Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Weekend League



This weekend I got together with my friend to play some games and establish the rules for our ongoing league.

Our local gaming store recently moved, and they had to delay the semi-annual league, so we decided to start our own.  Here is what we came up with:

An initial season, where everyone plays everyone else, will determine an initial 'Champion'.  Once a challenger is chosen the challenger cannot change his list until he loses.  The champion can be challenged at any time by any of the other player, but the challenger has to provide beer.  This is is to prevent repeated challenges.

We all threw in some money for a champion's cup as a traveling trophy.  SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!!!

All models with at least three colors for paint have preferred enemy against models that have fewer than three colors of paint.

After deciding on the rules, we played a few games.  I played Harry, and Drew played Phil.

Harry brought Nurgle Chaos Marines allied with Khorne Daemonkin:

Chaos Lord: Power Weapon, Burning Brand

Plague Marines: x7 Plasma x2
Rhino
Plague Marines: x7 Melta x2
Rhino

Chaos Spawn: x6 Mark of Nurgle

Havocs: Lascannon x4

Chaos Lord: Terminator Armor, Axe of Khorne

Berzerkers: x7
Dreadclaw Drop Pod

Maulerfiend
Maulerfiend


I brought:

Renegade Command Squad: Heretek Magus, Covenant of Nurgle, Command net Vox

Renegade Infantry: x20, Sub Flak Armor, 6+ FNP, Militia Training, Autocannon x2
Renegade Infantry: x20, Sub Flak Armor, 6+ FNP, Militia Training, Autocannon x2
Renegade Infantry: x10, 6+FNP, Militia Training, Melta Gun x2
Chimera

Zombies: x20

Chaos Spawn
Chaos Spawn

Leman Russ: x2
Wyvern: x2, Heavy Flamers

Rapier Laser Destroyer: x3

Aegis Defense Line


Sorcerer: ML3, Balestar of Mannon

Chaos Marines: x10, Melta Gun x2, Melta Bombs
Dreadclaw Drop Pod

Bikes: x4, Mark of Nurgle, Melta Gun x2, Melta Bombs


We played capture and control with hammer and anvil deployment.

Here are the highlights:

Turn 1:
I had the initiative stolen, and he moved everything up.  His drop pod scattered back 9" and his guys decided to stay inside.

My drop pod manages to land behind one of his maulerfiends on his back objective, and I hop out to take shots at its rear armor, but I just knock off a single hull point.  In the psychic phase, my sorcerer gets a perils of the warp but turns himself into a killing machine.  I managed to knock off two hull points and immobilize the drop pod, so now they would have at least one turn of being out in the open.  His rhino containing the plague marines with the lord gets blown up in the assault phase.

We each scored two objectives, but I managed to get first blood.

Turn 2:
Rather than doing shots on turn two, which is our usual tradition, Cameron broke out some really nice flavored whiskey.  I am normally against my whiskey being flavored with anything other than whiskey, but this was good.

Tasty and packs a punch.


Harry's spawn charge into one of my blob squads, and since he charged through cover I went first.  I manage to kill one from overwatch, kill another one with my sorcerer (he still has fleshbane), and a third with the guardsmen.  With his remaining three he manages to do zero wounds.  This whole squad deserves a promotion!  His Khorne lord moves up with the berzerkers and manage to hug some cover.  The plasma plague marines move to engage my marines on his back objective, but fail their charge.  His maulerfiend charges the same marines, but is taken down with a pile of krak grenades.  The second maulerfiend charges my spawn and kills two.  Lastly the Nurgle lord and plague marines charge my bikes, and we slowly eat each other.

Nurgle loves us more than you!

Given an opportunity to escape, my marines hop back in their drop pod and fly away.  I move some units around to get into a better firing position.  I manage to take out 5 of the berzerkers and a few plague marines with shooting.  In combat, the remaining maulerfiend chews through my last spawn, and the plague marines + bikes continue to go nowhere slowly.

Least exciting combat ever.

Harry got crappy cards, so he only scored one objective, but thanks to a d3 roll I managed to score 3 points.

Turn 3:

The Khorne lord moves up, prepares to make a 2" charge through cover, and fails....  The remaining Berzerkers split off to go claim an objective.  Harry's maulerfiend chases down my command squad, kills two, and fails to wipe them.  

The Khorne lord was so angry.

I shuffle around to capture a few more objectives and get better firing position.  All three rapiers take aim at the Khorne lord, and vaporize him.  My dreadclaw flies towards his havocs, but the marines stay inside.  Other shooting knocks the berzerkers down to a single man, and the backfield plaguemarines down to three.  In combat my command squad loses, and runs but isn't caught, and doesn't make it off the board.  The zombies manage to join in the ongoing bike + plague marine combat.

I managed to score two points this round, and Harry managed to score one, so I'm up by three.

Turn 4+:

At this point Harry has his Nurgle lord , a squad of havocs, a single berzerker, and a maulerfiend.  Pushing to the end of the game:  The maulerfiend kills my command squad, but is taken out by the rapiers before it can kill anything else.  His Nurgle lord is eventually brought down by the weight of so many zombies.  The havocs are taken out by my marines in the dreadclaw.  

Conclusion:
VICTORY!  I didn't completely table Harry, but things were close.  There were a few bits of luck that helped.  Harry had a bad draw of cards on turn two, and the failed 2" charge was key.  Even still I feel like my list is fairly solid.  The rapier laser destroyers are quickly becoming my new favorite unit.  They just melt vehicles.  My wyverns, on the other hand, have had a rough couple of games.  I have just had bad luck trying to roll hits.  I probably won't get any games in next weekend, but we are planning another get together in a couple of weeks.

15 comments:

  1. Always good to see some Chaos v Chaos action! I've wanted to try out Renegades and Heretics stuff but Forgeworld is expensive and some of my friends don't really like playing against it.

    I did end up winning the tournament at my FLGS this weekend. My friend and I abused the "every army is Allies of Convenience at worst" aspect of the partner tournament so I coupled my Daemons with his list of 2x dreadknights, skybus, and termies w/ librarian.
    If it weren't for a half-hearted attempt to kill a flyrant that left him on 1 wound after turn 5, we would have tabled every single game. Played against Tau/IG, Nids/Tau, and DA/KDK.

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    1. When I first started trying out renegades I wasn't sure if people would complain, but renegades are really just astra militarum with more options and no orders. The book was a bit pricy, but if your area allows the use of forge world, then it is a game changer for Chaos Marines.

      What did you run for the daemons? Did you try out any of the new formations?

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    2. I did not get a chance to use the new formations yet (my book is still on its way). Also, being that it was only 1,000 points per side it's hard to fit a well-balanced army into that few of points using the detachment. If I wanted to use the khorne core formation it would have been 640 points just taking the hound squads alone.
      Since we had a 250 pts per model limit I used:
      LoC (1x greater)
      Herald (ML3, disc, grimoire)
      Herald (ML1, portal)
      Pink Horrors x 11
      Pink Horrors x 11
      Screamers x 6
      Soul Grinder (Tzeentch, Warp Gaze)

      Our strategy really changed between games. First game was against my friend's brothers (Tau/IG) and we used most of our warp dice each turn on summoning to get a unit or two out per turn. My Daemons were getting pounded pretty heavily and I probably lost 1k points worth of them but still ended with 580 on the board.
      Second game was a faceroll against Tau/Nids. There are some varying skill levels at our store and these guys didn't take the best lists. The nid player unfortunately took pretty much all multi-wound models and the force guns on the dreadknights ripped through him like butter.
      Third game should have been hard but our opponents royally messed up their deployment (deployed first) and put their ravenwing bike squads loaded with plasma talons and 2+ re-rollable jink on one side of the map with the KDK taking over the other 3/4. So we just deployed in a tiny corner furthest from the bikes and started rolling through khorne before the bikes could get there. KDK player was not thinking and he just walked his thirster across the field turn 1 rather than going into swooping until the bikes arrived to help him out. He's lucky my friend failed epically trying to instant death him, but still my LoC (who rolled 4+ FnP) rolled through him. I got Cursed Earth on my screamer herald which made my screamer squad have 2++ re-rollable invul when the grim went off (although it failed 2 of 3 turns). They pretty much couldn't touch us after that.

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  2. I have been trying to get into R&H since my IG turned AM codex lost allies of convenience. I have IA13, but I get pretty confused about the layouts for taking them as an ally to my CSM. I know there stuff is better as primary but Typhus demands slaves. Theres also an updated Siege of Vraks I hear where the zombies are better but I don't have that.

    What is the easiest/most effective way to ally in R&H and give myself a wyvern unit and or rapier laser destroyer unit? I need more long range pew pew in my games.

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    1. This is the problem with old FW rules that never get updated... They've removed most of the "primary detachment" rules from 40k but not the old FW stuff. Basically if you want anything that says it requires "primary detachment only" then you have to make your Renegades detachment the one with the warlord. If all you want is the Heavy Support options then really all you have to do is get a cheap HQ, two blobs of guardsmen, and whatever heavies to fill out the CAD. Or if you only want one heavy choice you can just take an allied detachment and only have to take one troop.

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    2. Hmmm those deep striking veterans seem cheap along with a barebones CCS... maybe do those in a 2nd CAD then go to town with rapier laser destroyers and a wyvern or 2...

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    3. Veterans are just so dang expensive at 10 points a piece even before upgrades. Although suicide deep strike with special weapons might not be the worst idea. I just wish GW didn't shut down all the re-casters. I've always wanted to start a R&H list but the thing I want most are the rapier laser destroyer batteries and I can't justify spending that much on FW for weak little things. The rest I could just fill out with Guard kits.

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    4. I use standard guard kits mixed with zombies, chaos spawn, and green stuff. It works well, fits my Nurgle theme, and is much cheaper than forgeworld. I have a whole blob squad, drop pod, and rapiers that I need to photograph, but my FLGS has been out of dull coat...

      If you are just wanting to bring rapiers there is an option in IA:13 for regular chaos marines to bring them as a heavy support option.

      If you had a pile of spare lascannons you could probably convert up some rapiers very easily using the kataphron battle servitors kit.

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    5. My buddies are nice and I just use Icarus las cannons as counts as. A cool conversion would be gluing the las cannons onto ogryn backs though?

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    6. I don't think Ogryn's would look very good. It would have to be something with treads. I did see a good conversion using Kataphron's but even still they cost $38 per model... So three would be almost $120 (and that's not considering how much it costs if you don't have a pile of lascannons laying around). The one where he put the cannon's side-by-side looks pretty good. http://i.imgur.com/fJz98sQ.jpg

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    7. Correction. Kataphron models are $20 a piece. For some reason GW thought I lived in Australia... No thanks!

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    8. Ha! I did that a couple of weeks back. "Why is a box of marines $150?!?!?"

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    9. What do you have to do to get wyverns in the list? You can't take those as csm heavy support, just the rapiers?

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  3. Very nice battle report. I like the format too... :-)

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  4. I was playing around with some R&H lists and came up with something I kind of liked. I think this is legal but I may have missed something:
    Renegade Command Squad (command net vox, bloody-handed reaver)
    Renegade infantry veterans x 10 (grenadier squad, chimera w/ h-flamer)
    Renegade infantry veterans x 10 (grenadier squad, chimera w/ h-flamer)
    Renegade infantry veterans x 10 (grenadier squad, chimera w/ h-flamer)
    Renegade infantry veterans x 10 (grenadier squad, chimera w/ h-flamer)
    Rapier Laser Destroyer x 3 (militia training, flak armour)
    Rapier Laser Destroyer x 3 (militia training, flak armour)
    Field Artillery Battery x 4 (heavy mortars, militia training)
    998
    For less than 1,000 points you get 40 guys with AP3 rapid-fire guns, 6 S9 AP1 twin-linked ordnance (BS3), and 4 large blast mortars. The list is a bit fragile (as renegades are want to be) but it can deal with MEQs, high armor, and blobs fairly effectively. The command squad can sit back by the artillery and help them not to break rank if they roll poorly for their leadership since the artillery battery is pretty screwed if they ever break formation. I'd probably just throw the arch-demagogue in one of the chimeras with the veterans tbh.

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