'Ard Boyz Tomorrow!

Well tomorrow is 'Ard Boyz, and I think I'm ready for it. After much mulling it over I made some list changes, hopefully for the better. I think (hope) I'm rounded enough for the missions, but I'll be happy with anything better than I got at the practice tournament a couple weeks ago (1 major victory, 1 minor loss, and 1 massacre against me). I'm also getting a Dark Eldar army tomorrow off of a local player so even if I don't win in the tournament I still kinda win. The list is as follows with the major changes being one less chosen squad, 2 more lesser demon squads, and giving the prince lash, so we'll see how it goes.

HQ
Demon Prince(110); ---155
Wings, Mark of Slaanesh, Lash of Submission

Elite
6 Chosen(18); ---193
5 Meltaguns, Rhino

6 Terminators(30); ---250
Chainfist/Combi-melta; Chainfist/Combi-plasma; Powerfist/Combi-melta; Power Weapon/Combi-melta; Power Weapon/Combi-melta; Power Weapon/Combi-plasma

Troops
7 Plague Marines(23); ---271
Aspiring Champion w/ Powerfist/Combi-melta; 2 Meltaguns, Personal Icon, Rhino

7 Plague Marines(23); ---271
Aspiring Champion w/ Powerfist/Combi-melta; 2 Meltaguns, Personal Icon, Rhino

7 Plague Marines(23); ---281
Aspiring Champion w/ Powerfist/Combi-plasma; 2 Plasmaguns, Personal Icon, Rhino

7 Plague Marines(23); ---281
Aspiring Champion w/ Powerfist/Combi-plasma; 2 Plasmaguns, Personal Icon, Rhino

7 Lesser Demons(13); ---91

7 Lesser Demons(13); ---91

7 Lesser Demons(13); ---91

Heavy Support
3 Obliterators(75); ---225

Defiler(150); ---150
Reaper Autocannon & Twin Linked Heavy Flamer

Defiler(150); ---150
Reaper Autocannon & +1 Close Combat Weapon
Total - 2500

I will post an update on how I did on Monday, will also be a report on the status of my new Dark Eldar army, and I will have pics of the Lamenter's chapter banner I finished up

Will's Army History

I've been playing 40K since late 2001. Some friends in college encouraged me to start playing a few months after they started. I picked up the Tau codex and went from there. The Tau army that I started with has long been sold. I spent a solid year losing games with them in third edition while I learned the rules of the game. My regular opponents were a Dark Eldar player, an Orks Speed Freak player and a Blood Angels player. All were fast armies that assaulted me on turn two and made for some pretty discouraging games. It was a running joke that the roll to go first was also called the "roll to win".


I also had a third edition Eldar army. I say third edition because I built it using Ulthwe rules and min-maxed it for a Rogue Trader Tournament. I did win the tournament but never had much fun playing the army after that. I tried to use the army with the fourth edition Eldar codex but didn't want to add the units that made it effective, namely three Falcons and Harlequins. The army sat in its cases for years before I sold it to a guy through Bartertown. This experience really taught me a lot about how and why to choose an army.


The third army I picked up was a Khorne based Chaos army. I never made much progress with them before I sold them. At the end there were a couple of painted squads of Berserkers and Daemons.


In January of 2008 I started with Necrons. I spent a lot of time labouring over the army selection decision. I wanted something that complimented my playstyle, had an enjoyable background and that I would enjoy painting. I have a fully-painted force of ~4000 points including a home-made Plyon. On top of that I acquired a couple more thousand points of models in a trade that have not been painted yet. I have a few projects to work on that are Necron related but they are on the backburner until we get a new codex. Did someone say Gargantuan Creature Deceiver?!


My current project is an Imperial Guard army. I bought a Cadian army from a local player and combined it with a college friend's Steel Legion. The army is assembled and about half painted. I have enough to play an Apocalypse game of about 3000 points painted and can easily swing the local 1850 point tournaments. I probably have another two thousand points of unpainted stuff and several Apocalypse size things that are in various states of construction. My goal with this army is to spend some time on conversions and give it a very strong theme that is easily recognizable when you first see it. I'll post more on this in the future.

'Ard Boyz Practice Follow-up

Well yesterday I played in an 'Ard Boyz parctice tournament, there were only 7 people but it was a good time. I got 6th (...) with a major victory, a minor loss and got massacred, but it was kind of due to wonky missions too. The missions were last year's 'Ard Boyz missions. All three of my games were close and exciting, and overall it was a good time.

The first game I played against a SW list with a couple rhinos, a LR with 16 bloodclaws in it, a couple dreads one in pod, a twin las razorback, 2 long fang units, njal and a couple more priests. It was a close battle going back and forth til the end, in which he beat me like 9 kp-13 or so, but I had two objectives to his one. Awesomeness award goes to the lesser demons for dropping on the center objective on top of a bastion and holding it the whole game with 2 left by the end of it. A courtmarshall gets issued to the 7 terminators for getting scared and running when a rhino tank shocked them and were promptly shot off the board, stupid termis. It was a fun game, but I think if my opponent had his Twolves done it would've went better for him.

The second game I played against Deathwing, ended in a minor loss but he really worked for it and earned it. He was using 2 LR's, a total of 6 terminator squads, Belial, a couple speeders. a bike squad, and an attack bike. He went first, on my first turn I killed 4/5 termis in a squad, and 4/6 bikers. But in the end I just couldn't contend with all those assault terminators. He won 18 kp-14kp. Mvp award again goes to the lesser demons for killing the attack bike, a couple terminators, and in the end I had 1 lesser demon fighting a powerfist marine for 2 full game turns mano-a-mano before the game ended with them both alive. This was a close game where he really worked and earned the victory he got.


The third game I played against vanilla marines. It was awicked close and riveting game,in the end he had 1 objective to my 0, after I took one of his but had no troops to claim it, and was inches(but outside by a few) from contesting the other. He also beat me by 1 kp 12-13, so getting massacred (by 1 obj/1kp) kinda sent things awry for me. Kinda feels like he shoulda got a major or minor victory but oh well what can you do. He was using Lysander, a Libby with might/vortex, 3 tac squads in drop pods, 2 venerable dreads in pods. a land reaider with assault termis (and Lys), a squad of deepstriking assault termis, an assault squad, and a scout squad with cloaks plus lysanders ability for a combined 2+ cover save. This was by far my favorite game of the day, even with the massacre against me. The mvp award gets split on this match between the oblits for killing the land raider, 6 terminators and 2 of Lysanders wounds with shooting, and in the end killed Lysander (as he killed all three of them) in one big powerfist group hug; and the lesser demons (again) for killing half the assault squad, and then and making it about 5 inches from the one objective he had at the end before dying providing cover for some plague marines who also almost made it to the objective the turn the game ended.

So after my first experience playing at 2500 was fun and I learned a bit. The defilers didn't fare as badly as I thought they would with one surviving til the end in 2 out of 3 games and totally earning their points back in the one I lost both. The demon prince also rocked house in the 2 out of 3 games i used him. the 2nd game he just hid out of range to avoid giving the terminators 5 more kp's. Both of these units I expected to die by turn 1 or 2 from anti tank fire, but were more resilient than I expected. In a response to the original list thread Will suggested using more demons, more oblits (which I wish I had, but don't), buffing the chosen and getting a lash or 2 in. I'm unsure on the lash thing, it would've helped a bit today, but at the real event I expect at least double the number of people (if not more) and much harder lists, lash doesn't do crap to mech but with BA/SW the way they are right now it might just work out. For the real tournament I think I will use more lesser demons next time maybe 20 or 30 total, their cheap enough. Buffing up my chosen squads sounds like a good idea, so they can take a hit or 2 before they lose meltaguns. If I can work the points maybe put some combi weapons on the rhinos or maybe lash but that's going to take some mulling over though I could use the prince and I have a sorceror. In conclusion it was a great day if a little draining playing 40k for like 8 hours and I can't wait to do it again in two weeks against a larger playerbase. The turnout should be good because our store is running it on Sunday instead of Saturday, so people nearby who didn't make it in on saturday at other locations will come here.The next Tervigon post is done except for the pictures, so expect that in a day or so.

'Ard Boyz Practice List

So our FLGS is having an 'Ard Boyz practice tournament this weekend that I'm going to be playing in, and it got me thinking about what I'm going to do. It will be good for me because other than a few Apoc. games I haven't played anything over 2000 points. I'm not sure what the scenarios will be but I've made a decently well rounded list with the models that I've got. Some of the things in the list I don't think are going to work out that great (ie. Defilers) @ 2500, and I dont have 4 more Obliterators to replace them, but I think I've come up with a use for them. The plan is as follows: The Defilers and Demon Prince are there to soak up a portion of first turn fire so the marines can get to their objectives(be it actual objectives, or their respective kill assignments), the chosen outflank in to melta the heck out of the board edges or force the opponent to clump up in the middle. The Terminators will deepstrike and probably cause another vehicle casualty then have strong enough numbers to withstand a turn of enemy fire and go kill something else next turn. Oblits will usually start on the board to provide fire support, but could deepstrike if the situation calls for it. All the troop units have icons to provide deepstrike accuracy and the lesser demon pack is for a rear objective holder and then the marines could move on. Now optimally i would be using 4 more Obliterators instead of the Defilers and pump up the chosen squads up another guy or two and an Icon of Chaos Glory and drop the lesser demons, but you work with what you've got, blasted real life expenses. Here's the list:

HQ
Demon Prince; ---130
Wings

Elite
5 Chosen; ---175
5 Meltaguns, Rhino

5 Chosen; ---175
5 Meltaguns, Rhino

7 Terminators; ---330
Chainfist/Combimelta, Chainfist/Combiflamer, Powerfist/Heavy Flamer, Powerfist/Combimelta, Power Weapon/Combimelta, Power Weapon/Combiflamer,
Power Weapon/Combimelta/Icon of Tzeentch

Troops
7 Plague Marines; ---271
Asp. Champion w/ Powerfist/Combimelta, 2 Meltaguns, Personal Icon, Rhino

7 Plague Marines; ---271
Asp. Champion w/ Powerfist/Combimelta, 2 Meltaguns, Personal Icon, Rhino

7 Plague Marines; ---281
Asp. Champion w/ Powerfist/Combiplasma, 2 Plasmaguns, Personal Icon, Rhino

7 Plague Marines; ---261
Asp. Champion w/ Powerfist/Combiflamer, 2 Flamers, Personal Icon, Rhino

6 Lesser Demons; ---78

Heavy Support
3 Obliterators; ---225

Defiler; ---150
Reaper Autocannon/Twin Linked Heavy Flamer

Defiler; ---150
Reaper Autocannon/+1 Close Combat Weapon

Total - 2497

I will post an update with thoughts on how I will adapt the list and what worked out and what didn't and what I'm going to do for the actual 'Ard Boyz tournament on Monday or Tuesday. Until then have fun blowin crap out of your opponents toy soldiers!