What have your Raven Guard done lately?

[thewarriorhunter]

The Spectral Sicarii Kill Team was victorious in their engagement against a squad of praetorian guard infantry. I played a really nice older guy (60's/70's) who said he painted minis as a hobby, then learned about Kill Team and decided to start playing the game. He had a really cool variety of 3rd party infantry minis and was very inspiring, I hope to still be hobbying when I'm as old as he was. He was still learning the rules and how to play so it was a very loose game in regards to rules with no tactics and no morale phase. He usually only played 'kill everything' and I suggested a book mission, we rolled the 'get off your opponent's edge' mission.

 

Hidden Content

 

My list was:

 

Reiver Sgt: Leader, Carbine, Combat blade

Intercessor: Comms, Auspex, Bolt Rifle

Intercessor Gunner: Demolitions, Bolt Rifle, Aux Grenade

Terminator Gunner: Heavy, Assault Cannon

Intercessor: Auto Bolt Rifle

Reiver: Carbine

 

I was very concerned at the start of the mission because he had 16 models to my 6. If he ran at me and swarmed me I was going to be in a lot of trouble. Terrain was set up before the mission was known and we decided to have the fight take place in a street intersection of a bombed out city. I put my terminator on a ruin in the backfield to cover the road. The rest of my army was positioned to hold their ground and try to thin the guard's ranks. He had a potential 32 VPs on his side if he got everything off the board.

 

 

 

T1 was a wet noddle fight. We shot at each other but not much happened because the dice rolls weren't great. I had initiative so I readied everything so I could shoot first. He ended up not moving any of his models forward and had a lot of his weapons (melta, flamers) out of range. My terminator ended up being the hard counter to his list. I was putting 2 shots on 3 models per turn and causing flesh wounds or taking them out of action.

 

T2 I moved up to start working on getting models off the board. I kept expecting him to move forward but he continued to stay back and try and shoot at me with las-guns.

 

 

 

T3 I got off a 10 inch charge which was really good because it allowed my Reiver to cover a lot of ground. I consolidated around behind his sniper to get 2ish more inches of movement towards the board edge.

 

 

His ranks were thinning, this pictures sums up the game: a Terminators with an assault cannon destroys guard infantry.

 

 

T4 my Reiver fell back to move 6 inches closer to the edge. I started to move my intercessors up to apply pressure and box him in. I was trying to play the mission and move towards the edge. I quit keeping score at this point and I was trying to play more for theme than points.

 

 

 

T5 we called the game because it was obvious I won. I spoke with Ron afterwards and he admitted he was scared to advance on me because of my armor. I told him I thought it he would have swarmed me it would have been a completely different game because he could have locked up a lot of my shooting. His biggest mistake was not getting out of the street. Because he kept most of his army in LOS of my terminator I cut him to pieces. If he would have moved into ruins and advanced up the sides he would have fared much better and mitigated a lot of my shooting.

 

[Shadow Captain Nykona]

This past weekend i attended Blood and Glory in Derby, UK. 2000pt ICT event, my first ever tournament.

 

My list was double battalion and a spearhead. 

 

Primaris Cpt with power fist, +1d wargear, master of ambush and shadow master

Primaris Libby, Umbral form and shadow step

 

2 x 5 intercessor's, grenade launcher and power sword in each

1 x 5 intercessor's, stalker bolt rifles and chain sword 

 

5 aggressors, bolt storm gauntlets 

 

2 x 3 incerptors 

 

Thunderfire cannon 

 

Phobos Cpt, master marks man, K bolts

Phobos Lt, Ex Ten

Phobos Libby, tome of Malc, enveloping darkness, spectral blade and might of heroes  

 

2 x 5 infiltrators 

1 x 5 intercessors, stalker rifles and chain sword 

 

1 x 3 Suppressors 

 

Shrike 

 

3 x 3 eliminators 

 

First round was against DE flyers. 5 flyers, 5 venom's, 3 ravagers. 

 

I managed to grab first turn, though it did me no good in the end. MA Cpt and Aggressors, popping two venom's open and charging the passengers and another venom, killing them all with a mix of attacks and moral. He then proceeded to unload with his flyers. I could not deal with his flyers, he had board control due to shooting anything that i moved out from cover off the board. I had killed his venom's and all his troops come the end of my turn 3. i attempted to make a charge in to his back lines to kill his two characters, only to not make it with shrike or the inceptor's, even with shrike's re-roll. He then shot me pretty much to death. A 9-22 loss at the end of turn 5. 

 

Second round was against an Ork smasher gun line. Again i got first turn, MA the Cpt and aggressor's shot out his grot shield before charging in, killing two more guns but was then unable to tag enough of his other guns to stop the fall back and shooting in his turn. My eliminators fluffed 2 rounds of shooting at his relic shock attack gun ad another shock attack gun, by the time i had killed them the damage was done from them (he rolled hot on S and number of shots). I also forgot about the eliminator sgt ability to add +1 to hit and wound (for the whole tournament not just this game!). Shrike, Lt and inceptor's dropped in turn 2 killing off a warp head, a meck boy and another 2 smasher guns. He got Da Jump off after clearing out my screen with lobbas, charged by thunderfire cannon and then on to my objective with 30 boys. Ork shooting was surprisingly good, well the fact he had 3 auto hitting guns helped. 11-36 loss. I think i would have been better deploying everything on the board and aimed to hit his gun line with more units in order to tie it down for sure. 

 

Third round was against TS, 2 x 25 Tzaangor bomb's with Magnus, Ahriman on disc, DP, Ex sorcerer, some rubiric marines and 3 maulerfiends! He had first turn and set up on the line, he made the mistake of placing his player placed objective out of his deployment zone so set up a unit of infiltrator's in a building his maulerfiend's could not enter to clear me off and too far from his marines to get to either. I deployed everything in a corner in and around a 3 floored building, aggressors and inceptors out front to soak chargers and get off a lot of over watch shots with shrikes full re-rolls. He jumped over his first blob of gotr's giving me the chance to auspex scan them and over watching them. He killed 3 intercessors for the loss of all 25 gors from the combination of shooting, melee and moral. Magnus charged the aggressors took the over watch and crushed them in combat, i did manage to take some wounds off in over watch and the Cpt intervening. My shooting took out his sorcerer, chipped some wounds off Magnus, killed off the marines with the thunderfire shooting twice (once in to each group) . Magnus continued to kill anything he hit in combat but the poor guy fluffed both his magic phases. His fiends ate up two units of marines and that was pretty much the end of his killing and scoring. I killed Magnus turn 3, Ahriman and his other character turn 2 and his second unit of gors after the failed a charge and got boltered and thunderfired to death out in the open. After that i just stayed away from his fiends till the end of the game holding more and scoring the bonus. 30-18 win.

 

Forth round was against a Khorne berzerker, 2 decimator's, knight and 2 war dogs list. He set up on the line, i deployed far back in what little cover i had, put shrike and the inceptors in DS, spent 3 cp on sfts o the eliminators as i had nowhere to hide them and i was scared of being seized on. He didn't seize after rolling a 5, i proceeded to MA the Cpt and aggressors at his knight, shooting it before charging in. The thunderfire took out his cultists and wounded a decimator. Cpt and aggressors killed his knight, only losing 1 aggressor for it (spent cp to fight again taking the last 2 wounds off the knight at the end of the fight phase). His turn he spent shooting at the aggressors before rushing them with one unit of berzerkers, which wiped out the aggressors and the cpt (they have so many attacks). I was happy for the trade due to me taking away away his big threat. I dropped in everything turn two, killed his lord with eliminators, bezerkers with assault bolters and shrike, the rest of my force took wounds off the decimator, though i failed to kill it. I had shadowsteped my phobos cpt on top of a building in his deployment zone to get more points on the board. He went on to kill two units of marines with his shooting before attempting to charge my inceptors with his last unit of bezerkers. He made the charge after losing some marines to over watch, killing the inceptors, his champion made his charge in to shrike and failed to kill him, getting ripped apart in return. Turn 3 was spent mopping up his decimators and killing one war dog. I tabled him the next round of smiting and shooting. 30-20 win.

 

Round 5 was against 3 knights, two tank commanders, 2 manticores, with 3 units of guard. I set up and had first turn, setting up in a castle as far back as i could from his knights, shrike and inceptors again in DS. First turn i MA again with cpt and aggressors, here is a series of mistakes i then go on to make.... first i shot the thunderfire cannon at the leading knight using tremor shells and paid to shot it again at another knight..... I really should have shot twice at his guard units in cover. I then didn't declare the knight next to the tank commander for charging, proceeded to be HI on, so could not used gene wrought might with aggressors or fight twice with them on the knight. The knight proceeded to stomp all over me, though the cpt did put 7 wounds on it after fighting on his death. He then shot me off one objective, took out the thunder fire cannon but could not for the life of him kill the eliminators. My turn two i did kill his wounded knight with the combination of eliminators and the phobos cpt doing work with his shooting for the first time this weekend. I dropped in the inceptors and shrike taking a lot of wounds off a second knight. He moved up in his turn to claim 3 objectives with characters for the bonus, this is when his points went too far ahead for me to catch up later on. He shot off the inceptors and again could not shift the eliminators. Turn 3 i killed the second knight and put 10 wounds on his last knight with everything i had left to shoot at it. He shot me off my objective again to keep my points down, move move moving his guard out to keep holding more. Turn 4 i killed his last knight and moved out on to two objectives, he fired for the last time taking me off one and kept on holding more. Turn 5 i killed guard but was out of range of his last tank commander. The game finished with him sitting back with his commander having range over me and him being way to far ahead from the early rounds for to catch up. 15-34 loss.

 

My take away from the weekend is that i need to have a better grasp of my strats and remember to use them. 3/4 errors over 2 games probably cost me at least one more win maybe both. I don't need a second Libby in my list, the points need to spent better. Suppressors look good on paper but really did not perform for me over the weekend and they will be out of the list too. 

 

Going forward more games are needed for sure. List changes are the dropping of the normal Libby and the suppressors for a unit of plasma inceptor's for some testing (I want to stick with primaris units as i prefer the look of them and i don't like centurions at all). 6d3 shots, -4 and +1 to hit wound knights/tank commanders in tactical is very appealing. 

 

Thanks for reading and sorry for the wall of text. 

Edited November 5, 2019 by Shadow Captain Nykona

[Dracos]

I actually enjoyed the report. Good summaries. I think you're on the right track dropping the extra Libby. You mention dropping Suppressors but I don't see them in your Tournament list? Considering you don't want to use Cents, I'd go with another unit of Aggressors myself. It looks like the army could use another unit with some  -slapping power.

 

On a more detail oriented query. How did the Stalker Intercessors do for you?

[SyNidus]

Thanks for the reports! Great stuff. Yeah, i think this army has a higher learning curve because we need to be aware of what tricks we have available to us.

How did your phobos captain work out?

[Shadow Captain Nykona]

I actually enjoyed the report. Good summaries. I think you're on the right track dropping the extra Libby. You mention dropping Suppressors but I don't see them in your Tournament list? Considering you don't want to use Cents, I'd go with another unit of Aggressors myself. It looks like the army could use another unit with some  -slapping power.

 

On a more detail oriented query. How did the Stalker Intercessors do for you?

 

Thank you for the feedback , i had listed the  suppressors as a third unit of inceptors...... proof reading is a thing i'm told :facepalm: 

 

If MA was more than one unit to move with the Cpt then i would be all over the second unit of aggressors, sadly they are so slow with out that if you go second they are miles away in general. SftS is good for getting them in a shooting position, but you are going to be standing in the wind with your bolter in your hand for a round of shooting from your opponent. The plasma inceptors will give me mobile heavy hitting platform with the bolter incetors and Shrike. Turn 2 they become -4 and if i'm shooting them at character knights or tank commanders the +1 to hit means they won't kill themselves with over charging and wounding on 3+ or 2+ re-rolling ones.

 

Stalkers gave me a bit more range which was good in the first game to get to his troops that popped out of the venom's. They did a lot of work vs the knights, hitting on 2+, wounding on 5+ (which isn't the best but that's better than 6's) -2 and 2d. When i got wounds on the knights it was nice. They are there to help kill primaris marines, though i never played any. 

 

 

Thanks for the reports! Great stuff. Yeah, i think this army has a higher learning curve because we need to be aware of what tricks we have available to us.

 

How did your phobos captain work out?

 

The phobos Cpt was good over the weekend. Didn't do much in the first two games, helped take out Magnus and the other characters in the TS game, putting wounds on the war dogs and decimators vs the chaos list. He really came good vs the knights, he pretty much managed to wound every round of shooting and my opponent duly failed his saving rolls for 4 damage every time. My regular opponent is ad-mech (finished 12th 4-1 at the event) the phobos Cpt is amazing vs his list with his 4 wound characters going down to him for quick and easy points. He should have done more work vs the Ork list i played, my choices and rolling let me down that game. I am over all happy with him and have no plans to change him out. 

[Kobrakei]

I'm thinking of building the following list for general gaming, nothing too heavy, and just wanted some thoughts. Think everything should be obvious how it fits in, with the Aggressors getting moved up with Master of Ambush.

 

 

++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Imperium - Space Marines) [52 PL, 1,021pts] ++

 

+ No Force Org Slot +

 

**Chapter Selection**: Raven Guard

 

+ HQ +

 

Captain in Phobos Armour [5 PL, 99pts]: Camo cloak, Ex Tenebris, Master of Ambush, Master-crafted instigator bolt carbine, Warlord

 

Kayvaan Shrike [8 PL, 130pts]

 

+ Troops +

 

Infiltrator Squad [11 PL, 220pts]: 9x Infilltrator, Infiltrator Sergeant

 

Infiltrator Squad [5 PL, 110pts]: 4x Infilltrator, Infiltrator Sergeant

 

Infiltrator Squad [5 PL, 110pts]: 4x Infilltrator, Infiltrator Sergeant

 

+ Elites +

 

Invictor Tactical Warsuit [6 PL, 136pts]: Fragstorm Grenade Launcher, Heavy bolter, 2x Ironhail Heavy Stubber, Twin ironhail autocannon

 

+ Heavy Support +

 

Eliminator Squad [4 PL, 72pts]

. Eliminator Sergeant: Bolt sniper rifle, Camo cloak

. 2x Eliminator with Bolt Sniper: 2x Bolt sniper rifle, 2x Camo cloak

 

Eliminator Squad [4 PL, 72pts]

. Eliminator Sergeant: Bolt sniper rifle, Camo cloak

. 2x Eliminator with Bolt Sniper: 2x Bolt sniper rifle, 2x Camo cloak

 

Eliminator Squad [4 PL, 72pts]

. Eliminator Sergeant: Bolt sniper rifle, Camo cloak

. 2x Eliminator with Bolt Sniper: 2x Bolt sniper rifle, 2x Camo cloak

 

++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Imperium - Space Marines) [47 PL, 979pts] ++

 

+ No Force Org Slot +

 

**Chapter Selection**: Raven Guard

 

+ HQ +

 

Librarian in Phobos Armour [5 PL, 101pts]: Camo cloak, Force sword

 

Lieutenants in Phobos Armor [5 PL, 81pts]

. Lieutenant in Phobos Armour

. . Occulus Bolt Carbine and Bolt Pistol: Grav-chute, Master-crafted occulus bolt rifle

 

+ Troops +

 

Incursor Squad [5 PL, 105pts]: Haywire Mine, 4x Incursor, Incursor Sergeant

 

Incursor Squad [5 PL, 105pts]: Haywire Mine, 4x Incursor, Incursor Sergeant

 

Incursor Squad [5 PL, 105pts]: Haywire Mine, 4x Incursor, Incursor Sergeant

 

+ Elites +

 

Aggressor Squad [10 PL, 210pts]: 5x Aggressor, Aggressor Sergeant, Flamestorm Gauntlets

 

Invictor Tactical Warsuit [6 PL, 136pts]: Fragstorm Grenade Launcher, Heavy bolter, 2x Ironhail Heavy Stubber, Twin ironhail autocannon

 

Invictor Tactical Warsuit [6 PL, 136pts]: Fragstorm Grenade Launcher, Heavy bolter, 2x Ironhail Heavy Stubber, Twin ironhail autocannon

 

++ Total: [99 PL, 2,000pts]

[Shadow Captain Vyper]

Looks great!

 

I have a few minor suggestions:

 

1. Boltstorm Aggressors are strictly better for Raven Guard. You will want to shift things to find the additional 12 points to account for that.
2. I personally prefer the Flame cannon on the Invictors for the auto-hitting and anti-tarpit nature of it. That being said there are good arguments for the Autocannon (not getting first turn and as such being forced to deploy backwards and use it as a fire support unit makes the Autocannon better). This is a possible area to save points.
3. Ex Tenebris is going to give you strictly more benefit on the LT over the Captain. You can also give Master of Ambush to get the LT in position, as the Captain has Concealed Positions and the LT does not, this will help get all your pieces where you want them at the start.
4. I like the idea of a 10-Man unit of Infiltrators. If I was going to have a unit this big, with a Phobos LT/CPT, I would invest in the Comms Area for that added independence.
5. I'm not sure 3 Incursor units and 3 Infiltrator units is necessary. Personally I would keep the 10-Man Infiltrator, one 5-Man Infiltrator, and run 1-2 Incursor units and fill the remainder with Scouts to save points. This is of course if you aren't a Primaris-only gameplan. If you are, then id still swap them for Intercessors to save points and give you access to Intercessor strategems/AP.
6. With the points you save from #5, id consider getting a 5th HQ in the form of a Slam Captain. I would break him off into a Vanguard detachment for the extra 1 CP. This gives you more CP and more CC punch, and a valid way to kill KEQ profile stuff.

[Kobrakei]

Thanks for the advice! I'm going Primaris only, and was trying to keep to phobos where possible. Any reason why the boltstorm aggressors are better? I'm guessing more reliable amount of shooting perhaps? Also with a double battalion I'm not sure I'd need more CP, but maybe finding a way to shove in a second Phobos Librarian could be useful? I also run an Intercessor heavy Ultramarine army so wanted to see how the Infiltrators/Incursors would do

[SkimaskMohawk]

They can double shoot off of master of ambush

[thewarriorhunter]

A schism between brothers erupted in violent civil war today. Elements of the Raven Guard learned that those they called brothers harbored ill will towards them. Brutal fighting broke out in the caverns of not-Calth with the Raven Guard victoriously emerging through the smoking ruins.

 

Hidden Content

My daughter wanted to play a fighting game so I offered up Betrayal at Calth or Kill Team and she opted for Calth. This was a good test run because I have a buddy who said he's up for playing the 6 mission campaign with me. I have enough Raven Guard painted up to represent the Ultramarines and I'm working on getting enough Spectral Sicarii painted to be the Word Bearers. She played the Raven Guard and I the SS.

 

I played aggressive and fast, trying to cut her off as the first mission really makes you choose between the objective or blood. If you spend too much time killing you won't get behind the blast doors before they shut, and then you die.

 

 

I ran forward and fanned out to cut her off. She had several excellent attacks and rolls and really stifled my movement. Her Sgt had a power sword and he began cutting right through my marines. Here's a shot of my Primaris 'Heavy Bolter' unit trying to set up for suppression fire.

 

 

Both our our Sgts became locked in combat. My Sgt emerged victorious as his chain sword cut through the Raven Guard leader. It was all for nought though as the Raven Guard swiftly cut down my marines.

 

 

The last turn was highly comical. I ended having a single marine trapped between two Raven Guard units, one of which had a missile launcher. 7 shots and 5 wounds later my marine was blown to pieces as the blast doors shut and safely sealed her unit. It was straight out of an action movie!

 

Edited November 10, 2019 by thewarriorhunter

[Shadow Captain Vyper]

Thanks for the advice! I'm going Primaris only, and was trying to keep to phobos where possible. Any reason why the boltstorm aggressors are better? I'm guessing more reliable amount of shooting perhaps? Also with a double battalion I'm not sure I'd need more CP, but maybe finding a way to shove in a second Phobos Librarian could be useful? I also run an Intercessor heavy Ultramarine army so wanted to see how the Infiltrators/Incursors would do

As Skimask mentioned, they can double tap out of MoA. If your opponent deploys close-up on their DZ, you can also double tap after using Infiltrators.

 

They also have strictly more shots, and their fire cannot be bypassed on Overwatch like flames can (minor but not irrelevant)

 

Lastly, if you want a beat stick that's Primaris, you can go the MoA Chaplain with Relic Crozius route. He can still dump in t1 to give +1 to wound to your Aggressors, then either sit back and protect them from being bogged down, or move up and get messy.

[thewarriorhunter]

I've got a 1,000 point Maelstrom game tomorrow. I've never played Maelstrom and am very excited to try it out. It's against a new opponent but we've been chatting and it sounds like we're both of similar minds: play what looks cool and have fun. He said he plays Blood Angels and runs mostly infantry. I've never played them before but I'm concerned about running into a Smash Captain so we'll see what happens.

 

List is 1,000 points on the nose:

 

Hidden Content

 

++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Imperium - Space Marines) [58 PL, 1,000pts] ++

**Chapter Selection**: Raven Guard (Duh)

+ HQ +

Captain in Phobos Armour: Camo cloak, Master-crafted instigator bolt carbine

Librarian in Phobos Armour: 5) Tenebrous Curse, 6) Temporal Corridor, Camo cloak, Force sword

Primaris Lieutenants
. Primaris Lieutenant: Ex Tenebris, Master of Ambush, Master-crafted stalker bolt rifle, Warlord

+ Troops +

Intercessor Squad: Auto Bolt Rifle
. 5x Intercessor
. Intercessor Sergeant: Power sword

Scout Squad: 5x Camo cloak
. Scout Sergeant: Boltgun, Sniper rifle
. 4x Scout w/Sniper Rifle: 4x Sniper rifle

Scout Squad
. Scout Sergeant: Bolt pistol, Boltgun
. 4x Scout w/Boltgun

Tactical Squad
. 7x Space Marine
. Space Marine Sergeant
. . Boltgun/Bolt pistol
. Space Marine w/Special Weapon: Plasma gun

+ Elites +

Redemptor Dreadnought: 2x Fragstorm Grenade Launchers, Heavy flamer, Heavy Onslaught Gatling Cannon

+ Fast Attack +

Assault Squad: Jump Pack
. 4x Space Marine
. Space Marine Sergeant: Plasma pistol, Power sword

Inceptor Squad: Assault bolter x2, 2x Inceptor, Inceptor Sergeant

 

I'm trying to get bodies on the table so I can zone out the board as well as be mobile to capture/defend objectives.

 

Plan is to use my LT to MoA the Tactical squad into a position that applies pressure and potentially gets me into a position for scoring. I'm planning on 'badly deploying' to try and draw out my opponent and then repositioning. My Captain will deploy wherever I need a bubble of protection to deny deep strike. with 30" of range I can touch just about anywhere I need since we'll be playing on a 4x4 table.

 

Libby is going to be used to halve movement of my opponent. I'm torn on taking temporal corridor or Mind Raid. I think movement might be more important than hoping for a MW and maybe a CP.

 

Bolt scouts screen an objective. Snipers try to scare characters. Intercessors clear out chaff and move wherever they can. If I need to I can Infiltrate them for a CP.

 

My redemptor is going to be my anchor unit in the backfield. I realize he's a prime target for a smash captain but... rule of cool. I also want to get new-model-syndrome over with.

 

Assault and Inceptor squads deep strike T2 where I need them. If I need to get the assault squad into combat I've got The Raven's Blade strat to reroll charges.

 

Any thoughts on what my game plan is?

[duz_]

List looks solid

 

I really enjoy maelstrom pushes you more and you really need to think of killing something for the sake of it is worth it

It does suck when the cards are against you but doesn't always happen

 

Mobility and adaptability is key.

 

As Skari said on podcast recently if the cards are against you, you can always castle up and take cover for a turn nothing requires you to do anything for the sake of it

 

Also the Defend objective cards you score after 2 player turns (ie you and your opponent) and not two battle rounds. Id been playing that wrong and makes a huge difference :sweat:

 

Curious to hear your impressions

[thewarriorhunter]

Arg, minor model mix up. Had to drop the Intercessors back to a unit of 5 because the 6th is my LT. Added another tac marine body and put melta bombs on the assault squad in case they need to target a vehicle because I have no AT in my list. My AT plan is to touch the tank so it can't shoot since I can't get anything stronger in my list without really changing it around. I don't want to drop the redemptor to squeeze in my Contemptor because I want to play with my new toy.

[thewarriorhunter]

Friday's game was FUN. I haven't had that much fun in a while. I really enjoyed Maelstrom and my opponent was a great guy. It was also very challenging mentally because I was having to really think about what I needed to do vs. what my opponent needed. I dig asymmetrical games and/or having different goals and Maelstrom does that perfectly. I ended up losing 10 - 6 but still had a blast. I also was mistakenly playing with the old CT but I don't feel too bad since I didn't get then win so it obviously didn't swing the game in my favor.

 

I don't have too many pictures of much of a cohesive bat-rep because I forgot to keep track of that. I was so focused on the game that I didn't think much of it. As such I'll give a brief rundown of what happened and dump the pictures at the end.

 

My list is above, my opponent brought:

 

Primaris Librarian

Primaris LT

Primaris Captaint (warlord)

 

2 x 5 Intercessors

2 x 3 Eliminators, one bolt, one las

 

Redemptor

Baal Predator

 

I had no AT so my plan was to claim the board, lock the tank in CC, and get objectives.

 

I had first turn and a pretty good deployment. I had scouts in the center of the table in ruins and they did a good job. They soaked up a lot of firepower and took some heat off of my other stuff. I used MoA on my LT and tac squad. LT went into the ruins and could see the whole board while my tac squad went after the tank. Plasma overcharged and died T1 but the tac squad made the charge which locked up his tank which also move blocked his redemptor.

 

I watched some charge and assault phase tactics videos before this game and they really helped me get a better understanding of movement in those phases. I didn't get off any amazing combos but understanding the rules helped me do a couple things like tri-pointing a squad so they couldn't fall back. I also tri-pointed his tank but made sure to stay away from the redemptor to lock those up.

 

His eliminators didn't do much to me. He didn't really have weight of fire with them and he wasn't shooting at my HQs either. I had my captain out of LOS in cover the whole game just popping shots at HQ's. Had he focused him down he might not have lost all of his HQs.

 

Two things stood out to me about this game. The first is that when playing Maelstrom you have to think at least two turns ahead.

 

The second and more important is that I need to know my stratagems. I was overloaded with options and even with the cards I didn't know what I had or what could do what. I need to take time to read them over and learn them better. I also need to just choose a couple that I plan to use for sure and focus on those. I had ~15 stratagems that were available to me but because I was unfamiliar with them I might as well have had 0.

 

Pictures:

 

Hidden Content

 

 

[duz_]

Pics of your army on the table look great and measuring stick ;)

 

Glad you enjoyed it maelstrom is my preferred way to play :tu:

 

You could do etc style where you do a combo of external war, maelstrom and the 3 tertiary points ;)

 

Or the recent WD version where you can pick your deck

 

Good House rules are

D3 points is flat 2 and if you can't score a card from the beginning of the game its a free discard and re draw

[thewarriorhunter]

Pics of your army on the table look great and measuring stick

 

Glad you enjoyed it maelstrom is my preferred way to play

 

You could do etc style where you do a combo of external war, maelstrom and the 3 tertiary points

 

Or the recent WD version where you can pick your deck

 

Good House rules are

D3 points is flat 2 and if you can't score a card from the beginning of the game its a free discard and re draw

 

 

Thanks for noticing the Strategic Tactical Inserterion of Coordinated Kineticism device. It was actually really nice to use when I dropped my assault squad in. Put it up to my opponent's bases, drop a couple dice to mark the points and easily deploy.

 

I've heard the WD deck building method is fun but I wanted to play the 'original' way since it was my first go. We did discard unobtainable cards, only one came up on my opponents draw. I sniped his Psycher T1 and one of his cards was to cast a Psychic power. We were playing casual so I didn't mind him discarding it.

[duz_]

Personally I'm also ok with discarding no longer achievable cards makes for a more enjoyable game

[thewarriorhunter]

I agree. I could see a tournament setting being more strict with that but for learning the game and wanting to make it enjoyable I could have cared less. I'd rather have fun playing the game then be a rules lawyer and grind through every detail for several hours.

[MajorNese]

Got in a game against local DA, 1250p. Two center objectives, I deployed the entire army first and had first turn.

 

My list:

CM Shrike (no overwatch as secondary WL trait)

Lt. Tenebris (WL, MoA)

 

6 Intercessors (bolt rifle, grenade launcher, chainsword)

5 Incursors (mine)

5 Infiltrators

 

3x3 Eliminators (one with Korvidari bolts)

Tarantula unit (2x THB, 1x TLLC)

6 Inceptors (bolt)

Invictor (autocannon)

 

My opponent's list:

Las Repulsor (Primaris chaplain, 3 flamer agressors)

2x5 hellblasters (1x heavy, 1x rapid fire)

1x3 Eliminators (bolt)

stalker lieutenant

2x5 Intercessors (1x bolt rifle, 1x stalker)

5 CC reivers (grapnel)

 

 

With me deploying first, I took both center objectives from the start, one with Incursors, one with Infiltrators. The korvidari Eliminators got dumped behind a ruin somewhere, Mr. Tenebris behind a building (in case I got seized on) and the tarantulas plus the other 2 Eliminator squads took my backfield ruin area. Shrike and Invictor were out of LoS near the right-hand objective. Inceptors deep strike, Intercessors got the MoA redeployment.

 

My opponent created a big firebase in/around his backfield ruin - 3 Eliminators and all 10 Hellblasters plus lieutenant in the ruin, Intercessors up front, Repulsor on the same side as Shrike/Invictor. Reivers outflanked.

 

With me not getting seized on, Tenebris got redeployed between Eliminators and Tarantula to buff both, while the Intercessors got redeployed right in front of one of his Intercessors squads. Invictor with Shrike moved into LoS to shoot stuff - between the TLLC Tarantula and the Invictor autocannon, the Repulsor lost over a third of its wounds. Incursors mined the objective and chipped away at the Eliminators, killing one (ignore cover hooray). Tarantula HBs took one model of each Intercessors squad. My remaining dudes tried to kill Hellblasters, Lieutenant or Elminators (depending on LoS), killing 3 hellblasters but mostly whiffing it. My Intercessors charged and dented an intercessor squad. Sadly forgot to use Deadly Prize to double-mine the Incursors' objective, since the agressors were close.

 

His return shooting took half the Incursors and one Eliminator, and damaged the Invictor with uber strat overcharge plasma and the Repulsor, taking it down one step, but at least that was keeping plasma shots away from the Eliminators. Agressors and chaplain disembarked, the former charging into the remaining Incursors and killing them, but the mine took one down to 1W (yep, second mine would have killed one). Repulsor moved up to get all small arms in range. His first Intercessors squad was decimated, so the second joined the fray.

 

My turn...the Invictor moved up to the Repulsor, shot at it, charged, and took it down to 2W. Chaff finished off the damaged agressor, Shrike pistole'd another one with a lucky 6 (MW +2D). Inceptors landed in terrain and downed one hellblaster squad with a metric ton of lead. Eliminators all but killed his lieutenant, my CC Intercessors continue to kill their darker-green counterparts.

 

His second turn, Reivers dropped close to the Eliminators and got into CC, the remaining agressor flamed the remaining wounds off the Invictor, and all that nice plasma failed to hit my Inceptors due to terrain. Intercessor CC got resolved by my guys killing everyone else and marching off in a consolidatingly fashin towards the Eliminators. My turn turned to mop up duty - Shrike + Inceptors advanced across the field, killed all remaining hellblasters, Strike from the Skies meant the Inceptors could go on to overrun the chaplain. Infiltrators boltered the Repulsor dead (6s to-hit autowound = twice the chance to inflict a wound), fall back-shoot-charge killed most Reivers, Shrike sliced the remaining agressor and the Intercessors charged the remaining 2 Eliminators. Another round of CC, then I tabled the DA entirely.

 

Main takeaways:

-Incursors are fun. Turn 1 board control, mines to weaken counter charges, and Ignores Cover is surprisingly useful since they're in range of the backfield anyway. Next time, don't forget the Deadly Prize.

-Infiltrators in contrast were not that useful, but that might boil down to no enemy DS units

-Invictor was absolutely worth its points - 13W took quite a bit of fire to go down, yet it took out most of the Repulsor by being not focused on entirely.

-Intercessors were the hidden gem - 6 models, dirt cheap, mopping up unit after unit. Angels of Death + chainsword makes them far more capable than back in the day. As Intercessors rely on MoA for deployment, I might switch to more Incursors in the future.

-Inceptors were bonkers. At AP-2 they still reliably killed primaris in cover with a ridiculous number of shots, and the sheer number of attacks + Surgical Strikes makes them impromptu character killers. Advance and charge strat + Shrike rerolls worked nicely.

-Eliminators+Tenebris kinda whiffed most shooting. They managed to kill the lieutenant in the end, but they were nowhere near reliable and quick.

-Shrike is a swiss army knife. Damage characters, kill 2-3W models with his pistol, ridiculous movement and charge rerolls make that dude really flexible.

-Tarantulas were nice as ever. Not killing everything, but always chipping away wounds and models.

 

So yeah...need to build/paint more Incursors and Invictors.

[Dracos]

Nice report MajorN. More Incursors? Lord of Deceit will be a nice add with that many Phobos units you will really be controlling where the game plays at on the table

[duz_]

Curious did your DA opponent have access to doctrines like you did (ie house ruled)?

 

If not would that have made it a closer game?

Looking at his list would seem our super Doctrine was of little use in this instance

 

Ps. Where's the pics? ;)

[MajorNese]

More Incursors? Lord of Deceit will be a nice add with that many Phobos units you will really be controlling where the game plays at on the table

To be honest, I don't see much value in Lord of Deceit as long as my Phobos dudes are deployed rather conservatively (no first turn charge setup) and are intended to mine/hold the midfield. Risky setup and pulling them back to the deployment zone with LoD would be some overly complicated scheme that can only weaken my board control.

 

MoD is just so much better - I can dump one unit where it's needed, when I know who definitely has the first turn. Incursors could be a nice unit for that (planting mines and entering CC), but as long as I don't have that many, I'll take Intercessors instead. Those don't have any nice deployment out of the box and profit from it even more.

 

Curious did your DA opponent have access to doctrines like you did (ie house ruled)?

 

If not would that have made it a closer game?

Looking at his list would seem our super Doctrine was of little use in this instance

 

Ps. Where's the pics?

We didn't house ruled it. But, to be honest, I don't think it would have made that much difference:

-his heavy hitters were already at AP-4, and the Stealth bonus meant exactly one saved 1W hit over the course of the entire game

-agressors would have been in heavy doctrine when they didn't kill their target, and already overkilled their target when they would have been in tactical

-his intercessors were locked in CC for all but the first shooting phase

There would have been a few more wounds by chaff fire, but nothing substantial.

 

I'd say the issue was rather in deployment and a bit in list pairing.

DA plasma is usually super reliable (reroll 1s when stationary) and can go up to 3D with strat, but most of my infantry went from cover to cover - he wouldn't overcharge against them due to increased overheat. He ran out of CP after shooting at the Invictor, otherwise hecould have increased them to 2D without overcharge. As it was, they couldn't kill a lot of primaris with 1D. Since these were his heavy hitters - a lot of his firebase was ineffective in relation to its costs.

 

Also he was rather inexperienced with the Invictor, though knowing the profile. Putting his Repulsor in charge range to use absolutely every gun on it (frag/krakstorm) was suicide, if he deployed on the other flank he could have comfortably killed the Invictor and taken the other objective with his CC deathstar.

 

The other thing that took down his list's efficiency was the fractured deployment and lack of concentration of force.

His ~500p firebase stayed in one ruin and never moved for the rest of the game.

His plan was to move up with the Intercessors and Repulsor/CC deathstar with Reivers tackling my backfield, but I intercepted the Intercessors, and the Reivers only arrived turn 2. The Repulsor ended out in the open turn 1 with no other target for my AT, the Agressors were out of range of anything after taking the objective.

The Reivers came in when most things were already done. Grapnel was surprising enough for my ruin campers, but the lack of space meant only one model could actually fight my guys. Mine fall back, and the entire backfield could hose down those 5 models.

 

Concentration of force may be a bit abstract, but damn effective.

It's the main reason I want more Incursors and use MoA to incurse Intercessors (Intercoursors?!?) - with 15+ primaris bodies in terrain, it requires more than skirmishers to shift them all turn 1, unless forces are locally concentrated against a unit they will stay there. On the other hand my entire army except for the Inceptors is in range turn 1, and I even think about deploying them on the board if terrain and situation permit (MoA hooray) to fix that.

With Inceptors and Shrike reliably wiping out anything that isn't a tank, at a threat range of 28", I can locally overwhelm areas that can be saved, while abandoning those I can't hold (like with the agressors) to return when other units are dealt with. I would have more issues with a concentrated wave of bodies (like ork rush), but piecemeal deployment can be mopped up with enough mobility and range.

 

And yeah, no pics - I only had an ultra-wide angle lens on hand for testing stuff with the store models, but that thing made the board look entirely empty.

[thewarriorhunter]

The Spectral Sicarii conducted operations against a stockpile of resources last night. Unfortunately a contingent of Raven Guard were stationed at the depot while a resupply effort was underway. With the element of surprise compromised a skirmish quickly broke out. The Spectral Sicarii did everything they could to suppress the Raven Guard without killing them. They desperately needed the supplies and had no intention of not taking them, however they also had no desire to kill fellow Astartes.

 

Hidden Content

 

I played a teaching game last night against a guy who was buying his first models for 40k (Chaos). He was planning on hanging out to watch Kill Team and I offered to put a second list together with my Raven Guard so he could play a game. In retrospect I probably should have given him my Primaris but I didn't think about that.

 

We played Feint and I was the attacker. In this mission the defender has to keep objectives on the board. The attacker has to use a CP to remove an objective that they control. I kept a lot of rules out to simplify the game. We played with tactical rerolls and the mission tactics but no others. We also only had two specialists each so there wasn't as much to keep track of.

 

This is after turn 1 movement where he had the initiative. He was skittish with movement and held back when he should have been moving forward to challenge objectives. He readies most of his models which wasn't a bad idea but his dice rolls weren't helping. My dice on the other hand where very hot. I was able to get rid of one in my deployment zone.

 

 

My aux grenade launcher providing overwatch for the advance.

 

 

 

Turn 2 he moved up more towards the center but was still scared to fully engage. This allowed to me to essentially steam roll over objectives and take them out.

 

 

I used my grappling hooks to move over terrain and get into good overwatch positions. I was also deliberately exposing some of my models in the hopes that he'd get some kills.

 

 

 

I started spreading my fire around because I didn't want to knock any models out. Flesh wounds were plenty and he got to see that mechanic. His melta tactica ended up killing one of my Reivers and then consolidated 3 inches up to the next level to challenge my leader who was holding an objective. This picture is great because it looks very dynamic but also sums up the game, I think.

 

 

Overall it was a great game that we called after turn 3. I had destroyed 5 objectives so there was no way for him to win the game. He got to see just about every aspect of the game and said he had fun. I'm hoping I'll see him again with some chaos stuff. He's very narrative driven like myself and said that this game is the reason his army is turning chaos. I think we'll have a friendly narrative rivalry going forward and I'm looking forward to that.

[thewarriorhunter]

I think I'll get the most exposure here so...

 

My Raven Guard Successors are currently analyzing battle plans to promote a 'smash' captain and revise our tactics but I want to make sure I've got my rules right.

 

For those who don't know my homebrew Spectral Sicarii are based off assassins who prefer a blade (and guns didn't exist then so...)

 

I'm thinking of dropping Raven Guard and going full on successor. I'm leaning towards Hungry for Battle (+1 to advance and charge rolls) as that is very thematic. The other one I like is Master Artisans because having that many free rerolls is just plain good.

 

If I understand the successor flow chart this means I've got access to the RG strats and wargear and for 1CP I get a relic (Ex-tenebris most likely).

 

So with the thematic tactic in mind I've also been thinking of a jump captain that I'll most likely field as a 'slice' captain but would have the option to build him as smashy mcsmasher.

 

For 103 points and 1 CP here's what I'm thinking of:

 

Captain w/ jumpack

Teeth of Terra & Storm Shield

Warlord Traits: The Imperium's Sword (Re-roll one or both dice on the charge, +1STR/ATK on the charge) and Shadowmaster (-1CP for Tri-Fold Path).

 

So if I've mapped this out correctly on the charge/heroic intervention I should have 9 attacks at STR6, AP-2, D2, have a 3+/3++, no overwatch, and I'll have +1 on the charge from Hungry for Battle.

 

If I want I could throw a hammer on the guy and give him artificer armor instead for a 2+/3+ and he's at 143 points (I could also use the relic on another character, just a thought about making this guy really tough).

 

I'm thinking of those traits because they give more control over the dice and feel thematic for my lore. I'd have to build towards a more melee oriented list to really take advantage of the trait but I think Marines have some CC bite to them now from what I read and listen to.

 

Any thoughts?