Danish ETC qualifier

Seems im going to the danish European Team Championship (ETC) qualifier afterall.

Half a year when the teams were consolidating and I was getting probed(?!??!!) by different teams I decided that I did not want to go for the 2013 qualifier.

Why not?

To be honest there were a bit of realism, a sprinkle of lazyness and quite alot of ego involved.

If I were to go it should be as a member of one of the top 2 seeded teams. Either that or a team with no intentions of going for the victory, but just for kicks and giggles.
Well the top two teams were full and keepin with the honesty theme,  with better players than me. The kicks and giggles thing didnt work out either. The teams that invited me to join them, all had aspirations to place somewhere in the top.

That is in no way a bad thing. I really appreciated the offers and respect the players on those teams. But it is either or. Not maybe baby. In for a penny, in for a pound(ing).

So I declined.

But yesterday, eight days before the qualifier goes down I recieved a phonecall from last years winner team. One of their players dropped out for personal reasons and they wanted me on their team. I did ask how many others they called before me and got a very diplomatic answer :)

I actually had to think about it for a bit, but decided to go. If nothing else then at least to hang with the crowd I usually play with and go to tournaments with.

So which army are you gonna play Jens, you might be asking?

Thats where it gets interesting. We are slightly out of my comfort zone which would be Chaos marines, Grey Knights or Dark Eldar.

I will be playing Imperial Guard with Grey Knight allies.

A beating stick I have been on the recieving end of alot of times. In the next eight days I plan on getting in at least three and hopefully a few more test games with the army.

Its pretty straight forward but deployment and movement with 6 flyers on the table is gonna take some practise and thought to not screw myself.

The army list

Company command squad: astropath, 4 flamers
Platoon command squad: 4 flamers
Infantry squad: flamer
Infantry squad: flamer
Veteran squad: 3 flamers

3x 2 Vendettas: 2 heavy bolter sponsons

3x 1 Manticore: heavy flamer

Coteaz
Inquisitorial Henchman Squad: 1 Banisher, 2 Warrior Acolytes
Inquisitorial Henchman Squad: 3 Warrior Acolytes

Razorback: Psybolt Ammunition
 

Welcome back to the Noise Marines

And what a return they make.

Page 99 – Noise Marines, Options.
Change the third bullet point to “One Noise Marine may
replace his boltgun with a blastmaster at 30 pts/model. If the
squad numbers ten or more models, an additional Noise
Marine may replace his boltgun with a blastmaster at 30
pts/model..”

I bet you we will see alot more 10 man Noise marine squads with 2 blastmasters and Icon of excess.
Or maybe the oldschool 5 man squads with a blastmaster hugging an objective.

Also:

Q: How do I determine the Arc of Sight for a Heldrake’s ranged
weapon? (p52)
A: Treat the Heldrake’s ranged weapon as a Turret Mounted
Weapon, measuring all ranges from the edge of the Heldrake’s
base nearest to the target unit.

There goes the argument of it being hull mounted straight down the drain. Not that it mattered that much but everything counts. Especially if it makes sense.

Emperors chosen list

Going to Emperors chosen by the end of February.

One of the biggest recurring annual events in Denmark is the Emperors chosen held by my local club Emperors Pride.

The tournament brings out alot of the hobby players who we dont usually see at the more competitive tournaments. This is partly because Emperors chosen is comped, got softscores like painting, fluff and fairplay but also because its a good well organized tournament.

The comp system is pretty extensive and im not gonna go over it. It changes up the balance internally and externally quite alot. I dont agree with alot of the comped stuff but I dont really care. I just wanna game ........

So on to my army. Its 1650 points.

Angry Marines and Daemons

Im gonna make a theme list this time round. Last year I made an allround chaos marine army and did fairly well, This year im gonna bring chaos marines again but with daemon allies.

The red right hand of Angron will bring ruin to the empire!

Chaos Lord
- Mark of Khorne, terminator armor, dual ligning claws

8 Khorne Berserkers
- 5 chainaxes, powerfist
8 Khorne Berserkers
- powerfist
- rhino

Landraider
Maulerfiend

Blood Thirster

4 Bloodcrushers

2x 5 Bloodletters

Soul Grinder
- Phlegm

The general idea of the list is to be in the face of the opponent for a turn two charge with 4 Bloodcrushers, Maulerfiend, Soulgrinder, Landraider with Khorne Berserkers + Chaos lord, rhino with Khorne Berserkers and ofcourse the Bloodthirster.

And that is probably gonna work pretty fine in 2/3 of the games, where I should get my preferred wave. If I dont im screwed :)

30k and the Horus Heresy Pt. 1

I want to give my money to Forgeworld

I´ve fallen in love. The new Horus Heresy book from Forgeworld along side the awesome pre heresy minis has blown me away.
So I decided to hold all my other army projects to make a 30K army to use in narrative, fluffy and campaign games.
Well not entirely true. Im still gonna build on my CSM and allied forces for them. But my Grey Knights, Space marines, Tau and Daemons have been put on indefinate hold.

So do I have a deadline?


Not really. Im aiming at having the first 1500 points bought and painted no later than early summer 2013.
This post contains the ideas and thoughts behind my choices in regards to planning the 30K army I did. 

Loyalist og rebel scum?

World Eaters loyalists. Which side is not really important though, since I can use them either way.

Theres several reasons for me choosing World Eaters. Some a grounded in fluff, others in paintschemes and finally the combat doctrine of the army.

Paintschemes
I have a CSM Black Legion army (Sons of Horus), I also have a Crimson fists army and a pre heresy Thousand Sons count as Grey Knights army. So I want something different from the black of the legion, the blue of the fists and the golden red of the 1K Sons.

That leaves only a few armies that are not too similar to what I already got. As paintschemes go I went for the white, metal and blue of the world eaters. Its an entirely different paintscheme to my other armies.
So the paintschemes of the Thousand Sons, Ravenguard, Luna wolves, Dark angels, Ultramarines, Iron hands, Crimson fists, Nightlords, Blood angels, Alpha legion, Emperors children are either to similar or so not to my liking (/cough Alpha legion).

That leaves the Iron warriors, World Eaters, White scars, Space wolves, Deathguards, Salamanders and Word bearers.

Fluff
I really do´nt like the Deathguards. Magnus and the 1K sons have always been my one true love and Mortarion speaking out against Magnus at the council of Nikaea. So the Deathguard is out.

The Space wolves sacked, pillaged and burned Prospero and therefor I will never play them as either a primary or allied force. I hate them bastards for what they did to the Thousand Sons.

The Wordbearers are religious and fanatics. Awesome adversaries in the fluff for the empire but my personal dislike for fanaticism and extemists, makes me not want to play a so fanatical legion.

The leaves the Iron warriors, World Eaters, White Scars and Salamanders.

Combat doctrine
White scars play too much like my CSM bikers, the Salamanders are heavy on flame. Again much like my CSM. Iron warriors and their siege doctrine which is good and interesting never did appeal to me. That leaves the World Eaters and their "in you face" tactics.

Centerpieces

I plan on having three centerpieces for my army. These are both what holds the army together on the battlefield, but also what centers it on display.

Spartan Assault Tank

This badass will bring my angry angry marines to the enemy. While it does that it will also supply anti tank firepower with its quad lascannon sponsons.
Twenty angry marines being brought into the face of the enemy is awesome.

Storm Eagle Assault Gunship

Transport and gunship all in one. This flying gunship will bring another complement of PMS´ing marines forward to the enemy, It will also be able to lay down some serious anti infantry firepower.

Fellblade Super Heavy Tank

The Fellblade will be my tank killer.
With its accelerator cannon, demolisher cannon and quad lascannon sponsons combined with machine spirit, it will outright kill one, maybe two enemy hulls every turn.

 

Chaos showdown, Daemons vs. Marines

So now im two for two. My final opponent in the preliminary round is a daemon player. He won against the Grey knights (?) and has still to play the imperial guard.
Since I won my two first games I do´nt need to win this one. But I need it to secure first place in my group and ensure that im not matched up against group winner, but a group runner up.
If my opponent Magnus need to win this one or his last match against the guard. Then he moves on too.

Deployment: dawn of war
Mission: 5 objectives which you scored 1 point from, for every turn you held them.

The Initial rounds

I deployed in cover behind a couple of ruins, but still spread out enough to deny his flamers any good targets. I set my sights on three objectives that were pretty close together in a triangle and decided to hunker down on them.

My first round brought me into possession of two of them and close enough to the third to ensure it would be mine or no ones in the third round.

My bikers moved up as they were also scoring in the mission.
The daemons chose to drop down alot of troops on the two far away objectives. Securing those for the forces from the warp, but also leaving several of the big critters in the second wave. Which should prove to be a problem.

A firefight of epic porpotions broke out as both the Lord of change and a daemon prince of Tzeentch dropped down almost ontop of the chaos forces.
It got so hectic I even forgot to take pictures so you will just have to imagine the entire chaos marine force unleashing everything on them. They were brought down to ground one after the other with bolter fire. Then the overwhelming plasma and autocannon firepower finished them off. The forces of the warp was severely crippled.

The middle rounds

 The one thing that could have turned the battle for the daemons decided that coffee break in the warp was more interesting. The bloodthirster didnt come in until turn four.

A long a protracted fight broke out between the fiends and the chaos lord with his biker buddies. Both side were grinding away at each other until the Forgefiend decided to join the fray which tipped the battle in the marines favor.

Flamers nearly wiped a chaos marine squad, but good placement ensured that three of them survived. Afterwards the flamers were gunned down by everything not stuck in combat with the fiends.

The final turns

The bloodthirster finally decided to enter the battle in turn four and killed a group of chosen in turn five. It was too little too late though. He was gunned down shortly after like a rabid dog.

The chaos marines swept out across the battlefield and started contesting the objectives held by the plaguebearers or pushing them of them.

We called the game in turn five when the Chaos marines had 11 victory points against the daemons 10. In turn 6 the chaos marine score would increase by three at least and deny any more for the daemons.

Final thoughts:
The game went as I hoped for the most part. The lord and his bikers had more trouble than i expected with the fiends. I calculated the gaining and denial of VP prefectly, so I would be ahead on turn five (not counting linebreak and slay the general which I had and first blood which went to the daemons).

Had the Bloodthirster entered on turn 2 or 3 the game could have been marginally different, but I believe that my firepower would have been enough to put him down too. It would have left some plaguebearers alive, but the objectives they had were still contested or not in contention till turn five  anyways.

A good and brutal game.

With this victory i take the first place in the initial group and im on to the quater finals.

/Jens

HelBURNBABYBURNdrakes

Heldrakes yay!

Although in my first game with them both of those lazy gits didnt come in till turn 4.

The wings are magnetized for easier transportation.

/Jens

Black vs. Grey

The Black Legion faced the Grey Knights of Nicolai Nygaard in a violent bout of marine on marine action.

The mission: in a hammer and anvil deployment the board was divided up in 4 zones of equal size. Our own deployment zone gave no points and the opponents the most.

The first turns

The Grey Knights deployed in force in the center as close to the center as possible. They had to considering that they were entirely on foot.

My forces of mayhem and destruction deployed entirely in cover and far enough back to avoid any shooting in turn one, except for the dreadnought. I made my center weak and my flanks strong to better suck him into the weakest spot of my army and allow flanking units to get past him and into the scoring zones.

The bikes went around or through the ruin to threathen the interceptors and strike marines trying to block the flank.

 

In a round of close combat where the lord was frowned upon by the chaos gods, the Grey Knights managed to hold and kill five bikers.

The midgame

Repeated fire from the predator, forgefiend, chosen and havocs managed to kill the dreadnought and put some serious dents in the DreadKnight.

The Grey knights were closing in though and casualties started piling up in the chaos ranks. Their transports were smoking hulls or craters in the ground. The Chaos marines were too numerous for the terminators sitting heavily in the center of the chaos deployment zone. The Dreadknight would have to help clear up the mess and give the Brotherhood from Titan the victory.
After a round of combat where a group of chaos marines broke and ran, just to regroup and snapfire on the Dreadknight and its one remaning wound. They failed to hit it and so did the predator at point blank range. Then the Dreadknight charged in again to clean up the mess just to be killed by an angry marine who pistolwhipped it to death in close combat.

The end game

On the right flank a rhino with marines in it, the lord and a single biker were deep in the Grey knight zones, with only a single Librarian able to threathen their hold on them.

The librarian did a splendid job first killing the khorne lord (Khorne was pleased either way), then grinding through the chaos marines. But little did it help. A single biker were hiding behind a ruin to score the zone.

The game ended as an overwhelming victory to the chaos forces eventhough they were wildly depleted by the end. One scoring 1-man unit in each of the zones on the Grey Knight table quarter and a single denial unit in the chaos deployment zone as all it took.

The Black Legion marches onwards victorious and undefeated!