Thursday, May 26, 2005

Success with the Voidmarines

On Wednesday, I had a chance to test my new Voidmarines army concept against a hard-charging demon-based Khorne army. The Voidmarines fared far better in combat than I anticipated. An extra attack on each bolter-armed marine makes a world of difference. Not only did I survive the hand-to-hand combat without completely folding, I managed to win despite a horrible play error on my part: I moved one of my heavy weapons squads into charge range of a squad of eight demons in addition to eight more and five lesser demons already close enough to assault my other units that turn. I managed to attrit my enemy with the extra attack enough to make the demons easy prey for my nearby landspeeders. By the end of the battle, I nearly annihilated my opponent: he had only twelve models left, suffering 80% casualties.

Friday, May 20, 2005

Infiltrating Heavy Weapons

The downfall of many heavy support choices in 40k is their early placement. Normally, heavy support choices like devastator squads and whirlwinds are set up first, before the rest of your units. However, because my devastator squads are elites, they're set up after troops and heavy support, giving me a decided advantage in setup. To even further this advantage, I can give my devastator squads infiltration instead of tank hunter for those squads bearing low-strength weapons. With infiltration, I can pick great defensive positions or even stake out mission objectives outside my own deployment zone. Usually, players infiltrate so they can get closer to their enemy, but I will use infiltration to pick my best spots to deploy devastators, and do it after all the opponent's other units are on the table.

With that in mind, here's the new list:

2000 Pts - Space Marines Roster - Voidmarines

1 Master @ 92 Pts
Bolt Pistol (x1); Power Weapon (x1)
1 Frag Grenades @ [1] Pts

4 Tactical Squad @ 115 Pts
Counter-Attack; True Grit; Bolter (x2); Lascannon (x1); Plasmagun (x1)
1 Sergeant @ [18] Pts
Bolter; Counter-Attack; True Grit

4 Tactical Squad @ 115 Pts
Counter-Attack; True Grit; Bolter (x2); Lascannon (x1); Plasmagun (x1)
1 Sergeant @ [18] Pts
Bolter; Counter-Attack; True Grit

4 Tactical Squad @ 115 Pts
Counter-Attack; True Grit; Bolter (x2); Lascannon (x1); Plasmagun (x1)
1 Sergeant @ [18] Pts
Bolter; Counter-Attack; True Grit

4 Tactical Squad @ 115 Pts
Counter-Attack; True Grit; Bolter (x2); Lascannon (x1); Plasmagun (x1)
1 Sergeant @ [18] Pts
Bolter; Counter-Attack; True Grit

4 Tactical Squad @ 115 Pts
Counter-Attack; True Grit; Bolter (x2); Lascannon (x1); Plasmagun (x1)
1 Sergeant @ [18] Pts
Bolter; Counter-Attack; True Grit

1 Land Speeder Squadron @ 80 Pts
Heavy Bolter (x1); Assault Cannon (x1)

1 Land Speeder Squadron @ 80 Pts
Heavy Bolter (x1); Assault Cannon (x1)

1 Land Speeder Squadron @ 80 Pts
Heavy Bolter (x1); Assault Cannon (x1)

1 Whirlwind @ 85 Pts
Whirlwind Multiple Missile Launcher

1 Whirlwind @ 85 Pts
Whirlwind Multiple Missile Launcher

1 Whirlwind @ 85 Pts
Whirlwind Multiple Missile Launcher

8 Devastator Squad @ 266 Pts
Count as Elites Elite; Counter-Attack; True Grit; Bolter (x4); Missile Launcher (x4); Tank Hunters
1 Sergeant @ [18] Pts
Bolter; Counter-Attack; True Grit

8 Devastator Squad @ 326 Pts
Count as Elites Elite; Counter-Attack; True Grit; Bolter (x4); Plasma Cannon (x4); Infiltrate
1 Sergeant @ [18] Pts
Bolter; Counter-Attack; True Grit

8 Devastator Squad @ 246 Pts
Count as Elites Elite; Counter-Attack; True Grit; Bolter (x4); Heavy Bolter (x4); Infiltrate
1 Sergeant @ [18] Pts
Bolter; Counter-Attack; True Grit

Total Roster Cost: 2000

Created with Army Builder
Copyright (c) 1997-2005 Lone Wolf Development, Inc. All rights reserved.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Changes to Voidmarines

Alpha missions kill my army. Against cagey opponents who know to do nothing but kill my scoring units, the razorbacks are proving underwhelming against all foes. I routinely crushingly defeat my opponents on straight victory points in alpha missions, but because victory points don't matter in those missions, and the glass jaw of my scoring units, I lose more often than is necessary by awful dice. Therefore, I changed my list. I now take advantage of several space marine special rules: true grit (an extra attack in close combat for my riflemen for three points each), and the opportunity to take devastator squads (scoring units with four heavy weapons each) as elites, in return for less dreadnoughts (giant robots with guns) and no allies (other units allied with the imperium, but not Voidmarines).

My units will be harder to defeat in hand-to-hand combat, and will be more resilient against lone gunmen with anti-tank weapons. Only five of my scoring units are vehicles: three landspeeders (heavily armed, lightly armored hovercraft), and two whirlwinds (self-propelled artillery capable of indirect fire). My army will wilt under heavy ordnance fire, but will be far more survivable to all other forms of attack; my soldiers are heavily armored and more numerous (about 2:1) than some of my earlier armies. Losing my razorbacks departs from three years of Voidmarine tradition; they served as a calling card for my army. Nobody else played like I did with the razorbacks, but fourth edition 40k forced my hand by making transports not scoring units. It's a bit of a gambit, but I think it will work quite nicely, especially in alpha missons. See for yourself: here's the list.

2000 Pts - Space Marines Roster - Voidmarines

1 Master @ 86 Pts
Bolter
1 Auspex @ [2] Pts
1 Bionics @ [5] Pts
1 Frag Grenades @ [1] Pts
1 Krak Grenades @ [2] Pts

4 Tactical Squad @ 115 Pts
Counter-Attack; True Grit; Bolter (x2); Lascannon (x1); Plasmagun (x1)
1 Sergeant @ [18] Pts
Bolter; Counter-Attack; True Grit

4 Tactical Squad @ 115 Pts
Counter-Attack; True Grit; Bolter (x2); Lascannon (x1); Plasmagun (x1)
1 Sergeant @ [18] Pts
Bolter; Counter-Attack; True Grit

4 Tactical Squad @ 115 Pts
Counter-Attack; True Grit; Bolter (x2); Lascannon (x1); Plasmagun (x1)
1 Sergeant @ [18] Pts
Bolter; Counter-Attack; True Grit

4 Tactical Squad @ 115 Pts
Counter-Attack; True Grit; Bolter (x2); Lascannon (x1); Plasmagun (x1)
1 Sergeant @ [18] Pts
Bolter; Counter-Attack; True Grit

4 Tactical Squad @ 115 Pts
Counter-Attack; True Grit; Bolter (x2); Lascannon (x1); Plasmagun (x1)
1 Sergeant @ [18] Pts
Bolter; Counter-Attack; True Grit

4 Tactical Squad @ 115 Pts
Counter-Attack; True Grit; Bolter (x2); Lascannon (x1); Plasmagun (x1)
1 Sergeant @ [18] Pts
Bolter; Counter-Attack; True Grit

1 Land Speeder Squadron @ 80 Pts
Heavy Bolter (x1); Assault Cannon (x1)

1 Land Speeder Squadron @ 80 Pts
Heavy Bolter (x1); Assault Cannon (x1)

1 Land Speeder Squadron @ 80 Pts
Heavy Bolter (x1); Assault Cannon (x1)

1 Whirlwind @ 85 Pts
Whirlwind Multiple Missile Launcher

1 Whirlwind @ 85 Pts
Whirlwind Multiple Missile Launcher

8 Devastator Squad @ 266 Pts
Count as Elites Elite; Counter-Attack; True Grit; Bolter (x4); Missile Launcher (x4); Tank Hunters
1 Sergeant @ [18] Pts
Bolter; Counter-Attack; True Grit

8 Devastator Squad @ 326 Pts
Count as Elites Elite; Counter-Attack; True Grit; Bolter (x4); Plasma Cannon (x4); Tank Hunters
1 Sergeant @ [18] Pts
Bolter; Counter-Attack; True Grit

8 Devastator Squad @ 222 Pts
Counter-Attack; True Grit; Bolter (x4); Heavy Bolter (x4)
1 Sergeant @ [18] Pts
Bolter; Counter-Attack; True Grit

Total Roster Cost: 2000

Created with Army Builder
Copyright (c) 1997-2005 Lone Wolf Development, Inc. All rights reserved.

Sunday, May 15, 2005

Resounding Victory for the Lizardmen!

Lord Kroak's brigade defeated a wandering orc horde with efficient spellcasting and a little luck. It's a good army, and it will work against any army out there in my opinion. Dispel scrolls are the main threat to Lord Kroak's forces; good dice and magic strategy appear to be the only way to counter the dispel scroll danger.

Basically, the game came down to Kroak hiding in a corner casting damage spells behind my stegadon named "Stompy." The skinks worked wonderfully at harassing the orcs, and killing their giant. I believe Kroak to be a better option for the Lizardmen for a very odd reason: he's too many points. With more units that aren't Kroak, the enemy has an easier time killing the weak, irrelevant Lizardman infantry. If you're capable of protecting Kroak with the stegadon, you want that extra six hundred points to be in the safest place possible (behind the stegadon in a corner). Sure, if you lose Kroak, you'll lose the battle; however, if you lose a regular Lizardman Slann Mage Priest, you'll probably lose the game as well, and the enemy will have six hundred more points out there probably dying anyway. Basically, by costing twice as many points as a regular Slann, you'll still lose the battle if you lose Kroak, but there won't be any other available victory points elsewhere.

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Voidmarines Defeat Dark Angels

My ever-popular, purple Voidmarines score a victory over the drop-pod assault Dark Angels in an Alpha seek and destroy mission. I proved to have enough guns to hurt my opponent so severely that he was incapable of taking out enough of my sparse scoring units to win the game.

For those who don't know my jargon, I won the mission using the following logic. Warhammer 40k is played to an agreed points value (2000 in this case) spent on units and transports. An alpha seek and destroy mission's objective is to have more units alive than your opponent at the end of six turns of play. However, transports and armored personnel carriers do not count as separate scoring units from the squads to which they are attached. My army had eight heavily armed armored personnel carriers, called "Razorbacks" totaling 450 out of 2000 points of my army. That's a lot of points dedicated to units whose survival is irrelevant to victory in this particular mission. However, my Razorbacks mount heavy firepower, and are a considerable threat to kill his scoring units. Using the threat of the razorbacks to my advantage, I was able to draw enough shots off my squads and onto the razorbacks while simultaneously using the razorbacks to do enough damage on his scoring units to eliminate his chances to win. At the end of the mission, I had six scoring units to his two, and six razorbacks.

Here's a copy of my army list:

2000 Pts - Space Marines Roster - Voidmarines

1 Captain @ 270 Pts
Command Squad; Bolter
1 Auspex @ [2] Pts
1 Krak Grenades @ [2] Pts
4 Command Squad @ [205] Pts
Bolter (x2); Missile Launcher (x2)
1 Sergeant @ [15] Pts
Bolter
1 Razorback @ [90] Pts
Twin-Linked Lascannon

1 Captain @ 270 Pts
Command Squad; Bolter
1 Auspex @ [2] Pts
1 Krak Grenades @ [2] Pts
4 Command Squad @ [205] Pts
Bolter (x2); Missile Launcher (x2)
1 Sergeant @ [15] Pts
Bolter
1 Razorback @ [90] Pts
Twin-Linked Lascannon

4 Tactical Squad @ 170 Pts
Bolter (x2); Lascannon (x1); Plasmagun (x1)
1 Sergeant @ [15] Pts
Bolter
1 Razorback @ [70] Pts
Twin-Linked Heavy Bolter

4 Tactical Squad @ 170 Pts
Bolter (x2); Lascannon (x1); Plasmagun (x1)
1 Sergeant @ [15] Pts
Bolter
1 Razorback @ [70] Pts
Twin-Linked Heavy Bolter

4 Tactical Squad @ 170 Pts
Bolter (x2); Lascannon (x1); Plasmagun (x1)
1 Sergeant @ [15] Pts
Bolter
1 Razorback @ [70] Pts
Twin-Linked Heavy Bolter

4 Tactical Squad @ 190 Pts
Bolter (x2); Lascannon (x1); Plasmagun (x1)
1 Sergeant @ [15] Pts
Bolter
1 Razorback @ [90] Pts
Twin-Linked Lascannon

4 Tactical Squad @ 190 Pts
Bolter (x2); Lascannon (x1); Plasmagun (x1)
1 Sergeant @ [15] Pts
Bolter
1 Razorback @ [90] Pts
Twin-Linked Lascannon

4 Tactical Squad @ 190 Pts
Bolter (x2); Lascannon (x1); Plasmagun (x1)
1 Sergeant @ [15] Pts
Bolter
1 Razorback @ [90] Pts
Twin-Linked Lascannon

1 Land Speeder Squadron @ 80 Pts
Heavy Bolter (x1); Assault Cannon (x1)

1 Land Speeder Squadron @ 80 Pts
Heavy Bolter (x1); Assault Cannon (x1)

1 Whirlwind @ 85 Pts
Whirlwind Multiple Missile Launcher

1 Dreadnought @ 135 Pts
Twin-Linked Lascannon; Missile Launcher

Total Roster Cost: 2000

Created with Army Builder
Copyright (c) 1997-2005 Lone Wolf Development, Inc. All rights reserved.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

New Army

Lord Kroak and his skink host prepare for battle! They are as yet unpainted, but I finished assembling them yesterday. My brother and I are going to make the paint job a Summer project. Here's the list:

2000 Pts - Lizardmen Roster - Kroak's Brigade

Venerable Lord Kroak (1#, 1225 Pts)
1 Venerable Lord Kroak @ 1225 Pts
General; Large Target; Magic Resistance (2)
1 Amulet of Itza @ [0] Pts
1 Ceremonial Mace of Malachite @ [0] Pts
1 Golden Death Mask @ [0] Pts
1 Standard of the Sacred Serpent & Glyph of Potee @ [0] Pts
1 X. The Ruination of Cities @ [0] Pts

Skink Skirmishers (16#, 96 Pts)
16 Skink Skirmishers @ 96 Pts
Hand Weapon; Blowpipe; Aquatic; Skirmishers

Skink Skirmishers (16#, 96 Pts)
16 Skink Skirmishers @ 96 Pts
Hand Weapon; Blowpipe; Aquatic; Skirmishers

Skink Skirmishers (16#, 96 Pts)
16 Skink Skirmishers @ 96 Pts
Hand Weapon; Blowpipe; Aquatic; Skirmishers

Skink Priest (1#, 135 Pts)
1 Skink Priest @ 135 Pts
Level 2 Upgrade; Aquatic
1 Diadem of Power @ [35] Pts

Skink Priest (1#, 115 Pts)
1 Skink Priest @ 115 Pts
Level 2 Upgrade; Aquatic
1 Bane Head @ [15] Pts

Stegadon (6#, 235 Pts)
1 Stegadon @ 235 Pts
Giant Bow; Causes Terror; Immune to Panic; Large Target; Scaly Skin; Stubborn
5 Skink Crew @ [0] Pts
Hand Weapon; Javelin; Aquatic; Skirmishers

Total Roster Cost: 1998

Created with Army Builder
Copyright (c) 1997-2005 Lone Wolf Development, Inc. All rights reserved.

Bring on the opponents! I'll post back here with a battle report once the fog clears on Lord Kroak's first challenge.