Noise Marines in Escalation

[Phytoon]

So I've been doing an escalation league at my local game shop, and I want to have something of a running log/commentary for my games so I can learn from mistakes and the like. I've been spending a lot of time lurking through these forums in threads like Bonzi's "Making Noise Marines Scream," so my lists are heavily influenced by what I've perceived to be "meta" about this game. However, as I've only been playing Warhammer 40k for about six months, my experience in justifying some of my choices is limited, and in some cases consists only of what people have told me about some units.

 

So enough disclaimer, let's start with some lists! My game shop is running an eight-week escalation league, with the point values increasing every other week, starting at 500, then 750, 1000, 1250, and after all that having a 1500 point tourney.

 

500 Points:

 

I've actually got quite a few 500 point lists, just because of the stupid things Chaos can bring at this low point value and still have it be legal. However, in this escalation league I used two different lists, one that (at least I think) is more serious/competitive, and the other which was purely for fun because I lost the first round. After I lost the first round while actually trying with this first list, I made the second one pretty silly, then won (go figure).

 

First List: Opening Act

 

HQ: Chaos Lord - Zed Leppard 125 points

Aura of Dark Glory, Burning Brand of Skalathrax, Lightning Claw

 

Troops: 2x Chaos Space Marines (75 points each) 150 points total

Regular five-man with nothing special

 

Heavy Support: Havocs 125 points

2x Autocannons, 2x Missile Launchers

 

Heavy Support: Predator 100 points

Autocannon, 2x Heavy Bolters, Warpflame Gargoyles

 

Synopsis: This list relied pretty heavily on my ability to shoot the board with the tank and havocs, then close in on objectives with the CSM squads and hold my ground. Chaos Lords have proven to be pretty reliable in close combat, at their worst simply not dying, and at their best taking whole squads out by themselves.

 

Why it failed: In this escalation league, everyone rolled for Warlord Traits at the beginning of the league, and we're supposed to keep that trait for the whole thing. I rolled Fear (yay) and fought against Blood Angels, whose warlord got Infiltrate. At the start of the match, the BAs infiltrated to 18 inches away from my front line, annihilating all of my field advantage. At the time, I didn't know about minimum requirements for unit deployment (he still would've gotten one unit there, but he had two units and a lord, so he would've had to deploy one normally). I also didn't know that you weren't allowed to assault on the turn you infiltrate (which he did, because he had jump packs so he moved 12 and charged 6). However, his ability to eliminate my whole-field advantage crippled me, and the match devolved quickly into a melee, with me moving my guys just out of charge range to be able to shoot at his guys once.

 

The tank was nice, but it proved ultimately useless when in the last round of combat, after he had killed all the rest of my dudes, he charged the tank with his two remaining marines and killed it with a chainsword.

 

What I learned: Aside from the basic rules on deployment and charging after infiltrating, I learned that I should keep Zed further back. Even after he had me locked in combat, if I could have had Zed waiting with the Brand for that combat to end, I would have wiped his remaining troops out, then charged in to clean up.

 

 

 

Second List: Zed's Fireworks Show

 

HQ: Zed 140 points

Aura, Mark of Slaanesh, Brand, Lightning Claw

 

Troop: Noise Marines (Assault style though) 110 points

Doom Siren on the Champion

 

Troop: CSM Squad 75 points

nothing special

 

Fast: Heldrake 170 points

Baleflamer

 

Synopsis: After that first match, I wanted to be silly. I brought in Helly to do just that, and it was a lot of fun.

 

Why it Won: I fought against Tau, and the majority of their weapons were S5 AP5, so while they would have no trouble putting wounds on regular CSMs, they had no chance of hurting Helly. To start things off, I was scared of their tank. Its rail cannon was no laughing matter, so I knew I had to target it first. But with a starting deployment of just Zed and his boys, I had to remain safe until Helly could show up and help.

 

The guy I played brought two groups of eleven fire warriors, with one of the having Cadre Fireblade, a team of two Crisis Suits, and the tank (can't remember what it's called) with the rail cannon and two seeker missile pods. I knew that the tank would be able to shoot at my boys from the start, so I moved Zed's squad behind impassable terrain to limit its shooting to just that, and sent the other squad to a mysterious forest, which turned out to be Ironbark (lucky me). 

 

So his first turn, he just spread out his shooting line a bit, getting ready for me to move my guys into range, and then he shot the seeker missiles at Zed's squad. No wounds, though, because they made all their saves!

 

Turn two, Helly came in right on schedule, and vector struck the tank, while Zed's crew moved around the corner and bravo squad moved to the edge of the forest. Helly scored a glance against the tank, then torched half the unit of FWs with CFB in it, and Zed shot the Brand at the crisis suits, wounding both. Bravo squad picked off a few FWs, but they were mostly trying to stay safe. Hurray for soulblaze, as it took out two more FWs and one of the Crisis Suits!

 

In response, though, a bunch of snap shots of Helly's rear happened, with two of them sticking for glancing hits. Made the grounded test, so she was still flying, but it sucked failing both those invulnerable saves. As I expected, though, he focused entirely on Helly, and didn't shoot anyone else.

 

The next turn I killed all his dudes. No, for real, all of them. The tank lived, but I shot the Fire Warriors and Crisis Suits to death. We had somewhat of a vehicle duel between the tank and Helly, but after I killed all his guys, I just retreated to my board edge so he couldn't hit anything, then we called it after that.

 

What I learned: God, I love Helly! She really saved my bacon by 1: being my biggest gun on the field, and 2: being the biggest target. I never managed to get into melee with anything, but I don't really regret that. Also, soul blaze is one of my favorite mechanics in this game, even after my initial impression that it wouldn't be very good. But you know what? It makes the enemy roll more dice, meaning more chances to fail. However, I did get pretty lucky with my rolls, as I only lost one CSM in the battle, and only took two wounds on Helly, but it balanced out because she never made an invuln save nor regained a wound through It Will Not Die. 

[Rabidweasel]

I think you maybe playing your heldrake wrong.  They don't need to take grounding tests as they are a vehicle not a flying MC.  Also i can't see how you could have a "duel" with a tank as you can only turn 90degress each turn with a minimum of an 18" movement as they are a zooming flyer and can't hover.  

You could of used the torrent nature of the baleflamer to hit his rear armour as well don't forget! Measure 12" anywhere from the mouth then place the template anywhere along that line.  I think the Hammerhead is only AV10 on the rear, so you only need 4s for glance.  

 

Other than that your second list does look better.  Naked CSM squads aren't the best so on the next points level i would certainly tool them up, depending on your meta you may want to buy them a metal box and have the lord ride with them throwing templates out the top, only issue being is it's likely to get popped quickly.

 

 Make your NM squad a shooty squad with a Blastmaster and use them to camp home objectives.  The S8 AP3 ignores cover blast is just beautiful and makes people scared as they can't hide behind cover!

 

Also a quick note on Havocs, it's not generally a good idea to mix their weapon loadouts.  Keep them all of the same, i would have personally stuck with four autocannons for that list.

 

Hope that helps!

[Culln]

Also i can't see how you could have a "duel" with a tank as you can only turn 90degress each turn with a minimum of an 18" movement as they are a zooming flyer and can't hover.  

 

It is absolutly possible for a Helldrake to hover! ;)

[Phytoon]

Thanks for the replies, you two. The fact that I don't need grounded tests is pretty awesome, but someone told me recently that GW errata'd the Baleflamer and now it's only a 6" torrent. :( Anyway, I have the results from the next point bracket, and sadly I lost both times. First one was hella close though.

 

750 Points:

 

HQ: Zed 165 points

Mark of Slaanesh, Bike, Sigil of Corruption, Power Fist, Lightning Claw

 

Troop: Noise Marines 125

1 Blastmaster

 

Troop: CSM 75

naked

 

Heavy: Havocs 125

2 Autocannons, 2 Missile Launchers

 

Fast: Helly 170

Baleflamer

 

Fast: Bikes 90

2 Meltas

 

I ran this same list for both of the matches in this point bracket. Both games, it was kinda close, but more so in the first one. In the second one I got tabled and was sad.

 

Synopsis: Zed goes with the bikes and wrecks vehicles' faces, while the NM and havocs stay back and shoot the crap out of things. The naked CSMs roam and support whoever needs it. Helly is what Helly does.

 

Why it lost (both times, unfortunately):

 

In the first match, we were playing with a really annoying event that the game shop came up with. We had a super solar flare that limited all shooting to a max range of 24", and if you ever rolled a 1 to hit with a shooting attack (unless you're twin-linked, in which case the re-roll has to be a 1) then the model shooting with that weapon goes blind for the rest of the game. We also had objectives in our deployment zones. In this match, I played against vanilla loyalist marines, and on his first turn, nearly half of his army went blind from shooting. He had a scout squad with snipers and one missile launcher, a devastator squad with all missiles, a dreadnought with an autocannon and missile launcher, a land speeder with a heavy flamer, and another SM squad in a razorback with his lord. His lord was a Keeper of the Forge, and he brought an aegis defense line with a quad-cannon (coincidence? maybe...)

 

So his first turn, he moves his scouts up to be barely in range to my havocs, missing almost all of the shots, as he rolled four ones. The shots that hit didn't stick wounds, but most importantly, that scout squad was almost half blind. He then moved his razorback and land speeder around the aegis line coming towards me in the middle of the board. The dreadnought stayed behind the line and snapped off some suppressing fire at my NMs, but he also went blind, not wounding any of the NMs. He had the devastators man the quad-cannon and boosted the one guy's BS with his captain's signum, but he rolled a twin-linked one in his volley of four shots, and blinded the guy on the turret, but three shots hit, two wounded, and none stuck on my NMs. His dice were ice cold.

 

I moved my NMs onto a hill, moved my havocs off a hill, moved the CSMs into a forest, found out it was brainleaf fronds, and moved my bikes around behind a hill on the board edge. Shot twice at the squad on the quad gun with the blastmaster's assault 2 frequency, inflicting one wound and the squad failed its pinning check (business). The havocs fired a couple snap shots at the scouts, and hit one, but his made his 3+ cover save. One of my missile launchers went blind. The CSMs in the forest killed each other, leaving two guys alive out of the five man squad.

 

His next turn, he fired a bunch of snap shots, and didn't accomplish anything, my turn Helly didn't come in, I moved the bikes on top of the hill, but lost one due to dangerous terrain. I shot everything at the land speeder, not wounding it, fired at the grounded squad with the BM and killed a few, fired at the scouts with the havocs and killed a few, and moved the CSMs out of the forest. The bikes attempted to charge the speeder, but rolled snake eyes on assault range, so I ended on top of a hill.

 

Next, his pinned guys stood up and unloaded at the NMs, with the boosted BS guy (he switched which one was manning the gun so it wasn't the blind guy) and a bunch of missiles. Similar results, except he managed to kill one dude in front. He started pulling his scouts back so they wouldn't all die, rolled his razorback up to my bikes, as well as his landspeeder, and shot a bunch of flame templates at them, killing the other two bikers, but not touching Zed. (First blood on round three, that sucks.) He also had some rapid fire shots to take, but rolled a bunch of ones and blinded his SM squad. The razorback shot a heavy bolter at Zed, but one of its three shots was a one, so it too was blinded. That landed one wound on Zed.

 

My turn three, I had Zed fall back out of line of sight, then moved my CSMs in front of the havocs to provide a cover save in the open, and had the NMs and Havocs shoot the guys behind the line. I put both squads down to one guy left. Sadly, Helly still decided not to grace us with her presence, so that was about it.

 

He moved his dudes in the razorback towards the NM squad, and had the landspeeder go shoot fire at them. It killed one more. The scout and devastator behind the line ran back towards his objective, and the dreadnought missed all his shots again. Big surprise. I had Zed go charge the landspeeder, and he blew it up with his power fist, the lone remaining CSM ran to my objective, and the havocs shot at the dreadnought because it was the only thing in sight. My main issue here, aside from Helly not showing up, was that I couldn't get a kill point off those squads because they both had one guy remaining.

 

His turn five, he unloaded his dudes again and shot a bunch of times at Zed, who took one more wound. Nothing else happened. Helly came in, torched the SM squad and the BM put them down to one guy, then Zed charged, and because he had to issue a challenge, he would only hit the KotF. We had a Rocky freeze-frame moment though, as both lords fought with power fists and killed each other on step 1. Then the game ended. We were tied in everything except he had first blood, so he won. Butterball came in too late to make much of a difference, and even then I couldn't get a kill point off a squad to save my life, because all three of his infantry survived with the last man.

 

 

What I learned: Solar flare sucks. But it also kinda helped me, since the shooting elements of his force were neutralized by their own fire. I only had 3 guys blinded in total, and for the most part, I avoided having to roll to hit by shooting blasts. The main reason I lost this game is because I couldn't finish off his infantry, and that was mostly on the dice, so I can't really do much about that. I probably could have done better with target prioritization, but early game my guys were spread out considerably, and we didn't know about the solar flare until after deployment. If Helly arrived sooner, it may have been different, but again that was the dice, so I can't do much about it.

[Culln]

Lol @6" Torrent Flamer. Torrent is an universal rule without any Faqing, so "someone" is lying to you. But you can check these infos for yourself, go to the FAQ section of the GW Webpage.

[Phytoon]

I wanted to break this up because I realized the wall of text was rather long. Also, in case I screw up and close the browser or something I won't lost both reports.

The second match I played was against Dark Eldar, and they had two squads of guardians (I think that's what they're called. The jet bike guys), a wraith lord, some infantry that did absolutely nothing, and a fast skimmer tank that carried those infantry.

 

Breakdown: We had to nominate squad leaders that would be objectives if we killed them, so I picked the archon from his infantry and he picked my noise marine champ. I also had some crates that give twin-linked to my squads, and that can be shot to create a big explosion. 

 

His first turn he had his skimmer tank pick up the dudes and then move over some cover and shoot my bikes. The bastard killed all my bikes on turn one. I thought they were put away behind stuff, but then he was like "Nope, I can go over that" and they were all dead. Then he had his bikes sweep around the side towards my CSMs who were out of sight behind a building. The wraith lord stomped over towards my NMs on a cliff and shot at them, but didn't do anything.

 

"Vengeance for the bikers!" I shouted as I had Zed turbo-boost around the tank towards his bikers. The noise marines shot at the wraith lord, but did nothing, and the havocs moved to be in sight of the wraith lord, then shot at him, inflicting one wound. The CSMs moved around the building to shoot at the bikes on the other side, killing one of them.

 

His next turn he moved his bikes over to Zed, shot the crap out of him, then charged. Zed went down to one wound from the shots, but because of the challenge, was only fighting the farseer (I think that's what it's called). The wraith lord stomped over toward that melee and the tank shot the crap out of my NMs, leaving only the champ and the BM to stand defiant against the eldar trickery.

 

My turn two, Helly arrived! She vector struck, inflicting one wound on the wraith lord, then baleflamed the bikes that weren't in melee yet, killing all of them. Since nobody was manning the quad gun, it needed fives to hit her, but rolled three 6's. Thankfully, since it needed a 5 to glance her side armor, it did nothing. The NMs shot at the tank, since it was the only target in range/sight that wasn't in combat, as did the havocs. We took off one hull point. yay. All this time, Zed and the farseer were stalled in combat, so I had the CSMs charge in, but nothing happened there for either side. Just to note, this challenge would be locked up in a complete tie until round 5, so if I forget to mention it, that's why.

 

He shoots at the NMs, killing them both with his tank, then has the wraithlord enter the fray, killing four of my CSMs, and he shot at Helly, doing nothing with the quad gun. He also unloaded his infantry before he shot the NMs, so they just kinda stood there.

 

My turn, Helly destroys the infantry that unloaded, and the havocs move up onto the cliff where the NMs were, shooting everything at the tank, since everything else was locked up. Nothing there. Zed finally killed the farsooker, and rolled a whopping no reward on the chaos boons table. Sadness. 

 

The game went on to turn 6. He shot the havocs with the tank, killing all of them. Shot at Helly with the quad gun, finally inflicting one wound. Slam attacked with the wraith lord at Zed, killing him and breaking the combat. He consolidated and spread his guys out. The bikers were just white noise at this point. Only three were left anyway.

 

I had Helly zoom over to be close to where the combat was, and torched the bikes, but only killed one. 

 

The game continued to turn 7. He fired absolutely everything at Helly, finally bringing her down. At least when she exploded, she killed one of the bikes.

 

Why it lost: I should have been way more careful with my bikes. They were obviously too close to the front at the beginning since they all died. If I had put them a little further back, or behind more stuff, they probably would have lived to go kill that tank. Everything else seemed to be going according to plan until all my guys wound up dead. Helly did her work, and killed entire squads in one shot, but I just couldn't hurt that wraith lord. 

 

What I learned: Speed be damned if I can't keep the bikes alive to use it! I focus fired at the wraith lord while I could, but just didn't have enough oomph to kill it, so I'm definitely thinking it's time to upgrade the havocs to obliterators. And next time I think I'll bring Defiler instead of Heldrake because it seems the meta of this group is becoming extremely anti-air.

 

So next week it goes to 1000 points, and I think I'll keep Zed as he is, but maybe replace the combi-bolter of his bike with the Burning Brand for old times' sake. I need more heavy firepower, so the blits are the obvious answer there, and other than that it's a toss-up between Helly and Deffy for who gets to come play. Unless I remove something else, I can only fit one of them into the list. The CSMs are no longer gonna be naked, as I'm going to spend the fifty points to turn them into a BM squad of NMs. Basically, if I make the proposed changes without switching out Helly, I have 30 points left, with which I could bring in Deffy with warpflame gargs, or further upgrade my squads while keeping Helly.

[Phytoon]

Lol @6" Torrent Flamer. Torrent is an universal rule without any Faqing, so "someone" is lying to you. But you can check these infos for yourself, go to the FAQ section of the GW Webpage.

Thanks for mentioning that. I was just going with it for the day, since the guy running the event told me, but I just went through the latest GW FAQ for 40k and found no mention of torrent in there. I don't suspect foul play, it was probably just a mistake or misheard rumor, but from now on, I'm gonna make sure he has his facts straight before I listen to him again.

[zyl-]

I don't think I've had a defiler make it's points back once yet in 6th.

[Capt_Darius]

That solar flare rule is positively ridiculous. It hamstrings all shooting armies without giving anything to offset it. Also, tournament/league organizers shouldn't be basing BS rulings off of rumors that they may have heard/misheard somewhere. If they don't actually know the rules, then they either a) shouldn't be making rulings on them or b) shouldn't be running a tournament/league.

[Rabidweasel]

I would keep the Drake in your list mate.  Point for point he/she will do more damage than the defiler, which is sad as i love the defiler model and really wanted it to be better in our new codex.  Mine is retired to the shelf and not seen my games box for awhile now!

 

Oblits are great, you may just need to do a little forward planning as to what weapon they'll fire as you won't be able to use it next turn.  Luckily as you or the enemy closes that decision should be answered for you!  Like i said if you do stick with havocs, take the same weapon in each squad, i would personally favor autocannons over missile launchers but YMMV.

 

 

@Cullen Well i never, i never knew the drake could hover!  But i'm sure you can't vector strike if you hover tho?  Much like a flying MC can't vector strike if it's not flying.

[Phytoon]

I would keep the Drake in your list mate.  Point for point he/she will do more damage than the defiler, which is sad as i love the defiler model and really wanted it to be better in our new codex.  Mine is retired to the shelf and not seen my games box for awhile now!

 

Oblits are great, you may just need to do a little forward planning as to what weapon they'll fire as you won't be able to use it next turn.  Luckily as you or the enemy closes that decision should be answered for you!  Like i said if you do stick with havocs, take the same weapon in each squad, i would personally favor autocannons over missile launchers but YMMV.

 

 

@Cullen Well i never, i never knew the drake could hover!  But i'm sure you can't vector strike if you hover tho?  Much like a flying MC can't vector strike if it's not flying.

I've actually seen both Helly and Deffy pull their weight. I'm just thinking that since everyone else is going to be bringing AA guns, I might as well scrub my air assault. However, I could bring both to the next battle and see how well that works, though I'd have to move some things around to compensate for the high cost. My Heldrake has yet to dissapoint me, and she's only died once ever, so it really would be a good idea to keep her in the list, but I think it's time for Deffy to shine a little. 

 

Also, you do lose the ability to vector strike when you hover, and things no longer need skyfire to shoot you normally, so it's a really risky maneuver, but it can pay off if you use it to skirt around an enemy infantry that you missed shooting at last turn.

[Capt_Darius]

The good news is that it's still a daemon, so it still gets the 5++ save, even while hovering.

[Phytoon]

Alright, so I've put some thought into what I need for my next list, and I think I'm gonna run this:

 

1000 points:

 

HQ: Zed 165

Same as before, MoS, sigil, fist, claw, bike

 

Troops: Noise marines x2 250

Two squads with blastmasters. The normal marines in there swap bolters for CCWs

 

Fast: Heldrake 170

Baleflamer

 

Fast: Bikes 131

meltas, MoS, Icon of Excess

 

Heavy: Obliterators 152

two-man squad with Mark of Nurgle

 

Elite: Mutilator 61

one dude with Mark of Nurgle

 

Fort: Aegis line 70

with Comms unit

 

 

Synopsis: So my main changes here are the obliterators and mutilator. I also brought in an aegis line to plop my NMs behind, while they grant the bonus reroll on reserves. The mutilator is new to me, as I've never run them before, but I plan to use him to stop an assault on the NM. 

 

After seeing how I almost won the first game at 750, I decided to bring in the comms unit to increase my chances of getting Helly in on turn two. With the twin-linked reserves, things now have an 88.8888% chance to come in, so I'm hoping that will actually mean something in my games. Of course, there's always double ones to stop me from getting my band back together, but I'm trying for a little more consistency.

 

Main strategy is to keep the NMs semi-safe behind the aegis line while maneuvering the bikes around the outskirts for safety. Depending on what kind of army I'm fighting, I'll either have the muty drop in front of my noise marines or in the back of their army to wreak havoc. The Oblits will go somewhere to gain a commanding view, mostly as anti-vehicle, but with their assault cannons they can tear apart infantry as well. Helly will do what she always does.

 

My main concerns with this army are that I don't have a whole lot of counter-charge units. If I want to bring in more muties, it would mean I'm taking away the aegis line, which cuts the success of deep-striking back to 66.666%, and I can't really rely on that. Other than that, I could try to bring a cultist blob, but any kind of blast weaponry will scatter them to the wind. I considered bringing a helbrute, but he's rather underwhelming compared to enemy walkers, and the crazed rule can really cripple his combat effectiveness.

[Tenebris]

I think that is not the problem of keeping the Noise Marines safe that you should be concerned with but how to keep them in the right place at the right time to move forward to take an objective. If you pile all your troop choices behind the Aegis you will risk to be slow when there is time to move out and contest. 

 

I would much rather have a nice complement of cheap cultists around and abuse them in the many roles that such a nice meatshield unit can have. You can wrap your marines and obliterators with them, contest objectives or simply throw them at the enemy melee units as a stopgap unit. 

 

There is also the problem typical of such low point games, if you invest too much in an unit and that it does not make the points back you are already loosing. I would drop MoS and Icon on Bikers, upgrade your lord with the Brand and get as much cultists as I can. 

 

The Mutilator, while awesome on paper, suffers for being the lone knight. Sure he can get the job done but only in the turn that follows his deep strike one, so you have a 55 points model (a lot for games up to 1000 points) sit there and eat fire for a whole turn. Indeed, the fire diverted on him is fire spared on your other units but still, the Mutilators die quite quickly. Daemonettes with a cheap Herald can do wonders for your list though.

[Phytoon]

Alright, I can bring the cultists, but I don't have any daemons, nor do I have the codex. It's a good idea, though, and one that I've considered for a while, since I could bring seekers to outflank, or just simply bring about 15 'nettes for the same cost as the wall and mutie.

 

If I ditch those two things, I'm left with 131 points, so I could give Zed the Brand, bring 20 cultists with CCs and pistols with two flamers, and do nothing with the last point, and my list will still be 998 points. Additionally, if I drop the 41 points of upgrades on the bikes, I can bring 5 more cultists or give things gifts of mutation.

[Tenebris]

20 cultist should suffice at 1000 points mark. Remember to kill the enemy troops first, even a squad less can be a game changer in low point games, than kill the HQ when practicable, usually is the most kitted and expensive model on the board again in low point games. Focus on what you need to kill, make a target priority before engaging, follow the plan and you should be fine. 

 

I think that you could be well off with the Icon of Excess. While it makes the squad more resilient it is also a huge point sink and from my experience in low point games every point counts and efficiency is much more reliable than staying power. The Helldrake is fine (despite being mandatory for all CSM lists, what irks me) and the Bikers too, I would switch the Power Fist for a Melta Bomb though, move onto the Fist when you get higher in points. 

[Phytoon]

Alright, so if I drop the fist for a bomb, that's a 20 point gain, mixed with the 41 points from the bikes not getting marked up, that leaves me with 61 points. My list was at 998 before, so I've got a total of 63 points to spend. Not quite enough for another squad, but I could switch something up. Adding a few marines here and there would be nice, though I don't have any more biker models, which is the reason I only run three of them instead of five, or having multiple squads of them. 

 

Power weapons for champions, perhaps? I tend to not get locked up easily, but if I do get stuck in a combat, then I can have some offense. Either of those sound like good options, and nothing else really presents itself.

 

So what I think I should do is add one noise marine to each squad, and make them purchase CCWs rather than replace their bolters. That's 42 of the points. The other 21 will be a gift for Zed, and Veterans of the Long War for the bikers, just in case.

[Tenebris]

I would say try to get another Obliterator, it would be more useful than power weapons or gifts. Trim here and there and you should find the points. 

[Phytoon]

Thanks guys for all your help, this week's match was an amazing success! The list I finally decided on was very similar to the one I presented earlier, but to fit in a third obliterator, I dropped the upgrades on the bikes, switched Zed's power fist for the melta bombs, dropped the flamers off the cultists, and removed one of the cultists from the blob. Final list looked like this:

 

HQ: Zed 175

MoS, Sigil, Claw, Bombs, Bike, Burning Brand

 

Troops: Noise Marines 125

BM, rest swap bolters for CCWs

 

Troops: Noise Marines 125

Same configuration

 

Troops: Cultists 86

19 cultists, nothing upgraded

 

Fast: Heldrake 170

Baleflamer

 

Fast: Bikes 90

2 Meltas

 

Heavy: Obliterators 228

3 guys, MoN

 

For a total of 999 points. The guy I fought had Eldar, and he brought a bunch of guardians, I believe it was 12 to start, and the same number of Storm Guardians with whatever their swords are called. His warlord was a farseer(?) in with the guardians and he also brought a wave  serpent with 6 dire avengers embarked. Finally, he had a War Walker. We ended up with Hammer and Anvil deployment, and he won the starting roll and chose to go first, deploying in the end of the map with lots of terrain (kind of a no-brainer, since the other side had a rock and some ruins, but nothing very substantial). He had his guardians up front and the storm guardians behind them a little bit, with the tank off to one side and the walker hugging the edge of the ruins in which he deployed the guardians. He also had some kind of turret that followed his guardians which was armed with a bright lance, but only two of the guardians could fire it. I think it's similar to the gun drones the Tau get.

 

Our special event for this mission was a string of objectives along the  center of the map, and we had the line-breaker bonus objective, but boosted so that any unit could count for it.

 

REPORT: I stole the initiative, and my stuff was spread out a bit. I had the noise marines deployed behind cover on one side and in the ruins on the other side, the cultists were in front of the NMs in the ruins but behind a big hill that blocked line of sight to them, and Zed's bikes were behind the cultists, with the same cover from the hill. So on my first turn, I moved the cultists up to base contact with the hill and Zed's bikes turbo-boosted to get behind a mysterious forest, clearing half the map in the progress. The NMs were content with their deployment, as one squad had clear line of sight to the war walker, and the other's elevated position let them see the guardians cowering in the ruins. The first shot scattered two inches but still hit the war walker, and gave it a glancing hit on a roll of 2. The second shot scattered a little more, but just hit different guardians than I was aiming for, killing two of them instead of the four I originally had, but it was enough to trigger the pinning test, which he failed. The cultists ran, but only went one inch, so I just spread them out a bit next to the hill.

 

His first turn, he moved the tank out to go try and shoot my bikers, but he missed all of his shots, though he did hit with the cannon, but he rolled a one for wound. The guardian squad, pinned, could only fire snapshots, and the cultists were out of his range, but the bikes weren't, so he tried to hit one with the bright lance, but didn't get his six. Finally, the war walker had moved toward the NMs in the ruins, and shot a plasma missile and some other weapon, I can't remember what it was, but it missed. The plasma missile scattered toward my NMs, but only hit the champion, and he made his armor save.

 

My turn two, the obliterators came in, but Helly didn't. I had a nice open spot for deep-striking next to the tank, with about 8 inches to each side for potential scatter, and lots of directions where they could go further and not hit anything. They scattered away from the tank 9 inches, but went to open ground in between the guardians and storm guardians (uh oh). I considered for a moment using the assault cannons to tear off their faces, but I decided that the tank was a bigger threat, and the oblits were the best equipped to handle it. The bikes moved up closer to the ruins, Zed was just in range for the Brand on those guardians, and the cultists moved up onto the hill, going four inches toward the center of the map and one of the objectives. Zed fired the brand first, killing four of the eldar in front, followed by the combi-bolter on the champion's bike, which failed to wound. Then the blastmasters fired, the first one wrecked the war walker (first blood) and the second got direct hit on the guardians that were necessary for the bright lance. It failed to kill one of the dudes that was necessary, but killed the other and one other eldar. The oblits fired lascannons at the tank, got one penetrating hit and immobilized it. At the end of my turn, soulblaze died out.

 

His turn two, he made some distance between his guardians and my oblits, terrified (and for good reason) of them. He moved his CC storm guardians towards them, forming a nice semi-circle of death. The tank couldn't move anymore, so he disembarked his dire avengers from it, then activated their ability that boosted their shots by a lot but left them unable to shoot in the next turn. The tank, the dire avengers, and the storm guardians unloaded into the oblits, but because of their amazing saves and their T5, they only managed two wounds, which were spread to different models because of firing ranges. Then he shot at the bikes with the bright lance again, this time actually killing one of the melta guys. He then had his storm guardians charge my obliterators, and I overwatched with the twin-linked flamers and killed four of them before they closed in. Combat was incredibly one-sided as none of his weapons had armor pen, and my obliterators had power fists. I put him down to four guys, and he killed one of my guys who had a wound already. But he passed his modified leadership of 4 so the fight would continue. Also, my obliterators were unable to shoot in my shooting phase since they were locked up, so  I guess that went all according to plan for him.

 

My turn three, Helly showed up! I had her zoom as close as she could to the guardians, then had Zed and co. do the same. With no more war walker to shoot at, I had to move one NM squad, so I put them on top of the rock and moved the cultists ever closer to that objective in the middle. In shooting, I focused everything on the squad of guardians, and between the blastmasters, the baleflamer, the brand and a combi-bolter, I killed all the guardians and put one wound on his warlord, who had two. In assault, the oblits took one more wound and inflicted three more, the one remaining guy was a warlock, and he failed his leadership and fell back. Lucky for him, the oblits couldn't sweeping advance, and they were still right in front of his tank. At the end of my turn, soulblaze killed his warlord, and he conceded.

 

 

What I learned: Obliterators are definitely worth the investment. If I had brought one less oblit, they would've been wiped out by the storm guardians, and that would not have sat well. However, with Helly and Zed looming on the remainder of his forces, the cultists pretty much untargetable at this point, and the NMs free to move up and take the objectives, this match was in the bag. I got real lucky though, when I stole the initiative, because his tank had some scary weapons on it and the bright lance was no joke. That war walker was going to walk right up to me, and I would've had to tie it up with cultists to keep it off the NMs, but I think that would have worked out fine. But now that I can afford them, the oblits are always coming with me, and I'm always bringing as many as I can.

[Capt_Darius]

I think, with the noise marines that you had, your blastmasters could have made quick work of the war walker before it got to you. I might not have tried dropping the obliterators right next to the tank, as the do have 48" and 36" weaponry that could have done the trick.

[Phytoon]

I understand your reasoning for the oblits, but the way the terrain was set up, it was really dense on his side of the board. If I put them elsewhere, there may not have been line of sight, or the tank might have gotten cover or something else could have come up. There were not too many open spots there, so I picked the closest area, and since the tank only had AV12, I could have cracked it with meltas easily, but because of the scatter I was out of half-range for the multi-melta so I just went with lascannons.

 

As for the blastmasters, they did kill the war walker. It was never really a problem, though I guess if I focused it from the start it wouldn't have lived long enough to even stand a chance. However, with objectives in the middle of the map, I wanted to make sure he wouldn't be able to take those, so that's why I sent one towards his infantry. I also was planning on having the bikes go over to kill the walker, but it died before that would have been possible, so it was never a problem.

[Tenebris]

See, a few trims here and there and you are well set. I am also of the opinion that the Obliterators should start on the board, also you did right, always focus on the troops first if it is an Objective game, if it is Kill Points it goes by threat level and easy First Blood.

[Capt_Darius]

Between having boards set up in an unbalanced way, and these crap special rules making it so that entire units can't shoot (Solar Flares) I think you really need to have a talk about fairness with your league organizer.

[Phytoon]

Well in a wider scale, it's not really that unfair. In that one match where we had the solar flare event, I was only hindered in the sense that I had to get to 24 inch range, and we were playing on a 4 foot by 4 foot board, so it wasn't even that bad. There are also tile bonuses that we get for the campaign, which we can activate at the start of a campaign session to get some nice bonuses, like my tile that gives me the ammo crates, which I attach to squads to give them twin-linked on all their ranged weapons. And there are also campaign upgrades to the warlords. My friend who plays Tyranids, who is also on my team, has rolled tremendously well for these upgrades, and his Hive Tyrant basically has the statline of a daemon prince so far. During my losing streak in this, I got some sidegrades, one of which is actually quite nice considering Zed is on a bike, because now he has -1 initiative and stealth. 3+ armor, 3+ cover, 4+ invuln is hard to complain about.

 

Anyway, this is just for fun and to get people into the hobby, so I don't want to make a big stink about things like that. The actual tournament isn't for a couple weeks, and seeing as the campaign thus far has been really one-sided. There are three "teams" consisting of about five people in each, and my evil bros have been winning a lot. My Tyranid friend I just mentioned hasn't lost a game yet, and he's still new to this.

 

So next week's match is going to be the same point value, and I think I'm going to run the same list.

[Capt_Darius]

I dunno, there are a lot of armies that tend to excel at long-range shooting engagements, while some armies excel at medium-short range. Suddenly having the longest-range allowed be bolter and assault cannon range seems pretty bad, while things like heavy weapon teams, snipers, and SAG Mekz are completely wrecked by not being able to use the long range that justified their points cost. It penalizes long-range shooting armies, for no reason, while giving nothing back. Not really fair.

 

And then stacking the terrain to favor one side of the board over the other isn't really fair, either.