Wednesday, October 27, 2010

BA new directions

I have been thinking for a while about changing up my blood angels. There is a reason to my madness for magnetizing every blood angel's back pack! There are two lists currently I think about as options.
First:
This list has had some success at out FLGS with another BA player or a variation of the list.

Libby

A few JP Assault squads

Death Company maxxed with PW
Lemartes or Chaplain

DC Dread

Storm Raven

You can reserve everything and arrive on your own terms and avoid all of the alpha strike lists! Once you hit their lines the game is over the Death Company will tear any unit a new one. Plus the storm Raven can Fire a Multi Melta while turbo boosted to pop pesky tanks so we can get at the good stuff. I like this list a lot but with no storm raven model I am limited on what I can do.

My other list is a pure jump pack list. I run libbys and a ton of Assault Squads and follow it up with vanguard and Sang Priests. The Assault squads vary from tank killer to troop destroyer with 2x flamer and 2x hand flamer!

I will probably start working on the second list soon!

Friday, October 15, 2010

Meta Game thoughts

Its not a new concept. I learned about it when playing MTG in the 90's and have always thought about it for 40k. More and more talk about the Meta game comes out every week. Personally I hate how the current tourney environment is. Mech is so boring to see on every table. I know i jumped the bandwagon and got a BA mech list. However I have yet to table someone or even put a huge dent in anyone. I keep trying to make lists and they all end up just about the same. I keep going back in disappointment to my Orks. Tried and true they do well in our local Meta game. We dont have a ton of pure mech lists and I think that brings a better chance of my orks winning. Also I do have 9 walkers... <3 kans. So no matter what happens it looks like I will probably start putting my effort back into my orks and I will try to get my play skill with them back to where It was.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Batrep BA VS Ultras

So Last night I played a 1850 game vs Ultras.
My list was:

Lib (shield, sword) plas pistol

2x Sang Priests PW

Assault Squad:
7 Marines
2 Melta
1 Sarge PF
Rhino

Assault Squad:
7 Marines
2 Melta
1 Sarge PF
Rhino

Assault Squad:
3 Marines
1 Flamer
1 Sarge PW
RzR Back TL Plas and Las

Assault Squad:
3 Marines
1 Flamer
1 Sarge PW and HF
RzR Back TL Plas and Las

Assault Squad:
3 Marines
1 Flamer
1 Sarge PW and HF
RzR Back TL Plas and Las

Baal Pred
TL AC and HVY Bolt

Baal Pred
TL AC and HVY Bolt

Pred
Auto C and Las Can

Pred
Auto C and Las Can

We were set up spearhead and seize ground with 3 objectives. I lost the roll to place objective first then lost the roll for choice of sides. The objectives were placed in a straight line almost from one quadrant to the center to the opposite one. My opponent took the one opposite of me and went first. His Anti tank stopped my Baal Preds from ever firing he immobilized my two melta rhinos on turn 1 and I popped only one rhino in return. The game was looking bad. It was a shootout for a while and I was losing it. I started to push toward the objective in the center only to have a Landraider with TH/SS and LC termies pop out as well as a full sternguard squad and a full tac squad in rhinos. I had a 10 man melta squad on foot and 2 5 man squads one with a Sang and the other with my Lib. The Lib lost his squad to firing and then got charged by a termi while the rest went after my last RzR Back holding one of the squads. Luckily my Lib lived and the termies piled in on him. My turn I had the 5 man with the sang hop out. 2x Flamer templates and some bolter fire dropped 4 stearnguard. The melta guys moved in on the termies. I charged and killed 2 TH/SS termies at I5 and then wiffed with 3 PF swings. I lost my Lib to LC attacks. The stearnguard got raped by my 2 PWs and lost a total of 4 more guys including the PF sarge. They ran and I caught them and they lost down to 1 guy whiched I finished in the next combat. I managed to wiff again on my PF vs termies and killed non and lost 1. I cleared the termies with my 2x pw 6 man squad and then moved onto the objective on turn 5. Turn 6 I took a ton of fire and an assault from his Lib and another 5 man squad. The PF continued missing and my other squad didnt do much better. The game ended with each of us having our own objectives and the middle contested. I beat him on kps 8 to 7 but that was not part of the game so it was a draw.

I am still learning the Blood Angels and this game really showed me what I should change and work on. I love the 5 man squads and the sang joining them and having 2 pws and 2 flamers. I want to run it with 3 flamers and just make them dangerous to everything. I learned to stop going for a shootout and just push. I have enough close combat power to not be afraid and to actually make my opponent afraid of what I can do. When a 6 man squad can drop a 10 man marine squad in a single turn you know you have done something right. I have made some changes to my list and I like version 2 much better. Just wait and see on my next 1850 Batrep!

Thanks for reading,
RIPPED

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Ork Tactica: Kans n Dreads

Well I will start off by stating that I believe point for point Kans are one of the best units in the game. Dreads...i really dont like these. They are more points then 2 kans and do the same and are easier to kill then 2 kans. Never take Dreads... end of Tactica: Dreads.
Now back to my favorite unit: Killer Kans

For the cost of a termi you get a AV 11 walker and can get up to 3 in a squad. These are far harder to kill then termies for most things. They attack at initiative 2. That is kind of low but most things that will harm them are at I1. Grenades are just bad against them. S6 grenades will hardly ever kill a kan unless your opponent is rolling hot. S4 does nothing to them as well. Even their WS of 2 is not a problem because the average WS is 4 or lower.

Now to my tactics. These guys are the 3rd and crucial part to my 3 prong strategy. First are the fast things in trukks and my stormboyz arriving turn 2. Next my boyz mobs turn 3 and finally my Kans on turn 4 or 3 if they are lucky.

These guys run cover for my mobs and break off turn 3 in their movement and running so that the boyz can charge right through their hole. They just make sure more boyz get to combat. The next turn they will follow up any blown combats and typically wreck anyone left. They also are great for chasing vehicles and making sure my boyz get the charge. With their forward placement you have to move around them to get at the squishy goodness behind the kans. In addition to everything they take a lot of fire turns one and two because they are closer then the boyz. This distracts the hard hitting weps from going after my nobz or stormboyz. Another important thing to look for or ask is where are the powerfists. Why? Most squads without them just sit there doing nothing to the Kans while the Kans just wreck the squad. Also IG blob squads will just stand there watching these guys kill and kill while the sargents throw grenades and pray for a 6.

Well that may have been a very short discombobulated Tactica but I hope you get that they are very good at a lot of things and to consider running them in your lists.