Biker Nobs - Back with a Vengence

[TheDarkOne]

Here's the scenario, 1500 points tournament, no allies or fortifications (just want everyone to learn the core rules first)...

 

You happen t know your friend is going to bring:

 

Warboss onbike kitted out with klaw

Kustom Forcefield Big Mek

30 Shoota Boyz 3 Big Shootas Nob Klaw Bosspole

30 Shoota Boyz 3 Big Shootas Nob Klaw Bosspole

3 Kannons w 3 ammo runts

3 Kannons w 3 ammo runts

3 Kannons w 3 ammo runts

7 Lootas

7 Lootas

11 Grots

5 Biker nobs, 2 Klaws, Painboy Waaagh banner

 

What do you bring to the table to combat this?

 

The biker nobs just got waaay better... with T5 they're immune to instant death from our S8 Psyflemen, and they can all 'look out sir' for wound distribution...

 

I can't think of many ways short of warp rift to remove them quickly...

 

Any thoughts?

[thade]

Virtually every melee member of your army is toting a Force Weapon; one activation for the unit and your entire unit APs them and - on a wound - disregards the fact they have 2 wounds. ;) Their Look Out, Sir! is 4+, but if your FWs are active they're just passing off who gets eaten.

 

I handle Nob Biker lists the same way I handle Eldar: they depend on manueverability to pick off vestiges of my force...which is not possible if I'm castled up. Anything that comes near me I consume.

 

Gun them down with your 24" storm bolters and psycannons and gleefully engage them in melee should they be so foolish. Pack some Halberds in there to get you some early FW kills. Your Rifleman may not ID them, but he's still going to hurt them. Put Warding staves on some (or all) of your Justicars so they can soak challenges. Consider a Brotherhood Champion, as he's a cheap HQ and can really hold his own against a horde or in a Challenge himself. Librarians are always favorites and our powers are very, very good ones. Quicksilver + some Falchions or even Force Swords will perhaps be more effective than halberds.

 

This sounds like a fun match up. ;)

[Reclusiarch Darius]

Warboss onbike kitted out with klaw

Kustom Forcefield Big Mek

 

:D Biker Boss, really? Against an entire army of force weapons? Ok then...

KFF is expected, not a big deal though as our weapons break cover saves pretty easily

 

30 Shoota Boyz 3 Big Shootas Nob Klaw Bosspole

30 Shoota Boyz 3 Big Shootas Nob Klaw Bosspole

 

Pretty standard, soften them up with shooting first (you have 6" range over them, so don't be afraid to backpedal to stay out of Shoota range). Challenge the powerklaw with a Justicar, activate force weapons, laugh.

 

3 Kannons w 3 ammo runts

3 Kannons w 3 ammo runts

3 Kannons w 3 ammo runts

 

He is aware they are glorified missile launchers right? :P Ignore, he misses half the time anyway, and the frag blasts don't worry you

 

7 Lootas

7 Lootas

 

I usually see full 15-man squads (never enuff dakka with Orks), so less Lootas = less of a problem. Some Interceptors with an incinerator or a Dreadknight zipping up a flank are good hard-counters.

 

11 Grots

 

Probably camp on his objective. Again, Interceptors or Dreadknight can clear them out with an incinerator or assault.

 

5 Biker nobs, 2 Klaws, Painboy Waaagh banner

 

They die to Strike Knights...he is aware how Brotherhood of Psykers and nemesis weapons work, right?

 

 

Enjoy your easy kill. He has no vehicles so you don't even need PsyDreads (and they're less useful now they don't pop Biker Nobz).

 

edit: Forgot the list

 

HQ:

 

(2) Terminator Inquisitor w/nemesis hammer+psycannon, Divination

(110 points each)

 

Troops:

 

(2) Justicar w/halberd, Terminator w/Bro Banner, 2 x Terminators w/hammers,

2 x Terminators w/halberd+psycannon, 4 x Terminators w/halberds

(475 points each)

 

Heavy Support:

 

Dreadknight w/greatsword+heavy incinerator, teleporter

(260 points)

 

Leaves you 70pts to play with. He'll basically have no counters to that kind of force, you'll roll over his Nobz and Shoota Boyz and then he's down to Lootas and hope

[thade]

They die to Strike Knights...he is aware how Brotherhood of Psykers and nemesis weapons work, right?

This does bear mention, perhaps. The first model in a given GK unit that lands an unsaved wound allows the unit to test to activate their Force Weapons. Should that test succeed, all unsaved wounds that unit lands in that round of combat are Successful Force Weapon Instant Death wounds. It's a party.

 

If he's savvy to GK, he will try very, very, very hard to use his bikes to stay out of your range, so focus fire his units down with Storm Bolter fire. If you're taking full squads of ten, Psybolt Ammunition is definitely worth considering. Also, Psycannons. :D

 

Something fun to take would be a Dreadknight with a Hv. Incinerator as it'll flambe you some Ork Bikers...and he's a beast in melee himself. (And his hands are Force Weapons. <3)

[Reclusiarch Darius]

If he's savvy to GK, he will try very, very, very hard to use his bikes to stay out of your range, so focus fire his units down with Storm Bolter fire. If you're taking full squads of ten, Psybolt Ammunition is definitely worth considering. Also, Psycannons.

 

Yeah, but its a gigantic waste of points to do so. BS2 shooting with non-AP3 is laughable to Knights, especially when in TDA. He wants to get in combat to use those powerklaws, but you kill him with force weapons before he can swing. Derp, don't bring Nob Bikers against Knights.

 

After a few games of steamrolling him, he'll probably wise up and start going shootier and bringing vehicles. Battlewagon spam and/or Kan Wall are annoying and soak PsyDread fire, and firing psycannons requires giving up shooting his hordes of Shoota Boyz (this is one of the hidden problems with our army, our firepower is concentrated into a handful of units). He's also likely to bring more Lootas (double our basic range, and they annihilate PsyDreads), possibly a Shokk Attack Gun if he's crazy (Ork players love that gun, and with KFF being less relevant you might see it more often now).

[TheDarkOne]

Well, I played in the aforementioned tournament on Saturday, and I'll do my best to provide accurate battle reports from memory here.

 

I brought:

 

Cotaez

Librarian, Shrouding, Might of Titan, Warp Rift, Halberd - 170

 

Troop:

6x DCA, 2x Crusader, Chimera w Searchlight - 176

3 Plasma Cannon Servitors, 6 Warrior Acolytes - 84

3 Plasmagun Acolytes, Chimera w Searchlight - 98

10 Grey Knight Strikers, 2x Psycannon, Halberd Justicar, Hammer, Psybolts - 255

 

Elite:

Techmarine, Warding Stave, Psychotroke Grenades, Rad Grenades - 110

 

Fast

Stormraven TL Las, TL Multimelta - 205

 

Heavy:

Psyfleman Dread - 135

Psyfleman Dread - 135

 

I posted this list with another in the army list section, and I agree with the one piece of advice i received there, The librarian I had built with brain mines and warding stave was too expensive, so the techmarine picks up the stave and crazy grenades.

 

He's GREAT in a challenge! 2++, not many attacks with the stave at initiative, 4, but he may score 1, AND his servo harness has 2 more powerfist attacks at initiative 1! I'd loko for another 15 points for brain mines and blind grenades in future, maybe just swap out the psychotroke grenades - they were lackluster all day.

 

Unfortunately the shop was kind of small so we were playing on 4x4 tables....

 

Game 1 was against deathwing.

 

List was:

 

Belial with Thunder hammer and stormshield.

 

5 Terminators, 3 Thunder Hammer, 2 Lightning Claws

5 Terminators, 3 Thunder Hammer, 2 Lightning Claws

5 Terminators, Sarg with power weapon, 2 dudes with pfist and stormbolter, 1 cyclone, 1 chainfist

5 Terminators, Sarg with power weapon, 2 dudes with pfist and stormbolter, 1 cyclone, 1 chainfist

5 Terminators, Deathwing Banner, Assault Cannon, Chainfist 3 Stormbolter Dudes

 

1 Venerable Dreadnought, Assault Cannon, Missile Launcher

 

I was petrified when he set up, SO MANY TERMINATORS! they were all standing across the board from me in his deployment zone, the deployment was the new dawn of war setup, the same as the old pitched battle setup. we were playing mission 1 I think, D3+2 Objectives, for 5 Objectives, he went first so there was one in the middle, and two more about midfield on either side of the center, and we each had one in our deployment zones, i placed mine in some reinforced ruins. there was a forest on the far right that held one of the middle objectives, and a big ruin in the middle of the table that held the middle objective.

 

I castled around the reinforced ruin that held my home territory objective. Cotaez deployed with The plasma cannon squad and rolled up a 2 and a 5 on the divination table, I kept the 5 and sent the 2 back in exchange for the primaris power. the chimera with plasma gunners deployed tot he right of my ruin, aligned witht he middle fo the table. i put the dreadnoughts on opposite corners, one on the far right behind an impassible pillar for turn 1, the other behind my second chimera on the left side, the grey knights deployed standing behind the left hand chimera, ready to hop in. I held the stormraven in reserve.

 

On his first turn the combat oriented squads ran towards me, while the shooty squads moved and shot. he had one CC squad at about the halfway mark, and a cyclone squad beside, 10 terminators about 20" away from my stuff! Belial and his squad moved inot the central ruins to capture the middle objective, but they were slowed by terrain, all game. on the far right, the second cyclone squad went to stand on the objective in the forest adn the second cc squad advanced between the center ruins and the forest. his dreadnought went to stand on the objective in his deployment zone, recieving the reroll 1's to hit bonus for mysterious objective. His shooting resulted in 1 dead acolyte in the reinforced cover, and 1 hull point down on my leftmost chimera. no other damage - phew!

 

My turn 1 didn't see much movement, the grey knights elected not to board the transport so they could shoot the advancing close combat terminators in earnest. my home objective allowed for +1 to the cover save in this piece of terrain! 2+ ruins! YAY TECHMARINE! the plasmagunner squad drove towards the right side assault squad, not too close now, and not close enough for rapid fire. the dread peaked around the corner to get some shots off, and the left hand dead shuffled to continue to use the chimera as cover. Shooting, Cotaez gave his squad rerolls to hit, and landed 3 plasma cannon templates on the closest assault terminators, killing 3!! then the Grey Knights opened up and mopped up the rest. Left hand chimera shot at the left hand shooty squad, killing 1 terminator, and the dreadnought fired on the opposing dreadnought, dropping him by 1 hull point. the plasmagunners fired at the second assult squad killing 1 terminator, the dreadnought concentrated his fire on them killing another. that was the end of my turn 1.

 

His turn 2, the remaining assualt squad moves as fast as possible towards my chimera, but cannot reach it in assault. the right hand side shooting squad tries for my right hand dread, causing no damage. his dread misses the shot at my damaged chimera and belial's squad snake eyses it through terrain and gets a 2 inch run, they're in cover but not moving quickly. the left hand shooty squad causes no damage with its missile. thins arent' looking bad... although if I don't kill that assault squad they will be a problem.

 

My turn 2 - no reserves... I would really like them now, and I'm starting to regret putting them in reserve but at the time I thought the raven had to start in reserve as it was a flier, not so as it can start in hover mode! anyway, i moved very little just some reposition of the knights to get a better shot, and backing the chimera up so it won' be auto hit. shooting, I manage to kill of the left flank shooting squad with shooting from the chimera, the knights and the dreadnought. left flank is looking pretty good now! Cotaez perils' casting rerolls for his squad but its a double 1 so it still goes off. It still blows my mind how inquisitors have more wounds than librarians... but hey, I'm not complaining as his plasma cannon squad kills all but 1 of the assault terminators. there is a stormshield thunder hammer terminator staring intently at my chimera, as the dudes inside attempt to unload hot plasma death on him! 1 overheats and dies, while the rest of the shots bounce off his shield... boo... Chimera can't kill him with shooting either... Dreadnought on the last terminator, doens't kill him. End of my turn.

 

His Turn 3, belial at last manages to walk onto the center objective and unlocks the +1 cover save... they'll be hard to dislodge... his right hand shooty squad shoots at my dreadnought on that flank, killing him :D. his dreadnought fires on my knights killing 2. the thunder hammer terminator walks up to the chimera in front of him, and charges it... here's a question can the embarked passengers make overwatch shots? We played it so they could, but they didn't manage to hit him. he smoked the tank, killing it, but not exploding it. the dudes got out and passed their pin check. belials squad, now in a position to make some difference fired 3 stormbolters and an assault cannon at cotaez squad, killing two warriors, yay 2+!

 

My Turn 3, reserves pass this time so the stormraven shrieks onto the board, parking itself 8 inches from his dreadnought near the middle of the table. not much else moves, jsut some shuffling for sightlines, and the knights move up to grab the leftmost objective... skyfire... yay... shooting, Grey knights fire at belial's squad, taking a wound of the hq. stormraven fires with lascannon and multimelta, also manages to drop a mindstrike missile into belials squad in the middle, causing no damage. the dreadnought on the other hand is hit by both the lascannon and multimelta, i roll 2 6's for damage results after penning, he makes me reroll them a la venerable, but i still roll up a 5 on the multimelta shot, blowing it to smithereens. plasma cannons choose to focus on belials squad this turn, killing belial and 1 more terminator, leaving 3 or 4 there on the objective. the plasma gunners peak around the wreck and unload into the thundernator... killing him, but overheating 1 gun melting the gunner! Dread fires at belial's old squad but fails to kill anything.

 

His turn 4, not much to do here, he moves his assault cannon terminators on the center objective a bit to get a better shot, trying to put the hurt on my grey knights. his shooty squad moves a little towards the center and blows away my remaining plasma gunner with shooting... I think the krak missile is what killed him. his assualt cannon kills 1 knight.

 

My turn 4. HOVER MODE... the stormraven hovers, moves 6" and unloads the assassins and librarian into the center terrain, after their difficult terrain move they are about 5 inches from the assault cannon squad. not much else moves. Shooting, Cotaez gives rerolls to his squad, and I perils on double 1s again!! he's lucky he has 3 wounds! Librarian casts war rift, techmarine fires plasma pistol and flamer, 1 terminator dies. cotaez fires 3 plasma cannons at them, 1 overheats killing its attached servitor, 2 hits, kills both remaining terminators. Stormraven fires on the last group of terminators killing 2, that leaves only 2 terminators on the board.

 

His Turn 5, he moves his last terminators towards the center and assaults my librarian squad! YAY! Psychotroke grenades... he is now Leaderhip 2... AND FEARLESS DEATHWING... D'oh! first is initiative 7, the death cult swarm them, but can't kill anybody. librarian steps up with init 6, can't kill anybody. techmarine steps up init 4, can't kill anybody. crusaders step up init 3, can't kill anybody. I dealt SO many wounds!! rad grenades dropped them to T3, and I hammerhanded once from the librarian for S5, wounding on 2s, but 2+ is an awesome save and power weapons just weep... init step 1... the terminators strike back, killing 2 death cult and 1 crusader, but the techmarine's servo harness strikes too! killing 1 terminator! I lose by 2, but pass my test.

 

My Turn 5, nothing to do here but fight that combat. this time he falls under the weight of attacks form the death cult, not before my librarian loses a wound to perils.

 

End result, complete massacre for me!

 

Yes, terminators are tough in close combat, but this should reinforce the lesson, don't fight them! SHOOT THEM! I killed all but 2 with shooting... I did bring a lot of plasma though...

 

Next match against ORKS... my friend with the biker nobs who I did not want to play... will post report soon...

[Reclusiarch Darius]

Nice one man. Your list wasn't even that optimised, and you still crushed Deathwing just fine.

 

A recommendation for the future; take power axe and power sword (they are armed with two power weapons, you can combine different ones and still get +1A) on your Death-Cult. That way, when fighting TDA, you can choose to use the axe and go to S5 (S6 under 'Hammerhand') and break their armour. You do give up your awesome Initiative, but AP3 will just slide off them anyway, so at least you'll kill a few before their powerfists smush you. Against anything with a 3+ or worse armour, you can switch to power sword and hack their faces apart at your normal high Initiative.

[Brother Dylan]

Nice one man. Your list wasn't even that optimised, and you still crushed Deathwing just fine.

 

A recommendation for the future; take power axe and power sword (they are armed with two power weapons, you can combine different ones and still get +1A) on your Death-Cult. That way, when fighting TDA, you can choose to use the axe and go to S5 (S6 under 'Hammerhand') and break their armour. You do give up your awesome Initiative, but AP3 will just slide off them anyway, so at least you'll kill a few before their powerfists smush you. Against anything with a 3+ or worse armour, you can switch to power sword and hack their faces apart at your normal high Initiative.

That is an awesome suggestion, going to have to go remodel my deathcults.

[TheDarkOne]

Thanks for the advice, I actually posted that as a question about power weapons a week or so ago http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...howtopic=256160, but haven't had the chance to go back trough my models and add axes instead of their swords! it would've helped, but wasn't necessary due to the amount of actual combat in this game... minimal...

 

Anyway, on to the battle with da boyz!

 

First of all, my opponent is possibly the best Ork player in Southern Ontario, he wins most tournaments that I attend, and I have never before beaten him, I've tied twice, but never beaten his boyz.

 

the scenario is #5 I think, where we each have 1 objective in our deployment zone, and we have the new spearhead deployment, diagonal.

 

I roll up first turn and deploy my forces, a nice 3+ Ruin in my deployment zone thanks to techmarine makes for my plasma bunker and also, the home of my objective. i start the raven on the board this time, and the knights stand behind the empty chimera to the right of the ruins. on the left i place the plasmagun squad in their chimera, I'm not real excited for them this game, ORks take plasma just as well as bolters... with his big mek saves... Cotaez rolls up THE BEST POSSIBLE Divination power! #4, weapons form him and his unit ignore cover! yay! I default the second power to the primaris. The dreads are deployed behind the chimeras on either side.

 

He deploys his nob bikers ad warboss in a line as close as possible to me, in front of the rest of his army, along the hypotenuse of the triangle of deployment. His two mobs of boys fill in the space behind the bikes, and his objective ison the far left from me, so my closest unit is the plasmagunner chimera. lootas deploy in his back corner, and the big gun squads form a semicircle behind the boyz mobs, good sightlines to most stuff. There is a crater in the middle that will be difficult, and there is a little forest surrounding his objective.

 

Turn 1: he fails to steal the initiative, so i begin. Chimera moves aside so the grey knights can step forward to shoot the bikers. I proceed to fire my entire army at the Nob bikers, every single available shot, which is quite a lot. highlights are cotaez' unit taking off 3 wounds with plasma cannons that ignore cover and the grey knights receiving the blessing to reroll to hit and causing another 7 wounds on the unit! at the end, the warboss is the only model left alive and he only has 1 wound left. He breaks, and flees back toward his board edge but stays on the board. I don't think he passed a single save, but he must have, not many though. I'm feeling pretty good at this point!

 

His Turn 1: he rallies the warboss and he moves 3" to join the closest boyz squad. both squads of boyz come chaging at me, but end up with crappy run rolls, so they're still at least a couple turns away. he shoots at the stormraven, strips a hull point, and manages to shake both chimeras. thats pretty much it...

 

My Turn 2: I get greedy. The knights step up to put the closest mob of orks in range of their stormbolters, cotaez leaves his plasma cannons to join the knights. the raven moves 6" and disgorges its contents ready to assault the boyz, but i screw up the placement so my librarian and techmarine are near the far right edge, where casualties will be removed first... the plasma squad and the other chimera both move towards his objective, being careful not to get too close... the dreads shuffle around but they're just going to be shooting boyz form now on so their movement doesn't mater so much. shooting... Librarian and techmarine kill about 8 boyz with warp rift and the flamer. cotaez gives the knights reroll to hit and ignores cover, they kill at least another 8 boyz, maybe more. dreads fire at the other boyz squad, killing quite a few in combination with the snap shots from the chimeras, who manage to hit 3 times each! I'm getting really lucky here, and he's failing saves right and left... the plasma cannons mindlock, of course. raven kills 3 lootas from one squad with missiles, and 1 boy is vaporized from the warboss squad thanks to a multimelta. Assault! I charge at the boyz with my deathcult, libby and techmarine, and of course the boyz overwatch at me... OUCH! I lose 1 crusader and 3 death cult! This is where placement would've made a big difference, with mixed saves like I have, If i had put the techmarine at the front of the charge he would have taken all the hits and been able to 2+ look out sir any of his failed 2+ armor saves... dang... well, lesson learned. The assault begins and I announce that the techmarine will be issuing a challenge. his warboss accepts! librarian does might of titan, and no more psychic charge is left for him, the techmarine executes hammerhand so now everyone is +2 Strength, the boyz are all -1T for rad grenades, and psychotroke reduces them all to initiative 1... yay... Initiative 7 sees the death cult kiling 5 boyz, initiative 6 has the librarian move 3" and be out of range of engaging any enemies... ugh... i shouldv'e put him somewhere else when he got out of the raven. Initiative 4 sees the techmarine whiff totally with his force weapon, scoring no hits on the warboss. Initiative 3 sees another ork fall to a crusader's blade. now we're at initiative 1... the orks only manage to kill my crusader and 1 more DCA, leaving 2 DCA, the Techmarine and Libby to continue. The warboss swings for 4 attacks, scores 3 hits and 3 wounds.... techmarine passes all 3 2+ inv saves! He returns with the servo harness, and scores two wounds on the warboss, who has cybork body, he fails his saves and is killed! I win by a lot, but there are still 11 orks left... crap... His nob was out of range of the battle this round.

 

His Turn 2: He moves his boys to better hide from my shooting, and thats about it. his gretchen come in form reserve and run towards his own objective, mixing with the boyz squad. his shooting is ineffectual, he focussed some fire on the 'raven but couldn't scratch it. He scored 1 pen, but I managed to save it by casting the shrouding and being within 12"! Combat, The techmarine issues another challenge, the nob accepts. techmarine and librarian do hammerhand, and we're off! death cult kill only 3 boyz, librarian kills 1 more. Techmarine fails to hit the nob with his stave, the boyz manage to one of the remaining DCAs in assault, and the techmarine and nob kill each other with power klaws... dang... 2 wounds on the techie and he rolls a 1... nob got smunched by the harness' klaw. Orks hold, and we're still fighting.

 

My Turn 3: I move my Knights with Cotaez onto the crater midfield, in a effort to put pressure on the enemy base, they are really slow on that terrain. The Stormraven rockets into the air, zooming to their objective and killing another loota. the rest of the army just prepares to shoot more boyz. I kill a bunch from his second squad using my knights denying him cover, and re-rolling to hit is just awesome! but there's still enough to be fearless... dreads take pot shots at some cannons, but fail to cause any real damage, killing one or two crew. Combat: the DCA does away with another ork, and the Librarian kills 2. the orks kill the DCA, and the librarian takes a wound. Orks lose by 1, break and I can't sweeping advance with the librarian, so i consolidate 2"... its looking ugly for the librarian, he's too far away form any other unit to be effective.

 

His Turn 3: not much movement, he shoots my libby killing him ;).... then focuses his frag rokkits and lootas on my henchmen squad back on the objective, i go to ground for a 2+ cover save, but he still manages to kill two. he brings down the raven with a lucky rokkit, and it crashes in a most inconvenient place, blocking line of sight to his objective...

 

My Turn 4: the chimeras both push towards his objective, and 1 gets immobilized on the center crater... d'oh! the knights in the center move slowly towards the enemy objective. Shooting, the knights wipe the remaining orks from the libby battle and the rest of my shooting wears down his other mob a bit more, dreads kill some boyz...

 

His Turn 4: no movement, he just continues to fire on my objective squad... killing a few more, even after I've gone to ground again... frustrating, and now I'm starting to get worried, there's only a few models left in that squad and my knights are out of position to make it back to claim the objective...

 

My Turn 5: The TO has informed us we have 15 minutes so i know this is the last turn. I tank shock my mobile chimera onto the objective, but am immobilized at the edge of the forest! the knights are super slow through terrain and can't make it anywhere useful, I shoot the grots trying to make the flee, but they don't. dreads fire on the boyz, there's only like 5 left at this point, but they're on the objective and not breaking...

 

His Turn 5: In his shooting phase he manages to kill the model in my squad that was holding the objective, and its over.

 

I scored 2 VPs for taking first blood, and killing his warboss, but couldn't get into his deployment zone and hold no objectives.

 

He scored 4 VPs, 1 for killing my librarian (WHY DIDN'T I MAKE COTAEZ THE WARLORD!) and 3 for holding his home objective.

 

He beat me by 2x points, so a crushing victory.... DANG!!!

 

Lots of lessons learned, some bonehead moves made, I needed to play a tighter game with the objectives, If I had held mine and he held his, I would've won by 1 point, for first blood... and I know to always have a 2+ save independent character leading my charges, so I won't lose so many DCAs...

 

Next game was against Dark Eldar, and I'll write that one up tomorrow.

[Reclusiarch Darius]

Yeah, you did a good job focus down the Bikers early on, some overly aggresive moves and a few bad rolls caught up with you later. It happens.

 

I'd really recommend you make the switch to a Terminator blob, for Coteaz or a cheap TDA Inquisitor to join. Orks have blastas, the SAG and Burna Boyz (who only have one wound and you can take big mobz of them to soak damage) to kill TDA with. His missile launchers, sorry I mean Kannons :) just bounce off them, and the Nob Bikers can't charge or even stay anywhere within 11" of the blob (as average charge rolls will see you sweep them). One is quite affordable at 1.5k, and as an added bonus it'll score for you (always good for Knights, who have to rely on the pretty underwhelming Strikes usually).

 

Plasma cannon servitors with Coteaz are pretty amazing though, especially with 'Prescience'. That's how I run him, so replace the Librarian with a TDA Inquisitor for another hammer+psycannon plus 'Prescience'. S6 is basically overkill, if you land even a single wound (S5 is average, but don't forget you re-roll to hit so more chances to inflict one) the Bro Banner ensures the Bikers turn to vapour. I'm actually retiring my Librarian for the time being, he's a massive pointsink (200pts at least with stave+the mandatory three), and the TDA Inquisitor is just such great value.

 

I stress again, Orks have plenty of ways of killing Strikes, but a TDA blob is a huge headache for him.

[TheDarkOne]

Game 3 versus Dark Eldar

 

His list: as best as I can remember...

 

The Duke

 

10 warriors on foot with a splinter cannon

9 warriors with a splinter cannon in a raider

10 warriors with a splinter cannon in a raider

5 wytches in a venom

5 wytches in a venom

5 incubi in a venom

ravager with 3 dark lances

ravager with 3 dark lances

5 flying infantry with bird wings, scourges maybe? they have haywire grenades and guns....

The dark eldar bomber, Razorwing I think?

 

The mission is the Relic, so there's an objective in the middle of the board that can be picked up. there's again a big piece of terrain in the middle this time, like slate stones, impassible for vehicles, difficult for infantry, there's scattered terrain around the board an no ruins, Techmarine reinforces the forest in my deployment zone, standard 12" deployment.

 

I manage to roll up the dice to go first, and Cotaez ends up with the same powers as last game, rerolls to hit and ignores cover.I deploy cotaez and squad just outside the forest, its just outside my deployment zone, so he'll have to run in turn 1. the knights deploy behind their chimera, and the plasmagunners beside them already in their ride. both chimeras lined up in the middle to rush the relic. I start the Stormraven on the board again, and the Dreads go at either side to see around the rocks in the middle.

 

He deploys a venom with incubi and raider behind a house on the right (how there's a thatched roof house on the battlefield in the 41st millenium we'll never know) his warriors on foot behind the rock s in the middle ready to make a break for the relic, his ravagers both hidden by the rocks, one on the right one on the left, and a venom with wytches behind his right side ravager. he holds the duke with warriors in a raider, his third venom with wytches, scourges and his flyer in reserve.

 

He tries to steal but cannot, thank you cotaez.

 

My Turn 1: I drive the chimeras up 6", towards the relic, the raven zooms towards the thatched roof house on the right hand side, moving as a flyer, the dreads march up and cotaez and squad move into the relative safety of the forest. Shooting, the chimera with plasmagunners can only see the warrior squad, so they shoot and kill 1. the stormraven unloads 2 mindstrike missiles and a lascannon into the warriors, killing 3, and blasts its multimelta at the nearby ravager, knocking a gun of. the dreadnought on the right side tries to take out the venom that was behind the ravager, but can't do any damage, weird! the second dread fires on the far left ravager, immobilizing it, where it can only bring 1 gun to bear around the rocks! the knights and their ride can't see much so they don't shoot. end of my turn.

 

His Turn 1: his Venom with wytches zooms up the table near the middle and stays put atop a rock, passing its immobilization test. his raider and incubi venom jump the house, and are now clearly visible, they shoot at the henchmen squad with cotaez, killing 3 I believe. the warriors on foot head through the terrain in the middle, towards the relic, and his immobilized ravage can't do much. his mobile ravager follows the wytch venom, atop the rocks. shooting, I lose a few henchmen and 1 hull point from each dread, nothing too bad....

 

My Turn 2: I return the raven to hover mode, and drive it 6" disembarking the squad right beside the raider and venom with incubi near the house. the knights drive forward a bit and disembark, daring the warriors to come for the relic. dreads shuffle for sightlines, and the one on the left moves up a bit to avoid allowing the immobilized ravager seeing it. Shooting, the raven blasts apart the raider by the house, exploding it, for only a 1" explosion, it doesn't hit my squad at all. Dreadnought fires on the venom, only scoring 1 glance, down to 1 hull point, excellent... second dread fires on the venom with wytches on the hill blowing it up and killing all but one wytch, sho is promptly put out of her misery by chimera shots. Cotaez gives his squad rerolls to hit and they fire plasma cannons at the ravager on the hill, blowing it up as well! knights and chimeras reduce the warrior squad in the middle to 1 model. Librarian casts warp rift, catching 8/1 warriors, and the venom in the spray, techmarine fires flamer on the warriors. warp rift kills 1 warrior i think, they've got pretty good initiative, but it also scores an automatic penetrating hit on the incubi venom, wrecking it. the incubi disembark, and are pinned. all but 2 warriors are killed by the flamer. Charges, death cult and librarian multi-assualt the warriors and incubi, killing them before they can strike back with their initiative 7 attacks. the psychotroke grenades rolled a 1 for both squads... ugh...

 

His turn 2: reserves, everything but the duke and squad come in. he deepstrikes the venom behind one of m dreads, and the scourges behind the other on the right hand side. his flyer zooms up to about the middle of the board to shoot at my knights. shooting, scourges manage to blow up my dread with haywaire, venom does no damage to the dread. flyer kills 5 freakin knights with its shooting and missiles, his lone warrior runs to grab the relic. thats pretty much it.

 

My Turn 3: librarian and squad board the raven once more, it remains in hover mode and moves 6" back towards my plasma forest. dread and chimeras turn around to face the venom behind them, knights move into position to grab the relic once the warrior is dead. shooting, plasma squad in the chimera kills the warrior, knights run and grab the relic. chimeras and dreadnought make short work of the venom and all its contents. cotaez gives no cover saves and reroll to hit to hsi plasma cannons, who wipe the scourges fromt he eath, I think I caused something silly like 14 plasma wounds with no save on 5 guys... end of turn.

 

His Turn 3: the duke comes in, his warlord trait was outflank, so he appears from the board edge right by cotaez unit. shooting the remaining ravager takes a pot shot at my raven, doing no damage. the duke's squad fires on cotaez squad killing everyone but cotaez and 2 plasma servitors - ouch! thats basically it...

 

My Turn 4: raven moves 6" and librarian disembarks again with squad, aiming to get in there with the duke and his warriors. knights bring the relic to the chimera, but can't quite make it back in the vehicle. cotaez leaves his servitors behind and joins the DCA squad. I blow up the raider with shooting and pin the squad, kill all but the duke and 1 dude with the rest of the shooting. cant' make it to assault.

 

His Turn 4: his flyer re-enters the battlefield, and tries to kill my knights! in a sequence of epic saves i manage to stay alive! pot shots from ravager at the raven have no effect. end of his turn.

 

My Turn 5: raven zooms toward the ravager, blowing it up with shooting. I get the knights into the chimera, and shoot most things at the flyer, but can't hit it for sheit. I move the DCAs up and charge the duke! psychotroke rolls a 1 again... Techmarine challenges. The duke strieks first, landing 5 wounds, I save them all, thanks to 2 rerolls for the 10 other models in the squad! yay cotaez adding model count! Librarian kills the warrior, Techmarine scoares 1 hit with stave wounds but the duke has a 2+ inv! at I1 the techmarine hits and wounds twice with his harness, and the duke fails 1 save, and is gibbed.

 

His turn 5, he only has the flyer and it flies off the board, ending the game in a massacre for me!

 

I ended up coming in second at the tournament and picked up another box of grey knight terminators... I plan to build a justicar thawn and run a 10 man squad soon...

 

 

good times, learned a lot about 6th, its a lot of fun!

[TheDarkOne]

I'd really recommend you make the switch to a Terminator blob

 

see the last post... they're coming... ;)

[Reclusiarch Darius]

10 warriors on foot with a splinter cannon

9 warriors with a splinter cannon in a raider

10 warriors with a splinter cannon in a raider

5 wytches in a venom

5 wytches in a venom

5 incubi in a venom

ravager with 3 dark lances

ravager with 3 dark lances

5 flying infantry with bird wings, scourges maybe? they have haywire grenades and guns....

The dark eldar bomber, Razorwing I think?

 

Splinter cannons instead of lances is a mistake, as are fielding Wyches and Incubi. Scourges are also a mediocre unit. Still, Duke and Ravagers is pretty annoying.

 

I ended up coming in second at the tournament and picked up another box of grey knight terminators... I plan to build a justicar thawn and run a 10 man squad soon...

 

Nice work man. The lack of staying power for DE, plus his really aggressive posture kinda played into your hands. Don't take Thawn, I know he's basically our Jeebus guy but his price tag is pretty huge for a glorified Justicar. I'd honestly use his points towards a TDA Inquisitor to replace the Librarian, re-rolls and an extra hammer+psycannon are much better than Jeebus.

[Valerian]

The warboss swings for 4 attacks, scores 3 hits and 3 wounds.... techmarine passes all 3 2+ inv saves! He returns with the servo harness, and scores two wounds on the warboss, who has cybork body, he fails his saves and is killed! I win by a lot, but there are still 11 orks left... crap... His nob was out of range of the battle this round.

 

Hmmm. Maybe I'm being dense, but how/why does the Techmarine get a 2+ Invulnerable Save against the Warboss' Power Klaw attacks?

 

Oh wait, does he have a Warding Stave? That must be it. Never mind.

 

Valerian

[Morollan]

i start the raven on the board this time

 

My Turn 1: I drive the chimeras up 6", towards the relic, the raven zooms towards the thatched roof house on the right hand side

 

Nice battle reports but don't flyers have to start the game in reserve?

[TheDarkOne]

because the raven can move in hover mode it can start on the table in hover mode.

 

Some other more dedicated flyers that don't have hover mode (dark Eldar, Necrons, Orks etc) all need to start in reserves.

[Doppleganger]

Nice one man. Your list wasn't even that optimised, and you still crushed Deathwing just fine.

 

A recommendation for the future; take power axe and power sword (they are armed with two power weapons, you can combine different ones and still get +1A) on your Death-Cult. That way, when fighting TDA, you can choose to use the axe and go to S5 (S6 under 'Hammerhand') and break their armour. You do give up your awesome Initiative, but AP3 will just slide off them anyway, so at least you'll kill a few before their powerfists smush you. Against anything with a 3+ or worse armour, you can switch to power sword and hack their faces apart at your normal high Initiative.

That is an awesome suggestion, going to have to go remodel my deathcults.

 

I was going to make some counts as DCA out of a box of Dark Eldar wyches for a 5th edition army, but never got around to it. Now that 6th is here, I am interested to see how they perform. Specifically, how the axe and sword combination work. Any suggestions on what axes would look okay with them. I have been looking around, but have not found any that look small and sleek enough to fit the the assassin theme. Any suggestions?

[Mr.darkness]

I actually think that flyers still have to start in reserve even if they have hover mode. The rule says that at the beginning of each movement phase, or as soon it comes in from reserve, it chooses whether to hover or not. That means it cannot deploy, as it still has to start In reserve, therefore it cannot choose to hover before the game starts.