A straw house with wolves at the door. They'll Huff and Puff.

It's been a while since I've updated anything. I've been lazy also playing Warmachine and by generally not been building many models.

Now 6th Ed is in full swing things are hotting up. And I am now trying to get my stuff together for Warpcon 2013.

My three 6th Ed tourneys have been rough.

One (Moocon 7) was a 6 Leman Russ list that did okay, I had a lot of pie plates. I was doing great until Deamons (Donal Caroll) in the final round (table 3), they are bent.

All the Leman Russ!

 The second (Gaelcon, one hell of a 4 day weekend) was a Guard blob with Ork Bikers,  that did well too, until the final round (table 3) oh and did I mention it was Deamons and played by Donal and yes, bent.

Bikes n' Boyz

The 3rd (Moocon 8) was basically my 5th Ed list. And it turns out Mech,  doesn't work... It wasn't Deamons this time I just got done, Necrons hard counter AV 12.

Mech looks great, but it isn't 

The things that I have noticed from Gaelcon and games against others in 6th Ed is that:

• 6th Ed is about scoring, you need to be able to take and hold objectives quickly and reliably.
• Armour is a lot weaker, glances will kill you.
• Strength 6/7 is now king, you can glance and glance and glance with all the guns and the armour is gone.
• First Blood is currently so heavily weighted that getting it can near guarantee you a win on secondary.
• Blobs are back, infantry is once again a force that is what you need and from a purely Guard perspective it hits a lot of these points.

Infantry blobs are:

• Scoring
• Str 7-9  Autocannons/Lascannons
• Hard to kill in a turn (first blood)
• Not armour

Now what do they lack? Melee strength?  That can be overcome by volume of hits.

Shooting ability? This can be augmented by including Autocannons and something 6th Ed has brought to the fore, psykers, most specifically allied ones.

Which brings me on to what this is all about, the inclusion of pets, allies, puppies. Space Wolves.

The divination powers are perfect to bolster what is statically average guardsmen and make them better. Who has divination? Rune Priests,  2 of them at 100pts each.

Lacking an assault unit? Have some Grey Hunters.

I'm going to hopefully exploring this alliance over the coming weeks as well as talking about a fair few other things. My 40K passion is back with a vengeance and I want to get stuff done and who knows, maybe win something aside from best painted although I think those were prizes for "painted" not necessarily "best".

Moocon a Summary

I had a great time, it certainly allowed me to push through my hangover early on. I had 2 stupid losses that could have been draws or even wins. The first game was a wipe and I wasn't prepared, I guess never using the blob before contributed.

Part of the issue was the FoC restrictions and my lack of firepower, with 3 long ranged Str7+ weapons being all I had. Also being unable to take loads of power weapons on the infantry and other goodies left me with a take on some things list but it wasn't strong.

Guard really excel at 1500 points+ with lots of mobility and armour to hide those fragile human bodies behind.

I leant a lot about how the game plays and seeing how I've been playing for about 2 months now I've come a long way back into the hobby and with my Xmas gifts from Me to Me, I think I should be bringing it at Moocon and Knowing how to bring the Thunder.

The list is going to get revised but lets just assume there will be so many tanks to roll on and crush things, hard.

Christmas Presents!

Moocon, Battle 5

Game 5
Grey Knights, Spearhead, Annihilation (kill points)

Having learnt from my other games with the blobs I decided that now was the time to blob up and not give away points there, so I deployed up in the corner blob shield and all and sat and waited for the shiny metal marines.

Deployment

Blob shielding everything.

The only thread to me was a Psyrifleman dread, thankfully I nailed that early on with the Hydra and my 1 Lascannon and the Sniper rifle actually managed to Shake it!

The Knights have to move if they want to win.

I would have won were it not for my stupidity, I tried to suicided in my vets moving flat out and missing out on shooting, they got nailed and gave away 2 kill points.

Marbo rocked up and checked his charge, scattered 12 and went down, this was my 3rd point.

Having Killed his dread and Razor back I was on for a win if I hadn't been so stupid, I'm kicking myself now.

1 Assault marine, or whatever they are for Grey Knights managed to live after my sustained mortar fire, and he managed to knock off the Hydra turret, the only thing that might have been able to hit it in the rear corner.

It should have been a draw or even a win for me I should have just brought the vets on and hidden, maybe popped something with the Vendetta, but I did out range him, oh well.

Moocon, Battle 4

Game 4

Imperial Guard, Dawn of War, Seize Ground

Guardsmen! The only other guard player in the tourney, another blob,this time with conscripts as well and Straken, he seems good.

We deployed up and got started, in hindsight I should have deployed everything in a big line across the board and just sat there and shot everything at him. I didn't and foolishly spent turns moving on.

The Blob moves on.

My blob moves on too.

The vets  and Marbo get in behind.

The game was pretty much as case of move ans shoot a bit, in the end I was contesting the mid objective, he held his but his Marbo arrived and wiped my defence of mine resulting in a loss, which I'm gutted about because my fire-power should have won out, but I live and learn.

Moocon, Battle 3

Game 3

Space Wolves, Pitched Battle, Capture and Control

Game 3 was a simple one, hold my own objective and try and take the enemies.

I decided to go for a 10 man squad on my objective, spread out to prevent wolf scouts, with a 40 man shield who could wander up and nick the enemy objective.

Blob of 40, Mortars and Squad of 10

The Bike Wolves started out by heading for me at full speed, showing no fear the entire army opened up with all weapons, leaving 1 Rune priest alive. GO FLASH LIGHTS!

All the guard shoot, a lot

The remaining priest assaults, and combat is lost but the commissar keeps them in check and we hold the line and fight on, eventually killing the chap.

A Rhino of Wolves then heads down, gets shot up and the blob rolls forward into the fight, after 2 rounds of Combat the wolves lie dead with 12 guys still alive and kicking.

Rhino Wolves un load and the Blob gets stuck in

Whilst this is ongoing the Vets Rock up, they torch the Whirlwind with their Meltas, killing 4 of themselves in the process. and then prepare to feel the retribution from a Pack of Wolves.

Whirlwind down, Marines, angry.

The Veteran Seargeant makes it out of the combat and flees away but then Suddenly a Wild Marbo appears. One Demo Charge Later, no wolves left, 7 of them go down.

Wolf Scouts then appear but on the wrong table edge and they trash teh Hydra, but it's too little to late.

Scouts appear on the flank.

The Blob runs up with the CCS providing orders from the command Chimera, they make the run whilst the Vendetta pops the Razor back, The Vet squad gets rallies to avoid being counted  as destroyed and the objective is taken!

The final push by the blob takes the objective.

This game was a nice win and it showed how effective the blob can be with a commissar. Marbo did well and arrived at just the right time, the scouts coming from the other edge meant I had no threat from them and it was a nice win.

Moocon, Battle 2

Game 2

Tau - Dawn of War, Kill points

I wasn't expecting to face Tau really but they turned up anyway.

I deployed 1 40 man Blob on the left side in cover and another 10 man on the right.

The rest was rolling in on Turn one.

Deployment

The Tau Rocked up with 2 Devilfish/Hammerhead thing's and 5 Battle Suits, I'm not sure how the Codex is laid out but I feel that there may have been replication in this list that wasn't quite legal.

Anyway the Game was fairly simple case of me getting shot to pieces but failing to kill anything as the squads were bolstered by Gun Drones that were able to absorb any casualties.

And with Blast templates and 4 shot cannons and rocket pods, the guardsmen got screwed.

Kroot then Rocked up and out assaulted me, and I proceeded to Roll 1s each turn for moving through cover and was unable to pour fire on them due to some stupid TloS rules which I need to check on.

Game 2, a loss, nothing wholly killed but I lost a fair whack, again.

Again for this game I should have Blobbed up, sat tight and shot back as best I could, having only 1 Lascannon and the Hydra as anything resembling fire-power meant that I was struggling to kill the Armour and high armour save battle suits.

Moocon, Battle 1

Was at Moocon Yesterday and played 5 games with my 1k list.

The restrictions were harsh on the list, no duplication of pretty much anything and this of course meant you couldn't really fit in much fire-power.

I'll stick in some photos and explain the battles, where I failed and where  I felt I was just being awful.

The whole thing taught me a lot about what my army was capable of and I can only improve, so here goes!


Game 1
Grey Knights - Spearhead, Seize Ground


I started off going first, Grey Knights opted to reserve, everything. I blobbed up 3 squads and left one on my Objective. One headed to the other one on my side of table.

Inital Deployment, The blob had to go round the terrain.

The blob moved up to the Central Objectives and were preparing to defend them at all costs, but then the Stormraven showed up, they got shot a lot.

Blob Vs Grey Knights, with Coteaz and an Inquisitor.

Holding the Home Objective

Holding the Other Home Objective.

After Breaking the Blob the Grey Knights got back in and hid, the Veterans arrived and prepared to Ice an inquisitor, they failed, getting executed for their troubles.

Vets go in for a Suicide attack. They succeed, with the Suicide.

The Dread Knight Rocked up and battered theVendetta then Proceeded to run down and clear the squad off my Objective.


 The Vindicare Turned up and wiped out the main guys holding the objective.

The Vindicare appears and kills everything.

 I managed to immobilise the storm Raven but was overrun but the guys on foot in the end and got wiped off the table, an Awful start for me.

Marbo eventually turned up but failed to have much of an impact.

Game 1, total loss.

I used my blob badly, I should have just sat still and let him come to me, dashed out at the last minute and gone for the captures, he only had 2 troop choices and I reckon I could have done better if I hadn't strolled out and let my self be close assaulted with no cover, it was a fun game but a disappointing start.

Moocon List!

Heres the List for Moocon, it's a bit odd but should be fun to play and should be able to deal with most things, I hope.

This is scheduled to Auto Post, I hope that works!

1000 Pts  -   Imperial Guard Army

HQ
Company Command Squad 
Close Combat Weapon; Meltagun (x4); Frag Grenades; Flak Armour
     Company Commander
          Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Flak
          Armour; Refractor Field; Senior Officer

Chimera
          #Smoke Launchers; #Searchlight; Multi-laser; Hull Heavy Bolter


Elites
Guardsman Marbo
     Envenomed Blade; Ripper Pistol; Demolition Charge; Frag Grenades; Melta
     Bombs; Flak Armour


Troops
Infantry Platoon:
Platoon Command Squad 
          Close Combat Weapon; Lasgun (x1); Sniper Rifle (x1); Frag Grenades;
          Flak Armour
Platoon Commander @ [10] Pts
               Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades;
               Flak Armour; Junior Officer
Heavy Weapon Team @ [30] Pts
               Lascannon; Close Combat Weapon; Lasgun; Frag Grenades

Infantry Squad 1       
Close Combat Weapon; Lasguns (x6); Grenade Launcher; Frag Grenades;
          Flak Armour
Sergeant
               Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades;
               Flak Armour
 Heavy Weapon Team
              Missile Launcher; Close Combat Weapon; Lasgun; Frag Grenades

Infantry Squad 2
          Close Combat Weapon; Lasguns (x8); Meltagun; Frag Grenades; Krak
          Grenades; Flak Armour
Sergeant
               Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades;
               Flak Armour

Infantry Squad 3
          Close Combat Weapon; Lasguns (x7); Frag Grenades; Flak Armour
Sergeant
               Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades;
               Flak Armour
Heavy Weapon Team
               Heavy Bolter; Close Combat Weapon; Lasgun; Frag Grenades

Infantry Squad 4
          Close Combat Weapon; Lasguns (x8); Flamer; Frag Grenades; Flak Armour
Sergeant
               Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades;
               Melta Bombs; Flak Armour
Commissar 
               Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades;
               Flak Armour

Infantry Squad 5
          Close Combat Weapon; Lasguns (x6); Plasma Gun; Frag Grenades; Flak
          Armour
Sergeant
               Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades;
               Flak Armour
 Heavy Weapon Team
               Autocannon; Close Combat Weapon; Lasgun; Frag Grenades

 Heavy Weapon Squad 
    Commander: Platoon Command Squad; Mortar (x3); Close Combat Weapon; Lasgun
     (x3); Frag Grenades; Flak Armour


Veteran Squad:
     Close Combat Weapon; Lasgun (x6); Meltagun (x3); Frag Grenades; Krak
     Grenades; Flak Armour
Veteran Sergeant
          Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Flak
          Armour


Fast Attack
Vendetta Gunship
     #Searchlight; #Extra Armour; TL Lascannon; TL Lascannon (x2)


Heavy Support
Hydra Flak Tank
     #Searchlight; #Smoke Launchers; 2 Twin-linked Hydra Autocannon; Hull Heavy
     Bolter; Auto-targeting System



Total Army Cost: 1000


I havent published all the point costs as it's not really allowed, but it costs 1k total, do the maths!