Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 - Forging a Sequel

Hey, guys! There's news on Battlefoeet Gothic: Armada 2! Here's a video from Focus Home Interactive.

This is excellent news. Not only is the new game set after the events of The Gathering Storm, we have all 12 Factions! As you already know, my favorite Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator fleet and Imperial Navy are part of them, so I look forward to playing them. All 12 Factions are in the game, let me list them. Imperial Navy, Adeptus Mechanicus, Space Marines, Chaos, Craftworld Aeldari, Drukhari, Aeldari Corsairs, Orks, Necrons, Tyranids, Tau Protector and Merchant Fleets, and that should be it. Nice.

One of the main gripes I had about the first game was the small points cap. I found it frustrating that I could only run a small fleet of one battleship and maybe a battlecruiser or two. That wasn't the armada I wanted. I wanted armadas of battleships, not just one battleship. The sequel looks to address that by giving us large caps, so I'm looking forward to it!

I'll let you know when I get more details!

Rubric Marines!

Greetings, fellow Disciples of Tzeentch! Warhammer Community has been kind enough to provide us an article on Rubric Marines today! Let's see what they have.



Today, we invite Eddie to be our tactician, and here's what he has to say about the Rubric Marines.

Rubric Marines are amongst the most reliable and dependable troops choices in Warhammer 40,000. In a pure Thousand Sons force (or Detachment), not only do they gain the advantage of being able to secure objectives against enemy units, they also gain access to a lot of synergies with other units, Stratagems and powers, both obvious and subtle.

In most situations, Rubric Marines are very durable; an increased save against Damage 1 weaponry makes them all but immune to most small arms fire, and against heavier weaponry, Tzeentch was nice enough to give them all a 5+ invulnerable save. In practice, this means your enemy is probably going to have to bring heavy weaponry to bear to remove any sizeable unit of Rubric Marines at range. This is fine – if they’re shooting your Rubric Marines, it means they’re leaving your vehicles and monsters alone. Use this natural resilience to force your opponent to make hard choices about where they direct their best firepower – when everything in your army requires their best weapons to take out, you force your opponent to concentrate on some units at the expense of others.

Yeah. Sounds pretty cool to me. Eddie says not to throw them into close combat, though. While they will survive melee and can tarpit enemies, there are much better units for that role (*cough* Tzaangors *cough*). Anyway, the Rubric Marines shine because of their durability and their weapons loadout. Eddie looks at both the inferno boltgun and the warpflamer.



Take note, the inferno boltgun synergizes better with the soulreaper cannon because it has the same range, and is also designed to mow down infantry - the same role as your inferno boltguns. Both the inferno boltguns and soulreaper cannon are meant to take down armored infantry such as Marines and their equivalent, so make sure you use the AP -2 to their maximum advantage.



On the other hand, warpflamers lack the range of the inferno boltguns, and there's no point bringing a soulreaper cannon with your warpflamer dudes. While only packing a measly 8" range, they are devastating against hordes and they auto-hit. Awesome. For maximum carnage, pack a 10-men Rubric Marine squad, all equipped with warpflamers, and dish out 9D6 Strength 4 AP -2 auto-hits. They'll literally melt hordes. Yeah, we'll turn all into dust like our Rubric dudes.

Eddie offers a few good advice on how to use warpflamer dudes. They're great in overwatch - 9D6 auto-hit shots are no joke. If you need to get rid of light vehicles (Toughness 7 or 6), throw in the Veterans of the Long War Stratagem and they'll wound those things on a 4+. Need to get rid of power armored blobs like those treacherous Space Puppies? Use that and they'll be wounding them on 3+s. Infantry? 2+s. I wouldn't waste my Command Points on those unless I really, really need them dead, though.

If you ask me, the best way to use these guys is to webway infiltrate them within 9" of whatever horde you need dead, cast Warp Time on them with a Deep-striking Sorcerer in Terminator Armor or Exalted Sorcerer on disc, move them another 5" forward, and roast whatever needs cooking. All is dust indeed.

Then you have the Aspiring Sorcerers.



Even Eddie thinks their gimped Smite is useless. In other words, you do not bring loads of Rubric Marines because you want to spam Smite. No, you bring them along with their Discipline of Change. To make your Rubric Marines (and Scarab Occult Terminators) more durable and survivable than they already are, you have the choice of casting either Glamor of Tzeentch or Weaver of Fates.



Cool, right? This will make your Rubric Marines a lot more survivable than Tzaangors. They're also a lot more shooty. Don't listen to the nonsense the haters in dakka dakka are spouting about how Tzaangors are superior to Rubric Marines in every way (especially this guy who claims 1) Rubrics are outmatched by Tzangors in almost every aspect.). They obviously have no idea what they're talking about. Are you telling me Tzaangors outmatch Rubric Marines in shooting? With our AP -2 and better BS? Can Tzaangors take warpflamers? No, Tzaangors are better than Rubric Marines only in melee. Shooting wise, durability wise, they are worse. Not to mention, you'll lose a ton of Tzaangors to morale because of how fragile they are, as well as to overwatch when you charge them into whatever. Rubric Marines do not face the same problem. If you think Tzaangors are better than Rubric Marines in almost every aspect, then you're not playing them right. I can think of a dozen situations where I want my Rubric Marines instead of Tzaangors. Hell, my Thousand Sons army has no Tzaangors right now. Besides, Tzaangors don't have an Aspiring Sorcerer, which will make your already durable Rubric Marines even harder to kill!

Some people are just complaining for the sake of it.

Anyway, Eddie has advice on how to move your Rubric Marines. They include transports, where you load them up on Rhinos and Land Raiders. I'll pass on that. Sure, they'll make your slow 5" movement Rubric Marines a lot more mobile, but if I wanted fast, mobile Troops to grab objectives, I would bring Tzaangors instead. No, Rubric Marines excel in holding backfield objectives, getting dug in and being difficult to remove. I'm not saying they are impossible to wipe out, but your opponent has to devote a ton of firepower just to remove them, and that's firepower not directed at your Daemon Engines. Tzaangors will just die to weight of fire, like lasguns, pulse rifles, heavy bolters, boltguns, Punisher gatling cannons, Damage-1 weapons and other anti-infantry weapons. Your Rubric Marines, on the other hand, will laugh at even plasma rifles, un-supercharged plasma guns, hot-shot lasguns and other inferno boltguns. Seriously, do the math. And in the event you lose 1 or 2 to the weight of fire, they will not succumb as easily to morale as your Tzaangors.

Whoops, getting distracted here. What I mean to say, your Rubric Marines don't neeed the protection of a transport, and they're nigh indestructible against anti-infantry weapons so stick them in your backfield and dig them in to hold objectives. They excel at that a lot more than the supposedly superior Tzaangors. roll eyes

But the codex now offers you a lot of flexibility to move your slow Rubric Marines across the table if you need to! Can't get any hordes within range of your warpflamers? Look no further than Webway Infiltration. Spend a Command Point, Deep Strike them in the enemy's deployment zone, cast Warp Time with a Deep Striking Sorcerer in Terminator Armor (who is also being protected by Scarab Occult Terminators), and then unleash the flames!

Oh, you killed everything in your opponent's deployment zone and must now rush back toward your own deployment zone because your enemy's Deep Striking units have wiped out the Tzaangors there? Use Black Matter Crystal to warp them across the table - you did take the Relic on your Sorcerer in Terminator armor, right? - and unleash another bunch of flames. Or if your opponent charged you and made into combat, tarpitting your poor Rubric Marines, just pull the eject button and warp them across the table to flame another horde. It's a great hit-and-run tactic that allows you to move your Rubric Marines around the table with great flexibility.

Now, I can hear people crying out that the Webway Infiltration and Black Matter Crystal will be better for Tzaangors. In some cases, probably. But why would you use them to Deep Strike your Tzaangors!? They already move pretty fast, can Advance because quite frankly, their autopistols don't do jack. But honestly, even though they are better in melee, they suck in shooting, and to get them into combat, you're gonna eat a lot of overwatch and lose a few models before they slam in. Yeah, they might tear apart your opponents in melee with the Tzaangor Shaman's buff, but honestly? Strength 4 AP 0 attacks aren't going to do much. I would rather shoot Strength 4 AP -2 shots from a distance without losing a few guys to overwatch. And fire my own overwatch when people charge at my Rubric Marines. Jeez, stop staring at the Tzaangors with blinkers and accept that there are roles where Rubric Marines are much better than them. Use your damned imagination. Do the math. Stop howling about how Tzaangors are superior to Rubric Marines and start thinking about how to better use the latter. The Rubric Marines' strengths lie in shooting and durability. Build an army around that. Tzaangors are for those players who prefer hordes and volume of fire - but they are glass cannons who can't shoot and must get within range of your opponent to actually do anything. Whereas your Rubric Marines can dig in, secure an Objective and survive whatever firepower your opponent throws at them.

Looking at the complaints really gets me annoyed. The problem isn't with Games Workshop. They have given you new tools to play with your Rubric Marines, but for some reason you're just focusing on how they're good or better for Tzaangors and completely ignoring how they excel for your Rubric Marines. Seriously, I can spend a Command Point on 30-40 Tzaangors, cast Warptime on them and then charge them into combat but I'll lose a bunch of them to overwatch and to morale, plus their Strength 4 AP 0 attacks wouldn't do much against armored foes. On the other hand, 10 Rubric Marines with 9 warpflamers and 9D6 Strength 4 AP -2 attacks plus an Aspiring Sorcerer to keep them more survivable would do the same job without losing any models to overwatch or morale. And would probably kill more too, to be honest. Or maybe I'm doing my math wrong, but your 10 Rubric Marines will be sticking around for a long while whereas that blob of Tzaangors will go down really, really fast. Not only that, you have a lot more tactical flexibility with Rubric Marines and their warpflamers due to the split fire mechanic in 8th Edition. 2 5-men enemy squads? Sure you can declare a multi-charge and eat both squads' overwatch with your Tzaangors, but you can split fire your Rubric Marines into both squads safely without wasting your charge (especially if you can only charge and fight one unit). 4 warpflamers into the first squad, 5 warpflamers into the second. Boom. If your opponent has his 2 squads bunched together, you can probably split your Tzaangors in combat, but if he doesn't? You waste one turn getting rid of one squad at a time. Good luck fighting against Tau.

Think about it. Look at the ways you can play with Rubric Marines and stop comparing or thinking about how Tzaangors will do the job better - yes, they will do the job better in melee, but they can't shoot, they die to a breeze, and they are vulnerable to morale and overwatch. Your Rubric Marines are not, and they have superior shooting weapons, and have the option to deal out a devastating overwatch of their own. Quit complaining, pull the blinkers away from your eyes and explore your new tactical options with your Rubric Marines. Don't let the supposedly good stuff of Tzaangors blind you to the Rubric Marines' strengths.

You're playing an army of Tzeentch followers. Nothing is going to be straightforward. Your Thousand Sons army isn't going to be straightforward. It's not as simple as Tzaangors are better in every respect or spamming hordes of Tzaangors. There are many cases where Tzaangors are flat out worse than Rubric Marines. If you would just pull away those blinkers, stop drinking salty tears and quit focusing on the synergy between Tzaangor units and actually consider using the Stratagems, psychic spells and Relics for Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators, you'll see it.

I'm sure my advice will fall on deaf ears, but...oh well. I tried.

Guard versus Guard

Two weeks ago and last week I played a game against Death Guard, and I lost both games. I was too busy to type out the battle reports because of my semester but both games I essentially got tabled. I did wipe out a huge chunk of his forces, including Nurglings, Plague Marines, and one Blighthauler, but essentially I didn't do much against his Terminators. Both Deathshroud and Blightlord Terminators are insane. Not only do they have 4++ invulnerable saves, which render them effectively safe from my AP -3 plasma, they have Disgustingly Resilient rolls on top of that, and I just couldn't kill them. I could only watch as they scythe down both tanks and infantry alike. I have no idea how to counter Death Guard, especially their Disgustingly Resilient and invulnerable Terminators.

I wanted to try a third game today, but I was exhausted. Fell asleep in the afternoon after staying up all night (and morning) to study so that I could wargame today. Backfired because I ended up taking a nap and oversleeping until 5pm. Nope, no wargaming for me today, sorry.

Anyway, the first game was my standard Banehammer/Shadowsword list with a Spearhead Detachment of Leman Russ tanks and Wyverns, and my Kamikaze Troopers with their Valkyrie. The Banehammer actually did well an took out the Deathshroud Terminators, but eventually died. Then I was essentially tabled.

 For the second game, I fielded a Brigade. Yes. I finally have an Imperial Guard Brigade. Still pointless as I got wiped out by the Terminators again. Oh well. In any case, this is what my Imperial Guard Brigade list looks like:

2 Company Commanders with bolt pistols and power swords
3 Tempestors Prime with Tempestus command rods and power swords
3 Tempestus command squads with 4 plasma guns each
Kamikaze Troopers with 2 plasma guns
Kamikaze Troopers with 2 hot-shot volley guns
10 Kasrkins (Kamikaze Troopers)
3 infantry squads with 1 bolt pistol and 1 plasma gun each
2 Armored Sentinels with lascannons
Armored Sentinel with plasma cannon
Heavy weapons squad with 3 mortars
Heavy weapons squad with 3 lascannons
Wyvern with heavy bolter
Total: 1,256 points, 9 Command Points

I paired it with my Spearhead Detachment, which was:

Tank Commander in Leman Russ Executioner tank with lascannon and plasma cannons
Leman Russ Exeuctioner with lascannon and plasma cannons
Leman Russ Annihilator with lascannon and plasma cannons
Wyvern with heavy bolter
Total: 744 points, 1 Command Point

Grand total: 2,000 points, 13 Command Points

That netted me a total of 13 Command Points. I need to learn how to use Stratagems more efficiently. I almost didn't use any except Jury Rigged, Command Re-roll and Defensive Gunners. I forgot to use Vengeance for Cadia or Overlapping Fire, which might have helped me tremendously, given how I had so many Command Points. Maybe next time. I mean, what's the point of having so many Command Points if I don't use them? Then again, it was my first time using this list, so I'm still learning. Not only that, I was earning a lot of Command Points with the Kurov's Aquila relic and refunding a few (not as many as the former) through the Grand Strategist Warlord Trait.

Imperial Guard is awesome at farming Command Points. This is why I love this army.

Anyway, I still lost because I screwed up my Deep Strike. I threw away my plasma Kamikaze Troopers for nothing. Okay, I destroyed a single Blighthauler, but honestly, that wasn't worth the points. Sigh. I wanted to try again today, but I overslept and missed the opportunity to wargame. Next week then. Next week. UGH.

Oh, and speaking of Brigade, that was made possible by me adding a 3rd plasma Kamikaze command squad and 2 Armored Sentinels with lascannons. Not only did I finish my Brigade, I added Assassin support to my roster. So now I have 3 Assassins - a Vindicare Assassin, an Eversor Assassin and a Culexus Assassin. I can't wait to try them out. Was supposed to try them today, but again, I overslept. Sigh. Next week then. Next week.

Not only did I reinforce my roster with 3 Assassins, I also finished building my Thanatar siege-automata and 2 Castellax battle-automata! AWESOME! My Mechanicum army is complete! All I need is Imperial Armor: Fires of Cyraxus and I'll be able to field my Castellax and Thanatar in Warhammer 40,000 games! I hope to run them alongside my Imperial Knights, but that will be quite the elite army. We'll see. Anyway, I'll have to wait for Fires of Cyraxus, which is rumored to come out in March. Until then...

For the Emperor!

The 41st Millennium ends as the Imperial Guard and Assassins find themselves confronting gigantic stuffed animals that pour out of the Warp...

Sorcererous Power

Yay! We can preorder our Thousand Sons codex next week! Warhammer Community has posted on the Thousand Sons as usual!



Oh, and we also get datacards!



Nice! I'll be getting both the codex and the datacards. Always been a huge fan of the Thousand Sons and I'm so glad to see them get their own codex!

We're also getting an upgrade pack for the Tzaangors, so look forward to that as well!

Tzaangors and Thousand Sons

Okay, this is getting ridiculous. I'm looking at Dakka Dakka and there are a lot of people who are making ridiculous claims about the new Thousand Sons codex, so I thought I'll just put some thoughts out there and get them to calm down. I doubt they will, though. People will only listen to what they want to hear.

This Thousand Sons codex rumors thread and this Thousand Sons are dead thread are getting out of hand. I do understand if people are upset if they're forced to take Tzaangors, but I don't think that's the case at all.

I mean, people like Nintura are making fallacious claims such as "So you'd rather show up, take an hour to setup a game and deploy, knowing you're playing an underpowered army and likely lose? And that sounds fun? I'm not saying every game needs to be waac, but if you can't really win, why play at all?" or "Being competitive or just losing horrible is in fact a form of being forced... "Hey you can play this bad army and you'll lose 80% of your games, but hey we aren't forcing you to play! Instead, here, we'll make winning much more easier but it requires you to buy a whole new army. But again, that's only IF you want to win"" Now this is getting ridiculous. Have you played a game with them yet? Obviously not. And if you lose most of the time, perhaps the problem isn't with your list but the way you play them or your strategy/deployment. Just because Tzaangors have synergy with the new units like Tzaangor Shaman or Tzaangor Enlightened doesn't mean your Rubric Marines are useless. Where's the link? How do Tzaangors being good suddenly lead to your Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators suddenly being useless and causing you to lose most of your games? If anything, you have new psychic powers and Stratagems that buffs them - they're a lot stronger than they were in the Index. As I said, if you're losing 80% of your games (and where did he get those statistics from?), then the problem is with you, not the Marines or even the Tzaangors.

Honestly, right now it sounds like he's saying, "Tzaangors are good. Therefore, Rubric Marines are bad." No, wait...how did you arrive to that conclusion? What do Tzaangors being good have anything to do with Rubric Marines being bad or you losing most of your games?

Nintura also makes another hyperbolic argument. "Because, and again, it is not Thousand Sons supported by Gors. It's Gors supported by Thousand Sons. And really, you dont even need them."

That's like saying my tank army is not Leman Russ tanks supported by infantry, but infantry supported by Leman Russ tanks, and that I don't even need my tanks. What BS. Just because hordes are the meta now doesn't mean you must play only infantry squads and heavy weapon squads. I like tanks, I play them and I win regularly. And of course Tzaangors outnumber Rubric Marines. They're a horde unit. Why are you complaining about a horde unit outnumbering your elite unit? That makes no sense. That's like me complaining that I have more infantry than tanks. Well, duh. Infantry are meant to outnumber vehicles. In the same vein, your chaff/fodder Tzaangors are supposed to outnumber your Rubric Marines. That's their job.

This doesn't mean Tzaangors become the focus of your army, or that it's a Tzaangor army supported by unnecessary Rubric Marines. If they're there to bubblewrap your Rubric Marines to do the real job (capture objectives while your Tzaangors distract the enemy and die) then yeah, Tzaangors are the support unit. Complaining that they outnumber Rubric Marines when that's their job as chaff/fodder is just absurd.

And then you have Wulfey complaining, "Why ever take rubrics? They are junk. 30x tzaangor bombs hits on 2+ from an aura, and get +1 to wound from the strategem. And they charge on an 8" off a deepstrike. Can you can warptime them. And you can deepstrike them from either strategems or relics. What a joke. hitting an 8" charge on 2d6 rerolling 1 dice from a CP is like 70-80%. And the other tzaangor bomb can warptime. And if you have CP, they fight twice for 2CP."

Again, another ridiculous statement. Rubric Marines have completely different roles from Tzaangors. Here, you want a melee unit. Of course Tzaangors are better in melee. But he seems to have forgotten that 30-men Tzaangors are susceptible to morale. Not only that, with their terrible armor save (6+) and mediocre invulnerable save (5++), they die very easily. Rubric Marines have a 3+ armor save, going up to 2+ against 1-damage weapons, and their invulnerable saves go up to 4++ against 1 damage weapons (hot-shot lasguns, plasma rifles, etc.) They are much more durable. Not only that, they are much better at shooting. Your Tzaangors have autopistols at best, which are Strength 3 AP0. Why bother with them? Rubric Marines are better at range with their Strength 4 AP -2 inferno bolters, more durable, and even have an Aspiring Sorcerer who can cast Tzeentch's Glamor to make them even harder to kill. And seriously, can Tzaangors take warpflamers? No. Rubric Marines can take 4-9 warpflamers, Deep Strike 9" away, have an Exalted Sorcerer or use Chaos Familiar to swap the power for Warp Time, and then incinerate hordes with 4D6 or 9D6 Strength 4 AP -2 attacks. And that's just the shooting phase.

No, Rubric Marines have their uses and excel in different roles when compared to Tzaangors. Dismissing them and claiming that Tzaangors are superior in every way is just delusional. Furthermore, when we talk about synergy - who's going to benefit from the Exalted Sorcerer's "re-roll to hit rolls of ones" in the shooting phase? The Rubric Marines with their inferno bolters, of course. Not the Tzaangors with their pathetic autopistols. And if we're talking about the Legion Trait, Brotherhood of Sorcerers, who benefits from that? Not the Tzaangors who have no psychic ability to speak of, but the Aspiring Sorcerer (and the Scarab Occult Sorcerer) in your Rubric Marines (and Scarab Occult Terminators). Even the Legion Trait is designed for your Marines, not your mutant hordes. The only one who benefits from the Legion Trait is the Tzaangor Shaman, but hey, are you going to build your army around a Tzaangor Shaman with lots of Tzaangors? That would be a waste of your Legion Trait.

Then you have Thousand-Son-Sorcerer, whose constant whining has totally destroyed his credibility. "Why do we have no way to recover CP when we are one of the lowest model count armies? Lower then DG in model count and they have a CP recoup method. " Obviously he missed the Helm of Third Eye, which allows you to recover Command Points whenever your opponent uses a Stratagem. At this point, he sounds like he's grasping at straws and whining for the sake of whining.

Oh, and his statement "This is the problem, as other armies get their codices we will fall further and further behind, until we are in the bottom 5 or 6 armies in the game if that. That is IF we run Rubrics, if we run Tzaangors we will probably be one of the best armies in the game." And he knows our ranking how? Has he played a game with Rubric Marines with the new codex? Honestly, the whining is getting out of hand. Yes, Tzaangors are good. I get it. They have good synergy with the new units. I also get that. But how does "good" Tzaangors suddenly equate to Rubric Marines being bad/not competitive?

And his BS "Anything Rubrics do, Tzaangors do better.". I just explained why. And this statement. "All kinds, but that usually involves getting some sort of spread on units with a codex release. Not 4 new units either a gor or something to buff gors." We only have 2 new units that are Tzaangors - the Shaman and the Enlightened. Not 4. Again, he's undermining his credibility with all these absurd claims and falsehoods. And we have stuff to buff Rubric Marines too, so why the hell is he complaining? Surely any blind guy can see that the re-roll hit rolls of ones will benefit the Rubric Marines more in the shooting phase than the Tzaangors. Holy...this guy is just delusional.

Again, if you think Rubric Marines are overcosted, then you're playing them wrong. There are plenty of new ways to play them. My 9-men warpflamer squad that uses the webway and Warptime is one of them. Don't want to use Tzaangors? Buff your Maulerfiend with a Mutalix Vortext (I'm pretty sure nobody would complain if it's Daemon Engines that get the spotlight in a Thousand Sons codex, ironically - but if it's Tzaangors, then all hell breaks loose). Need anti-vehicle? Helbrutes and Predators. Don't give me the "but we need Rubric Havocs!" If you have Rubric Havocs then there's no point having lascannon Predators or Helbrutes. And honestly, with so many ways to dish mortal wounds, these mortal wounds hurt high-wound, elite units more than fodder units - which melt away to the Rubric Marines' inferno bolters and warpflamers.

Speaking of which, I would rather take Rubric Marines and warpflamers/inferno bolters against horde armies than fragile Tzaangors. Both units have their niche, and complaining that Tzaangors render Rubric Marines obsolete and useless is just the height of stupidity. Use your imagination. Tzaangors die easily without Rubric Marine support. They're glass cannons. Sure, the new Stratagems, the Tzaangor Shaman aura and Mutalix Vortex will give them extra firepower and stronger attacks (in melee), but they lack the ranged shooting firepower that Rubric Marines have. They also lack the durability that Rubric Marines have to camp on objectives and shrug off high AP firepower or hordes' 1-damage firepower. They also aren't as versatile because they can't cast psychic spells, whereas the Aspiring Sorcerer can. And a 24" Smite with the Brotherhood of Sorcerers Legion Trait at that. Can Tzaangors do that? No.

Now, if you think your Rubric Marine list is weak, stop whining and actually sit down and think of ways you can use them. The problem with Thousand-Son-Sorcerer, Nintura and the others is that they are too obsessed with Tzaangors and bashing them. Stop talking about Tzaangors. If you don't want Tzaangors in your army, then stop talking about them or thinking about them. Focus on how you want to play Thouand Sons with Rubric Marines. Quit whining about how you will lose with 60 Rubric Marines and instead focus on how you can win with them. 60 Rubric Marines means 6 different Change spells, and you can Deep Strike a bunch of them either with the Stratagem or the relic. And if you do, give them warpflamers for horde control. Don't give me the "warpflamers suck or are overcosted" BS. Use them. Play with them. Experiment with your list, Stratagems, deployment and tactics. If you lose, find out why you lose and stop blaming it on the Tzaaangors. Tzaangors aren't the reason you lost, and neither is it the Rubric Marines being bad (because quite frankly, they are good). You ever see a Space Marine list that runs only tactical squads? I don't. They have Predator support, tank support, Dreadnought support, etc. You don't want to use Tzaangors? Well, you have Predators, Vindicators, even Land Raiders. You have Daemon Engines - look at the Defiler, Forgefiend and Maulerfiend! Use those! Don't whine about Rubric Marines being terrible and Tzaangors being must-take. They are not. You have options other than Tzaangors - your Helbrutes, tanks and Daemon Engines. You can take Tzeentch allies if you like Horrors. You can field a Supreme Command Detachment of 3-5 Exalted Sorcerers or Sorcerers and have them fly all over the place while giving your Rubric Marines re-rolls of ones for their inferno bolters, and warp time warpflamer Rubric Marines into flamer range. You can Glamor of Tzeentch them, then tarpit an annoying enemy. There's so much stuff you can think about Rubric Marines and how to use them (and Scarab Occult Terminators too). If you're wasting time complaining about Tzaangors, why not use that time and energy to think about how to better use your Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators instead of writing them off right from the start?!

Honestly, just think about it. All right?

Codex: Tzaangor

Today, Warhammer Community has posted a new article on the new units in Codex: Thousand Sons, and they have confirmed our worst fears. This isn't a codex for the Thousand Sons. It's a codex for Tzaangors. Rage, everyone! Rise up and overthrow Games Workshop for their travesty! How dare they turn our Thousand Sons codex into a Tzaangor codex? We don't want Tzaangors and mutants! Why are Rubric Marines so overcosted?! What's with the missed opportunity with Stratagems?! GRAAAAAH!

Okay, finish throwing your tantrum, Thousand-Son-Sorcererer? Or Warpspy? Well, jokes aside, they do have a point. Looking at the article alone, it seems it's all about Tzaangors now.



We already know about this Tzaangor Stratagem, you posted it on Monday. Not sure why you're slapping it into our faces again...



Anyway, moving on...our Tzaangor Enlightened has three wargear options confirmed. They are mounted on Discs of Tzeentch (yay?), which gives them the Daemon keyword, so you can cast the Discipline of Tzeentch spells to buff them. Yay, I suppose.



Not only that, every hit roll of 6 will cause an automatic wound - in other words, no rolling to wound! It's not a mortal wound, though. But it's a nifty ability that comes with all 3 different wargears, which is as you see below...



Cool, eh? I guess. Oh, and they get buffed by Tzaangor Shamans, who are in the Elites slot. They can cast spells from the Discipline of Change plus they buff Tzaangor units nearby.



Cool! In other words, Tzaangor Enlightened will be doing automatic wounds on hit rolls of 5+! Not enough? Then cast Prescience on them and they'll be wounding on hit rolls of 4+! Can you imagine that?!

Oh, and the new Mutalith Vortex? You have a choice between picking one powerful effect per turn, or roll 2 dice randomly for 2 effects in that turn!



Seems like the Mutalith Vortex usually buffs close combat units. So uh...Tzaangors again? That's what the Warhammer Community article says. To be imaginative, I can imagine combining the Mutalith Vortex with a Maulerfiend and buffing his Strength (they have Mark of Chaos, so if you take a Maulerfiend in a Thousand Sons army, he'll be Tzeentch). Plus he's a great source of mortal wounds! Nice!

But wait...what about the Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Sorcerers? According the Warhammer Community, our "codex will be a toolbox, allowing you to create any Thousand Sons army you see fit, whether you’re looking to field a traditional force of Rubricae, a coven of warp-fuelled sorcerers" and we will have "new ways to use classic units like Rubric Marines, powerful rules to benefit your Sorcerers, and a dizzying array of psychic powers". But according to Thousand-Son-Sorcererer, Warpspy and Nintura, the leaks in this video have proven that Rubric Marines suck, that Warhammer Community (and Games Workshop) has lied and disappointed us, and that we will be forced to take Tzaangors and drop Rubric Marines totally in order to be competitive. I don't know...we'll see.

Problems: no ways to mitigate perils, no ways of boosting casting of psychic spells, Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators remain overcosted (funny, I thought they were cheaper than 7th edition and are pretty durable for their points). Soulreaper cannon can only be taken every 10 Rubric Marines. Exalted Sorcerers can no longer take force swords, but can take a power sword in addition to their force stave...huh? What? Inferno bolt weapon upgrade for a weapon for the cost of 1 Command Point. Hell no. Exalted Sorcerers are the same as Sorcerers except with the re-rolls of hit rolls of ones aura. No discounts apparently (but we seem to have discounts from the Chaos Space Marines codex?). Well, I'll check the codex when I get it, but until then, we'll see.

New Imperial Knight!

Hey, guys! Lots of announcements from the Las Vegas Open, and guess what? Imperial Knights will be getting a new Knight. Warhammer Community has posted a lot of stuff, but this being an Imperial Knight (and Imperial Guard, Adeptus Mechanicus and now Thousand Sons) blog, I'm more interested in the Knight Armiger!

According to the post, Knights Armiger are smaller Knights piloted by bastard children of Barons and Knight nobles...well, I'll just copy and paste here.

Smaller than their cousins and crewed by aspiring nobles, low-born commoners with a knack for war, or even the bastard children of Barons and High Kings, Armigers hunt and fight at the flanks of their larger kin. Knight Armigers will open up new tactical possibilities for Imperial Knights players, like a medieval lord hunting with his hounds, benefiting from a wider range of army builds.

That sounds awesome! I'll keep an eye out for this guy and add him to my collection! Right now, my Knights are pretty expensive, especially when I want to add allies, so swapping one Knight for one of these guys would allow me to open up more tactical possibilities and leave more room for allies (looking at you, Adeptus Mechanicus). I'm still waiting for Imperial Armor: Fires of Cyraxus, which is rumored to be released in March and if possible, I want to run an Imperial Knight army with Legio Cybernetica allies. Furthermore, I'm planning on throwing in a Spearhead Detachment (Leman Russ tanks) alongside my Knights if this new Knight Armiger is cheap enough for me to do so.

Just look at that guy! He looks so awesome! WOOHOO! I can't wait! I hope he's a Lord of War too, maybe about 200-300 points, because that will greatly help me and open up more space for allies!

Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2 announced!

Hey, guys. I just came from the Warhammer 40,000 Discord server and look at what news I found!

AWESOME! Was a fan of the first game (I'm sure you guys remember my posts on the first Battlefleet Gothic Armada game). I hope we get bigger caps this time because I was kind of suffocated by only being able to field 1 Battleship and a couple of battlecruisers. I want an entire fleet! And I can't wait to build my Adeptus Mechanicus fleet!

Oh, and from the trailer, it appears that the game is set after the fall of Cadia and the rise of the Primarch, so this looks really interesting!

Faction Focus: The Thousand Sons

Warhammer Community has a Thousand Sons Faction Focus today! WOOHOO! Time to bring on our psychic shennigans! As Thousand Sons will be my 4th (and next) army, I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do with them. My Rubric Marines, Scarab Occult Terminators, Exalted Sorcerers and Mutalith Vortex are on the way, and depending on the codex, I might buy a bunch of Tzaangors to get a Brigade Detachment. If that's not feasible, then I'll just run an army made entirely of psykers (and the Mutalith Vortex)!



The Thousand Sons have always been my favorite Legion. Blame their psychic powers. Or blame me for reading A Thousand Sons by Graham McNeill. That was one of my favorite Horus Heresy books, next to Mechanicum (also by Graham McNeill). And I enjoyed the Ahriman Collection tremendously. I'll get the Battle of the Fang soon, after I finish my current log of Gaunt's Ghosts books. We'll see.

Anyway, what do we get for our Legion Trait? Buffs to our psychic powers!



While I'm a bit disappointed it's not re-rolls of psychic tests or add stuff to our psychic tests, I'm glad it's not a copy-and-paste of the Grey Knights Chapter Tactic. Plus 6" buff is pretty good - we can Smite from 24" away now, which is bolter range. Not bad.

Not only that, we have access to three psychic disciplines. Dark Hereticus from Codex: Chaos Space Marines (I'm so gonna use Warptime for my Rubric Marines!), the Discipline of Change and even the Discipline of Tzeentch from Codex: Chaos Daemons. Take note, the 3rd is for Daemonic sorcerers only, such as Daemon Princes of Tzeentch and Magnus, and perhaps Sorcerers on Disc (we'll see). The Aspiring Sorcerers, Exalted Sorcerers on foot and Scarab Occult Terminators most likely will not be able to take the Discipline of Tzeentch. Oh, and the Tzaangor psykers too.

So what psychic powers do we have from Discipline of Change? The first is Glamor of Tzeentch, which basically gives our units protection from enemy units in the form of giving the enemy units a -1 penalty to their hit rolls (both shooting and fighting) when they target them. Awesome.



And then Doombolt is back! WOOHOO! Time to dish out mortal wounds! However, Doombolt is pretty expensive at 9 warp charge. D3 mortal wounds are awesome, but it also has the added bonus of halving the target's movement characteristic and prevent them from advancing. Cool. But with a warp charge value of 9, I doubt it's unlikely to go off, and furthermore we don't seem to have any bonus to casting psychic spells. Oh well.

That's not all. We also have awesome Stratagems!

Remember I have a unit of Rubric Marines armed with nothing but warpflamers? Yeah! Even though they're slow as feth (I've been spending too much time with the Tanith), I can use this Stratagem, Webway Infiltration, to Deep Strike them 9" away from the enemy, and then cast Warptime on them and unleash lots of hellish flames on the enemy! This will melt hordes into they who must not be named!



Want to Deep Strike more Rubric Marines to get them into close combat? Then look no closer than...



With this Stratagem and relic, we can Deep Strike potentially up to 3 units! Imagine Deep Striking a squad of 10 Rubric Marines with warpflamers with Dark Matter Crystal, and then having 2 more Rubric Marine squads with inferno bolters get within 9" of the opponent with Webway Infiltration. And also Deep Striking yet another unit of Scarab Occult Terminators next to them. That's four dudes that can fire and then charge! It's too bad we can't Deep Strike monsters and vehicles like the Mutalix Vortex Beast and Maulerfiend, though.

That said, the Maulerfiend is still awesome for Thousand Sons! Let's buff him with this other Stratagem!



Ha ha! Nice! This guy will be dishing out a lot of stuff to hordes!

Tzaangors also get their own Stratagem, which is pretty neat.



Chaos Spawn also get to be useful with Stratagems, but I'm not exactly fond of using they who must not be named...gaaah!



And we have a flesh-change Stratagem, which is...uh...



Well, seems useful if you have a Sorcerer or Tzaangor Shaman with only one wound left and is about to die (or locked in combat with an enemy). Cast a psychic spell, kill him (since he can't shoot if he's forced to fall back), then throw a Chaos Spawn somewhere 6" away, and then charge the enemy with it. Heh.

That's all the information I have for now, and I'll certainly be looking forward to playing with my Thousand Sons army once they're shipped to me!

Tzaangor upgrade pack

Oh! I found it weird that the Tzaangor boxes on the Warhammer 40,000 webstore and Triple Helix have gone out of stock, but I found out the reason why! Thanks to Warhammer Community's post today, we know that we'll have a separate Tzaangor uprade pack for our Thousand Sons!



Not only that, we have eighteen - that's right, EIGHTEEN psychic powers to choose from! They also mentioned the Tzaangor Shaman and Tzaangor Enlightened, as well as the Mutalith Vortex Beast, which we already know since Warhammer Open Day. Or was it Warhammer World? Whatever that event is called.

Just a bit more news, apparently the Tzaangor Skyfires are an alternative build of the Tzaangor Enlightened, who will have three weapon options (so Skyfire is basically Tzaangor Enlightened armed with bows). And if you want, you can upgrade your Tzaangors with the Tzaangor upgrade pack, and maybe even upgrade the Kairic Acolytes in the Battleforce Tzeentch Arcanites Changecult into Chaos Cultists with the same pack. To be honest, I'll just use my Guardsmen as cultists, ha ha. Good thing I have a bunch of flamer Guardsmen that I can use for this too.

Anyway, I'll let you know more when I get more information about the Thousand Sons! I still wish I can run Traitor/Renegade Guard alongside them, but it doesn't look like I can. Oh well.

Thousand Sons versus Adeptus Custodes

Okay, I'm hearing some conflicting reports about the Thousand Sons versus Adeptus Custodes on Thursday, but while some people claimed that the Thousand Sons won handily on objectives, another guy replied that they won only because the Custodes player was rolling badly. I don't know who's right, and unfortunately I couldn't watch the stream because I was in class, and time difference. Whatever the case is, I'm glad we won, and wished I was able to watch the game.

But what do we know?

Here was the list:

Battalion Detachment 

HQ 

Magnus the Red 
– Warlord – Lord of Forbidden Lore 
– Warptime, Death Hex, Weaver of Fates 
– Infernal Gateway 

Daemon Prince of Tzeentch with Wings 
– Dark Matter Crystal 
– Gaze of Fate 
– Glamour of Tzeentch 
– Hellforged Sword 

Ahriman on Disc of Tzeentch 
– Prescience 
– Infernal Gaze 
– Warptime 
– Inferno bolt pistol 

Elites 

Tzaangor Shaman 
– Force Stave 
– Doombolt 

5x Scarab Occult Terminators 
– Force stave 
– Temporal manipulation 
– 4 inferno combi bolters 
– 4 power swords 
– Hellfyre missile rack 
– Soulreaper cannon 

Troops 

5x Rubric Marines 
– Force Stave 
– Inferno Bolt Pistol 
– Glamour of Tzeentch 
– 4x Inferno Boltguns 

30x Tzaangor 
– Brayhorn 

10x Chaos Cultists 

Fast Attack 

9x Tzaangor Enlightened 
– 9x fatecaster greatbows 

Heavy Support 

Chaos Predator 
– Combi-melta 
– Twin lascannon 
– 2x lascannon 

Mutalith Vortex Beast 

6 command points

Cool. The whole list comes to about 1,999 points, by the way. Even more cool. So what do they do?

First, Magnus's Lord of Forbidden Lore Warlord Trait gives him 1 extra psychic power. Second, it seems the Thousand Sons's Legion Trait is giving them 6" extra range to all psychic powers. 24" Smite, anyone? :D Third, no more re-rolls of ones for invulnerable saves. I was trying to find information on the new aura buffs, but it doesn't seem like anyone caught it.

New psychic spells:
- Glamor of Tzeentch causes enemy units to shoot with a -1 penalty at your buffed unit.
- Doombolt is back! Mortal wounds and halves the movement distance of the target.
- Temporal Manipulation gives free re-roll for anything later in the turn (basically free Command Re-roll).

Take note that Aspiring Sorcerers and Scarab Occult Sorcerers can now take spells from several different tables of powers. Keeps access to Dark Hereticus, and we have a new Tzeentch table. Possibly another one, but don't get your hopes too high up yet.

Tzaangor Enlightened automatically wounds on hit rolls of 6s. In other words, if you roll a 6 for your hit rolls, that's a wound, no need to roll to wound for that hit. However, it's not a mortal wound, so your opponent still has his armor saves. You can take a maximum of 9 in a unit, and boy are they fast. I'm talking about movement speed fast. They also have 3 equipment options, and the ones they used in the battle report was Fatecaster, which was the bow and arrow one.

Tzaangor Shaman is an Elite, and he has the ability to re-roll psychic tests for his first spell in the game. So only once per game, but I guess it's better than nothing.

Tzaangors have Death to the False Emperor, can be taken in units of up to 40, and if you take 20 or more, they get +1 to their hit rolls.

Mutalith Vortex has an invulnerable save, 14 wounds, and can regenerate a wound every turn (basically like any other Daemon engines), buffs the units around it via auras - you have to roll for the buffs, and explodes when killed. Ouch.

Our Marines have Veterans of the Long War! Yay!

Speaking of which, Dark Metal Crystal is a relic that is one-use and allows you to remove a unit from the table and then Deep Strike...cough, I mean redeploy them anywhere in the table. Not enough? Then you can spend 2 Command Points to place a unit of Thousand Sons in the Webway before the game and then Deep Strike them.

Thousand Sons also have a Stratagem to improve their psychic tests. Hope to the Emperor that it's not the awful must be 6" away from 2 other Sorcerers in Chapter Approved.

Yeah, and I got the information from the Dakka Dakka thread. Someone complained about the 40 Tzaangor models to 11 Thousand Sons models (not including Magnus). I'm not sure if I'm missing something, but your horde units are supposed to outnumber your main, elite units. Like...duh? That's the point? What's the point of bringing a Tzaangor horde if they don't outnumber the Thousand Sons Marines? It's like me complaining that I have more infantry models than tanks in a tank army. Like, duh? You have 10 Guardsmen in one unit, minimum, compared to 1 tank in one unit.

If we break down to unit sizes, it was actually 3 Thousand Son marine units and 3 Tzaangor units. And we haven't counted Magnus, the Daemon Prince of Tzeentch (who was a former Marine), or even the Thousand Sons Predator. I don't know what to say. The whole whining about how the Thousand Sons are dead and how this is Codex: Tzaangor has seriously gotten out of hand. It's natural if your horde units outnumber your Marines in terms of models - that's their freaking job! And in terms of units, you actually have more Marine units than Tzaangors! Calm down, people!

Anyway, that's all the information I have for now. I'll update you guys when I find out more. Till then! For the Emperor!

Codex: Thousand Sons and not Codex: Tzaangors

Well, technically, my semester had begun yesterday (Tuesday, January 16th). I just finished my homework and stuff, so I'm going to let you guys know that my updates will be less sporadic because of school.

Don't worry, there will be more updates once the Thousand Sons codex drops - I guarantee I'll cover that no matter how late I am. For now, I apologize for the lack of updates.

By the way, I see people complaining that the new Thousand Sons codex will be Codex: Tzaangor all because Games Workshop announced that the Tzaangor units will be ported over from Age of Sigmar. Calm down, people. They are just new options. That doesn't mean that Tzaangors will be the only viable way to play, nor does it mean the Tzaangors will take center stage and become the focus of the new codex. Besides, we don't even have the codex yet! Where are you guys getting the information from? I mean, it's a leap to conclude that the codex will be based mostly on Tzaangors or that they'll be the only viable way to play Thousand Sons just from what little information we have!

Let's wait for more information before hitting the panic button and raging about how Thousand Sons is no longer Thousand Sons but all about Tzaangors, all right?

Forge World news - Fires of Cyraxus and Thousand Sons release

Hey, guys. I can't find the official source or confirmation, but I heard from the Discord server for Warhammer 40,000 that Fires of Cyraxus will be released "no later than March."

I don't know how true this is, so for now assume that it is a rumor and take it with a lot of salt. According to the guy on Discord, the source was from the Warhammer World Open Day on Saturday when they asked one of the Forge World staff. If true, then we'll be getting Fires of Cyraxus around March.

Speaking of which, Haechi posted on the Tau Tactica the release schedule for the codex.

Haechi: From my inside infos, the TS codex was delayed until unknown times and therefore there was a big gap in the previsions for February. I guess now for some reason it's back on schedule ! So now we have Custodes-Thousand Sons-T'au-Necrons-Dark Eldars-Harlquins.

Another guy: So, T'au codex have a possibility to be released in mid Feb then. yeah! :D  

Haechi: No, that gap is filled again by Thousand Sons haha. We have Daemons soon, Custodes last week of January, and probably for 3 more weeks because of multiple releases, then Thousand Sons, mid/end of Feb, and finally T'au around mid March. Keep in mind I don't have the exact dates, my source just says it like "early, late, mid, of a month

That's what he wrote, so we can assume that Thousand Sons will be released in February, then Imperial Armor: Fires of Cyraxus in March or so. I'm still building my Thanatar, who is half-built because it's resin and my plastic glue isn't working on him. I've ordered Citadel superglue (along with plasma guns, a Culexus Assassin and a Sentinel) almost two weeks ago, but there shows no sign of them being dispatched. Bloody hell, I was planning on building them before the semester begins, but it looks like it's impossible.

Oh well. I have no idea what's the delay with the Warhammer 40,000 web store delivery, but we'll find out soon enough. For now I'll wait for my Thousand Sons to be shipped over.

Another thing I received, a so-called Forge World product, is a new Leman Russ Annihilator. So now I have 2 Leman Russ Annihilator tanks!

Looks absolutely beautiful. Cool! I love the paint. Unfortunately it's missing one sponson, but I'm planning to fix that with a plasma cannon from the Sentinels I'm ordering. Unfortunately, as I said, the delivery still hasn't arrived yet...

Update: I received a reply from Games Workshop! Apparently the Sentinels have been out of stock for a while, and they're only returning this week. They should be shipped soon. Thanks for the response, Games Workshop!

This is why you should buy Citadel products, everybody. Fast and solid response, and guarantee that your products will be delivered.

Battle Report 23

Well, this is my last week of winter break before I return to school next week (spring semester is starting for the University of Minnesota). So I was trying to get as many games in as possible before the inevitable return to studying and cramming (and grading).

So today (or yesterday, since it's past 1am, rather...3am because it took me 2 hours to write the entire battle report), I managed to get a couple of games against an Orks player. Waaagh! I was looking forward to pitting my Imperial Guardsmen against Orks, especially after all the Ciaphas Cain novels and other Imperial Guard novels that I've read (Imperial Glory with the Brimlock Dragoons, Baneblade by Guy Haley, and Pyres of Armageddon starring Yarrick).

First Game

The first game was Dominate and Destroy (yay!), and we decided to do 2,000 points. I actually offered to not play my Shadowsword, but he suggested that I should because he wanted to try out my list. I was like, "uh, my Shadowsword isn't going to be useful anyway" because he wasn't bringing any tanks, battlewagons, Stompas or even a Morkanaut/Gorkanaut. But he wanted to test his list out against my tank list, so I decided to use him as a Banehammer, which he agreed.

The Ork list consisted of 2 Weirdboys, 2 Big Meks, 3 squads of 10 Boyz, 1 group of Nobz, tankbustas all loaded on a trukk, 10 lootas, 3 Killa Klans, 3 deff koptas, 3 Deff Dreads...and 2 Kommando squads, I think. Yeah. That should be it. I think he used a Battalion and a Vanguard Detachment.

My list was my standard Shadowsword list, except that I replaced my Shadowsword with a Banehammer. So I fielded a Spearhead Detachment of my Tank Commander in Leman Russ Executioner (with lascannon and plasma cannons), a 2nd Leman Russ Executioner, a Leman Russ Annihilator (I got a new, 2nd one today!) and 2 Wyverns, a Vanguard Detachment of 2 Tempestors Prime, 2 plasma Tempestus command squads, a Valkyrie and a Tech-priest Enginseer, and a Supreme Command Detachment of 2 Primaris Psykers, 1 Company Commander and 1 plasma command squad and the Banehammer.

Surprisingly enough, I finished deploying first for once even though I'm Imperial Guard. It looked like the Orks had many more units than me. Thanks to that, I got a +1 to my roll, which helped me tie the first time. On our second roll, I managed to out-roll him and claim first turn. He tried to seize the initiative, but failed.

Turn 1

I moved my Valkyrie up and dropped my Primaris Psykers, Company Commander and plasma command squad 9" away from the deff koptas, which were the nearest unit to my deployment zone. My Kamikaze Troopers deep struck inside a building to capture an objective. And then I used Smite and brought down one deff kopta to one or two wounds. The Valkyrie fired his lascannon, and finished off the deff kopta, giving me First Blood! Meanwhile his heavy bolters and multiple rocket pods erased a bunch of Ork Boyz, downing them to...3 guys, I think? The plasma command squad supercharged their plasma guns and fired on another deff kopta and destroyed it. The Leman Russ Annihilator fired and killed a few Lootas because they were the only ones in range. The Leman Russ Executioners couldn't do much because they were practically out of range from anything except the Lootas, so I killed a few more Lootas with them. My first Tempestus Command squad fired their plasma guns and wiped out the Lootas - oh, and thanks to that, I was racking up victory points because of Dominate and Destroy. The second Kamikaze plasma squad fired on the Big Mek and brought him down to 2 wounds because of his invulnerable save and being out of rapid fire range. My Wyverns were MVP. Firing their stormshard mortars, they wiped out about 9 Boyz. The Nob then fled due to morale, granting me another victory point. The 3 guys lost another guy to morale, but still had 2 guys left.

As for the Banehammer, he did almost nothing. He missed his lascannons' shots, his twin heavy bolters were out of reach of anything, and his tremor cannon, despite doing 3D6 shots rolled a 2 and 2 ones - 4 shots. I ended up only dealing two wounds, which my opponent failed his saves, and destroyed just one Killa Klan. The good news is that the surviving two's movement were halved thanks to the shot. Yay.

I captured about three objectives and killed 4 units, and with First Blood, that led me to having 8 victory points in my first turn alone.

My opponent then moved his surviving Boyz up, and his Killa Klans toward my plasma command squad. Thanks to my Tremor cannon, their movement was halved, so they were practically out of charge range. The Weirdboyz casted Jump or something and had the Boyz appear more than 9" away from my plasma command squad. The trukk moved and stayed behind cover at a building while his Deff Dreads and 2nd Big Mek moved and advanced. The final deff kopta also moved toward my Leman Russ tank. The Kommandoes then deep struck behind my lines, right behind my Leman Russ Annihilator, and the 2nd squad of Kommandoes deep struck right behind my Tempestus Command squad. They fired and failed to wound any of my Kamikaze Troopers because I was in cover and had a 3+ armor save. The other Kommandoes squad also failed to wound my Leman Russ Annihilator with their shooting. The Boyz fared little better, shooting and killing just one plasma gunner in the command squad. It was the Tankbustas who had much better luck, firing from the Trukk and killing 3 Kamikaze Troopers in one squad. Ouch. The Killa Klans also failed to shoot or wound the plasma squad for some reason. That was really bad rolling on my opponent's part...in any event, both Kommando squads charged and even with 'ere we go! only one of them made it in - and started hitting my Leman Russ Annihilator. I killed one or two with overwatch despite using the Defensive Gunners Stratagem. The plasma gunners killed a few Boyz on overwatch, funnily enough, as did the Kamikaze Troopers, who killed a couple of Kommandoes - but neither of these made it in. On the other hand, the deff kopta did succeed his charge and got into combat with my Leman Russ Executioner. Oh, and the Killa Klans failed their charge despite 'here we go!But it was a 10" charge, so he needed a 9 or better.

I don't think the Kommandoes wounded my Leman Russ tank at all. Surprisingly enough, my opponent failed to kill even a single unit. So all he had was 1 victory point for that single objective he had his Big Mek camping on. I passed morale for both command squads, so none of them ran away, even the single Kamikaze trooper.

Turn 2

I had both my Leman Russ tanks fall back, while my Primaris Psykers and plasma command squad moved up to capture another objective. My psykers used Smite and brought one of the Killa Klans to just 2 wounds. In the shooting phase, my plasma guys supercharged their plasma guns and killed the Killa Klans. My Valkyrie fired and destroyed the deff kopta with his lascannon and wiped out the Boyz squad with his heavy bolters and multiple rocket pods. Meanwhile my plasma Kamikaze Troopers fired and wiped out the Kommandoes. I can't remember what else...I think my tank commander fired and killed the Big Mek. Meanwhile my Wyverns fired and decimated the Nobz, leaving just 2 or 3. My Banehammer fired and wiped out the 2nd Kommandoes with his twin heavy bolters, and his lascannons brought the trukk down to just one wound, while with his tremor cannon, he destroyed a single Deff Dread.

That gave me another 4 victory points for securing 4 objectives, and 6 victory points for destroying that many units, bringing my total tally up to 18 victory points.

My opponent then tried to move his Weirdboyz up and Smite my Primaris Psykers, while his 2 surviving Deff Dreads and the accompanying Big Mek moved and advanced. His trukk stayed where it was while the two surviving Boyz in the last squad ran forward toward my plasma command squad.

I managed to deny the witch with my 2 Primaris Psykers and the Weirdboyz's Smite fizzled out. Or maybe they killed 1 or 2 plasma guys because I failed to deny the witch with one of them. I can't remember. Anyway, Orks' shooting being what it was, they failed to hit the plasma guys. On the other hand, the tankbustas fired on the last remaining Kamikaze Trooper in the first plasma squad and killed him, earning him 1 victory point. I think that was it...he charged his Boyz at my plasma squad, and both guys got killed in a very lucky overwatch.

And that point, we called it game. My opponent had only 3 victory points while I had 19. There was no way he was going to win this game - I was too far ahead, and he killed only one of my units and wounded none of my tanks. It was a uphill battle for him. There was no way he could catch up now.

So we decided to stop the game and play a 2nd, smaller game of 1,000 points. This one worked out much better and was more even.

Second Game

This time, the mission was Scorched Earth. We had a thousand points for each army, so I had to adjust my list. My opponent brought a Weirdboy, a Painboy, a Big Mek, 3 squads of 10 Boyz, tankbustas, a trukk, a dakkajet, 2 Kommando squads, and a single deff kopta. I think he loaded his tankbustas and Big Mek into the trukk.

As for me, I brought my Spearhead Detachment of Tank Commander in a Leman Russ Executioner with lascannon and plasma cannons, a 2nd Leman Russ Executioner, a Leman Russ Annihilator and 2 Wyverns, plus a Company commander, a plasma command squad and a Tech-priest Enginseer.

Turn 1

Once again, I managed to get the first roll, and he failed to seize the Initiative, but this time he deployed intelligently and had all his units hidden behind a building and away from my line of sight. The only thing I could shoot at was the Dakkajet with my Leman Russ Annihilator and my Tank Commander. Between the two of them, I could barely kill it, leaving only one wound on it. Then the Wyverns fired and obliterated one Boyz squad, leaving just 3 Boyz, who lost 2 to morale, leaving just 1 Nob. Wyverns for the win! Unfortunately, with everyone else out of line of sight, that was all I could fire. I did gain 2 Victory Points for the objectives, but that was all.

My opponent then used the Weirdboy to cast the jump and had one Boyz squad jump behind my Wyverns, and also the 2 Kommando squads appear behind my Wyvern and my tanks. The trukk moved around the building and the tankbustas fired on my Leman Russ Executioner, doing 6 wounds to him. Between the shooting and melee (the Boyz and Kommandoes made it in when they charged my Wyvern), they brought my Wyvern down to 3 wounds. Ouch. The dakkajet fired and did absolutely nothing to my tank commander. Meanwhile the other 2 Boyz squad, including the decimated one, moved forward. Fortunately, he didn't kill any of my units either, so no First Blood to him, but he had moved his deff kopta forward to capture 1 objective and gain 1 victory point. The 2nd Kommando squad failed their charge, I think. I'm not sure. Oh, but I used Defensive Gunners Stratagem on my Wyvern and killed a couple of Boyz and a few of the Kommandoes, decimating them.

Turn 2

I had my Tech-priest Enginseer repair my wounded Leman Russ Executioner, bringing him to 9 wounds (I think). My Leman Russ Annihilator finished off the dakkajet with his lascannons, and his plasma cannons obliterated the Boyz. Both my Wyverns had to move because the uncharged one was blocking his fall back path. Thanks to that, he could only fire on 5+ and couldn't re-roll ones, and only killed three or so Boyz in the 10-men squad. Menawhile my Leman Russ Executioner fired and did a pitiful 2 damage to the Trukk. I think. My plasma command squad then pasted one of the Kommando squads, while my tank commander wiped out the other. First Blood to me, yeah!

Again, I gained another 2 victory points for holding 2 objectives and 1 more for First Blood, giving me 5 in total.

My opponent moved his trukk forward, as well as his two remaining Boyz, Pain Boy and Weirdboy. The Weirdboy used the jump spell and had the 7 or 8 Boyz warp in right behind my wounded Leman Russ tank. The tankbustas put another 6 wounds on my Leman Russ Executioner, leaving him with just 3 wounds left. The Boyz fired and charged him, and despite my Defensive Gunners Stratagem, I only killed 3 or so. If I remember correctly, they had about 4 or 5 left after overwatch. They didn't wound him, I believe, or maybe put just one wound, I can't remember. He had about 2 or 3 wounds when my opponent was done. Meanwhile my opponent had moved his sole remaining Boyz and trukk up to capture the 2nd and 3rd objectives, so he earned 3 points, having 4 to my 5.

Turn 3

The game was getting closer than I thought. I had my wounded Leman Russ tank move 4" away from the Boyz. My company commander and plasma command squad moved up toward the trukk to get within rapid fire range, but to no avail. Anyway, my tank commander fired and blew up the trukk, and my plasma squad fired on the tankbustas (who lost 1 or 2 guys), only to do a pitiful 2 or 3 wounds. The majority of them were still alive. My first Wyvern, who I repaired with my Tech-priest Enginseer and used the Jury Rigging Stratagem to bring him back to 6 wounds, fired his heavy bolters and killed only 1 Boyz, while his stormshard mortars killed a couple of tankbustas. The second one swapped his weapons, training his heavy bolters on the tankbustas and stormshard mortars on the Boyz. I wiped out the Boyz but the tankbustas remained strong. Oh, and I lost one plasma gunner to another re-roll of one due to supercharging my plasma guns. Ouch. Anyway, I earned another 2 victory points and got 7.

My opponent continued to claim the 2nd objective while he blew up my wounded Leman Russ Executioner with his tankbustas and killed my plasma command squad with his weirdboyz's Smite. Ouch. The deffkopta and sole surviving Boyz (a Nob) continued to hold the 2 objectives, and he earned another 2 victory points, giving him 6 to my 7. At least he killed a Leman Russ Executioner! That was a big victory for him. Wow, he was closing in on me like crazy, cutting my lead to 1 because he was capturing objectives.

Turn 4

I killed his tankbustas with my tank commander, my first Wyvern killed the Big Mek, and my second Wyvern killed the Weirdboy, granting me Slay the Warlord. Thanks to that, I earned 3 victory points, bringing me up to 10. My opponent couldn't do much and merely moved his painboy up. His Nob and deff kopta netted him another 2 victory points and he got 8.

Turn 5

My tank commander killed the nob, and it took both Wyverns to kill the painboy. At that point, my opponent only had one deff kopta left, so there was no point continuing the game. I would have earned another 2 points to get 12, while he could only get 1 victory point maximum from that sole deff kopta, who couldn't shoot anyone. So he surrendered and I managed to get another victory - just barely. The scales had tipped slightly in his favor thanks to his intelligent deployment, and honestly, my lead was hanging by a very thin thread. But I managed to prevail somehow through the sheer grit and determination of my Imperial Guard Armor. Phew!