All Killer, No Filler!

A long time ago I wrote a post about list building and nearly 18 months on I find myself needing to write another one. This comes as I'm trying to figure out my list for Blog Wars 3 in June. The title of the post sums up my approach to list building. I don't like there to be anything in my list that's just there to hug an objective, contest late on or otherwise is just there to spend some left over points.

Every unit in my army has a role to play. Ideally every unit is pretty horrible too. This is easier with some armies than others. Let's take a look at my standard Space Wolves 1,750pt list to see what I mean. This is a very slight modification of the list I took to Blog Wars 2 last year. I'm hoping to take Dark Eldar this year (more on that later) but this will be my back-up if I fail to get the DE painted in time.

1,750pts of Space Wolves
Wolf Lord w/ Thunderwolf, Wolf Claw, Runic Armour, Storm Shield, Saga of the Bear
Rune Priest w/ Chooser (Jaws/Living Lightning)
Rune Priest (Jaws/Murderous Hurricane)

3x Wolf Guard (2x PF/CM, 1x Arjac Rockfist)

2x 7 Grey Hunters w/ Melta, Standard, MotW - Rhino
8 Grey Hunters w/ Melta, Standard, MotW - Drop Pod

4x Thunderwolf Cavalry (PF, SS, Melta Bombs)

2x 5 Long Fangs (4xML)

All Killer, No Filler
Looking at that list everything it in is pretty horrible. Grey hunters are always nice but we've got 2 squads which both have a rune priest and a wolf guard and then a third squad in a drop pod with Arjac. This is the core of the army. Each unit is capable of taking on most enemy units. With a pair of melta shots (initially at least) the squads are all capable of de-meching and then charging something. Arjac and co will drop in turn 1 and normally take out a vehicle or rapid fire a squad. The thunderwolves make a mess of most things in combat and provide a great distraction. The long fangs can either hit transports or monstrous creatures with their krak missiles. Against massed infantry they'll switch to frags and torrent them down. Every single unit in the army is nasty. There are no 5-man squads sat on the home objective.

Decisions, Decisions
That's a point worth noting, distraction. If you were facing that list what would you shoot first? The long fangs will be taking down your vehicles or killing your monstrous creatures but they'll be at range and in cover. The thunderwolves are T5 and have a couple of 3++ saves but if you ignore them they'll be charging you turn 2/3. Then you've got two rhinos full off grey hunters coming your way both firing Jaws out of the top and picking off choice targets. That or they're just blasting 12" and popping smoke. That's assuming you chose to ignore Arjac Rockfist and his boys who just dropped in behind your lines and blew up that precious land raider/dreadnought etc. See what I mean? Each unit is too good to ignore so your opponent will be faced with a lot of choices and whichever one he makes there's always something else in the army to punish you.

Not just a wall of tanks
If I didn't have Arjac in the list I'd probably have enough points spare for another long fang pack and a normal wolf guard. However, then I'd probably just put them in a rhino which makes the list very one dimensional. Your opponent knows what's coming from where and chances are he'll be able to down your transports and pick his targets after that. The inclusion of the drop pod means he's got to choose between either ignoring Arjac (who'll charge something next turn without a doubt) or turning his fire on him and hoping he can get rid of the entire squad. Arjac has 2 wounds, Eternal Warrior and 2+/3++ so odds are he'll survive a torrent of fire at the cost of most of his squad. Depending on what you're targetting you'll probably be able to string the grey hunters around the drop pod so they get a cover save from most angles. Meanwhile the rest of the army is advancing unscathed.  

Not All Plain Sailing
The problem with everything being deadly is that in KPs games you're golden but in objective games you can be torn between going for the tabling or playing for the mission. The grey hunters need to get stuck in but they might over-commit and end up getting themselves killed. By dropping Arjac in on an enemy objective you can even up the odds but realistically he probably won't be there by turn 5! However, if we start throwing in units to just hold objectives and we come up against an army that can do that for cheap then we'll be giving them a points advantage from the off. If we had 5 grey hunters in a razorback sat on our home objective that's a 115 point advantage to your opponent straight away.

A Matter of Style
As I've said on numerous occasions it all comes down to play style. I like an army to have something exciting about it. I could write a Space Wolves list that was less risky. I could ditch Arjac and the TWC and throw in more long fangs and grey hunters. There's no doubt that a list of that kind would be more reliable but I simply wouldn't find it fun to play. Now it's at this point that people say "yes, but winning is fun". Frankly, sometimes it isn't. The main reason I go to tournaments is to play games against new people. I'm not going to win an event but that's fine by me.

So the question is, how do I apply this to Dark Eldar. Ravagers aren't as good as long fangs and frankly nothing is as good as grey hunters. However, whilst they aren't as flexible I can still make my army nasty for my opponents and fun for me to play. That's for another post to discuss though.

Double Dread Weekender - Sunday Dreadfleet

Sunday was a far more relaxed affair after the intense games we played on Saturday. Matt and I had played Dreadfleet a little before but Dave and Jamie were new to it. Thanks to a combination of starting late and needing to finish early than I expected, we only got one game in. We decided it'd be best to have full fleets on both sides.

We rolled to see who would have which and Jamie and I took the Dreadfleet. I would control the Curse of Zandri, the Black Kraken and the Skabrus whereas Jamie had the might Bloody Reaver and the Shadewraith. We played the first scenario with masses of scenery in the centre but nothing in the deployment areas. The game would end when either side only had a single warship remaining. Matt's miniatures aren't painted so I'm using pictures from the rest of the internet rather than ones from our actual game.

Battle Report
The goodies took the first turn and brought the Seadrake's guns to bear on the Skabrus. Luckily there was no real damage but they did manage to execute a Fire As She Bears order which works in a similar way to Overwatch in old school 40K. The Shadewraith used it's flying ability to get around the back of the Seadrake and unleashed a raking broadside that softened up the Seadrake. The Grand Alliance then brought the Swordfysh forward only to have it run aground. The Skabrus managed to position itself so that it could fire it's broadside before making a boarding action against the Seadrake. The combination of fire and boarding brought down the high elven ship and first blood was ours.

The Black Kraken submerged and positioned itself ready to strike either the Heldenhammer or Grimnir's Thunder. Elsewhere the Flaming Scimitar also ran aground and both Grimnir's Thunder and the Swordfysh would be close to it.

A combination of fire from the Curse of Zandri and the Bloody Reaver saw the end of the Swordfysh and the Dreadfleet was taking an early lead. The Heldenhammer had other ideas, using the wind to propel it forward and breakneck speed it lined up a punishing broadside which sank the already damaged Skabrus and then smashed into the Shadewraith with its hammer attack. Two wrecks in a single turn brought the battle back to a draw.

The Flaming Scimitar failed to Escape Jeopardy and stayed stuck on the rocks. The Bloody Reaver advanced and fired off its cannons in the direction of the stricken vessel punching holes through its sails and crippling its mobility. The Black Kraken emerged from the briny deep and tore into Grimnir's Thunder. Sadly some excellent work by the dwarven crew meant damage was inflicted on both vessels. The Scimitar's recently launched cog started a boarding action against the Kraken and with help from more fine swordwork from the dwarves the Kraken submerged never to return.

The Leechwyrm emerged next to the Heldenhammer but despite getting our only initiative of the game we forgot to take control of it with the Bloody Reaver meaning some emergency evasion saw the Heldenhammer get clear and kill off the sea monster with it's cannon. Further damage was inflicted on the Flaming Scimitar but it still held on despite being practically immobile. The Bone Hydra rose from the depths but the plucky dwarves saw it off without much damage being done.

The Heldenhammer again made the most of gale force winds and smashed into the side of the Bloody Reaver which was still raking the Flaming Scimitar with fire. An epic duel between Jaego Roth and Count Noctilus resulted in the Roth's demise. A combination of raking fire and swordwork eventually claimed the Heldenhammer which inflicted huge damage on the Bloody Reaver with it's hammer but just couldn't finish the mighty vessel.

This left both sides only needing to sink one more warship to claim victory. With the Scimitar and Thunder both behind cover and at range they'd be tough to sink but damage to both meant the Dreadfleet had the upper hand. The Curse launched it's cog to try to deal with the nearby Dwarf Dirigible but neither side could defeat the other. Fire from the Thunder caused a single hull damage on the Curse which tried to move off in it's subsequent turn to leave the Bloody Reaver to sink the Scimitar for victory. Unfortunately a badly planned change of direction meant it engaged the two cogs in combat. Remarkably those pesky dwarves managed to inflict a single damaging blow which caused double hull damage and sunk the Curse. The Grand Alliance was victorious in a very closely fought game.

Conclusion

Most of the work of the Grand Alliance was done by the Heldenhammer and Grimnir's Thunder. By killing two ships in a single turn the 'hammer really changed things and then boarding the Bloody Reaver certainly saved the Flaming Scimitar. In hindsight we should've kept the guns on the Scimitar and hoped we could defeat the Heldenhammer in combat.

Ultimately the Curse of Zandri was unlucky to be caught in a boarding action and even more unlucky to pull out the dreaded Double Hull card. The Bloody Reaver again proved it's resilience by surviving a ton of punishment but failed to actually sink anything!

So far I think Dreadfleet is a shaping up to be a good game with a simple rule set but tactical play. It's a shame that more people haven't taken to it. From this minimal amount of experience I think that the random element might be its undoing. Sometimes it feels like a ship takes tons of damage but won't sink and other times two shots are enough. Now I'm not saying this isn't totally unrealistic but random damage coupled with the Fate deck means that sometimes even though you've got the upper hand things can quickly go wrong. Perhaps this adds more balance to the game but when you're making the right choices only to lose out to bad luck it can be frustrating. Having said that it's the same in most wargames, sometimes your luck just fails you.

Nevertheless, Matt and I are determined to play through the entire campaign at some point and once I've painted my Dark Eldar for Blog Wars 3 (more on my progress soon), I'll try and get some of the ships painted up. We also need to play through the campaign for Space Hulk and try out some of the other scenarios in Horus Heresy so hopefully we'll get round to that soon!

Double Dread Weekender - Saturday Doubles

Jamie, Matt, Dave and I all headed down to WHW (it was going to be Maelstrom til we remembered the indy GT!) this Saturday so Matt and I could try out some ideas for the GW 40K Doubles in June. We all took 875pt lists and paired them up randomly to see what worked well. You can see my lists here.


Game 1 - Dark Eldar (x2) vs BA & GK
Matt fielded his GK in partnership with Dave's BA. Jamie and I both took fairly similar Dark Eldar lists. Mine differed slightly in that I'd got wyches instead of Jamie's kabalites and had a ravager where Jamie had a razorwing. Matt and Dave had lots of rhinos and razorbacks with 2 squads of purifiers 2 tactical squads, Tycho, Coteaz and 2 rifleman dreads (BA ones).

A promising turn 1 saw Jamie and I wrecking two GK rhinos. We pelted the occupants with fire from the razorwing, venoms and kabalites before charging Coteaz's squad with the wyches. Unfortunately Matt rolled 6 hits with his Cleansing Flame and we lost over half the squad. This left the wyches locked in combat (thanks to Stubborn from the Brothers In Arms bonus). The other purifier squad had taken heavy casualties. Elsewhere we could only immobilise one of the razorbacks.

We lost the razorwing straight away making us wish we'd launched all of it's missiles in the first turn at the purifiers. One of the venoms went down as did one squad of trueborn. Coteaz's squad easily dealt with the remaining wyches but were severely reduced in number. The following turn was disastrous for us with none of our dark lances even hitting the target. The only thing we got rid of was one of the razorbacks with a squad of trueborn. This left both squads of wracks clinging onto cover with nothing to assault.

Matt and Dave killed off a ton of vehicles in their turn and we'd now be struggling. We popped one of the BA rhinos and the haemonculus used it's shattershard to kill the priest and a few other marines. This allowed a combination of poisoned fire from the kabalites and venoms to bring down the squad. Coteaz's squad was finished off in a similar poisonous fashion. Unfortunately one purifier with a psycannon held on and stood firmly to fire 4 S7 shots a turn. He eventually succumbed to a wych charge but not before killing their raider and 6 wyches in the explosion!

The centre of the board saw a protracted combat between Tycho and his tactical squad and a combination of wracks and 2 squads of kabalites. The Dark Eldar were really hampered by their S3/T3 but in the final turn the wracks killed off a lonely Tycho but not before a whole squad of kabalites had died. Elsewhere we lost all but 2 of our vehicles and once the ravager and all the trueborn were gone we had little hope of killing any more razorbacks. The match ended 13 all on KPs. DRAW


Game 2 - Tau & BA vs GK & BA

Matt had the same GK but the BA were Jamie's this time. Dave had a jumpy BA list this time which would act as a meatshield for my Tau. The theory was simple, I open up the transports and the BA kill off the occupants. The problem would be two squads of purifiers! We were playing objectives with the special rule (from the doubles pack) that some objectives might be worth 2 points on a D6 roll of 6 when captured.


Our BA jumpers advanced towards their army trying to keep out of range for any GK charge. The Tau let rip on the vehicles blowing up one rhino, wrecking another and ripping the weapon from a razorback. Careful deployment from Matt saw one squad of purifiers in possible charge range of the BA so we decided to run them back a little, just a shame we rolled a 2! Sure enough the purifiers killed the BA without breaking a sweat. Over on the left a couple of protracted combats saw Dave's 2 assault squads battling another BA tactical squad, honour guard with Tycho and 5 jump packers. Tycho and co. ran away and Dave eventually won the combat thanks to some appauling power fist rolls from Jamie. The shooting game was left to GK and Tau. One squad of broadsides and a crisis team were killed by Jamie's devastators though who were never really touched.

The Tau torrented Coteaz's squad to death but couldn't kill the GK razorbacks quickly enough. This left the inquistorial troops hugging objectives. The fire warriors also held one and Dave brought some jumpers back to hold another. Sadly the remaining purifier squad had holed up in the centre of the board and peppered them with fire. Sure enough, without a priest they were easily finished off and with the fire warriors forced to disembark we only had one shot to win it. The broadsides needed to blow up one of the razorbacks and hope the explosion killed one of the 3 occupants forcing them to run off the objective. It was a long shot but the explosion did wound one warrior acolyte. Sadly Matt passed the 5+ save and it was game over from then.



Game 3 - Tau & Orks (Torks) vs BA & Crimson Fists (SM)
Matt joined me with his 3 mobs of 30 boyz and Ghazghkull. The theory was again pretty simple again. Tau kill the vehicles, orks smash the occupants. Some early promise was there with the Crimson fists drop podding in near the orks, only killing a few and then the rest of the 30 boyz came their way!

Sadly the next Crimson fists drop pod had sternguard in which spelled doom for one of the other 30 boyz (with help from outflanking scouts and BA). This left the Tau exposed. The remaining orks were locked in combat with the scouts and despite winning the combat they were down to a boy and a nob. We caught a lucky break when Pedro Kantor charged the nob and they killed each other! One squad of crisis suits then peppered one combat squad of sternguard before charging in (!) to hold them in combat.

Meanwhile Ghaz saved one of the boyz mobs that had been charged by BA. The mob he'd left then headed back towards our lines to save the Tau. They arrived just in time to kill off the sternguard but a charge from the remaining assault marines finished them off. Ghaz killed off one of the dreads after it reduced him to 1 wound (triple 1 from Matt!) and the other took a railgun to the face.

The remaining Tau managed to kill off the BA that'd killed the Orks and by the end of turn 5 we'd all but tabled them.

Conclusion
All 3 games ended up being really closely fought. Neither side had a significant advantage and despite good and bad luck on both sides no-one got totally whitewashed. Sadly this probably means that none of these combinations are all that effective.


The problem with Tau being the shooters supported by something assaulty is that if the assault wing breaks then the enemy army spills through and wreaks havoc on the Tau. With the Tau totally focussed on anti-tank and hoping the assaulters deal with the troops they struggle to strop troops getting to them. Granted in both games they played they killed off a good pile of space marines but I can't pretend there wasn't a lot of luck involved.

 

We'd love to take something other than power armour but it certainly looks like we'll have to resort to it if we'd like to actually be in with a chance of winning most of our games.