GamesHub League 2022 - Game 1

 Last week saw the new 40K league start at our new gaming venue, GamesHub. It's a single fixed codex at 1000 points but you can change your list each round if you so desire. Each round is two weeks and any match not arranged/played counts as a draw. We have enough players that the league will last until the middle of the summer I guess.

Last week I played my first round against an old friend Mike, and he brought a Death Guard army to the league. Over the past year and a half since 9th has been out, I have played a few small 1000 point games against Death Guard. With one exception (against a very skilled player) I have always won, so I went in with very high hopes. 

Although I'm not a fan of the smaller table sizes, it was agreed at the start of the league that we would use the suggested minimum. We set a table up but there isn't much room for terrain at that size and we shifted things slightly so that we could fit the objective markers up outside of terrain. The mission rolled was Centre Ground (core rulebook) and once we had started the game we realised that we had set the objectives up slightly wrong somehow. It was still roughly the same so we left it.

My secondary objective choices were Oaths of Moment, Engage on All Fronts and Slay the Warlord. I very rarely ever bother with the objective that comes with the mission and this was no different. Oaths of Moment, however, has become the staple in every match I play.

It started to go wrong from pretty much the first turn. Every opponent I have had previous to this match played infantry heavy armies at 1000 points. Death Guard are expensive so this makes sense. Mike's list was not like that at all. He brought a Plagueburst Crawler and a Bloat Drone with lawnmower and I was not quite prepared for that. He won the roll to go first and away he went. Straight away I was under fire from the crawler's artillery. I managed to get my ATV up the side of the table and get a decent hit with the multi-melta but due to poor dice I either failed to wound or he passed his invulnerable save. I subsequently lost my ATV which meant my main method of dealing with anything tough like that was gone. Sure, I had a Redemptor Dreadnought but it was too slow to get that far up the table and I was needing to hold it for the waves of pox walkers coming in and the threat of a deep striking Lord of Contaigion with Deathshroud bodyguards. 

Pox Walkers were not such a problem. Massed firepower dealt with them easily but that damn Bloat Drone. I went straight into my Intercessors and decimated the lot. It took the sacrifice of my Bladeguard with help from the Captain to bring it down but by then I had next to nothing left. Mike brought his reinforcements in from deep strike behind my lines which forced me to turn the dreadnought back to hold them. Took one Deathshroud down but it then was brought down itself, and far too easily.

The game went to turn 5 where it was just my Captain left who just would not die. Last dice roll of the game proved to be his undoing, and that dropped him otherwise he would still be there. Mike won 55 points to my 44. Just 11 different which is quite close really and I was happy enough with that. But it was that damn Bloat Drone that won him the game. It just would not die and I was not fully prepared for an opponent bringing that or the crawler to a game this size. It's always been infantry heavy armies DG players brought to my table.

Even so it was a very good match. Frustrating but good banter which softens the blow somewhat. Next round I have a match against another friend's Drukhari army. Another game where I fear I won't do so well but keeping the fingers crossed.

My list for the game was as follows. It was nothing special, just a basic list I keep on hand for small point games.

++ Patrol Detachment 0CP (Imperium - Adeptus Astartes - Imperial Fists) [53 PL, 6CP, 1,000pts] ++

+ Configuration [6CP] +

**Chapter Selector**: Custom Chapter, Imperial Fists Successor, Inheritors of the Primarch

Battle Size [6CP]: 2. Incursion (51-100 Total PL / 501-1000 Points)  [6CP]

Gametype: Matched

+ HQ [5 PL, 105pts] +

Primaris Captain [5 PL, 105pts]: Frag & Krak grenades, Iron Resolve, The Burning Blade, Warlord

. Heavy bolt pistol, Master-crafted power sword and Relic shield [15pts]: Heavy Bolt Pistol, Master-crafted power sword [5pts], Relic Shield [10pts]

+ Troops [30 PL, 525pts] +

Assault Intercessor Squad [10 PL, 200pts]

. 9x Assault Intercessor [171pts]: 9x Astartes Chainsword, 9x Frag & Krak grenades, 9x Heavy Bolt Pistol

. Assault Intercessor Sgt [29pts]: Frag & Krak grenades, Plasma pistol [5pts], Power sword [5pts]

Intercessor Squad [10 PL, 200pts]: Bolt rifle

. 9x Intercessor [180pts]: 9x Bolt pistol, 9x Frag & Krak grenades

. Intercessor Sergeant [20pts]: Astartes Chainsword, Bolt pistol, Frag & Krak grenades

Intercessor Squad [10 PL, 125pts]: Bolt rifle

. 5x Intercessor [100pts]: 5x Bolt pistol, 5x Frag & Krak grenades

. Intercessor Sergeant [25pts]: Astartes Chainsword, Bolt pistol, Frag & Krak grenades, Plasma pistol [5pts]

+ Elites [14 PL, 285pts] +

Bladeguard Veteran Squad [5 PL, 105pts]

. 2x Bladeguard Veteran [70pts]: 2x Frag & Krak grenades, 2x Heavy Bolt Pistol, 2x Master-crafted power sword, 2x Storm Shield

. Bladeguard Veteran Sergeant [35pts]: Frag & Krak grenades, Heavy Bolt Pistol, Master-crafted power sword, Storm Shield

Redemptor Dreadnought [9 PL, 180pts]: 2x Fragstorm Grenade Launchers, Heavy flamer, Icarus Rocket Pod [5pts], Macro Plasma Incinerator, Redemptor Fist

+ Fast Attack [4 PL, 85pts] +

Invader ATV Squad [4 PL, 85pts]

. Invader ATV [4 PL, 85pts]: Bolt pistol, Multi-melta [5pts], Twin auto bolt rifle

++ Total: [53 PL, 6CP, 1,000pts] ++

2022 and beyond

 Hi everyone. Long time and no see. Things have been very difficult and awkward both with work, real life and hobbying. This blog just has not crossed my mind until now but I think it is time to get back to blogging about Warhammer and stuff. 2022 seems like a good point to do that and hopefully with Covid getting under control the real world might open up again. But until then this is a little update as to where I am gaming-wise.

With regards to 40K I have been able to get quite a few games in since 9th edition dropped although due to the pandemic it has mostly been the same few people with one or two exceptions. Really looking forward to getting some games against everyone else again. I'm still really enjoying 9th edition and I've had some opportunity to try out the Crusade rules and I may well do a proper post about that in the near future.

The biggest thing this past year has been the opening of a new games shop / cafe in my home town called GamesHub. It's about time we had something like this and it's even better as the local club lost it's regular venue at the start of 2021, although whether the old club will regenerate or just become a part of the new shop is to be seen. Right now though we are starting a 1000 point league in store that will run for several months and I have my first match against Death Guard in a couple weeks. Normally I do well at low points values against Death Guard so fingers crossed I should be able to get a victory early on. I'll detail the league as it gets played in future posts.

The Rift Wardens chapter is growing quite well as during the pandemic I have had a lot of time to paint. There is only three or four small models left to paint until my pile of shame is done. I will try to get that done over the next month or so. 

That's basically where I am right now at the start of the year. Time to shake off the cobwebs and the general apathy and get this blog moving again. I look forward to chatting to you all again soon.

Vigilus crusade - a new start for 9th?

 Back when the first Vigilus book came out, I grabbed a copy and voraciously read through it. For a campaign book I just fell in love with the whole story. I felt like an absolutely perfect example of a 40K campaign. Only thing missing was a means to include Tau, Necrons and Tyranids but I get why they were not included. It would be just busy for lack of better words. 

One aspect of the book that I loved was the campaign system. Each stage of the war came with a couple specific blanket rules that allowed the campaign to be played nice and thematic. Nothing game breaking but cool all the same. I even started up a league, for lack of a better word, for the local club. The idea was to be play out the whole story over a couple years. To start with it the campaign seemed popular enough but after a couple months things turned a bit sour. The more competitive players at the club decided that narrative missions and the specific round rules did not suit them. Even though I had said that they could play any mission they wanted, they pulled out of the league and soon enough the whole thing had fallen apart much to be disappointment.

To say I was annoyed would be an understatement. But fair play. Can't please everyone all the time.

Recently I have finally got my hands on a copy of the second book in the series and as 9th edition has a few players from the club interested in the Crusade system I am hoping that I can restart the Vigilus campaign with them utilising the new rules once we get out of the pandemic and lockdown. Maybe with fewer players and with those more interested in a narrative play the idea might get somewhere.

10 points for a painted army?

In the 9th edition rules there is a new addition that says that you get 10 victory points if your army is painted to a battlefield standard. I think it is a bit of a silly rule especially as it is technically part of the rules system now. Such a rule... the requirement of a three colour minimum.. used to be a part of every tournament. After all, you want your models too look good to anyone walking past rather than grey plastic. 

It has always caused some consternation among a lot of Warhammer players that painting your models is just as big a part of the hobby as setting up a table and fighting it out against your friends. That painting was a requirement to play Warhammer. As some one who doesn't really enjoy the painting element (although these days my space marine force is fully painted) and for many years never had a painted army, I find it unfair to push this sort of element onto the fun and friendly casual game. But that is what is happening under 9th edition.

I personally would not use this rule and if playing against someone who had an unpainted army - whether due to time or a lack of desire to do so - I would simply say we're not using that rule. Let's just play. In competitive tournaments, leagues and the like, I can see that makes sense to use this to make people play painted forces or risk not winning over all (most likely) but it should not have been included as part of the core rules. 

Why?

Two reasons.... firstly, by the wording this means that tournaments can be played by opponents who do not paint their models. They will be down on points but it does not stop them playing. I'm sure most TO's will stick to a rule of painted armies so this isn't such a deal.

Secondly.... no where does it say what the definition of "painted to a battlefield standard" actually means. Is that the same as the old three colour minimum? Or does it imply something more? I would assume that the model itself must be painted with suitable colours and not just slapped on. Does it require models to be based? Probably not.

I don't think this was well thought out by Games Workshop and I'm sure that it was included solely to try and nudge players into buy their paints as a money making exercise. Painted model is always going to look better than the basic grey. I just don't like the concept that GW are trying push everyone into an area of the hobby that not everyone is interested in. Surely, having people play the game is a better way forward?

What are your thoughts on this? 

I'm Back!

 I haven't been all that active of late mainly due to the epidemic, work and the lack of gaming opportunities. I want to start up again and get back to posting. My plan is to do at least one if not two posts a week. I'm not going to focus on battle reports as I don't feel I do them justice so I'm going to start covering my thoughts on various aspects of the game and army reviews.

I have managed about a dozen games when we haven't been in lockdown after the release of 9th edition so I feel that I know something of the edition - what works and what doesn't. That'll be something I'll cover as well later this week even if a 9th edition review is a few months late.

Hopefully you are all still out there and reading, and we'll get back to regular posting.

May the Emperor protect! 

2021

 Hi all.

Hope you all had a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. Hopefully 2021 will be the year we all get back to normal sooner rather than later, with much wargaming ahead of us!

9th edition missions

 

Since 9th edition has dropped, I have managed 13 games between lockdown and social distancing. I think if I am honest that I preferred 8th edition although 9th has some nice additions. One thing that bugs me a little is the new mission format and that is what I am going to discuss here both the good and the bad.

Table Sizes.

With the exception of patrol missions, where I can fully understand scaling down the table size, it feels unnecessary to do it for other game sizes. The new table sizes are there just to contain armies more and force them into a kill zone due to the mission requirements. No more gunlines. Everyone goes forwards. Because I have three boards that make up a 6' by 4' table we have played our games as the new table length but for ease we have kept the 4' depth and it doesn't make any real difference. I'm going to start seeing if my fellow gamers will be willing to just stick to 6' by 4' tables. The new scales are a minimum after all.

Objectives.

Objective placement is my biggest grumble about the new missions. There are certain rules for them that bug me. 

Having them be a fixed placement means that a fixed table layout (something that I want to build) is impossible because each mission placement is different and they cannot be in terrain. Sure, you can move ruins and the like around but that defies the point of a fixed table. It also means that if you are playing a pick up game, you have to waste valuable playing time measuring out where they go before you even set up table terrain and start the game. When your club or local gaming store has limited play time of an evening (for example) that's not helpful.

It would be so much better, in my opinion, to have stuck with what we had previously, where players alternated setting up objectives so that they were X inches from a table edge and from other objectives. That worked so much better.

Also, why can they not be in terrain? Doesn't make sense to me. You don't send troops to occupy an open street or an open patch of ground. You occupy a defensible position or somewhere containing supplies you need or something like that.

I know that sounds like me grumbling about table layout and so on, but it just bugs me a little.

Secondary Objectives.

Every mission is now a objective holding mission. In a way I don't mind this as I was never a fan of the kill point missions as they tend to favour certain armies over others. It just lacks flavour. However, the addition of secondary objectives is what adds that flavour. Initially I didn't like them as they smack of the ITC format missions - something 9th seems to have unfortunately emulated. The problem is that many of them aren't worth taking. I tend to find that some are suited better to specific armies while many of the mission specific secondaries just are not worth taking.

...

What I really miss are the tactical objective missions where we used cards to determine the goals for battle. Sure, they were random are sometimes you didn't get a good draw but they gave you a mission with fluid goals which felt both more realistic and also meant that you wouldn't win just going for the kill. You actually had to play for the cards you were given. I seriously hope that they bring this format back at some point.

Ultimately the 9th edition missions aren't bad. I've had fun playing them but at the same time they could be better. The new mission format just doesn't feel as enjoyable as the old missions did. They are something that just needs adapting to but like nearly everything Games Workshop releases it could have been done better.

9th ed Battle Report #1

 

Rift Wardens vs Grey Knights.

Points: 2000.

Scenario: Retrieval Mission.

Finally the 9th ed rules had come out and I had my copy of the Indomitus box in hand. Once the models were all built I challenged my friend Gary to a 2000 point game. Try out a higher points limit and see how well it played. The mission rolled was Retrieval Mission so I set awkward objective placements and then built the terrain layout around them to ensure that we had decent initial cover from one another. I picked the table edge that was to be mine but as was pointed out afterwards it may have served me better to claim the opposite side. I was thinking of ease of moving the models around but Gary was probably right.

Gary chose Psychic Ritual, Assassinate and Thin Their Ranks but I went with Slay the Warlord, Thin Their Ranks and Raise the Banners High. I did take a look at the scenario specific objective - Minimise Loses - but it didn't look like something that was going to be in my favour. A problem I see in most scenario specific objectives. 

First turn I focused on shooting as much as I could. I took down one squad and I think inflicted a handful of injuries elsewhere. I specifically moved my units to claim three objectives and to start raising those banners. The problem I had against Gary's Grey Knights was that he had brought a storm talon and a land raider - two units I would be hard pressed to deal with. I presently have no transports for my army so the marines had to advance forward on foot which meant Gary was able to start inflicting a lot casualties. 

As the game progressed the Grey Knights took control of their own three objectives and his shooting was a lot more effective than was mine. Although I expected to suffer at the hands of smite spam Gary didn't do much with it and it was in assault that he turned the tables. I don't know if it was a mixture of bad dice rolls or just bad luck, but I was barely able to do anything in assault and he was smashing my poor assault intercessors and my chapter master into fine red mist. Even my poor chapter master with his invulnerable save and 6+ ignore wounds died all to easily. 

The Grey Knights were soon pushing me back and once his grand master in dreadknight armour teleporting onto the table I knew I was in real trouble. My primaris lieutenant charged into him with the idea of using hi storm shield to keep his warlord in check and maybe if the dice were with me I might be able to take him down but I couldn't even make a 3+ invulnerable save more than once. 

Turn 5 came and my poor space marines were tabled and the Grey Knights had completed their Psychic Ritual. When we counted up the victory points Gary beat me 75 to 53. For a first game of this edition I thought I didn't do too badly as each new rules set is a learning experience. Gary won fair and sqaure but I can't help but feel that my dice let me down a lot of the game. He was always going to win I think but the scores might have been a bit closer. I really need to get myself a couple of Impulsor's so I can get my troops about the table more safely.

The Rift Wardens move to grab the objectives.

Kaldor Draigo emerges from the Warp to guide his brothers in battle.

The battlefield before us.

Update

 Apologies for lack of updates. I lost my internet connection for a couple of weeks due to the uselessness of my provider. But I'm back now and in the next couple days I hope to post up my thoughts on 9th edition and a new 9th ed battle report. Stay tuned.

Objective Markers part 1

While have a bit of a post lockdown clear out recently I found a sealed box of booby traps from the release of 4th edition's Cities of Death supplement. With 9th edition not needing numerical objectives I figure they would do well. Just needed something to mount them on and I found that at work. Where I work we sell child proof plastic caps for electrical sockets. Tonight I glued on the appropriate "booby traps". Now I just need to paint them.

Got my Indomitus box this week as well so it looks like I may have a bit of hobby painting and building to do over the next couple weeks.