How do I kill a flyer?

As I get ready to bring my IG into the arena of battle, I've asked myself this question over and over.  It's a commonly-held belief that flyers have completely changed the meta for 40k, and may have even ruined any hope of balance in the game.  I'm not one to disagree, but then again, I get caught up in the sensationalism like anyone else.  So let's take a more rational approach...

First off, flyers have certainly changed the meta.  After all, Forgeworld rules used to be the only way to bring aircraft into the game.  Worse, the rules for flyers from FW were ridiculous and made them a heinous opponent to have to face.  I once was crushed in a massive game way back in 2002 just because my opponent fielded a Marauder Destroyer bomber (on top of a couple of Baneblades).  I watched as the useless Marneus Calgar was effortlessly killed by a model I couldn't take down.  It was terrible.  Luckily, flyers were too expensive, the books were even more expensive, and the tournament scene didn't allow FW.  But that's changed.

Now GW has incorporated flyers into the core rules and released models for half the armies on the tabletop right now.  Thankfully, the old rules are out and the 'core' rules make flyers easier to handle.  In 5th edition, flyers were simply overblown skimmers, but 6th edition made flyers real and now they need to be answered.  The meta for the game has proven that flyer-spam is the new thing and anyone not ready to handle it will find a less-than-satisfying game.  Hell, the ranking of the newest spam-lists has gone from 1. Chimera-vets, 2. Long Fang missiles, 3... to 1. Necron Night(insert name here), 2. Heldrakes, 3...  Yeah, it's become that obvious.  But there's always an answer, even if that answer is not 'guaranteed.'  Let's look at what those could be.

What do flyers do?

• Well, they are models that are FORCED to stay in reserve.  This does NOT count against the reserve limit because the main rules require that the model not be deployed at the beginning of the game.  That means that an opponent will always lose at least one turn of shooting against the things.  This is an overlooked advantage.
• They usually 'zoom,' which means they MUST move in a straight line of either 18"(combat speed) or 36"(cruising speed).  Notice the straight line thing?  This is important as many a player has been caught fiddling with the movement to get just the right angle that they wouldn't have been able to achieve otherwise.
• They are hard to maneuvre, allowed only a single turn UP TO 90 degrees.  Again, this is something many a player has been caught fiddling with and should be watched.  That prohibitive nature of turning can lead to a flyer being flown clear off the table, or simply flying behind the enemy lines and being ineffective for a turn.  
• They are difficult to attack.  Flyers may never be assaulted, and any shooting at them requires 6's to hit (unless the firing unit has the 'skyfire' special rule).  Better yet, because of this rule, flyers may NEVER be targetted by template or blast weapons.  This is the roughest part for most players.
• Flyers can fire up to four weapons while 'zooming,' of which they must choose whether they are firing in the 'skyfire' mode or standard 'strafing' mode (not to be confused with the special rule, 'strafing run').  In addition, missiles count as weapons as well, are one-shot, and can only be fired two-at-a-time.  This would be helpful, if most missiles weren't as powerful as missiles should be.  But it's a still a rule.
• If they suffer a glancing or penetrating hit, the flyer may take a 'jink' save, meaning it gains a 5+ invulnerable save for the rest of the turn.  However, it may only fire its weapons as 'snap fire,' which means any blast weapons are useless.  If the model suffers an immobilized result, it has a 'locked velocity' effect, meaning it CANNOT change speed, evade (take that 'jink' save), or move flat out.  This happens for the rest of the game.
• If a flyer zooms off the table, it enters 'ongoing reserves,' which means it will arrive immediately on the controlling player's next turn.  Sometimes this is the best option, and sometimes it's not an option at all.
• Finally, some flyers have the 'hover' special rule, meaning it can choose to become a skimmer at the beginning of the shooting phase.  This completely negates all the special invulnerabilities that flyers gain, but it also gives them a chance to forgo the restrictive movement rules.

Getting all this down will help a player better deal with flyers.  Knowing these basic rules can allow a player to plan for and address this issue.  There are more rules, but these are the ones the enemy needs to know.  KNOW THINE ENEMY, anyone?

What do I do to mitigate flyers?

Let's start off with knowing the rules I listed above.  This is important as it'll allow you to plan it out.  For example, knowing that a flyer must move at least 18" and can only make a turn of up to 90 degrees can allow some tricks to be executed in the movement phase.  Here's the piece of advice there:
 -move UNDER the flyer, or at least closer than 18".  Unlike a falling tree, don't run to the side of it, run under it!  And unlike a normal vehicle, getting closer is actually beneficial.  Now, if you're playing a horde army, there's another great piece of advice here:
 -spread out!  A flyer may not finish its move within 1" of enemy models, just like any other unit in the game, so covering the field can make flyers HAVE TO fly off the board.  Anyone that played against Daemons in 5th edition understand this strategy already.  

But what if you're not playing a horde army?  Not a problem, there's something for you as well (hopefully):
 -bring heavy armour!!!  Very few flyers are packing weapons higher than Str 7, and vehicles that have an AV13 or higher can really become a concern.  In fact, Land Raiders are a bane to flyer-heavy armies, with other transports giving the infantry some hope.  Some armies don't have heavy armour, but hey, it happens.  For all those common Space Marine Players- bring your Phobos/Crusader/Redeemer out to play.  

What do I have in the toolbox to fight flyers?

Aha!  This is where we get to have a bit of fun.  There's alot of options here, and even more now that the Game Designers have figured out that the flyer-meta has taken over.  So what does a normal player get?

To begin with, the newest codices seem to have a good deal of 'Flakk' missile upgrades for the units.  CSM have them in Havocs, and Dark Angels have them everywhere there's a missile launcher option.  If you're not a Marine player (or MEQ), then you're Daemons and have the Soulgrinder with 'skyfire' upgrade available, or you're Tau and have the 'skyfire' on Broadsides and the Skyray tank (they finally returned it to its former glory; thanks GW!).  So look to your new book and see what you have.  It's not going to be cheap, in most cases, but it's there.  And as more and more books get released, we'll see more stuff.  In fact, I venture that the flyer-spam will disappear by the end of the year just because of the options available.  

In addition, alot of armies have 'Flying Monstrous Creatures.'  And by alot, I really mean two of them- Daemons and Tyranids.  If nothing else, the Heldrake should almost be considered here as well, since it's nothing more than a FMC with vehicle stats (sorta).  But these monsters can be used to 'Vector Strike' a flyer.  Here's how that works (for actual FMC):
 -In 'Swooping' mode, the model moves between 12" and 24", acting like a flyer in almost all ways.
 -During its movement, the model may move over enemy models.  It may choose one enemy unit moved over in this way and immediately inflicts d3+1 automatic hits at base Strength, AP 3 (so no additional effect there), and against side armour (most flyers are side armour 11, maybe even 10)
 -During the shooting phase, it may then fire one more weapon, since Monsters can only fire two weapons and 'Vector Strike' counts as firing one weapon.
Otherwise, the FMC acts in all ways similar to a flyer with 'Hard to Hit' and flying off the board to enter 'Ongoing Reserves.'  I should note here that the Heldrake is still a flyer, but uses the FMC 'Vector Strike' rule.

And there's a great option that I have to mention- FLYERS!  Flyers kill flyers.  Bring them.  Some aren't so great at it, but some are fantastic!  The worst one I hear about is the Dark Angel's Nephilim Fighter.  But it seems that everyone seems to forget that it can take a twin-linked Lascannon on top of the other weapons (missiles), which can reliably kill a low-armoured vehicle- even in the air!  But this point should be obvious- FIGHT FLYER WITH FLYER, anyone?

Now for some toys that one would have to purchase...

If you are a 40k player and you don't own an Aegis Defense Line by now, you should quit the hobby (I jest, of course).  Even the Tau players in my group have been diligently working to make custom versions just for their xenos-needs.  And with that Aegis comes the option to purchase a gun emplacement- a Quad-gun (two twin-linked Autocannons) or an Icarus Cannon (a Lascannon) with the 'Skyfire' and 'Interceptor' rules.  As long as these guns are manned by a model with a respectable BS, these guns can fire and potentially shoot down flyers rather easily.  In addition, they should be hidden behind the Aegis Line so that they receive the 4+ cover save against anyone smart enough to target them first.  I'm still trying to decide which weapon I want to take.  The Quad-gun is obvious, but the Icarus sure does mean business and is cheaper.  Looks like some trial-and-error are in order here.

Forgeworld also produces some great anti-air units.  My game group decided to allow FW a while ago (we're in it to have fun, not win, and owning badass FW models sure is fun), and IG are great benefactors of that.  But we'll get to them in a moment.  Space Marines get the Hyperion, Eldar get the Firestorm, and other armies have some toys as well (the Tau Skyray came from FW).  Grab the Imperial Armour Aeronautica book, or even the Imperial Armour Apocalypse books, and see what your army gets.

As far as my IG, I'm all about the Manticore and the Hydra.  I won't go into any more details about it, but it bears stating that these models are boss when it comes to ruining a pilot's day.  And that's what I'm trying to do, after all.

This post was a way for me to codify my thoughts and come up with ideas, but I hope it helps anyone else out there as well.  Nothing is guaranteed, but it's alot more dependable when you have a plan.  And since my game group seems to be hell-bent on bringing flyers to the table, it's time I started formulating said plan.  Now to get to work...

Happy Gaming!

That box has what guns??

After finishing my Word Bearers and sending them off to compete in Chicagoland, I decided to pull out another army and get to working on them again.  Being more than a little burnt-out on Chaos Marines, I had to make the choice of any number of other armies.

The new Tau are beast and downright intimidating, so I thought about jumping on that wagon and riding it from the beneficial side.  But my group has enough Tau players already.  I pulled out my Blood Angels, as you remember from my last battle report, but that army is supposed to be fun and instead is too easy to play.  And that's a big deal with you consider that I'm one of only two people I know that chooses to take Tactical Squads and Rhinos, rather than footslogging Assault Squads in Razorspam.  I remembered that my Dark Angels are just asking to be finished and are already Deathwing-heavy.  But we already have two Dark Angel players in my group.  Ultramarines?  Too much stuff for that; I don't even know where to begin.  Grey Knights, Daemons, and Sisters of Battle collections are all too small to keep my interest long.  Eldar are getting released in a couple of months, so I'll save those.  Which left me with Imperial Guard.

What's that?  Imperial Guard and Tau are both great armies in this new, 'shooty' edition?  Oh yeah!!!  And so I pulled them out.  First off the block was my Death Korps of Krieg (aka, Carrasquillo's Own).  I set up a 1250 point battle with a buddy and played against his tiny Black Templars, and had a blast!  The game was really close in the end, but the conclusion was easy to come to early on.  Here's what we used:

My Death Korps
HQ- Commissar Lord w/Bolter, Power Sword, and Carapace Armor
Elite- 3 Heavy Mortars
Elite- 3 Quad Mortars
Troop- Infantry Platoon Command with Power Sword and Plasma Gunner
  3x Infantry Squads with Plasma Gunners in each
Troop- Infantry Platoon Command with Power Sword, Plasma Pistol, and 2 Meltagunners
  2x Infantry Squads with Meltagunners in each, one Sergeant had a Power Sword
Heavy- Leman Russ with Lascannon, Plasma Cannon Sponsons, and Heavy Stubber
Heavy- Demolisher with Heavy Flamer, Heavy Bolter Sponsons, and Heavy Stubber

His Black Templars
HQ- Master of Sanctity with Plasma Pistol and Holy Orb of Antioch
HQ- Reclusiarch with Jump Pack, Plasma Pistol, and Holy Orb of Antioch
--- Emporer's Champion with 'Accept any Challenge' vow
Elite- 5 Terminators with Thunder-hammer and Storm Shields
Troop- 5 Marines with Plasma Cannon and Plasma Gun(?)
Troop- 5 Marines with Flamer and 2 Neophytes
Troop- 5 Marines with Meltagun(?) and a Neophyte
Fast Attack- 5 Assault Marines with Power Axe
  Normal disclaimer:  I didn't write the army list, so I could be wrong on what he has

The battle started off with Night Fight, which I duly ignored with my artillery (yeah, I broke a rule here, but neither of thought about it and it was too late by the time our resident rules-lawyer intervened) and basically killed off half his infantry.  Then his Marines and Master of Sanctity rushed right at me.  The next turn saw some more artillery and some more tank shooting, and some desperate lasgun-spray by my guys trying to stop his infantry from getting to me.  It didn't work.  Especially when the squad of Terminators showed up.  Then, a turn later, the Assault squad showed up and blew up a Russ.  And onwards the battle went...  Needless to say, the game ended with a Black Templar victory, but graciously only by a single victory point. It was a fun fight, and an expected result.  After all, aren't Space Marines supposed to defeat normal humans on the battlefield?

But, and here's the real point of this post, I found out that the build I had on my Leman Russ was poop.  Just like the lesson I learned with Lightning Claws against Terminators, it was a rule which I knew but was reinforced with PRACTICAL experience.  If you don't know how, let me share:

You see, a Leman Russ is armed with a Battle Cannon.  A Battle Cannon is a terrifying weapon for Space Marines to face.  It's got a strength high enough to 'instant kill' marines, and an AP low enough to ignore their armor.  Better, it's a blast weapon, so the average Ballistic Skill of the human gunner doesn't much matter.  And finally, it's Ordnance, so it's also powerful enough to break open heavily-armoured targets.  And then you get to add other weapons to it.

I have mine with a tank-busting Lascannon, and Terminator-killing Plasma Cannons.  But wait, I can't possibly fire that many weapons from a vehicle, right?  Yes and no.  A Leman Russ is a 'Heavy' vehicle, which means it can fire all of its weapons all the time.  However, a Battle Cannon is Ordnance, which means all other weapons may only be fired as 'snap shots' if the main cannon is used.  And here's where we get tricksy.  Plasma Cannons are 'Blast' type weapons.  Blast weapons may not shoot in 'snap fire' mode.  Which meant that every turn I planned to shoot, I had to choose which guns I wanted to fire.  It was a conundrum that I hadn't thought about.  Of course, I can blame that on the new 6th edition rules, while this tank was built during 5th...

Having learned that lesson the hard way (or at least been reminded at a very inopportune time), I pulled out the rest of my IG and started looking through the bitz to see what I might want to replace it with.  Not wanting to snap the sponson-weapons off, I looked through to see what I have for new turrets.  Here's what I've got and the breakdown of what they can do:

Vanquisher Cannon:  Very long-range, tank-busting Heavy gun with Armour-bane.  It's not 'blast' and is not meant to deal with Infantry AT ALL, so it's a bit specialized.  But I do like big guns.

Exterminator Gun:  It's a twin-linked, 4 shot Autocannon.  It's made for dropping light vehicles and wounding a goodly number of even heavy infantry.  The added benefit of it is that it can serve, reliably, as a flyer-killer in a pinch.  But this is my least favorite since the dirty Space Wolves claimed it for so long...

Eradicator Cannon:  It's a mid-range, cover-busting, tactical nuclear shell.  It's powerful enough to easily wound even Marines, and has the AP value necessary to ignore all BUT marine and Terminator armour, is a 'Large Blast' type weapon, and additionally ignores any cover.  This one is probably very useful against Tau, but requires a close approach, which isn't always wise.

Finally, the Punisher Cannon:  Who likes giant Gatling Guns?  This guy!  It's a 20-shot, Str 5 gun.  It doesn't penetrate armor at all and certainly can't kill anything more than a car, but it lays down a ton of rounds.  Did I mention I like big Gatling Guns?

And therein lies my conundrum.  I have the turret, and I certainly have the chassis, now I just have to choose a gun.  Knowing that I already have a Lascannon and Plasma Cannons on the vehicle, these are the only options available to take full advantage of the tank.  Which main gun would you choose?

Let me know your ideas and why, and that's the direction I'll go.  I'll even make a blog about it!  Not that I need a reason, it seems...  As always, Happy Gaming!

Die, Cow-things, Die!!!

I finally got to play my first game against the Tau codex this week, and I felt it would be nice to talk about it. So today, I'm going to go on about the battle and my impressions of the new book, plus any lessons I learned.  Don't get me wrong, there's not going to be a long-drawn out battle report of pictures like I normally do.  I just wasn't thinking about it at the time.  But I'm not going to let that stop me from espousing my thoughts.

First off, let me say how happy I am NOT to be painting Word Bearers right now.  I love my Chaos marines, but after these last many weeks of doing that all day, every day, I'm happy to take a break.  The fact that my buddy was willing to come over and roll some dice with me was a very welcome happenstance, and one that I hope to be wholly focused on for the next few weeks.  Let's hope real-life keeps its ugly head away long enough for that to happen.


Now, with that out of the way, let's talk about the armies.  My buddy brought his Tau and wanted to give it a good go.  It's a rather bog-standard list, taken wholly from the 'old days' but using the new rules just to see how it worked.  Here's what he brought:

HQ- Fireblade, (aka, the 'Warlord')
HQ- Ethereal, plus a shield drone
Troop- 10 Fire Warriors, Shas'ui rocking a Markerlight, a couple of gun drones
Troop- 10 Fire Warriors, Shas'ui rocking a Markerlight, a couple of gun drones
Troop- 10 Fire Warriors, Shas'ui rocking a Markerlight, a couple of gun drones
Troop- 10 Fire Warriors, Shas'ui rocking a Markerlight, a couple of gun drones, half Pulse Carbines
  mounted in a Devilfish
Troops- a bunch of Kroot with Sniper rounds
Elite- 3 Crisis suits with Plasma guns and Missile Pods, a couple of gun drones
Elite- 8 Stealth suits
Fast Attack- a bunch of gun drones
Heavy- 2 Broadside suits with Railguns and Smart missiles, plus some gun drones
Heavy- Hammerhead with Railgun
Heavy- Hammerhead with Ion Cannon

To face them, I brought a red army, but loyalist this time.  My buddy hates Blood Angels, and we wanted to test the 'ol 'assault vs. shooting' concept.  Plus, this gives him the chance to take his hatred out on my army and make us all happy.  Here's what I brought:

HQ- Captain with Thunderhammer and Infernus pistol, plus Jump Pack (also aka, the 'Warlord')
Troop- 10 Assault Marines with jump packs, Power Axe and Plasma pistol, Meltagun, Flamer
Troop-  10 Assault Marines with jump packs, Thunder Hammer, Meltagun, Flamer
Troop- 12 Death Company with jump packs, 2 Power Fists, 3 Power Swords
  joined by Lemartes
Elite-  Furioso with Blood Claws and extra armor
  mounted in a Drop Pod
Elite-  Sanguinary Priest with jump pack and Power Axe
Fast Attack- Baal Predator with Flamestorm cannon, Heavy Bolter sponsons, and Storm Bolter
Heavy- Predator Destructor with Heavy Bolter sponsons and Storm Bolter
Heavy- Vindicator

Hmmmm, I'm not seeing a comparable number here...  Please note that I didn't write his army list, so I don't exactly know what all he had on everything, but I do know that I wasn't terribly confident going into this battle.  So what happened?

We rolled up the deployment and scenario, and rolled our least favorite for both- 'Hammer and Anvil' and 'Relic.'  My buddy hates Relic with a vengeance, and you can understand how Tau would not enjoy that objective.  I, meanwhile, hate having to pay against a shooty army (and Tau are the definition of that, for sure) with so much ground between us.  This was not starting well.

We then rolled for deployment and first turn, and I won that roll-off.  Yay!  That would help a bit.  Night Fight?  Not today.  Booooo.  You win some, you lose some, I guess.  The Relic was deployed dead-center (of course), not that either of our armies were terribly worried about it.

 I deployed my forces on my 'side', placing the Predator in the middle and flanking it with each Assault Squad.  I attached the Captain to the squad hiding behind the Shrine of the Aquila and attached the Sanguinary Priest to the other and hiding behind a crystal forest.  My Vindicator was deployed on the far side of the Shrine, and with that my army was deployed.  The Furioso and his Drop Pod would arrive in Turn 1 (no choice in the matter there), while the Death Company would arrive by Deep Strike themselves.

My buddy deployed his Tau everywhere on the other side of the battlefield.  The Railgun-armed Hammerhead deployed on the far side of some ruins, while the Ion-cannon-armed one deployed opposite (therefore facing my Assault Squad and the Crystal Forest).  The ruins near the first Hammerhead were populated with a squad of Fire Warriors and the Ethereal, then another squad in the middle, with the Broadsides behind them for the screen.  In front of all that was the unit of Drones, screening everything.  The third squad of Fire Warriors was deployed between the Ion-cannoned Hammerhead, and the fourth stayed in their Devilfish and crept up behind a small building towards the middle.  His Stealth suits and Kroot both decided to stay behind and outflank me later.  Everything he deployed was so far back that I counted at least three turns before I'd be able to make contact.  That didn't bode well.  And that's not even considering the massive amount of outnumbering that I was witnessing.  Hmmm...

A roll to 'seize the initiative' and a failure, which led to a sigh of relief from me.  You see, our game group seems to have a habit of seizing, and it's actually rather surprising when it doesn't happen.  But I got to keep my first turn, and I planned on using that to the best of my ability.

I dropped the Furioso and his Drop Pod in the far back corner, right beside the Railgun-Hammerhead.  Shooting at the side armor with the underslung Meltagun, I cheated and hit (it's in the rulebook that melta-weapons always miss), penetrated easily, and blew the vehicle to bits.  That was a great start.  The actual turn started off with me rushing the Vindicator forward and 'popping smoke.'.  The Destructor rumbled up 6", preparing to shoot every weapon.  My buddy was a bit annoyed by the fact that I had a ton of fast vehicles. But it's what we do.  Letting loose at the closest Drones in the squadron, I dropped half the squad with Autocannon and Heavy Bolter shells.  Both units of Assault Marines leapt forward and then ran, but neither understood that running is supposed to be fast.  They each only moved 2".  And with that, my turn was over.

The Tau answered by scooting the Ion Cannon into line of sight of my now-visible Assault Marines, fired, and killed a whole one.  The Crisis team jumped foward and fired and killed one more.  'Feel no Pain' is a helluva rule!  The rest of the Tau turned out to be too far away, and only the Drones could shoot and drop an Assault Marine.  That may have been a tactical mistake on my buddy's part, but it was one I was willing to accept.  After all, a free turn to rush forward, unmolested by massive firepower?  Yes, please!  The Furioso, now screened by a crater and some ruins, was shot by a bunch of markerlights and then the Broadsides.  But the shells weren't primed and they simply bounced off his armour.  My buddy was getting even more annoyed, and I apologized about the codex being good.  His hatred, I'm sure, isn't abating anytime soon.  Meanwhile, the Fire Warriors nearby and the ones in the ruins moved as far as they could to get away from the armoured behemoth stomping in their direction.  Some jump-jet moves and the Crisis team and Drone squad were backed up into the rest of the army.  It wasn't as bad a start as I expected.

Then my 'autowin' happened- the Death Company arrived (and that's without my reserve reroll) right behind the Crisis unit and Devilfish and shot their bolt pistols at the Crisis squad.  Some great accuracy was equaled out by some terrible wounding, and his good armour saves saw only one wound being suffered.  Oh well, that's not what Death Company are for.  The Baal Predator refused to show up.  No problem, the Death Company have this.  My Destructor rushed foward another 6", ready to shoot some drones but instead shooting some Fire Warriors that happened to be in the open and killing some.  The Vindicator rushed forward and took a 'hull-down' position behind a hill on the far side, and launched the massive shell right into the Tau lines.  A poor scatter on my part saw the template fall away from the Crisis squad, and the Devilfish, and the Fire Warriors near that, and finally settle on some Drones.  Two died.  That's right.  An anti-siege shell the size of a marine shoots and kills... two Drones.  Bad Vindie, bad!  The Furioso stomped into the Fire Warriors in front of the ruins, more than confident that he could wipe the unit out.  My buddy predicted five dead.  I rolled, got one hit and killed one (crushing the puny xenos in my claw), and rolled for the next only to miss.  Um, bad Furioso, bad!?  No worries, the Ethereal hadn't made his troops stubborn this round and the squad fled from combat.  The Furioso happily cosolidated through the ruins and stood menacingly behind another unit of Fire Warriors and the Ethereal...  Meanwhile, the Assault Squads rush up some more, do a little running, and are now wholly visible and still a turn from assaulting.  I'm not worried.  In fact, I have the look of 'smug' all over my face now.  After all, how are Tau supposed to compete with Death Company?

 His Kroot are stuck at the same Starbucks as my Baal Predator, so fail to show up in Turn 2.  But the Stealth team is on-point and arrive on my side and position themselves to shoot up my Predator's side armour.  Some unlucky dice and my buddy only succeeded in stripping away a single hull-point.  The Destructor's TC probably chuckled to himself as he had no plans at all of staying.  "Forward for the Emperor!" isn't just a warcry for the Angels of Baal...  The Broadsides tried to shoot the Dreadnought, only to find nothing good for it.  A unit of Fire Warriors surrounded the Furioso and then charged, hoping to plant some grenades.  But they forgot the EMP grenades at home and then watched as the Furioso literally shredded the entire unit (there were 9 by this point, and I killed 18 after the dice stopped rolling.  It easily made up for last turn).  The other unit, with the Fireblade and Ethereal, shot at the onrushing Assault Squad led by the Captain and wiped half the enemy out, then ran as far away as they could, now seeing that the armoured behemoth wasn't something they could handle.  The Devilfish disgorged the fourth unit of Fire Warriors and, teaming up with the Crisis team and nearby Drones, shot the other unit of Assault Marines until none were left standing except the Sanguinary Priest.  Uh oh, now I'm starting to get a little worried.  No problem, I still have the Death Company.  Until a shrill 'whine' was raised across the battlefield as the surviving Hammerhead's Ion Cannon overcharged and a massive blast exploded right on top of my newly-arrived black-armoured unit.  Not a single '1' rolled, and 'Feel no Pain' no good against instant death, I watched as all except Lemartes himself were vaporized.  And Lemartes was finished off with some simple shots from Drones.  The whole unit, gone.  Now I have a big problem.

My third turn started off with less than half a squad of Assault Marines and a bunch of tanks standing.  Rolling for my Baal, it seemed that he still didn't want to show up.  Curse you, Baal!  So what little I had left would have to do. And I had very little left.  With my 'autowin' dead, I figured I was on the road to 'auto-lose'.  My buddy was less confident of his victory as well, considering that I'd effectively killed half his army with a model that he couldn't handle, and was rushing a couple more tanks at him with the same armour value.  I didn't think about that.  But the game was only half over, so on to the action.  My Destructor continued to trundle forward and shot most of the Fire Warriors from the Fireblade and Ethereal's ad-hoc bodyguard.  The Vindicator crested the hill and fired his Demolisher cannon, killing more Fire Warriors and even splattering both Broadsides.  The Furioso fired his weapons at the Fire Warriors trying to position themselves away, only to find that the Shas'ui was the closest target.  It may not have been a big kill, but it was a kill nonetheless.  A failed charge roll, and the Dreadnought stood there, biding his time.  The remaining Assault Marines, now joined by the Sanguinary Priest, jumped over the building and stared menacingly at the Crisis team and un-assed Fire Warriors.  Shooting their pistols and then charging both units, it turned out to be a terrible idea.  My buddy rolled horrible for his overwatch and supporting fire and everything made it into combat.  My character-laden unit accounted for two dead Fire Warriors, a single dead Drone, and no Crisis suits even scratched.  In return, he killed a single marine and wounded the Captain, leaving two marines and the two characters alive.  The results may have been in my favour, but it still seemed that I lost a combat against Tau.  Really?  I mean, really?  Stupid defensive grenades.  That's okay, the Fire Warriors ran away and my squad was safely stuck in combat against the Crisis suits.

His third turn saw the Kroot arrive and sneak behind the Shrine of the Aquila, probably thinking to take the relic when the time came.  I noted that, but also noted that I couldn't see the unit to shoot at them.  His Stealth suits moved to shoot the rear armour of my advancing Destructor, failing to do anything.  The dice were in my favour so far.  The fleeing Fire Warriors (the ones that escaped destruction at the hands of the Furioso) rallied and snuck foward, ready to take advantage of some support fire in case my squad made it that far.  And his bodyguard Fire Warriors snuck back a little further, trying to stay out of range of the advancing tanks and flanking Dreadnought.  Some shooting and few results, and it all came down to the combat.  The remaining Drones and a couple more (from the Devilfish) dove into combat to save their Crisis Commanders, but they died and even the Crisis suits went down.  In the process, one of the final two marines was dispatched.  Only the Shas'el remained to face down a marine, a Sergeant with a Thunderhammer, a Sanguinary Priest, and the Captain, locking my unit down for another turn.  It was great timing for my buddy, but the end-result was more than a little predictable.  The game was definitely in my favour now.

My turn, and finally the Baal arrives.  It rolls onto the field behind the rallied Fire Warriors and wipes out all but three of them with the Flamestorm cannon and bolter-weaponry.  Glorious fire!  And with that, the xenos fled again.  Of course, I would have too under that much firepower.  The Destructor fired at the remaining unit of Fire Warriors and killed all but the Fireblade and Ethereal, while the Dreadnought stomped forward and fired, killing the Fireblade.  I had now taken the 'Slay the Warlord' objective.  A great charge roll into the Ethereal and his Shield Drone, and it was done.  I had now gotten the extra objective point from that.  The Vindicator shifted its attention to the Stealth team and rolled towards the Shrine to shoot at them, and felled two.  It wasn't enough, but it was something.  Finally, the Captain and his unit finished off the Crisis Commander and consolidated backwards.  The Sanguinary Priest and Sergeant  had the plan to split off and start flying toward the Shrine themselves, while the Captain would run over to attack the remaining Hammerhead.  There were no Tau left in his deployment zone (other than the two survivors fleeing and the Hammerhead), and the Blood Angels owned the battlefield by now.  The game was now a matter of 'moral victories' for the Tau, and wipe-out of the xenos by the Imperials.

My buddy, now having to make some great calculations and try to pull it out, realized that the best he could get was a 'draw.'  He started by ramming his Devilfish into the front armour of the Baal Predator, which actually damaged the Devilfish and left the marine tank unharmed.  Now we know how that rule works...  The Stealth team fired at the rear armor of the Destructor and finally felled it, leaving the relic in the middle completely unguarded.  The Hammerhead turned his attention to the last few Assault Marines (a couple of characters and a dood), and again overcharged the Ion Cannon to let loose a massive explosion right in their ranks.  Some Smart Missiles flew their way as well, but unfortunately the consolidate move had spread the unit far enough apart that only the Sergeant fell, leaving three models now.  The fleeing Fire Warriors were tired of the mayhem and slaughter and simply fled from the battlefield, leaving little hope for the xenos.  4 objective points for the Blood Angels (Slay the Warlord, First Blood, Ethereal, and Line-breaker) and only 1 for the Tau (Line-breaker), the last hope was to grab the relic at the end of the game.

The Furioso turned and began the long trek back to the Shrine of the Aquila, following the Sanguinary Priest and his marine escort.  The Vindicator rushed up and tried to shoot the Stealth team again, killing none as the xenos had advantage of the ruins AND the suits they wore.  The Baal rushed over as well, hoping to eventually get close enough to fry some aliens, but not this round.  Finally, the Captain jumped towards the Hammerhead, where he loosed a melta shot into it and stunned it, just in time to hit it with his Thunderhammer and smash it out of the sky.  Another explosion and another wound (and no 'Feel no Pain'), leaving the Captain bloody and nearly spent himself.  But nothing had changed so far.

His Devilfish rammed the exposed rear armor of the Baal and caused no damage at all.  The Stealth suits fired into the side armour and stripped a hull-point from the Vindicator, and the team joined as the Kroot jumped out and charged the vehicles, hoping to get the extra move and even get lucky and kill a tank, but it wasn't enough.  All hope was lost.  The Blood Angels were closing in and there was nothing left to do but quit the battlefield.

The game ended with the Blood Angels winning 4-0, since the Kroot had quit the deployment zone to try and grab the objective.  But the game was a great one.  It was certainly a win, but it didn't feel like it until the last two 'lucky' turns.  Until that point, I didn't think I had a chance.  Especially after the Death Company were killed very easily.  But it worked out, so I'll take it.  This game was less about winning and more about 'trying stuff out', so let's talk about what we learned:


First, I was reminded that no game is over until the game is over.  I'm a good sport in good games, but it depends more on the opponent than the game.  Luckily, my buddy is an oooooold friend and I enjoy playing him.  This game was the opposite of the last time we played, where he monkey-stomped me without breaking a sweat. This one went my way, and was still a great time.

Secondly, we determined that the Blood Angel codex doesn't suck.  The Tau may be the 'new era of cheeze', but the Blood Angels haven't disappeared for the 'scene'.  The Tau codex is very good as an entire army, but the BA have just as much cheese, only focused more in individual units.


We also learned that Tau don't have the ability to deal with heavy armour.  The fact that I had 4 AV13 models on the field, and killed the ONE true Railgun in the army, meant that he couldn't take that stuff down. The Tau need the EMP grenades and multiple Hammerheads with Railguns.  Otherwise, it's all a risk of having to get just the right angle with just the right weapons at just the right times.  And we all know about the Tau's 'missile-spam', but that means little to heavy armour.


We learned that deep-striking armies have a major advantage.  There's the whole idea of the Tau's long-range, high strength, multiple-shot firepower.  But jumping right into their face mitigates a ton of that, and forces them to have to deal with the threat RIGHT NOW or die.  Anyone trying to play the 'footslog' or 'long-range' game will find themselves outclassed quickly.

My buddy also got to witness some rather interesting tactical decisions on my part.  Anyone playing against the Tau need to choose their targets wisely, and use firing angles to mitigate the chance of supporting fire.  Despite his poor dice-rolls, it still hurt every time I tried to assault anything.  Some smart shooting and great placement of templates can ruin the whole aspect of the supporting fire rule and make the Tau far less scary.  I also got to witness some interesting decisions of the opposite nature on his part.  With jump-jets and good movement, he was able to keep his support fire lanes together rather well.  It should be noted here, on a side note, that the 'countermeasures' upgrade can be really valuable.  I'm happy I didn't have to face that on Plasma gun-armed Crisis suits this time.

And finally, we learned that the Tau are a real hassle to play against.  There were no real upgrades, no Riptides, and no Pathfinders from the new codex that I had to worry too much about in this game.  The next time we play, he may have the Riptide and Pathfinder-spam that I'm so worried about.  I may have won this battle this time, but I was playing against modified 'old and busted', with the 'new hotness' still to be seen.  Oh man.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this rather long and un-illustrated battle report.  Let me know your experience against the new Tau.

Happy Gaming!

It's done!!!

It took many, many long hours of painting.  It soaked up many, many days worth of time.  In fact, this project took so long that I've sorely neglected a far more serious matter that I must now shift my attention to.  But anyone who's ever studied business management knows the difference between 'urgency' and 'importance', and this was urgent.

But it's done.  I have finally finished.  I took two days off over the last two weeks just to give my back and my arthritis-ridden fingers a break, and it was worth it.  I finished Sunday night and actually enjoyed a game last night.  It was my reward to myself, and well-deserved (especially considering I haven't even played a game at the shop in weeks now).  But I'll get to that game later.  For now, I want to show off the completion of everything I've been working on.  This is just as much for bragging purpose as it is proof to the rest of the team that is so desperately depending on me.

In case you haven't been keeping up with the blog, I'll to recap for you.  For the last many weeks, I've been frantically working on completing my Word Bearers army.  This army is for the Adepticon Team Tournament, an event that I can't go to because of that 'serious' matter I'm supposed to be working on.  So I had to get the army done even faster and then send it out priority so my team-mates could hand it to my replacement.  This morning saw the box get shipped off.  That's it!  You should be all caught up now.  And now for the good stuff:

Here's the army list again:

1000 point Adepticon Army- Word Bearers Chaos Marines

HQ-  1st Chaplain Erebus (counts as Huron Blackheart)  160
TROOP-  10 Chaos Marines, Power Fist and Plasma Pistol, 2 Plasma guns, Veterans of the Long War  220
TROOP-  20 Cultists, Shotgun, Flamer  97
TROOP-  25 Cultists, Shotgun, 24 Autoguns  136
ELITE-  5 Terminators, twin Lightning Claws, 3 bolter/melta-guns, Reaper Autocannon, 2 Power Fists, 2 Chainfists, Veterans of the Long War  272
HEAVY-  5 Havocs, 4 Autocannons  115


And here's the models:

The whole army, in all its glory.  Note that the display board is not the final one, it's just a random board I have laying around and use just for pictures.  The real display will be much nicer.

First Chaplain Erebus, and his trusty Daemonic sidekick...

The Terminators... of DOOM!

What's a Word Bearers army without Word Bearers?

Erebus ablative wounds, er, bodyguard.

Another unit of distraction, er, Cultists.

And, of course, some guns...

 Anyone going to Adepticon knows that you must bring an objective marker.  My army, being based off the Battle for Calth represented in "Know No Fear", would be trying to destroy every part of that Master World.  And this column is asking for it...

Wait, what's going on there?

Even a Daemon has to go sometimes...

And that's it!  There was a bit more work in the background as well, but it's all the boring stuff.  I had to make display placards and army lists and briefing packets for the poor newbie that has to make this force work and... yeah, a ton of boring stuff.  I'm most proud of the army.

The cool thing is that it's going to be fighting alongside Tyranids, Orks, and Necrons in the goal of destroying Ultramar.  My Word Bearers may have started the downfall of the piddly-little empire, but these other forces are certainly helping.  And hence our theme- 

Doom of Ultramar!!!

Wish my team some luck for this weekend's grand experiment.  And if you see this army on the field, please toss a shout-out on here so I know.  It'll make me proud.

Just like I'm proud to finally be done.  Whew!  Now onto more important stuff...