'Ard Boyz Semi-Final Recap

Saturday Aug 8th marked the semi-finals of this years 'Ard boyz. I played at Phenoix games in Kitchener and had a blast! There was 20 people that showed up to duke it out for the right to represent Canada at the finals in Chicago Sept 19th. I took my Dark Angels (RavenDeathwing). Here's what the army looked like (things were shifted to allow for taking advantage of wound allocation):

HQ
Belial with LC
Sammuel on Jet Bike

Elites
Belials Terminator Squad with Standard, Medic, 3 LC, 2 TH/SS and a Cyclone
5 x Grey Knight Terminators with a psycannon and psychic hood

Troops
Terminator Squad with Assault Cannon and Chainfist
Terminator Squad with Heavy Flamer, Chainfist x2, LC
Terminator Squad with Heavy Flamer, Chainfist x2, LC
Terminator Squad with Heavy Flamer, Chainfist x2, TH/SS
Sammuels Ravenwing Attack Squad 6 bikes with Medic, 2 Meltaguns, Powerfist and Attack bike with Multimelta
Ravenwing Attack Squad with 6 Bikes, 2 Meltaguns, Powerfist and Attack bike with Multimelta

Game 1 vs Necrons:
The Necron list looks strangely light for 2500 pts and consisted of the Night Bringer, Lord with Orb (and other crap), 6 Immortals, 3 Wraiths, 3 squads of 15 warriors, 6 destroyers, 2 tomb spiders, 8 scrabs and a monolith. He had first turn so I scouted closer and then he moved closer still attacking my one bike squad with scarbs. I was in CC with the lord turn 2 and knocked him and his unit and another unit down and proceeded to escort the broken unit off the board while picking apart the rest of the army slowly. The biggest highlight for him was when the monolith arrived and dropped both attack bikes with one of its ordance attacks. The end result was I phased him out turn 5 and had achieved all other bonus points to get a grand total of 24 to start! So needless to say I was feeling pretty good about myself.

Game 2 vs CSM
The list was a double lash list with sorcer, DP, Beserkers in Land Raider, Thousand sons in Rhino, 2 CSM units in Rhino (2 plasma, 2 melta), Chosen in Rhino (2 flamer, 2 melta), 3 Oblits, and a Vindy. It was also a dawn of war msn. I won the roll to go first and deployed at the half way point. He said everything was coming in turn 1. I scout moved and then turbo boosted my bikes into a line along his table edge, my Deathwing assaulting terminators deepstruck to fill the holes. A bad roll for the Comd Squad prevented me from having an unbroken line across his table edge. End result was that he was able to get a wedge into the middle of my line and then a rhino had it's combi-bolter shot off as it squished an attack bike on one flank allowing the rest of his army to roll in as a tight block. Try as I might my re-enforcements would only come in piece meal and the way I was spread out meant I spent a long time moving to get into a position where I could fit. To his credit my opponent was able to keep my off balance and was able to chew up my units a little at a time. End result was I got tabled and didn't get any points.

Game 3 vs CSM
I have never seen a list that appeared to be so under powered and then prove to be so deadly. He had 2 DP with wings, a Greater Demon, 3 Dreads with extra CCW, 4 squads of 10 lesser demons and 6 CSM squads with twin melta or plasma in rhinos. I won the roll to go first and my bike moved around to try and get melta shots on his dreads and 2 rhinos who were on the table. I immobilzed one and stunned the other. I also managed to take out a rhino. Then all of his demons showed up and my bikes all dissappeared!! He continued to take major bites out of the terminators with the DPs and Dreads while soaking up the casuatlies with the lesser demons. On the 4th turn his remaining 4 rhinos loaded with troops showed up just in time to clean up the remaining few terminators (although he really didn't need there help). End result was I got tabled again but had a blast!

So I ended up 13th out of 20, which isn't great but I'm already looking forward to next year. I'm looking at taking something like this all painted up as pre-heresy Imperial Fists (although with the new Space Wolf book coming in Oct, this could change rather quickly).

HQ
Vulkan (will be fistafied!)
Lysander

Elites
5 TH/SS Termies
5 TH/SS Termies

Troops
4 tactical squads with Meltagun and Multimelta in Rhinos

Fast Attack
3 Land Speeders with Hvy Flamer and Multimelta

Hvy Support
2 Land Raiders with Multimeltas

total 2490 pts

One of the options I'm looking at dropping 2 of the speeders for a Drop Pod mounted Dread nought with Multimelta and Hvy Flamer. I'd love to hear what you guys think. I'm hoping to get the coverage of the GD in Toronto up soon by knee surgery is slowing me down a fair amount. I will post a picture of my test models for the Imperials Fist once I get that far, but I can hear the Thunderhawk calling my name so will see what is nexted after the Master of the Ravenwing is all done (and I will post pictures of that).

'Ard Boyz Qualifier recap

Saturday July 11 marked the beginning of this years 'Ard boyz. I played a qualifying round at the Wizards Tower in Napean and had a blast! There was 10 people that showed up to duke it out for the right to represent Ottawa at the semi-finals in Kitchener August 8th. I ended up taking my Dark Angels (RavenDeathwing). Here's what the army looked like:

HQ
Belial with LC
Sammuel on Jet Bike

Elites
Belials Terminator Squad with Standard, Medic, 3 LC, 2 TH/SS and a Cyclone
5 x Grey Knight Terminators with a psycannon and psychic hood

Troops
Terminator Squad with Assault Cannon and Chainfist
Terminator Squad with Heavy Flamer, Chainfist, LC
Terminator Squad with Heavy Flamer, Chainfist, LC
Terminator Squad with Heavy Flamer, Chainfist, TH/SS
Sammuels Ravenwing Attack Squad 6 bikes with Medic, 2 Meltaguns, Plasma pistol, Powerfist and Meltabombs, Attack bike with Multimelta
Ravenwing Attack Squad with 6 Bikes, 2 Meltaguns, Power weapon and Meltabombs, Attack bike with Multimelta

Round 1 vs John and his Iron Hands
John had 6 full tactical squads with razerbacks, 3 full devastator squads and a command squad. I won the roll for first turn and took it. I deployed one Ravenwing squad and Sammuel behind cover on one side of the board. John deployed his army along the entire length of his table edge. I scout moved to within 12" and he failed to win the Inituative. From there on I was able to bring down my Terminators and roll him up. We played the full 6 turns and at the end I had 2 Objectives and more kill points, plus 3 of the other bonus points for a total of 23 Battle points. Not a bad start!

Round 2 vs Traitor Guard
There was only 2 tanks and over 200+ infantry in this army. I again won the roll to go first and did. I deployed both Ravenwing squads and Sammuel in the centre of the board behind cover. The guard decided not to deploy. I turbo boost across for scout and then at the start of my turn 3 Terminator squads came down. I ran them after moving my bikes and completely covered his table edge. Initially the ruling was that everything that wasn't outflanking was dead, but we discussed and I said that if he tank shocked then he would be able to move onto the board behind the tanks. He did and was able to get 2 tanks, 2 veteran squads with 3 plasmaguns each, 2 Pl Comd Squads with 4 flamers and his Coy Comd Squad. He managed to kill 3 bikes and 2 Terminators. They wiped him out. Marbo and his outflanking rough riders were each able to kill a unit of terminators before they were wiped out. I ended up getting full 24 points!

Round 3 vs Will Paul and his Orks
Will was running 4 Battle wagons with Thruaka, Mad Doc, Nobz in Mega armour, 20 Ard Boyz, 15 Burnaz, 20 Tank hunters, 15 Commandos with 2 Burnaz and Snikrot and 3 Def copters. He won the roll to go first and chose to do so. I however, won the roll to see who got to move first for scout moves. All the bikes raced to my flank with the intention of killing the Battle Wagon loaded with Burnaz. I made sure that I was far enough away that I wouldn't get flamed first turn. After a hard fought battle where my dice were hot (the Assault Cannon armed Terminator killed 2 Battle wagons (one on the front armour)) I managed to table Will and get another bonus point for a total of 21 Battle points.

I ended the tournament in first place with a total of 68 out of a potential 72 Battle points. So I'm heading to Kitchener for the Semi-finals against all the other winners on 8 August, wish me luck!

Legio Cybernetica vs Task Force Redemption

+++++CLASSIFIED INNER CIRCLE ONLY+++++
Report of Fallen on Falintime VI, 2 x Fallen have constructed an army of thinking machine called the "Legio Cybernetica". Elements of 1st and 2nd Company lead by Capt Belial and Interrogator-Chaplain Boreas. Prime Objective: The Fallen must be captured and force to repent at all costs! Secondary Objective: The distruction of all the heretical machines.
+++++REPORT ENDS+++++

This was a Deathwing (played by Paul Levy) vs RavenDeathwing. This was the final game at King Con II (Kingston's annual gaming convention), thanks again to the organizers for doing such a great job!!

My army list was:

HQ
Belieal with Lightning claws

Interrogator-Chaplain in Termy armour

Troops
Belial Comd Squad with 3 Lighting Claws, 2 x TH/SS with Cyclone, Standard and Apothocary (nasty unit, 15 LC attacks each and rerolling and wound to hit plus Belials 5 lightning claw and the Chappies 4 Power weapon attacks, coupled with 8 TH attacks ouch!)

2 x Termy squads with Assault cannon, Chain fist one squad with a TH/SS

Termy squad with Hvy Flamer, Chain fist and lightning claw

Termy squad with Hvy Flamer, Chain fist and lightning claw

Fast Atk
Ravenwing Atk Sqn with 6 bikes and 2 meltaguns, Atk bike with Multimelta, Sgt with PF, Meltabombs and Plasma Pistol

Paul's Deathwing

HQ
Belial with Lighting Claws

Elites
2 x Dreadnoughts with Lascannon and Missile Launcher

Troops
3 x Terminator Squads with Assault cannon and Chain fist
1 x Terminator squads with Hvy Flamer and Chain fist
1 x Terminator Squad with Cyclone Missile Launcher
1 x Terminator Squad with TH/SS and Cyclone Missile Launcher

We were playing a normal game with the 12" deployment zone and each of us having an objective in our deployment zones. The secondary objective was one of the models or squads in the army was carrying crypto codes and by killing that model you got the codes. Paul gave the codes to the terminator squad he positioned on his objective and I gave mine to the Comd squad. Paul won the role for first turn and deployed across the length of the board.

Given his deployment I wanted to use the Ravenwing to have the majority of my army fighting the smallest amount of his army. With both the objectives on my left flank, I focused there with all the bikes.

With the latest FAQ for the main rule book, it is now ok for bikes with the scout special rule to turbo boost for their scout move. The Ravenwing zoomed across the table using the terrain to mask their movements as much as possible. I tried to steal the initiative but failed miserably with a 1. So the game commenced!

Legio Turn 1
As expected the Legio's wasn't happy about these bikers sneaking around on their flanks, so they executed assault pattern bravo kill them all and moved into position to take out as many bikers as possible. They were successful in only killing 2 bikes but those bikes were the Sgt and a meltagun.

TFR Turn 1
That wasn't enough and the bikes now had visual confirmation of the Fallen. Time to call in the Deathwing. I deep struck 3 full squads (2 x Hvy flamer squads and the Comd Squad with Belial and Boreas). I made sure to position them so that the 2 Hvy Flamer squads would be be charged and allowed my Comd Squad to charge next turn. My remaining bikes swung around to engage the Dreadnought with their melta weapons with the atk bike's multimelta turning the Dread into slag. The the combined fire of 3 squads was enough to take down several of the blasphemis machines.

After TFR shooting

Legio Turn 2
The infernal machines began marching forward towards TFR. Several of the units who were woefully out of position. Legio Commander advanced with his squad of TH/SS while 2 other units of Cybernetic monstosities moved to trap TFR in the center. One of the inital Legio squads attacked the closest TFR squad killing 2 but losing 3 of their own in the process.

TFR Turn 2
Another terminator squad zeroed in on the homing beacons produced by the bikes and teleported in to provide supporting fire. The bikes repositioned to deal with one of the flanking squads and brought a TFR Hvy Flamer squad with them. Belial yelled a war cry and the Comd Squad rushed forward into the Legio's TH/SS squad lead by the mad tinkerer. In the ensueing hand to hand both Belials died along with the entire TH/SS unit leaving Boreas directing the battle on behalf of TFR.


Legio Turn 3
With the right flank of the Legio destroyed the Cognitor engines attempted to stop the crushing advance of TFR. The remaining Dreadnought advanced towards the biggest concentration of enemies killing one with his lascannon. The remaining Legio units advanced towards the same concentration. Bother Lazarus one of the Hvy Flamer terminators continued to fight on despite losing the rest of his squad in combat.

TFR Turn 3
The bikes of the Ravenwing rush forward again to take down the remaining Dreadnought. They are sucessful and the massive killing monstrocity suffers a violent explosion. Boreas leading the Comd Squad charges across the open plain and starts ripping apart another unit of blasted machines. The charge is so devistating it wipes out the entire squad.

Legio Turn 4
With the loss of all command the machines continue to execute their last programs and continue advancing on the highest concentration of enemy. The are to far for hand to hand and their shooting is ineffective.

TFR Turn 4
Boreas leads the Comd Squad on another decimating charge, eliminating all of the cursed machines and ensuring the capture of both Fallen.

I had a blast playing this game, Paul was fantastic and with a different deployment this would have been a very different game. I hope I get the chance to play against him in the future.

+++++CLASSIFIED INNER CIRCLE ONLY+++++
2 x Fallen recovered. Interrogation commenced. Capt Belial, expected to make recovery.
+++++REPORT ENDS+++++.

Paul Levy's Legio Cynbernetica

This is Paul Levy's fully converted Legio Cybernetica, counting it as Deathwing. I was amazed at the conversion work and how he managed to find some many of these old models. The body is the old Epic scale Knight Paladin with the power fist from the old 2nd ed Ork power klaw. The Dreadnoughts are old school first ed metal ones. I was lucky enough to play against Paul in the final round of King Con II and had a great time. That battle report will be the next post, hope you enjoy the army!

Legio Cybernetica on it's display board

Belial in a new form

Terminator Squad with Assault Cannon

Terminator Squad with Assault Cannon

Terminator Squad with Cyclone Missile Launcher

Terminator Squad with Assault Cannon and
Dreadnought with Lascannon and Missile Launcher

Assault Terminator Squad with Thunder Hammers/Storm Shields and Cyclone
in the back another Dreadnought with Lascannon and Missile Launcher

Stay tuned for a Battle report between the Legio Cybernetica and Task Force Redemption (Deathwing vs RavenDeathwing)!!

Hunt for the Fallen

+++++CLASSIFIED INNER CIRCLE ONLY+++++
Report of Fallen on Vantanor IV, 2 x Fallen with Psychic powers masquerading as Librarians. Elements of 1st and 2nd Company lead by Capt Belial and Interrogator-Chaplain Boreas. The must be captured and force to repent at all costs!
+++++REPORT ENDS+++++

So the was a Marine on Marine game between JO and I. He was playing standard Marines (he's going to post his army list) and I played Deathwing with a little Ravenwing. My army list was:

HQ
Belieal with Lightning claws

Interrogator-Chaplain in Termy armour

Troops
Belial Comd Squad with 5 x TH/SS with Cyclone, Standard and Apothocary (nasty unit, 3 attacks each and rerolling to hit plus Belials 5 lightning claw and the Chappies 4 Power weapon attacks, ouch!) ***Note: We used rules for TH/SS as they appear in Codex DA to ensure no one felt they were getting an advantage/disadvantage.

2 x Termy squads with Assault cannon, Chain fist and 1 lightning claw

Termy squad with Hvy Flamer, Chain fist and lightning claw

Termy squad with Hvy Flamer, lightning claw guy

Fast Atk
Ravenwing Atk Sqn with 6 bikes and 2 meltaguns

Total 1750 (in prep for Winter Skirmish!)

Marine Army:
Librairian - Nullzone, Gate of Infinities
Librairian - Nullzone, Vortex of Doom!
5 Grey Knight Termies (Incinerator)
10 Man Tactical - Lascannon, Plasmagun, Vet w/ Plasma Pistol, Power Fist
Rhino - Dozer blade
10 Man Tactical - Lascannon, Plasmagun, Vet w/ Plasma Pistol, Power Fist
Rhino - Dozer blade
10 Man Scout Squad - 9 Snipers, Heavy Bolter, Vet w/ Power Sword
7 Man Scout Squad - CCW/Bolt Pistols, Vet w/ Power Fist, Plasma Pistol
Dreadnought - Assault Cannon, Heavy Flamer
10 Man Assault Squad - 2 Plasma Pistols, Vet w/ Power Fist, Plasma Pistol
totally 1750
We rolled Seize Ground (5 Objectives) and Dawn of War. JO chose to deploy first and I started with 2 Termy squads on the table. Apparently Scout no longer means that you can be deployed no matter the game.

This is what the set up looked like.



We both focused on the one side of the board, as you can see, and I didn't manage to seize the initiative.

Turn 1:
JO - Nothing to report Night fighting stopped him from seeing my Termies, that and that my guys are all black, good thing.

BW - Belial, Boreas and HQ Squad teleport in running to avoid standing directly in front of Lascannon and Plasmaguns. Squad Achilles kills several Marines with Assault Cannon and Stormbolter fire.


Turn 2:
JO - Scouts with Sniper Rifles and other Fallen (read Librarian) come on. One Fallen uses Null Zone to force me reroll successful invul saves. The other uses gate of infinity to move his squad in front of my HQ Squad. Everyone rapid fires and not a single Dark Angel falls!!!

BW - The Ravenwing and another squad of Termies arrive, the final squad suffers a teleport accident, due to scattering off the table edge, and luckily they are only delayed. The newly arrived squad lead by a Fallen are hit again my Squad Achilles while the Comd Squad charges both tactical squads.

Both my characters end up being punked by PF but kill a boat load of Marines in the process and one of the Fallen. In the end I have 3 TH/SS termies left but have won the combat. However, both squads pass their morale checks and stay in the fight.

****Note: Does anyone know if when you instant kill a Character does it count as 1 Wound or the number of Wounds the character had left for combat resolution?

Turn 3
JO - Grey Knight Termies and Assaut squad arrive via deep strike, with the Dreadnought walking onto the board. The Termies reinforce the massive combat on the far left while the Assault Squads moves to attack the rear of the Dark Angels. Shooting brings down 2 bikes from one combat squad. While the other Fallen joins the fight and wipe out the HQ squad. Shooting from the Assault squad takes down one of the termies and the Vet Sgt's Plasma Pistol over heats killing him!

BW - The final Termy squad enters play using the teleport homer, while both Ravenwing and Deathwing elements move to eliminate the Assault squad. The lone biker attacks the tactical squad in an attempt to delay a charge from the Grey Knights. ***Note: This totally didn't work and I lost a biker for nothing, ooops.




The Ravenwing and Deathwing hit the Assault squad killing them to a man, they then move in behind the ruined temple to gain cover against the advancing dreadnought.

Turn 4
JO - The GK charge the Termies and end up killing them all, the Deathwing fight hard killing 3 of the GK before being wiped out. The GK with the now attached Fallen advance on Squad Achilles and shooting begins to take its toll on the squad reducing them to 3 members. The Dreadnought advances ensuring no assault cannons can draw a line of sight to him.


BW - The Ravenwing with a meltagun sally forth to try and take out the dreadnought, but are uneffective. Squad Achilles continues shooting into the GK and Fallen but to no avail. I currently hold 3 Objectives to none but that is about to change.


Turn 5
JO - The GK and Fallen charge Squad Achilles killing the remaining Deathwing holding the Objective. The Dreadnought charges the bikes killing one and getting stunned for his troubles. The Tactical Squads move onto the hill capturing another objective. JO holds one and I still hold two.

BW - I have very little left to move at this point so both remaining units of Termies move into cover around their respective objectives to give them more survivability against the coming heavy weapons fire. The biker and Dreadnought continue to fight this time doing nothing to each other. At the end of the turn JO rolled to see if the game would continue and rolled a 1. Game over. Talk about a hard fought game!

I had a blast playing this game, JO is a great opponent and a real challenge. There was a couple of things I would do differently next time, killing the Librarians is huge important as the Null Zone was a big pain in the arse. All in all, 1750 pts is very manageable with experienced players, we were done in a couple of hours. Hope you enjoyed

+++++CLASSIFIED INNER CIRCLE ONLY+++++
1 x Fallen recovered. 2nd Fallen fled and escaped capture, contining to search. Capt Belial and Interrogator-Chaplain Boreas both wounded, expected to make recovery.
+++++REPORT ENDS+++++.

Ravenwing update

Hello All,

I have finished assembling the beginnings of my Ravenwing component and it looks great. The bases are done the same way as my Deathwing but instead of using the a calvary base I cut the 25mm round base in two and attached them to either side of the 25mm square base to give a big base that allows for more detail. So with any luck I will have them finished basing and ready for priming and initial pictures tomorrow.