Tuesday, August 21, 2007

+ APOC IT UP +

While I've got the new 1500 list set down and built up, I'm looking ahead to getting 2000 points done for APOC in October. No way I can make 3000, but 2000 is a nice round number for teaming up with fellow chaos players and bringing the HURT to pansy corpse worshippers.

HQ
Lord - MoK, chainfist, terminator armor, ikon
Sorcerer - MoT, force weapon, warptime, doombolt, jump pack, ikon

Elites
Dreadnought - plasma cannon, heavy flamer, extra armor

Troops
10 CSM - MoCU, autocannon, plasma gun, AC w/ power weapon
10 CSM - MoCU, lascannon, flamer, AC w/ powerfist, combi-flamer
6 1k Sons - Sorcerer w/ bolt of change, ikon
6 Noise Marines - blastmaster, sonic blaster, ikon

Heavy Support
6 Havoks - MoCU, 3 missile launchers
Land Raider - demonic possession
Defiler

Extra
12 Demon(ette)s

Total
1998 points

The sorcerer is pretty pricey (190!), but @ 18" he pumps out 3 S4 AP3 doombolts (reroll hits and wounds with warptime) and in combat he's got 5 S4 force weapon attaks (reroll hits and wounds with warptime). The pack gets him where he needs to be, and I'm looking to take down carnifex and other big bads with this guy. Even with 6 to wound, warptime should make that happen.

And yep, the girls are back. I guess I can run them in 2x6 squads like usual, but 12 looks pretty awesome in my head. 36 attaks are hard to argue with, and the massive squad should extend considerably out of the 6" summon range, with the way deep strike works. Even though I want the raider to hang back and add ranged support, I could suit up the lord in it and tank forward, and summon the girls off him from inside the raider. Bizarre, but also a possibility.

Painting: Eshin bases
Building: Land raider (now with Alpha Legion doors!)

Monday, August 20, 2007

+ Speed Lord Battles On +

Took my Chaos lads to the FLGS and got two 1500 point games in, against Templar and Tau. For the record I was using the current rules, though I may be testing new chaos rules out sooner than I like ... Break it down!

Undivided vs. Templars [1500] - Fought these templar in megas all the time, but never in 1v1. His cut down 1500 list was chappy (2 wounds) + 9 marines (melta, fist) in rhino; chump + 9 marines (melta, fist) in rhino; 6 marines (plasma, missile launcher); dread; pred (lascannon + heavy bolters); 10 assault marines (2 plasma pistols, fist). I deployed 10-man in cover far left and the 1k Sons in the open, with the dread about a foot to their right, and then everything else in a tall building far right. The 8-man infiltrated into a building along the right side. He deployed 6-man and pred across from my left, with rhino on the other side of terrain from my dread, and then assaulters, rhino, dread nearish my right side.

I got first, and from here a trend of rolling exceedingly badly was started. I never rolled higher than 3 for penetrating vehicles, and generally missed when possible. Somehow I did what I needed to though, as the game tipped towards Chaos in the last turns. Both squads of girls hit the chappy's disembarked squad on the right, with the speed lord zipping in to snipe out the chappy. He tagged him for one, then 6 demonettes hit him with 18 attaks and took him down. They scooted into the assault marine remnant (1 fister), which had been decimated by an early charge by the infiltrators. From here, the girls ate the dreadnought and the fister, but the lord and other ladies didn't fair so well, losing all the girls to the marines. Turns later, my lord finally failed his aura saves (I made a lot against a fist) and went down, and the last girl on the board popped. My obliterator stumbled over late game and hit the powerfist templar with his chainfist, though he was instand deathed in the process :'(

Other side of the table, the 1k Sons did their thing and sucked it up, only glancing the turret off the pred and losing models every turn to heavy bolters and krak. The chump's squad hoped out and blasted them too, but in return the rhino squad were hammered down to chump, fist, bolter. The templar headed for the dread - which only the first could hurt thanks to mutated hull - but the dread was too quick and stomped everyone but the chump. After rolling 3 1's to wound the chump - O_O - the dread finally smashed him to paste. Game ended with a weaponless rhino and banged up pred tank shocking my 10-man, and then me failing to hurt them next turn with a LOT of firepower, including a charge from the dread. Win for Chaos all the same.

Undivided vs Tau [1500] - Rematch time, though he had new sniper drones to try out. He brought shas'o (CIB, plasma, shield drone, etc), 3 crisis (plasma, flamer, 1 shield drone), 3 crisis (fusion, plasma), 5 stealth (1 fusion), 6 vespid, 3x 12 fire warriors (marker), 3x sniper drone team. He deployed across his zone - vespid, FW (in trees), drones (in trees), FW (in ruins), drones, drones (atop temple), suits (behind temple), FW. I deployed more concentrated center - 10-man posed to move into ruins first turn, speed lord behind them, dread, oblit (behind dread), havoks (in ruins), 1k Sons, noise marines (in trees). He infiltrated stealths into my zone far left, and I had to infiltrate my 8-man to try to catch them and their JSJ schenanigans. He kept the fusion suits to deep strike and try to kill my dread ;)

First turn to chaos, and pretty uneventful. 1 shield drone died, 1 sniper drone died, maybe a FW died. The 10-man moved up into the ruin, bringing them into range of 24 pulse rifles O_O
Tau let me have it in their turn, killed 9 of the 10-man and leaving just the kai gun AC! He's undaunted, as are the 8-man when they lose 2 to the stealths, who jump behind the impassable side of the big hill in my deployment zone. Sniper drones started hitting the 1k Sons, knocking off wounds like they will from here on. Vespid zip up and fleet to meet the stealths in their hidey spot by the cliff.

Chaos two, and the girls want to play. A lucky scatter sends one squad off the speed lord's ikon and over to easy reach of the vespid! The other girls scatter poorly off the 8-man and basically play no part in the game. Judging the distance to be right, the speed lord takes off for the sniper team across from him, as I saw one drone base was sticking out of cover! A good fleet roll later and he's in, and easily trashes the squad. He's now 5.5" away from 12 FW, and I knew he was gonna die UNLESS ... 6" massacre roll and the game has totally changed. The girls trash the vespid for 1 loss, and then consolidate into the stealths, shutting them down too. Concentrated fire on the center FW squad sends half the squad off the board. The oblit takes the last shield drone from the crisis suits.
Tau two, and the fusion crisis drop right in front of the dread. A couple pens later, and the dread is shaken - but I learned from last game against this guy, so extra armor means my dread is just plain pissed! Snipers hit the 1k Sons more, but I don't care as the speed lord breaks and catches the FW and then consolidates to take down the crisis team tickling his dread. Girls devour the stealths and catch those that break.

Chaos three, the dread rages into the crisis, ready to get his 7 attaks on. Kai gun taps a wound off a suit, and then the speed lord and dread slam in. The speed lord swings his 5 attaks, hits with all, wounds with all, and guts the squad. He massacres behind the ruins and sets up to kill another drone team. The 1k Sons can't see the snipers killing them, and I should probably have started moving my noise marines and 8-man lascannon to get shots later in the game, but meh.
Tau three, he's running out of options with chaos closing in around his 2 drone teams, 4 crisis suits and FW squad. He scoots the FW around the edge of the temple to hit the 1k Sons next turn, and the suits begin JSJ-ing around the temple. Shots at the 1k Sons damage them further, probably down to sorc + 2 or 3 rubrics.

Chaos four, the speed lord strikes again, hitting and fragging his second drone team. This strands him in the open, but I'm so happy with his performance that I concede it's his time to die. Dread and oblit wander toward the temple, 1k Sons shuffle more (I rolled 2" on 2 dice most every turn), and frag missiles pound the FW. Enough tau die for a test, and they break and head back around the temple toward the edge.
Tau four sees the FW run more, but stop before the edge. Crisis JSJ and kill the speed lord with plasma death. Good ride speedy ;D Sons take some more fire.

Chaos five. No speed lord means I don't have many options to reach around the temple that he's JSJ-ing around. The dread gets frustrated and fire frenzies, and with no enemy targets the oblit takes 2 plasma cannon shots and 2 heavy flamer blasts! Wounded but alive, the oblit shuffles away from his ex-buddy.
Tau five, FW rally at last. Crisis JSJ and dink the Sons again.

Chaos six, and "final" turn. Can't do much of anything, so back away from the temple and move the Sons back into cover.
Tau six. FW move back toward where they were on the temple steps. Crisis team JSJ and kill 1 more Son, leaving sorc + 1 rubric. Win for Chaos ... but we battle on!

Chaos seven - ten. Jockeying for LOS to behind the temple with oblit and noise marines, and at this point the kai gun AC and the 8-man are getting close to the action!
Tau seven - ten. JSJ kills the Sons at last, and drops 2 noise marines when they left their woods for a turn. FW move up to the temple steps and peek out ...

Chaos turn eleven. The FW suck loads of fire, dying and breaking. The blastmaster marine gets a shot on the crisis suits, shattering one with max power and breaking the unit off the board!

Chaos Win for real.

Building: Land raider
Painting: Eshin bases, termi lord, defiler

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

+ REDUX +

Now that I know more about the new C:CSM, it looks like my army is going to get even smaller and even more elite. Pretty much everything went up in points, with minimal benefit in game. But here's the list I'll be going with at least for a bit ...

HQ

Lord - MoK, chainfist, combi-bolter, terminator armor

Elites

Dreadnought - Plasma cannon, heavy flamer, extra armor

Troops

10 CSM - MoCU, autocannon, plasma gun, AC w/ power weapon
10 CSM - MoCU, lascannon, flamer, AC w/ powerfist, combi-flamer
6 1k Sons - Sorcerer w/ force weapon, bolt of change, warptime
6 Noise Marines - Blastmaster, 2 sonic blasters

Heavy Support

6 Havoks - MoCU, 3 missile launchers
1 Obliterator
Defiler

Total
1500 points
40 infantry & 2 walkers

I lose - 12 demonettes, 3 thralls, 1 speed lord
I gain - 2 marines, defiler, 1 termi lord

Overall the army gets a little slower, a little smaller, and a lot weaker in assault. I think in general though it gets a little shootier, at least against MEQ targets in 3+ armor, and the defiler's cannon should be fun for the few turns it gets to fire before retaliatory firepower takes it out.

I still want to use the land raider, but that'll be for 2000 point games. I'm also picking up a sweet sorcerer model, but again that'll wait for bigger games.

Building: N/A
Painting: 3 Eshin ironguts, 1 termi lord, 1 defiler

Monday, August 06, 2007

+ Nü Kaos +

The new Codex: CSM hits very very soon, and as much as I'd like to boycott it and keep my lads bashing like I like 'em - which mostly goes for my poor girls! - I think change may be inevitible. So going by what I know of the new book (which is a good deal at this point), here's a look at my own list and the changes to come.

Anarchonquistadores -
Current

HQ
Lord - MoCU, furious charge, power weapon, bolt pistol, speed, aura, strength, spiky, ikon, meltas
Elites
6 1k Sons - sorcerer w/ fist, bolt of change, 3 thralls
6 Noise Marines - blasmaster, plasma gun
1 Oblit
Troops
10 CSM - MoCU, autocannon, plasma gun, AC w/ kai gun, power weapon
8 CSM - MoCU, infiltrate, lascannon, flamer, AC w/ fist, combi-flamer, mutation
6 Demonettes
6 Demonettes
Heavy
6 Havoks - MoCU, 3 missile launchers
Dread - plasma cannon, heavy flamer, mutated hull, extra armor

Loses to New C:CSM

HQ
Lord - MoCU, furious charge, power weapon, bolt pistol, speed, aura, strength, spiky, ikon, meltas
Elites
Dread - plasma cannon, heavy flamer, mutated hull, extra armor
Troops
10 CSM - MoCU, autocannon, plasma gun, AC w/ kai gun, power weapon
8 CSM - MoCU, infiltrate, lascannon, flamer, AC w/ fist, combi-flamer, mutation
6 1k Sons - sorcerer w/ fist, bolt of change, 3 thralls
6 Noise Marines - blasmaster, plasma gun
6 Demonettes
6 Demonettes
Heavy
6 Havoks - MoCU, 3 missile launchers
1 Oblit

Remnants

HQ
Lord - MoCU, power weapon, bolt pistol, aura, ikon, meltas
Elites
Dread - plasma cannon, heavy flamer, extra armor
Troops
10 CSM - MoCU, autocannon, plasma gun, AC w/ power weapon
8 CSM - MoCU, lascannon, flamer, AC w/ fist, combi-flamer
6 1k Sons - sorcerer w/ bolt of change
6 Noise Marines - blasmaster
Heavy
6 Havoks - MoCU, 3 missile launchers
1 Oblit

I can't say that's such a thrilling update to my list! Since a lot of my toys were taken away now, that's something like 179 points to mess with now (not including the demonettes). Given what I know about the new book, and what I've got working on right now, I think I might end up something like the following. Note that even though demons are utterly bad now, I might still keep some girls, out of dedication to what they once were.

New Codex

HQ
Lord - MoK, chainfist, combi-bolter, terminator armor
Elites
Dread - plasma cannon, heavy flamer, extra armor
Troops
10 CSM - Ikon of CU, autocannon, plasma gun, AC w/ power weapon
10 CSM - Ikon of CU, lascannon, flamer, AC w/ fist, combi-flamer
6 1k Sons - sorcerer w/ force weapon, warptime, bolt of change
6 Noise Marines - blasmaster, sonic blaster
Heavy
6 Havoks - Ikon of CU, 3 missile launchers
1 Oblit
Land Raider - demonic possession

I guess the list goes up in shooting a bit, but way down in assault with the lose of the girls. I'd be looking at building 2 combat marines, the termi lord and the land raider. Not so bad, and all of the models should be fun to convert and paint. Still, this all doesn't make me a happy Lord of Chaos Undivided >:P

++++++

Just edited the new list a bit. Nixed the demonettes entirely, pretty sure points will be tight with adding the land raider and dealing with the cost increase across the board. Thinking about giving my lord, who's a fallen chaplain in the fluff, either the mark of khorne or mark of tzeentch. MoK to rep 'litanies of hate,' though here so he has a massive 4 attaks, as terminator armor apparently no longer gives +1A :P Or MoT to rep the 'cursed crozius' save, as it would give him a 4+ save. Probably go MoK, it's the cheapest I hear. There is no MoCU for characters anymore, they all have Fearless.

Painting: Eshin bases

+ ONE YEAR LATER +

As of 08.08.07 this blog will be 1 year old ... So time for some zombi-esque revivication!

In the last months I've gone entirely undivided with my Chaos lads, and the army @ 1500 points has been painted for a couple months now :D Perhaps some crappy webcam pics sometime, likely when I get the army badges painted and the models sealed up. I've been playing a lot of Fantasy of late - my Eshin army is approaching 2000 of painted & dipped madness - but with APOC looming it's been good to get some 40k in.

Undivided vs. Nids [1500] - This was some time ago, but had a quick match versus some nice mixed nids. Took his list apart as it came to me, starting with the flyrant and ending with the second group of warriors. Broodlord and buddies hit a flank hard, but fists and Sons took care of them. Another highlight was 2x 20 gaunts headed into my lines second turn (I got second on the roll), but then bouncing off the 10-man and the noise marines. With that many attaks, I was sure I'd lose some squads ... Win for Chaos.

Undivided vs. Tau [1500] - After the weekly mega wrapped up early, me and Tau Kid threwdown 1v1. He took shas'o & 2 friends (fusion, CIB, shields), 3 crisis (flamer, plasma?), 3 crisis (???), 2x 12 fire warriors (marker drone, markerlight), pathfinders & fish, 2x 1 broadside (plasma, shield). He usually goes with a load of kroot too, but apparently not this time around. There's a big building in the center of the board, and he deploys the FW in rocks to either side, and the broadsides on the flanks to max fire lanes. The suits wait to strike ... My guys deploy in cover where possible, and my dread hides from the broadsides behind a hill hard left. 1k Sons stand out of cover, ready to be shot.

Tau get first turn and take it, doing not much of note. Broadsides both miss, despite rerolls and markerlights, and some FW kill a havok in cover. Chaos makes him pay next turn - the oblit vaporizes the right broadside with a lascannon and the 8-man lascannon marine (infiltrated into the center building) frags the left broadside. Some FW die, and the pathfinders take a beating but stay around.

Deep strike time! 1 crisis team comes on and scatters (despite positional relay on the fish!) onto my 10-man, destroying itself! Other shooting is minimal, with the 1k Sons starting to take casualties and the havoks losing 2 more to FW. No girls come to play (good), and Chaos firepower clears the pathfinders and breaks the right FW plaguing the havoks, sending them off the table. The dread crests the hill he was behind and yells a lot, while also plasma cannoning some xenos.

More deep strike! Command suits strike next to the dread, and flamer/plasma suits land near the 1k Sons. The HQ suits stun (no move/no shoot) the dread with BOTH penetrating fusion blasters, but he doesn't have extra armor (O_O) and so is just angry. The 1k Sons take some hurting, I think cut down to sorcerer + 2 sons now. In retaliation, the shas'o's friends are trashed by krak and the flamer/plasma suits are flamed, boltered and plasma'd to small pieces. Some demonettes also arrived, and hung out in the central building.

Things look dicey for the Tau - just the shas'o, a handful of FW and the devilfish left on the table. The shas'o fails to hurt the dread, or escape his charge range ... Chaos fire is mostly held off this turn, letting the dread charge the shas'o and the demonettes hit the FW (in cover). The dread explodes the suit and the ladies gut the last 3 FW.

The rest of the game involved trying to kill the fish, and discovering it had flechette launchers when my girls assaulted it! So lost some demons then, but eventually killed that dead too. Win for Chaos.

Undivided vs. Death Guard [1500] - Grudge match with my friend Studder's DG! Usually we're allies, but hey, fickle gods of Chaos and all that. Some irksome moments in this game too, like my entire army blasting his DP about to smash out of some trees into me, but causing 1 wound total. 2+ save is sick! He hit the 1k Sons and kept them tied for 3 whole turns, eventually killing the squad (with the help of a lone fist AC who ran in turn 4) and the dread who raged into the combat :P The 8-man squad infiltrated with the intention of flanking the mutated las pred, but decided to run it in and fist the tank! 5 turns later, dead tank.

We took this game out to 11 or 12 turns, at which point the defiler was finally killed, after it ate the 10-man squad and then was immobilized inside some woods. I had 4/8 of the 8-man squad, 3/6 of the havoks and all the noise marines left at the end. Win for Undivided (by 500 points + quarters).

Building: Terminator Lord, Land Raider