Podcast - Battle Brother of the GCWA - Reboot Episode 4

n this episode we talked about our trip to quest con 
A new part of the show called The Climate of 40k 
Highlights of the new Astra Militarum codex  
Check us out on Itunes as well at - Battle Brothers of The GCWA

Aftermath - Tau Seeker Missiles Tournament Report

Aftermath is a companion series to Against the Grain. The goal will be to present Battle Reports of the lists we post in the Against the Grain series to show how well the armies performed. Some will be good, some will be bad, but hopefully they'll all provide some entertainment during your lunch break!

The Original List and What Changed

Just as a refresher, the initial list was built around the idea of using T'au seeker missiles to pour on mortal wounds in what would (hopefully) be a devastating alpha strike. The initial list can be found here along with my rationale and some early results from testing. I made a few tweaks after those first two games to arrive at the list I have now. The Sky Rays, Sniper Drones and Marksman were dropped in favor of Longstrike and a Hammerhead with Railgun. While this cut down on the number seeker missiles, I think it greatly improves the long game while not severely hurting the alpha strike capabilities. It also let me break the Piranhas out into a separate detachment for an additional Command Point which was a nice perk. So here's the adjusted list:

Battalion Detachment

2x Commander: 4 Missile Pods, 2 Gun Drones

Kroot (15)

Strike Team (6): Shas'ui w/Pistol and Markerlight, Pulse Rifles

Strike Team (6): Shas'ui w/Pistol and Markerlight, Pulse Rifles

Outrider Detachment

Commander: 4 Fusion Blasters, 2 Gun Drones

3x Pathfinders (5): Pulse Carbines and Markerlights

Outrider Detachment

Longstrike: Railgun, 2 Smart Missile Systems, 2 Seeker Missiles

3x Piranha Squadron(3): Burst Cannons, 2 Gun Drones, 2 Seeker Missiles

Hammerhead: Railgun, 2 Gun Drones, 2 Seeker Missiles

Total: 1999pts

Test Games

I've played 6 games now with the modified list and am sporting a 4-1-1 record. So we'll run through the first three test games real quick before diving into the tournament report.

For the first game, I squared off against Robert Harp and his Adeptus Mechanicus. He runs a disgusting list that consists of a big unit of Castelan Robots that are backed up my Cawl and a Datasmith who provide rerolls and some wound regeneration. He foregoes any pretense of close combat and takes 3 Heavy Phosphor Blasters on each robot (usually running 5-6 robots) which translates to over 100 S6 AP2 shots with rerolls. This is a unit that can simply erase things from the board and unfortunately for me, I didn't have enough Seeker Missiles to wipe the unit in one go. This game was the one tie I had, there were four objectives and one relic in the center of the table. I was able to remove half of the robots with missiles so that really helped minimize the return fire, although the Piranhas still got shredded over the course of the game. It's been a few weeks now so I don't remember the exact details other than we each had 2 objectives at the end, the Relic was in no man's land still, and we each had two tertiary objectives (Linebreaker, First Strike, etc.).

Game 2 was against Jordan Brown and his Sisters army with Grey Knight allies. He had two melta squads mounted in Repressors which I forgot had that wonder pregame movement of 12". So I had two Piranhas squadrons get mauled early on but was able to protect most of my firebase as his long range shooting wasn't as strong as mine. Guilliman was doing his thing on Jordan's right flank. Fortunately for me, he never really advanced upfield, opting to stay back and buff the Dreadknights that teleported in. This was a tough game as Dreadknights are easily one of the toughest units to crack in the Imperium's arsenal. Seeker Missiles were able to do significant damage to one of the knights while weight of fire brought down the other with help from my commanders. Hard fought game but I was able to hold the two primary objectives and rack up some secondaries to squeak out the win.

Game 3 was against Matt Chiusano and his newly revamped Astra Militarum (Back in my day we called it the Guard). So this one wasn't your conventional list, Matt was sporting three Baneblade variants: Shadowsword, Stormhammer and Baneblade. Rolled for deployment and we got spearhead assault which let me attempt* to hide my Hammerheads towards the back along with my Piranhas. I seized initiative and moved my Pathfinders up to draw lines on the Baneblade sporting the most guns (it was A LOT of guns). Unfortunately, my Pathfinders hadn't been to the range recently and I couldn't get up to the magical 5 markerlights to get the +1 to hit. The Seeker Missiles whiffed magnificently and I was only able to knock it down to around 16 wounds, which was irrelevant as they were Valhallan and didn't degrade until they had taken an absurd amount of wounds. This game quickly turned into a beating, I wasn't tabled but it was a near thing.

QuestCon RTT

This past weekend, several members of the GCWA traveled to Mobile, AL for a first year convention that was sporting a 40K event as well. From the look of the convention hall and gaming area, this is a convention that's looking to grow and has the room to do it. The missions were modified to have an Attacker and Defender that would benefit depending on which primary mission was rolled. The Primary Objective was worth 9 points.

The 3 primaries were as follows:

1) Defender benefit: 2 Objectives in the the Defender's deployment zone

2) Kill Points by Power Level

3) Attacker benefit: 1 Objective in No Man's Land

The secondary objectives were the same for each game, three Relics dispersed across No Man's Land worth 2 points each. Tertiary Objectives were some of the standard rulebook/tournament staples: Slay the Warlord, Linebreaker, First Strike and Big Game Hunter.

ROUND 1

Opponent: Mike Ooton

Army: Imperial Knights w/Catachan Allies

Opening round I draw Mike and his 3 Imperial Knights backed up by Stracken, 2 Infantry Squads and a relic toting, deep-striking Commissar with a big unit of Conscripts. Mike is a painter extraordinaire and had three beautiful Freeblades backed up by Catachan Jungle Fighters. Fresh on the heels of my beating from the Baneblades, I was really worried about the prospect of facing off against 3 Superheavies. He chose to be the Defender but fortunately for me, we rolled the mission that benefited the Attacker. The Primary objective was therefore placed just outside of my deployment zone, and the Relics were dispersed fairly evenly across the board with two on my left flank and the third on a hill to the right with Vanguard deployment.

Mike easily got the +1 to go first so I moved my Pathfinders and Kroot up into cover and onto the Primary objective, respectively. The two Infantry squads combined into one large squad and moved onto a hill to bring his lascannons into range of my Piranhas on the left. The Crusaders Opened up on the Kroot while offering potshots at my vehicles. The Kroot died horribly but they gave me a turn of not weathering Avenger Gatling Cannon fire on the more important units in my army. The Errant took a shot at Longstrike and knocked a few wounds off before failing a charge on a unit of Pathfinders. In the bottom of the turn, I deep struck my Missile Commanders into the middle of my line and sent my Fusion Commander off to the right to try and deal with the Errant. Markerlights and Seeker Missiles focused down one of the Crusaders with the Commanders finishing him off. The Fusion Commander landed a couple wounds but Mike rolled very well on his Ion Shield and only lost a couple wounds. Turn 2 saw the Errant take another shot at Longstrike while the remaining Crusader turned his Gatling Cannon on my Piranhas. **Note: The Gatling Cannon MURDERS Piranhas.**

My Fusion Commander was able to survive the titanic feet attacks with only 3 wounds taken (I also rolled hot on some 5+ saves). My turn 2 I was able to fall back with the Commander and bring down the Errant with weight of fire from the Fusion Commander, Piranhas and the Railguns.
At this point, it was just a matter of turning the guns on the last Crusader who valiantly fought on and crushed two of my Piranha units. He eventually fell and then it was mop up work on the Infantry.

I held Primary and one of the Relics while achieving all four Tertiary Objectives. Mike got First Strike off the Kroot.

Result: Victory 15-1

Round 2

Opponent: Warboss Hinkel

Army: Orks

For the second round I drew the Warboss himself, Anthony Hinkel, and his Speed Freak Orks. He may do his own write up but his list was Zhadsnark, Warboss on bike, 4x or 5x Warbikers(4), 4 Deffcoptas, 5 or 6 Warbuggies, a Big Mek with Shokk Attack Gun, and 2x Stormboyz(10). All in all it was an incredibly fast moving army that could have caused serious issues if it managed to reach my lines.

Hinkel won the initial roll and elected to be the Attacker. He then deployed the three Relics very close to his lines for easy grabs by the Stormboyz. The roll for Primary was then very fortuitous for me as he rolled the Attacker mission, but had nowhere to place the Primary objective except right in front of my lines. His plan was to move up anyways so this wouldn't be an issue if he was able to win first turn and get into my face early. Fortunately I got the +1 to go first, even more fortunately we both rolled 1s so I got first turn.

Now as I have said, my list is built around the idea of removing one extremely high value unit on Turn 1 and then weather the rest of the game through sheer volume of fire and speed. But with Hinkel's army, there weren't any viable big units to focus on so I spread my markerlights around 3 of the warbike squads that were directly opposite most of my castle and stayed stationary with most of my army. The Missile Commanders again dropped into the middle of my lines for a Turn 2 Kauyon and my Fusion Commander saw an opening to drop in closest to Snikrot and did a suicide run on the opposite side of the table to try and get Slay the Warlord and First Strike in one go (he was not successful, but did a total of 12 wounds to the 2 Warbosses before being eviscerated). I was able to wipe out at least 2 of the marked warbiker units and put a couple wounds on the others. My Kroot moved up and sat on the Primary while my Fire Warriors spread out down the left flank to get angles on one of the Relics the Stormboyz were holding.

With his alpha strike charge effectively neutered, Hinkel had to keep to cover and try to hoard the Relics. He was able to crush the Fusion Commander and moved two wounded Warbiker units up to engage the Kroot and Pathfinders in the center board. He also pulled a cool move with Outflanking Deffcoptas and Warbuggies that arrived on each flank. I had counter-deployed well enough that they couldn't get deep into my lines but those that arrived on my right flank were able to seriously damage a Piranha unit with the opening salvo. Ork shooting saved me from what could've been a brutal ambush.

The following turn I was able to fall back from the Warbikes and declared Mont'ka with my Warlord who was within 6" of most of my firebase. This let me clear out the Warbikes, Deffcoptas, and the Warbuggies on my right flank. Submunitions took out a good number of Stormboyz and routed the rest. Hinkel brought in the rest of his outflankers the following turn but the game was pretty well decided at that point as the Stormboyz took their Relic and fell back to the far corner of the board. They died to Piranha fire but Zhadsnark managed to survive and sit on the Relic as the game ended.

I held Primary, 2 Relics, and had Linebreaker and First Strike. Hinkel held his Relic and achieved First Strike and Big Game Hunter by taking out a Piranha unit.

Result: Victory 15-4

Round 3

Opponent: Dylan Mosley

Army: Space Wolves w/Astra Militarum Allies

The third round was a matchup of undefeated armies. Dylan was running a very unconventional, but scary, list which included a Fire Raptor, Thunderbolt Fighter, 3 Quad Mortars, Grey Hunters, Logan and Ulric. Lots of rerolls for the air support and artillery had me worried. I won the initial roll and elected to be the Defender, deployment ended up being Search and Destroy which was convenient as there was a giant LOS blocking structure right in the middle of the board. We rolled for Primary and it was the Defender benefit mission. This was a huge stroke of luck as it meant he would have to come to me to get Primary, and his army was built to sit back and shoot.

So with all of that, I felt that I could pretty easily take primary but we both had a 3rd player nipping on our heels for top spot at the tournament so I need to rack up on secondary and tertiary objectives in order to get the top spot.

Turn 1 I focus all my markerlights and as many seekers as could draw LOS on the Fire Raptor as I felt that was the bigger of the two aerial threats. I was able to take it down while my Kroot advanced up into the middle of the Wolves. They picked up the Relic and charged into a unit of Grey Hunters to try and give them some protection from return fire. Return fire from the Thunderbolt severely wounded Longstrike but didn't knock him out which granted me another turn with his aura as the second Hammerhead was still unscathed. The game turned into a run and gun for the Relics as Ulric and a second Grey Hunter squad threatened the left most Relic, Logan smashed into the Kroot center board, and a third Grey Hunter unit retreated deeper into his DZ. Fighting on the left saw my Warlord exposed and gunned down by Bjorn, who was in turn taken out by the Fusion Commander as he fell back from Ulric achieving Slay the Warlord. Ulric chased him down and finished him off in CC before my last commander cleared the Relic of the last two Grey Hunters. I think Ulric survived on 1 wound.

Back in the middle, all Piranha units surged towards the Quad Mortars holding a ruined building now housing the deceased Kroots' Relic. Lots of pulse fire poured into the ruins and were able to remove two of the mortars before their crew jumped on the third Relic. Even though it was surrounded by drones, he was able to charge in and get into base to base contact, securing the Relic. Time was called at this point in what had been a very bloody game.

My Fire Warriors still held both Primary Objectives and I had been able to get all four Tertiary Objectives. Dylan held two Relics and had First Strike and Slay the Warlord.

Result: Victory 13-6

Conclusion

The 13 points in the final round gave me 43 for the tournament which landed me First Place by a single point! Second Place was a Death Guard army led by Mortarion and Third was his wayward brother Magnus and Tzeentch Daemons. All in all a great time with three fun games against great opponents.

So the final verdict for the Seeker Missile Tau? This seems to be a very viable army build. The alpha strike is potentially devastating for "centerpiece" armies and is capable of gunning down hordes with buckets of S5 shooting. It definitely has some weak points, particularly in longevity, but those will hopefully be mitigated by good deployment, positioning, and the devastating alpha strike. Even the Baneblade matchup could've gone much differently if my dice didn't go cold for the first round of shooting. I can't complain, this list was made to be unconventional and it ended up winning me my first tournament.
10/10 will run again, the only question now is do I experiment with Remoras instead of the Piranhas?

Until next time, thanks for reading! Keep rolling that hard six.
Tau'va

That will wrap up this Aftermath, let me know in the comments or on Facebook what you thought of the list and the BatReps. Constructive criticism is always welcome, let me know what you liked and what you didn't. Let me know what I did well and what needs improvement. Also! Here at Battle Brothers we plan to do more of these list techs so drop us a line on what you want to see next. Lots of new releases coming down the pipe so strike while the iron is hot!

Against the Grain - Alpha Legion: Omegon, John Cena Edition

We jump back in with a second head of the Hydra. This time around we're going to steer away from the Insurgency tactics and see how we can really exploit the Alpha Legion special rules with units from the CSM codex. All rules and names are the property of Games Workshop, INC.

In my last article, I tackled an 8th Edition version of the Alpha Legion Insurgency Force that swarms the board with small, elite fire teams and mobs of cultists. While this seemed like a really fun list to throw down with on Warhammer Wednesdays (followed of course by Heretical Happy Hour), my gut feeling is that it would be hard pressed in a competitive environment. With that in mind, we're going to put together a pure Alpha Legion list that can give you some nasty tricks for a tournament. The beauty of this list and the Alpha Legion will be tactical flexibility and offensive firepower.

Legion Tactics, Stratagems and Warlord Trait

So this is where the magic happens. Alpha Legion have two fantastic legion specific buffs that make them a real pain to deal with on the battlefield.

1. I Am Alpharius - We'll start at the top with our Warlord, or in this case Warlords. This trait is largely unchanged from its 7th Edition counterpart. You nominate your Warlord and they randomly generate a trait from the CSM warlord traits. If your Warlord is ever killed, you may immediately choose a new Warlord from your Alpha Legion Characters and generate a new Warlord trait. Your opponent has to kill every Alpha Legion Character in your army to achieve Slay the Warlord. Very handy way of denying tertiary points to your opponent.
2. Hidden in Plain Sight - This Legion trait is identical to the loyalist Raven Guard chapter tactic. Enemy units shooting at an Alpha Legion unit must subtract 1 from their to hit rolls when outside of 12". This is highly effective and frustrating for the enemy as it not only makes your heavy hitters harder to hit, but means that their high damage but unstable weaponry (plasma, ion, etc.) now is just as likely to hurt the bearer as it is their target. This also forces many armies to come to you and allows you to dictate where they can be effective.
3. Forward Operatives - A stratagem available to Alpha Legion Infantry, for 1 CP you can place the unit in "concealed deployment." Immediately before the first game turn begins, the unit reveals itself and can be placed anywhere on the battlefield more than 9" away from enemy units. The important thing to remember here is that deployment does not count as a phase, so the restriction on using the same stratagem more than once in a phase does not apply here. Also, some Infiltration abilities (Ghostkeel and Stealth Teams for instance) won't allow you to set the unit up in the opponent's deployment zone. There is no such restriction here, which will force your opponent to deploy in a defensive position around their DZ lest they find themselves attacked from the rear.
4. Tide of Traitors - This is a rule from last edition that got a bit of a makeover. Instead of rolling to see if a new unit spawns to replace the destroyed unit, use this stratagem to pick up any Cultist unit and place them anywhere on the board near a table edge and more than 9" away from an enemy unit. In an of itself, this is pretty strong as it allows for rapid redeployments, BUT it also returns the Cultist unit to its starting number of models. Pull this on a big mob of Cultists and you can really maximize the effect.
   
5. Endless Cacophony - CSM stratagem that allows a Slaanesh marked unit to fire again at the end of the shooting phase.
6. Veterans of the Long War - CSM stratagem that adds 1 to all wound rolls for a CSM unit until the end of the phase.

The List

Brigade
Chaos Lord w/ Jump Pack: Blade of the Hydra, Lightning Claw
Dark Apostle: Bolt Pistol, the Black Mace (Power Maul)
Exalted Champion: Chainaxe, Chainsword, Mark of Khorne, Talisman of Burning Blood
Sorceror w/ Jump Pack: Bolt Pistol, Force Sword, Prescience, Warptime (Death Hex is also a good option)

Cultists (21)
5x Cultists (10)

3x Khorne Berzerkers(10): Chainsword, Chainaxe, Icon of Wrath

2x Chaos Bikers (4): Bolt Pistol, Combi Bolter
Chaos Spawn: Mark of Khorne

2x Obliterators(3): Mark of Slaanesh
Havocs(5): 4 Plasma Guns, Champion w/ Combi-plasma

Now there's one important option that needs to be pointed out. There's a fantastic combo with the Changeling and Tzeentch Marked Obliterators which will be detailed below. In the interest of maintaining consistency with the Alpha Legion detachment, I've excluded that from the primary list tech. However, the following changes could be made to get some more crazy benefits.

Add in:
Supreme Command Detachment (Chaos)
Changeling
2x Malefic Lords


Exchange:
2x Chaos Bikers for 2x Chaos Spawn


Change:
2x Obliterators(3) Mark of Tzeentch

How it Works 

Just like the symbol of the Legion, this army is a Hydra with three heads. (The Havocs can go where needed, they fit well into any of these groups.)

1. The first includes the 6 units of Cultists and the Fast Attack elements. These units will be deployed out on the field and are meant to spread the board early and sit on objectives. 
2. The second head is the Berzerker block. 30 Berzerkers plus the Exalted Champion and Dark Apostle will be using the Forward Operatives stratagem to get 9.1" away from the soft underbelly of the enemy lines. This head will eat just about any infantry out there through sheer weight of attacks that are benefited by rerolls from the Champion and Apostle.
3. The third head is the smallest, albeit no less potent, and is made up of the Obliterators and Lord with the Sorceror providing support. These will be held off the field in Tactical Reserves and either teleport onto the field or drop in with their jump packs.

By taking the Brigade, we're running a total of 12 Command Points which is a must have in this list as 4-5 will be used before the first round even begins, so let's start with deployment.
The Cultists, Bikers, Spawn, and at least one of the Characters (probably the Sorceror) will begin on the board to fulfill our mandatory 50% of units that start on the board. The second head will be using Forward Operatives and they will either be popping up very close to a soft spot in the line (if going first) or out of sight on a flank (if going second). The third head will be arriving by "deep strike" next to a unit that will require a bit more firepower to remove.

The Berzerkers will be benefiting from the rerolls to charge distance, to hit and to wound granted to them by the nearby Characters and their Icon of Wrath. These guys remove any pretense of ranged warfare and are focused solely on engaging as many enemy units as possible in hand to hand combat. Remember they get to fight twice and will be swinging with 3 attacks each because of the chainsword. These three units should be able to rout entire flanks of Infantry with relative ease. The caveat to these guys is that if you're going second, they need to be deployed somewhere either out of sight or in cover. Marine equivalents are still susceptible to small arms fire so don't let these guys get caught out in the open.

The Obliterators will be dropping in with the Lord to get them rerolls on their shooting. Now these guys are where you can diverge the list a bit. You're going to want to drop them in around 24" of the target so that they can gain the benefits from Hidden in Plain Sight, this will be the same for both lists. In my primary list, I've given them Mark of Slaanesh so that they can take advantage of the Endless Cacophony and get a second shooting attack. The great thing is that this is used at the end of your shooting phase, so you'll be able to time it for when you rolled well on your weapon profiles. Those rolls stay in affect until the end of the phase so you won't have to reroll them. In conjunction with this, after rolling those good stats you can use Veterans of the Long War to get a +1 to wound. This could potentially lead to wounding Knights and other large targets on a 2+ with high AP and Damage. Pair these guys with a Death Hex Sorceror and you'll melt through whatever they target.

Finally, we'll return to the not so glamorous (but still important) portion of the army. Quick math shows there are 71 Cultists in this list. These units will serve a variety of roles; primarily area denial, objective duty, and ablative wounds for our more expensive units. Tide of Traitors will make these units invaluable for these latter two jobs as we'll be able to move them to quadrants of the board to grab objectives or achieve linebreaker. They can also redeploy to support and surround the Obliterators when they arrive. The great part of the stratagem is that your opponent is forced to kill your Cultists to the last man or risk wasting all that shooting on a 60 point unit that will just reappear elsewhere.

Between these three blocks of units, you're covered for both an Alpha or Beta Strike and should be able to wreak havoc from 3 levels. The Havocs and Bikers weren't even discussed but these are your Swiss Army Knife, they can go where you need them to be to solve problems that inevitably arise.

 The Alternative

 

The alternative list includes the Changeling specifically to be paired up with the Obliterators. As they're Daemons of Tzeentch (with the Mark), they'll benefit from the -1 to hit aura provided by this tricky scion of Tzeentch. Combine smart positioning with this and these guys will be forcing a -2 to hit penalty on opponents while putting out a withering hail of return fire. Wrap some Cultists around them to keep up the buffer and they'll be exceedingly difficult to remove.

 Pros and Cons

Starting with the Good. When this list goes first, it's going to hit really, really hard. Between the Berzerkers and Obliterators, there's a very good chance of turning two flanks at once and allowing your Cultists to spend a few turns babysitting objectives and denying reserves from deploying. Alpha Legion armies rarely give up Slay the Warlord and that is still true here as there are 4 Characters to take on the mantle of Alpharius. Hidden in Plain Sight will help protect some of the more fragile units while Tide of Traitors will let you quickly reposition units of Cultists to grab objectives or protect more valuable units. Top to bottom, you have anti-infantry, you have anti-tank, you have board presence, you have speed. Lots of Pros in this list.

 Negatives. One of the major pillars of this army's strategy revolves around the Berzerkers getting into combat on Turn 1. As this list uses a Brigade, the odds of getting that +1 to go first aren't too good. Now there are ways to mitigate this disadvantage, Forward Operatives gives you good leeway with where to deploy so if you lose the roll off and fail to seize the initiative then the Angry Marines can just be deployed in a building or behind some terrain piece since they'll still be benefiting from Hidden in Plain Sight. Just remember that these guys will likely be priority one for your opponent, so don't help them out by leaving your Berzerkers in the open. Second, there becomes an issue with "accounting" in this list. This army uses a lot of Command Points, almost half of which will be burned pregame for deployment. There should be roughly 7 CP left for the entire game, unfortunately several of the nastier combos are going to be eating up 2-3 at a time. Rationing is a must, don't pop stratagems just because you can. Make sure that it's needed in the context of the game you're playing right then and there. Don't find yourself in a situation where you need to use Tide of Traitors and are sitting on 1 CP.

In conclusion, I'm still building my Alpha Legion fore but I should have all the required pieces for this now so hopefully I can provide some BatReps soon. Consulting with Chaos Lords Mark Perry (currently the top player in the ITC South) and Doug Kus (Nurgle extraordinaire) brought me to what you see above. This seems to be a brutal list on paper so I can't wait to see what it does on the tabletop.

So what do you think, did I get it right? Do you like this list and think it could perform competitively? Where in the world IS Carmen San Diego?

Hail Hydra

Against the Grain - Alpha Legion: Alpharius, Uprising

Today we take a turn to the treacherous...or do we? That's what's so great about the Alpha Legion, no one really knows what side they're on except for Alpharius...or is it Omegon now? The masters of subterfuge and misdirection got some awesome boosts with the release of Codex: Chaos Space Marines in the form of a new Legion Tactic, Warlord Trait and Stratagems. In this edition of Against the Grain, we will attempt to recreate the feel of the Insurgency Force using the new/revamped tricks at our disposal.

The Alpha Legion

The XX Legion has always been the one army that could make me turn to Chaos, or at least the Heretic side of the story as the Sons of the Hydra have an interesting relationship with both Chaos and the Imperium. If you haven't read Legion from the Horus Heresy series, I highly recommend you do so as it's fantastic and will give you the background on what led to the legion siding with Horus.

The Alpha Legion are masters of deception and subterfuge, using guerilla infantry tactics they are able to whittle down vastly superior forces by attacking from unsuspecting quarters before disappearing back into the shadows. Ultimately, this constant pressure culminates in the Harrowing where all Alpha Legion elements begin a sustained attack that breaks the enemy completely. In the past edition, their special detachment was rightly known as the Insurgency Force because small elite units were backed up by large mobs of regular civilians turned cultist. Playing the army in 7th, you really felt that you were orchestrating the uprising of a city against a group of invaders.

For this list, we'll attempt to recreate that feel of guerrilla fighters inciting an uprising against an invading force.

The List - Sons of the Hydra

Battalion
Chaos Lord w/Jump Pack: Blade of the Hydra, Lightning Claw
Sorceror w/ Jump Pack: Death Hex, Prescience
Cultists (28)
Cultists (10)
Cultists (10)
Cultists (10)
Chaos SM (5): Icon of Vengeance, 1 Meltagun
Chaos SM (5): Icon of Vengeance, 1 Meltagun
Raptors (5): 2 Plasma, 1 Lightning Claw, Icon of Vengeance
Raptors (5): 2 Plasma, 1 Lightning Claw, Icon of Vengeance
Havocs (5): 4 Heavy Bolters, Icon of Vengeance
Havocs (5): 4 Autocannons, Icon of Vengeance
Rhino
Rhino

Vanguard
Sorceror w/ Jump Pack: Gift of Chaos, Warptime
Terminators (5): Combi-Plasma, Power Axe, Mark of Slaanesh, Icon of Excess
Chosen (5): 4 Plasma, 1 Power Axe, Icon of Vengeance
Chosen (5): 4 Plasma, 1 Power Axe, Icon of Vengeance

How it Works

The basic idea here is to maximize the number of threats so that attacks can from multiple directions at once. The Cultists simulate the mass uprising of the populace and swarm around the objectives while providing copious amounts of cheap wounds. The Tide of Traitors stratagem allows you to remove and reposition a Cultist unit anywhere within 6 inches of a board edge and return it to full strength. This is obviously incredibly good if you need to get a big blob of cultists close to an objective or simply keep the unit alive for longer. As it has to be more than 9 inches away, you probably won't be pulling off any charges, but having the 28 Cultists arrive behind a crucial objective is a threat that cannot be ignored.

The Marines and Chosen will double up in rhinos to lower our drops (there are 18 total), this list won't be likely to get the +1 to go first very often but it doesn't hurt. The Chosen are also a good unit to benefit from Forward Operatives as their plasma guns will pack a serious punch on Turn 1. This can also allow your Havocs to embark in a Rhino instead should you need to protect them a bit more than cover will allow. Otherwise, set the Havocs up towards the back to provide covering fire for the rest of your infantry.

The Raptors, Lord, Sorcerors, and Terminators are meant to drop in and waste high value targets of opportunity. The Terminators with Mark of Slaanesh are a prime target for the Endless Cacophony stratagem that lets them immediately shoot again. With the Lord granting rerolls, you can also use Veterans of the Long War to add 1 to your to wound rolls for the phase. This is a sturdy unit that will likely be able to wipe a strong unit with minimal effort.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Warlord Trait for the Alpha Legion. In addition to taking a Chaos Space Marine trait, whenever your Warlord dies you may immediately nominate another character in your army to become the Warlord who then gains a trait. This goes on until no characters are left alive, at which point Slay the Warlord will finally be gained. There are only three characters in this list, but with their speed they should be able to stay away from fire while some of the more durable units distract the enemy with plasma fire.

Pros and Cons

This list does an excellent job of spreading the board with potent threats and grabbing objectives. The Alpha Legion trait "Hidden in Plain Sight" will help keep many of your units safe from ranged attacks while Forward Operatives will get your heavy hitters into position to make the kill. Utilizing Tide of Traitors appropriately will allow you to bring large units of Cultists to strike at weak points in the enemy lines while grabbing and holding objectives. Cultists aren't particularly tough, but there are a lot of them.

The downside of this list is twofold: 1) reliance on single wound models 2) not much speed outside of Raptors. These are somewhat mitigated by benefit of the Legion Trait and deployment options. The goal should be to have your fire teams spread across the board Turn 1 and occupying a large piece of real estate. This will mitigate some of the speed concerns and hopefully allow you to drop your Raptors into areas where they can be most effective. The same goes for the Cultists and Tide of Traitors. The -1 to hit granted by Hidden in Plain Sight will increase the survivability of these units and keep them on the field longer.

Verdict: Jury is still out as I'm still building my Alpha Legion up, but my gut instinct on this list is that it would be a fun list to play that requires good tactics to be successful. My guess would be that this would make an excellent list for a narrative event. From a competitive standpoint, it's likely a mid tables list. With my next Against the Grain, I'll attempt to put together a pure Alpha Legion list that can challenge some of the top armies in the meta.

So what do you think? What would you change to bring this up to competitive levels?

Hail Hydra

Battle Brothers of The GCWA - Reboot 3

Introduction of Farseer Elorrah

For the 200th post of my own blog (http://www.thewardolls.com/) I wanted something special. I tossed around some ideas in my head but nothing really struck me as noteworthy. Someone pitched an idea at me to mirror my 'look ahead' previous post and that was a look back at where/what my armies have been. That's right... special is me!

(Also, I looked back and found no official introduction post for myself...)

Prepping for a Grand Tournament

Today we're going to discuss a topic of competitive play that my group and I enjoy most, traveling to Grand Tournaments and Major Events. In fact, many good friendships were made doing this and led to the birth of the GCWA. I won't pretend to be a great tournament player but I've been to many large events such as the Las Vegas Open, Wargames Con, the Crucible, and ATC with appearances at regional GTs like the GCWA GT and the Come the Apocalypse GT. These are always great events for testing you abilities as a general and having a fun weekend of gaming. At bigger events, the convention is worth the trip in and of itself and there will often be Narrative and Team events going on in addition to the Singles tournament. So let's dive on in!

You just returned home from your first tournament, and something strange has happened. You've got a fever! And the only prescription...is more 40k. Fear not, this is a contagion that strikes at the mind of 40k players everywhere with a virulence that would make Nurgle giddy in his garden. Suddenly, you're checking your FLGS events page to see when the next tournament is scheduled, and you realize that there's nothing coming up for months. You expand your search to surrounding areas and an event page for something called the Gulf Coast Wargaming Alliance GT or Come the Apocalyse GT (Shas'o/Jarl) or Warzone ATL pops up. A quick look through the event description shows that it's be a few hours away and promises two days of gaming with vendors and it's attached to a larger convention! Calls go out and a group is assembled. It's time to march to war.

Planning the Trip

First things first. You've got a group and presumably someone is willing to drive. Now you just need a place to stay for the weekend. Many events will be held either in a hotel conference center or a standalone venue, but many will have some arrangements made for lodging. Check on the event page to find the event hotel or at least a hotel within a short drive of the venue, it'll make the time before and after the event much less stressful as you're moving about with your army. It'll likely also save you some money if the event got a block rate for the convention.

Virtually every event will have a means of preregistering for the tournament. Get on that list. This cannot be stressed enough, you don't want to drive five hours to be told that they reached their player cap and you don't have a spot. The event pages will have a plethora of information about registering for the event, mission packets, con badges for access to the gaming and convention areas, and even in some cases VIP bags. Try to get all of this knocked out as early as possible. It reserves you a spot and gives you time to cancel should life events occur.

Also of importance, GTs and Majors typically require army lists to be submitted to the Tournament Organizers (TOs) 2-3 weeks ahead of the event. This is a way for them to ensure all lists are legal, but it does require players to lock down what they're playing well ahead of the event. I've provided a link to my previous article on Building a Tournament List here with my advice on how to prepare your army for a tournament. Print out at least 6 copies of your list in a presentable format for your opponents, many tournaments will state this as a requirement but it's just good form in general. Some opponents may like what you were running and want a copy for future reference. You also need to have a hard copy of all of your rules on hand. Digital versions are amazing and convenient...until the battery dies. Hard copies guarantee that you'll always have your rules on hand and won't be required to pass your expensive tablet or phone around to show your army's rules.

Last but not least, paint your army. GTs aren't your local tournament where you see Grey Legions squaring off against black and white primed armies. GTs will require some painting standard. The rule of thumb is a 3 color minimum with basing, if you accomplish this with your army then you'll likely be good. Many GTs also sponsor a Best Painted award so don't be afraid to go all out and get that Golden Daemon model out there.

Now you have a group, a car, and a hotel. When is the best time to arrive? Well this depends on a couple factors. Many events will have their GT over a Saturday and Sunday with Friday going towards a fun event for those that decide to get there early. These events are often a lot of fun; and if you can get the Friday off from work, they make a great way to break into the weekend and mentally prepare yourself for a weekend of gaming. The prizes usually aren't too bad either. But, even if you don't plan on playing in the Friday night events, it's usually beneficial to arrive the night before at a decent hour so that you can get settled, eat, socialize and get some sleep. You're already planning for 3 games the following day and 2-3 the day after so you may as well get there in enough time to get rested. And trust me on this one, you don't want to be getting in after midnight for a 9am tournament start. Unless you're running zombies and plan to empathize with your army.

*Remember that this is a vacation, see what's around the venue and what specials the convention is running. Many conventions will have deals set up with local businesses for the con goers to partake in, take advantage of these!*

Pre-Event Checklist
1. Travel bag (chargers, personal hygienic kit, change of clothes)
2. Your Army, rulebooks, and printed army lists
3. Hotel Reservations
4. Event Registration and Confirmation
5. Army List submitted on time
6. All the guys riding with you

The Grand Tournament

Morning comes, the horns sound and beckon you to the Great Hall of Battle (not really, the other hotel guests wouldn't appreciate that). You've got your army in its tray and your group makes their way to the gaming area. Maybe this will be your first look at the convention hall, but even if you stuck your head in the previous night, this will be a sight to take in. Players will be threading their way through crowds of wargamers, greeting old friends and meeting new ones. Vendors stands are bustling with stands devoted to gaming accessories, cosplay items, books/comics, and a variety of other booths with an assortment of wares. Give yourself enough time to get checked in and receive your tournament packet so that you can go meander. One of the coolest parts about a GT or Major is getting to see all the armies and talk to their owners. The first Major I attended was Wargames Con in Austin, TX and the winning army was a G.I. Joe Cobra Commander themed Astra Militarum army. The extra time beforehand will let you take in all of this, get your bearings and maybe check out some of the booths or demos that will be up and running.

Don't get lost in the spectacle though. As the clock gets closer to the start time, have your army ready to go as it'll likely be a rush to get to the tables. Many tournaments have moved towards using the Best Coast Pairings app (available on Apple and Android for free) and it's highly advisable that you download this. It will show you table pairings, rankings, army lists, and allow you to input results without having to return to the Judge's Table. Excellent app that makes it easier on everyone. It will also likely be the place where you'll find your table. Once you've got your table and opponent, it's all 40k from there. Roll some sixes and have some fun!

What's different from a regular tournament?

Glad you asked! Keep in mind that you aren't just playing for today, there's a whole other set of games to be played the following day as well. Therefore, you have to conserve energy so you aren't completely fatigued. Grab a drink or a snack, sit down when your legs get achy. You're not in a sprint, this is a marathon so don't burn out early.

There also needs to be some tempering of expectations as far as results are concerned. The bigger the event gets, the better the players in attendance are likely to be. If you read the Final 8 at LVO or the top tables at Adepticon or Nova, you'll be reading a Who's Who of the 40k Competitive World. There will be top players at these tournaments and they're consistently going to be placing at the top because, well that's what makes them top players. These guys not only know their rules backwards and forwards but likely know yours as well. It's a completely different level of competition than what you'll be used to from your local tournaments. With that in mind, know that there's a good chance of crossing paths with some really good players. You likely won't be competing for a top spot your first time out, but learn from these players and the others you come across. Even the types of armies you see will be different than your local events. There are a lot of cool ideas for army builds that show up at GTs as everyone is theory-crafting about how to break the meta. Many won't work but there may be aspects that can be incorporated into your army.

Now I hope you don't misunderstand as the above isn't meant to be a discouragement. On the contrary, I hope this relieves the pressure to win every game. That's always been a tough lesson for me as I'm very competitive by nature, but tend to live in the middle tables at GTs. To be honest, I think I usually lose the first game. The middle tables are a lot of fun as these will be filled with players of comparable skill, most of whom are very good in their own right but haven't managed to breakthrough into that upper echelon. You're playing for fun but many of the players in this level will still be in contention for best in faction so the games will be fun and competitive. Don't get discouraged with a 3-2 or even 2-3 finish. This is a bigger pond you're jumping into but that will help the growth as a competitive player. Learn from your opponents, recognize mistakes and tendencies that need to be corrected and make changes accordingly.

Wrapping Up

As always, remember that this is a game and a hobby that a lot of people have poured countless hours into, yourself included. Conventions and Major Tournaments like what I've described are a chance to showcase your abilities in all aspects of the hobby while celebrating this great game we all enjoy with like minded people. Have fun and take it all in, maybe you or one of your friends was in contention for a Best of Faction. Honestly, for many that's a worthy enough prize to compete for. Higher placing is just gravy on top. Maybe you found a really cool accessory in the vendor's area and made a contact that can get you those pieces needed to finish up your army. Maybe you got to throw dice against one of the best in the community. Maybe you just had a nail biter against a player that matched you move for move in what was the hardest fought game you can remember. Maybe you met some guys at the hotel bar that turned into good friends by the end of the weekend.

Some combination of these have happened to us all and it's what makes events like these amazing. It's what brought dozens of players from a handful of FLGS along the Gulf Coast together to establish the GCWA. Many of the friends I have now were made on road trips to a tournament.

The Tournament Bug may be straight from Nurgle but it shouldn't be something to be feared. Embrace it and dive in. It's a big community, and we're always happy to see new faces.

See you at the tables!

Da Hinkel's Hut - Warboss Hinkel - So it begins

Warboss Hinkel is never good with Da words so I will be doing video blogs for my articles.  Hope you enjoy my orky grammer and cool ork conversations.  Warhammer on and WAAAGH!!!!!