The Apocalypse Crusade

[Firepower]

Dunno if it's too late to comment on the Vanguard, but the three on the left could use some mixing up.  All three of them are adopting roughly identical poses from the waist up.  Move some arms up and down.  Tilt a sword left or right.  Switch hands, maybe.  Perhaps try looking to the right instead of the left. :D

[tvih]

It's never late since they'll never be glued, and as mentioned arm poses are modular. But why look to the right when your pistol is aimed to the left? :P

[Firepower]

Just because the arm is straight doesn't mean they have to be aiming it.  Pose the arm straight down, and suddenly he's simply holding it by his hip while he gives something an up close inspection of his sword. :)

[tvih]

Tried that originally, but it didn't feel like it really works that well given the running/charging pose.

 

As for my new Sisters, I'm facing the usual dilemma again, as my with chaos marines... what to paint them as! I think I've basically narrowed it down to Ebon Chalice or Argent Shroud. The former pretty much match the Templars in their color scheme - black armor, white cloak, red trimmings. It looks very nice. Valorous Heart and Our Martyred Lady are similarly nice, but I think I'd pick the Ebon Chalice over them. But then there's Argent Shroud. It doesn't look quite as nice as the black-armored color schemes, but it'd be different. My problem with different just tends to be that I still always resort to black in the end because it just looks better. Argent Shroud would be kinda fluffy what with Helsreach and all, especially as I also have Steel Legion. Would be cool to sort of re-enact the Battle for the Temple of the Emperor Ascendant at some point - and most likely I will, though my "temple" will be quite small, and I only have like a max of 2500 points worth of orks, or thereabouts. But I suppose that'd still be enough for a scaled-down version.

[tvih]

Local tournament today, and with it the first matches with new Codex. I had a silly list: CM with TH+Shield Eternal and 10 HG in LRR, 7 terminators in LRC, two 5-man las-HB crusader squads with one of them in a Rhino, and Skyhammer Stormtalon and MM+TLLC Stormraven. Bloody hell, come to think of it the first match with BT/SM with no Speeders ever since I bought my first Speeder!

 

First match against Orks+IG. Against an opponent who always loses. A nice enough young chap, but sadly terrible at the game. 5 objective game with 3-point objectives. Because he's a bit slow with his deployment and turns, we only had time for two full turns. By the end of which I had two objectives against 0 for him, and I had slain his warlord and had linebreaker, thus 8-0. I only lost 3 terminators in the process, and one wound from my CM.

 

Second match against Daemons. 4 FMCs and a GUO, so obviously I had zero chance especially as he rolled Iron Arm and Enfeeble to 4 of 'em. I had terrible luck in the first turn and my HG+Warlord got pinned despite reroll after LRR blew up. A bit later CM died by failing 4 out of 6 3++ saves, nice. Not that it would've made difference, but it did add insult to injury. Stormtalon was my last unit to die on turn 5. Perhaps could've tried to "kite" with it to survive, but decided to shoot something instead.

 

Third match CSM + Daemons. By far the most interesting match, but again we ran out of time. It was with 3 (3-point?) objectives as well as killpoints. I killed three units of noise marines and two 5-man havoc squads I think, as well as two Chaos Lords and 35 out of 40 daemonettes. I killed one noise marine squad + his warlord on turn 2 with my terminators, but after that the terminators died way too fast, averaging a failed 2+ per 3-4 wounds, and despite getting the charge lost 7 frickin' HG to daemonettes in the first round of that combat because he got 7 rending results out of 25 hits. Bah! In the end he had the ~5 daemonettes left - two still locked in combat with two remaining HG & CM and three others capping an objectiv - while I had only lost 2 wounds from CM, 8 HG, 7 terminators, and 5 crusaders (wiping out that squad). LRR lost 1 HP to missile and second to being immobilized by terrain. Thanks a bunch, Crud-Ace! End score was 12-6, I believe. Or 10-4 if the objectives were 1 point each.

 

Could write proper battle reports, but no one ever reads 'em anyway Suffice to say I ended up third out of 8 players overall, just one point behind the second spot. Had we had time to properly finish the match, I would've been tied second, or perhaps second, I'm not entirely sure of the scoring system. Come to think of it I probably should've been second anyway since I won the last match by 5 points of more... meh. Doesn't matter that much.

[tvih]

Not strictly BT-related but my IG+SoB auxiliaries engaged some traitorous DA today in an attempt to get a feel for their potential as allies to my BT (SoB ally matrix shenanigans notwithstanding).

 

When I saw that the opponent mostly had Terminators I was uh-oh as I had very little AP2... but in the end the match went quite well. I killed his Ravenwing Knights + filthy witch in turn 1 with my Manticore + 2 LRBTs. In turn 2 Marbo killed about 6 out of 10 terminators that had accompanied Belial to my backfield, while over the course of the match my Canoness took 2 wounds from Belial in single combat, losing 2 in return, at which point Yarrick intervened and powed Belial right in the kisser for mistreating a lady. He took two wounds too, though. Ouch. And in the next turn a traitorous Whirlwind killed the Canoness anyway.

 

What lost me the match was that he deep striked to the Relic with his other ~10 terminators, and then proceeded to roll an absolutely ridiculous amount of saves during turns 2-5. I'm serious - he had to have rolled 50 saves, of which at least 8 were AP2, and he only lost I believe 4 of the terminators in that squad. Being scoring, they held the relic until end of turn 5 at which point we had to end the game anyway due to time constraints. I suppose in hindsight I should've used Marbo against them rather than in the backfield, but of course I couldn't foresee such ridiculous dice rolls (plus I forgot that the demo charge was AP2 so I thought I was going to only kill a few models at best even with a direct hit). On average that squad should've been dead, but the Emperor decided otherwise for reasons unknown.

 

Overall the IG portion of the army fared much better than the SoB, though of course there were twice as many IG in terms of point value anyway. But I suppose the only noteworthy thing the Sisters did was the Canoness fighting with zeal against Belial, and the Celestian unit he was with also killed a couple of terminators. Beyond that, I think the only damage my Sisters did was taking on HP off a quad gun. It didn't help that after my first turn my Retributors were first pinned and then shot to pieces and then the remaining two ran off the map.

[tvih]

You thought me defeated and dead merely because of my absence, didn't you? How foolish, as was the combined traitorous Ultramarines and Blood Angels force who had the audacity to challenge my forces today. My Demolisher cannon showed them the error of their ways.

 

No but seriously, in a 2000pt Big Guns Never Tire game the Vindicator one-shotted a Land Raider with Telion, one-shotted a hovering Stormraven, and also killed at least 6+ marines while securing one of the four objectives at the end of the game. That's some pretty decent return of investment. Largely thanks to that I ended up winning 11-1 in points.

[Marshal Reinhard]

I see you've been busy reaving causualties between both heretics, traitors and xenos alike, brother. You do the chapter proud.

 

Seriously though, that is an impressive kill count for one demolisher in a single game.

 

I myself have not seen nearly as much action though I did flatten a ork mob in a minor skirmish quite profoundly.

[greggles]

tvih,

 

I recently played a 2v1 game with my friends.  I did a 1k sisters + 1k templars list.  It went something like this.  Mentioning this because of the incredible raw power of the templars + sisters combo.

 

Daemons and Dark Eldar vs Sisters and Templar

 

Daemons was flying circus + pink horror spam.

DE was raiders with pain engines, fighter, bikes, and kitted out archon.

 

I took...

 

BT

 

Master of forge

ironclad/drop

sniper scouts

crusader squad, SB

stormraven

vindicator

hunter

 

Sisters

 

Celestine

outflanking dominions (melta x4) hvy flamer immolator

4x 5 sisters with hvy flamer/flamer (MM immolators)

2x exorcists.

 

They rolled to go first and won...i seized.

 

Game was over by the end of turn 2.  It was a blood bath.  The sisters biggest weakpoint is a turn 1 alpha.  The ironclad took care of that, wiped out a unit of reavers (first blood).  The vindicator and hunter both popped raiders.  Next turn, stormraven came on, and the combined firepower of everything grounded and wiped out 75% of the board, including three daemon princes.  When the pink horrors landed, I denied, then wiped them with flamers.

 

I didn't bother doing one of my bat reps, because it was NOT fun for the other side.  They asked that i never play the combo again, and we modified the 2v1 so that the side playing two armies would play a 1500 + 500 ally setup, so nobody can take 5 heavies...my god those exorcists are absurd beyond all comprehension...

 

Plus the sisters vehicles have admantium will ON THE VEHICLES.  Admantium will never seems to be a big deal till you face an army where an entirety of their powers and shooting attacks comes from psychic powers!  I think I denied 7 powers in just a few turns.

 

I really hope they adjust the ally chart so I can take them as a regular grouping.  Even so, I think just having one exorcist is enough to drive people nuts.  So props to another sister player :).

Edited January 2, 2014 by greggles

[Honda]

 

I really hope they adjust the ally chart so I can take them as a regular grouping

 

Since we are part of the SM codex, don't we get to do that anyway? I don't have my BRB with me.

[recon0321]

How did you greenstuff that templar cross on your terminator

[Kristoff]

 

 

I really hope they adjust the ally chart so I can take them as a regular grouping

 

Since we are part of the SM codex, don't we get to do that anyway? I don't have my BRB with me.

 

 

Well, the codex says to treat all references to Codex: Black Templar as Codex: Space Marines (Black Templar Chapter Tactics). So that means that little cross on the Ally Chart now references Space Marines with Black Templar Tactics. Since an FAQ hasn't brought any further clarification on that, that's the RAW.

[tvih]

Seriously though, that is an impressive kill count for one demolisher in a single game.

Yeah... it has killed a decent amount before, like the whole Ghazghkull + 3-4 nobs in a single shot thing which remains the record-holder for most points killed in a single shot, but now this was a record in terms of points killed in a single game  

 

I recently played a 2v1 game with my friends.  I did a 1k sisters + 1k templars list.  It went something like this.  Mentioning this because of the incredible raw power of the templars + sisters combo.

Sisters can indeed be a nice addition. I left out from this thread after the IG+Sisters vs DA thing a tournament where I played 3 games with IG+Sisters (against Tau+Eldar, Space Wolves and Chaos Marines), and won 2 out of 3. I'd just need a Dominion squad and 1-2 more Immolators to round out my allied detachment. Not that I'd say no to Seraphim - if not once again for the darned price.

 

But there's indeed hoping they'll FAQ the ally matrix thing. I can't fathom what's taking them so long with the C:SM FAQ in any case!

 

How did you greenstuff that templar cross on your terminator

The old AoBR terminator? I just made a flat "sheet" of green stuff and cut it from there with a hobby knife.

[greggles]

like the whole Ghazghkull + 3-4 nobs in a single shot thing which remains the record-holder for most points killed in a single shot

 

 

You can't one shot ghazzy.  He's got eternal warrior.  He can also declare a waaargh at any moment, including when a nasty AP2 shot comes his way to make his 2+ a 2++.  He's also roughly the same height as a trygon (he could punch one in the face), but that's another point entirely!  (core ork player here...heheh)

 

 

 

Well, the codex says to treat all references to Codex: Black Templar as Codex: Space Marines (Black Templar Chapter Tactics). So that means that little cross on the Ally Chart now references Space Marines with Black Templar Tactics. Since an FAQ hasn't brought any further clarification on that, that's the RAW.

 

Ya, I'd still like them to be battle brothers with templars, not allies of convenience.

 

I tried some seraphim in kill team, they did pretty good! You can take a lot of them for 200 points.

Edited January 3, 2014 by greggles

[Kristoff]

 

 

Well, the codex says to treat all references to Codex: Black Templar as Codex: Space Marines (Black Templar Chapter Tactics). So that means that little cross on the Ally Chart now references Space Marines with Black Templar Tactics. Since an FAQ hasn't brought any further clarification on that, that's the RAW.

Ya, I'd still like them to be battle brothers with templars, not allies of convenience.

 

 

Seriously. The really odd part is no matter which one you go with, Tau and Eldar are more reliable and desirable than the Sisters.

[tvih]

You can't one shot ghazzy.  He's got eternal warrior.  He can also declare a waaargh at any moment, including when a nasty AP2 shot comes his way to make his 2+ a 2++.  He's also roughly the same height as a trygon (he could punch one in the face), but that's another point entirely!

Luckily you can when your opponent is being foolish and when game mechanics are weird. Basically his transport got whacked. He disembarked so that Ghaz was in the front. Not to mention they were all bunched up, so my bullseye hit ended up causing 7 wounds (or could've been 8, but don't want to embellish too much ). He decided to take 4 wounds to Ghaz and LoS! only the rest. And failed every single 5++. He didn't Waaagh either. I thought there were limitations for when he could activate than one, though? Regardless, my opponent didn't, so... Indeed the Vindicator did get some from the opponent overall, but still, lots of points killed in a single shot regardless of how and why! Edited January 3, 2014 by tvih

[greggles]

LOL, I blame the ork player then :).  Letting ghazzy take all the wounds...he's got krumpin to do...he has no time for wounds!

 

Really curious how they are going to adjust the waaargh in the new codex.  I hope they do different ork divisions with different tactics like they did the space marines.  (bad moonz, deff skullz, goff's, red sunz, etc).

 

Sorry got a little excited on the ork talk :).

[tvih]

Oh boy! Tournament coming up on Saturday, time to dust off my Templars! While the alternate-universe Crusader has been busy in bringing the light of the Emperor to traitors and demons and all sorts of abominations alike for the two weeks or so, it's time for the Twilight Crusade to march again as well. It's in another city, to which I'll be moving next month if everything goes according to plans. Hopefully I'll end up actually playing every now and then once Imove over there!

 

Anyway, the tournament is 1500 points, probably 4 matches. My list is unlikely to be very optimized, as I'll probably just assemble a list from whatever I have painted - alas, since I haven't really been playing and thus haven't had that - or a competition - to motivate me, I haven't painted anything new since ETL II. As my models are all over the place, will see what I can even find! ;)

[tvih]

The tournament ended up being rather small - only 5 participants. Got 3 games - Chaos Marines, IG (Steel Legion), and Poster Boys. Alas, I only won the first match - and that only because time ran out. The IG match was the nicest, even though I was still indeed soundly defeated. In the CSM match as well as against the Poster Boys the dice really messed with me, but that's nothing out of the ordinary and didn't go unnoticed by the opponent either. In any case, if someone wants I could do a small write-up on the games. But in the meanwhile here are a few of the pics I took.

 

http://www.tvih.net/stuff/wh40k/levels2014/IMG_0093.JPG

 

http://www.tvih.net/stuff/wh40k/levels2014/IMG_0105.JPG

 

http://www.tvih.net/stuff/wh40k/levels2014/IMG_0118.JPG

 

http://www.tvih.net/stuff/wh40k/levels2014/IMG_0137.JPG

 

http://www.tvih.net/stuff/wh40k/levels2014/IMG_0139.JPG

[Marshal Mattias]

Lovely scenery going on, and nice shots. Shame the results didn't go your way, but if you feel you have any particular moments worth mentioning then maybe as a group we can pick them apart and grow our strategies together!

 

EDIT: Particularly love the shot of the SB and initiates on the balcony :)

Edited April 13, 2014 by Marshall Mattias

[tvih]

Well, mostly notable moments were bad luck of the dice. Like the Emperor's Champion - my first time running him with the new Codex, by the way - losing to Sicarius despite the odds favoring the EC. Very bad to-hit rolls even with rerolls, and damned lucky saves for Sicarius as well (including against two ID wounds). As such during the three games the EC only killed a Cultist Champion, an IG sergeant and maybe a marine sergeant, plus maybe another marine or so. Bummer. Still, the Sicarius duel was fairly epic, with the EC being basically alone out there - as per the last pic - and it went on for at least 5 combat phases. Actually in the first phase the EC inflicted two unsaved wounds on Sicarius, and the coward with his henchmen failed the morale check... but the EC wouldn't let them run off!

 

Still, earlier the EC + 4 terminators failed to kill 4 measly tactical marines in a combat phase, which is why the EC ended up alone the following turn. Had I won and then been able to charge Sicarius with the terminators included, I most likely would've won that duel, though I still would've soundly lost the match itself (6 Rhinos with 10 models inside each one is no joke when you have very few bodies on the table yourself!).

 

Overall the 5 terminators + EC in the LRC were still the most effective unit (but even that wasn't much given how the matches went), but I suppose that was a given as the combo used up 620 out of 1500 points. In the first match they only really killed a cultist squad and the LRC took a point off a Heldrake (damned triple drake list), but in the second they killed... let's see... a Basilisk, a Leman Russ, a small IG Squad (not really sure what kind it was). The LRC finished off another squad, took a point off a Vendetta and also blew up two Chimeras. Also it earned me my only points from the match - it was a non-standard scoring system - by surviving and holding that quarter of the map... it was my only model to survive the match, with 1HP left and immobilized! Actually on that note it was my folly that the last terminators and EC died, as I should've embarked them on the LRC instead of pointlessly running after the hovering Vendettas that were too far away.

 

Slightly uncommon occurences were the Vindicator not killing much (which over the course of 3 full games is rare, even if not for individual games) - against CSM it died before getting to range of anything thanks to the blasted drakes and their vector strikes, and then against IG the only shot it got off was eaten by a cover save thanks to night fight being in effect. Against marines it destroyed a Rhino and a few marines (3 maybe?), but that was it. But even more uncommon was that in the first match for the first time ever my Predator earned its points back by killing a Chaos Predator. It did take 12 lascannon shots to achieve that, though, thanks to terrible rolling on my part.

[tvih]

Made my first vow. A meager 1039 points. Sadly lacking in proper Templary close combat-ness, except for the the Ironclad, but that's the way the burnt Xeno-Psyker's corpse crumbles this time.

 

I certainly have a lot I could paint, but moving to a new apartment Friday & Saturday, starting a new job on Monday and need to find to time to sort all my things at the new apartment and also have time for my "better half", so who knows when I can get started. By 40k stuff is now packed in a million different boxes with not much organization in what is in what box, so even sorting out the correct bits to paint may take a while!

 

Still, definitely hoping to vow more than this over the course of the event, but time will tell. I haven't painted anything since ETL II ended, so I'll likely be even slower than usual (if that's even possible) in my progress because of that, too.

[Honda]

You have ZEAL. Everything else will sort itself out.

[tvih]

It probably will, the Emperor willing.

 

Funny though how I have an urge to make an order from GW to get the "exclusive" captain. I'm such a sucker for HQs it seems, it's not likely I need any additional ones (or considering how much I've spent, GW models in general)! Alas due to the move and whatnot budgeting for that doesn't seem... prudent. But then again in just a few days the opportunity will be gone forever. Sigh!

[Marshal Mattias]

I don't know... Sure, freebies are nice, but the model is meh, generic captain. It doesn't make me want to spend my money that much...