White Dwarf and my thoughts

Okey guys, just got the last White dwarf. I must say that once again I'm really disappointed by it. I've been taking and reading every months for almost a year and I must say as a Warhammer 40k player and only Warhammer 40k player I just have the feeling that we just don't have enough. I mean the magazine is quite expensive (7€ in my country) and even if I know it's more an display magazine than anything else there is not enough. I mostly like the painting tips by 'Eavy Metal so usually I can get them from the different part of the book, so it's fine but for the rest... I know it's pretty much a whining post but it's just the feeling I got especially with the last release.
I'm just saying : More w40k in the White Dwarf. It's pretty famous to go on striking in my country and I would but just got the feeling that being the only one won't get the attention of GW...

An other funky scenario agains Tyranids

Hey guys, an other play testing for my next tournament this time it was against Tyranids and an other scenario. After reading quite a lot about the Null Deployment theory we wanted to try out this new way of fielding one of my favorite army.
So let's begin with the scenario :
Deployment : Dawn of War
5 Objectives : one in the center of the board and one in the center of each table quarter.
- Objectives held in our deployment zone are worth 1 point
- Objectives held in our opponent deployment zone are worth 2 points
- Objective in the center is worth 3 points
- Only one objective can be held by a unit.

My friend list, we were both working on it because as a Tyranids player it was a really interesting exercise, we ended up with that :
HQ : Hive Tyrant : Wings, Hive Commander

Elite : The Doom of Malan'tai

Troops : 20 Termagants in Mycetic Spore
20 Termagants in Mycetic Spore
15 Genestealers
15 Genestealers

Fast Attack :
6 Raveners : Rending Claws
6 Raveners : Rending Claws

Heavy Support :
Trygon Prime : Adrenal Gland

1750 pts

I'm taking the same Necrons list and we'll see how it fare against the big bugs.

The Board : 3 pieces of terrain in the upper part of the board, 3 in the middle line and 2 in the lower part.
Necron win the roll of, I decided to go 2nd to grab some late game objectives. The Tyranids took the upper part of the board even if he held everything in reserve.
Deployment : I push everything as fare as I can on my side of the board. The Command Barge and the Warriors are close to the center objective and the Immortals close to the left one of my side of the board.

Tyranids turn 1:
Nothing happened he got everything in reserve

Necrons turn 1:
Movement : The Scarabs and the C'tan took position in cover in the center of my zone. The Wraiths went left with a Ghost Ark. Both Annihilation Barge zoomed 24" on the right to get a good position. The other Ghost Ark went to the right as well. Warriors and Immortals moved up in cover. The Command Barge move forward a little bit.
Shooting : I ran couple of stuff and pop the Solar Pulse

Tyranids turn 2:
The Tyrant, both brood of Gants, the Trygon Prime, one brood of Ravener and the Doom are coming in from reserve.
Movement : The Hive Tyrant landed on the right side close to my Ghost Ark and Annihilation Barges. Trygon landed in cover in the upper part of the board after scattering 11" backward. Both Gants brood landed on each of my zone objectives. The Doom scattered a little bit forward and landed close to my scarabs. And the Raveners landed pretty much in the center but couldn't get into cover.
Shooting : Trygon, Raveners, Tyrant ran forward. The mycetic spore and the Gant on the left side shot at my Immortals killing two of them but they both got back up. The Doom shot at the Scarabs putting two wounds on a base but loosing 3 due to its power, its mycetic spore killed one base.

Necrons turn 2:
Movement : Command Barge moved 12" over the Trygon causing 2 wounds on him and the Overlord disembarked ready for assault. The Scarabs closed the distance between the Doom and them. The Wraiths on the left side went more center to get to the Raveners. The C'tan went to the direction of the Tyrant. The Ghost Ark on the right moved 6" to target the Raveners and the left one did the same to target the Gants. The Annihilation Barge moved so they can get clear shot on both Tyrant and Raveners.
Shooting : On the left side, the Immortals, the Ghost Ark and the Warriors inside shot at the Gants killing 12 of them but they passed their leadership. In the center, Ghost Ark and the Warriors inside + the Warriors on foot shot at the Raveners killing 3 of them. Both Annihilation Barge shot at the Tyrant causing 2 wounds.
Assault : The Overlord assaulted the Trygon, Mindshackle Scarabs test passed by the Trygon, then the Overlord passed his invul saves and put two more wounds on the Trygon. The Wraiths assaulted the Raveners putting 5 wounds on them and getting none in return. The last Raveners died due to Fearless saves. They consolidated 4" in cover. Scarabs assaulted the Doom loosing one base and putting one wound on him. The C'tan then assaulted the Tyrant loosing two wounds but causing one so the Tyrant is down to one wound.

Tyranids turn 3:
The rest of his army come in. Both outflanking Genestealers rolled for the right side.
Movement : One brood of Genestealers came on the upper part and the other on the lower part behind the Termagants. The Raveners landed on the left Objective of his deployment zone. The left Gants are subject to instinctive behavior while the right side brood passed his Ld check.
Shooting : Raveners and the Geneastealers in his zone ran in cover. The left Gants and their Mycetic spore shot at the Immortal doing nothing. The right Gants were out of range of the Warriors on the center objective.
Assault : Scarabs took 1 wound while getting the Doom down to 2 wounds. The C'tan finished off the Tyrant and consolidated in direction of the Gants. The Trygon failed his Mindshackle Scarabs test but didn't hit himself but the Overlord succeed to put a wound on him.

Necrons turn 3:
Movement : The Wraiths moved left to counter the Raveners. Both Annihilation Barge on the right moved to get clear shot on the Genestealers. C'tan moved close to the Gants and the Doom.
Shooting : The Warriors inside the Ghost Ark on the left side shot at the Mycetic Spore instakilling and the sponsons of the Ark killing one Gant. The Immortals and the Warriors on the center shot at them as well killing 4 more. The Gant then failed their Ld check and felt back 3". Both Annihilation Barge shot at the Genestealers in the open killing 5 of them, and they failed their Ld check... falling back of 4". And the Ghost Ark and the Warriors inside shot at the Gants killing 12 of them and the also failed their Ld check, falling back of 4" as well.
Assault : The Doom was slain by the Scarabs, they consolidated in cover. The C'tan assaulted the Doom's Mycetic Spore killing it and consolidated 5" in direction of the Genestealers so they would be within 6" of  him. The Trygon got Mindshackled again but didn't hurt himself but the Overlord finished him off.

Tyranid turn 4:
At that point with the Gants and Genestealers being accompanied off the board. We just saw that in the best scenario my opponent could get 4 points and I assured 5 so we called the game.

It was a really interesting game, I really like the idea of the Null Zone Deployment for the Tyranid, if you could have seen my face when he landed all his bug in front of me I wouldn't think it will ended up this way. I think his list need more work cause the problem with Tyranids is the point cost. It's impossible to squeeze everything we want into the list so every element need to work perfectly. I think he will need some more Synapse cause it was a problem for the Gants and Raveners with only the Tyrant and Prime covering this field. My army did unexpected well but I need more games to really get everything from it.

The Scenario is quite interesting as well cause you are always calculating in your head how many points will I get if I try to get this objective, wouldn't be more cautious to keep the one in my zone, can I hold the center one?

What you think can help us for the Tyranids list and what about the outcome of this battle?

PS : just realized I completely forgot about the Flayed Ones...

Tournament mission play test Battle Report

Yesterday with my buddy we tried out the first mission of my next tournament. It looks something like this :
Deployment : Pitched Battle
Objective :
- Each unit in the middle line at the end of the game is worth 1 point
- Each unit in the enemy deployment zone at the end of the game is worth 2 points
- A dedicated transport can't get a point if its unit is still on the board
- A scoring unit is worth one more point, if the unit is destroyed, the dedicated transport is only worth 1 point
- A unit can only be in one zone even if it spread out

It's a 1750 points game, I'm bringing my Necrons list I described before and my buddy is bringing his new Blood Angels. He's quite new with this army so he just brought what he thought is cool (this tournament is not a hardcore/WAAC one so it's fine).
His list :
Mephiston
Librarian Dreadgnouht
2 sanguinary priest : each with power weapon and jump pack
10 ASM : jump packs, 2 meltagun and Sergeant with power fist
10 ASM : jump packs, 2 meltagun and Sergeant with power fist
6 ASM : meltagun + LasPlas Razorback
6 ASM : meltagun + LasPlas Razorback
Vindicator : dozer blade
Vindicator : dozer blade

I don't have pictures because we were using a lot of proxy in this game mostly because I didn't finished to build my different sprues. It annoys me when I see battle report with proxy so I decided to skip taking pictures.

The Board : On the lower part of the table there are 3 pieces of terrain, 2 on the upper part and 3 other in the middle even if closer to the upper part.

I win the roll off so I decided to take the upper part of the board because I will need to cross the table and the terrain in this zone will help me to keep my guys alive.

Deployment :
Necrons deployment :
I deployed the Immortals and the C'tan in a piece of terrain on the left with the Command Barge and one Annihilation Barge behind. On the right side I putted one squad of Warriors in front ready to get into terrain next turn. I then putted the other Annihilation Barge on the right side as well and the Wraith in a piece of terrain behind the Warriors in case of emergency. Then I putted one Ghost Ark on each side of the table ready to zoom forward. And finally the scarabs are in the middle ready to get in a terrain next turn and then eat as much vehicle as possible before dying miserably. I decided to keep my Flayed ones in reserve so hopefully they will come late and get into his deployment zone via outflanking.

Blood Angels deployment :
On the right side, he decided to put Mephiston in a piece of terrain and the Dreadnought near by. One Razorback and Vindicator are in cover right behind them. On the left side, he putted the other Razorback and Vindicator in cover as well. He decided to keep his two jump pack ASM in reserve to get in my deployment zone or where they will be needed.
He rolled for Red Thirst and got one of the jump pack unit.

Necrons Turn 1:
Movement : I just move everything forward, the Warriors squad get into cover, the Command Barge go flat out into the center of the board.
Shooting : The Annihilation Barge on the right side shot Mephiston putting 7 wounds on him, he saved 3, he's now down to 2. Then 2 Cryptek from two unit of Warriors shot at him but only taking one wound, so he's down to 1 wound after first turn. The Scarabs run into terrain and spread out because of the Vindicator, I then decided to use my Solar Pulse

Blood Angels Turn 1:
Movement: On the right side, Mephiston and the Dreadnought cast Wings of Sanguinius and move forward, Mephiston in direction of the Command Barge and the Dreadnought in direction of the Warriors.   Both Vindicators move 12" to get as close as possible to be sure to get in range with Night Fight. Both Razorback move 6" but staying in cover.
Shooting : Mephiston ran to be in range for assaulting, Dreadnought pop smoke. The Vindicator on the left side shot at the Scarabs, scattered a little bit but still got 4 hits, but all of them are saved with cover save. The other Vindicator is just out of range thanks to the Solar Pulse. Both Razorbacks are out of range as well.

Necrons Turn 2:
The Flayed One decided so stay in reserve for this turn.
Movement : The Command Barge fly over Mephiston and kill him, and then get closer to the Dreadgnouht and Merykar disembarked. Everything move forward except for the Annihilation Barge on the right which just move back a little bit.
Shooting : The Ghost Ark shot at the Vindicator got one glance and Immobilized it (lucky) the Warriors inside Shook it. On the left side, the other Annihilation Barge shot at the Razorback get one pen and two glance, only one pen get through and it's weapon destroyed. C'tan ran 6" forward, Scarabs as well to assault the Vindicator. The Immortals ran into cover. On the right side two Cryptek shot at the Razorback but he made his cover saves. The Annihilation Barge shot the Dreadnought couldn't get through the adamantium plates.
Assault : Scarabs assaulted the Vindicator, got 9 hits, then lower the armor of 6. I got 2 glance and 7 pen. It ended up with the Vindicator being wrecked. The Scarabs consolidated 5". The Overlord assaulted the Dreadgnought, it goes first and put one wound on the Overlord but he passed his invul, then the Overlord swung his Warscythe and get one pen and one glance, the Dreadnought is Immobilized and Shaken.

Blood Angels Turn 2:
Both Jump Packs ASM came from reserve.
Movement : Deepstrike one ASM in the center of my deployment zone just behind my ghost ark and the other one on the left side of my deployment zone behind my Annihilation Barge. On the left side, the ASM disembarked and get into terrain (one dead because of the C'tan power) and the Razorback move 12" forward. On the right side, the Razorback zoomed forward and pop smoke and the Shaken Vindicator pop smoke as well.
Shooting : The disembarked ASM unit shot at the Scarabs taking one flock from bolter shots. On the left side, the jump pack ASM shot at the Annihilation Barge exploding it. The other jump pack ASM shot at the Ghost Ark and exploded it as well killing two Warriors but one stand back up.
Assault : The combat between the Dreadnought and the Overlord continues and nothing happened.

Necrons Turn 3:
The Flayed Ones decided to show up.
Movement : The Flayed ones popped on the left side of the board ready to assault the disembarked ASM. C'tan move backward in direction of the deepstruck ASM. The Immortals and both Warriors move forward. On the right side the Annihilation barge and Ghost Ark move forward, the Wraiths get closer to the ASM for assault. On the left side the Scarabs get ready to assault the ASM.
Shooting : Ghost Ark shot the Vindicator, got 2 glance, weapon destroyed and immobilized so it ended up wrecked. The Warriors inside shot at the Razorback but nothing happened. 2 Cryptek from two units of Warriors shot at the ASM in the center and killed one. On the left side, the Immortals shot at the ASM and killed 2, the Annihilation Barge failed to add any number to those casualties.
Assault : C'tan assaulted the ASM on the left side killing 3 of them and got no wound back. The Wraiths assaulted the ASM in the center. Two died before even having the chance to hit but they still killed two of the marines and then passed their Ld test. The Flayed Ones and the Scarabs ganged up on the small squad of ASM killing all but the Sergeant and got only one wound back on the Scarabs. The Sergeant failed his Ld test and died from No Retreat. The Scarabs consolidated in direction of the Razorback and the Flayed Ones spread out in cover. The combat between the Overlord and the Dreadnought continues.

Blood Angels Turn 3:
On the right side, the Razorback move 6" and the ASM disembarked. On the left side, the other Razorback move 12" in my deployment zone.
Shooting : ASM shot a meltagun at the Annihilation barge on the right and get its Tesla Destructor out. The Razorback shot at the Warriors killing 2 but they passed their Ld test.
Assault : Finally the Overlord wrecked the Dreadnought and consolidated 3" in direction of the ASM. The Wraith killed 1 marine and one wound is putted on one of them. C'tan killed 4 marines and got nothing back. They failed their Ld test and the Sergeant died to No Retreat letting only the Sanguinary Priest in combat.

Necrons Turn 4:
Movement : Warriors and Immortals moved forward. Ghost Ark on the right side zoomed 12" forward. The Annihilation Barge moved forward of 6" ready to shot its small gun. The Overlord moved in direction of the disembarked ASM. The Scarabs moved in direction of the gunless Razorback on the left side.
Shooting : both Warriors squad ran forward. Immortals shot the disembarked ASM killing the meltagun carrier. The Annihilation barge spotted them as well but nothing happened.
Assault : The Overlord charged the ASM, they putted 3 wounds on him but he passed all his invul saves and killed 1 guy. The Wraith killed one guy as well and passed all they invul saves. The C'tan finished of the Sanguinary Priest and consolidated in direction of the Wraiths combat. The Scarabs assaulted the Razorback, 5 hits, lowered the armor of 3, got 2 pen, shaken and stunned.

Blood Angels Turn 4:
My mate decided to concede at that point because it was clear that he couldn't do anything else now.

Overall a fun game. This mission scenario is pretty interesting because it really force us to move forward so it could end up with a big mess in the middle with some armies. I could see that I didn't use much of the C'tan power so maybe I should tweak my list to get some Cryptek with tremorstaves. My opponent made quite a lot of mistake, but it's how we learn! I did learn as well with this game.

Next time I will fight against a Full Reserve Tyranids list and I think with my current list it could be a pretty tough game.

It was my first Battle Report so if you have any advices on how to make them better, just leave a comment.
Stay tuned.

1750 pts Tournament List

So a 1750 pts Tournament. In my country (France) a lot of the event are restrictive when it comes to list building, most of the time it's not possible to fill up the slot with the same entry or when it is allowed it comes with a huge penalty. So it comes down to us to make a choice, ultra competitive with all the restrictions that come with it or a more open but which can struggle against better list building (of course the opponent is a big factor as well). I personally don't really mind most of the time cause I usually build my army around one or two units that I like because of their rules, models or fluff.

That's why here I started with Anrakyr for the reason I have started before, but because of the recent FAQ I can't use him as I planned to. Here comes Merykar and his followers. So now, let's talk about the list :

HQ :
Overlord (Merykar) : Warscythe, Mindshackle Scarabs, Phase Shifter, Sempiternal Weave, Cattacomb Command Barge 255 pts

Royal Court :
3 Cryptek : Harbinger of Destruction 105 pts
1 Cryptek : Harbinger of Destruction, Solar Pulse 55 pts

Elite :
C'Tan Shard : Writhing Worldscape, Lord of Fire 230 pts
5 Flayed ones : 65 pts

Troops :
5 Necron Warriors : 65pts
+ Ghost Ark 115 pts
5 Necron Warriors : 65pts
+ Ghost Ark 115 pts
5 Necron Warriors : 65pts
5 Necron Immortals : Tesla Carbines 85 pts

Fast Attack :
8 Canoptek Scarabs : 120 pts
6 Canoptek Wraiths : 2 Whip Coils 230 pts

Heavy Support :
Annihilation Barge : 90 pts
Annihilation Barge : 90 pts

Total : 1750 pts

So here the strategy : it's pretty straight forward, shoot shoot shoot. I keep my Wraiths and C'Tan Shard in the backfield with my troops in case something too frightening (which is almost anything against my troops) come by. I use the power of the C'Tan to make additional casualty  while the opponent advance. The Annihilation Barge is one of my favorite unit in this codex, I think that for 90 pts it's really a bargain for the dakka we got. The Overlord can zoom forward and try to sweep some juicy target before being blown up or stay back at the beginning wait for that the opponent come to me. I gear him so he can also handle small unit by himself, he can be pretty nasty in fact.
The Flayed ones are pretty bad in the current edition, but in my list they will help lower my comp value and hopefully frighten some backfield devastator for example. I actually love the model even if I think they are overpriced but anyway I'll get at least one unit for the pleasure of painting.
And finally I got the scarabs and troops, the scarabs are pretty much here if there is AV 14 and if not to eat one transport before getting flamed to death. The troop can provide a decent amount of fire and is pretty versatile. I can use the cryptek to aim for transport and the warrior can also help on that (even if don't really count on it). I got one unit of Immortal because on my previous list I had Anrakyr and that made them automatically Pyrrhian Eternals but now they will just bring a small bump in fire power where need.

That's pretty much it, what do you think about the list, some improvement, or things I missed?
Keep tuned

My Necrons

Like I already said, I really enjoy the Fluff behind the Necrons and especially the one about Anrakyr The Traveller. The guy is just trying to wake up all the sleepy babies and avenge the one whose been annihilated. I pretty much like the aspect of the lonely knight doing his duty even if all of his kind despite him for it.

From the Hobby side, it's just perfect for me because my paint scheme is pretty dark right now (mostly metallic and red) but with the fluff of Anrakyr I can just add different units from different dynasties so it can cut the monotone feeling of the army. That why my army will be a mix a red and green sleepy robots and I can't wait to see the results on the table top.

I also enjoyed the rule of Anrakyr with the Mind in the Machine especially in a command barge, but the recent FAQ just invalidated it from this use. That's why I will go with a generic Overlord for the purpose (I'm actually really disappointed because I think Anrakyr really lost his use if it's not for Apocalypse game).

I can see that after the awakening of his Tomb World by Anrakyr, Merykar of the Novokh dynasty (my Overlord) totally embrace the cause of Anrakyr and started to travel as well to seek for slumbering Tomb Worlds in hope of rally more and more dynasties behind this objective. He recently help to wake up the Tomb World of the Khryn dynasty and push back an orc offensive on their Tomb World. For that, the Overlord gave a part of his troops to continue the infinite quest of his savior.

In April, I should attend a 1750 pts Tournament, so next time will be my list.
Keep tuned

Introduction

Hey, so like everybody those days I'm lunching a blog of my own. I've been playing to 40k for now 4 years. I started during the 4th Edition with AoBR set. I played principally with Marines, Tyranids and Ork at the time. Then I had a break for 2 years but now I'm back to the game. I really enjoy the change brought by the 5th Edition but when I came back after learning all the changes in the rules I just realized that my armies were outdated in their build. So I've been reading a lot of blog out there and gather as much informations as I could and decide that big changes will come. Firstly my armies, I really enjoy my Tyranids but they just destroyed them and it's getting really hard for me to pull anything with them without buying a lot of new stuffs which would be difficult looking at the price of this race. Then I got my ends on the Dark Eldar Codex and I can say that I really enjoy this one, it's full of opportunity and it's really easy to pull out a lot of different build and let's face it, the models are stunning.

And here come the new Necrons, just felt in love with the background and the army list, I got the same feeling for the Necrons that the Dark Eldar, there are for every taste (even if it's a little bit harder to pull something out of the Necrons than the Dark Eldar to my taste. So I just decide that I will start again with them, I ended up buying few units and starting pairing up them. I still have a long way to finish them cause despite how quite they can be painted up if you just go for heavy dry brushes, I wanted something a little big more eye catching. I will upload pictures of them as soon as I get an idea of how to make good pictures.

The blog by itself will be just me gathering my thoughts of the game, rumors and fluff of this universe we all enjoy so much.

That's all for the Introduction,
Stay tuned!