his low leadership and toughness as well as his role buffing the beastmasters is likely to get him killed most games. Can't win them all.

Line breaker - If I can't get this then I have lost by a wide margin and not getting it won't matter.

So there it is, I think I can do well with it and I think it is pretty different to anything anyone else is taking. If anyone reads this, any comments, or suggestions on tweaks (or larger changes) are very welcome.

GT Heat 1. Game 1.

I won't do a detailed battle report for each game as I didn't take any pictures, but I will briefly go through the main points of each game.

Game 1 vs James Meikle
Mission was 5 objectives, deployment was Hammer and Anvil (lengthways)

James was taking horde orks, his list was roughly:

Big Mek with KFF
2x30 Shoota Boyz with 3 rockits
1x30 Slugga boyz with nob
12 Grots
2x10 Lootas
20 Storm Boyz + Special character
2x copters
3x Kannonz
BurnaBomber
Aegis defense line with quad gun

I rather stupidly stacked the objectives in one half thinking that because I had the baron I would probably get that side forcing him to come at me. Of course I rolled a one and he got them. However it was night fighting turn 1 so I could set up in relative safety. Basically my two reaver squads focused on one side of his battle line and wiped out one unit of lootas first turn getting me first blood. The hellions mostly sat in a central ruin and took pot shots at an advancing slugga boy squad.

When the flyers came on they managed to wipe out the other shoota boy squad with their missiles. The reavers killed the grots and the big mek and the hellions finally charged the slugga boys on an objective. wiping them out between shooting and combat after the farseer had doomed them. This left James with no troops and the storm boyz still to come down. We called it there as we were running short of time and he realistically couldn't change the out come as I held 3 objectives and the storm boyz could only contest 1.

The hammer and anvil set up is fantastic for the reavers as there is usually loads of space behind the enemy to maneuver into after doing their fly by attacks. Doom & poisoned weapons and the reavers makes short work of even 30 man units.

So Game 1 win.

First 6th Ed Tournament: GT Heat 1.

So, like a lot of people I got bored of 5th with 6th on the horizon, but now its here and after playing 8 games of this edition it seems good so I'm back. I attended my first tournament of 6th last weekend, the first GT heat at maelstrom. Since moving away from York I haven't really had much opportunity to get any practice games in so with the exception of an intro game in a GW store and one proper game down at battlecult last tuesday I was going in pretty blind.

I left the painting a bit late so decided to take my dark eldar as it only required painting up a farseer and a unit of pathfinders.

Here is the list I took: (only two ravens unfortunately)

1850 Points Dark Eldar with Eldar Allies:

HQ:

105 - Baron Sathonyx
55 - Haemonculus, Venom Blade

Troops:

335 - 20x Hellions, Helliarch, Stun Claw
30 - 3x Wracks

Fast Attack:

294 - 9x Reaver Jet Bikes, 3x Cluster Caltrops, 3x Heat Lances
304 - 9x Reaver Jet Bikes, 3x Cluster Caltrops, 3x Heat Lances, Arena Champion

Heavy Support:

165 - Void Raven, 2x Shatterfield Missiles
165 - Void Raven, 2x Shatterfield Missiles

Allies:

128 - Farseer, Doom, Eldar Jet Bike, Singing Spear, Runes of Warding

120 - 5x Pathfinders

145 - Nightwing (from imperial armour aeronautica)

Total = 1846

The idea is that hopefully people will be taking fewer non-flyer vehicles now, and more infantry on foot. This means the reavers can make full use of their new 48" range per turn to wipe whole units from the board, especially if the farseer dooms the target.

The hellions are still a pretty robust scoring unit, they should mostly just use their shooting though they can assault small units if required. The changes to leadership mean they are far less likely to run off the board. The wracks give their pain token to the hellions via the baron and then hide on an objective. The pathfinders are pretty tough against shooting in cover and the ap1 precision shots can be handy for killing heavy/assault weapons out of units.

The haemonculus gives his token to the reavers with the farseer to boost their survivability. The void ravens are mostly there to take down enemy flyers or vehicles, the shatterfield missiles are nice against massed infantry too if needed. The Nightwing is mainly there to soak AA/AT fire by evading and recieving a 2+ cover save due to its shrouded and agile rules. It does have 2x bright lances and 2x Shrieken cannons which can take down most flyers if they ignore it or can't take it down.

So there is the list I took and a brief outline of my thoughts when I wrote it. I will post some brief battle reports and assess how I and the list did in the next day or so.

Rampage Experiment

A couple of weeks ago I went to a tournament in Bristol run by the Battlecult guys. 1750 pts and roughly a win/loss system. After the GT I thought I would try and experiment a bit with my list and see how it would work without Coteaz.

So firstly here is the list I took:

HQ:

275 - Draigo
165 - Librarian, Warp Rift, Shrouding, Might of Titan

Troops:

55 - 1x Paladin, Daemon Hammer
55 - 1x Paladin, Daemon Hammer

Elites:

176 - Venerable Dreadnought, Multimelta, Search Light

Fast Attack:

206 - Storm Raven, Search Light
206 - Storm Raven, Search Light
206 - Storm Raven, Search Light

Heavy Support:

136 - Dreadnought, 2x Twin Linked Autocannons, Psybolt Ammunition, Search Light
135 - Dreadnought, 2x Twin Linked Autocannons, Psybolt Ammunition
135 - Dreadnought, 2x Twin Linked Autocannons, Psybolt Ammunition

Basically I cut Coteaz and all the infantry except the Librarian and replaced them with Draigo, 2x Solodins and a venerable dreadnought.

That is an 11 model army with 11 kill points.

As it turns out, it is huge fun to play with. I have not played it against many of the more top tier lists so I can't really say how competitive it is, but unlike my normal list, you don't have to protect anything. Draigo will usually make some of the dreadnoughts scoring, taking the scoring burden off the solodins, allowing them free rein to go after deck chair units, vehicles with their hammers or act as tar pits. They performed really well in 4/6 games, getting far more than their points cost. In one game the first paladin held up a whole jet seer council for 6 rounds of combat, while the other killed a turboing falcon with his hammer.

It suffers far less from losing a storm raven early. The guys inside are tough enough to weather most things and certainly won't die in the explosion unlike assassins. I use Draigo as a pure beat stick, just turbo his storm raven at the enemy and throw him at anything. Over the 6 games he managed to take a 10 man grey hunter squad and a 10 man blood angel assault squad, both in the first round of each combat.

That said Draigo is the biggest weakness in the army. As the main offensive threat, if he dies then it allows my opponents to go on the offensive which is very difficult to counter with so few models. He is very tough so he doesn't die often and can scare a lot of opponents in to focusing on him (at one game at rapid strike he chased a full 1500 points of tyranids across the board for 6 turns). When he does die it is a major blow, the two times he died at rampage were both down to being boltered to death, as with anything that relies on a good save, all it takes is one turn of bad rolling.

For an experimental list I was really pleased with how it performed at Rampage, I won 4 games convincingly and lost 2 in very close games. One game was down to me failing the only two 2+ saves I had to make all game on a paladin on an objective and the other game was down to forgetting that tesla weapons are ap -.

I unfortunately had to submit my list to war of the roses before I could test this so I am taking a Coteaz + Raven list instead, but I enjoyed this a lot so will look to take it to the next big event I go to afterwards.

GT part 2.

I left this way too long to remember what happened on day 2 except that I had to play probably my worst match up, a near mirror match against Gaz Donnelly at kill points, TWICE. His list is very similar to mine except that where I fill my storm ravens with infantry he just takes venerable dreads. He also doesn't take the razorbacks for his acolytes. I think this means his list suffers from more bad match ups, especially armies like necrons and tau. It does however give him a massive advantage against me.

All my assassins and purifiers don't do anything against an army of only vehicles and the fact that both games were kill points pretty much gave the games away. Some dice rolls certainly didnt help though I will not suggest they were the reason that I lost (but 3 penetrating melta bombs on an already immobilized and weaponless storm raven without killing it does still stick in my mind).

The other game was against Leon Smith's tyranids, I think Leon played a bit too defensively and never really bothered with the objectives, but it did allow him to keep the vp difference down meaning a 16-4 win to me.

I came 38th overall and was pretty disappointed. Losing to Gaz twice in one day at the same mission did take the enjoyment out of the weekend as the last game was a forgone conclusion as soon as I knew the draw.

Hopefully now I have got the bitter taste of defeat out of my mouth I can actually start posting regularly. I have been to both the 1st Rampage heat and a one day tourney in reading since the GT so I will post brief reviews of those and look forward to War of the Roses at the weekend.

GT Army Pic

GT Army