Rise of the Swarm

Well after my last 2 outings I was disappointed with the results of my chaos army. While playing my chaos I went 3-1 at the Adepticon Gladiator, 1-0-2 at the Adepticon Championships and 1-1-3 at the Slaughter in Space. 

My 2 losses have been to Dark Eldar, but my ties have been mostly due to the missions. The TOs are writing missions that take a lot of Troops to achieve, and ones where you need to be able to move quickly. My chaos has a lot of foot slogging, and at both tournaments the lack of troops really hurt me. 

But you say that Chaos won the Slaughter in Space, well yes they did, but it was one of the only few builds that win now with chaos. He took a Mech Chaos list with Plague Marines being his troops. He has Mech for speed, and one of the most durable troops in the game. I own 0 nurgle units, and my army is based around Tzeentch which is one of the worst builds that you can do. Thousand Sons are gimped because everyone now gets a 4+ cover save which diminished both their AP 3 bolters, and their 4+ inv save. Add to this that all of the 5^th edition codexes now have anti-psycher wargear, and all of them have new psychic powers that chaos are unable to stop. I was playing against Eldar and my Aspiring Sorcerer lined up a Winds of Chaos template into a Pathfinders squad, and because of runes of warding I lost him to a perils of the warp. That is a ton of points just wasted in the dead sorcerer, and it lets the pathfinders survive, and it cripples my Thousand Sons squad. 

So I thought I would re-evaluate my prohibition on 5^th edition codexes. I looked around and I am seeing a lot of Space Marine players, Imperial Guard players, and a ton of Space Wolf and Blood Angels players. The odd thing is that I am not seeing to many Tyranid players. So I am thinking about un-retiring my 'Nids.

3^rd edition Tyranids

I started collecting my Tyranids back in 3^rd edition. I was playing Thousand Sons as my main army, and they were totally opposite to them. Instead of being slow, hard and small, they were fast, soft and a horde. I had a big jump start with the army because the GW store in Glendale had a special event each week where you bought a box of troops and each week they had a small tournament with them and at the end if you won the tournament you received a free box of models. So I won a lot and had most of my army paid for with my winnings.  

4th edition Tyranids

I did not go very far with the Tyranids in 3^rd edition, but when the 4^th edition army book came out, I built a Godzilla army and started to crush people in RTTs. I won so much in fact, that I retired that army. It got to the point where my opponents hated the army so much that I was getting killed on comp and sports that I was not winning even though I was going 3-0 with a well painted army. My Tyranids had a brief resurrection a few years ago at Adepticon. We put together a stealer-shock list and had some success with it. I liked it so much that I brought it to Games Day LA and was 2-0 and playing on the top table when I drew Greg Sparks in the last round and we fought to a tie and had Scott Simpson who was playing on table #2 leap over both of us. 

5^th Edition

Shortly after Gamesday LA 5^th edition came out, and I again retired my Tyranids. I wanted to stay away from my Tyranids and any other 5^th edition army, but with the missions that TOs are putting up, I need to play a new army. 

Tyranid play

Pros

I kind of like the Tyranids because with the demise of Orks, and the rise of Mech, people are moving away from anti-horde wargear. Now that the Space Wolves and Blood Angels are fighting it out with IG for army superiority, it seems like the Tyranids can slip in now that everyone is trying to stop MEQ/Mech armies. Tyranids also have a lot of good troop options, and specialty units that can fill a lot of rolls.  

Cons

One of my big concerns is that with the tournament points limits going up to 2000 points, in 2-2.5 hours, how difficult will it be to get full games in? The advantage that the 'Nids have is that they are an assault army for the most part. That means that shooting armies will be cowering in the back of their deployment zone. The problems I had with my Eldar is that they are a shooting army and I was lay back and then I have to move up at the end of the game, but if the game went short I could not get to any objectives. For once in my life it might be good if I slow-play ;) The other thing is that if I fight an assault army there will be a big scrum in the middle of the table and that should sort itself out in a short time. Another problem is that armies do better when they fit your play style, and I am a shooter, not an assaulter. I am not aggressive in my game play and I need to change if this army is going to work for me.

Slaughter in Space II batreps!

I brought what I thought was a harder list than what I normally play. Why I say what I thought was harder I will go into at my next post.



My List:

HQ

Demon Prince w/MoT, Wings, Doombolt, Warptime

Demon Prince w/MoS, Wings, Lash

Greater Demon



Troops

7 Thousand Sons Marines

1 Aspiring Sorcerer w/Winds of Chaos

Rhino


9 Chaos Space Marines w/Lascannon, Plasma Gun

1 Aspiring Champion w/Powerfist

Rhino



9 Chaos Space Marines w/Lascannon, Plasma Gun

1 Aspiring Champion



8 Lesser Demons


Heavy Support

3 Obliterators

3 Obliterators

3 Obliterators



More about my list later

Game #1 vs Shep's Mech Guard

His army:

Mech Guard



Mission: 3 Objective evenly placed between the deployment zones

Deployment: 12" in from the table corners with Dawn of War style w/HQ and 2 Troops start on the board.

He starts with a Chimera and it's squad on the board and I start with my 2 troops and a DP.

Turn #1 his Chimera lights up one of my CSM squad that was going to go after the left objective and it dies when he fires his whole army at it.



My turn, darkness! I am not use to using searchlights, and I need to remember to start on the board with a rhino so I can use their searchlight.



Well, time for plan B. Now that holding the objective on the left is off of the table I am going to hold the right objective, and fight it out over the center objective.

We spend the rest of the game trading shots and moving forward.

Turn #5 he rushes the center objective with 3 chimeras. I counter with 3 monstrous creatures and a Thousand Sons squad. I end up killing one chimera.



The game ends on turn #5 in a draw. Not much either one of us could do to get the primary. Maybe if the game went to turn #7 my DPs could have killed everything, or his meltas could have killed my DPs, but otherwise it was going to be a tie.

Game #2 vs. Dash of Pepper's Dark Eldar

HQ

Leilith Hexperax

8 Wytches


Elite

5 Warriors w/Dark Lance

Raider w/Dark Lance



5 Warriors w/Dark Lance

Raider w/Dark Lance



5 Warriors w/Dark Lance

Raider w/Dark Lance


Troops

4 Wytch Elves

1 Succubus w/Agonizer

Raider w/Dark Lance



4 Wytch Elves

1 Succubus w/Agonizer

Raider w/Dark Lance



4 Wytch Elves

1 Succubus w/Agonizer

Raider w/Dark Lance



4 Wytch Elves

1 Succubus w/Agonizer

Raider w/Dark Lance



4 Wytch Elves

1 Succubus w/Agonizer

Raider w/Dark Lance



4 Wytch Elves

1 Succubus w/Agonizer

Raider w/Dark Lance


Heavy Support

Ravager

Ravager

Ravager

Mission: Whoever has the most kill points alive at the end of the game (dedicated transports do not count).

Ok, let me get this straight…I need to kill 5 units that are hiding in raiders and not lose any units to 13 Dark Lances and 9 Plasma Cannons? Um yeah.



What Dash could have done is just fly around in circles, and I would not have been able to kill enough to win this missions.


The game

I am sure he will write more about it, but he made a huge mistake that made it a game. He could have stayed back and shot me off of the board, but he played aggressive and assaulted me with his wytch elves. Normally wytch elves do a number on marines, and they were doing a good job with mine. He assaulted both of my CSM squads with 2 wytch squads each.



What this did was allow himself to be exposed to assault where I can kill the units I need to kill. The weakness of wytches is monstrous creatures. They halve your WS unless you have strength 6, and they take off the extra attack for 2 CCW. Demon Princes have strength 6, and all of their attacks are base attacks, and wytches can't hurt them with their puny strength of 3.



So just when I was assaulting them I pulled a bone head mistake. Now I have never played with lesser demons, and I will go on the record as saying that I will never use them again. So I assaulted the wytches with my DPs and my lesser demons, and the Wytches butchered my lesser demons and that cause a ton of fearless saves on my Demon Prince and my Greater Demon, and that almost killed them. I killed the wytches in the next round, but I was so crippled that they were easy pickings for Dark Lances.



I was tabled on round 4 or 5 and that was all she wrote. I ended up shooting down Leliths raider and in hindsight I should not have. I can kill her and pick up the secondary mission objective and that should have been my priority since there was no chance that I was going to the primary mission objective and I should have just tried to end the round trying with what points I could get.



Game #3 vs. Blood Angels

Mission: You had 2 objectives, and your opponent had 2 objectives and you were trying to keep yours, and destroy your opponent's by being within 3" at the end of the round.



This game is easy to describe. Mepheston came down one side and my Demon Prince came up the other and they both wiped out half of their opponents army. I had a chance to kill Mephiston when my aspiring sorcerer hit him with 2 attacks and was looking to end his life with a force weapon, but I could not roll a 6 to wound.



We both killed one of our opponent's objectives for a tie.



Game #4 vs Blood Angels

Mission: You get 3 points for each force category you destroy of your opponents. (Elite, troops, fast attack, heavy support)



Since I do not have any elites or fast attack my opponent starts out with 6 points.



He has Astorath and a lot of troops. He rolled and all of them got furious charge and fearlessness.

He started by running at me. I started by running at him since I think I can take him.



We end of in a big fight in the middle of the table. It was a good fight since CSMs have more attacks than his tac squads, but he has FNP. The problem was that the Demon Princes don't care about all of the Feel No Pain, and started butchering them.



At the end of the game I wiped him and he saw the writing on the wall so he jumped his last tac squad with a sanguinary high priest into a rhino and drove across the table to hide with an attack bike that I rolled a 1 to wound with a lascannon and it lived.



So he had an elite with the SHP, a troop with the tac squad and a fast attack with the attack bike. I had lost the greater demon to the Death Company.



I nearly tabled him and it was a tie.

Game #5 vs Foot Eldar

How dare someone try to beat with my specialty!!!!

Mission: Kill points.


I nearly table him and I win the game.



The secondary objective was to get 2 points for each table quarter you hold, and I only had 2 troops left so I only got 4 points. The only ones who got max points where IG who have a ton of scoring units.

#1 40K player in the USA

After listening to 40K radio, I went on over to check out RankingsHQ to see what they have listed and to my surprise, who is listed as the #1, 40K player in the US of A?

ME!

I am just having some fun with it because I am only ranked because I played in all 3 of the 40k events that they have tracked so far. My record is:


Broadside Bash

4-1

Adepticon Gladiator

3-1

Adepticon Championships (Yellow)

1-0-2

So I have gone 8-2-2, not to impressive. That is why I think it is funny that I am #1 for now. 

I will start working on my speech for when I lose my title "Well, I had a good run at the top, but no one can stay at the top forever. I look forward rededicating myself to the game, and the hard work that it will take to get back to top…"

Codex: Blood Angels

With my winnings of last week's RTT I finally bought myself a Blood Angels codex. I got to read a little bit of it over the weekend and I really liked what I saw. It is too bad that I do not play Space Marines or Blood Angels because I like the new codex more than that of the Space Wolves that I do own.


 
I know a lot of people are talking about all of the land raiders that they can take, and that they are falling from the sky, but here are a few things that I really like at first glance:


 
Baal Predators in the FA slot: That means that you can really load up on the AV 13 Predators if you want to when you combine it with the heavy support slots.


 
Assault Marines as troops: A lot of people look at these and they just look at the assault ability of them, but I like that they are troops that can move 12". I like the ability to get to where you need to go in a hurry without a rhino is very good.


 
Librarian Dreadnoughts: What is not to like about 2 of my favorite things combined into one model? I mean it is a

Librarian and a dreadnought!!!!


 
Stormraven transports: See the last 2 entries. They make the Blood Angels act more like Eldar with a fast moving transport. Not only that, but it can shoot some respectable shots when it needs to. The downside is that they are a little like the vendettas and are easy to down, but with a range of 72" with their missiles, they can sit back for a while before closing.


 
I was a bit surprised by Mephiston. I thought he would be a psychic monstrosity, and although his stats were nice, I was underwhelmed by his psychic powers.


 
So I might do a Night Lords army as a "counts as" one day, but I am still rocking the 3rd and 4th edition codex's.

1750 Point Tournament last weekend

So I played in my FLGS's 1750 point RTT tournament this last weekend. I needed the tune up for the Slaughter in Space Tournament next weekend, so I took a pared down list of what I will be bringing. I think that is one of my problems is that I jump around from list to list and don't play for a long time and I get a little rusty. I need to hone my lists and my tactics by playing more frequently.



My List:

HQ

Demon Prince w/MoT, Warptime, Winds of Chaos, Wings

Demon Prince w/MoS, Lash, Wings



Troops

5 Thousand Sons Marines

1 Aspiring Sorcerer w/Winds of Chaos

Rhino w/Combi Flamer



9 Chaos Space Marines w/Lascannon, Plasma Gun

1 Aspiring Champion

Rhino



9 Chaos Space Marines w/Lascannon, Plasma Gun

1 Aspiring Champion w/Power Fist



Heavy Support

3 Obliterators

3 Obliterators

3 Obliterators



No comp so I can bring what I wanted.



Game #1 vs. Word Bearers in Command and Control/Table Quarters

I know everyone hates KP missions but I hate this mission. I find it nearly impossible not to tie.

I played against Lash Sorcerer, 4 CSM in Rhinos, Land Raider w/Berserkers, and 2 Predators w/AC, HB



Turn #1

He went first and bum rushed me with his whole army.



I started shooting and not much going on. I had one rhino off to the side and I drove it around his rhino wall.



Turn #2

Next turn he drove at me again.



In my turn I unload and immobilize all of the front rhinos. I also had 3 oblits within 12" for Multi-melta shots on his Land Raider and I rolled a 2, 2, and a 1 to hit!!! Nooooo!



Turn #3

A pred kills my Rhino that was making the dash to his unprotected objective. His berserkers' w/Sorcerer kills my oblits that took the shots at the Land Raider.



My flanking rhino squad kills a pred with their powerfist. I get ready to lash the berserkers into WoC and assault range for the 2 Demon Princes, but I roll an 11 on the psychic test and fail to get Lash off, and they are out of charge range. I immobilize some more rhinos that were trying to drive around the others that were broken down.



Turn #4

He shoots up my Demon Princes and assaults my MoT DP with his berserkers. He kills a lot, but they bring him down. His CSM are now trying to run to my objective.



On my turn my other DP goes after a CSM squad and starts to butcher them. I start to run to his objective with the flanking CSM squad. My oblits are shredding CSMs.



Turn #5

He splits his Sorcerer and his berserkers and the sorcerer joins another CSM squad and Lashes my CSM squad out of their building, and he charges them and they end up getting in a big assault that is not going well for me. The berserkers charge my DP that is fighting a CSM squad and the DP kills the Berserkers before they get to swing (I like MoS even without lash) and the CSM break and get run down. He realizes that I have a squad that is headed to his unprotected objective so he shoots his immobilized Predator and Land Raider that them, and a squad that was in the rear gets out of their immobilized rhino and shoots them too.



In my turn my DP goes after the squad that is after my CSM squad that is running to his objective. I should have lashed them but I was on my last wound and I was worried about a PotW, and I thought that my assault would bring them 6" back anyways. My DP killed a lot of them, but they did his last wound and headed back toward my CSM again. In the big battle for my objective his Sorcerer and CSM were doing a number on my CSM so I tried to throw a couple of Oblit squads at them, but I rolled bad for S&P and could only get one unit in the fight, and I lost 2 of them to a powerfist. If the game ends now, I have my Thousand Sons on the objective and I win…but it does not end.



Turn #6

He shoots up my CSM that are almost on his objective and I can't make any saves. On his turn his sorcerer and his CSM win the combat with my CSM and oblit, but they look like they have been in a fight.



On my turn what is left of my CSM run on to his objective. My Thousand Sons get into the action, and quickly dispatch his Sorcerer and the 3 CSM that he had with him. If the game ends here I win with 2 objectives…but it does not.



Turn #7

He does not have much left, and he shoots my CSM on his objective and then assault and kills the one guy that was standing there after his shooting, and my Thousand Sons hold the other objective.



Tie game….grrrr!!!! If the game could have only ended!!!



Game #2 vs. Vulcan Salamanders in Command and Control/Table Quarters

Same stupid mission!!!

I will sum it up by saying that he had his 5-man squads with the heavy weapons in the back, and charged at me with the 5 man squads with the special weapons in rhinos/razorbacks. I killed the things headed to my objective without much of a sweat, and I had my Thousand Sons go after his objective just for kicks, but there was no way that he was going to get my objective, and there was no way I was going to get his, so we tied. Maybe is I could have summoned a couple of oblit squads off of the Thousand Sons squad, but I was afraid of Vulcan with the assault termies in the land raider, so I needed the firepower to blunt his charge.



Game #3 vs. Astral Claws in Kill Points Dawn of War

Huron Blackheart himself! I have never played against him before. He had an army like the first guy I played against with lots of CSM in rhinos+Huron, a Greater Demon, some lesser demons, 3 oblits, and a vindicator.



To sum it up, we danced around a bit and I shot the crap out of him. The highlight was that my MoT DP went after the Greater Demon and hacked him down in 2 rounds. Also Huron and the squad he was with were lined up so my Thousand Sons got out of their rhino and hit him with a WoC and rapid-fired them, and then charged what was left. My aspiring sorcerer wounded Huron with a force weapon, and without eternal warrior, that was it for him.

I win!!!



So I went 1-0-2 and got 3rd place which paid for my Blood Angels codex.



I learned a few things.

#1. My games were fast. Now that I used this army at Adepticon and now this weekend I am getting faster at it. The one thing that I found so frustrating with my Eldar was sweating getting the full game in. Eldar end up rolling so many dice that they take a while to play, and I want to get a full game in. Games ending early cost me many, many wins.

#2. I need more troops, and I wish I had the demons with me. 2 big unwieldy squads and one small special purpose squad were not cutting it.

#3. I should have put Warptime on my MoS DP. Warptime+DP is pure win!



I sent in my Slaughter in Space list, so I am stuck with it, but the only thing I would change is #3.

GBF’s response:

Green Blow fly responded to my post below, and I would like to address some of his points in red:

 

Green Blow Fly said...

Allan be honest and admit you stated in the Dakka thread not once but twice that Gareth cheated in the 2008 Ard Boyz finals. Someone contacted me and told me that they have a screenshot of your original comments on the Dakka thread prior to them being deleted. Personally I am tired of all the name calling and dragging people's reputations through the gutter in the wake following Adepticon. It seems to be a popular phenom right now unfortunately.

 

I never said that he cheated. I would like to see the screenshot of it myself. I quoted myself in a post to show you that I did not say that he cheated. I wish that the Mods did not delete the post so we can put this to bed. I said something like "who some people think cheated" or something like that. I never said he cheated, and I was just commenting on his reputation (more on that below)



I would like to address the following points here:

1. 
   
   I don't understand why you tried to drag Stelek into this mess you've created unless it was your intention to fan the flames higher hoping that Stelek would post about this over at his blog YTTH. If so that is quite low of you. Stelek and 40k Wrecking Crew have made admends and put the past behind us. Often I post over on YTTH if I should find something of interest to me. Please be so kind as to stay out of our business.
   
   
   
    

I did not know you two have kissed and made up. He made a post a couple of weeks ago about the WC and Parker and in hindsight it was not as bad as I first thought, so I guess you guys are on good terms now.

http://www.yesthetruthhurts.com/2010/03/credibility-stupidity-et-al.html

But the reason why I did it was just to poke the Stelek bear. I wanted to see him erupt like Mt. Vesuvius, and get some YTTH drama, which was wrong of me.




 

1. So Gareth does not have a stellar reputation. I understand that but really how long are you & others going to keep knocking him? It's low to keep bringing this up. It's also hypocritical of you considering your team mate cheated last year versus the 40k Wrecking Crew during the first round of the team tournament. Don't try to deny it.
   
   G
   

It is my regret that I did bring it up. Looking at it now, there is nothing Gareth can do to not be "That guy" from the 'Ard boyz. I should have just let it go, and not say anything, but I did not think of the repercussions of having some fun stirring up Stelek. I feel bad for the guy now because no matter how nice of a guy he is, or what he does in the future, that will be his reputation and there is nothing he can do to change that. I should have let it go, and for that I am sorry.


 
As far as cheating at the Team Tournament last year, I would not have done what my teammate did, but that does not mean that he was wrong. I am very bad with the rules when it comes to the details (it caused me all kinds of problems at Adepticon this year), and he is much more knowledgeable than me. I will have to take a look at the rulebook sometime and see whose side I think was right.

Oh, and you mentioned my attitude when Gareth was announced as an ETC member, let me explain that for you…

I was sitting with Skipper (a friend of Greg Sparks) and we were looking to get on the ETC team. We knew from our results there was no way either of us were going to be named, so we were talking about how we were going to get a call in June to fill in for them when they realize that it means sitting in a plane for 10 hours each way, and spending at least $2000 for a weekend of 40k games at a tournament that most people have never hear of, or don't know it exists. So when Gareth got the call I was surprised because in his threads about the 'Ard Boyz, he talked about how he was a poor student, so I went to Hod right away wondering if he was a poor student (and thus wondering about the odds for him actually going). That is all. Nothing to do with the all of the conspiracies that you are talking about.

And with this, I am done with the topic.

Slaughter in Space, bringing the lumber!

Well, I was thinking about the So. Cal Slaughter in Space, and I thought I would take my list up a notch. I will only take a couple of comp/theme hits and I would feel better about that, than getting totally outmatched by my army choice.


 
So what I ended up doing was making a list that is harder than I would normally play.


 
HQ

Demon Prince w/MoT, Warptime, Doombolt, Wings

Demon Prince w/MoS, Lash, Wings

Summoned Greater Demon


 
Troops

7 Thousand Sons Maines

1 Aspiring Sorcerer w/Winds of Chaos

Rhino


 
9 Chaos Space Marines w/Lascannon, Plasma Gun

1 Aspiring Champion

Rhino


 
9 Chaos Space Marines w/Lascannon, Plasma Gun

1 Aspiring Champion w/Power Fist


 
8 Summoned Lesser Demons


 
Heavy Support

3 Obliterators

3 Obliterators

3 Obliterators


 
I lost my Land Raider and my Terminators but I made up for them with another DP and CSM.