40k League Finals

Thw Warhammer 40k League has finally finished. We started with 12 players and had half the field drop by the end. The upside is even though I was last in the league I made it into the top six tournament by default. The way the tournament worked was that the 3,4,5,6th ranked players split and played each other. The winners of those two games played number one and two, followed by those winners playing for the championship. I drew Mike W and his Eldar for my game. I played him twice earlier in the league but only have the one battle report from our second game.

The terrain was set out for the game by the League organizer. The scenario was a combination Relic and Eternal War. We set up on the short table edges and this is when I lost the game.

Mike W's  TauDar. Two big warp spider squads, support weapon squad, firewarrior squad, Ethereal, a couple farseers, Autarch on jetbike in a jetbike squad, Riptide suit, two broadsides with missile pods, a dark reaper squad in a wave serpent and a dire avenger squad in a wave serpent, with everything that could get a skyfire or interceptor upgraded.

I wasn't going to play in the tournament but the sixth player dropped and I was in. I  contemplated a big Imperial Guard allied detachment but wasn't able to finish building the models I wanted to use so I went with a "More Than They Can shoot down" Plague Zombie Horde List. I took Huron Blackheart as my warlord, Typhus, 82 plague zombies in three squads, a noise marine squad in a rhino,two nurgle obliterators, five chaos terminators with a Land raider dedicated transport and two Heldrakes. Their was no way I was going to get the Relic slow walking a mob of plague zombies into the teeth of the TauDar gun line. I rolled for Huron's master of deception warlord trait and only made one unit infiltrate. So I chose to outflank the Terminators and their land raider.

After the Taudar shooting turn one, 27 plague zombies killed and a rhino destroyed.

Then the Warp spiders jump up a little closer.

My turn two a Heldrake and the obliterators arrive. The Heldrake is immediatley skyfired and intercepted down.

The obliterators destroy a wave serpent and pin the dark reapers inside.

The Warpspiders from the other end of the table show up in the backfield on his turn three.

The Obliterators had a good run but are gunned down.

My turn three the landraider and other Heldrake arrive. That Heldrake took the Skyfire on the nose but survived. The Terminators on the other hand deployed and shot down some dark reapers. The Landraider also scored by killing the two broadside battle suits.

Taudar turn four the army redeploys to take on the terminators.

The terminators survive one squad of warpspiders,

But not the second squad and dark reapers.

The riptide charges in and wiffs the attack.

The relic left in the open after the Heldrake burned down the jetbike squad. Only one choice to make.

TANK SHOCK! the land raider can't carry the relic but it can park on it.

The Riptide and warpspiders move up.

But the land raider is destroyed by a thrown Singing spear. We roll and the game ends at turn five.
It was almost a lost cause from the start but I had fun playing. I can see how the TauDar lists are all the rage in tournaments. As a side note after the game was finished and we were talking about it while we waited for the next round to start. It was pointed out that a Singing Spear only has armorbane in melee, so it wouldn't have been able to destroy a land raider if thrown. The down side of neither you nor your opponent knowing their wargear rules.

So my final standing for a possible 17 games was 4 wins, 2 draws and 11 loses. All four wins were from my opponents forfeiting games. I joined the league to play games so I succeeded in that. I played some really good games and I am starting to get a better feel for the Chaos Space Marine codex. The two Taudar lists in the final six ended up splitting the top prize rather than fight the last game against each other.

They are talking about another league starting next January. I might play but probably with a different army.

Cryptkickers verses Space Sharkwing league game

Once again the Cryptkicker face the Carcharodons better known as the Space Shark chapter of space marines. The models are sharks but Sons was using the Dark Angels rules to field a Sharkwing army. The game was a Gaming Underground in High Point NC against Sons of Taurus. You can check out his report of the game here on his blog. It was Hammer and Anvil deployment and big guns never tire mission.

The table set up The Cryptkicker deployment is to the left.

I won first turn and deployed. One plague marine squad in the far entrenchment, one squad on the friendly objective and one mounted in a rhino. The Lord in terminator armor, the terminator squad and two obliterators in reserve.

The Sharks deploy a terminator squad in the ruin on the left and a tactical squad in the ruin on the right.

Turn one was a little anticlimactic, I didn't have in weapons in range of his troops and his krak missiles failed to stop my rhino.

Turn two I dropped the Chaos lord and terminator squad close and it scattered onto the Sharks objective.

The Plaguemarine squad in a rhino moves out into the kill zone and popped smoke.

One obliterator arrives and the second scatters off board and disappears into the warp. This put Sons two point up for First blood and destroying a heavy support.

Between the Terminators and the Obliterator, they destroy three terminators.

Bottom of three Belial and his terminator retinue arrive.

Sons last squad arrives in the open near the board edge.

Top of three the rhino runs all out to get closer to the other Shark objective.

The obliterator killed last turn the lord and Terminator squad move up to assault.

The Lord Issues a challenge and Belail accepts.

When the dust clears all three Chaos terminators are down in return for one Sharkwing Terminator. The Chaos Lord wounds Belail but the challenge continues.

The Sharks move out and light up the chaos rhino.

Top of four the Plague marines line up for the charge.

The Chaos lord and Belial swing away but Ap3 verses 2+ armor makes for a long fight.

The Plague Marine assault in and the Marine sgt refuses the Plague marine champions challenge so he moves to the rear.

The Plague marine throw a bunch of wounds and only the Sergeant is left, but he stays in the fight.

The bottom of turn four the two other Sharkwing terminators join the fight giving Belail rerolls but the Chaos Lord and Belial continue to swing away.

The other Sharkwing squad charges in to save the cowardly sgt.

Top of turn five the chaos lord and Belail continue the man dance.

The Plague Marines bag a couple terminators but too many powerfists seals their fate.

Bottom of turn five the Man dance continues and then the game ends.

The sharks get a win with first blood, an objective and two points for killing the obliterators.

I had a great time playing Sons but could have done a couple things differently. The two plasma gun plague marine squads set the game out. In hindsight I should after all hie forces arrived I should have mounted up the one squad and sent it down field. the other squad could have walked over to the friendly objective. It is wishful thinking but a couple turns of plasma gun shot from that second squad could have made a difference at the end of the game.

we have gone up to 1250 points now and I have dropped the Plague Marines from the roster for the moment. They are great troops but in a lower point game they are just too expensive compared to the competition.

ColKG

Push Mold Death Guard Shoulder Pad

I have been working on my Death Guard army and wanted more of the distinctive three skull shoulder pads characteristic of the Death Guard. GW still has the shoulder pads for $10.75 for ten but that is a bit too rich for me. I have a bunch of the old second edition Plague Marines and I would have to saw off their shoulders to be able to use the separate shoulder pads, so onto plan B.

One of the Death Guard shoulder pads I acquired years ago.

Shoulder guard detail push mold from green stuff.

The result from the mold before being cleaned up.

The result trimmed up and glued onto the shoulder of a second edition metal plague marine.

After a bit of green stuff the detail is blended into the shoulder pad.

I have a bunch more to do but I think they are going to work out.

ColKG

CryptKickers Deathguard Wip for 40k League

 I have a large Death Guard army I have painted up to use in large apocalypse sized battles. The majority of them are only painted to a table top standard. I have been wanting to paint more plague marines to a better standard and plan to use the 40k league to motivate myself.

The planned force ready for painting. Some need basing and some need priming but this is the force as it stands now. I am aiming for five squads of seven plague marines.

I only has four Icon bearers so I started making a fifth one. The Icon of Despair makes to unit cause Fear and I contemplated a banner horrifying enough to cause other to fear them. Nothing like a plague marine holding a banner with half of a live plague zombie hanging from it.

A closer look. I drilled out the hand and used a piece of brass rod to make the banner pole. I then took the hanging body from the old zombie box and cut off the head. I pinned on a more active head and added the arms. The top of the Icon is the horse head skull from the old skeleton box. I drill out the base of the standard top to go on the banner pole and pinned the rope from the hanging zombie into the bottom of the horse skull.

It still needs a little work but when I finish building it, I think it will look good once its painted.

ColKG

Thoughts on 40k League So far, Or Time for a new plan.

I played my third league game against Eldar again, although a different player. I forgot my camera so no battle report but it was purge the Alien and my army was thoroughly purged. So far in the league my results have been 5-1, 3-0 and 10-1 all losses. The three armies were Dark Eldar and two Regular Eldar. The things going for my army was a 5 toughness, feel no pain and fearless. The Dark Eldar basically ignored the toughness with their poisoned weapons and an abundance of Dark lances. The new Eldar are just bad news. The two Eldar armies I played were almost clones, both had a farseer, a warp spider squad, and two wave serpents carrying their troops. One had Wraithguard as troops the other Dire Avengers. The Eldar can put out so much shooting even having a 3+ armor save and a 5+ feel no pain can't shake off all the wounds. I have been running five Plague marines in a squad,so losing a couple models a turn, leaves them wiped out by the end game. The two rhino borne squads have given my opponent first blood in all three games I have played so far. I went into the league with a style army playing mono Nurgle Death Guard list and that isn't working. The Plague Marines are great but after a talk with my last opponent I have to agree with that they are too expensive for low points games. We are going up to 1250 points for rounds five through eight and I plan to change up my list.

I will give a review of the units and evaluate them so far.

Starting with the Nurgle Chaos Lord in Terminator armor and paired lightning claws. Against the Dark Eldar he was the star of the game. He made it into assault, tossed his blight grenade and survived the game with one wound. Against the Eldar I dropped him in and he was gunned down before doing any thong. I dig the model but I might have to go with some thing different.

The three Combi Plasma terminator squad with power axes. Suicide troops at best but every game they dropped in and fired off their plasma shots. They made it into assault against the Dark Eldar but were gunned down by both Eldar players. I like them but I don't roll good enough to rely on a one time salvo of plasma shots to get the job done and then they are alone and hanging out in the breeze. I want deep strike ability in the army but might have to get it somewhere else.

The Plague Marines, no complaints. The only problem is the five model squads are too small and the rhinos giving up first blood every game. Two options, go big or go home. Drop the rhinos and go with a twenty plague marine squad and just run into their guns, hoping to get a half dozen into assault or drop them and go with regular chaos marines or cultists, still undecided.

The Nurgle Obliterators, no complaints. I fielded them as units of one model and I will probably go with units of at least two next round. When I deep struck them in to get something just one model isn't enough to guarantee a kill shot.

Now how to make the army more competitive.

Thought one is When in doubt, Helldrake it out. A Helldrake or three seems to be the competitive crutch I am missing from my army. I don't have surplus hobby funds to buy three so I will probably scratch build a few. Will I get them done for the league who knows.

To Plague Marine or not? For the price of a Plague Marine squad in a rhino I can put 35 cultists with two flamers on the table. If I put a Chaos Lord or Dark Apostle into them they will be fearless. So a Chaos Lord with thirty five extra wounds to run into the enemy guns.

That is what 150 catachans looks like. It is 192 points for thirty five cultists with two flamers, 32 lasguns and a champ with auto pistol ccw. Add in a sorcerer Chaos lord with Prescience so twin linked all around. Then I went on to, if I am going to break from the mono Nurgle theme then why not 35 cultists with three flamers and the rest ccw and auto pistols and then take the mark of Khorne. Two base attacks each and plus two for charging so four attacks each times thirty two would be 128 attacks plus nine more from the three flamer armed cultists would be 137 attacks on the charge for 235 points. Now take two of those for 470 points.
Add a Khorne Chaos Lord and a Khorne Dark Apostle so both squads will be fearless.

Add a four Nurgle Obliterators to give some long range fire and a chaos bike squad to give me a little mobility.
It isn't a subtle list. I would have to outfit the Lord and Dark Apostle to take on vehicles and monstrous creatures but if half the squad makes it to assault they will still throw 50 or so attacks and provide the characters a hell of a cheering section in a challenge.

Just a few thoughts

ColKG