This week I wanted to switch up my list a bit. Specifically, I wanted to try out the crazy idea of using Wyrdvane Psyker squads to try and summon daemons. My vision was to have enough lesser daemons summoned to prevent the rest of my army from being charged. While I was not successful in the way I envisioned, I still managed to be successful overall.
Here was my list:
Tank commander: Vanquisher, lascannon, multimelta
Leman Russ: heavy bolter
Platoon Command Squad: Grenade Launcher x2
Guardsmen: Autocannon
Guardsmen: Autocannon
Priest
Primaris Psyker: lvl 1 divination
Veterans: melta gun x2
Chimera
Wyrdvane Psykers
Wyrdvane Psykers
Astra Militarum: Tactical Escalation, Hammer and Anvil
I was playing one of my friends from my regular gaming group. He decided to bust out his abhumans, so his list looked something like this.
Lord Commisar
Platoon Command Squad
20 man blob: priest, two power axe sergeants
20 man blob: lascanon
Ratlings
Ogryns: Priest
Leman Russ
Aegis Defense Line
This ended up being a fun game, but unfortunately was decided entirely by luck. With so little time for our game we barely got into turn three and with this mission we didn't have many objective cards. Neither of us drew a "Capture objective X", so we were forced to try and score points by killing characters and causing units to fail leadership checks. I ended up winning, but only because I drew a "Have three units in your deployment zone" card the very last turn of the game.
Two blob squads shooting at each other is boring, but
that is why there are daemonettes in the middle.
My summoning was mildly effective. I managed to call in a squad of daemonettes on my first turn who drew fire and a charge from his power axe blob.
Overall there wasn't a whole lot that happened in this game. Some tanks got blown up, guardsmen died, but nothing dramatic.
Dark Eldar: The Emperor's Will, Vanguard Strike
I wasn't sure what kind of list my opponent was running, but he didn't appear to have any HQ choices, so I assume it was some formation.
10 Warriors
Raider: Splinter racks
10 Warriors
Raider: Splinter racks
Venom: Splinter cannon
jetbikes: heat lance
jetbikes: heat lance
Scourges: Haywire gun
Mandrakes
I'm not sure what happened to my dice, but all sources of luck died this game. It took me three turns to destroy any of his vehicles....
The mandrakes set my blob squad on fire during turn 2, and they remained on fire for the rest of the game. I'm pretty sure half of the squad was lost to soul blaze.
The gun-line that forgot to bring its guns.
I managed to summon twice with my psykers, but the first time they had a mishap and were killed (giving up first blood), and the second time they also had a mishap and were put into a corner.
I had one turn of hilarity with my Wyrdvane Psykers. They rolled a perils, got buffed up (went super saiyen), and managed to kill a jetbike in combat. I played this as only one model in the unit got the buff since normally only one model would be killed by perils. Only after I charged into combat did I realize that they are WS 2 and S 2.
This game was rough, but there isn't much you can do about bad dice.
Orks: The Spoils of War, Hammer and Anvil
I love playing against Orks. No matter what happens it always ends up being fun. Also having played them for so many years; I know what I need to do to win.
Warboss: Power Klaw, thinking cap, heavy armor
12 boyz: Trukk, nob, rockit launcha, heavy armor
6 Mega Nobz
Battlewagon: 3 big shootas
3 Killa Kanz: big shoota, rockit launcha, skorcha
Grots
Rule number one when fighting against orks: kill the fast things first. I knew that if I didn't stop the battlewagon and the trukk then I was going to have a bad day. Fortunately I was able to immobilize the battlwagon and wreck the trukk. He went first, so they were both halfway to me, but I did increase my chances of survival.
This game I also decided to be more aggressive with my wyrdvane psykers. Rather than having them sit back and summon I decided to run them forward like madmen. This worked better than expected because Squad A kept his meganobz on one of the midfield objectives for two turns (rather than charging forward), and Squad B blew up all the grots and distracted the Kans to boot. I am confident that I would have won either way, but the distraction of the two psyker squads made my victory much easier.
Something about this fight seems one-sided.
By the end his meganobz were about 10 inches from the remnants of my blob squad, so I blocked a narrow passage in the terrain with my chimera. Sometimes sacrificing a vehicle is worth it to prevent a nasty unit in your back line.
Things coming up:
At some point I need to bust out my vendetta. The model looks too good to keep in its display case. Maybe next week I will switch out the tank commander for a company command squad.
This weekend my gaming group is getting together for beerhammer. Empty beer cans become new pieces of terrain, and can be placed at any time. I have a feeling this is going to get crazy. I will try to take pictures so I can write up a battle report. This will be my first try with Khorne Daemonkin. BEER FOR THE BEER GOD!!! CANS FOR THE CAN THRONE!!!!
Dark Eldar are able to take a single model from a Court of the Archon as an HQ. Even if they don't have an Archon! The 10 pt Lhamean is popular. I think this can result in an entire army without a character model to use as a Warlord.
ReplyDeleteHe ended up having a squad leader from the mandrakes as his warlord. I have only played against the new dark eldar twice, so I don't know their rules as well. It is much harder to keep up on everyone's rules with a new codex (or two) every month.
DeleteI have the dark Eldar codex. Mandrakes cannot be HQ.
ReplyDeleteThere are no formations from the regular codex without HQ, and he has no units from Haemounculs: covens.
I'm not that familiar with the Dark Eldar codex but I am fairly certain that any character model can be your warlord. Though, this wouldn't explain the lack of HQ.
DeleteI agree. He was unbounded... If the tournament allowed it...
ReplyDeleteOr maybe he just forgot to deploy him...
Last weekend I had a game against a couple of new friends, in a pub of another friend of mine that kindly some Sunday night let us use a table.
Warhammer, beer, cocktais.... it's the best way to play! :-D
Only a little downside: at the end of the game, two well-dressed girls (age: about 30) came next to our table and tried to interact with us.
"What are you doing?" And we suddenly lost the ability of speaking. We find that the floor was really interesting that night and we stared at it.
"Don't you see- said the other girl- there are... castles. They are building Castles."
Our shoes where really interesting too, as we could not find an appropriate manner to react yet ["They are NOT castles, they are RUINS stupid b****, and YES we are a group of looser, we spend our time with plastic miniatures on the weekend because we don't like interaction with the other sex, and now GO TO *********!!!! " was not an acceptable answer] , so the blond one answer for us: They are playing Role game! Role game with Castles. Don't you?"
The one of us nearer to them tried with all of his soul to find his voice: "ehm... no... a different... if you want... yes... another setting..." the he rolled his eyes, sweating and looking for help. But we were thinking that there could be ants on the floor, and we had to find them.
"Interesting!- said the blond one- Can we take a picture?"
"O... of course... " said the speaking of us. He made a step on his left to let a better visual of the miniatures. The blond one sat on a sofa, making some "funny" faces and the other one took some pictures of her friend. Voice-man felt silly.
At last, they went away and we found our voices again.
:-D
Hahaha, great story.
DeleteYou need to let that nerd flag fly. I can't judge this particular situation, but I have found that lots of people are curious about tabletop games. Most people I play with were introduced by someone else, but how many people start playing on their own?
"Hey, yeah! This is a strategy game, kind of like chess. You interested in learning a bit?"
If they say no, oh well. You still have a game to play, and you are no worse off than before. If they say yes, awesome!
Ty. :-)
DeleteDo girls play warhammer in your country? I mean, not just painting some boyfriend's model but truly interested in playing the game?
In Italy they don't. None of them. There must be some deep psychological reason beyond that.
Very few. A few months back I started teaching one of my female friends how to play, but our work schedules have been so busy that we haven't played a game since the first one.
DeleteI think a lot of how the lore is constructed appeals more to men than to women.