What special rules do you tell your opponent before your game?

I always wonder what special rule to tell my opponent before the game. In a tournament setting I always ask them how well they know my army. Depending on their answer I either tell them a lot, or a little. 

Here is an example of what and when to tell them of special rules: My foot Eldar always run an Avatar, so when do I tell them that it is immune to melta and flamer weapons? Do I tell them before the game, before they shoot, or after they shoot? It seems realistic that the troops might never have fought an Avatar before and do not have the intelligence to know what can hurt it and what can't and it is just trial and error until they get it right in game. But it also seems fair to apprise my opponent what they can do.

I have played against many Necron players and I do not think that any of them have ever told me in any detail the rules for We Will Be Back. They might tell me that the model comes back on a roll of 4+, but they have never told me what makes them not get a roll at all. It would be a huge advantage to them if I don't know how to get around WBB ahead of time, and if I am told that they would lose that advantage. 

As everyone who is reading this should know, I am taking Demonhunters to Adepticon. The Demonhunters codex is so old, and the army is so rare that there are a lot of people who do not know the armies special rules. So what I am going to do is to help out my opponents and on the first page of all of my army lists I am going to have a cheat sheet detailing all of my special rules.

It should look something like this:

Grey Knight Special Rules

Shrouding: 3d6x3 inches to spot and target Grey Knight (Red) units.

Aegis: If you target a GK unit with a psychic power it acts like a Psychic Hood.

Grey Knight Psycannon: 3, Strength 6, AP 4 shots   Range: Assault 18”, Heavy 36” No invulnerable saves.

Inquisitor’s Rules

Mystics: 4d6 inches to shoot at a Deep Striking unit.

Captain Stern’s Rules

Not an Independent Character while his retinue is still alive

Force Weapon: Psychic test to instant kill models, and it ignores Eternal Warrior

Grimoire of True Names: Demons are at half weapon skill in B-t-B

The Strands of Fate: Can re-roll one dice roll per phase, but opponent gets a re-roll.

Psychic Powers-

Hammerhand-(doubles strength, but not a power weapon)

Holocaust- Strength5 AP4, large blast, 0” range.

Demonhunters at 4 RTTs in 4 weeks

This last month I have played in more RTTs than I have played in the last few years. Last year at Adepticon I was so rusty due to not playing much and I made all kinds of mistakes, After all of these games I have no excuses for not doing well (Other than playing Demonhunters that is ;).

Here is my record for the last 4 weeks:

2/19 The Realm RTT: Brea Ca. 1850 Points

Game #1 Beat a 2 Dev/Assault Marine Blood Angels army

Game #2 Tied a Battle Wagon army with Ghaz

Game #3 Tied a Tyranid army.

1-0-2 and finished in the middle of the pack

 3/5 Sprue Posse RTT: Santa Monica Ca. 1500 Points

Game #1 Beat a Terminator/Assault Marine Blood Angels army

Game #2 Beat a 2 Land Raider/Assault Marine Blood Angels army

Game #3 Tied a Dark Eldar army

Game #4 Beat a Deathwing army

3-0-1 and Won the Tournament

3/12 Empire Games: RTT Mesa, AZ 1000 Points

Game #1 Lost to Dark Eldar

Game #2 Beat Mech Guard

Game #3 Beat Tau

I went 2-1 and took second place (a lot of people tied the command and control mission in round 3)

3/19 Imperial Outpost Games RTT: Glendale AZ 1500 Points

Game #1 Beat a DOA/Vindicator Blood Angels army

Game #2 Beat a Tyranid Army

Game #3 Beat a big bug Tyranid Army

Went 3-0 and won the Tournament

So this last month I went 9-1-3. It has been a while since I won some RTTs and winning 2 Storm Ravens and store credit for a Grey Knight codex was nice.  

My results were not too shabby, but I am still concerned about Adepticon because I played a lot of Tyranids and Blood Angels and little else. Also, surprisingly the point limits were a lot lower than the 1850 of Adepticon. Normally RTTs point’s limits have been creeping higher, and now all of a sudden they have gone way down.

I was never matched up against the real heavy hitter lists that are out there. I wanted to play against Space Wolves and IG armies. I did play one practice test game against Shep’s Mech Guard and I lost that game and it really helped me out. I had to beef up my ranged anti-tank and help me realize what I have to target first (Die Manticore Die!).

Still in big tournaments you see a lot of rock-paper-scissor armies out there and you worry about getting a match against them before they find the paper to their rock. You can draw 9 Vendettas, 3 Wolf Lords and Thunderwolf Cavalry, Razorfang wolves, Deathwing armies, etc. it is hard to have an answer for all of them (or any of them).

One advantage that I always have is my strange list/armies. Know one knows what you can do, or what you will try to do until it is too late. This is what I liked about my foot elder army because until you play against it, you have no idea how the pieces fit together. That is why everyone on the internet thinks it sucks because they see the sub-optimal units and don’t realize that the army plays is better than the sum of its parts. With my Demonhunters I expect people to not know what I am going to do. Really, how many people out there know what Grey Knights do? How many know what an Inquisitor’s retinue does? What are Brother-Captain Stern’s abilities?

Metal or Plastic?

With the release of the new Grey Knights army, one of the last armies with a majority of metal models will be riding off into the sunset. There is always the debate of which is better, metal or plastic? Generally everyone agrees that it is plastic miniatures that are far superior to metal. The ease of their assembly, the conversion opportunities, and when you drop them on the floor they bounce, unlike metal models that will break into their component parts and fly into different directions.

  

It use to be that metal models, although lacking in poses, had a lot of detail and character that the plastic models always lacked. But that is a thing of the past with the new technology in plastic casting, and the idea to place a lot of options and added details on the sprues to give even the most detailed metal models a run for their money.

But like my love of old codexes, I am old school when it comes to my models as well. I just like the feel of metal models in my hand, and when I am moving them across the board. They “feel” substantial and I love using metal models in my armies. Plastic models are just so light and insubstantial and lack the physical presence that the metal models have.

I have spent the last couple of weeks converting some metal grey knight models that I have to finish for Adepticon and I can tell you that my fingers are glad. They have been cut, filed down, bruised and punctured, and finally are trying to heal (for now anyways because when they Grey Knight codex comes out they are going to be in a lot of trouble). And as if I did not have enough work for me, I had to change them from halberds to swords, and that was not easy.

Here are my Grey Knights

Here are my Terminators

Demonhunters to a 1000 point RTT

 I played in a 1000 point RTT this weekend with half of my Demonhunters. I wanted to keep getting practice playing since I am really rusty, and to try out the 20-man blob squad that has the 2 autocannons.

Game #1 Vs Dark Eldar: Seize Ground

He has about 6 Venoms and 5-man warrior squads with blasters with the Duke. I have a lot of shooting that should be able to take down their flyers but my dice went stone cold and that did not help me. So at the end of the game I was unable to kill any Venoms, and he nearly tabled me.

So what went wrong? Well the first is that I forgot about the +1 result for him being opened topped. As a DE player I should have known about it, but for some reason I forgot, and my opponent didn’t volunteer it. That is why it is very important to know not only your rules, but your opponents. I also rolled horrible for vehicle damaging. I rolled one 4 and the rest were 1s and 2s. I had my storm troopers shoot at a venom with 2 melta guns and hit one and penetrated and he stopped it with a flickerfield, and I did it again the next turn and the exact same thing happened. Loss

Game #2 Vs. Mech Guard: Annihilation.

I came on from reserve and I shot it out with him. I came on with side shots and started killing stuff. My land raider survived 3 penetrating shots from a Leman Russ Demolisher and killed it in return. I guess my luck made up for the bad luck in the last round. Win

Game #3 Vs Tau: Capture and Control

This seemed like a good match-up for me until his Hammerhead took out my Land Raider on the first shot. That is what it gets for surviving all of those shots last game. I was able to blow his fire warriors off of his objective with Psycannons and my Chimeras where on fire and I ended the game holding my objective. Win

So I ended up going 2-1 and getting second place. Most people ended up in a tie in round #3 like usual, so only one person went 3-0. 

I got some more experience, and got to try some things out. I am starting to really like coming on from reserve. One day though I am going to roll bad for reserve rolls and come in the very late rounds. I am also worried about going up against an officer of the fleet. Next codex I think I will be taking a Brother Captain to take care of that.

Genesis of my Adepticon Demonhunters

So here is my latest list for Adepticon:

HQ

Brother-Captian Stern

1 Terminator w/Incinerator

1 Terminator w/Thunderhammer/Stormshield (very crappy version)

2 Terminators

Troops

4 Grey Knights

2 Grey Knights w/Psycannons

1 Justicar

4 Grey Knights

2 Grey Knights w/Psycannons

1 Justicar

Imperial Guard Platoon

Jr Officer

4 Command Squad w/4 Flamers

Chimera w/Multi-laser/Heavy Bolter

7 Imperial Guardsmen

2 Heavy Weapon Gunners w/Autocannon

1 Sergeant

1 Commissar

Chimera w/Multi-laser/Heavy Bolter

7 Imperial Guardsmen

2 Heavy Weapon Gunners w/Autocannon

1 Sergeant

5 Stormtroopers w/2 Melta Guns  

Heavy Support

Land Raider w/Extra Army

Land Raider

Dreadnaught w/TL Lascannon

So when I came up with the bad idea of taking Demonhunters to Adepticon I made a list that suits my play style. I like armies that are small and elite (with Demonhunters done and done!) and that sit back and shoot. So with that I made an army that I think can compete with the other top armies. You see the results of what I came up with in my other posts.  This is to show you how that army changed from what I started out with to the army I will take to Adepticon.

Demonhunters go to the Sprue Posse open

I signed up for the latest Sprue Posse open a couple of months ago because I was not going to play at the Broadside Bash this year and I needed the practice for Adepticon. I am planning on taking Demonhunters and there is nothing like playing tournament games to get to know your army, and its strengths and weaknesses. Well, I ended up coming to California after all only two weeks ago during President’s Day weekend and played at the Realm’s RTT (see batreps below), so I was going to cancel the tournament  this weekend because I need to finish painting my army, and two trips to LA in a couple of weeks is way too much. Well, my mother (who lives in LA) ended up getting sick and spending Wednesday night in the hospital. On Thursday morning I grabbed my army and printed out my lists in a hurry before work because I did not know if I was going to be able to take the day off and go to LA or not. Well I ended up working for a few hours before they let me leave and I headed out to LA. 

Realm RTT Game # 3 Blackmoor Demonhunters vs. Tyranids

Game #3 Vs Chris’s Tyranids

So after my win and tie I get to face Chris and his Tyranids.

His list (From memory)

HQ

Swarmlord

3 Tyrant Guard

Elite

2 Hive Guard

2 Hive Guard

Troops

16 Termagants

16 Termagants

16 Termagants

Tervagon

Tervagon

Tervagon

Fast Attack

20 Gargoyles

Heavy Support

Trygon

Deployment Zone: Spearhead Deployment

Mission: Seize Ground (3 Objectives)

One objective is placed in the middle of the table, and each player places one objective in the quadrant to the left and the right of their deployment zone, at least 12” from another objective, and 6” from a board edge.

If a player controls all of the objectives then they score 17 points and their opponent scores 3.

If you control more of the objectives then you score 13 points and your opponent scores  7

If you control the same then you go to VPs. If you have 200 more VPs then you score 11 points and your

I win the dice roll to go first again and set up (3 times in a row, who needs the Emperor’s Tarot?)

Deployment

There is a ton of LOS blocking terrain and I have to stack up to fit into my deployment zone. I know that I and a lot of other people complain about not having enough LOS blocking terrain, but there is a fine line between not having enough terrain, and having too much terrain.

He sets up across from me, and keeps one Tervigon in reserve.