Blood Angels / Green Biker Team Tourney part 2

Last weekend was the first test run of the team army.

I got the details from Dragon's Lair on the team tourney - basically you each build your own army with 1500 points. Both players must use different armies and no sharing special rules between them (i.e., if you have a banner that gives all friendly units within 12" a re-roll of morale checks, your ally doesn't get to benefit).

I ran a loaded death company, lemartes, a death dreadnought in drop pod, 2 vindicators, 2 flying assault squads, and librarian HQ. Adam tuned his bike list down to 1500 but kept the basic principles.

Our buddy John happily agreed to playtest against us - he ran Blood Angels / Space Marines (technically the same as us). His BA army had 2 furiosos, Mephiston, 2 Baal Predators, 1 standard Predator with las sponsons, 2 assault squads in rhinos. He asked me to write up a Space Marine list for him, so I cooked him up a standard Vulkan list (lots and lots of heavy flamers and multi-meltas).

We were torn apart.

I calculated that with our speed and mobility, we should be able to pick apart the vehicles on the edge of his weak flank. That didn't go so hot. Adam had some really bad rolls and John's tanks kept rolling. I opted to hold my jump packers in reserve. Normally I would have deployed the assault squads and death company in the heart of John's army, but he had the 2 dreadnoughts, mephiston, and 5 thunderhammer termies for counter assault. Basically, he prevented me from chopping his back lines while Adam hit the flank.

The death company only killed one squad. One of my assault squads was killed due to a mishap while deep striking. Everything else I had was blown away. John rolled us pretty hard but we had a good time regardless.

Afterward, Adam and I talked about what went wrong and what needed to be fixed. John's list was mechanized - everything had either a drop pod or transport to move it along. He also took a lot of vehicles in a 3000 point list (2 Baal preds, 1 standard pred, 2 dreadnoughts, 1 land raider, 2 speeders, 2 rhinos, 2 drop pods). For those of you counting that's 12. We were definitely not equipped to handle 12 vehicles.

Adam also admitted that his bike army doesn't do so hot at smaller point values. He's playing Dark Eldar at the tournament, mainly for their strong anti-vehicle weapons and strong assault units. His Wyches are devastating in close combat, a big plus since I imagine lots of people will be running Blood Angels (mostly assault).

I changed my list to go fully mechanized and also maximized the number of tanks I can take.

HQ - librarian

Troop

- 2 x Assault Squads (power weapon)

- 2 x Razorbacks (heavy bolter)

- 2 x Assault Squads (5, flamer, power weapon)

- 2 x Razorbacks (assault cannon)

Fast Attack

- 3 x Baal predators, heavy bolters

Heavy

- 2 standard predators with heavy bolter sponsons

- 1 vindicator

The plan is this: Adam flies around and blows up vehicles, performs counter-assault. I drive around and shoot a wall of lead at whatever is still standing, capture objectives with fast razorbacks.

Should be a fun couple of games!

Blood Angels / Green Biker Team Tourney

I played some matches with Adam this weekend in prep for the 40k doubles tournament in May at Dragon's Lair. His army is pretty well fixed - the bikes are very effective against any opponent. We agreed that since BA are the heavy assault army, I should focus on that solely. To that end, I am assembling jump pack marines like crazy. The exact point size is not known at this time, but we suspect 1750-2000 per player.

Bike Army - 2000 points

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HQ - Kor'Sarro Khan, on bike

HQ - Command Squad (bikes, storm shield, power fist, power sword x 2, apothecary, company champ, company standard)

Troop - Space Marine Bike Squad (5 man, plasma gun, power fist, multi-melta attack bike)

Troop - Space Marine Bike Squad (5 man, plasma gun, power fist, multi-melta attack bike)

Troop - Space Marine Bike Squad (5 man, plasma gun, power fist, multi-melta attack bike)

Troop - Space Marine Bike Squad (5 man, plasma gun, power fist, multi-melta attack bike)

Fast Attack - Land Speeder Squadron (heavy bolters, typhoon missile launchers)

Fast Attack - Attack Bike Squad (heavy bolters x 3)

Fast Attack - Attack Bike Squad (heavy bolters x 3)

Heavy Support - Whirlwind

Heavy Support - Predator (autocannon, heavy bolters)

Heavy Support - Predator (autocannon, heavy bolters)

Pros: versatile, fast, lots of redundancy

Cons: Squad sizes are small

If Adam has to drop down to 1750, we could drop the command squad to make room. They are a little unnecessary with all the assault troops I will be taking.

I'm a little undecided for my share of the team army list. Here's my thoughts on 1500 points:

Blood Angels - 1500 points "flying fists"

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HQ - Astorath the Grim

Troop - Assault Marines (10 men, power fist)

Troop - Assault Marines (8 men, power fist)

Troop - Assault Marines (8 men, power fist)

Troop - Assault Marines (8 men, power fist)

Troop - Death Company (5 men, jump packs, power fist x 4, power weapon)

Troop - Death Company Dreadnought (drop pod)

Elite - Sanguinary Priest (jump pack)

Lots of lots of power fists, the universal 'fix it': crushes indiscriminately. Astorath gives my assault squads a good chance to get red thirst for extra assault punch and also whips up the death company into a frenzy. I'm planning on keeping the blood fists on the dreadnought for anti-vehicular goodness.

To get up to 1750, here are my thoughts:

1) Another Sanguinary Priest and Librarian Dreadnought - would provide some protection against psychic powers, also spreads around the sanguinary priest goodness.

2) Swiss-army knife Vanguard Squad - I saw these used with devastating effectiveness this weekend. The Vanguard marines assaulted off the deepstrike into two different vehicles - one got meltabomb-ed into scrap, the other power-fisted. Very scary, especially if we come across a mechanized imperial guard list with a few tanks. Could punch a nice hole in the armor and stick around to chop up the guardsmen.

3) Sanguinor - pricey. I'd have to drop a power fist from the death company, but the Sanguinor adds some nice synergy with the rest of the army with the +1 attack to all friendly units around him. With the large amount of assault troops I'm fielding, he is an attractive option.

4) Extra Death Company and Extra Assault Marines - this choice will increase the DC up to 8 and flesh out the rest of the assault squads to 10 men apiece. More bodies means more punishment before they die. Resiliency and redundancy are pretty handy.

We'll see how playtesting goes this upcoming weekend. For now, it's back to the assembly line.

Blood Angels Have Landed

Had a nice surprise when I got back from South Texas - the Blood Angels sets I ordered arrived in a big ol' box from The War Store.
So far I've put together the Sanguinary Guard and Baal Tank and a few Death Company. The level of detail on these new kits is fantastic, the Death Company especially.
So, look for updates on the new army soon. I hope to have a 2000 point army painted by July to take to the farm.

Biker Army is Painted!

Whew! My bud Adam asked me to paint his bike army a year ago - the job was on hiatus for a while, but I finished it just this past week.

Jade Bikes

As this is the first army I've fully painted, I learned a few things along the road. First, it took a looooot longer than I first thought it would. Roughly estimated, I would say the army took around 30-40 hours to paint. Maybe I'm just slow, but that's way more time than I first figured (10 hours or so). The captain alone took 2.5 hours.
Second, when I first agreed to paint the army, I shouldn't have allowed 'updates'. Adam is a good guy, but he wanted to change some of the army after the hiatus. Understandable, but I should have negotiated more compensation. Third, it may be faster painting the army assembly-line style, but it gets boring quick. I learned to mix-up my painting schedule; do a biker squad one week, work on the vehicles the next, etc.

In the future, I won't take an entire army home with me to paint; instead, I'll negotiate for individual characters or a single squad at a time. Also, having that many models around my kids is hazardous for their health (the models I mean). I had to fix about 3 or 4 minor breaks due to transport hazards and..."play time".

Anyway, if you're in Austin and run in the 40k circles, look up my bud Adam at Battleforge Games or Dragon's Lair - he'll be the one with the rockin' jade bikers.

Magnetizing Land Raider Crusader Sponsons

Happy Easter, everybody!

Here's an older magnet project I did last year, just found the pics on my photobucket account.

The Crusader/Redeemer Land Raider kit comes with two weapon options for the side sponsons. Of course, this requires some magnetization to get the most bang for your buck.

This was a pretty simple magnet job - drill two holes in the top of the sponson mount and glue magnets flush. The top brace usually is glued at the top of the mount - instead, drill holes and glue magnets to match the sponson mount. Glue the bottom brace as normal.

The guns are designed to attach to the central pivot - leave this unglued. When you want to swap weapons, remove the magnetized top brace, slide out the pivot, attach the new gun, and replace.

I also magnetized the side shield - you only get one shield for each side, so each gun needs a magnet to support them.

Viola!

Crusader Sponson Pics

Soon to come: Finished bike army pics (whew), and Baal Tank magnetization!