Just needed a spark under my ass!

After ard boyz i took a break and only played one game with my orks. I then missed the registration for the first annual Standish Standoff (our first big event at my flgs). I was bummed and I got on the waiting list. Last night one of the guys that works at the store sent me a facebook message. Someone dropped and the people in front of me for the wait list could not go...NOW IM IN!

I know I vowed to play my orks. However there is a great deal of modeling and painting going into the scores and I know my orks are just not as pretty as my blood angels. I now await my packet and will be building my list and painting the list before the tourney! I only have 2 tanks left to paint and then the rest are guys.

I have done the design work for my display board and bases which I dont know if they will be done. I also know how I am going to build the captain for my 8th company.

Progress will be made for the Emperor!

It has been a while my friend...Gork shines apon me AGAIN!!!

After non stop fighting for over two years Ghaz and his chosen boyz needed a break over the summer. Longing for battle while relaxing on some desecrated planet they were about to get what they were looking for. A loud humming of machine parts and rusty joints could be heard coming. Ghaz knew it was time to fight again...but what was it?!?

"In formation yoofs, it is time for some fighten" Ghaz yelled. He ran and leaped into the back of his truck. His nobz were already there waiting for him. Zemkes his biggest nob said "Boss scoutin grotz ave reported a eeny weeny mechie men a'rmy rising from the ground". Ghaz had only seen this a few times before. He new it was the returning necron forces. Had they lay dormant on this planet too?

With the truck finally fired up and boyz in position it was time to go. Ghaz and the stormboyz few out ahead to meet the mekanical monsters. Ghaz ripped a large hovering monument with a portal to the ground and the stormboyz laid into the front ranks of their mechanical adversaries.

All of a sudden a large floating figure came around the corner. Ghaz knew shit hit the fan and yelled "Boyz we'v got a god on or ands". The god killed 4 nobz in one swing and Ghaz returned by sinking his klaw into him. Ghaz looked over his shoulder to see the stormboyz get blasted down. Spores were in the air of his own men. Rokket fuel was covering the gound. Ghaz let out a large "WAGAAH"!

The mass of boyz raged forward into battle as the kans broke off to let them through. The first way of evil sunz ran full charge into the body of the enemy forces. A few were nocked down but most remained standing to fight. The god had ran but quickly returned to catch the nobz again killing all but one...Zemkes!

Ghaz backed off to let Zemkes return blows to the god. With a great leap Zemkes landed a good blow to the noggin with his klaw. With a burst of light and a large explosion the god disappeared. Ghaz took the explosion in replace of Zemkes to save him. "I knew you would be a good un when I met uz as a yoof" Ghaz said.

Covering their eyes the boyz could not shoot but sure as hell they can charge into battle. The kans finally made it into the skirmish as well. Ghaz and his boyz quickly dispatched more metal men. All of a sudden a loud VOOOP and they all vanished! Ghaz had seen this before and now knew for sure that the metal men tactically retreat when low in numbers.

Ghaz was pleased with his boyz performance and welcomed the challenge brought to him that day. Zemkes escaped the day despite being mortally wounded as the metal men fed from the battle. His cybork body was durable and kept him alive to fight another day. He was to be now known as "Zemkes the God Slayer".

Ork Tactica: Lootas

This is a very simple tactica explaining the use of Lootas in an ork army. Lootas are essentially an ork carrying an autocannon. This gun instead of shooting 2 shots it shoots d3 shots. These guys are 15 points a model and are pretty much the equiv to the point cost of just the gun for other armies. The main drawback is the lower BS of an ork making the shooting much worse. GW's solution to our poor shooting was making squads of up to size 15 of these guys...so up to 45 shots at s7 ap4 per squad!!! Even with ork shooting you will kill stuff with that.

Lootas take up and elite slot and unlike termis, ork nobz will be taken as troops in conjunction with a warboss. This means ork elite slots are wide open for spaming lootas. Some people run squads of 5 or so and multiple of them. I like that strategy so I can fire at more targets but I also like running large squads to make them fearless and avoid taking morale checks. Yes I fire at fewer targets but my squads last much longer.

Now that you have chosen to take lootas another questions is "will you also take grots"? I take grots as a really cheap meat shield to block incoming charges by fast squads, deep strikers, out flankers, and infiltrators. A perfect example is a 20 man genestealer squad coming onto the board and trying to take out the lootas. My grots blocked them and the lootas took the squad out!!!

The next part is placement. If at all possible place them were they can cover important fire lanes and at the same time sit in cover. A 4+ cover save will really make these guys hard to kill. Once you are in terrain try not to move and just blast away with your big guns. It is that simple, lootas pump out fire power and are the best long range orks in the codex. Lootas are a huge distraction for any mech army as they just rip open any low armor tank and sit in cover. One last note is lootas should be used to open up tanks that you expect your squads to be charging. Get the squishy goodness out of the tough shell and then eat it!!!!

RIPPED

Tactica Index

Now that I am switching back to orks again I think it is time to dust off my old Tactica posts and write some more!

Troops:
http://rippeddragon.blogspot.com/2010/08/ork-tactica-troops.html

Storm Boyz:
http://rippeddragon.blogspot.com/2010/08/ork-tactica-storm-boyz.html

Kans/Dreads:
http://rippeddragon.blogspot.com/2010/10/ork-tactica-kans-n-dreads.html

Ghaz:
http://rippeddragon.blogspot.com/2010/11/ork-tactica-ghazghkull.html

Nobz:
http://rippeddragon.blogspot.com/2011/01/ork-tactica-nobz.html

Koptas:
http://rippeddragon.blogspot.com/2011/02/ork-tactica-death-koptas.html

This Weekz Update

As wed closes in the reality of me playing my orks is setting in. Trying to come up with ways to kill lots of tanks and survive the current meta has been in the back of my mind. I will probably watch some of my own old batreps so that I can remember what I used to do. I need to come up with my list and fast!

School has been crazy. I am cramming in as many programming classes as I can to get my major done. Constant school work and trying to squeeze in time for other games has put 40k on the back burner. Hopefully playing orks will rekindle my flame.

If all goes well I will break the 100 win mark here soon for my orks in 5th edition. My goal is to make it there without a loss. Who knows I may lose 20 games in a row because of my time off from my orks! Whatever happens I will be fun and I look forward to the challenge of all these tank armies.

Ard Boyz Semis...Blog it while its hot!

So this past weekend was Ard Boyz semis where I would try to qualify for finals 2 years in a row! I had a near perfect prelim round where I was 2 points shy of perfect. Today this wouldn't be the same story. Some bad dice on my end and a poor round 1 opponent would make for and interesting day.

Round 1 vs puppies...he had almost no long range shooting except living lightning. Every time he fired a weapon it wrecked a tank on turn 1. I lost way too much early but due to my play skill I would manage to get him sweating. He had a scribbled hand written list and my first impression was this game would suck. Oh boy was I right. Due to a list mistake on placement he had to talk to our TO and then we could start. He rolled crazy hot for the first 4 turns and it made it a huge uphill battle. There were no manners to be found he was just sarcastic and overall had a bad personality. I have only yelled at one other player in this game but now this list extends to two. Whenever I asked my opponent a question on the first two turns he would give a sarcastic answer and not answer the question, he also loved to mumble. So I told him that he was being a "sarcastic ass hat" and when I ask a question I want the answer not a smart ass remark. He quickly shut up and the game went way smoother. On turn 4 one of his friends came over and asked him how he was doing and my opponent said right in front of me "beating the crap out of him...easy win". Oh boy was he wrong. This guy moved way too close and I multi charged him for over 500 points in one turn. I was less then half an inch away from hitting another 400 points of stuff. Game ended with a minor victory in his favor on victory points. My messenger never made it into his deployment(i was 2 inches away). So even tho I had more points than him by just a little he got the +500 for a minor win...oh well.

The next two games went very smooth for the most part. I tabled one and almost another both games ended in 50 minutes. The one I failed to table had a landraider that was already immobile. Turns 3,4,5 my DC dread could not get him with his melta gun. Turn 6 I fired almost all of my army at it and had 2 basic pens and 4 melta pens...NO WRECKS OR EXPLODES...then I roll for turn 7 and fail that too...ugh I lost 9 points because I couldn't kill that tank. These points would have put me in first...

So now no finals for me this year. For those of you that don't know with my current criteria I now have to play orks. Whenever an army fails to place I have to rotate back to the other. Now any winnings have to be spent on that army. So look for my orks to start appearing again. I am rather happy for the change and hopefully it will be a lot of fun to play them again. Now is the time to play and beat my orks while I relearn them!!!

Thanks for reading,

RIPPEDDRAGON

Last Months Tourney

Last month at the FLGS we had a 2000 point tourney. Prizes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and a painting prize. I decided about 2 months ago that I had to win this tourney with my Blood Angels to continue playing them in Ard Boyz. I had to make the toughest list that I could and have it represent a solid core of my Ard Boyz List.

I ran 2x Plas Backs, 1x Las Back, 2x Preds, 1 Stormchicken, Death Company, Jump Pack Squad with Libby and Priest. The goal was to run my core for Ard Boyz and have well rounded shooting and assault. This list had plenty of ap 1/2 and tank killing potential.

Game 1 I was playing against a Mech IG list...we all know how that goes. There was an objective in the center as the primary objective. We rolled off and I got to go first. I setup all my tanks in my libby's bubble for protection except the stormchicken. He set up and then rolled and seized. Oh NOOOOO!

Turn 1 was brutal with most of my tanks getting stripped down and not being able to shoot. I didn't think after that turn I could pull it out. I got lucky that the storm chicken got mauled but not destroyed. I would keep the death company at bay until I could see the whites of their eyes! I pushed on with the rest of my tanks. I knew I had to get in close and slaughter them in hand to hand. Turn 2 saw more firing and more tanks becoming hulls. I got my men into his ranks on turn 2 and took out 4 chimeras and 2 leman russ...a solid turn. The death company wiped an allied sisters squad. The death company dread melted a tank as well. Half of his tanks were now a wreck and I was looking much better for me.

His shooting now crippled, the IG tried to pull out the win from my furious blood angels hands. No luck however, I quickly tore down his tanks with melta fire and close combat. My Jump squad took out 2 chimera and a 30 man blob squad in one turn. By the end of the game there were wrecked tanks everywhere on both sides. The difference however came in the fact that I had my squads and his were dead. I got a massacre.


Game 2 was a modified kill points against Space Wolves with 2 long fang squads, 3 drop pods with a squad, a dread and termis. He won the roll to go first so I castled up in the far corner far away from one of his long fang squads. He dropped a dread in for some melta and termis a little close. He lit up the stormchicken but couldnt take it down. I pushed my tank unit forward leaving 2 squads to melta the dread and pod. The stormchicken couldnt move but his termis were too close. My dread ran crazy to meat the 5 man squad head on. He shot more on turn 2 but did almost nothing. My dread ate some terms, and Bjorn died to a volly of melta fire. His land raider got immobilized to and random las cannon shot. My death company took a lot of fire and eventually died. My Death Company dread ate 2 more 10 man squads and dismantled a good chunk of his army. When the game ended I had most of my tanks still running and most of my guys alive. All I lost was the Stormchicken, DC Dread and DC. I got another massacre victory.

Game 3 was against a dark angels deathwing army. I won the roll to go first and he reserved everything except one squad and 3 attack bikes. I killed everything on the board before his reserves came in. The rest of the game his squads came in but due to his small numbers and lack of anti tank at range I quickly removed most of his army from the game. At the end he was left with an immobile land raider and 2 termis across the board. I picked up a major victory because they had landed on an objective on turn 5 and I failed to kill them while his land raider contested the other. But the objectives were only a secondary mission to table quarters.

I won that tourney with then means I HAVE to play Blood Angels at Ard Boyz this year. I have video from the end of the campaign that I will put together. It was a very close end to the campaign. I have some Ard Boyz reports also to post coming soon. My life has slowed down and thus I have time for 40k

Battle Report Catch Up...Weeks 2 and 4 of Summer Campaign

Where is week 3? Well I skipped a week. To be honest nothing would change if I were there. The xenos are winning each week by a large margin and I am the one that wins every week against xenos... oh well. Final Week this next week.

Here is a recap of week 2:

1250 Point Game and nothing from my 750 point list got cleaned out...so I have to use that list as a base and add 500 more points to it. So I threw in 3x FSC Baal Preds and another ASM Squad in a RZR with TL Las. I was hoping to overwhelm some player with pure AV 13 and win the game with shooting and tanks...8 tanks at 1250 with 5x of them AV 13 preds is pretty nasty.

I got paired against an eldar player with 2x fire prisms and 2x falcons everything maxed out and a pain to kill. Dawn of War seize ground. I lost the roll and was forced to go first. I moved on and ready to fire once he got on the board. I had a leg up due to night fight falling off on my turn and I list the morning skys up with las cannons. I stunned both falcons and wrecked a prism. He returned fire and wrecked a auto/las Pred. After that he would almost never shoot again. The mid game went slow and my baal preds eventually made it behind and flamed rear armor to stop tanks.

He made a go after my objective but met 2 squads charging and firing into the falcon and I brought it down and they became pinned for a turn...Finally something for my preds to toast and those eldar smelled so good when they were on fire. The rest of the game I kept shooting and stopping his remaining two tanks.

I contested his objective and held my own and got a solid win. I lost a baal pred and a normal pred and that was it!

Week 3:

I decided not to go and our side would have lost even if I played a make up game for the week.

Week 4: 2k points and I had to reuse much of my 1250 list. I had just finished building a storm raven, DC dread, and death company. Time to test the raging boyz and their new ride out.

I got paired against a horde nid list and I let them have it. This again was a capture and control mission and my opponent chose dawn of war. He elected to go first and moved a lot onto the board and moved up a squad of gaunts past mid field. Taking the risk I flew up and dropped of my dread and rolled ok on the fleet move. Just enough to get into combat with him and I quickly wiped out his squad. The dread would continue on his rampage and ate 2 squads and a large bug that had taken some wounds from las cannon fire. I focused on clearing out his objective and let him get close to mine.

Genestealers popped out of the ground and off my flank and tried to clear out my objective but the flamestorm cannons cleared them quickly and I held off his onslaught of gaunts. He never made it to my objective and I too the 2-0 victory. Out of 10 other games only one other person fighting for the emperor won.

This game was a good training session for the up coming tournament at 2k this past weekend. I will have another summary of that in a few days. Spoiler alert...I won with my blood angels putting me up to 33 wins. I am always improving with them and become more deadly every game.

Summer Campaign: Part 1

Every Wednesday is game night at our FLGS. The store stays open late so we can play and it is always a great time. I threw together a crappy 2500 pt blood angel list and went to play Ming as Ard Boy practice. When we arrived there the summer campaign was about to begin and as per usual it's xenos vs imperium. There was a severe lack of imperium and as such Ming and I were recruited to fight for the Emperor.

The campaign starts small at 750 pts and every week gets bigger. Any unit that stays above half strength replenishes their ranks and continues to fight the next week. Otherwise you can spend those points again for the next week. If you win your game you pick 2 units to roll for vet abilities. If you lose you only get 1.

My list is as follows:
Libby (shield/rage)
Sang Pr
2x 5 man ASQ /w melta and las/plas Rzr Back
2x Auto/las preds

It is a decent core to build off of with plenty of shots and mobility. Also armor 13 is a PIA at lower point levels to kill.

My opponent that I was paired with was playing an ork horde. He had 3x 20 man shoota squads, a big mek with kff, and 3 kans with grotzookas. It was dawn of war deployment with 5 objectives. We rolled and I lost and was forced to go first. There was a large river running diagonally mid field with 2 objectives on one side and 3 on the other. I took the near side with 2 objectives close together so one squad can take both. The plan was to hold 2 or 3 and contest with my tanks when needed.

The game went exactly as planned. His shooting can't hurt me and I took out the kans quick. One of his squads got too close and I wiped them out in close combat. After that he had to try and take me off my two home objectives but it was too late turn 7 went around and I won with a score 3 to 0 on objectives. I lost only a few models and no tanks.

I now have to keep the same list and add 500 points to get to 1250. I rolled for vet abilities on my preds and both got reroll failed terrain tests. Not the best but now I can be a lot more reckless with them tank shocking and contesting over terrain.

Dice: the gamers worst nightmare!

Dice and how people role in every fashion is a touchy subject. The line between cheating and and hot dice is very thin. Luck and carma are often viewed as the major source of your dice rolling results. Ming as an example says "you only have so much luck in your life and once you use it up it is gone"..."I used all my luck up pitching pennies when I was young and have been regretting it ever since". This is an interesting theory because we can roll the same dice and I will almost always out roll Ming. Then there is beginners luck where when you are learning something new you get really lucky. Almost every person I have played when it is one of their first few games they roll HOT! Dice are a crazy thing and no matter what there will always be some luck involved. Today I will talk a little about ways people better their rolling and what I do to keep the bad dice at bay.

Here are some things people do that I should be considered blatant cheating. First is loaded dice where the player physically alters or buys altered dice that will give them an advantage. This may be hard to detect and prove but keep a look out for it. If I suspect some one has loaded dice I would either report them if it was blatant and easy to prove or use their dice for my rolling. Some may view this as bad form but if they don't let you then there could be something up their sleeve. Using their dice will level the playing field and hopefully prove to yourself that they are not cheating. Plenty of times in heated games I will use my opponents dice if they are rolling hot. If someone asked to use my dice I willingly would say yes. The next thing to look for is practiced rolling. This can come in many ways and you have to look out for it. If your opponent is rolling funny and getting preferred results then simply ask him to stop and roll with the dice in his hand cupped and shook up. Quite often you will see people place dice in their hand and simply roll them in a way to give them better results rather than shake them. Newer players may not know how to roll properly and need to be instructed that shaking the dice up before dropping is the way you should do it. Another thing you should look for that is a combination of those two forms of cheating is people practice rolling with metal dice. It is very easy to roll well with a dice that dosnt move once it hits the table. Ask your opponent to use different dice or borrow yours. If any of these things become a problem report the player to the TO and have him explain proper dice rolling. If it's not a tourney game and my opponent refuses to stop I'll either have another player come over to help me reinforce my opinion or simply leave the game (unless I'm still beating the piss out of them)!

The next thre things I will discuss are techniques that are not cheating bit could be considered gray areas. The first is pretty standard, if you have bad dice just buy new ones. The second was started by ming's frustration at rolling poorly. If any dice consistsntly rolled poorly "just chuck it". Throw them somewhere...the trash, a fire, at your opponent, you kids or wife, or just on the floor. Now some people say the dice rolling poorly is just luck. But we know from science that no two dice will ever be the same. Every dice will be weighted differently and have it's own preferences. This is especially true in cheap bulk dice ie. Chessex dice. They are good dice don't get me wrong, I use them my self. But each die differs from the next and you can in fact buy bad dice. So those bad dice you just put on the floor in your FLGS will probably be picked up and used by some poor sap! Hahah never pick dice off the floor that are not yours! Tossing these bad dice will improve your overall rolling I can attest to that. Now when this practice is taken to the extreme and your remaining dice begin to dwindle and you buy more and repeat your total dice collection will become stronger. After over a year of ming and I sharing multiple dice cubes he thinned it down to a fairly average or better then average group of dice. So from them I select the best I can get by selecting those that roll well consistently. Trust me if you go through 6 cubes of dice and get rid of the bad dice over time your averages will go up. That's my secret to rolling decently almost every game.

Hopefully this article will give you some good information and isn't too hard to read. Typing on my iPhone I tend to lose scope and it's hard to write well.
Thanks for reading,
RIPPED

Ard Boyz initial thoughts

My favorite part of the 40k season is fast approaching. Ard Boyz!!! This for most is the most active and competitive time every year for 40k. If you don't know about Ard Boyz, it is a national event put on by Gw with three rounds and top 3 from each round advances. Essentially it's a 9 round tournament. You can change your list and army between rounds. You have a month between each round.

40k has developed a meta game over the past two years mostly in part with more and more people jumping on the net list band wagons. You have a few options, jump on the band wagon and net list out a mech army or try to meta game for it and play a counter/ a list of your own. While running leaf blower net lists tends to work well over all. I would recommend against it. There is no originality and you become very predictable running net lists.

Making your own list will let you make your own tricks and plans. It is a lot more fun running a list of your own and playing it well then running a net list. You also run into those who design to beat net lists and can just ruin your day. I am on the fence about blood angels or orks but either way it won't be a net list. I have either my hybrid BA list or Kan Wall orks. In order to play the blood angels I will need to actually paint and build a ton of figures that are sitting in boxes.

Net listing isn't a bad thing just remember to take what your see with a grain of salt.

~RIPPED

Rules and tournaments a tutorial

This is a quick guide on how you should handle rule questions in a tournament setting. There are plenty of times you may question the validity of a rule or how someone views something. Minor stuff that won't change the game don't bother. You don't want to cut into your game time. But if it is a big rules question or a game changer never assume your opponent is correct if you have any doubts. If you don't question rules you may miss out on an opportunity. In a non regulated game like 40k each player has to be their own judge. Everyone gets rules wrong from time to time especially if they don't play as frequently. Take your time and go ahead and look it up. There have been plenty of times I have been wrong or questioned my opponents and they were right. But the same goes the other way. I have saved major losses via questioning rules and getting the proper answer.

There may be some people who really enjoy to flaunt knowledge and try to tell you that a rule is whatever way they say it. Never let your opponent dictate to you what is real if you question it in your head. The only one you can blame is yourself for not looking that rule up. You will regret it if you lost a game for it. Tell your opponent you will look it up and take the time to prove him wrong or if he is right just continue on. If your opponent just wants to continue the game tell him to show you where the rule is that is in question. Some of my most heated games of late end up having rules questions and I never regret taking the time to play the game right. If I find out later that something went wrong that I played and it was my miss interpretation of the rules then I do feel bad and I learn from the mistake and wish my opponent had stopped me so we could have fixed it then. In the end remember it is a hobby and a game and don't take anything said or done personally.

~RIPPED

That was a lot of rust

Ming and I have started our normal ritual of prepping for Ard Boyz. Playing games weekly at the house with post game analysis and thoughts. We randomize what previous Ard Boy scenario we get and out list of the is pretty extensive now. I decoded to play my orks and see how it would go. We drew up a game with 6 objectives and they would activate on turn 2, 4, and 6. We had other things to do and never bothered timing the game.

The game was bloody to say the least. I started Midfield with 60 Orks and everyone else would race on and try to catch up. His whole army moved on and castled up like normal. Wave after wave of orks smashed into his line anywhere from 400-1000 points at a time. I kept chipping away until eventually My kans arrived on turn 4. They made quick work of his tanks and remaining troops. My grots were happily in the back on the objectives until the redeemer flamer met them face to face. They lost 3 guys and failed morale and ran...oh well No objectives for either of us but I had him on kps.

At the end I had 7 kans left, ghaz, and a loota squad. He had a land raider redeemer, kantor, libby, and a trashed landraider that cant move or fire anything that would matter. We both lost almost all of our armies and was a tough fought game. I made several mistakes throughout the game most involved his flamer land raider because it was just a small cutting board flat to the table as a proxy... I took a minor victory but a win is a win.

RIPPED

200 PT Kill Team Fun Tourney Wrapup

Yesterday afternoon I decided I would head over to my flgs later that evening and it hit me... there was a 200pt $5 kill team tourney...AWESOME. I debated running 56 grots and 4 slavers but I would rather run something that could stand a chance at winning. Each model is a separate unit completely. Set up rules are a little different and instead of seizing the player going first must roll a die and on a 1 your opponent goes first. I was running 5 bikers and 10 gretchin and a slaver.

Game one was vs 6 lootas a copta and a shoota boyz squad. I was going first and set my bikes out in the open ready to go at him gunz blazing. Then I rolled a 1 and handed him first turn...I lost 3 bikes and it would be a down hill battle. I killed a few guys and got my remaining 2 bikes into close combat and over 5 turns they killed 0 orks and he finally killed both of them. The game has to turn limit but does have a time limit. My gretchin were safe in the back and he couldnt get to them in time and we got a draw.

Game two was vs wolves with a lone wolf th/ss and 6 grey hunters one with a plasma. I took one bike and suicided to kill his plasma and shot the hell out of the lone wolf and did nothing. I sent my PK right at the lone wolf and we traded blows and both died as I planned. The rest of my guys fired their dakka dakka gunz slowly out shooting the marines and won me the game.

Game three was against Ming with a full tact squad with a flamer and a multi melta. I failed to kill the multi melta turn one after I went first and he killed my PK right off the bat. Turn 2 I killed his flamer and multi melta and backed up. The rest of the game would be like my last one... just back up and fire. I just out shot him and moved to reduce his total bolter shots every turn and won the game.

IG with a valk and a vet squad won the day mostly due to almost no opponents able to deal with the valk. I took second and I think my first round opponent took the "Boob award" or best sport. I liked this fun format a lot and so did almost every one. A lot of people are going to revamp their lists for next time because of some of the lop sided games example: Venerable Dread vs Doom... Doom just cant win no matter what. Over all tho we will probably work on the rules set and maybe bring the points up.

Thanks for reading,
RIPPED

Pics and works in progress

I just got my final shipment of gretchin and so now i need to build some slavers. There is a ton of them and I am glad I picked them up super cheap. Here it is and i had to zoom out so much it looks like an old school epic army.

















Now some of you may have seen it but this is my finalized basic Blood Angel.





















Here is a nearly complete libby painted for me by Ming.






















This is my nearly finished Predator. I have two of these currently painted and I am working on my Razorbacks which are black rather then blue.






















Hope you enjoy, these all plastic blood angels are starting to get finished and look better every day! I need to come up with an idea for basing them. If you have any suggestions feel free to drop a comment.

RIPPED

INCOMMING GRETCHIN HORDE

I have always talked around the FLGS about my 6 troops being pure gretchin and using SAG as my HQ and Kans as my heavy for my all grot army. Well the lack of 180 gretchin was my main problem but In the past week I have ordered over 130 of them to add to my collection and soon will be ready to start my 1500pt all grot army!

This months tourney wrapup

I have been pretty spent due to school work and have not had a lot of time to blog. Sorry guys. Anyway last weekend was my monthly tournament at Crossroad Games. I decided I will keep playing my Blood Angels till they dont win a tourney and then swap to orks and go back and forth whenever one dosnt win. Also all prizes must be spent on the winning army now. No more orks carrying my Blood Angels and kitting them out. My fleet of orks is full of old metal models and needs replacing and updating.

Onto the tourney:
I played BAs and a hybrid mech/jump list. The same list I used to teach my friend to play with in my previous blog post. I liked the list and wanted to see how it would do in a tourney setting.

Game one was table quarters with a center objective. I was against nids and spearhead deployment. The game ended for the most part on turn 2 when I melted a winged tyrant and 20 warriors. His army was crippled. He charged one assault squad with 30+ gaunts and because of the lack of rending I only lost 2 marines. 3+ and 4+ FNP is like fighting termis. I got massacre for 20 pts and 2 bonus points.

I always scout around after rounds and try to find out how everyone did and who I might be playing. Our computer matches highest points together. I was 3rd highest behind a full 25 point and a 23 point. No one else had a massacre so I knew I would be playing down vs a major or minor.

No surprise I was paired against a major with bonus points. I got to go against space wolves. It would be modified kill points again. I had a ton of kill points but so did he. I just needed to stop him from killing my tanks. He had 3 venerable dreads one being bjorn. I spread my fire across his tanks and dreads stopping almost all of them from firing. He moved closer and I took advantage of this. Turn 2 all my squads hopped out and melted his front line of dreads. I knocked out both transports and charged into one with a jump pack squad. Of the dreads one was immobilized another wrecked and bjorn's power arm ripped off. So no more close combat capabilities from the dreads. I was safe and had won the game for the most part on turn 2 again. I got full points for the game.

We finished early so I scouted around on the top table to see what was going to happen. It was Notmatthew and his blob IG vs Creative Twilight and his shrike list(see Creative Twilight's blog on my blog list to the right). The game had been pretty close and heated. The close combats dragged on and made the game slow to a crawl. Time ran out and the IG pulled out with a minor win. I then scouted other tables and figured out IG was closest in 2nd over 3rd and 4th by 2 points.

I have yet to lose to Notmatthew. I have one win with orks and a draw and a draw with my BA's. I knew I needed to take my full force and section off his blobs and take my whole army vs only part of his. Each squad has a pw and blobs into 40 man squads. Commissars give him stubborn and rerolls and another pw so I wont be able to break them after winning combat. I knew what I needed for points to win the tourney and played to meet that goal. The game ended in a draw. Notmatthew was sure he was out of the top 3. I however always keeping tabs on points was almost sure he still would be top 3.

Results came in and I won and bought myself a DC dread and have some left over for next month. Notmatthew and another ork player tied in points for 2nd and chaos deamons took 3rd I believe.

Great day of play. I learned a few new things playing against Notmatthew and always look forward to playing him. I would probably say he is my closest rival in 40k. Always tough games and I learn every time.

All my non flgs readers should come up for a monthly tourney and see if you can best me on my home turf. We have a great fun community and welcome all who join us to play.

Thanks for reading,
RIPPED

New Brethren Joining The Ranks

The end of the semester is here and I have been super stressed over getting work done and not really gaming. I have done some more work on painting my blood angels and they are looking better. Personal rule of thumb is your models roll better when painted..try it out its TRUE!!!

Now onto the real story for the day. I finally convinced one of my friends and gaming buddies to try out 40k and he LOVES IT. He has seen some of this before and also the DOW games. We were talking last week and and I convinced him to let me play a small 1k point demo game at my house last weekend. He could pick between IG, Ultras, BAs, and Orks and chose Blood Angels. I threw together a great 1k list for him and then made a super fun 1k point ork list to dick around and teach him the rules.

My SAG rolled an 11 on turn one and missed while a large loota squad failed to kill anything and then followed up on turn 3 with the SAG ripping my squad into the warp...nice! I let him get a draw and had some fun. He talked a little smack and then I dug out a marine killer list and slaughtered him. He had plenty of fun tho. Shooting with preds, casting with libbys, and charging with assault squads. I gave him the Blood Angels codex to read and he has read it over a few times.

Last night I got him to come along to play at the FLGS. I found another new player with only 2 games played with nids and I brought a hybrid mech/jump BA list for a 2000 pt game. We split up our army and and I gave him the larger half. We had a fun quick game that ended on turn 3 with us tabling the nids. Lots of las and plas = dead big bugs. He got to look at other armies and codex in the store. I have him hooked now and he will slowly start building his own Blood Angels army. For now he will be borrowing mine whenever he wants and I will start playing my orks in prep for the 2011 Ard Boyz season.

I have had a lot of fun teaching new players the rules and getting them into the game. I also recommend if you want to get a friend into the game, let him play one of your armies first and get the feel before they jump both feet in.

As a side note our monthly tourney is 2000pts and this Saturday hope to see you there!!! See the link on the top of my page for crossroad games.

~RIPPED

Da Boyz and Da New Shiny GKs

Twas early morning and da boyz lead by Ghaz were still sleeping and the weedy grots were bzy fixing the kans squadrons. Gahz was quite abruptly awoken from his drunken stupor by the lour roar of stormravens flying overhead. Ghaz yells "Boyz wake up we got dem shinys flin ova ead"! Gahz's hand picked boyz slowly get up as the stormravens slow down. Ghaz knew they had been spotted. Off in the distance the flash of teleporters could be seen. Ghaz yells again "Boyz get the fuck up already, I can smell the assassins from here". The boyz get up and in their formations and begin marching toward the ravens prepared to meet them ead on. Ghaz's nobz were suiting up getting ready for the oncoming slaughter and you could hear the roar of the kan squadron as the gretchin loaded up and prepared for battle.

Off in the distance the stormravens had turned around and were headed bat toward the ork formation. Ghaz and his nobz hopped into their kitted out red truck and zoomed forward to catch up with da boyz. The kans were running to catch up...stupid weedy grots. Gray Knights dropped suddenly out of the stormravens. A single sniper shot set off the fight. Ghaz's truck had been hit with the new turbo penetrator of a grey knights assassin. The truck ramshakled running into a small patch of woods. The nobz and ghaz got out of the explosion safely. The rest of the grey knights opened fire on the boyz and was quickly followed by two charges one into each squad. On the right flank some paladins lead by a notable grand master charged into a squad of bad moons and on the left a squad of grey knights charged into a squad of goffs. Despite the grey knights attacks they squads held and killed a few in return.

Ghaz, now forced out of his truck, was ready to fight. The paladins were close and a easy target for ghaz and his nobz. Ghaz however, was very unlucky and his mega armor froze up trying to move after his truck was wrecked. The nobz resorted to dragging him slowly toward the paladins hoping him to regain control over his armor. Meanwhile, a squadron of kans ran by charging headlong into the paladins.

On the left flank the roar of stormboyz could be heard. The stormboyz are so fast and were chosen to be Ghaz's lightning strike force. These super fast goffs could get into battle faster then any ork alive. The stormboyz flew into the combat that their fellow goffs were locked in with a squad of grey knights. The other squads of kans moved up and fired at the sotrmravens and a squad of gretchin slowly moved forward toward some supplies left over from the previous days fighting. There was two other supply piles about a hundred yards away. The orks needed to make sure they could capture all of them by days end (the orks had been careless about leaving them out the day before).

The kans began taking heavy damage as the paladins laid into them and one kan survived. The remaining bad moons began to run as their numbers had reached below ten. On the left flank the stormboyz and goffs mopped up the remaining grey knights. During their engagement the stormboyz had noticed an assassin hiding in the woods nearby and consolidated toward them while the remaining goffs moved into some ruins and onto another supply pile.

Ghaz's armor began to move again and the nobz charged headlong into the paladins in an attempt to save the solo kan. The nobz killed all of the paladins but the kan died in the ensuing combat. The wounded grand master, nobz, and ghaz were now face to face. The stormboyz quickly dispatched the assasin with minor casualties. A squadron of kans chased down a stormraven and with the rokkets and klaws managed to rip it from the sky.

An assassin appeared from nearby trees and charged into the nobz. A few nobz were killed and many were wounded. The grand master also inflicted damage toward at the nobz. Due to Ghaz's WAGAAH no one was going to run from this and Ghaz was sure as hell not going to die. Ghaz further wounded the grand master in return and the nobz wounded but failed to kill the assasin.

The stormboyz were now looking for a new target. Off in the distance they spotted a chimera and could hear a quire of people chanting in cryptic languages. The storbmoyz nob lead them by tearing open and exploding the chimera. Some IG and a Inquisitor lord made it out of the exploding tank.

The remaining kans, after taking damage from the second stormraven, charged in and brought down the flyer. There would be no escape for the imperial skum. The assassin continued to slaughter the nobz but one lucky strike in return finished off the assassin. The nobz and Ghaz had become separated earlier and Ghaz was now fighting the grand master one on one. Ghaz had stopped yelling at his men and fought the grand master one on one. The nobz turned to watch Ghaz get wounded and run from the grand master. Another shot rang out from the nearby trees and the nobz spotted the assasin that had exploded their truck. Ghaz was hit in the back and fell to the ground. The nobz let out a mighty roar and killed the grand master and with the help of the kans, they hunted down the assassin and killed him to. The assassin was sitting on the last pile of ammo needed by the orks.

Off in the distance the stormboyz too casualties but in return slaughtered all that opposed them.

The day was done and after being caught off guard many great orks were killed. Ghaz was dragged off by the kans and revived by his personal doc so he may fight again. The supplies were secured and the Imperial forces were wiped out. Ghaz smiled when he heard the conclusion of the battle told to him by his leading nob over a fungus beer that night. Ghaz's ranks would replenish and be ready for battle within a week.

Hoped you enjoyed my first narrative battle report and post comments or thought about it.

~RIPPED

3/24/2011 Ripped VS Ming Batrep

So after this past weekends tourney win I was willing to play another 1750 game with my Blood Angels against Ming's Ultras. We got to our FLGS late for our weekly wed 40k night. Almost all the tables in the store were being used and we had like 20 people playing 40k...never seen that many all at once for just a casual night. Everyone had paired up and I was forced to play Ming. We rolled off on the list of missions and got the mission with a center objective as primary and table quarters as secondary. It was spearhead deployment and we rolled off for choice. I got a 2 and he got a 1! I chose to go second so I could react to him and take table quarters and contest easier.

1750 Points Rough Lists:

RIPPEDDRAGON
Libby w/ jump (rage, shield)
Libby w/ jump (rage, shield)

Priest w/ jump, pw, mb
Priest w/ jump, pw, mb
Priest

10 Man Asslt sqd 2x melta and PF
10 Man Asslt sqd 2x flame and TH
10 Man asslt sqd 2x flame and TH
5 Man asslt sqd 1x melta and Razorback w/ TL Plas and LasC
5 Man asslt sqd 1x melta and Razorback w/ TL Plas and LasC

Pred LasC spn and AutoC
Pred HvyBltr spn and AutoC
(same list as this last tourney)

Ming
Libby w/ Termi (Null Zone, Vortex)
Pedro Cantor

Sternguard Razorback TL LasC
Sternguard rhino
Tac Razorback TL LasC
Tac Rhino

Speeder w/ melta and hflamer

5x Termi 2x THSS 3x LC and Landraider
(typical Pedro Cantor Castle)

He deployed everything in one big clump and I deployed all my tanks and one 2x flamer squad w/ a Priest and a Libby behind a tank wall. My Razorback were in front of my preds.

His turn 1:
He moved up and shot one Razorback and resulted in immobilizing and taking off my LasC.

My turn 1:
I moved my tanks out of cover. My working tanks near my table edge moving around a large building and my mobile dakka pred moving up to the centerline with the Assault Squad behind them.
I shot and got one pen on a Razorback and ripped off the TL LasC

His turn 2:
He shot and Immobilized my other razorback...ugh

My turn 2:
With rerolls only one combat squaded melta gun came on deep striking. They quickly mishapped and I rolled and got them back in reserve. I held my position and shot at his tanks. I managed to rip off a TL LasC on his LR.

His Turn 3:
His shots did almost nothing and he popped the remaining smoke on his tanks.

My Turn 3:
The Flamer squad and Libby and Priest still fail at life with rerolls...ugh
Both melta squads land on either side of his hatches on the LR sitting on the center. I jump my Flamer squad over my pred toward his LR that should die. Both melta hit and both fail to pen. All my other shots do nothing. I charge in with my S9 Thunderhammer and fail to even hit on a 4+. My melta bomb also misses.

His Turn 4:
His castle opens up to try and wipe me. I get off shield and was within range to give cover to all my assault marines as well as FNP. He uses his orbital bombardment and vortex and all the melta and las cannons...he rapid fires with sternguard. He kills 3 guys to my amazing dice rolls for my saves. He charges into a melta squad and my flamer squad. I lose the melta squad and kill one lightning claw and run away with 6 guys...i only flee 5 inches and will keep running.

My turn 4:
I roll snake eyes and fail to get my flamer squad in again...wow just wow
My assault squad runs like 5 inches and my melta squad goes to melt the land raider. I pen but get immobilized. Luckily he moved it off the center objective first! I shot the rest of my army at the termis and kill a lightning claw. I multicharged the termis and killed a thunderhammer and I was wiped. He moved toward my fleeing squad.

His turn 5:
His shots dont touch my tanks and he charges into my fleeing assault squad. I kill off his libby with my TH and pass morale.

My turn 5:
My flamer squad lands near the center objective and spreads out. My dakka pred rams a razorback on the center objective and Stuns it. The rest of my shots wreck the tank. I need to contest the center if the game ends. In the termi CC I kill off the lightning claw.

His turn 6:
He spreads out on table quarters and shoots at my assault squad and kills one and fails to wreck my pred. I fail to kill his TH and he fails to kill anything.

My turn 6:
I charge into the center with my assault squad. My rolls are fail but I manage to break a stearnguard in one quarter and contest all the others. The combat with the termi results in everyones death except my TH.

We roll and the game ends. He contests/controls 3 quarters. The center is contested and I have one table quarter because one stearnguard squad broke. A minor win for the Blood Angels

I made several tactical mistakes during the game and compiled on top of that my rolls were terrible the whole game. A win is a win and I will take it.

I bought a stormraven with the tourney winnings and I look forward to running Lemartes and 10x death company 8x pw and 2x TH!!!

Thanks for reading..subscribe on the right and post a comment below!!

RIPPED

3/20/2010 Tourney Report

After nearly 6 months when I played my Blood Angles in Ard Boyz Nationals I decide to dust them off for a tourney. I painted my first tank and got cranking on my list and building more guys! All out push for my first tourney at my FLGS with my Blood Angels.

Time to flex my nuts and go for broke and hopefully come out with the win.

Game one was my first time playing against Black Templars. My opponent had not really played in 6 years but would give me a good fight. We had a list of objectives and had to pick one as a primary and another as a secondary. The primary was worth 2 points and secondary was worth 1. It can be found here . I picked Blitz as primary and Domination as secondary. Pretty easy for me because of all the priests and libbys I have to get me to the 4 I need in his deployment. We fought hard through the center and I quickly tar pitted his army and we both started taking heavy losses. Finally my libby with a priest and 10 man jump squad land and the following turn kill 3 squads and a Chaplain to clear the board and win me the game.

Next was a table quarter mission from a previous Ard Boyz. I was playing vs a chaos Thousand Suns list. He had 3 squads in rhinos, 3 preds, 2 princes. Pretty simple list and nasty ap 3 bolters and flamers. The game was won for me when I charged into 2 princes and a squad and killed one and hit the other with a thunder hammer only to follow up with killing him the next turn. His squads tar pitted my squads most of the game but in the end I came out tabling my opponent and then getting almost full points. I was now in the lead for the day and would have to play one more round for the win.

Round three was against another templar player. Holy crap now I can use what I learned in game one and play better. I also learned that my opponent had been using many of his rules wrong and to his advantage...oh well. I was now against a semi gunline opponent. 2 termi squads with 2x cyclones each, 2x speeders with cyclones, 2x tl las rzr backs, a pred, 2x las cannon squads. This game was to be fought over the table center being the only objective and table quarters as a secondary mission. He won the roll and went first. I set far away and behind cover. His shots killed one of my rzr backs but did nothing else. I then moved up and used one of my tanks to screen a 10 man assault quad and had my melta squad combat squaded and deep striking. His turn 2 he failed to kill my one tank wall! I followed up by assaulting and killing his terminators, a rhino, and a razorback. The center would become a large assault tar pit. My meltas took out the rest of his tanks and I eventually tabled him and had 3 5 man squads remaining.

Great day for me...I won another tourney! We had 18 players for the tourney. 2nd place went to IG and a tie for 3rd with 2 ultras. Best sport went to a new kid probably around 13yrs old. This is the third army I have won a tourney with. The one most people dont know is I won with Chaos once last year. Ming and I had been painting a chaos army and I got to play it for a few games and went out and won a tourney. I might just have to play Mings Ultras to win a tourney! HAHA

Hoped you liked the read!

RIPPED

2 Quick Batreps

This past week I have been working on refining my 1750 BA list for this months tourney. On the normal Wednesday night games I played vs dark eldar and then this weekend I played against ming's ultras.

The game vs DE was annihilation and spearhead deployment. He had a reservy web way portal list. I said screw it and was forced to go first so I deployed everything. Over the first two turns I spread out over his border and waited for him to come on. He came on 2 units a turn and I slaughtered them every turn. Watching them try to kill 3+ armor with a FNP is funny. They may swing a lot and fast but the power behind them is like a child hitting me in the legs over and over..its annoying but just pick him up and throw him. I lost a razorback and a few guys and tabled him.

The game vs ultras was going to be interesting. We were playing an adepticon mission. Goals were kill more non troop units then your opponent, control more table quarters, and have the only hq unit within 3 inches of the board center. He was all mech with sternguard and Pedro Cantor. I made him go first and he moved to the center of the board and castled up...ugh big mistake reserving everything on my part. I should have not let him castle around pedros +1A bubble. I dropped in with one flamer squad on the far side and drove all my tanks on turn 2. My melta squad and other flamer quad managed to not get on even with rerolls. I shot some and hunkered down waiting for turn 3. Turn 3 I landed and threw meltas into his raider and only one pen and rolled a one. From then on the middle of the board was a huge tar pit of death. Game ended with me having both 5 man rzr quads alive and only 5 of 30 assault marines alive. I also had a pred and a razorback alive. My opponent had his land raider, a stunned rhino, 7 marines, and a termi libby left. I had 2 table quarters and he had 1, I won on kps, and no one had the center with a hq.

That game was a tough one and I had some poor rolling but I am getting better with my blood angels every game.

Thanks for following and please comment,
RIPPED

Devs/Longfangs VS Preds VS Dreads

Here we go guys an analysis of the 3 most common HVY support choices across all marines.

First is Devs squads. These guys are immobile cheap heavy wep platforms with the best bang for your buck. You can customize these guys and even give them a transport. You can buy extra wounds so that the weps don't die first. The main problem of these guys is MOBILITY. They cannot move and shoot.

Next is Predators. These bad boys pack a punch with the advantage of front armor 13 and mobility. The two viable builds are HVY bltr or Las Cannon Spn and an Auto Cannon turret. They don't have many extra wep choices and can easily be shut down with any pen or glancing hit. They also have rear armor 10 and are an easy close combat kill.

Then we have Dreads. They are mobile firing platforms with some close combat ability. They have a wide verity of wep options. It is much harder to kill these guys in close combat.

Honestly all three of these are viable choices and all come down to personal preference. However, with the specialization of these in certain codex some become better choices then others.

Space Pups have the dreaded long fangs. The change to be able to split fire at 2 targets make these guys way better then the other heavy options.

Emo Vamps have all rhino chassis with better engines making them fast. Now the mobility of the predator is way more then the Dread and with the high speed of the rest of the codex these guys are the clear choice for blood angels.

Ultras have no clear specialization and treat all these choices the same in power with the trade offs listed. Your choice here comes down to personal preference.

As a side note the Vindicator is just bad. One wep destroyed make the tank useless and it is over pointed for what it does.

The WW is cheap but dosnt have the killy power and just suffers the same problem as the Vind.

RIPPED

Power Fist VS Thunder Hammer

For quite some time now I have gotten some flak from some of the gamers at my FLGS saying that Hammers are worse then PF purely because they cost more. Well today I am going to back my reasons up for having TH over PF and hopefully if you readers get a chance to pick TH over PF from now on you will always go with the TH.

Power Fist or PF: Doubles the users base strength to a max of 10 and strike at Initiative 1. Furious charge and other modifiers are added in after the doubling of the base.
s4->s8 or s4->s8->Furious Charge->s9 on the charge....Points: 25

Thunder Hammer: Same as above with the additional rule of; no matter what the damage result on vehicles add crew shaken(cant shoot) and any model wounded by a TH strikes at Initiative 1 next combat. TH cost 5 more points so... Points: 30

Hidden PF has always been the norm for me in any squad numbering 10 or more guys(this goes for my orks too). This golden rule buffs every squad into a much more deadly version of them selfs in close combat. You need this because of how bad grenades are against walkers in 5th Edition. Plus the extra strength is great! This also causes instant death on probably 90% of all models in the game.

There have been so many games where I have seen a Dread, Kans, or Monstrous Creature get into combat and have no fear of dieing because no one in the squad can kill them. Take a PF and stop gimping your squads CC ability.

If you still arnt convinced you need a PF then stop reading I dont care about you anymore and my Kans will eat your squads for breakfast all day...even through dinner!

Now for TH vs PF here we go:

The TH just pushes that good thing of a hidden PF one step further. The extra bonuses for 5 points have always been worth it. All you have to do is stop a tank from shooting once and save 1 guy and you are ahead of the game on points. Or better yet save a few or an IC by making a monstrous creature swing at I1 rather then I6 or something crazy! Plus would you rather look like Hell Boy with a fat hand or Thor with a big mother fucking hammer!

Almost every game I play the TH makes its points back and if you have 2-3 you increase the chances you will get your points worth.

Stop being shitty old Hell Boy and trade in for Thor!

If you are a codex without thunder hammers as options I feel bad for you...not!

RIPPED

BA vs Eldar and BA vs Ultras breif

This past week I decided to start focusing more on my blood angels. I got two games in this past week against two local gamers at our FLGS.

Both games were played at 1750 points.

I used:
2x Lib /w JP (sword,rage)

2x 10 man Asslt Squads 2x flamers PW and hand flamer
10 man Asslt Squad 2x melta and TH

2x 5 man squad TL Las Rzr

3x Sang Priests 2x pw and 2x JP

2x AC LS Preds

After playing BAs more I have really come to love jump packs and the mobility and utility they bring.

The Eldar for my first game were playing an Eldrad and Seer Council List. This wouldnt be a bad game with my hoods and FNP.

We were playing Spearhead and Capture and Control
The game started out with his Seer Council charging into combat with a 10 man squad with a lib and a sang. I killed one of them and managed to lose my lib. This combat would be a long boring fight that brought in all of my squads except one charging in. I lost a 10 man squad a sang and a lib due to a really low chance deep strike misshap. Eventually I killed the Seer Council but was still in combat with the HQ and couldn't kill the last character...ugh. My troops were either dead or tied up. I went for a rush on his objective for a tie and managed to get less than an inch away from a tie with a fast pred.

The next game was against a 3x venerable dread a land raider and 3 10 man squads. Ugh so mugh hardend targets to kill.

Setup was DOW and playing Annihilation

I let him go first so I could pick out the tanks that spotlighted and drop later giving him one less turn to kill my jump guys. On turn one he managed to rip the LC off a Rzr. After that I drove on and hell broke loose. I began by stopping two of his venerables from moving for the rest of the game and only one more to go. His return fire managed to stun 3 of my tanks. Then I dropped in everything and began to tear him apart. In the end he had only killed a lib and one pred while I killed everything except a dread and the land raider. This all after 7 full turns.

I am learning and getting better with these guys. Its hard having just a fun army after playing all of 5th ed with my orks and crushing most of these guys by turn 4. I like painting the blood angels way more then the randomness of the ork models. I want to feel comfortable with my tournament play with these guys too so I can do well in our monthly tourneys at our FLGS. I will be getting more units and options for my BAs and hopefully find a list that I like and can work with it as a core like I did with my orks.

Here is it! BA vs Nids 1250!

Weekend Tourney Wrapup

This past Saturday there was a 2000pt tourney at my FLGS. I had not played for quite some time because of work and classes. So Friday night I drove to play a chaos player from our FLGS at his house.

The game Friday was a great warm up. We had rolled and got DOW and 2 Objectives. Ugh I hate DOW because of how slow the good portion of my army is. I lost the roll and was forced to play first. There was an objective near mid field and another deep into his deployment zone. He was playing a lash list with 2 squads of oblits and a defi. There was one large 10 man termi squad and 2 3 man melta termi squads. Then 2 basic squads of chaos with icons. I placed my 30 man squads in the middle and on the left flank. The one on the left was to fight after his objective. Everything else would come on turn one. I move up my blobs and run them forward. Everything comes on and runs moving as fast as I can. My stormboyz move 22 inches that turn. His turn one he walks on oblits, defi, and the 10 man termi squad onto his objective. My middle boyz mob gets lashed and brought down to 12 models. Everything else was fine. My turn two ghaz pops his Wagaah and the 30 man blob gets into combat with his large termi squad and so does my stormboyz moving another 22 inches this turn. My 12 man squad goes and kills some oblits and my nobz get out of the trukk leaving ghaz and kills his lash sorc rhino. It explodes and pins the squad. Over the next few turn my nobz tar pit and kill off his right flank including the defi. My stormboyz and boyz eventually die in close combat due to a counter charge by some basic chaos marines. Ghaz quickly mops up that combat solo. The kans and my lootas never really do anything and I table my opponent by my turn 5. My gretchin are also holding the objectives at this time.

Now onto tourney time! Game one was vs Ig mech. The objective was to capture and walk off the board with objectives. Spearhead deployment and objectives in the center of each quad and board center, so 5 total. I won the roll and went first. He scouted both valk and a vet quad onto the 3 objectives and then it was my turn to move. I blew up the chimera in the center and pinned the unit. On the right the valk was fine and I boosted Ghaz and my storm boyz over as fast as I could. On the left I moved and ran a large linked squad to the objective with support from a kan squad. In the center I moved and ran a large boyz mob linked to the table edge and rolled a 6 for run. This put me on top of the objective. A grot squad grabbed and ran off the board with my objective. My opponent failed to run off the board on his turn with the two scouted units. My turn two consisted of wiping off the units carrying the objectives and grabbing and taking the middle off the board. He shot and did very little his turn two. My turn three I grabbed and ran the two side objectives off the board. I got a massacre and a quick win. Took about an hour.

Game 2 was modified kill points. I spread out across the middle of the board and went first. I was playing against a mech Spacewolves with termis. Turn one was all out movement. My opponent castled himself in a corner. His shooting resulted in a wrecked trukk and a few wounds on my nobz and one on ghaz. He was in striking range on turn two so I popped my Wagaah and let ghaz and knobz multi charge termis, dreads, njal, and a land raider while my stormboyz wiped out the longfangs. One group of kans also made it into combat with the land raider due to a large run roll on turn one and him moving forward a few inches. My lootas also managed to stop a rhino during the shooting phase. Ghaz and friends wiped the land raider and the venerable dread and killed a few out of the termi squad with no wounds taken. My opponent forfeit the game on his turn two with most of his army crippled. A win in 45 min...I was hoping for a good day of gaming.

Game 3 I finally got to play another ork player! It was 6 objectives and 3 would activate on turns 2, 4, and 6. I was forced to go first and I played very defensively. I set up so that my units could react to his assaults. I quickly wrecked his looted wagons with boom guns with my lootas. I took almost no casualties waiting for him to get close. On turn two he began to charge me. I tied him up in combat and began to sweep the board with my stormboyz and nobz. My 30 man squads took a beating from his charges but that was the plan from the start. In the end ghaz caught his nobz in the open and popped his Wagaah and charged in killing 4 and taking no wounds. They were quickly dispatched. In the end I had lost about 60 orks and all of my kans. But in return killed everything of his except 3 truks. I held the objectives and went on to win this game and finally got to play a full game!

I won the tourney overall and had a great day. I am holding onto my winnings and I will unload them all at one time. I might just have to buy 6+ drop pods and give them to my day and laugh at him.

Math hammer and YOU!

Over the past year or so a funny term seemed to be coined in the 40k community..the so called 'math hammer'. It is where you calculate on average what should happen. Theory crafting out lists based on using some math hammer skills is great for conceptual ideas. I use it all the time to figure out what should happen.

However, may people try to use it in a tourney setting to try and figure out exactly how and what you should do. This is just wrong. You can think all you want all day but in the end the two important things that you should have instead is your play experience/knowledge of past experiences and how your dice are rolling.

I almost never math hammer in games! I dont need to because it slows me down and I already know how I will do based on past games. In a timed tourney setting I dont have the time to spare to think. You should be actively reacting and moving without needing to math hammer. Another reason is math hammer may show an even result or a non favorable result and change your decision. You need to take risks to win and make the appropriate choices. Your opponent may be rolling bad and you can take advantage of that situation. Also your opponent might make a mistake if you went for it. You would never know that if you held back due to a poor math hammer result.

Before you start crunching numbers in your next game ask yourself "do I already know the outcome?" you can save so much time and fear not using math hammer in games.

~Ripped

News, Rumors, and Ranting...Ripped's thoughts of the day!

I wake up this morning and go to eat breakfast and get my morning fill of 40k news. Ming tells me about a 2+ invuln save upgrade to some new GK squads in their next dex. Other sites have spoiled some other spells and units. People bitch and complain online about new crazy things or amazing upgrades. Sure the new GK codex will have some crazy stuff but so has every other codex that has come out in 5th ed. None truly game breaking.
GW has done a great job with balance and point levels for most things. Sure you may have a 2+ invuln on some guys but I bet you they will be ~100 points for a basic guy and any special characters with it will probably be in the 300 point range and with how most of the recent changes have gone those chars will probably still be instant deathed.
Everything has a counter balance in the game. You can never say something is just op by their statline. Points and drawbacks are what really matter and nothing great is ever cheap.
On a side note if you have not seen the fuzzy pics of the new cybertron like suit for the GKs go find it! I am all for new cool models and things we havnt seen.
Just wait till things are actually printed before you pass judgment about if a codex is OP. More than likely it will be balanced or have counters. Any power gamer will find a way and adapt the the new cheese of the month that the net gamers will throw at them. Its like how I jumped onto the BA band wagon because of the internet chatter about how good they were. After their shine wore off they became just another good codex and not overpowered. I have had them for 8 months now and still have yet to finish them. I am still magnetizing models and I have started painting my first squad and finalizing the paint scheme.
Dont scream OP till the codex drops! Even then I bet you my orks will win out! hahah
~Ripped

Ork Tactica: Death Koptas

This is one of my favorite new models from the last ork codex. Often overlooked these guys pack a punch. They can shoot, assault, and their mobility is second to none. Lets look at what we have:
TL Big shootas and upgraded to TL Rockets for 10 pts
Power Klaws for 25 pts
Big Bombs for some one time use large blast goodness
The koptas have 2 wounds and t4/5 so not to bad but a crappy save unless turbo boosted. They have scout so they can outflank and move before the game starts. This includes being able to turbo boost pre turn 1 so they will always have a cover save. You must stay 12 inches away from all enemies on your scout moves.
I don't run these guys in my lists until the higher point levels. They just cost so much that it is not worth it at lower points. I use them as a quick alpha striking squad and take out some big problem units quick. If you go first you can auto hit tanks with your klaws in combat and shred most tanks. Combo that with TL rockets these guys will open up the fast stuff so the squishy goodness inside can get charged by my main force. Then they can also deal with large blob squads via Big bombs. These one shot large blasts are dropped off on any unit you fly over. YOU CAN EVEN TURBO BOOST AND DROP THEM! That is just amazing. The most hardened of squads fall to the sheer fire power of the big bombs. I have killed 50 man IG squads in one swipe and even squads of termis. Just drop enough of them and over power them with numbers. The final use I have for these is charging into heavy wep squads on turn one ie Devs and Long Fangs. This will cut down on the shots my opponents have that can damage my kans and trucks.
Koptas almost never live through the game but at the same time they almost never suck. Every game they tend to make back their points and more. If your koptas make it out alive after alpha striking then either hide them or be orky and push them even further down your opponents throat.
Thanks for reading,
~Ripped
These elite jack if all trades squads do

Sorry for the delay

not much to watch the game so just a quick clip of it.
look out for my next vid of 1250 pts where I lost at another local gamers house!

Ork Tactica: Nobz

Sorry I have been super bzy with work. Working at a ski mtn I got snowed out today lol. So i have the day off. My internet keep fouling up but I will prep two batreps and have them posted within the next 2 weeks.

I thought I had already written one for Nobz but here it goes.

Other armies have their elite units of warriors and the orks have nobs. There are two versions Nobz and Mega Nobs. The latter being in a crappy version of termi armor. There is a place for both however. Mega Nobz are rarely played by most but I find them to be a great body guard for ghazghkull (read my early tactica on him).

Nobz are one of the best elite forces in the game and probably have the best diversity of armaments. With their 2 wound base they also have great wound abuse potential. You can have up to 10 wounds before you need to remove a model. They can get a bike if you want and have a 4+ save, a 5+ invuln, and 4+ FNP... These guys are great. I see most people running them on bikes and zooming across the field. I however run them in a truck. Here is why: I save on points, The extra toughness does not change much, the truck is a much smaller size overall then a squad of bikers, everyone runs bikers, I can squeeze ghazghkull into this squad on a truck, and there is more but honestly figure out your preference of bikes vs truck yourself. They do need a ride or otherwise dont bother taking these guys. You need to abuse wound allocation with these guys and mix up their weps. I only runn 7 different guys in a 10 man squad but that tends to do ok anyway. Now most people dont buy Uge Chopps on these guys but for 5 points how can you go wrong? You lose 1 attack but gain +2 to strength...s7 on the charge and s6 normally. These guys turn into tank killers with this one upgrade. They can also kill monsterous creatures with ease now. Power klaws are a must in any ork squad that will get in CC. I run 1 for a size 1-5 and 2 for 6+. This gives me enough to kill almost anything in the game easily. The final important point I would like to bring is kombi-scorchas are amazing..s5 ap4 with no rolls to hit always do well. In my 10 man squad I run 4 total. This will either do huge damage or make holes for my orks to charge through.

Mega Nobz are far worse then nobz for two reasons. The lack of a 5+ invuln and Slow and Purposeful. Dont let that get you down. These guys are cheap for what they do and if you pick their targets right you wont have a problem. I always ask and find out what squads have power weps or power fists and send these guys into my opponents weak spots. You can also trade them for terminators in combat. Most of the time my Mega Nobz die but take out a ton of guys in the process. Multi Charging marines is also key. They can kill so many that if you dont multi charge you may overkill the squad. I run them as a 5 man squad and throw Ghaz in with them and let them go to town. Another great thing is that with 2 wounds and armor 2+ is makes them last much longer then nobz. There is so mant marine lists running missile launcher lists and these guys will tank that ap3 all day.

There you go a brief tactica on one of the best death star units in the game. Any questions on them or anything else on depth just ask. Also I would like suggestions for my next tactica segment.