WoC marching to war

Well I won my first game of WHFB, against Empire.

Most of my army got killed apart from my warriors, led by my sorcerer, who ate my opponents big block of halberders, led by warrior priest, and this resulted in the rest of the empire army panicking!

My lvl 2 sorcerer was probably the star of the game, causing the enemy to kill themselves (treason of tzeentch) and making my opponent warry of using magic (pandimonium).

My Chaos Warriors also deserve a very honorable mention, first eating through a block of flagellants and then halberders for the loss of only 2 men all game!

As these two units did so well I increased my list to 2000 points with the addition of another block of 12 warriors and a lvl 4 tzeentch sorcerer lord, my lvl 2 has now become nurgle.

The unit that needs to hang it's head in shame are my chaos knights. They charged through some woods, losing a man in the process, and killed the enemy cannon, over ran into his wizard but the proceeded to run off the field after loosing another man to a mortar shell!

But anyway my army is now 2000 points but quite small, next on the shopping list though is a hell cannon :-)

Fantasy Adventure

I've decided, after 15+ years, to get back into playing warhammer fantasy battle.

I've always like the brettonians and wood elf armies but after doing some research have found out that these two armies aren't very good in the latest edition of WFB. Now I definitely go for fun over winning but if I loose ALL my games then I'll just get depressed with the game and pack it up for another 15 years.

So I did a bit more research, and looked at the miniature ranges and have decided to go for warriors of chaos. The WoC and meant to be a simple army to use, run forward and hit stuff, but still has the potential for a lot of character, the marks of chaos. Also the miniatures from warhammer forge are too nice to say no to!

To start off I've purchased the WOC battalion to get the army kick started. All I had to purchase now was a sorcerer to lead the army, I like the idea of a corrupt wizard leading a war band :-) I suddenly remembered that having been to the last few games days I had the miniatures from them. These are a chaos sorcerer and a chaos champion. I had to include these as they're nice models as well as powerful characters. To round out the army I'm going to get a unit of 5 marauder horsemen.

So far I'm building a 1250 list which looks like this-

Chaos Sorcerer
    General
    Mark of Tzeentch
    Level 2 Upgrade
    Infernal Puppet

Exalted Hero
    Mark of Khorne
    Extra Hand Weapon
    Favour of the Gods

Chaos Warriors - 12
    Mark of Tzeentch
    Musician
    Standard Bearer - Blasted Standard
    Shields
    Champion

Chaos Marauders - 20
    Mark of Khorne
    Musician
    Standard Bearer
    Great Weapons
    Marauder Chieftan

Marauder Horsemen - 5
    Mark of Slaanesh
    Musician
    Standard Bearer
    Spears
    Marauder Chieftan

Chaos Hounds - 10
    Scaly Skin

Chaos Knights - 5
    Mark of Nurgle
    Musician
    Standard Bearer - Banner of Wrath
    Champion

I've got my first game this Monday so I'll see how it all works, if at all!

Mirrror Match

Had my first grey knight 'v' grey knight game last night. Game was capture and control with dawn of war set up at 2000 points, ended in a draw.

I used my 1500 point force with a few additions. Added a techmarine to the purifier squad, which I bulked out to 10 men. Also made the assault cannon dread into a venerable dread and bulked the terminators to 10 men.

He had an 'in your face' army of 2 dreadknights, deathcult in a stormraven and several terminator squads. This was all led by corteaz and a brotherhood champion.

Basically he stormed my objective and I stormed his. Although both armies work quite differently, depite being the same, we cancelled each other out.

Turn 5 would have ended in a draw, turn 6 was a draw, game did end here. We played a turn 7 to see 'what if' and I 'would' have won due his inability to kill a razorback with 10 terminators. Made up for me first round of shooting where I didn't kill a thing! A moral victory for me though!

Update

I know it’s been a while since I last posted but I’ve been involved in a lot of ‘real life’ shenanigans.

I thought I’d try and keep this post, reasonably, simple and just give you a rundown of the changes to my Grey Knight list. I’ve been playing mostly with a 1500 points army.

HQ

Libby – this guy has gone. Yes he is a great big force multiplier that I first thought was a must. His powers are awesome, nice, but not essential, and as he comes in a close to 200 points, which is another 5 terminators or 10 power armoured dude... He is a big bloke that I can, and do, leave at home.

Inquisitor – kitted this guy out with ‘nades and stuck him in a stormraven with a henchman squad. He took with him 4 death cult and 6 Arco flagellants. Yes they’re good and they can, and do, eat though anything but people are now learning how to deal with them so have been dropped.

Brotherhood Champion – my current HQ of choice. People first look at him and think no as he only has 1 wound. Yes that is true but he grants the unit he’s with re-rolls to hit turn they charge (a.k.a. chaplain), he re-rolls to wound (with a force weapon) and his 3 warrior stances are just too good to pass up. So far he’s killed the enemy general in every game I’ve played him in, and all he costs is 100 points!

Elite

Henchman Squad – see inquisitor entry above

Purifiers – I fist tried using these as a 5 man squad with 2 psycannons who provided fire support thinking people would cautious of assaulting them due to cleansing flame. Yes they were good at this role but expensive. When I dropped the inquisitor and henchmen, as I still needed an assault unit, their role changed. I dropped the 2 psycannon and added 2 incinerators and 2 hammers. My thinking being that they will disembark from their stormraven, shoot  and the assault. As when they disembark they're nice and close I've gone with incinerators over psycannons (S6 flamer anyone), but as they still need anti armour I've added 2 hammers. Add a few more purifiers, with halberd, psybolts and a brotherhood champion you have one nasty unit!

Vindicare Assassin – Yes he is good/ great but he only gets 1 shot a turn, and usually missed with that! Has now been dropped.

Troops

Terminators – Tried a 10 man squad (2 psycannons, 2 hammers, 5 halberds and a banner). I found them too unwieldy and they ate up too many points. Now using a 5 man squad (psycannon, 3 halberds, hammer, sword, psybolts).

StrikeSquads – I use 2 x 6 man squads (psycannon, 5 halberd, psybolts) in psybacks (heavy bolter razor back with psybolts). I’ve found these to be good at defence of offense. Used to have the Justicar with a hammer but found they never assaulted vehicles!

Fast Attack

Stormraven Gunship – Twin-linked assault cannons, Twin-linked multi-melta, 4 x mindstrike missiles. Usually (always) held in reserve. This way it acts as a counter assault unit as it holds the Brotherhood champion, purifiers and the assault cannon dreadnought. And the mindstike missiles are just death to any psykers, took down a hive tyrant with them last week!

Heavy Support

Dreadnought – ‘psyfleman' config (2 x twin-link auto cannons with psybolts). This guy sits at the back and shoots 4 strength 8 shots at the enemy.

Dreadnought – Assault cannon, nemesis doomfist, storm bolter, psybolts. Hangs os the back of the stormraven and supports the purifiers.

One of the reasons I have 2 dreadnoughts is to expand the ‘reinforced agies’ bubble as since I’ve dropped the Libby I have no hood.

So after that my current 1500 point list is:

Brotherhood champion

Purifiers (8) – psybolts, 2 x incinerator, 2 x hammer, falchions, 3 x halberd

2 x strike squad (6) – psybolts, psycannon, 5 x halberd, razorback with psybolts

Terminators (5) – psybolts, psycannon, hammer, sword, 3x halberd

Stormraven – TL assault cannon, TL multi melta

Dreadnought – 2 x TL autocannons, psybolts

Dreadnought – assault cannon, psybolts

My current record is w-9 L-10 D-3 which may not be the best but I thinks it’s pretty respectable!

OGC Present: Jolly Toys Outing 2012

Date: 18th and 19th February, 2012

Venue: Warhammer World, Nottingham

Age Limit: 16+

Details: For a good reason to come and use those new ‘toys’ you received over Christmas come and play in a friendly 2000 point tournament of Warhammer 40,000.
The weekend will involve 5 games at 2000 points and will include many prizes including the Oxford Minotaur’s war axe.
After the competitive games on Saturday you will be able to play some social games or just relax after day's gaming.
If you want to take part you will need to bring a fully painted 2000 point Warhammer 40,000 army, dice, tape measure, templates and rule books.
This is a Nova style event currently with 110 places.

Tickets: Tickets cost £40.00 per player, and includes lunch on both days.

Tournament Blog: http://jollytoysouting.blogspot.com/

Contact: For more information please contact OGC at: http://www.oxfordgamingclub.co.uk/ or email royemunson@hotmail.com

Rules pack: http://www.oxfordgamingclub.co.uk/rulespacks/OGC_jollytoys2012.pdf

Henchman Squad

I've been building converting a deathwatch marine squad for the Grey Knights. Going by the old deathwatch kill team rules they can either be led by a marine captain or librarian but the GK codex does not include these (in power armour). The GK codex though does include an Ordo Xeno's inquisitor. As the deathwatch are part of ordo xeno's  this seams like an ideal choice.




As the army will include an inquisitor it can also include a henchman squad. As these squad can be quite characterful and 'fluffy' I'm going to have one!

Now for the composition of the henchman squad I first thought about including a shooting squad. e.g. gun servitor and monkeys. I decided not to though as most of the other stuff in my army shoots. What my army does lack though is a hard hitting close combat squad with lots of attacks.

As such I've decided to include 3 types of henchmen in my squad. Deathcult assassins, banishers and arco-flagellants. 4 DCA for high initiative power weapon attacks. 2 Banishers with eviscerator for anti vehicle. 2 Arco-flagellants for lots of high strength attacks.

Now this squad is going to be led by the OX inquisitor who will have rad grenades and hammerhand. This will mean on the charge the unit will hit with -
16 I6 S5 power weapon attacks
4 I1 S8 power weapon attacks
10 I3 S6
6 I3 S4 force weapon attacks

Now as must infantry has a T3 or 4 and the inquisitor has rad grenades that's potentially 14 hit that will cause ID. After being hit by this squad I don't think much will survive.

Rapid Strike 2011 - Review

I attended Spiky clubs 1 day, 40K tournament Rapid strike 2011 on Sunday and came a, what I consider, respectable 20^th out of 44. The day consisted of three games at 1500 points. I achieved 1 win, 1 loss and 1 draw.

Game 1 - Jen Chapman – IG

Jen had – Griffin, punisher, demolisher, valkery with command squad, outflanking stormtroopers, outflanking ‘blob’ squad with al harim

Capture and control – dawn of war

Result – Draw, I achieved all 3 bonus points. (kill enemy HQ, be nearest centre, have a scoring unit in enemy deployment zone)

Highlights – at one point in the game my dreadknight killed 32 imperial guardsmen, which had outflanked, in 1 go.

Game 2 – Leo Midwinter – Dark Eldar

Leo had lance and poison spam

Sieze ground (4 objectives) – Spearhead

Almost got tabled – 2 bonus points

Highlight – Leo stole initiative. I couldn’t pen armour, and when I did, I couldn’t damage vehicles. My dreadknight died for the first time. 1st time in 7 games, and people said he’d die easily!

Game 3 - Andrew Bampton – Ork Warbikes

Adam had – 2 big nob biker squads, each led by warboss

Annihilation – pitched battle

Big win

Highlights – my first shot from the assassin killed a painboy, he killed assassin and dreadnought then turbo boosted around the table. I ran after him and shot lots. He conceded mid turn 7

All in all a good tournament and a fun day.