Astra Militarum 1700 Army List

So there is a 1700 pt Tourney coming this Sunday. My friend paid my entry but the catch is I have to drive! Done! I decided I'm going to run my Imperial Guard. Its almost the same list I ran a few months ago but I dropped my Space marine allies, decided to use all my "401st Vrakken Hell Jumpers". I will post some more photos when I finish the few models I have to paint and base still. Its the dreaded C word! competitive. I always like playing guard, when you get a win with the army its always extra rewarding because they are just the boots on the ground of the Imperium. The basic theme behind this army is the Manticores pin the enemy on their lines , the vendetta go towards the high priority targets. If its not to much of a threat ill skimmer them and disembark the demo teams other wise they are hoping the emperor protects them and are using the grav chutes. The Primaris Psyker will twin link the Valkyries rocket pods and heavy bolters until I need to get the vets out for the extra melta shots. This army is meant for late game shenanigans.

Hoorah....Sir!

HQ

Company Command Squad
Master of Ordnance,
Mortar team
Dedicated - Chimera

Troops
Infantry Platoon 
Platoon command squad-stock

Infantry platoon-stock
Infantry platoon-stock

Special weapon team- demo charge x3
Special weapon team- demo charge x3

Heavy weapon squad Mortar team x3

Veteran Squad
Demolition Doctrine
Melta x3
Primaris Psyker

Fast attack
Vendetta-stock
Vendetta-Stock
Valkyrie
Rocket pod x2
Heavy bolter

Heavy Support
Manticore-Heavy flamer
Manticore-Heavy flamer
Leman Russ Vanquisher
Camo netting
Fire barrels
Las Cannon
Dozer blade

Astra Militarum Vs. Dark Angels Recap Battle Report

Breakdown

Astra Militarum w Grey Knights vs Dark Angels

Game Type: Big Guns Never Tire/ Purge The  Alien

Deployment: Dawn of War

1850 Points 

Night Fight

I got to play a epic game over the weekend and fielded my Astra Militarum for the first time in like 7 months.

Turn 1 My opponent got first turn and quickly killed off my heavy weapon team I had hiding in the back.
 He tried to open up the bunker on my side of the board but failed to glance it. I quickly took back the points when I placed a Manticore shot on top of his Warlord. He failed 2 LoS rolls and then 1 armor save. Feeling good about myself I forgot to move the facing on my Manticores and it would cost me.

Turn 2 His Jet fighter entered from the left side of the board into my side armor easily Glancing the AV 10 down, In the same turn he fired his Whirlwind at the other Manticore due to having no other viable targets and rolled 2 6s in a row destroying its target. With my opponent gaining a hefty lead I was starting to sweat a bit.

Jet Fighter vs. Vendetta

2 vendettas and 1 Valkyrie make the reserve rolls but my Grey Knights sit out turn 2. I place the Vendettas in a way to get an easy Rhino kill point, shoot at the jet fighter and the Valkyrie tries to get a few Dev squad casualties. I manage to only make the Rhino lose 2 hull points, the Jet Fighter down to 1 hull point and "immobilize" it.

Turn 3 the Jet fighter goes into reserves and my opponent loses a lot of

targets to shoot at he Prescience his dev squads and tries again to take out the bunker, lowering its AV to 11. He fires his Whirl winds at my platoon command squad and kill them to the Sgt. Failing morale starts to run to the board edge. Rolling heroic leader ship the sgt runs back towards the trench line. My GK show up and scatter into the ruin. The Vendettas try their luck again moving towards the Whirlwinds for extra kill points. I manage to immobilize and weapon destroy 1, while the Power field generator protects the other. His Rhinos have made it across the board an are parked around my objective. The Gk take out a Rhino and wait for next turn, Valkyrie goes into reserves as well .

Jet fighter returns for second pass

Turn 4 Jet fighter returns to try and make my gk take some losses. The Terminators consolidate their objective. The dev squad turns their attention to the GK and land 15 hits and 9 wounds on the terminator.
The terminators shrug off the shots and the jet fighter fires unto them as well the terminators turn out to be the stars of the game. I go into skimmer mode with both vendettas and unload the special weapons teams. Unleashing their payloads I manage to finish off the dev squads and the Libby hidden with them. The second squad only manages to take out 3 terminators. I also manage to glance my own vendetta. I manage to take out both whirlwinds. I also disembark from the Valkyrie on my board edge and move the command squad into range. I use the primaris psyker to prescience the squad, and order them to first rank fire, second rank fire unleashing a demo charge, 3 melta guns and las guns into the tactical squad. gaining a quick kill on the other rhino.

Turn 5 
A quick turn by the Dark angels as they murder the special weapon team, which was too bad if one survived it would have been a Multi assault to the vendetta. The Jet fighter has nowhere to go and has to bug out. I pick up another Rhino kill point and we roll for extra turns. The game ends and we tally scores.

Dark Angels 10 pts
Astra Militarum 14 pts

Tyranid Update #2

Wow, so I have had a lot of pent up hobby energy lately. I managed to get both of the Harpy/Crone combo finished. Did both of the Mawloc's, made one look a little different just in case I want to proxy it as the Trygon. I really didnt ever have problems with Finecast before but these Venomthropes are a pain. I am still up in the air for the Colour of the chitin. I was going for Orange but I may have just decided to go Hive fleet Kraken. I'll add some black to the chitin after as well to make it pop a little more. I would have thought I learned my lesson about Horde armies after I painted all my Astra Militarum infantry.

-Russ

Still a bit more work to be done on the Mawlocs

I really like these model kits.

Decided on Hive fleet Kraken 

Tyranid Update

With the move finished I have a few days to kill before I start work. I decided to start on my Tyranid. I had to put the Hive Tyrant together first. I forgot to take a few pics I also managed to get the first Tervigon togather too. Due to the Holiday weekend, my Hive Crones and Mawlocs are stuck in mail limbo until tomorrow. I think I will build the second Tervigon maybe hit them with primer. I am still looking at the daunting 100 gaunts as well. I forgot that they come with Ripper Swarms as well , so that is a bonus. I tweeked my list idea as well so I may have to acquire 3 biovores as well. Here's a few quick snap shots of the work so far. I have been playing as many games as possible since I had a 3 month dry spell. I actually got a game in with my Astra Militarum as well, I'll post a few of those photos soon. Its good to have drive for the hobby again.  ( Mind the editing, still using cell phone pics)

Update: Made a little headway today got both Tervigons together, 10 Gaunts as well, primed everything I assembled today too.

Russ

Retro Battle Report #3 Breakout

Game type: Break out
Deployment: Special
Slay the warlord , First blood
Kill points, Escape

So its time for the Sentinels of Terra to go on the offensive. The Chaos forces were pressing on towards the Rail yards. The Sentinels only had a short time to stop them. Breakout is an throwback to 4th edition. Chaos had to split his forces and have at least half his forces make it off each table end. It was a quick game but still a lot of fun. In a 1500 pt game we both brought 2 land raiders. The sentinels were going to make sure the Chaos forces didn't escape.

The Chaos Land raiders were moving full tilt, not slowing their speed for anything. They maneuvered quickly over the industrial streets, smashing all that stood in their path. Trying to close the Chaos forces in a pincer attack The Sentinels struck quickly, Multi-melta and melta gun fire tore into the side of the Chaos raider, quickly immobilizing it. Chaos Bikers circled around trying to pin down the Sentinels, closing the gap from the recovering marines.  Brother Captain Cedrick wasted no time and charged to meet the bikers head on, The Aspiring champion was all to quick to accept the captains charge and was laid low by his relic blade. The reaming bikers tried to regroup and were cut down by the remaining sentinels. The 2nd Chaos raider was faring much better as it had put a lot of space between it and The sentinels ground forces it looked to be in the clear. Stepping out of the broken Land Raider Chancellor Gurkon  charged towards Cedrick and tore into the Sentiels squad like a rabid dog. The sick hum of his lighting claw tearing power armor from flesh and bone. The Sentinels screams of pain ended quickly.

Chaos: Slay the warlord, 4 Escape points
Sentinels: First blood,  3 Kill points, 1 challenge point

So once again the game ended in a tie, it was a lot closer. I got a point for each destroyed unit, Chaos gets a point for each unit able to make it off the board. Once again Chaos lord trumps cheap captain.  I was able to pop both land raiders but the chaos player made a quick decision to flee the far side of the table. I caught the Chaos bikers and killed the aspiring champion netting me the extra point. The Chaos lord made quick work of my remaining marines,  with the squads  scattered  the Chaos lord made his exit. This is the point we  started to see a recurring theme.

Retro Battle Report #2 Battle for the Mac guns

Gametype: Big Guns Never Tire
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil
First blood, Slay the Warlord , Line Breaker

During our first match it was decided that the Chaos forces would also be trying to destroy the mac cannons defending the port from the remaining chaos fleet. Big guns never tire was the only option. It was this game where we decided to use battle honors and basically it was a free 10 pt upgrade for a squad, piece of signature war gear or a roll on the old 5th edition battle honors chart. We even let vehicles have a shot at it, it really added to the flavour later on in the games.

The Chaos forces ran rampant through the streets, defensive positions were taken up as the first mac cannons were silenced. The Steel Plague had a hard battle ahead of them, the rest of the macro cannons were on the high ground. The Sentinels had dug in and already fortified, it would be a meat grinder. Led by Chancellor Gerkon, the cultists attempted to push through the defenses. In the distance the hum of Heavy bolter and hurricane bolter fire could be heard. In an instance the front ranks of cultist fell atop one of the hab blocks stood a Sentinel Centurion team. Trying to take cover in the remaining rubble of warehouses the body count started to rise. The streets were quickly starting to fill with the blood of traitors. Leading the counter charge was first captain Merrick, His quick thinking allowed the Veteran squads to push the chaos forces back. Merrick was able to chase down Gerkon but not before fighting his way through the reaming cultists, Gerkon thought Merrick would fall easily, he was mistaken. The Helldrake made his presence known by destroying one of the Thunderfire cannons before flying out of the war zone to terrorize the populace elsewhere. Having slowed the Chaos fleets momentum it was time for the Sentinels to go on the offensive.

Final Score
Chaos 8
Sentinels of Terra 8

The second game was a fairly high impact. It ended in yet another Tie. Each of us having killed each others warlord. First Captain Merrick was Lysander who 1 shot the chaos lord but failed his saves and fell in combat as well. The Chaos lord was mark of Nurgle, Blight grenades and Lighting Claw/Power fist . We manged to tie on objectives again we rolled 4 objectives, I lost a Thunder fire cannon but did snag first blood. The hell drake once again would deny me his back board objectives quickly killing my drop pod tactical squads. Being the first time I fielded Centurions,just with heavy bolters and hurricane bolters they proved to be well worth their pts cost. Having slowed in momentum , Chaos decided to pull back to the Rail yards to consiladate their quickly fading hold on the surface. Game 3 would be a break out mission.

Retro Battle Report Planet fall Guerro

So It has been a while since we played the battle report and I am mostly going from memory. Its going to be fluff heavy, everything we do in these games is for the fluff. Land grab is a throwback to 5th edition I think. Basically you get 3 Victory points at the end of the game for each table quarter you control. No mans land in a 12" bubble from the centre of the table. This is my first written piece so hopefully it reads well.

Game type: Land grab
Primary: Table Quarters
Secondary: Slay the warlord, First Blood,
Deployment: Vanguard

The Sentinels of Terra made planet fall as the engines of their drop pod's screamed, announcing their arrival to the battle zone. Touching down with a thunderous smash of metal and concrete, The Sentinels wasted no time consolidating their position. Thunder fire cannons unleashed a torrent of hell fire upon the advancing Chaos ground forces, looking to be lead by The Beast himself. The Beast was a chaos lord not to be trifled any marine who dared stand against him met his brutal end. Surrounded by waves of heretics and rebels The Beast made his advance, showing no signs of slowing from the suppressing fire of the loyalist artillery. If the Sentinels failed to rout the Chaos forces outside the shipyards, the chaos fleet would be able to land its forces at an accelerated pace, quickly over running the remaining Planetary Defense Forces.

Brother Captain Valfreed led the ground assault and attempted to outmaneuver the Chaos forces, using Venerable Brother Mehn'lo to rout the far left flank. His gambit was unsuccessful however as hidden amongst the ground forces were vile Obliterator Cults. They fired a volley of las cannon fire and melta cannon shots as Mehn'lo tried to close the gap. The Sentinels lost an ancient ally that day as the obliterator cults put him down in a hail of focused melta fire. The explosion was lost in the madness that followed as Valfreed led his Squad directly into the heart of the chaos forces. His logic seemed sound, sever the head the body will die.He knew not the nature of The Beast. Wading into the fray The Sentinels laid low scores of cultists and renegades, but for every dozen they put down more took their place. The numbers seemed to overwhelm their battle lines, The Sentinels were in danger of being surrounded. The Beast broke through their position like a being possessed. Easily cutting through the remaining marines, while his lightning claws flickered with infernal energy, leaving Valfreed the lone survivor.

Across the War zone Sentinels squads had found little resistance and able to secure their objectives quite quickly. Unbeknownst to them the terror that waited above. A Hell drake wasted no time, ripping apart the rhinos the battle brothers took cover in. Bale-fire melted everything in its path, marine and machine its infernal heat fueled by the powers of chaos itself. The battle brothers tried to use their weapons to bring the Deamon engine down but to no avail, by the time the monster made its second pass only two battle brothers remained. Lucky for the Squads a Storm Talon was making a second pass and manged to draw the drake away.

TLDR

Sentinels of Terra 4 points,
Chaos Space Marines 4 points

Sentinels were able to take first blood, Chaos took slay the warlord and we both ended up controlling 1 table quarter each. The Beast was actually Abbadon surrounded by a full squad of cultist. The Hell drake manged to mangle my scoring units pretty bad, but marines did what they do best and not die. So having taken a lot of casualties my opponent decided the next game type. The nice part about Land grab is you just have to have units in the table quarter. It allows for a player to play fast and loose with his scoring units that otherwise would be sitting on an objective the whole game. It was an intense game and it was a good prelude to the things to come.

Something Something Dataslates

The Dataslates, nothing divides our gaming group quite like it. On one hand it's a product designed to sell older models. However it does give you nifty rules for models that otherwise wouldn't see the table top ( I'm looking at you Rising Leviathan 1). One of the biggest gripes I hear is that the rules should be in the codex, Or that there is just too much to keep track of now. How can a person possibly know the rules if there are Dataslates coming out in such rapid succession. I am not one of those players, I prefer to be surprised on the table top. I feel the way the game is meant to be played is having a little surprise now and then. The Dataslates are great for that, it expands upon a codex. Anything that can add to an armies longevity on the table top is greatly welcomed. It's almost as if GW is starting to rethink the force org in general allowing formations the ability to not take up a FOC slot. Its bold and I like that direction, not every game play element from previous editions are still in use. Somehow the FOC still kind of lingers on, this seems like a fun way to get around it and have some fun games!

Leave a comment with your thoughts on the Dataslates.
Russ

A voice in the warp

Huzzah , The inaugural post! I have been trapped in the city of Toronto for a few months, over that time I have accumulated a small Tyranid army. When the new codex came out I fell in love with the idea of tons of monstrous creatures rampaging across the table. I know the Tyranid codex is a little weak in a competitive setting but really I don't like to use the "C" word. I will give a break down of the units I have purchased and my thoughts behind them. When I complete my move you should start to see photos of my work in progress, random battle reports and various rules debates and disputes my local gaming group have. So for now I'm working the kinks out, bear with me.

Russ

Forge a Narrative

I have been playing 40k for over a decade, I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons even longer. I find that 40K is at it's best when you are playing something more than just a pick up game. When you have an army fighting over something other than a 3 point objective, or a relic. It might just be the different style of gaming groups could have something to do with it. I suppose I could give an example. Over the course of the past year in between our weekly games, my friend and I have started an small escalation match of sorts starting with a 200 pt combat patrol and finishing with an upcoming apocalpyse game.

We decided that the small planet we were fighting over was more than just  a 6x4 board.  It was an Ag world targeted by his chaos fleet, which had broken off from the Black Crusade. My Sentinels of  Terra  were the first to break of and pursue the war band, which they had clashed with several times before.The Sentinels of Terra have spent too long pursuing their enemy. They tire of combat drills and battle litany. The 3rd company wants vengeance against the Iron Warriors for the iron cage massacre, for the torture of their honourable first captain, desecration  of sacred shrines across the system. Laying in wait on planet Guerro they will find what they seek. A corrupted band of legionaries raised from the ashes of the Iron Warriors, battle hardened and entrenched waiting for the opportune moment to strike.

So we can play that, or we could fight over an objective in the centre of the map. Sometimes it's okay to put some imagination into it. They can be more than expensive toy soldiers if you use the Fluff. I will be posting a few retro battle reports to get readers up to speed before the Apoc Battle report. There will be a few guest posts coming up as well so keep an eye out.

Russ
Leave a comment if you have any suggestions for bringing the fluff to the tabletop.

The Hive Fleet Hungers

I have a daunting task ahead of me. 2500 points of Tyranid goodness, waiting to be assembled. Choosing units is always a tricky game. Some people will go for the most powerful units, min max troops and call it a day. I always prefer the "Rule of Cool" approach. When you dive into the Fluff of the codex it really gives you an idea of what you can do on the table top. I know it doesn't translate into crunch very well but thems the brakes. So with that in mind I started acquiring my own little hive fleet.  I'll go into details a bit later but this is my starting point.

Russ

HQ 

Hive Tyrant

Troops 

100 Termagants

Tervigon x 2

Elites

Venomthrope x2

Zoanthrope x3

Fast Attack

Hive Crone/Harpy x2

Heavy Support

Mawloc x2

Lord of War

Scythed Heirodule