Exploring the Current Thousand Sons - Third Iteration

What excites me about the current Thousand Sons is that it packs a punch while still being flavorful, with its over-reliance on magic, it's single-mindedness automata, and how battlefield tactics slant towards deception. Did I mention it's really flavorful? Change agents, that's what we are.

Before I go on, I'd like to share my personal criteria for my Thousand Sons army lists. Just because ...:

1. Must be built on a core of Rubric marines. As far as possible, each Rubric unit must be "favored" (a concept that no longer has rules at the squad level) with 9 models or multiples of 9.
2. No Cultists, or them new-fangled beasty cultist wannabe things.
3. No Daemons. I spent a few years before this book came out fielding a Thousand Sons army with a daemon allied detachment (1 Lord of Change and a pack of Pink Horrors). It was a really strong list, but I really do prefer no daemons at all, if possible (on another note, a Tzeentch daemons list looks quite stupidly strong). Daemon engines are exempted (because I do really like the Defiler and Heldrake models).
4. No Magnus. Because I don't know why he would bother playing in my house or local store (I just got over justifying to myself why Ahriman would bother to do the same, and that took me a few years of deep earnest conversations with myself).
5. No non-Tzeentch/non-Thousand Sons allies (though I might just allow a Shadowsword, because my ancient Armorcast one is begging to be Tzeentched up - but definitely no Knights of any persuasion).

So in the first game I had with the current book (it was really new then), I fielded the list that could be deployed fastest as we were rushing - Ahriman, Exalted Sorcerer, 5 Occult Terminators in Land Raider, squad of 8 Rubric marines (couldn't go 9 because they had to share their transport with the 2 lead sorcerers), squad of 9 Rubric marines on foot, Heldrake and a Land Raider.

That army faced a White Scars army that had 3 Land Raiders, a couple of Razorbacks, assault termies and Drop Pod-borne Astartes. With the help of some nasty Heretech spells which made easy work of the loyalist armor, the White Scars were almost wiped out for minimal Thousand Sons losses.

In my second game, I decided to try a funny list that uses the Astral Grimoire - Ahriman, Exalted Sorcerer, Sorcerer, a squad of 18 Rubric marines, 5 Occult Terminators in Land Raider, Heldrake, Las-Pred.

This army faced a Death Watch army with a scary Watchmaster, a squad of Deathwatch vets, a Deathwatch bike squad, a Deathwatch ven Dread, 3 Ultramarines Tactical squads in Drop Pods, 3 Ultramarines Terminator squads and an Ultramarine Land Speeder. Lucky for me it was a Kill Points game - the only survivors from the loyalists was the Watchmaster (who killed Ahriman and his sorcerers) and the Drop Pods. Thousand Sons were left with 4 Rubric marines, 1 Terminator, the Heldrake and the Land Raider.

Iteration No.3

This iteration of my Thousand Sons army expands on the first list. Rhinos are still invaluable, even after millennia of service on both sides of the divide. And especially so for my slow and purposeful Rubricae. And the fact that Ahriman can cast his witchfire spells from the handy top hatch hasn't gone amiss. So 1 of the Land Raiders had to go.

Another change from the previous lists is that I finally got around to assembling my Occult Terminators (I had been using my old converted Rubric Terminators as nicely painted proxies), and just had to put in the really nicely casted soulreaper autocannon and helfyer missile rack. What's another 50 points between friends?

Thousand Sons War Cabal (1850 points):

Ahriman, Arch-Sorcerer of the Thousand Sons

Sobek Sekmet, Exalted Sorcerer - mastery level 3, Seer's Bane

5 Scarab Occult Terminators - soulreaper autocannon, helfyre missile rack

Land Raider - dozer blades

8 Thousand Sons marines

Rhino - dozer blades

9 Thousand Sons marines

Rhino - dozer blades

Heldrake

Predator - lascannons, dozer blades

This time I faced a Ravenwing army that's just fresh from being awarded Best Loyalist Army in a recent local tourney. It had something like:

Chaplain on bike - mace of redemption

6 Ravenwing Black Knights (commmand squad) - apothecary, standard bearer

6 Ravenwing Black Knights

6 Ravenwing bikes - 2 meltaguns, sgt w powerfist

6 Ravenwing bikes - 2 meltaguns, sgt w powerfist

6 Ravenwing bikes - 2 gravguns (don't remember if the sgt had a powefist)

2 Ravenwing attack bikes - multimelta

2 Ravenwing attack bikes - multimelta

Ravenwing Land Speeder Typhoon

Ravenwing Land Speeder Typhoon

Ravenwing Land Speeder Typhoon

Ravenwing Dark Shroud

It's actually not too different from my own Ravenwing army. We rolled Spoils of War, Night Fight is on, and Thousand Sons got first turn.

Deployment

The battle was fought over a desolate landscape, with blown-out ruins, sparse dead forests and hills. It was perfect country for speed and manouver.

The scenario specified Hammer & Anvil deployment, and the Ravewing amassed in 2 flanks - on my right flank, the stronger wing of  their army anchored amidst some ruins, while on my left flank they took advantage of a craggy hill.

Having far less units to deploy, I decided to take advantage of the width-wise deployment (which meant that my 2 flanks are not far apart), and spread my army, using cover just in case he seized the initiative - Terminators in their Land Raider on the left flank behind the wrecked Rhino, Rubric squad in their Rhino behind the ruins in the center, the Predator on the main avenue and next to a ruin facing down the loyalist bikers, and Ahriman and Sekmet with their Rubricae in their Rhino behind the Predator.

As was predicted, the loyalists scouted forwards to close the range, the squad with the gravguns to the fore, while their long-range missile Land Speeders hung around the back center of the field, ready to lend support for either flank.

Turn 1

The battle began quietly enough as my Predator turned left and sped towards the center of the Thousand Sons' line.

As the Rhino in the center lurched forwards onto the main thoroughfare, its top hatch opened to reveal Asthmus the aspiring sorcerer, who unleashed a cascading Breathe of Chaos spell on the lead Ravenwing bike squad, nearly wiping it out. The Rhino bearing Lord Ahriman also advanced slightly, the Arch-Sorcerer casting deadly Psychic Shrieks from his Rhino's fire point, which finished his aspiring sorcerer's job, and severely damaging another squad.

Then, both Rhinos retreated rearwards, keeping a safe distance from surviving loyalist meltaguns (shooting phase flat out moves - my opponent accused me of "Eldar cheese!").

On the left flank, the Land Raider advanced slightly and pivoted, its assault ramps hitting the ground hard as elite Scarab Occult Terminators disembarked from its bowels. The Scarab Occult Sorcerer loosed his Psychic Shriek attacks on the nearest Ravenwing bike squad, felling a couple of loyalist bikers, then his squad's autocannon and missiles, combined with the Land Raider's weapons, opened up on the Land Speeders in the rear, but thanks to the cover of night and some inhuman jinking manouvers, only 1 Land Speeder was glanced.

In response, the Ravewing line surged forwards. The attack bikes on my left flank opened fire on the Land Raider, but were too far to gain optimal effectiveness. Nevertheless, they did manage to score 1 glancing hit.

The surviving bikers opened fire and charged the Occult Terminators. The Terminators' overwatch fire felled one of the bikers, even as the impact of Ravenwing bikes on Terminator armor killed one of the Terminators. The Occult Sorcerer bellowed a challenge which was dutifully accepted by the powerfist wielding veteran sergeant, who was duly slain by a combination of the sorcerer's hatred and high-strength stave. The other Occult Terminators put to the sword the other bikers, and the lone survivor only just managed to escape with his life, speeding to a crook behind the hill for safety.

On the right flank and center, the Ravenwing line barreled forwards, now led by the Black Knights at the tip of the advance. Ravenwing shooting was ineffective as most of their guns were not in range, and the missile-bearing Land Speeders were jinking and could not aim their weapons to effect.

Turn 2

The Heldrake failed to appear, which was much regretted, as the Ravenwing mass in the center offered the juiciest of targets.

Asthmus' Rhino advanced towards the leading Black Knights. Once again emerging from the Rhino's top hatch, his Breathe of Chaos spell obliterated 4 of the proud elite bikers. Lord Ahriman followed up with multiple Psychic Shriek attacks but failed to wound the surviving Knights. Then Asthmus' Rhino went flat out forwards towards the right of the Sons' flank (it really looked like a drive-by shooting), while Ahriman's Rhino fell back once again. 

On the left, the Occult Terminators advanced towards the nearest Attack Bikes, while their Sorcerer unleashed Psychic Shriek on the Ravenwing Command squad in the center, to no effect. Inferno bolter and heavy weapons fire from the terminators wounded one of the Attack Bikes before the Terminators' charge finished them off.

The Land Raider and Predator, which by now had manouvered to the Sons' left flank, focused their fire on the Land Speeders, destroying one, and forcing another to jink.

Intent on revenge, Ravenwing bikers on the right flank sped up towards Asthmus' Rhino, even as the 2 surviving Black Knights approached that Rhino from the other side. Melta fire made easy work of the Rhino, blowing it apart, the blast killing 1 of the Rubricae inside. The Knights opened up with their Talons, easily felling another 4 Rubricae, before charging in to wipe out Asthmus and his squad in a flurry of Corvus hammer attacks (this was a really bad series of saving throws - didn't roll a single save for Asthmus' squad).

The Chaplain and his Command Squad peeled off from the center and headed toward the Occult Terminators, guns blazing before charging in. The Scarab Occult Sorcerer locked in mortal combat with the Chaplain in a deadly challenge, both champions wounding the other. The Knights of the Command squad felled one of the Occult Terminators. 

Turn 3

With a Banshee wail, the Heldrake roared onto the battlefield, its deadly unearthly fire wiping out the Ravenwing bike squad on the Sons' right flank, partially avenging Asthmus and his Rubricae.

On the left flank, the Land Raider pivoted and opened fire on a Land Speeder, damaging it despite the pilot's wild jinking.

Meanwhile, both the Predator and Ahriman's Rhino fell back to fulfill a Hold the Line order.

In the on-going melee between the Ravenwing Command squad and the Occult Terminators, the Sorcerer killed the Chaplain with his glowing force stave. And thanks to the blessing of Tzeentch, the rending Corvus Hammers could not get past the Terminators' ward saves.

The Ravenwing are fast running out of men. The 2 surviving Black Knights on the right flank came around the ruin there to close with Ahriman's Rhino. The Dark Shroud peeled off from close support of the Command squad, which was still in melee, to execute a risky manouver amongst the center ruins to capture an objective.

On the left flank, the 2 surviving attack bikes closed with the Land Raider and opened fire with multimeltas at point-blank range. Tzeentch was smiling on this Land Raider as it was only stunned with 2 hull points remaining.

The 2 surviving Land Speeders also fired at the Land Raider, to no effect.

In the melee between the Ravenwing Command squad and the Occult Terminators, the challenge now was between the Black Knight champion and the Scarab Occult Sorcerer, a duel which ended in neither side getting past the other's armor. However, another Occult Terminator was hewn by the flailing Corvus hammers.

Turn 4

With a quiet suddenness, the Heldrake banked sharply to port and attacked the Dark Shroud with a Vector Strike that left the skimmer immobilized. 

Ahriman's Rhino sped forwards towards the ruin in the center where the Dark Shroud sat damaged, the Arch-Sorcerer's repeated Psychic Shrieks finally slaying the last 2 Black Knights on the right.

The Predator pivoted and let loose its lascannons on the grounded Dark Shroud blowing it up in a fiery explosion (I needed that to happen to seize an objective - one of the downsides of not having ObSec Rubrics in this detachment).

Meanwhile, the Land Raider snap-fired all guns into the oncoming attack bikes, destroying one, and wounding the other.

The drawn-out melee continued, with both champions failing to wound one another. But the last surviving Occult Terminator finally succumbed to the repeated rending Corvus attacks.

The last surviving Ravenwing attack bike approached even nearer to its Land Raider target, but missed its mark (ikr, point-blank range, and you miss. All those years of dedication, prayer and training ...). The Land Speeders kept up their fire at the same target, and managed to score a glancing hit despite the Land Raider's thick hide.

Sensing his moment of glory, the last surviving Ravenwing biker from the very first charge decided to lend a hand to his Command squad, who had been locked in combat with the Occult Terminators for some time now. Redlining his engine, he sped headlong into the lone surviving enemy Terminator, killing the vile champion in the impact. Expecting congratulatory prayers, the biker was much chastised by the Black Knight champion, for the champion had intended to capture the enemy sorcerer alive (it was an objective my opponent had been holding onto for awhile, hoping to score it with the Sorcerer).

Turn 5

The marauding Heldrake descended rapidly into hover mode and skimmed forwards over the battlefield. The Land Raider advanced towards the right flank, climbing over the battlefield debris, and nearly throwing a track (thank God for dozer blades, what a great investment). The tank opened fire on one of the Land Speeders, but once again the loyalist skimmer was able to avoid the incoming shots. Meanwhile, the Heldrake went flat out into enemy territory, capturing an objective. 

Ahriman's Rhino moved forwards in the left flank, and the Rubric squad with the 2 attached Sorcerers disembarked, advancing on foot towards the Ravenwing Command squad. While his deadly magicks killed the last remaining Attack Bike, the Arch-Sorcerer's Psychic Shrieks were unable to harm the loyalist Command squad Knights. Sekmet the Exalted Sorcerer cast Invisibility onto himself, his Lord and the accompanying Rubricae.

As the Rubricae advanced, they opened fire on the Ravenwing Comand squad with their inferno bolters, Sekmet also calling in a fiery blast due to his being a Lord of the Silver Tower. The Predator joined in the concentrated firepower into the elite loyalist bikers, but after the dust settled, none of the loyalists were harmed.

The Ravenwing Command squad took the bait and roared towards Ahriman's squad at breakneck speed, Plasma Talons rapid-firing, but unable to draw a bead on most of the Invisible Rubricae,  killing just one.

Meanwhile, the Ravenwing Land Speeders switched targets and fired their krak missiles at the hovering Heldrake, but the Daemon-engine was able to easily jink out of harm's way.

Then in a final act of desperation, the proud Black Knights of the Ravenwing Command squad charged into the Invisible Rubricae, their bikes' impact killing 1 Rubricae. Sekmet the Exalted Sorcerer challenged the champion and weilding his Seer's Bane, easily hewed the Black Knight champion and the entire Ravenwing Command squad in one graceful sweep of the possessed daemon weapon.

And with that last deadly strike, Tzeentch truimphs again!

Aftermath

The Thousand Sons won the battle 10-6, including First Blood, Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker. As was expected, the Thousand Sons are not very adept at scoring objectives, given the small number of units in the army, and the fact that in this detachment, they don't have ObSec. In retrospect, it was a good call to give each squad a transport vehicle. Rhinos ftw!

Consistent with the first 2 battles, the enemy was severely punished. The Ravenwing was left with only 1 bike and 2 Land Speeders surviving. The Thousand Sons lost squad Asthmus and their Rhino, though the Land Raider was 1 hull point away from being wrecked. The Land Raider performed well as a fire magnet, to be sure.

The Scarab Occult Terminators were really tough, and while I only managed to use their new ranged weapons twice before being locked into combat for all eternity, I think 50 points for 2 krak and 4 S5 AP3 rending shots on a super-tough fearless Terminator platform is pretty good. And the 2+/3++ (thanks to Force being a blessing) saves are just amazing.

Breathe of Chaos, even coming from a lowly aspiring sorcerer, is insanely good. Especially against the Ravenwing, who can survive most shooting pretty well.

This game is the first time I didn't forget to re-rolls 1's To Hit, and the first time I used Lord of the Silver Tower (though 3+ re-rolling jink saves kinda made that moot). It's also the first time I saw the Seer's Bane really used to full effect - it is one deadly piece of accursed kit!

I noticed that in all 3 battles thus far, my Thousand Sons faced only their loyalist erstwhile brethren - White Scars, Deathwatch, Ultramarines, Dark Angels. It would be interesting to see how they would fair against xenos (Eldar and Tau are going to be really tough, I expect) and other Chaos forces, though I would love to face a Space Wolves force!

As always, the Thousand Sons' truimph was with a combination of deadly magicks, manouver and close assault.

Totally looking forward to the next one.

Keep them dice rolling ...

It's 2017! Omigosh, when did that happen?

Time ... just flies. Really fast.

Thank God I managed to make time couple nights back for a game with my Thousand Sons. I used a funky experimental list that's quite scary for myself - not so much for my opponents:

Thousand Sons War Cabal
Ahriman
Exalted Sorcerer Sekmet, w ML3 Astral Grimoire and Seer's Bane
Sorcerer Soreth, w ML2 and Mark of Tzeentch
5 Scarab Occult Terminators, w heavy warpflamer
    in a Land Raider dedicated transport
18 Rubric Marines
Heldrake
Predator - tri-las

1850 pts

It's got 12+d6 warp charge dice and is a tiny army at 1850 points. I frankly had no idea how to use this list, but the thought of 18 Rubric Marines plus 3 high powered sorcerers (not including the Aspiring Sorcerer in the squad itself) flying around like jump infantry is really cool.

My opponent fielded a Deathwatch + Ultramarines list. I think he had:

Watchmaster
10 Deathwatch marines
5 Deathwatch bikes
Deathwatch Venerable Dreadnought
3 five-man Tactical squads in 3 drop pods
3 five-man Terminator squads
Land Speeder Typhoon

He was quite shocked to find that he actually outnumbered me - apparently that doesn't happen too often.

Lucky for me, we rolled Purge the Alien, and I had precious few Kill Points to give away.

The game ended in a 9-6 win for the Thousand Sons. Some thoughts and highlights:

• It was quite amusing to bubble-wrap my Predator with a horde of Rubrics, a job normally left to cultists and other such undesirables. In any case, I didn't do a good job with it and the Predator was alpha-striked by drop pod borne marines.
• 18 Rubrics plus 3 independent character sorcerers are deadly! That squad wiped out 2 Tactical squads and 2 Terminator squads in close combat (it helps that the Exalted Sorcerer has Seer's Bane), plus another Tactical squad and Terminator squad with magic and shooting.
• On the other hand, even this big squad is no match in close combat with uber-cc specialists like the Watchmaster.
• My excitement with the heavy warpflamer has waned considerably after my opponent learnt not to close with the Occult Terminators. Time to find the extra points for the soulreaper autocannon.

The game went to maximum turns, which turned out to be a bad thing for Ahriman, who was slain in close combat by the Watchmaster in the very last assault phase. He was very lucky to last that long. Thousand Sons scored Linebreaker, while the loyalist scum scored First Blood and Slay the Warlord.

By the end of the game, the Thousand Sons were left with only 4 Rubrics, 1 Occult Terminator, the Land Raider, and the Heldrake. I lost every single sorcerer.

The loyalist scum only had the Watchmaster and 3 Drop Pods left on the table.

It was bloody game indeed. Khorne is pleased.

While this list was fun to play, I don't think it would have done very well in a Maelstrom or most objective-based mission. There's simply not enough flexibility and not enough units.

But hey, at least Khorne is cool with it.

Ahriman Ascending

I got my Wrath of Magnus books a couple of weeks back and I meant to post something about it but didn't get around to doing it. Then I had my first game using the new rules last weekend.

The Thousand Sons are back - big time!

I must say when I first read the rules I was slightly disappointed with the unchanging points-cost, and the fact that the fancy new weapons (warpflamer, reaper cannon) just add even more points to an already expensive army.

Then I remembered that the magic in the Thousand Sons lies with the ... magic!

For one, the revamped Tzeentch powers are simply awesome! But best of all, your sorcerers now have access to some amazing psychic disciplines, which gives your army amazing flexibility.

For example, in my game on Sunday, I faced a White Scars army with 3 Land Raiders, plus 2 other tanks. So each and every sorcerer who could, rolled at least once on Heretech (of course we also had Tzeentch, Telepathy and Divination). And the result was crazy.

But first, here's the list I used. We were in a rush, so I used the list that was quickest to deploy:

War Cabal:
Ahriman
Exhalted Sorcerer - mastery level 2, Seer's Bane
5 Scarab Occult Terminators - with heavy warpflamer
  in a Land Raider with dozer blades dedicated transport
8 Thousand Sons
9 Thousand Sons
Heldrake
Land Raider with dozer blades

The White Scars loyalist scum was using some kind of formation that had 3 Land Raiders - 2 Crusaders (one of which was the Warlord, carrying a Techmarine and 2 Servitors) and a Redeemer, the Land Raiders carrying 2 squads of 5 Assault Termies (3 with thunder hammer & storm shield, 2 with lightning claws). They also had 5 Space Marines with plasma gun in a Rhino, 10 Space Marines with a melta gun in a Drop Pod, and another Tecmarine with 2 Servitors in a Razorback with twin-linked lascannon.

So I gleefuly gave Ahriman, his Exhalted Sorcerer and the Scarab Occult Sorcerer Heretech spells, on top of Tzeentch and Ahriman's Telepathy.

The Heretech spells are just deadly against vehicles. On Turn 1, the White Scars Warlord Land Raider Crusader got hit by multiple castings of Flayerstorm and Scrapcode Curse, and was quickly wrecked (glanced to death). Scrapcode Curse gives D3 haywire hits, and Flayerstorm reduces the target by D3 hull points. Crazy stuff.

Flayerstorm also hits nearby targets with D6 rending hits everytime it brings down a Hull Point. Later in the game, the second Land Raider Crusader was killed with it, and a nearby Rhino blew up because of it.

Seer's Bane on the Exhalted Sorcerer is really good. The Artifact is expensive, but at S=Ld, and you know how good the sorcerer's leadership is, he easily hacked the loyalist marines to bits. It's a daemon weapon, and I of course would have to roll a 1 when I used it.

When I first read about them, I kinda scoffed at the Scarab Termies. But I love 'em now. Fearless Termies with AP3 combi-bolters and a heavy warpflamer, not to mention getting a level 2 sorcerer to boot. It's awesome. Combined with the fact that they and their dedicated transport Land Raider infiltrated, they almost scored First Blood by wiping out a 5-man Space Marine unit in Turn 1 (First Blood was scored in the Psychic Phase, when the White Scars' Warlord Land Raider Crusader was toasted).

It was a truly brutal game. Just as before, and since CSM Codex 3.5, the Thousand Sons are best used aggressively. By Turn 3, the White Scars had lost all 3 Land Raiders, a Rhino, all 10 Assault Marines, all 15 Space Marines, the Drop Pod and all 4 Servitors. Only the Razorback and 2 Techmarines remained. The loyalist scum duly conceded. The Thousand Sons lost 6 Rubricae and a Termie.

I'm itching to try out more games with this new super-magic Thousand Sons. I just tweaked the twin-Land Raider list I used to include a Rhino - in the game, the Thousand Sons squad on foot didn't do much at all. And I do need to remember to re-roll 1s, and Hatred Space Marines, and the Exhalted Sorcerer's Lord of the Silver Tower.

I do have another War Cabal list that I'm curious about - just 1 Land Raider for the Termies, an additional budget-sized Tzeentch sorcerer, Rhinos for both Thousand Sons squads and a Predator. But the list I'm most curious to run is Ahriman's Exiles combined with a CAD - a total of 8 psykers and 17+d6 magic dice, on top of 2 squads of Rubrics, a Heldrake, a Land Raider, and the curious fact that the Exiles cast on 3+.

Insane.

Keep them dice rolling.

We're Back! Sort of ...

 After a long long long hiatus, we're finally ready to get back into wargaming action - I think. A lot has happened in the past year, including moving to different town, packing away models, moving models, storing, looking for stuff in storage, fixing models damaged in transit and storage, finding out some stuff are somewhere other than where they should be, etc, etc, etc ...

Anyways, not to bore you with the minutae, but an old wargames buddy also happened to move to the same city, and we started to talk about 40k and the topic of Ravenwing came up. And I realized that I actually never did read the Dark Angels codex I bought last year. So I managed to dig up the codex (by accident actually, I really forgot all about it) and finally started reading it.

And what a read that was. I guess I'm one of the last Ravenwing players on earth to get excited about the new teeth this army has been given. I've been playing Ravenwing since 2003, and they did well back then, even coming in a decent Top 5 finish at a tournament in 2009 (which was the year I finally painted the army).

But the Ravenwing has always suffered from a severe case of chronic crapcodexitis, and any successes had to be hard-fought. When I first started playing the Ravenwing, they had a different Master of the Ravenwing, and he only rode in his Land Speeder with a 4+ invul save. Every biker had skilled rider and an always-on 6+ jink save (I think that was the first time I heard the term "jink" in 40k). Then Sammael came along, the bikers lost skilled rider, and the army got even harder to play.

When the Black Knights were first introduced, it did help a bit, as they now finally had a decent close combat unit. But the army as a whole lost traits that would help it survive because of its speed and manouver, as befitting an all-bike army. Then last year's codex came out. And it's brilliant!

Well at least on paper. I'll be trying it out this weekend hopefully. Looking forward to that.

And since my friend also plays Ravenwing, I'll be bringing my old Thousand Sons buddies over to have a go against his Ravenwing army. I finally unearthed them from the crypts last night, and thankfully there was only minimal transit and storage damage (Land Raider's smoke launcher and Ahriman's staff had to be glued back, and there's a tiny paint chip on the staff where it joins his right hand, but nothing too serious). I'm looking forward to see these guys back on the table this weekend, and share the magic of their modest 10+d6 warp-charge dice.

Because of the minor repair work I did last night, I also unearthed my complete and fully-functional modeling and paint toolbox, and I'm excited to get back into hobbying. Here's what I have in mind for the rest of the year:

1. Updated Ravenwing. For this I need to paint 18 Black Knights (including the Command Squad), Chaplain on bike (with a suitable-looking mace), a Dark Shroud, and 2 more Land Speeder Typhoons. 11 of those Black Knights and the Land Speeders have already been assembled and undercoated (which means they are also base-coated, ahh .. the wonders of a black-liveried army).

2. Updated Eldar. I procured all the models for this update almost exactly a year ago. I think I'll need to paint 1 Hemlock, 3 more Dark Reapers, 1 new Dark Reaper Exarch (because the old one is ... old), 2 more Warp Spiders, 2 more Swooping Hawks, and 6 more jetbikes.

I will be getting back to my Denerair Highlanders, but that's a huge project which my temporary quarters is not capable to handle. So that's going to be a 2017 project.

I'm totally looking to some furious dice rolling this weekend, and I'm lucky that the town's brand new game store is like 7 minutes away. Love it!

Let's roll them dice!

Back In Action!

 
After 3 amazing weeks of exploring the deserts, valleys, farmland, mountains, lakes, forests, coastline, small towns, big cities and meeting some great people and food, it's back to Hobby Night! I haven't picked up a brush in over a month, so it was 100% dice-rolling glee, interspersed with some more great food and chats with the awesome Legio people.

Faizal had contacted me beforehand and said that he would like to have a couple of games of Flames of War with his US 82nd Airborne, in preparation for the Legio Malaysia Market Garden campaign coming up in October. We were both a bit rusty with the rules, having last played it in the very-FOW year of 2012 (I think we wrapped at least 2 campaigns, plus a league, or something like that), and while my favorite has always been the British infantry company, it was a good chance to try out my German infantry company.

I arrived at the Forge early, and managed to get a FOW game in with Alvin. We played a quick 1000-pt battle, his Battle of the Bulge-themed US Armored Company against my Grenadiers. It's quite amazing how quickly we were able to relearn the game mechanics (with a lot of pauses to refer to the rules), but the battle was one-sided, as his Confident-Trained Shermans went in unsupported and got massacred by the Confident-Veteran Grenadiers (not to mention the able support of the PaK40s battery and StuG platoon).

Amin came in with a scary 40k Deathwing army. At 1850pts, the army was led by Belial at the head of 7 Assault Terminators. A Librarian led another 7 Terminators, and there was another squad of 7 Terminators. They were supported by 2 Dreadnaughts with autocannons, and a squadron of 2 Land Speeder Typhoons. My 1850pt Tzeentch army was led by Ahriman, with 2 favored squads of Thousand Sons, a Land Raider, a Rhino, a Predator, a Heldrake, a Defiler, Lord Ka'Kaa the Lord of Change and a pack of Pink Horrors.

We played Purge the Alien - it was the first time I played an Eternal War mission in 7th ed, having been really loving the Maelstrom missions. The battle was hard- and closely-fought. The Deathwing aggressively Deep Striked into my lines. I was able to wipe out one squad quickly with a combination of firepower and charging with the Defiler and Lord Ka'Kaa. Ahriman's squad managed to kill most of the Librarian's squad, but was in turn charged by Belial's squad. Thanks to his Chaos compulsion to always challenge, he took on Belial. Thanks to Invisibility, he managed to last longer than expected, but when he finally fell, it was curtains for his squad too.

Seeing this, the rest of my army kept far away from Belial and his scary squad, and went on to destroy everything else on the table, before sniping at Belial's squad at range. The game ended with the Deathwing left with only Belial and one Assault Terminator left. I lost Ahriman, the Predator, a squad of Thousand Sons and 5 Pink Horrors.

After dinner break, Faizal and I set about for our appointed FOW battle. 1000-pts of his Fearless Veteran US 82nd Airborne vs 1000-pts of my Confident Veteran Grenadier Company. I had split my command into 3 parts - the PaK40s and 2nd Platoon dug in and covering the enemy objectives, while 1st Platoon and the Pionier platoon was to advance through town towards my objective on the right in a feint attack. The StuGs would barrel up the left flank in the real attack to seize my left flank objective.

His parachute infantry platoons proved incredibly reselient and tough troops, and soon my feint attack ground to a halt in the center of town - my troops forced to hold up in the church. The StuGs had to be diverted from their mission to lend MG support for my suppressed infantry. After a punishing mortar bombardment, the paras charged the church, pushing both 1st Platoon and the Pioniers back into my lines. I sent in 2nd Platoon to shore up the defenses while the rest recover. But the paras did not let up, and proceeded to follow up their advance, destroying the Pionier platoon, and routing both Grenadier platoons. I was lucky that my company morale held, and the StuGs were able to capture my objective in the knick of time.

That was a great game and simply an amazing reintroduction to FOW. I really need to paint up my German mortar platoon -any form of artillery support is just too necessary (as my British infantry know very well - they have a nice 25-pdr battery to support them).

Anyways, it's back to the hobby table. Hope to finish up a recovered OOP Hellhound for the Brandenburgers. Keep them dice rolling.

 

7th Ed Baptism of Fire!

Finally got a game of 7th Ed in. And I must say it was a blast! The Tactical Objectives and Psychic Phase makes for a very different flavor of 40k. A lot of myths and preconceptions were debunked, though this is just based on the one game I've had so far. Certainly different from what we're used to - and for me that means all the previous editions since 3rd.

We played the first Maelstrom of War mission: Cleanse and Control. In this mission, there are 6 objective markers, and in each turn each player needs to have 3 Tactical Objective cards. The mission specifies Vanguard Strike deployment. My oppenent Dom chose the nice Cityfight table, which was pretty cool. Been awhile since I played on that one.

I used the last Thousand Sons list I built in 6th Ed: Ahriman, Lord Ka'Kaa the Lord of Change, 2 favored Thousand Sons squads (one with Rhino), 1 pack of Pink Horrors, 1 Heldrake, 1 Land Raider, 1 Defiler and 1 Predator (autocannon, heavy bolters). There's a total of 5 psykers in the army, with a potential to generate 10+d6 warp charges in total. I got lucky with Ahriman, who managed to get Invisibility and Iron Arm, on top of Prescience and Psychic Shriek (the Tzeentch Primaris was free). Lord Ka'Kaa also had Prescience. However no one got Doombolt - pity, as I would have liked to try the new rules for beam powers.

Dom fielded his Dark Angels army, led by Master Belial, 2 squads of Assault Terminators (thunder hammer, storm shield), 1 Dark Angels Veteran Squad (meltaguns) in Drop Pod, 1 Dark Angels Tactical Squad (plasma gun) in Drop Pod, 1 squadron of 3 Ravenwing Land Speeder Typhoons, 1 Land Raider and 1 Land Raider Crusader.

I'm not going to give a blow-by-blow batrep, but just to share my thoughts on the new game (and it felt like a new game too).

1. Psychic Phase is not so scary after all ...
There was a lot of noise about the new Psychic Phase, and honestly, I think it's really more hype than anything else. My Thousand Sons army can generate 10+d6 Warp Charge per turn. While it's not as uber-extreme as you can take it, it certainly is fairly above average. On top of that, with sorcerers like Ahriman and the Lord of Change, plus free Tzeentch Primaris for the Thousand Sons sorcerers, my psychic power list was pretty long. And as I mentioned, I got lucky with my rolls, getting gems like Iron Arm and Invisibility.

However, casting powers is now not as predictable. Combined with abysmal Warp Charge rolls (I think the highest I rolled was 3), I had 11-13 power dice to play with when all my psykers were still alive. Still looks decent right? Well, the reality is that master sorcerer Ahriman hogged ALL of my Psychic Phases. Casting Prescience, Iron Arm and Invisibility on himself and his squad pretty much sucked up all the power dice I had. Every turn. All the other sorcerers just watched and lent their Mastery Levels to the dice pool. All those millennia of psychic training gone to waste ...

So rest assured that except for some really purpose-designed psychic armies, the Psychic Phase is not as scary as it sounds. In fact, I really like that it neatly streamlines all psychic activity into its very own part of each turn. Having said that, there are a couple of scary things with this psychic thing ...

2. Invisibility IS scary!
I know much have been written about the new Invisibility. But until I actually tried it out I didn't quite appreciate how amazingly scary it is. At 2 Warp Charges, you need at least 5 dice ro reliably cast it. But allowing only Snap Shots and 6's to hit in close combat against Invisible units means you have units that are extremely hard to kill. Ahriman and his squad were charged by thunder-hammer-storm-shield Assault Terminators, losing only only 2 Rubricae while wiping out the Termies. And the 2 turns that I failed my Invisibility rolls were enough to wipe out Ahriman's squad by shooting and assault, leaving Ahriman alone in a challenge against a Deathwing veteran sergeant.

3. Perils of the Warp IS scary ...
Ahriman actually suffered Perils of the Warp and rolled a '1' on the table. Luckily he passed his Leadership Test, and just lost 1 wound to it. Had he failed, he would have been sucked into the Warp, and perhaps taking some of his squad with him too!

4. I need to go back to Flying Monstrous Creature (FMC) school
My expensive Lord of Change, the great Lord Ka'Kaa, was one scary FMC with one lesser and two greater rewards and also a Mastery Level 3 Tzeentch greater daemon. But with some subtle changes in 7th Ed, I only managed to use him in some very passive roles. He did contribute 3 Warp Charges every turn. He took out 1 hull point from a Land Speeder. He achieved 1 tactical objective. That's it. I guess he didn't do too badly. But compared to his fearsome deeds of old, it didn't seem like much. I'll need to relearn how to use him more effectively next time.

5. Light skimmers die slightly easier now
I love light skimmers like Land Speeders and Vypers. In 6th Ed, my squadron of 3 Vypers or 3 Land Speeders tend to survive battles because the 5+ jink combined with 6 hull points per squadron is always better than it looks. But now, you'd have to make the choice - Snap Fire next turn, or jink? Not always a straight-forward decision.

6. The Heldrake nerfed? Nahhhh ...
There was also a lot of whining about the new FAQ limiting the Heldrake's arc of fire. I frankly did not see the problem at all. This mean flying dude is still a mean flying dude, frying all kinds of loyalist targets almost every turn. Still love it! Still a scary flyer!

7. Tactical Objectives makes it an entirely new game.
And this is no exaggeration. Most players have been trained through countless battles and numerous editions to focus on making sure objectives are achieved before the game ends. This usually ends up in games that typically see shooty armies waiting for killy armies to come to them, or some variation thereof. And a lot of grabbing objectives at the very last minute.

With Tactical Objectives, your army really needs to be flexible. Mobiliy becomes extremely important. The bulk of your forces might be in one corner, just when all the objectives you need to achieve are in another, etc. I'd guess that armies with only one battle plan, or one style of play, would suffer greatly. You really need to have an expanded playbook to handle all kinds of situations.

Tactical Objectives really emphasizes manouver and positioning. It changes how yo
u use your units. In the game I played, my Defiler only fired once at the very last turn. Before that he was too busy achieving objectives. Balancing holding onto a single objective, while at the same time being ready to support other units or grab another objective, all makes for some really interesting tactical challenges.

I find it pretty awesome. Though I must admit there was a point it got a bit too random.

At the very last turn, I was already losing the game. In fact, I thought it was already lost. Both armies were battered. The Dark Angels only had Belial, 4 Termies, an immobilized Land Raider Crusader and 2 Drop Pods left. I was down to Ahriman, Lord Ka'Kaa, 10 Horrors, the Defiler and the Predator. The last Tactical Objective card I drew gives me d3 Victory Points if I controlled at least 3 objective markers. At that point Dom had 9VPs to my 7. Controlling the 3 objective markers was easy enough with the Horrors, the Defiler and Lord Ka'Kaa. I need to roll a 3 or 4 to draw the game, and a 5+ to win. So I rolled the dice. And '5' came up.

While I do feel bad for Dom for snatching the win by ONE lucky dice roll, we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It was simply a fun game. Even my Aspiring Sorcerer that became a Spawn enjoyed it!

Looking forward to more!