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I have decided to set myself a challenge to only play games with the models I have painted. The result of this is that I constructed a list that has getting on for 40 tactical marines in it, and using the Raptors chapter tactics I've played a couple of games. Here's my list at 1500pts HQ Lias Issodon *And They Shall Know no Fear, Chapter Tactics: Raptors, Cunning Strategist, Independant Character, Infiltrate, Isolate, Destroy, Shrouded, Warlord Bolt Pistol, Malice (^), Power Sword Elites Sternguard Veteran SquadAnd They Shall Know no Fear, Chapter Tactics, Combat Squads 4x Veteran RazorbackTank Twin-Linked Assault Cannon Space Marine SergeantBoltgun, Melta Bombs, Power Weapon Troops Tactical SquadAnd They Shall Know no Fear, Chapter Tactics, Combat Squads 9x Space Marine Space Marine SergeantBolt pistol, Bolter, Melta Bombs Tactical SquadAnd They Shall Know no Fear, Chapter Tactics, Combat Squads 9x Space Marine Space Marine SergeantBolt pistol, Bolter, Melta Bombs Tactical SquadAnd They Shall Know no Fear, Chapter Tactics, Combat Squads 8x Space Marine Space Marine SergeantBolt pistol, Bolter, Melta Bombs Tactical SquadAnd They Shall Know no Fear, Chapter Tactics, Combat Squads Meltagun, 9x Space Marine Drop PodDeathwind Missile Launcher Space Marine SergeantBolt pistol, Bolter, Melta Bombs Fast Attack Bike SquadAnd They Shall Know no Fear, Chapter Tactics, Combat Squads Plasma Gun, 5x Space Marine Biker Attack BikeMulti-Melta Biker SergeantBolt pistol, Melta Bombs Bike SquadAnd They Shall Know no Fear, Chapter Tactics, Combat Squads Plasma Gun, 5x Space Marine Biker Biker SergeantBolt pistol Heavy Support Devastator SquadAnd They Shall Know no Fear, Chapter Tactics, Combat Squads 2x Lascannon, 2x Missile Launcher, 4x Space Marine Space Marine SergeantBolt pistol, Bolter Lots and lots of scout, infiltrate, rending bolters. People are intimidated when they see just how many men I get out of my case. It's glorious. Anyway, I've played two games with this list, one against space wolves where the only difference was the Sternguard were in the pod and tacticals in the razorback, and one against chaos space marine where it was as it is now. Game One: Space Wolves He had Krom Dragongaze in a unit of terminators, another unit of terminators, some grey hunters in a razorback, an axe and shield venerable dreadnought, a bastion with lascannon longfangs and a stormwolf with Grey Hunters in (I think this was all) I infiltrated three of the tactical squads all around the board, essentially camping on all the objectives, since we were playing the mission where you get cards for the number of objectives you hold each turn. He went first and killed just a few of my marines. The highlight of the first couple of turns was Issoden doing three hull points to the bastion with Isolate, Infiltrate, Destroy. :) I managed to rend off one of the squads of terminators and my bikes were harassing the dreadnought, keeping it away from my tacticals. When the Stormwolf came on I thought I was done for but by that point I had so many objectives thanks to the number of squads I had and the speed of my units, that he had to table me to win, which he almost managed to do as I was left with two devastators and two bikes at the end, having destroyed all of his army apart from the stormwolf and the longfangs in the bastion. This was a great game, and I feel that the rending on the bolters, whilst it doesn't kick in all that often, makes bolters just that bit more tactically flexible. Final score 17-4 to the raptors. My second game was against a Slaanesh and Tzeentch themed CSM list. He had a Ahriman, a level three sorcerer, a unit of terminators, a unit of slaanesh marines in a rhino, a unit of slaanesh bikers, a forgefiend and some thousand sons. Again I infiltrated and scouted really close, and took two hull points off the forgefiend with isolate (such a good ability). In my first turn I destroyed the forgefiend with my assault cannon, and took off nine out of ten of the thousand sons with the tacticals nearby and the drop pod squad. Highlight of the first part of the game was my tactical marines killing one bike which left him off the objective I needed allowing my bikes to turbo boost onto it. :) The game pretty much went my way from there, I was able to tie up his terminators with a squad of bikes, shoot off everything else, then mob the terminators with everyone at the end. Final Score 16-1 to the Raptors. Raptor chapter tactics are amazing. Taking Issoden, giving a bunch of units infiltrate and scout, which you use to get into a good position, then open up and rend things all the way to the bank. Simply stunning. I feel like if I'd gone up against more mech i'd have struggled, and I'm thinking of swapping out a bike squad for a stormtalon. Anyway, that's my short defense of the humble bolter, thoughts?

We agreed upon 1500 points and rolled for an Eternal War mission, ended up with "The Relic". For deployment we rolled "Hammer and Anvil". No "Night Fighting". My List: Shrike Tactical Squad - 5 additional SM, Melta Gun, Combi-melta, Rhino Tactical Squad - 5 additional SM, Plasma Gun, Combi-plasma, Rhino Scout Squad - 5x Camo Cloaks, 5x Sniper Rifles Vanguard Veteran Squad - 5 additional marines, 10x Jump Packs, 3x TH, 3 SS Assault Squad - 2x Flamer, Power Sword + Melta Bomb Assault Squad - 2x Flamer, Power Sword + Melta Bomb Devastator Squad - 4x Lascannons Devastator Squad - 4x Plasma Cannons Opponent's list Chaos Lord - fully-kitted out (Lightning Claw, Power Fist, 2+/3++) Chaos Sorcerer - forgot the powers Chaos Terminators - 5-man grouped up with the Chaos Lord Noise Marines - sonic blasters and blastmasters mixed in Havocs - 4x Auto-cannons Land Raider - carrying the Lord & Terminators Obliterators - a 1-man & 2-man squad, both DS I think that's all he had... The board is a mirror image on both sides so there was no advantage to which side I picked but I was the one going first at least. The relic was placed in the center of the map where there just happened to be a large ruin, 6x12 inches in size. Since I was able to use my scout move and go first I was on top the relic right away. I had my Plasma Cannons cover the left side of the board and the Lascannons covering the right, so once course his Land Raider came at me on my left side. Shrike's VV unit deployed directly behind the ruins in the center of the map, there wasn't too many good place to infiltrate closer to his back lines. The 2 Rhinos moved up the board and ended up behind his main force and the center ruin with the relic. Granted he glanced them both to death but the Tactical Squads were able to disembark into the ruins. The big mistake my opponent made was upload his Chaos Lord & Terminators right in the middle of my 2 destroyed Rhinos. Tons of bolter fire were able to soften them up until Shrike's VV squad came in with HoW blows and massive attacks. The Land Raider was still and annoyance as the one melta gun I had was unable to hit it's mark. The combi-melta I had blew it as well. Not to mention the one attempt I made with a melta bomb whiffed. The Plasma Cannons were able to take out most of one of the Noise Marine squads. The Lascannons were just picking off a unit here and there, nothing too great, a real waste of the high strength shots. The Sniper Scouts were a waste of point this game, since there were objectives to secure they didn't do all too much. A few kills but very much "meh". Once Shrike's VV squad was done with the Terminators they just swept across my opponent's backfield and was able to take out another 2 units before Shrike was killed and 2 VV units were left. The squad performed great, totally worth it. Once his Obliterators came in from reserve into my battlefield both of my Devastator Squads bit the dust. They were left unsupported so not a big surprise. By turn 5 it was just a game of keep away. It was truly and bloodbath on both side. I had a handful of Tactical Squad guys left and a few ASM but I had the Relic. He was left with an immobilzed Land Raider and just 2 Obliterators. So when the game went on to turn 6 I had ran away just enough to be out of sight/range of the Land Raider. I had the Relic, I had the win! (/end rambling)

So my friend Paul wants to get in on 40K. Alex lent him basically the chaos marines from dark vengeance to play. We did a simple King of the Hill mission. I brought jump chappy, 10 tacs with heavy bolter, flamer, and combiflamer, 5 sniper scouts with cloaks, and 6 ASM with 2 flamers, and a vet sgt with claws. Vsgt and chappy both had meltabombs. Paul went first. I had made the rookie mistake of sitting on the objective, and not in hard cover within 3" of it. So he shot my scouts a lot. He got aggressive with the helbrute, and the chosen. I moved up the assault squad, and repositioned the tac squad. The tacs ate some chosen, and the snipers put a wound on the champion. His turn, he moved the helbrute up, one cultist mob, and the chosen up. I lost 2 tacs in shooting, 1 assault marine, and another scout. The helbrute charged the assault marines, and got blown up by a meltabomb for his trouble. Paul didn't expect that. He had moved up his cc cultists w/ warlord to join in next turn. My turn, I moved up the assault squad, tacs and last 2 scouts camped and shot. Whittled his chosen down to 2. Flamed the cc cultists, but failed the charge by an inch! His turn, he somehow managed to clip another scout, and I failed morale. His cultists and warlord got all my assault marines but chappy, Alpha Legion got to my dice. Then he charged chappy. Rosarius deflected the 2 power sword wounds he managed to inflict. Chappy killed him in the challenge, and swept the cultists. My turn, moved chappy to threaten the chosen, but my shooting did nothing. In the assault chappy fell to a power ax and lightning claws, without inflicting a single wound. His turn, chosen made it close to my tacs, but his shooty cultists were ineffective. He charged, and got me down to 3 tacs, and they broke from combat. My turn, moved scout sgt within 3" of objective is LoS-blocking cover, and shot up the chosen. It was a massacre all around, but I won 9-3 victory points. A good time was had by all, and Paul is hooked. I made sure to make plenty of rookie mistakes to make it fair, but Paul catches on quick.

I was able to finally play a game against a friend of mine and decided I'd try to keep some sort of a log of the events. I took some photos to spice it up, but not many. We played Maelstrom - Tactical Escalation. I had: (I'll put the full list up at some point or other) Demi Company - Cap with Shield Eternal and Relic Blade - Razorback tacticals (2 melta, 1 flamer) - 4 lascannon Devs Ravenhawk Assault Group - Stormraven - 5 Sternguard - Dreadnought Shadowstrike KT - 5 Vanguard (3 swords, 2 axes) x2 - 5 scouts with LSS (x2) He had (from memory) Farseer with Guardian blob Farseer with Dire Avengers 2 x Falcons 2 x Wave Serpents - Dire Avengers and Wrathguard 2 x Jetbike Squads 2 x Warp Spider squads Stiking Scorpions So, not overly competitive but enough to be a pain. We deployed up, me spread out and he blocked up a corner - holding the 2 objectives I needed for my Tactical Objectives. http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae184/CordovaBiconis/IMAG1321.jpg?t=1492335272 I made my deployment quite aggressive - forcing him to break out of the corner in a spread - trying to limit all the shurikens arriving in one place... We started and I seized. I rolled for the RAG and they came on, dropping straight in behind his lines. I also dropped both Vanguard in to really keep him held back. The objectives in the centre of the table were what he needed so I wanted to slow him in the corner - giving me a chance to get to them as I didn't think I'd oust him from the 2 I needed in his deployment zone. Meanwhile, the Demi Company moved up to claim the objective he needed and brought their tanks to block another. http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae184/CordovaBiconis/IMAG1323.jpg In my shooting phase, the RAG targeted the DA and Farseer (in the building to the bottom left). The Sternguard took out about 4 of them. The Dreadnought shot at the Falcon next to it - it exploded into tiny pieces of space elf. The Raven shot at the farmost Wave Serpent, putting 2 hull points on it. I then shot at the Warp Spiders who jumped away. In my Assault phase I tried to charge the Spiders with the VV. They failed. Good good. The other VV charged the wounded WS and blew it up - I knew this would doom them, but it meant that one big threat was reduced to footslogging. His turn He moved the jetbikes in the bottom to shoot. He shuffled a few things but decided to hang about in the back to eliminate my troops - keeping him pinned back (so far so to plan). The Wraithguard and the Spiders melted the VV who had destroyed the WS. The jetbikes glanced the Dread to death and put 2 hull points on the Raven. The Scorpions moved up to threaten the objective he needed. The second WS zoomed away. The DA tried to remove the Sternguard but only killed one. My turn 2 http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae184/CordovaBiconis/IMAG1328.jpg (Sorry for blur) I moved up the Scouts to support my now-weakened flank. The Captain and his Assault Squad bounced up too. The Demi troops shuffled forwards to bring their Razorbacks to bear. The Raven flew off this turn. In my shooting, the Sternguard brought down another DA with pistols. The LSS tried to hit the Spiders but they jumped away. The Lascannon devs blew up the DA Wave serpent. In my Assault phase it all went wrong. I charged the Spiders with the VV. I lost 3 to overwatch fire. I tried to charge the Wraith guard (I needed a 6). I failed. And failed the reroll. I then whiffed every roll for the remaining VV and they then got punched to death by the Spiders. My right flank was now very vulnerable. The biggest positive was the Sternguard charging the DA and Farseer blob - they got in and punched 2 Space Elves down. His turn 2 http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae184/CordovaBiconis/IMAG1329.jpg He shuffled around to bring down the ASM and captain. His second Spiders didn't come in from reserve. The other Jetbikes moved to contest an objective. The Scorpions and DA moved to claim the objective he needed. In his shooting, the Scorpions and DA tried to shoot the guys in their objective. His Guardians killed a LSS. Everything else shot the ASM. They died fast to the Spiders and bikes. This left the joyous D weaponry to shoot the Captain. He took it like a champ and saved everything they threw at him. Legend. In Assault, the Scorpions charged the Tacs on their objective. The Sternguard and the DA kept fighting. One Elf died. My turn 3 One of the Scout squads joined their belaboured Captain. The other shuffled up. One Razorback zoomed up to claim the objective by the Captain (he had moved the Jetbikes too far to claim it). I knew I had to claim a lot this turn to get my objectives or risk losing quickly. I shot another Razorback up to claim the objective by the Sternguard/DA fistfight. In shooting, I killed some more DA on my back objective and the Jetbikes that were closing. My LSS tried to shoot the Spiders but they ran away. The forward most Razorback and their squad was then able to get a bead on them and they lost a man. In Assault, the Scorpions killed the Tacs on the objective in the back field. The Sternguard kept dueling with the DA. I killed 2, he killed one. The Scouts and the Cap charged the Wraithguard. The Captain killed one and the Scouts dragged one down too. His turn 3 He moved the DA to hold his objective and dropped the reserved squad of Spiders nearby to defend against the Tacticals that were coming back in. His jetbikes moved to shoot the razorback and tactical squad in the middle. They killed 4 men. Assault phase - DA and SG kept fighting. Captain killed 2 more Wraithguard. They did nothing in return. My turn 4 The one central man jumped back into his Razorback and shuffled closer to the objective. The objective by the SG/DA fight was claimed by a Razorback. A tac squad jumped out by the Scorpions, Spiders and DA in my back field. They then flamered everything and shot at the DA. They melted a few of each squad. (I love flamers). The razorbacks nearby then wiped the remaining DA. The Devs drew a bead on the Jetbikes and wiped out a few. The Raven flew over and wiped the second biker squad. My captain and scouts killed the last Wraithguard - the second scout squad also charged in to add weight of attacks. http://i970.photobucket.com/albums/ae184/CordovaBiconis/IMAG1330.jpg (The captain and his proteges) The Sternguard punched another DA to death. His turn 4 The Spiders in the back blew up a Razorback. The Spiders at the back moved to intercept the Captain - knowing I needed the objective that his Farseer was on. They shot and killed one of the Scout squads he was with. The remaining bikes zoomed to aim for Linebreaker. The backfield Spiders moved towards the Devs. In the Sternguard combat, I finally won. He fluffed all his rolls and they killed the last DA and the Farseer. Turn 5 My central razorback tried to bring down the jetbikes but couldn't. I moved up to Assault the Guardian/Farseer blob. The Devs and razorback in the back killed the Spiders. - The game ended here - he called it before the Assault as I was up on objectives 8-6 and he couldn't physically capture what he needed. (N.B. There are some things missing, e.g. psychic powers etc as they just added to the shooting etc - but the gist of the battle is here). It was good fun, even if some fluffed rolls were a right pain. Plus, I really hate Warp Spiders.

Ho, fellow brothers of the Ravenspire. I have to report on the glories of the Raven Guard in a tournament I played in recently. This will share feedback and thoughts I've had after said tournament. I will break down each game in a post of it's own in this thread, so don't worry if you don't feel like reading a wall of text. Without further ado, here is the basic breakdown: Tournament - 1 day only - 3x 1500 point games and 1x 500 point game - Unbound lists allowed! Standing - I tied for 4th place (which is REALLY good for me, as I'm more a casual gamer and the other lists were brutal) My 1500 point army list: So, on to my thoughts: The Good: The Raptor Wing is golden. These guys are easily my team of the match. They took out so many targets and caused so much havoc it was crazy. Ignores cover is big. My devastators were awesome with this rule and popped many a priority target for me. Scouts are great. Most of my opponents either thought they were an easy kill or were useless and got a nasty surprise for their hubris. Scout bikers are a must. The grenade launchers helped quite a bit with a number of targets with its versatility. Having Shrouded for the first game turn makes the army so survivable. Could weather the storm of fire and come back for a nice counter punch. The Ugly: My Captain was "eh" at best. The extra hits were great, but on anything tougher than a marine you suffer greatly. Having the auspex on him was a waste, so need to change that idea. Having only 1 squad of bare minimum assault marines didn't make the best use of Winged Deliverance, so was pretty underwhelming. It did help the scout bikers a little, but nothing major to report about. Hope this helps everyone in some way. Feel free to comment or ask questions for me to clarify. Victorus Aut Mortis!

Battle Rep - RG vs Chaos 1850 pts ++ Space Marines: Raven Guard - Talon Strike Force (SM RG Talon Strike Force) ++ + Core + Battle Demi Company Assault Squad - 2x Flamer, Jump Packs, 4x Space Marines, Sgt w/Bolt Pistol & Chainsword Chaplain - Bolt Pistol, Crozius Arcanum, Raven's Fury Devastator Squad - 2x Lascannon, 2x Missile Launcher (Frag & Krak), 9x Space Marines, Sgt w/Bolt Pistol & Boltgun, Signum Dreadnought - Multi-melta, Power Fist w/Storm Bolter, Drop Pod Tactical Squad - Meltagun, 4x Space Marines, Sgt w/Bolt Pistol & Boltgun, Razorback w/TL Assault Cannon Tactical Squad - Meltagun, 4x Space Marines, Sgt w/Bolt Pistol & Boltgun, Razorback w/TL Assault Cannon Tactical Squad - Meltagun, 4x Space Marines, Sgt w/Bolt Pistol & Boltgun, Drop Pod + Auxiliary + Shadowstrike Kill Team Scout Squad - Camo Cloaks, 4x Scouts, 4x Sniper Rifle, Scout Sgt w/Sniper Rifle Scout Squad - Camo Cloaks, 4x Scouts, 4x Boltgun, Scout Sgt w/Boltgun Scout Squad - Camo Cloaks, 4x Scouts, 4x Boltgun, Scout Sgt w/Boltgun Vanguard Veteran Squad - Jumppacks, 3x LC/PF, LC/SS, Sgt TH/SS Vanguard Veteran Squad - Jumppacks, 3x LC/PF, LC/SS, Sgt TH/SS Vanguard Veteran Squad - Jumppacks, 3x LC/PF, LC/SS, Sgt TH/SS ++ Inquisition: Codex (2013) (Inq Inquisitorial Detachment) ++ + HQ + Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor - Carapace Armour, Bolt Pistol & Chainsword, 3x Servo Skulls 1849 pts ++ Chaos Space Marines: Codex (2012) (Combined Arms Detachment) ++ + HQ + Chaos Lord - Mark of Slaanesh, Power Armour, Frag Grenades & Krak Grenades + Elites + Emperors Children Sonic Dreadnought - Blastmaster, Chainfist w/Storm Bolter, Doom Siren, Searchlight, Smoke Launchers, Warp Amp + Troops + Noise Marines - 4x Noise Marines, 1x Blastmaster, Noise Champion, Chaos Rhino w/Combi-bolter, Havoc Launcher, Searchlight & Smoke launchers Noise Marines - 4x Noise Marines, 1x Blastmaster, Noise Champion, Chaos Rhino w/Combi-bolter, Havoc Launcher, Searchlight & Smoke launchers + Fast Attack + Chaos Bikers - Icon of Excess, Mark of Slaanesh, 7x Chaos Biker, Chaos Biker Champion, 2x Meltagun Heldrake - Hades Autocannon + Heavy Support + Chaos Relic Sicaran - Extra Armour, Heavy Bolter, Lascannons, Searchlight, Smoke Launcher, Twin-Linked Accelerator Autocannon Obliterators - 3x Obliterator, Mark of Nurgle, Veterans of the Long War + Lord of War + Chaos Knight Errant - Dirge Caster, Foe-reaper Chainsword, Heavy Stubber, Ion Shield, Slaanesh, Thermal Cannon 1850 pts Mission: Eternal War - The Scouring Deployment: Hammer & Anvil Night Fighting: Turn 1 Setup First: Chaos First Turn: Chaos Seize the Initiative: SUCCESSFUL for Raven Guard Now on the actual Battle Report! So as you may have guessed I’m aiming for a big Alpha Strike with this list. Taking the Talon Strike Force with the Command Benefit "Know When to Strike" paired with Shadowstrike Kill Team special rules "On Time..." & “On Target..” allows me to Deep Strike 3 VV squads near my Scouts Turn 1 AND Assault, oh boy oh boy! The Inquisitor and the Servo Skulls are a bit of a back up plan but with Hammer & Anvil (which I forced a re-roll for thanks to the TSF Command Benefit “Extensive Planning”) I had an ideal setup for what I wanted to do. Instead of doing the Battle Report turn by turn I like to give each unit or groups of units a grade so I’ll be breaking them down one at a time. Assault Squad - I started on the board but kept them out of sight of the enemy. I just wanted them on the board to avoid getting tabled turn 1. Normally I DS them onto a soft target and bathe them in flames but there was no soft targets on this Chaos list. They moved up the board turn by turn but did nearly nothing. I’m looking to replace them in this list as they don't seem to be worth the 95 pts. Grade - D-, would have been an F but they didn’t die so… Chaplain - I made the mistake of starting him solo but luckily he was able to move up the board quickly and join a VV squad after a couple turns. I was able to hide him each turn so he was able to survive but he added very little to this army. Because he can’t join any of the VV squads before they DS (they’d lose all their fun rules if he did) there isn’t much to do with him aside from sticking him with the ASM squad on having him join a VV squad later in the battle. Another unit I’m looking to make a change with. Grade - C, wasn’t a liability to my army, survived the battle but only helped out a very little to the overall battle. Devastator Squad - I combat squadded this unit, putting the Sgt/Signum with the Lascannons. I set them up in the backfield as always but with terrain and smart placement by my opponent I had limited options when it came to shooting each turn. As it always seems to be the Lascannons only hit/wound 50% of the time but that’s what the Dice Gods say so you have to roll with it….Both squads did their best, got in a few pot shots here and there. The ML squad went down to the Heldrake but the Lascannon squad survived thanks to being in ruins the whole time. Grade - C+, not their fault, the terrain, LOS, poor dice hurt them more that anything. They’ll be in the list in one form or another. Just not the battle for them I guess. Dreadnought - Dropped him down in the center on my opponent's deployment zone flanking the Chaos Knight Errant, he took a few HPs off him before he went down (more on that later). After that he when after one of the Noise Marines squad in a Rhino. Popped it open and with the help on a remaining VV or two wiped up that squad. Grade - B+, did what a DP Dreadnought w/MM should should do, pop tanks and PF squish infantry. Has been a stable unit battle to battle no reason to change anything here. Tactical Squads - Now we’re starting to get into the units that did some work. The DP Tactical squad landed in front on the Chaos Knight Errant because of a so-so scatter. The meltagun was able to hit but not able to get through the Chaos Knight Errant defenses. It held it’s own until the Heldrake finally swooped in a flamed then down. Both Razorback Tactical squads moved up the board fast and started picking off the Chaos Bikers until the fell then one moved onto the Noise Marines squad in a Rhino and the other moved onto the Emperors Children Sonic Dreadnought. The TL Assault Cannon is a really nice weapon, the re-roll, volume of shots and rending really let it do work on multiple threats. The Tactical squads stayed in the Razorbacks for most of the battle and only 1 squad got out when they needed to to take on the Emperors Children Sonic Dreadnought. Grade - B+, were able to get up the board without being popped open (smart use of cover and distance), took on multiple units and performed well. The TL Assault Cannon will be in my army for the foreseeable future. Really liking the Razorbacks over the cheaper Tactical squad w/Rhino options. Scout Squads - Now they really did the job of Raven Guard Scouts to a T. Because we deployed using Hammer & Anvil I was able to put all 3 units just outside my opponent's deployment zone. The Sniper Scouts were able to setup in ruins on one side of the board. In one turn they took at 3 Chaos Bikers which really thinned that unit out. Maybe got a few other shots in but nothing to major. With the other 2 Scouts squads the deployed in a straight line across the board with the Sniper Scouts. They were able to just tuck in and hide behind terrain to avoid being wiped out turn 1. They did next to nothing offensively but were the PERFECT Shadowstrike Kill Team scouts, glorified DS beacons for the VV squads. That’s up next. Grade - A, did EXACTLY what they were supposed to do. Infiltrate, Scout, hunker down and wait for the VV squads to arrive. Then Sniper Scouts were the only ones that did much work after turn 1 but if need the other 2 squads would have move/ran to any objective that was close to them. Vanguard Veteran Squads - Well well well, the MVPs right here! All 3 squads were able to DS and not scatter thanks to the Scouts. 2 were aimed directly at the Chaos Knight Errant and the remaining was aimed at the Chaos Bikers. The VV squads that went for the Chaos Knight Errant were able to get it down to 1 HP on turn 1, could have easily killed it if the dice were more in my favor. It went down turn 2 and after all the D weapons, Stomps, and Apoc Explosion there were still VV left standing. Next they moved to the Chaos Relic Sicaran and with the help on the Chaplain made short work of it. After all the work those 2 VV squads did 1 Space Marine was left standing to tell the story of the glorious battle that he had witnessed. The sole VV squad that went after the Chaos Bikers had trouble making charges, failed twice but still was able to put a hurting of them thanks to the LC/PF wargear they had. I can not state enough how great an option that is, the LC/PF combo is king! Grade - A++, they came in on time and on target and went to work. Granted they lost marines along the way but a Chaos Knight Errant, Chaos Relic Sicaran and Chaos Bikers felt their wrath. When the whole army is setup to make these guys shine and the do, damn is that a great feeling. Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor - Sat in the back, did nothing on note. His servo skulls did nothing as well. 34 wasted points. Maybe in another game against a different army he’ll be useful but not today. Grade - N/A, nothing to grade on. Will have to play more games with him to see if his points are worth what he brings to the battle. Did you really read all of that? WOW! Thanks. I really love writing these up as I love reading others as well. Maybe this was just an entertaining read to some or maybe helped other RG brothers out, either way chime in with your comments as I’d love to hear them. …….. Oh I completely forgot how to tell you the battle ended! We called it turn 3 as all that my opponent had left were a few Noise Marines, the Heldrake and the Obliterators which were still in reserve. We decided I would more than likely to claim more objectives and score more points at the very end because I had more on the table. Great game against a great player.

Eternal war Crusade Hammer & Anvil 1500v1500 Raven Guard & Astra Militarum vs Chaos SM Warband So I wanted to use the following list Captain with Swiftstrike & Murder, and Raven's Fury 5 Sternguard, 5 VV, Sgt with TH/SS, 4 with DLC 1 Land Speeder, With a 10th Co, 5 Sniper scouts, with camo, 10 CCW scouts, split into 2 groups of 5, with their own multimelta LSS However, in my haste to get to my local store, I forgot two speeders at home, so I had to work around and edit the list, so I ended up adding a melta to the Sternguard, adding camo cloaks to the other 10 scouts as well as having 5 more sniper scouts and a heavy Bolter in the main sniper unit, as the Chaos OpFor was cultist heavy. I had a cap of 750, so I also added a vet sgt with nihulis to use up some points and ended up giving the rest of the points to my AM comrade, because I was mostly at a loss with any other things I could tinker with. So we went first and immediately went to work, seizing objectives, and taking shots at the chaos sorcerers that were embedded in cultist meat-shields. Making a long story short, the scouts were incredibly effective infiltrated into terrain, I will see if I am able to upload some photos of the board. The story of the game however, was my AM friend's manticore and Pask making short work of, well, everything chaos had to field. I made several precision shots on his Sorcerers, as well as my captain finishing off his Hellbrute (which enraged and charged me due to my Vet Sgt glancing him twice) and threatening to contest an objective at the bottom of the screen. Man, that Captain was about to go to work on those squishy cultists! I never got to see my main hammer unit, the VV, in action. I was intent on bringing them in, then failed the reserve roll, then the Chaos player graciously conceded at the top of turn 3. The picture is from that moment, after he had lost his psykers and daemon prince, and several dozen cultists and a dozen or so marines I didn't utilize the sternguard as well as I had hoped. The Prince was threatening to swoop right over to them and contest that objective until Pask said hello with 15 wounds, so I was keeping the Sternies back on the Obj. The scouts performed admirably, exactly what I had wanted, especially from the Vet Sgt. I think I might have to make that little combo almost mandatory against light/medium armor armies The captain didn't have much to show for my plan for him, but he did soak up a TON of enemy fire from cultists and marines during turn 1, when he was hidden partially behind some terrain and was sitting pretty with a beautiful cover save. Moving onto the second game we played 1000/1000 RG/AM v CSM Capt 140 SSM RV Libby 65 2. 25 Ex Tenebris 10 100 Scouts Camo Snipers x2 140 Vet Sgt, 10 Nihilis 15 25 305 VV basic 95 500 Game ended 12-9 VP in our favor due to LR forcing cultists off objective So, I never have much dabbled with Psykers, and my opponent was bringing two, so I wanted to try the Libby out with divination, and I added the relic storm Bolter because I was digging the stat line on it. OpFor brought a ton of chaos spawn this time around which ended up being really effective as he stole the initiative and ended up slicing through one unit of snipers during turn 1, although I did manage to land a few wounds with overwatch. I moved my captain down the flank to engage his terminator armored sorc, which, after two turns of combat, ended with the sorc hacking him down, without taking a single wound himself. Poor rolling by me, and great rolling by Lou, the chaos player, led to that. I can chalk that one up to just poor target choice and poor luck. The captain usually performs very well for me The librarian casted some nice beneficial powers for me, until my opponent couldn't see any of the AM tanks and dedicated 6 Lascannon shots to kill my Librarian, which he did in turn 2. So, that was a bummer as I wasn't able to really use the librarian much at all..:/ First unit of scouts were sliced and diced immediately due to a nice charge roll by some chaos spawn, I was over eager and infiltrated them a bit far ahead Second unit of scouts did well, added some wounds on some spawn and eventually his warlord, and ended up holding a critical objective in our backfield after AM had moved up and erred by leaving it behind. The basic VV squad came in turn 3 and surprise took an objective from the enemy (I was hoping for a turn 4 end, which wasn't the case) but were promptly shelled by two chaos predators and hellbrute, and then Lou brought his Terminator Librarian over to slice them into nothing. All in all, it was a close game, I was carried by the AM player through the last turn and a half, and the game ended in 12-9 VP in the Good Guy's favor, due to Pask shooting a cultist unit just off an objective on the bottom of the last turn. Measured, the cultists were just about 1/8" away from controlling the objective, which, needless to say, Lou was simply catatonic about. It was a fun game to (mostly) watch, as bad luck and bad deployments (as well as the expensive librarian experiment) really did me in. Would love to hear some feedback, perhaps a list tweak or advice about the original 750 and the rough draft 750 I had to sling together, and any criticism about the 500 is also welcomed as long as it is constructive! Thanks guys, look forward to hearing back from some of you!

Played a game with my Raven Guard tonight. 1,500 points vs Tyranids at a new shop. My new multi-meltas didn't do a thing, since we played on an 8'x4' table, everything was a stretch for range. The Raven Guard Kayvaan Shrike 8 Assault Marines with Flamer Tactical Squad (One Plasma & Combi Plasma, Multi-melta) Librarian with Avenger & Gate of Infinity Tactical (One Flamer and Combi-Flamer, Multi-melta) ..both in Drop Pods 5 Scouts with Missile Launcher and Sergeant Telion 5 Scouts with Boltguns and Power Fist 3 Scout Bikers with Locator Beacon and Power Fist 2 Land Speeder Typhoons with Heavy Bolters The Nids 12 Termagaunts 7 Warriors with Bone Swords and the Tyranid Prime 10 Genestealers Outflanking Tyrranofex with Scything Talons and 2+ Armour Carnofex w/ Crushing Claws in Mycetic Spore 3 Lictors I really didn't understand if my opponent had a strategy here. He set up his objective on his far left and deployed his Termagaunts on the far right. Put his Tyrranofex right in the middle and put his Warriors right next to it. I won turn one and brought a Tactical Squad in 18" away from his Tyrranofex, and Shrike assaulted the Gaunts and killed them all, casually consolidating away from the Warriors. The Tyrranofex saved vs all wounds. He moves his Warriors toward Shrike and runs them 5", and moves his Tyrranofex forward and shoots at my Speeders, which make their cover saves. That's it. Shrike moves away, and I continue to harass the Tyrranofex with snipers and scout bikers and boltgun scouts, but it keeps saving and has moved out of range of my Tacticals. I take down 3 Warriors with shooting from the Speeders and easilly avoid the footslogging behemoths with Shrike and the Scouts. His Genestealers come in and he gets a 6 for the Outflank, choosing the side where they could charge Shrike with a decent fleet. They don't get it though, and it's a failed charge. The Tyrranofex blunders forward and shoots down one speeder. The warriors keep running and can't catch anything. The Lictors show up and take down 2 snipers in Telion's squad, which flees 7" and regroups right away in fresh cover. My other speeder was shaken, so it turbo boosts away as my Second Tactical shows up with the Librarian in the drop pod. They proceed to burninate the heck out of the Lictors with two Flamers and Avenger, but one Lictor survives. My Scouts see their chance and pounce on the Tyrranofex just out of the Warrior's range, since they've been chasing Shrike unsuccessfully. Shrike's squad Flamers the Genestealers and fire pistols, killing all but one. Lightning claws dispatch the last. The Tyrannofex gets punched to death, killing only one Scout biker, and the scouts consolidate 5" away (putting them about 14" from the Warriors with no guns). The Carnifex lands dead center of the table and the 4 remaining Warriors run toward my unguarded objective. They don't quite make it to cover, and the one remaining Lictor charges my Librarian, inflicting one wound, taking one wound and using hit & run successfully. The nids are in bad shape and can't do much else. The Scout Bikers and Scouts with Powerfist come around the hill in the middle to give the Carnifex a Knuckle sandwich, and Shrike moves to a safe spot waiting to take on the Warriors. My second Tactical Squad rapid fires on and flames the last Lictor, while my first Tactical Squad is just sitting 33" away on the enemy objective, totally uncontested. My speeder takes out two more warriors, leaving just one and the Tyranid Prime and Shrike fleets ready to charge the last two. Tyranids concede, I have mixed feelings. I don't think my opponent had a terrible list or was really bad, but I don't think he's ever faced 4 Infiltrators, 2 Deep Strikes and a first turn assault before. Things just went from bad to worse for the Tyranids, and the only full unit I lost were the three scout bikers. Raven Guard won with 1 objective contesting the second with the enemy conceding. Very solid victory, but I kinda felt bad for making the bugs chase me all game.