Quantcast
Channel: Battle Brothers
Viewing all 86 articles
Browse latest View live
↧

Guardian Cup 8.25 Warhammer 40k Tournament Report

August 16, 2015, 6:30 pm
$
0
0
Hey everyone, Chaplain Sam here with a tournament report. Last weekend I attended the Guardian Cup 8.25 40k tournament. Aaron puts on a handful of one day 3-round tournaments in between the big event he does annually. I missed GC "Ocho" so I was pretty happy to find out that he was running another event since it's so close to my home. Tournaments that you don't have to travel to attend are pretty dang fun, especially if you are pretty busy otherwise. I said I was sticking with Tyranids for the ITC season so I took my bugs. I've played with a few experimental lists recently but ultimately decided to just stick with the list I've used for my last few events rather than race around trying to get everything ready. Here's my list:


1850 Tyranids

Hive Fleet Detachment
Flyrant - E-grubs
Flyrant
Rippers - Deepstrike upgrade
Rippers - Deepstrike upgrade
Rippers - Deepstrike upgrade

Combined Arms Detachment
Flyrant - Fight Ace
Flyrant - E-grubs
Malanthrope
Rippers - Deepstrike upgrade
Rippers - Deepstrike upgrade
Barbed Hierodule


My list is a little behind the ITC meta now, but I'm familiar with it and it's still good enough to make some noise. It's interesting how many groans I get when I put 4 Flyrants down. It's a fairly beatable list! Especially when my Barbed Hierodule hemorrhages free Maelstrom points. Side note - I played a swarm list before going to the tournament. I've discovered I just do not have the patience to move that many models. I really enjoyed playing with a list composed of a few big nasty bugs.

Unfortunately, most of my opponents had their lists on their phones rather than bringing printed copies. I really like holding onto to those lists for these blog posts so it's a bit of a bummer. I'll describe the lists as best I can.



Opponent 1: Grey Knights

My opponents list was a pretty classic Grey Knights list. A couple of kitted out Dreadknights, a few units of Terminators, and some basic troops running around. Very little anti-air outside of Psy-cannons. My list has about as little AP2 as possible so we had a pretty odd match-up. The match would likely come down to the following things:

  • 2+ saves - How long will it take for my opponent to fail some saves?
  • Grounding checks - Will my Flyrants hit the ground before end-game objective grabbing?
  • Mistakes - Will either (or both) make a critical mistake?
I was able to shoot through those saves with concentrated fire and had comfortable control of the board by turn 5 - All four Flyrants and the Barbed Hierodule were still alive. Unfortunately, I fell behind on the Maelstrom secondary pretty quickly with such little presence on the ground. After my turn 5 (I went first), we were headed for a tie game. My opponent choose to play aggressive and throw a hail mary hoping to win on turn 6 rather than secure a tie on turn 5. My opponent threw a ton of dice at a few key psychic powers and eventually periled, rolled a 1, and knocked herself off a key objective.

6 - 5 Tyranid Victory - An incredibly close, odd match-up that made for a fun change of pace.



Opponent 2: Dark Eldar

My opponent's list looked like it was 2250 points rather than 1850, but maybe that's just my unfamiliarity with Dark Eldar. She had the mandatory 4 Venoms, a handful of Raiders with racks, and fillers. Everyone knows to watch out for Venoms, but I completely underestimated the Raiders packed full of infantry with racks. After dropping a Flyrant with ease, I learned to keep out of rapid fire range and took them out ASAP. I lost two Flyrants and had a scare mid-game where it felt like things were getting away from me, but once I moved the Hierodule up to mid-field I started to take control of the game. Eventually, my opponent just didn't have enough fire power to continue to compete.

11 - 2 Tyranid Victory - A fun, light-hearted shoot out.


Opponent 3: Skitarri, Space Marines & Blood Angels

2-0 so far, alright! Much better than I expected going in. I knew I'd be up against a tough list and a solid player at this point though. I pulled Jeremy "The French Overlord" Veysseire and his Imperial force made up of Skitarri, Space Marines, and Blood Angels. You may remember I played Jeremy at the Just a Games Con Tournament. It was a bit one-sided back then and it was the exact same this time - except I was on the wrong end!

Jeremy's list was included two units of Centurions backed by Skitarri infantry, all in Blood Angel Rent-A-Pods.

Jeremy let me go first. No problem, this makes my deep striking rippers pretty ineffective but it lets me get my big bugs up in the air. Jeremy brought the big guns down turn 1 and used an omnispex and other tools to drop my Malanthrope's cover save and then easily downed it. That left my Hierodule extremely vulnerable and Jeremy took advantage. Then he flipped one of the mysterious objectives and it was a Skyfire Nexus which he used to kill a Flyrant with his remaining units.

Woah! I'm down 900 points before I've even had a chance to shoot at anything (he null deployed). That pretty much sealed my fate. I ended the game with a half dead unit of Rippers left, which snatched Line Breaker for me.

11 - 2 Tyranid Loss - A total beat down!

Well, 2-1 is better than I expected! I haven't seen the final results yet but I imagine I must have placed in the top 3rd given my win/loss record. Another fun event! I think I may be ready to finally mix up my list a bit. I'll break down my ideas in a post to come.

Chaplain Sam signing off.
↧
Search

Warhammer 40k Battle Report #9 - 1500 Tyranids vs. DraigoStar

August 25, 2015, 9:40 pm
$
0
0
Hey guys, Chaplain Sam here. We haven't had a battle report to share in what seems like ages! The truth is we've been play testing new lists faster than we paint/purchase, and battle reports just aren't very good or fun to watch if there's a bunch of proxies or grey plastic models. But we finally decided to stick to fielding painted lists for once so we could do a batrep again. It's Tyranids vs. the Dreaded DraigoStar in a 1500 point Maelstrom death match! I hope you enjoy.

Chaplain Sam signing off.



↧
↧

500 point Ork Lists

September 4, 2015, 2:54 pm
$
0
0
Hey all. Like Sam it has been awhile since I have posted anything. I haven’t been doing anything like buying a house or getting married, but life gets busy.

The local game store is starting up another escalation league. I am a big fan of leagues like this. They bring in new players, build community, and ensure I get in plenty of games. As always, I am bringing my Orks. It might be a good opportunity to start a new army, but lets be honest I have no funds to do so. Also, Orks are just awesome and I still have plenty to learn and need something to motivate me to paint what I have already.

The first stage of the escalation league should last 4 weeks. We are at 500 points and are restricted to HQ and troop choices. Dedicated transports are allowed as long as no face has an armor value above 12. No 2+ armor saves allowed. However, Forgeworld units are allowed. This is a lot of restrictions. But it really is designed to help someone start an army from scratch and not get stomped by their opponents.

I’ve decided on two basic lists. One for friendly games or games with less experienced players and a serious list for seasoned players with mean armies.

Friendly List
HQ:
Grukk  Face-Rippa

Troop:
Slugga Boyz x 10
            Trukk – rokkit launcha
Slugga Boyz x 10
            Trukk – rokkit launcha
Slugga Boyz x 10
            Trukk – rokkit launcha
Shoota Boyz x 10
            Trukk – rokkit launcha

I’ve never used Grukk and figured I would try him out. I think he will really benefit this list with his warlord trait which allows rerolls on leadership and pining checks within a 12” bubble. Other than that, it is pretty simple. At 500 points not many armies will be able to wreck all my trukks before they get into combat and Grukk’s warlord trait should keep me from running or beating myself up. Then call the Waaagh! when it’s time bring da choppa! Shoota boyz hang back and grab any objectives or join the main assault.

Competitive List
HQ:
Zhadsnark Da Rippa
Painboy - Warbike

Troops:
Warbikes x 9
Warbikes x 3
Warbikes x 3

Pretty straight foreword and mean list here, especially at this points level. Mini deathstar of bikes with 2+ jink save after turbo boosting. Unless I am fighting Tau, or something else that just removes cover, you are just plain dead. Psychic shriek could do me in a bit, but other than that I am not too worried about anything: if needed I will adjust how many bikes are in each unit.

Those are my two lists for the next little while. I might try something from the Dred Mob list for fun, but I think bringing my Meka Dread with armor 13 might be unfair with the rules as stated above. I may change things up just for fun but I think I will use mostly these. Thanks for reading and any suggestions are appreciated.



↧

Competitive Tyranid Units - Mawlocs

September 5, 2015, 2:38 pm
$
0
0
Hey folks, Chaplain Sam here.

So I think about competitive Tyranid lists and/or write lists pretty frequently. The one unit I keep revisiting is Mawlocs. These are the three main points I juggle around in my head:


1) - Terror from the Deep - AP2 Ignores Cover

AP2 attacks that ignore cover aren't very common in 40k, at least not without help from psychic powers or war gear. I think everyone knows the feeling when you fire off a Lascannon at a marine sitting in ruins hoping to vaporize the bastard only to have your opponent hit that 4+ cover save. Similarly, most template weapons don't have a low enough AP value to get through a target's armor even if they ignoring the cover. The point I'm trying to make is that weapons are much more useful when they ignore armor and cover (duh, I know). What's the point in bypassing one save when the target just gets another, even if it's not as good. That's why I've often felt that it's better to just blast things with high strength AP- weapons, especially since you usually save points by avoiding the AP 2/3 premium. That strategy starts to break down though when you face units with re-rollable saves (Ork BikeStar, Ravenwing, etc.) and/or stacking "saves" like Feel No Pain or Reanimation Protocols. You can't just blast everything off the board with Flyrants, stacking and re-rollable saves are too hard to get through. But if I'm going to try to get through the armor I want to ignore cover as well. Enter the Mawloc.

Terror from the Deep (TftD) is a strength 6 AP2, ignores cover, large blast. Basically the Mawloc uses the deep strike rule to burst from the ground underneath units and eat them. If anything is still left in the way of placing the Mawloc, pop down another pie plate for another round of S6 AP2 ignore cover hits. Next turn you can burrow into ongoing reserves and then use TftD the following turn. All pro's so far, but because the attack uses the deep strike rule the attack it scatters the full distance rather than reducing the distance by the unit's ballistic skill. That makes it rather unreliable (33% chance for a direct hit) and you'll only ever get 3 uses of the attack assuming the Mawloc enters the game turn 2 or 3 and the game continues to turn 6 or 7 (oh, and it doesn't die). Basically half as often as you get to shoot a normal ranged weapon.

So that boils down to an average of one direct hit per game, but if you target larger units it can be significantly more effective than that and that doesn't account for scatters of 2 or 3 inches which generally still kill something. Another consideration is that this is one of the few abilities the largely ignores invisibility which can be a pain to deal with.

2) - Durability

140 points for a T6 W6 3+ monstrous creature is pretty darn cheap. Yes, it will fold like wet paper to grav weapons and D weapons, but most things will. In an army that is so heavily depends on Flyrants, it's really helpful and important to have durable units on the ground to contest and secure objectives. Point-for-point, the Mawloc is very, very durable.

3) - Mobility

Mobility and flexibility is absolutely game winning. Mawlocs have the ability to enter the game anywhere on the board, then return into ongoing reserves and redeploy in an entirely different spot. With Hit-and-run it's likely that Mawlocs will be able to do this freely all game until they are killed. They can jump onto new objectives, deepstrike into your opponent's back field for line breaker, or chase around a gating DraigoStar and pound it with TftD all game. Being able to start off the board and still be effective is also useful if the rest of your army is built to avoid a nasty alpha strike, which I think is becoming more and more important with the growing popularity of drop pod super-friends armies. They aren't Jet Bikes flying around all game, but they are pretty mobile and flexible.

So where does that leave the Mawloc?


  • Somewhat offensively limited, but more effective against units that other key Tyranid unit struggle with (2+ armor, great cover, re rolling saves, invisible units)
  • Efficient durability against traditional attacks, but concentrated points in a single model leaves the Mawloc vulnerable to grav and D weapons (as opposed to 140 points of Termagants)
  • Mobile, flexible, and can be a part of an effective null deploy list

I'm going to start including Mawlocs in my lists again. I think the a core of Flyrants and Mawlocs is among the best Tyranids have to offer right now. They are unreliable and will fail horribly some games, but whadda-ya-gonna-do. Also - I didn't talk about using Lictors to boost the effectiveness of Mawlocs because I'm not a huge believer in that synergy. I could see it working with 4+ Lictors, but it seems like with any less you could easily pop the Lictors before the Mawlocs came in, that's pure Theory Hammer though.

Thoughts? What do you guys think? Here is a fun thought: would you rather have four Mawlocs or one Barbed Hierodule? There is only a five point difference.

Chaplain Sam signing off.



↧

Warhammer 40k Tournament Report - Battle for the Belt at Mugu Games

September 17, 2015, 5:36 pm
$
0
0
What's up everyone, Chaplain Sam here. I spent this past weekend up in Everett, WA for the Battle for the Belt tournament at Mugu Games. I, of course, brought my Tyranids. I'm committed to sticking with them for the entirety of the ITC season, though it would be nice to play something else at a non-ITC event. This was my 5th event of the ITC season and 6th in the calendar year, so I've exceeded the goal (4 events) I set for myself at the beginning of the year. Here is the list I brought to the event:

Tyranid CAD
Flyrant - E-grubs, Fighter Ace
Flyrant - E-grubs
Malanthrope
Venomthrope
Lictor
Rippers
Rippers
Mawloc
Mawloc
Mawloc
Bunker - Comms Relay

Tyranid CAD
Flyrant - E-grubs
Flyrant - E-grubs
Rippers
Rippers

1850 points of buggy goodness! Basically this list just served as a test for a few units and strategies I wanted to try. It's not the goal list I had in mind, but I was limited by the models I had painted and ready to go.



Round 1
Mission - Purge the Alien and Modified Maelstrom
Opponent - Imperial Knights + AdMech

My opponent was running three Imperial Knights as part of the Baronial Court formation and a bunch of Kataphron Destroyer/Breachers. The Knights were all kitted out for shooting, including Skyfire weapon options. I thought that this should be a pretty interesting match up because the mission was kill points, and I had significantly more squishy easy-to-kill units than he did, putting me at a disadvantage. On the otherhand, in the ITC you score 1 Maelstrom point for every 3 hulls points you strip off of a super heavy. That meant that I could basically focus on nothing but killing stuff and grabbing easy Maelstrom objectives as they came along. I wouldn't need to stress about grabbing and preventing every Maelstrom point, assuming I was able to put down a few or all of the Knights. My opponent won the roll off and chose to go first, fine by me. I deployed the Flyrants with the 'Thropes for cover and hunkered down hoping to avoid any significant loses in the first volley. Everything else was in reserves. With 2+ cover I only lost a few wounds. The next few turns I was able to fly pretty much unharmed and start knocking off Knights. The rest of his army was stuck in reserves and didn't come in until turn 4. He dropped them in next to the Lictor and opened fire, likely planning to easily remove it. I went to ground in ruins, so with the Lictor's Stealth rule I was enjoying a cool 2+ cover save. The Lictor lived! Next turn a few Mawlocs erased the Kataphrons thanks to the help of the Lictor guiding them in. That was pretty much game at that point. All in all a pretty one-sided game. I'm not above admitting that my opponent had below average dice rolls, but I think I played the scenario as well as I could have.

11-0 Tyranid Victory


Round 2
Mission - Scouring and Modified Maelstrom
Opponent - Chaos Renegades + Daemons

My opponent was running the Forge World Chaos Renegades with a Chaos Imperial Knight, hordes of zombies, two Soul Grinders, three Earth Shaker artillery units, a Harald and some Daemon infantry sprinkled in. The point of his list was basically to flood the board with cheap, cheap units (zombies are like 3 points and come with 4+ Feel No Pain), summon more units, and then run around an invulnerable Knight with some Soul Grinder buddies. The Chaos Knight comes with a 5++ daemon save and then he would toss Grimoire on it for a 2++ shield facing and a 3++ all around. Really, really nasty. Probably the point-for-point the most durable list I've ever faced.

His deployment was truly excellent. He stuck his juicy units in a corner, like his Warlord and the Herald with the Grimoire, and then a swarm of zombies or cheap Daemons with the Knight and Soul Grinders up front. He made sure that I didn't have a place to set my Flyrants down close enough to shoot anything of note. I was stuck shooting 3 point zombies or an invulnerable Chaos Knight. He also deployed the best targets on the second level of ruins and buildings so my Mawlocs would be of no help either. It didn't help that I lost two Mawlocs to the dreaded "1" on the deep strike mishap table. Then his giant swarm of bodies slowly moved forward and grew as he summoned more units. I kept it close in the Maestrom game by capitalizing on a few mistakes he made by leaving me enough space to sneak some objective secured rippers on some objectives, but other than that it was brutally one-sided. He was a great player and I tip my hat to him. He had a strong list, but he really beat me with his deployment and strategy.

0-10 Tyranid Loss

Round 3
Mission - Crusade and Modified Maelstrom
Opponent - Dark Angels Battle Company

This was my first opportunity to play against a Battle Company list. Good god! So many vehicles and units, it was pretty impressive. I think Battle Company lists are really cool because they aren't insanely "killy" and there aren't any death stars that are impossible to kill. It makes the game fun for both sides because everyone gets an opportunity to roll some dice and kill something.

My opponent reserved basically his entire army, which I thought was an interesting tactic. I get that it gives him the opportunity to flood the board late, grab objectives, and leave me little time to kill stuff. However, it also gives me the opportunity to combat his army piece meal, which isn't nearly as overwhelming as when the whole Battle Company is on the board.

I just focused on killing razorbacks are they came in, trying to pop them before they had a chance to move up the board so that the infantry inside would be stuck walking and therefore have little impact on the game. I also shot up the drop pods that landed next to objectives and ignored the ones that didn't. Surprisingly, I was up on the Maelstrom pretty much the whole game. The combination of the Rippers, Mawlocs, and the Bunker give me a pretty good ground presence that can get around the board. At one point my opponent rushed the Lictor camped in ruins but was unable to kill it because of the 2+ cover save. Just like game 1, the Mawlocs made him pay for it. By the last few turns the game was decided, but the final score was still in question. Unfortunately, he was able to tie up the primary mission in the last turn. The massive amount of objective secured units finally paid off for him! I snagged all three bonus missions and the Maelstrom secondary.

7-1 Tyranid Victory.

At the end of the day I finished 6th or 22 people. Not a bad showing!

Key Take-Aways

  • Mawlocs - Overall, I think the Mawlocs had a solid showing. My best mission in all three games was the Maelstrom surprisingly, and the Mawlocs were a big part of that. It helped a lot just to have more ground presence. Their ability to deploy anywhere on the board by deep striking helped a lot too. They weren't especially lethal unless guided in by a Lictor, but their durability paid off in most instances. All in all, I think it was a solid performance by the Mawlocs. I will continue to build around them and the Flyrants.
  • Lictors - My lone Lictor surprised me! They are actually pretty durable in cover with three wounds, built-in stealth, and the ability to go to ground. In two of my games my opponents underestimated the Lictor and it led directly to a face pounding by the Mawlocs. I also really valued the ability to infiltrate some units forward. I found it very useful to have some units mid-field early in the game. I ordered a few more of these guys. I'd like to try running 4+.
  • Bunker - Surprisingly, the durability of the bunker was more useful than the comms relay, which is what I originally took it for. The venomthrope camped out in the bunker held the objective in my own deployment zone for 90% of the time throughout all three of my games. AV14 buildings are no joke and they have a tendency to last because they just aren't a priority for people to take out. I think I'll explore taking a Vengeance Weapon Battery because you can actually field two AV14 buildings and they can hold objectives without units camped inside.

Anywho, it was fun tournament and I am glad I was able to attend. I'm looking forward to trying out some new combos!

Chaplain Sam signing off.
↧
↧

Hobby Update

January 30, 2016, 6:37 pm
$
0
0
What's up 40k players! Chaplain Sam here. I've been away for a while doing other stuff but I recently got the itch to start blogging again. Even though I haven't been blogging I've still be getting my hobby on. For my first post back in action I figured I'd share what I've been up to lately. Some of you may remember that I tend to start about one new army a year. I don't plan it that way intentionally but it seems to be the case for whatever reason. Here is the historical break down of my 40k hobby/career.

  • 2012 - Blood Angels
  • 2013 - Tau (sold off)
  • 2014 - Tyranids
  • 2015 - Space Wolves
  • 2016 - See big reveal below
I never quite finished my Space Wolves collection. I have a handful of models that are just primed or in various stages of completion but it's very playable and the army as a whole is basically painted. I will say that the Wulfen have really caught my eye though. I think they would fit in well with my otherwise entirely mounted Space Wolves army. You can see my Space wolves in the picture below, not very close up but you get the idea. I couldn't bring myself to pull them all out for a picture.



So that takes us to 2016. Well, I sold my Tau off as noted above and I've never really regretted it because I fell "out of love" with the paint scheme. I'm not a re-painter. Frankly, I'd rather just start over. That is just what I'm doing! I'm returning to Tau in 2016. It's also going to be the first army I try using an airbrush to paint. Here is where I am at so far:





Apologies for the mountain of black primed models, but I started building before settling on a paint scheme I liked. I also have a second XV104, a handful of old XV8s and the new Commander. They were too ugly at this stage to include in the picture, ha! I've finally decided on a scheme and I plan on ordering the paints I'll need pretty soon. Here's my inspiration:


Ignore the overall "awesomeness" of the model in the picture. I'll never be able to swing that. I really like the green with edge highlights and green and black accents, which is what I'll be going for. Just for fun here is what my old Tau collection looked like:






I have to admit that looking at it again makes me a bit nostalgic. Still, I'm very excited about the new collection. I'm a sucker for themed collections (exhibit A: Thunderwolf Army), so this collection will be exclusively battle suits and drones.

Other than that I've still been playing games and attending tournaments. The last ITC event I went to was Guardian Cup 8.5. I took my Tyranids, as promised, and ended up going 2-1 which was good for 8th of 24 people. Not too shabby! There is a game store just down the street from my new place that runs tournaments as well so I've attended a few of their events (non-ITC). The first time I took my Space Wolves and went 1-2 (yikes). Chris came as well and ended up placing second. He was just a few rolls from winning. The second time I took my Tyranids and ended up winning the whole thing for my first tournament win. Chris and I ended up playing for the top spot! He groaned audibly when we matched up. I think he's growing sick of my Tyranid lists. It was a pretty small event though with only like 10 or so people, but still an exciting win for me.

Anyway! That's what I've been up to lately. Stay tuned for more content.

Chaplain Sam signing off.
↧
Viewing all 86 articles
Browse latest View live
Search