Saturday, September 30, 2017

October Power Rankings


October 2017 POWER RANKINGS

Second month of power rankings, and it has evolved from what we did last month. I have added a voter from each of the 4 states that have players in this. This is going to help build a better picture of the current power rankings across the gulf coast from Louisiana to Florida.

Biggest Movers and Shakers: Shawn Lowrey made the largest move up this month going from unranked to 6th on the list. The largest drop this week was Patrick Wyllie who fell out of the top 10.

1.    Mark Perry – Last month 1st (no change)

ITC stats: 459.97 Points / 1st South / 57th Overall / 2nd CSM
·      Mark continues to be a dominating tournament player. At the Come the Apocalypse (CTA) GT in Enterprise, AL Mark was the overall winner with a high 3rd place finish in battle points and max in painting score.

2.    Carter Leach – Last month 2nd (no change)

ITC stats: 447.02 Points / 2nd South / 60th Overall / 1st Corsairs
·      Carter was also dominate in the CTA GT with a 2nd place finish in battle points, he also had a second place finish in a local RTT in Fort Walton Beach.

3.   Mike Sanchez – Last month 6th (UP 3 SPOTS)

ITC stats: 358.58 Points / 7th South / 152th Overall / 6th Guard
·      Mike made some huge moves up from last month. Playing solid in events will have that happen. In the CTA GT he did come in the middle of the pack at 16th, but we still agree that he is 3rd this month in power rankings.

4.    Adam Clem – Last month 4th (no change)

ITC stats: 348.95 Points / 8th South / 164th Overall / 6th Space Wolves
·      Coming in 7th in the CTA GT this month was tough on me, but knowing I lost to 1st and 2nd place is something I can build from.

5.    Ian Thornton – Last month 7th (UP 2 SPOTS)

ITC stats: 339 Points / 9th South / 185th Overall / 4th Necrons
·     Ian moves up this month 2 spots into the top 5. Had a middle of the pack showing at CTA GT, but still gaining momentum into future events.

6.   Shawn Lowrey – Last month not ranked (UP 4 SPOTS)

ITC stats: 273.94 Points / 24th South / 341st Overall / 15th Dark Eldar
·     Shawn is an awesome player and guy to be around. He only has 3 events in ITC, and has decided this year to just play more local since his priorities are not with 40k right now. That doesn’t stop him from going from not being ranked to 6th on the list.

7.    Will Grant – Last month 5th (DOWN 2 SPOTS)

ITC stats: 336.17 Points / 11th South / 194st Overall / 2nd Chaos
·      Will dropped a few spots this week, but that has not slowed him down dominating the Louisiana area. Look forward to see him moving back up soon.

8.    John Moore – Last month 3rd (DOWN 5 SPOTS)

ITC stats: 341.46 Points / 16th South / 177th Overall / 7th Tau
·      John took a drop this month, his Commanders did not do as well as he hoped at the CTA GT, but he is taking a new spin on Tau with mortal wounds and daka that I believe is going to be solid.

9. Adam Abramowicz – Last month not ranked (UP 2 SPOTS)

ITC stats: 316.49 Points / 13th South / 237th Overall / 5th Blood Angels
·      Adam has jumped into the top 10 this month, and I look forward to listening to his new podcast each week for his journey to winning a GT. I think you should add being #1 in my power rankings to those 40k life goals.

10. Anthony Hinkel – Last month not ranked (UP 1 SPOT)

ITC stats: 216 Points / 40th South / 534th Overall / no faction rank
·      Warboss Hinkel got into the top 10 this month from his 4th place finish at the CTA GT. He was running a very tough death guard list, however I have it on good authority that the orks are back in charge!!!!

Others receiving votes: Trent Miles, Dale Oser, Robert Harp, PT Taylor, Brain Bengnaud, Clint Hoffman, Jacob Wells, Scott Combs, Joe Williams


Until next month, keep throwing dice

Jarl Clem

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Against the Grain - T'au Empire, Seeker Missiles


Welcome to the first installment in a new series where we tackle army building from a perspective that runs counter to conventional wisdom. These lists will be weird, maybe they work and maybe they don't, but the goal is to surprise and confound your opponents. For better or worse!

For this first article of Against the Grain, I'm going with what I know. And what I know is the T'au Empire. T'au entered 8th Edition in a very odd spot, as GW fundamentally changed the way the army works. One of the biggest changes was a drastic points increase in the Riptide, much to the chagrin of T'au generals everywhere. Combined with the loss of Jump Shoot Jump and changes to Markerlights, many T'au players were left trying to utilize units that had never seen the tabletop while using tactics that seemed anathema to standard T'au SOP. The standard competitive list seemed to revert to some form of Commander spam or Y'Vahra based lists. Now don't get me wrong, Commanders are highly efficient models especially once you factor in their survivability due to being Characters, and the Y'Vahra has long been a favorite model of mine. That being said, having a limited number of viable competitive options is not good for the health of the faction or the competitive scene at large.


This list was conceived in the aftermath of Come the Apocalypse GT. You can check out my tournament report here, but the short version is that I took 8 Commanders and fell flat. I went 0-3 Day 1 and largely just didn't play well and didn't enjoy the army. So after getting home and thinking on it, I decided to go back to square one and just make a dumb list with a common theme that was completely anti-meta. That theme was mortal wounds, having seen the effectiveness of Grey Knights and Daemons this felt like something worth investigating. T'au mortal wound generators are relatively limited, but we do have an excellent option (albeit single use only) in the form of seeker missiles. For those that don't know, Seeker Missiles are a one use only weapon that can be taken on T'au vehicles and broadsides. They have a 72" range and every successful hit roll deals a mortal wound. You need two markerlights to fire them at normal BS (otherwise they only hit on a 6), but I think you'll see from the list that this will usually not be an issue. The following is what I came up with:

Battalion Detachment

2x Commander: 4 Missile Pods, 2 Gun Drones
2x Strike Teams(5): Shas'ui w/Pistol and Markerlight, Pulse Rifles
1x Kroot Carnivores(15): Kroot Rifles
2x Sky Rays: 6 Seeker Missiles, 2 Gun Drones, 2 Markerlights
3x Pathfinder(5): Shas'ui w/Pistol, Carbines and Markerlights
1x Firesight Marksman
1x Sniper Drone Squadon(3)

Outrider Detachment

Commander: 4 Fusion Blasters, 2 Gun Drones
3x Piranha Squadrons(3): 2 Seeker Missiles, Burst Cannon, 2 Gun Drones

All of this comes together for a 2000pt list with 7 CP and, more importantly for our purposes, 30 Seeker Missiles.


How It Works

The goal of this list is pretty simple: nuke a high value, tough unit on turn 1 with your seeker missiles. After that, the list has the speed to move around the board at will and has a ridiculous amount of shots that it can bring to bear. Each Piranha is pumping out 12 S5 shots and likely getting some manner of shooting bonuses from all our Markerlight support. That's 108 shots to start out with. Use the Strike Teams and Pathfinders to hang out in the backfield on objectives and let the Piranhas and Sky Rays move up the field to engage the enemy at 18". The missile Commanders will drop in the backfield and maneuver as needed to pick off high value targets while the fusion Commander acts like a scalpel to remove another high value model that you didn't go after with seeker missiles. The Sniper Drones were thrown in as a trial run to see if they really were as bad as they appear (spoiler: they are as bad as they appear).

Verdict

So I've played two games with this list now and I have to say that I was incredibly surprised by how effective it plays. My first game was against a World Eaters force with Kharn, Berserkers and some stout gunline elements in the form of Daemon Engines. This game saw a Predator and Hellbrute fall prey to the seeker missiles while the Commanders and Piranhas picked away at the Berserkers. We were playing four objectives and I was able to spread the board and claim three by the time we finished the game.

The second game was truly eye opening for the potential of this list. I squared off against Magnus, Mortarion, and an assortment of Brimstones, Malefic Lords, the Changeling, Ahriman, a prince and four quad mortars. Directing this monstrosity was GCWA's own Jarl Clem.
Long story short: Magnus died to seeker missiles Turn 1. Mortarion died to Piranha shooting Turn 2. And after that, it was a tightening noose around the Brimstone line. Brutal game as this was Smite Spam versus Seeker Spam but I was able to pull out the win on KPs.

All in all, this list appears to be highly effective in limited testing. That really surprised me as the concept seems almost gimicky. There are certainly some units I'd drop from this list. Sniper Drones really aren't good. I tried to put them in position to be effective but they just really really aren't good. I'd recommend dropping those in favor of literally anything else, the Marksman is a decent markerlight options but you can get some decent return on investment dropping him as well. You could also play around with some other vehicle options to keep the theme of mortal wounds going. Hammerhead and broadsides are both good potential options for this.

List Score: A- on the first pop quiz. Will try at the next RTT I attend. Check out the Aftermath Report to see how it went!

And that's the first list! What changes would you make? Do you think this is viable? Am I crazy? Probably... let's be honest here. Drop me a comment with your thoughts.

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Building a Tournament List



You've taken the plunge. You've signed up for Warhammer 40k tournament, perhaps for the first time! This is the perfect opportunity to show off the beautifully painted army you've spent hours assembling and painting to other like minded gamers (hopefully you aren't running a gray legion, don't be that guy). But this isn't just a casual Warhammer Wednesday. Everyone has paid money and are staring down a full day of games with the hopes of running the table and coming out on top. It's exciting and it's fun, but like anything else you need to prepare beforehand if you're hoping to win games.



That's what I'm going to attempt to do in the following article, give you some general advice for constructing a list to allow you to compete in a competitive environment.

The Spectrum of Lists: Fluffy to WAAC







Now don't misunderstand terms here. I not going all the way over on the fluffy side as a list you would bring to casual play or for a narrative campaign. While you can certainly bring these lists to a tournament, you'll likely be handicapping yourself from the get go. If you're trying to place high in a tournament, leave the casual list at home. What I'm really referring to here is a thematic army list with some strong internal mechanics and synergy. This could be an Assault Marine army, an Aspect Host, an Armored Company, or something similar. These are all armies that could accurately depict a force from the background material; but with the addition of some unit combination and stratagems, turns into a highly potent force on the tabletop. Most of the armies you'll encounter at your local RTT will fall along this style. Perhaps there will be some stronger units included in the list that don't match the theme, or there's an extra Imperium character that's just too good to pass up (Bobby G, we're looking at you). So that's one side.

Going over to the other side are the dreaded "WAAC" lists, short for Win at all Costs. These are your spam lists. These lists are min-maxing to squeeze as many of the top units in as possible, probably using cheap troops to open up the Battalion for extra command points. These are "those" lists, you'll see them floating around on the internet, placing high at GTs and Majors, and usually piloted by the top players. Fortunately, allies are mostly gone in 8th Edition so you won't see any of the unholy alliances that 7th allowed but there are still some single factions varieties of spam out there. There's not a set formula on these list, but you know what they are when you read the list or see the army opposite you on the table.

So this is the spectrum that you should expect to see at a tournament. Most lists will be somewhere in the middle with players building around a central, synergistic theme with a couple force multipliers added in. You'll see some spam lists out there for sure, but these are not in the majority for most events.

Know the Meta, Know the Missions





For those that may not know the terminology, the meta is the environment in which your games are played and the players who play in it. In simple terms, the meta is the armies, players, and style of games you can expect to see at an event. For your local RTT, this will most likely consist of your gaming group and the guys/gals that frequent your FLGS. These players are your "enemies" and as Sun Tzu says "know your enemy" and you can achieve victory. This portion of the meta is based around "What can I expect to see across the table?" If it's just your local group, then you should have a pretty good idea of what armies will be making an appearance. This will let you tailor your list a bit more to counter your opponents. As the event starts to get larger and pull in more groups, this gets harder to predict outside of your standard "Top Tier" armies. National and regional meta comes into play at this point. This is where Take All Comer (TAC) Lists can be successful along with your odd anti-meta list that surprises and counters the top builds. Remember that everything, no matter how strong it is, has a hard counter out there.

Every group has its own quirks and styles of play, some even have special comp systems or ban lists. Some follow the ITC system, others NOVA, some play straight out of the rulebook. The important thing here is not which system is being played (although that is relevant), but how that impacts the armies and what in your army benefits the most from the given system. This feeds into knowing and understanding the missions.

So for instance, does the mission packet have a lot of objective missions? Are they end of game objectives or progressive? This difference has a massive impact on how you build your army. Progressive missions tend to require faster units that can bounce around the board as needed, end of game require a more resilient approach to your units. Another good example is Kill Points. With 8th Edition, there are two ways of scoring this: one unit equals one point or a unit is worth its power level. Depending on how prevalent KPs are in the missions, this could have drastic differences in how you build your list. This really bit me hard in the Come the Apocalypse GT as I had ten units of 2 drones each. Each unit was worth 1 point so I was essentially spotting my opponent 10 points. Major mistake in list building on my part. But knowing the missions will go a long way to know what you need to be successful and what will be a hindrance

Know Your Army

We've discussed some external factors that must be considered when prepping for a tournament, but what is the most important factor for success? YOU! That's right, you ultimately have the greatest say over your own success. So here are some ways to prep yourself before the event.

1. Read, read, read. Read your index/codex and know what your army does. You should be able to teach your army rules to your opponent by the time you get to the table (always offer to explain, but don't do that unless they ask). Know your special rules and how they interact across the army. There's nothing worse than thinking a rule is played one way and then realize you missed an important word that changes the meaning entirely.

2. Practice with your army. It's very rarely a good idea to walk into an event with an army list you've never played before. There are certainly exceptions to this, but for the most part you need to practice beforehand to know where your strengths and weaknesses are. You may build around the alpha strike, but will you be able to maintain your offensive potential into the late game? Throw it on the table and see how it performs. There are a lot of units that look great on paper but fizzle on the tabletop, and there are a lot of units that appear uninspiring on paper but are all-stars on the table. Again, you don't want to find out day of the tournament that your 400 point linchpin of the army folds to a stiff breeze and a mean look.

3. Watch/read Battle Reports. Not only are batreps entertaining but they can provide you with great ideas for tactics and combos to get maximum utility out your units. They also are an easy way to get exposure to different armies that may or may not be a part of your local meta. Frontline Gaming, Miniwargaming, Tabletop Tactics are among some of the best at producing this content.


4. Run What You Enjoy Playing. The current state of the game often seems like "If you're running Army A, then you must run XYZ. If you're running Army B then you must spam unit C." While there's a certain degree of merit to the idea that certain builds are more competitive, this ultimately should not be the determining factor in what you bring. If you don't enjoy Spamming Unit C, then don't do it! At the end of the day, you have to play the army and why would you play with something you don't enjoy? Some of the best lists I've seen run completely counter to traditional thought, but the player put in the time to know the army, get good with it, and win with it on game day.

At the end of the day, the list can only get you so far. The greatest determining factor for your success or failure is ultimately YOU. So do your homework, practice, and put in the time and thought required to hone a skill. 

Happy Hunting!
Tau'va

Feel free to drop a comment below. Did this help? Did I miss something? Surely I'm not going crazy? Probably... and don't call me Shirley.

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Come the Apocalypes 2017 Battle Report





Come the Apocalypse Grand Tournament Battle Report – 21 September 2017

Today I am going to go over this past weekend’s back road adventure to Enterprise, AL for an awesome GT! First off I would like to say thank you to Robert Chandler for his organization and judging of the event, and Fanatix – Enterprise for letting us take over their shop with 4x6 table tops. The event was right at 30 players and five round which made the place crowded, but not to the point of being uncomfortable.

Overall Winner: Mark Perry
                   
Mark went 4-1 on the weekend with his only lost was in the first round to Mark Wilkens (who would go on to the final round undefeated himself). He ended tied for second in the event, but with his max painting score, pulled him into first place overall. 

Best General: Michael Lee
                 
 Going 5-0 on the weekend, his Grey Knights and assassins made a nasty combo that took advantage of character targeting rules. A solid list that coming in on paper was the “hardest list to beat”.

Best Painting: Doug Kus

Doug as usual had an awesome toxic Nurgle themed black legion army.
 I went 3-2 this weekend, I will say my strength of schedule was the highest for any player at the event. Losing my two games to 1st and 2nd place is never fun, but you only get better if you play the best.



This weekend I brought my Daemons / Renegades list:
       
      Magnus
      Changeling
x5 Malefic Lords
x3 Daemon Princes
x6 Brimstones
x6 Heavy Quad Launcher Battery
Smite spam / 6 4d6 guns / 4++ Saves / Magnus: Together make this list a threat in every phase of the battle.

Round 1 – Major Victory

As usual… Warboss Hinkel and I had to play each other. The Powers of Tzeentch proved too much for Papa Nurgle. He has a very resilient list, but nothing over the top that can deal with all of my mortal wounds. I will say that he did kill Magnus with his Helbrutes. Each lascannon wound rolled a 6. Next time we meet across the table from each other I will have to deal with Mortarion…

Round 2 – Major Loss

This was my weakest round for the mission. I have 30 KPs, which already put me at a disadvantage, and I went against Michael Lee’s Grey Knights and assassins. I honestly do not think I could have a worst match-up. First turn, deep strike 4 Grand Masters in dread knights and 3 Culexus Assassins. 3 of 4 of the Grand Masters made their first turn charge. It was a lost battle from the first turn. Character targeting is his defense that I could not get around. My artillery could not take out the Culexus assassins to get my mind bullets back up and running, and 4 Grand Masters were just too much.

Round 3 – Major Victory

I feel like a jerk, but I cannot remember his name. He was playing Craftworlds. Frist turn he flew his 3 Hemlocks to about 2 inches from Magnus, and did about 8 wounds to him, but on the bottom of the turn, I destroyed all three. From there I was able to take out the rest of his army.

Round 4 – Major Victory

I played against Jason Watts who was running an Ultra Marine / Custodian list. With the mission and deployment map, I was able to capitalize on terrain and his movement across the board. My artillery was able to take out all his SM units that were holding objectives and with all the smites and Magnus, the Custodes and Guilliman couldn’t survive. Highlight was G-Daddy charging Magnus, caused 6 wounds… I saved them all, then caused 6 wounds on G-Daddy. Failed 3 saves, 9 damage dead.

Round 5 – Minor Loss

Had to play Carter in the last round. Relic mission against the most mobile army there… yay. Great game that made me think since soul burst is a thing. At the end of the game he still won with only 3 models left. But hey just get the relic and go hide lets that happen.
Overall I am very happy with my list. The only change that I want to make is to drop 2 Quad Launchers for 2 Earthshaker Cannons. This will ensure that I can hit the entire board… no more hiding the relic form me Carter. 

Jarl Clem

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Come the Apocalypse GT - A Tale of Two Days



Greetings fellow denizens of the Gulf Coast,

About a dozen Battle Brothers trekked north into the wilds known as Alabama to engage in glorious warfare in the inaugural Come the Apocalypse GT sponsored by Fanatix. All in all it was an excellent showing for the GCWA with four members placing in the top 10: Mark Perry (t-2nd place and 1st Overall), Anthony Hinkel (t-4th), Robert Harp (6th), and Adam Clem (t-7th). Friend of the Alliance Carter Leach tied Mark Perry for 2nd Place. Overall this was a really fun event and well run by Robert Chandler and the Fanatix crew. This will definitely be one we mark down for next year's ITC season. Major props to those guys for getting a GT off the ground in year one.



For those of y'all who have never been, Fanatix is located in Enterprise, AL just a short drive up for those of us from the Gulf Coast area. A few of us had made the drive up before for another tournament, but for the GT they went all out and converted 2/3 of the store into gaming area. I was initially surprised they moved it back to Fanatix from the original location as I didn't see how they would be able to fit enough tables in the store. Major credit to everyone involved as they had 16 tables that were active on Day 1. I honestly never felt crowded during any of my games which is usually an issue at FLGs that host larger events.

The missions were taken straight out of the rulebook with some minor scoring modifications to provide for Major and Minor Victories/Defeats. On the whole, this wasn't an issue although I do have one grief about the Kill Points mission which I'll discuss in Round 2. I would've liked to see some manner of progressive objectives or a bit more emphasis on the secondary; but on the whole, the missions were very straight forward and provided you with all the information you needed in order to accomplish your objectives.

Now onto my tournament experience from the perspective of the actual games. You may be able to glean from the title that my days were polar opposites of each other. The first day went terribly wrong for my record and my second day went exceedingly well. So we'll jump right in.

The List
Tau Empire
Battalion
3x 4 Fusion Commanders w/ 2 Gun Drones
3x Strike Teams with Shas'ui and Markerlight
Battalion
3x  3 Ion Blaster Commanders with Adv Targeting System and 2 Gun Drones
3x Strike Teams with Shas'ui and Markerlight
Vanguard
Coldstar with ATS and Shield Generator (Warlord - Tenacious Survivor)
4 Plasma Commander w/ 2 Gun Drones
3x Stealth Teams with Multitrackers, one fusion, shas'vre with Markerlight and 2 Gun Drones

DAY 1: How NOT to win at a GT

Round 1: Michael Lee, Grey Knights and Assassins
Mission: Retrieval
Deployment: Spearhead Assault

So first round of the tournament, I draw the guy that ended up winning the whole thing. He brought a brutal list consisting of 4 Grandmaster Dreadknights, Celestine, 5 Eversors, 2 or 3 Culexus, 3 Astropaths and a Primaris Psyker. I deployed my Strike Teams and Stealth Teams on the field and he hid most of his psykers and Culexus behind crates in his DZ. He won first turn and brought all four Dreadknights and a Culexus into my backfield, proceeding to slaughter all but one of my Strike Teams turn 1. My counter was brutal as I was able to remove one Dreadknight and reduce his Warlord Dreadknight to a single wound. Unfortunately, I made a severe error in my shooting and completely removed the one available target of one of my Fusion Commanders without him firing a shot. Would it have changed the outcome of the game? Probably not, but it could've removed or severely wounded another Dreadknight and evened the odds. With most of my Infantry wiped out on Turn 1, I was left with my Commanders to try and make up the difference. It was an uphill battle, especially with the Character rule limiting my available targets and psychotic Eversors running around all hopped up on whatever magical cocktail they get injected with. Ultimately was tabled on Turn 5 as Celestine killed the Coldstar in close combat. Final tally was 15-2 for Michael.

Result: Major Loss, 1-19 BPs


Round 2: Doug Kus, Nurgle Daemons
Mission: No Mercy
Deployment: Dawn of War

After the lunch break, I squared off against Chaos Warmaster extraordinaire Mr. Doug Kus. We had driven up together so this one would be for bragging rights. Unfortunately, he was running a highly elite army of Obliterators with Abbadon backed up by Epidemius, some Poxwalkers and a Herald of Nurgle. Total of 11 Kill Points. I had 10 Kill Points tied up in 2 man drone squads. I would use a game like this to make the case for using the ITC method of kill points where a destroyed unit earns you the power level of the destroyed unit. Killing two demon princes on turn 1 should be worth much more than killing 4 gun drones on turn 1. Just a very hard draw for me against an excellent player with a very tough list. He dropped all of his Obliterators on my right flank with Abbadon in the middle. He then chewed through my fire warriors before the Commanders could come on in the bottom of the turn. By that time he'd wracked up a huge tally for Epidemius so the children of Nurgle were receiving major buffs. His list was actually a very good example of the buff stacking that is possible in 8th edition. Simple concept but highly effective. It was a really fun game but he crushed me. Final tally was 23-4.

Result: Major Loss, 1-19 BPs

Round 3: Aaron Ito, Astra Militarum
Mission: Scouring
Deployment: Search and Destroy

Sitting at 0-2, I was hoping for my first win to pull myself out of the slide. It wasn't to be unfortunately, but I did get to play my first game against another TBS Comics regular in Aaron. He's been capitalizing on the resurgence of the Imperial Guard..erm I mean Astra Militarum...under the 8th Edition reboot. His list consisted of roughly 130 guardsmen (half conscript, half regular infantry) plus 4 or 5 mortar teams, 2 basilisks and 2 manticores. He held three squads of Scions in reserve. The deployment zones let him perform a true castle up deployment. I literally think his entire zone was covered in models. The superior objective was sitting right on the edge of his zone in easy access of a squad of conscripts, forcing me to go aggressive early. Drawing first turn, I moved my stealth teams up close to deploy their homing beacons and bring the fusion commanders in range of the basilisks. As I had found in my previous two games, the commanders are brutally efficient. I was able to destroy both basilisks on turn 1 and chew into his infantry squads on both flanks. At that point, I did a very un-Tau thing and charged multiple units into the front-line of his guardsmen. The hope was to force him to use up orders to let them shoot me the following turn. Due to the number of units/models on each side, this game only got through 3 turns and we were splitting time in the 3rd. Very brutal, bloody game but Aaron was able to grab enough objectives before time ran out to give him a minor victory. Final tally was 12-5 I believe.

Result: Minor Loss, 7-13 BPs
Day 1 Recap

So Day 1 went almost as bad as it could have. I made at least one critical mistake in the first two games, had a very poor mission draw in one game and simply didn't have enough shots to remove 130 bodies from the board in game three. But the group retired to the Beef O'Brady's around the corner for some cold brews, hot food and football. An excellent way to relax after a long day of gaming.

DAY 2: How to rebound 

Round 4: Roger Jones, Imperial Fists
Mission: Big Guns Never Tire
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil

Round 4 started with a gift. My opponent Roger had made boxes with the seal of the Inquisition on the lid, inside of which he had placed his list. This was a really cool little gift that he gave to all of his opponents over the course of the tournament, great guy and extremely friendly. As to his list, he was running an Imperial Fists force with 5 or 6 Terminator squads, Lysander, an Assault squad, Vanguard Veterans and 2-3 Tactical squads. His list was built around the idea of the Space Marine and his bolter, and man he had a lot of shots he could put out from highly durable squads. With neither of us having any Heavy Support Elements, the mission came down to holding the the four objectives and the secondary objectives. Two were in no man's land and one was in each deployment zone. This was another slow game as the MSU approach we had both taken resulted in a lot of separate shots. As had become a running trend, my Fire Warriors were turned to pulp off Roger's first volley from the Terminators (who had at this point completely surrounded the Fire Caste Infantrymen). It was a fairly brutal round of shooting, as I lost most of the Fire Warriors and a Stealth Team. The response came swiftly in the bottom of the turn as my Commanders were able to clearly off most of the Imperial Fists along my left flank and secure the enemy deployment zone. Still, terminators are hard to chew through and one commander found himself smashed to death in the midfield. Two of the ion Commanders were able to wipe out two Terminator squads in my backfield before taking advantage of a clear line of fire to Lysander and scoring Slay the Warlord. The Coldstar was able to seal the game as he advanced his full 40" across the board to grab and uncontested objective. Final tally was 12-4.

Result: Minor Victory, 13-7 BPs

Round 5: Garrett Baxley, Space Wolves
Mission: Relic
Deployment: Vanguard

The final game of the tournament pitted me against a Space Wolves army that had recently visited the armorer to have their storm shields spruced up. Seriously, there were two models in the entire army without a storm shield. Thunderwolf riding Battle Lords, Wolf Guard with plasma, a crazy biker squad with a ridiculous amount of shots (seriously I think it was like 6-8 bolter shots per bike, getting to shoot every weapon is crazy), a venerable Dreadnought and Bjorn himself. The field was fairly open and our two armies were almost as polar opposite as you could get. I used my standard tactic in relic missions of infiltrating a stealth team on top of the objective to grab it turn one and try to scuttle back to my lines where I could castle up with it. The Stealth team didn't survive turn 1, the plasma toting Wolf Guard made sure of that. The rest of the game proceeded in a very odd way as neither of us really tried to grab the relic until the very end of the game. I was able to secure First Blood and Slay the Warlord off an incredibly lucky fusion shot from one of the Stealth Suits. Bjorn was felled by a fusion commander who dropped in behind Bjorn and his bodyguard. The axe-wielding venerable didn't appreciate that surprise very much and proceeded to hack his way through two commanders in the backfield. More commanders fell to the Thunderwolf riders before the Fire Warriors and surviving commanders could form a defensive line and gun them down through saturation fire. The bike squad was terrifying and began deleting my right flank until my Coldstar and third fusion commander arrived and put them down. As the last turn arrived, the relic stood atop a plateau at the board's center with my stealth team 12" away. An advanced move aided by a command point reroll allowed them to jump onto the relic and secure the victory. Final Tally was 12-2.

Result: Major Victory, 19-1 BPs

Final Thoughts
Day one was frustrating as it was hard to get much success going. Despite that, I had three great games against quality opponents. Day two was an excellent turn of luck to salvage my record, 2-3 wasn't what I was hoping for but you tend to learn more from the losses than from the wins.

But more importantly than records, I was able to enjoy a weekend of wargaming with a great group of guys and friends. Can't express the excellent job that Robert and the Fanatix crew did putting on this event. Great environment, great attitudes all around and a fantastic experience. Highly recommend this event to anyone who is looking for a GT within easy driving distance of the Gulf Coast. Can't wait to attend next year!

Monday, September 11, 2017

September Power Rankings




GCWA September 2017 POWER RANKINGS

So with the first month, I went on current ITC rankings. Yes they are not 100% up to date, but get over it. I needed some way to be un-bias. I will be updating this monthly. The main thing that will be done from here on out is taking heavily into consideration the events played in the current month. I only know so many people down here and want others to let me know who is doing well and if they feel they should be added to the list. Leave a comment if you want someone not listed to be considered.

1.    Mark Perry – 459.97 Points / 1st South / 33rd Overall / 2nd CSM
·      Mark from Mississippi done a great job as usual. With 10 ITC events this year he has done exceptionally well. His ITC score is full of first place finishes anchored with the GCWA GT win this year. His tournament faction is Chaos Space Marines. He will be hard to dethrone anytime soon.

2.    Carter Leach – 424.12 Points / 3rd South / 53rd Overall / 1st Corsairs
·      Coming off his top 8 finish at LVO this past season, Carter from Florida continues to be a top tier player everyone has to watch for at events. He has 4 RTT victories this year and a 7th place finish in the GT. A big note is that he was in the top 5 at the ATC this year and that score is not posted officially yet, which he single handedly made Games-Workshop FAQ the game.

3.    John Moore – 341. Points / 12th South / 117 Overall / 5th Tau
·      John is from Florida. Tau to the bone, and does really well with them.  He has a pair of 2nd place finishes in RTT events. (your points look funny John). South Ranking only has you at 308.

4.    Adam Clem – 323.88 Points / 9th South / 143rd Overall / 8th Space Wolves
·      From Alabama. I have 6 ITC scored events currently. Highest score is a 2nd place in an RTT. Main faction is Space Wolves, but have turned Heretic during 8th edition and playing strong with Daemons.

5.    Will Grant – 315.58 Points / 11th South / 161st Overall / 1st Chaos
·      Will Grant who is from Louisiana, and only has 3 ITC scores currently with 2 being RTT wins. No doubt that he will be moving up in the rankings as he keeps winning.

6.   Mike Sanchez – 306.62 Points / 13th South / 185th Overall / 13th Guard
·      Mike from Mississippi has also done very well this year. Has 1 RRT win.

7.    Ian Thornton – 301.47 Points / 15th South / 191st Overall / 6th Necrons
·      Ian from Mississippi has 7 events recorded with a 2nd place RTT in the books. I know this past weekend he placed 1st in the RTT so see him to move up soon.

8.    PT Taylor – 280.16 Points / 18th South / 231st Overall / 8th Orks
·      PT from Mississippi has a 2nd place finish in an RTT this year.

9.    Scott Combs – 272.15 Points / 20th South / 245th Overall / 6th Imperial Knights
·      Scott from Mississippi has a 5th place finish in a RTT as his top event posted. The player that we always know is going to bring a large model that he has converted to a Rat.

10.  Patrick Wyllie – 264.45 Points / 21st South / 261st Overall / NA
·      Patrick from Mississippi has a 2nd place finish in an RTT as his top score posted this year. Has been MIA for awhile…

Honorable Mentions: Robert Harp, Clint Hoffman, Shawn Lowrey, Robert Chandler, Ethan Prueitt

Jarl Clem

Sunday, September 10, 2017

HUBCON 2017 Battle Report


10 Sept 2017

HUBCON is an annual event in Hattiesburg, MS. The focus is on historical minature games, but I saw RPGs and board games being played. A few vendors were there and had some sweet deals, didn’t pick up anything but I know some of the others did.

A special shout out to the Wayward Kraken, a gaming pub out of Biloxi, MS who brought some of their staff to serve food. Man do they have some really good wings!

We had 8 players attend all from the GCWA. Ian Thornton (3-0) won the event with his Necrons, Mike Sanchez (2-1) came in second with his Guard army, and Shawn Lowery (2-1) came in third with CSM – Iron Warriors. Also Shawn Lowery got best-painted award for his army!

Ian’s list is solid, and with so few Necron players in the area*, can just donkey punch you if your not ready. Warriors are tough and with reanimation protocol, you have to focus kill units one at a time, or they will just come back. The FW Pylon… it is stupid good. At 475 points it is in my opinion an auto include for any Necron list. He also runs some destroyers and some beat stick HQs.

* Just want to note that I have been told by a local that Necrons are no good, and sold off his stuff for pennies on the dollar. Just makes me giggle when a player thinks he knows what he is talking about, and we all know that he doesn’t.

Round 1: Minor Victory against Scott Combs (Imperial Knights)
Round 2: Major Victory against Warboss Hinkle (Death Guard)
Round 3: Major Victory against Shawn Lowery (CSM – Iron Warriors)

Mike’s Guard list is really good, and is the current top Meta faction. His list is well rounded with his artillery being 3 Manticores with Sergeant Harker letting them re-roll hits of 1. Another mean piece to his list that I have not seen is the FW Vulture Gunship. At 160 points it packs a huge punch. Taking the Twin Punisher Gatling Cannon (24” Range Heavy 40 S5 0AP) he has daka for hordes.

Round 1: Minor Victory against William Scott (Dark Angels)
Round 2: Minor Loss against Shawn Lowrey (CSM – Iron Hands)
Round 3: Major Victory against Jarl Clem (Space Wolves)

Shawn’s list… I don’t know much about it, and sorry about that but didn’t get to see it in action that much while playing my own games. The main piece that I did see was that he ran a Daemon Prince with the Iron Warriors relic that gave it a 2+ Armor Save. That Prince also took the Mark or Nurgle, which made him even more resilient.  I also saw a bunch of cultist running around his table.

Round 1: Major Victory against Cami Brown (Eldar)
Round 2: Minor Victory against Mike Sanchez (Guard)
Round 3: Major Lost against Ian Thornton (Necrons)

Now lets talk about my matches.

I decided to play Space Wolves (My first event with them in 8th edition). I went with 6 quad mortars backed up with a wolf lord and wolf guard battle leader. Some Grey hunters, scouts, Logan, Arjac, and jump pack wolf guard with combi-plasma guns. Overall I came in 6th out of 8 so not so great but lessons learned.

First round was against Warboss Hinkle and his Death Guard. We finished on the 5th turn at the time limit with Hinkle getting a Minor Victory. I believe we were evenly matched, but he had the board control. 1 more inch (story of my life) for my charge and I would have possibly contested the objective and have been a tie. This match my quad mortars did some work. Bloat drones took them to the face. To bad they were still able to go around and kill basically all of my troops. My deep strike wolf guard did ok, but nothing special. Highlight was Ajac and Logan tag teaming Typhus and taking him out.

Second round was against William Scott who was playing a fully Dark Angels list. Young guy who is not a competitive player. I was able to just control all parts of the board and beat him. He did give me a scare with some terminators coming down on me, but the plasma AP-3 was just to much for them. Tabled, Major Victory

Last round I paired with Mike Sanchez and his Guard army. Going into it I was expecting to loose hands down, and that is exactly what happened. He went first and went about destroying about half of my army. My deep striking wolf guard could not do much with a conscript bubble around what they needed to kill. They got a dreadnought and a Chimera or two but nothing that could tilt the game back in my favor.  The only thing going for me was that after my quad mortars were put back in my bag, the two man crew units cause him some problems because I had 6 of them running around.  Just due to mission, if the game had finished on turn 5 we would have tied, but since it did not, I conceded cause he would have been able to kill my left overs and move his units on more objectives.

Overall it was a good event because I got to spend the day with great guys and throw some dice. Space Wolves definitely need a Codex, but I think with some work and practice I can make them competitive.

Jarl Clem

Thursday, September 7, 2017

Jarl Clem's Heresy

Jarl Clem’s Heresy - 07 Sept 2017
While searching in the Warp for Russ, I stumbled on some Tzeentch friends that have been quit amusing. I am going to use these articles to discuss my heresy.
I am not going to lie, I feel dirty when I play the army I am about to talk about. Why? Because it is cheeeeeezy!!! However it is very, very good. At ATC 2017 it went 5-1 and a small RTT it went 2-0-1. The one lost was in my defense against 5 storm ravens, and if I played that list again after understanding it, I think I could possibly beat it. 



Now people can say what they want, but theme and fluff wise, I feel that is right on par with what Papa Tzeentch would expect. I am going to look at a few of those units today:
HQ – The Changeling
  • First off I enjoyed painting this guy, just looks cool. His buff…mmhm! 9” bubble -1 to hit all Tzeentch daemons. Really good. In a game that requires you to hit your opponent’s models, automatically drops their chances by 16% is a 100 point steal. Also can cast smite, and make him warlord and leadership buff the troops.
HQ – Daemon Prince w/ wings and talons (3 of these dudes)
  • I had never seen a Daemon Prince modeled with malefic talons before. Well that’s all I see now. Solid 180 model with flying (one of the best abilities in the game), 7 attacks, and smite power. For their Chaos mark I have seen different options, I do think mathematically the Nurgle one is much more durable, however Tzeentch is for me. I like the 4++ and -1 aura with the changeling.
HQ – Malefic Lord (5 of these guys).
  • Yes these guys are pretty stupid. By far the most efficient unit in the game. For 30 points I get a full strength smite character that has a 4++, and have the possibility at going super-saiyan if I perils. 
Now looking at these three units, I think you get an idea of what they do. Sit back and use mind bullets to kill my enemy. With just these units, I have 9 smites a turn. A little quick math: 8 of 9 actually cast with d3 mortal wounds each would = about 16 mortal wounds. Now that is dependent on my opponent’s army composition, and if I dipped my dice in virgin blood before the game. However anyone that has played smite spam can tell you that it is nasty and must be respected and prepared for.

To be continued…

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Jarl C - The Fenris Report - 05 Sept 2016

The Fenris Report - 05 August 2017
Brothers,
Today I am going to talk about my current views for Space Wolves and also a preview of what I am going to play this weekend at our upcoming event HUBCON in Hattiesburg, MS.
First off I want to take a look at the Sons of Russ now in 8thedition. Overall I think they are OK. Some good, some bad, and some I can’t decide. 

The Good…

• Logan Grimnar is actually relevant. Coming in at a very reasonable 190 point, he has re-roll all hits buff, and wolf guard units auto pass moral test within 6” of him.  Walking around in terminator armor keeps his mobility pretty bad, but makes him tough as nails. And he can take on about anything in close combat with his axe usable either one-handed for most enemies, but two-handed for high HP enemies.


• Grey Hunters. As basic troop choices go, GHs are solid. 70 points base, standard Space Marine load out except the all-important note that they also carry a chainsword. This gives them that extra attack in close combat that I expect out of my wolves.

• Wolf Guard. Probably the MVPs. 80 points base, EVERYONE CAN TAKE A COMBI-WEAPON, and a chainsword. For a solid 180 points you can have 5 killers with combi-plasma guns, Jump-packs, and chainswords. Add Logan to that on a deep strike can be nasty.

The Bad…

• Fenrisian Wolves…. What is everyone going to do with all the puppies??? In 7th edition these guys were almost unbeatable in mass and buffed with Azrael cheese. At 7 points a model, it’s a complete waste of paint and table space to bring these guys. Hopefully codex can do something for them, cause who doesn’t like wolves?

• Lone Wolf… I mean yeah, it’s a fluff thing that the last guy in his squad is going to go play by himself, but in the game I don’t get it. There is probably a way to make a cheesy list with the character rule and who can be targeted, but I am not a fan.

Maybe?

• Wulfen… Compared to 7th edition, wulfen took a huge beating. Gone are the days off putting a unit on the board, and getting a warm feeling knowing my opponent just crapped his britches. I still feel like the edition is so new that a residual sphincter factor happens today, but they are just not the same close combat monster of the past. I mean yeah they can still bring the heat, and maybe they are good with their buffs, just not enough table time for me, and not willing to make the time currently

• Thunderwolf Calvary… same as the Wulfen, the 7th edition close combat power house took a dive. Getting 20 S10 AP2 attacks on the charge would kill almost anything. I know I should not compare the editions but it is hard not to with both of these units. With each seeing at least half of their attacks taken away from them, it kind of hurts. That being said at 3 wounds each… I am willing to give these guys a shot, and plan on trying to work them into some matches.

Now to the list building… I have decided that this weekend I am going to play my wolves at HUBCON (even though I should probably play my daemons for GT prep) Since I am sitting at #7 overall SW player in ITC standings, and #1 South Region SW player in ITC standings (all from 7th edition play) I need to keep up my “reputation”.
I am going to start with a core SW Battalion of about 1000 points, then use the other 1000 points to experiment with.

The Core:
HQ – Logan Grimnar 190 points
HQ – Arjac Rockfist 140 points
TR – Grey Hunters x3 units (bolters, chainswords) 70 points each
EL – Wolf Guard x3 units (Jump packs, combi-plasmas, chainswords) 180 points each

• The Battalion has one purpose… deep strike and kill everything. So with Logan and Arjac buffing 3 wolf guard units I get if in rapid fire range, 30 bolter shots, 30 plasma shots (re-roll all to hits & 1s to wound). Then is CC I have the possibility of having 4 attacks each with their chainswords and Ajac buff.

• Yes this is a glass canon, but by God it is gonna hurt when it hits you.

Now I am torn on the other half of the army and can be flexible with what I play.
Here is what I am going to try for HUBCON this weekend.

Spearhead Det – IG
HQ – Lord Commissar
TR – x25 Conscripts
HS – x3 Quad launchers
Spearhead Det – SW
HQ – Bjorn, the Fell Handed
HS – x3 Rapier Quad Launchers

My thoughts is that my Renegade quad launchers have been baller with the 4d6 shots each. I am going to try some Rapier Quad launchers as well. Slightly different with 4d3 shots but can direct fire as well. Also want to see if Bjorn is worth the 250 points he cost.

Until next time, 

Jarl C

P.S. Keeping spam mailing GW for Russ to be the next Primarchrelease!