What have your Raven Guard done lately?

[Hiroitchi]

its been awhile, so here is the Deredeo Dreadnought I finally got around to finishing.

And yeap I started working on some Shadowspear Primaris

Edited April 16, 2019 by Hiroitchi

[thewarriorhunter]

That dread looks straight out of Metal Gear Solid. I like it.

[ShinyRhino]

"Please put down your weapon. You have twenty seconds to comply."

[Race Bannon]

OR

 

The Mad Dog (Vulture) from Battletech ^_^

[ShinyRhino]

I got another local tourney in yesterday. I brought the Phobos Captain, a pair of Primaris Lieutenants, two five man Scouts squads, two five man Intercessors, a ten man Tactical, five man Hellblasters, five Company Vets, three Assault Centurions (flamers and hurricanes), a squadron of three Speeders with heavy bolters and assault cannons, a lone speeder with multimelta and Typhoons, a Stormtalon with Typhoons and Assault cannons, two Rhinos, and a Las Razorback.

 

I'd grown bored with my jump troops, which also didn't go well with the Phobos Captain (who replaced my Jump Captain).

 

I lost all three games, but had more enjoyable games than I'd had recently. I also rolled my Warlord traits to try them out at random.

First round I got Target Priority (the +1 to hit one) against Tau. It is amazing with Hellblasters. Over charge every turn with no fear of overheating.

Second was Marksmans Honors against (+1 damage, reroll hit and wound on shooting) Mechanicus and Knights. Worthless, as his gun is still S4 and the only thing coming forward was the Knight (hammer and anvil deployment).

Final was Master of the Vanguard (+1 move, advance, charge) against Chaos. Again worthless because the CSM beatstick characters were coming towards me in Pitched Battle deployment. Chaos are brutal now with double firing Oblits, and tons of fast moving characters who chop through infantry with ease. Watch out for large blobs of Red Corsair Marines using the There's More Where Those Came From strat for 3cp. They remove the unit from the board and set it back up near a board edge at full strength. Killed only 14 of 17? Too bad, they're all back again. Didn't happen to me, but it took a couple other players by surprise.

 

Again, I'm seeing a huge need for Infiltrators in my army. Between Tau suits, assassins, and Bloodletter Bombs, there wasn't a single game I couldn't have used their help. They just got bumped to the top of my painting list.

[Shadow Captain Vyper]

Im confused, did you roll randomly for your WL trait on the Phobos Captain each round in a tournament?

 

I would love to hear your thoughts on how the dakka-speeders performed :)

[ShinyRhino]

Im confused, did you roll randomly for your WL trait on the Phobos Captain each round in a tournament?

 

I would love to hear your thoughts on how the dakka-speeders performed :)

I selected Target Priority for round one, lost the game, and knew placing top three was out the window (I knew that before I showed up, honestly, lol). So I decided to have fun and rolled the last two rounds randomly.

 

Dakka speeders were quite good. Paired with the Assault Centurions with Hurricanes, they were great at carving through infantry. If you can get the dakka Speeders into a commanding position turn one so they don't have to move around to shoot, they'll do well. I feel like putting a couple cheap units of ASM around them in an elevated position to screen charges would be interesting.

Edited April 22, 2019 by ShinyRhino

[mertbl]

3rd company is loading up the thunderhawk to begin a campaign of urban conquest. Right now the number of foes and their composition is unknown, tonight's mission will be intelligence and reconnaissance.

[MajorNese]

Played against tyranids today, and tried most of the shadowspear stuff as well as some other rarely fielded units.

 

Well...I need more thunderfire cannons. At now 92p a pop (techmarine gunner gear got cheaper/free), they are an emperor-damned steal. Never out of range, don't need LoS, gunner repairs and/or shoots nearby stuff. Redemptor and Repulsor with nearby Storm of Fire chapter master were insane too, the second of each is currently built/basecoated.

 

Infiltrators...well, the 5 guys were worth it this time, as my opponent brought 2 Mawlocs (need to land within 2" to work), and couldn't use them on my main firebase due to scramblers. Otherwise their autowound was not that bad with nearby CM rerolls, considering I was facing T7/T8 stuff that is hard to wound. Unless they were out of range, unlike the intercessors around them.

 

Suppressors didn't do much. Didn't do anything first shooting phase, lost a guy, then jumped to an objective to give me a VP. Smoked and >12", the remaining guys did soak up a lot of fire, but 35ppm sacrifices are not really an ideal way to run them. Bigger squads are necessary, or they become ineffective too quickly.

 

My two Eliminator squads were situational. One was quickly cornered (board half lost to bug wave), but soaked up a rage-inducing amount of AP-1 fire for several rounds and only died in round 5. No ObSec, so taking an objective with them wouldn't have worked. No LoS round was nice to finish off a damaged unit once, but mostly I used the good ammo to damage chars. Against T4 it was unreliable already, against T5 it was mostly fishing for 6s. My opponent hated them, but mostly for standing in a spot he couldn't reach with CC units, and shooting them didn't work out, even with AP-1.

 

All in all, I'm on the fence about most of the vanguard stuff. The libby was great as ever (even if psychic bugs could deny a lot), Eliminators were situational even at higher numbers, suppressors were useless at their model count, and infiltrators were only useful because of Mawlocs but otherwise not really overwhelming. Most effective were Repulsor, Redemptor and TFC, just drowning everything in dice.

[ShinyRhino]

I have this feeling Reivers are somehow supposed to ne involved in the Vanguard unit mix, but can't quite figure out in what capacity.

[MajorNese]

I have this feeling Reivers are somehow supposed to ne involved in the Vanguard unit mix, but can't quite figure out in what capacity.

I might add, one squad of these (CC, grav chute) decided the game yesterday. Deep strike turn 3 into the enemy backfield, kill a red terror, sit on an objective until end of turn 7. Turned a clear loss into a draw.

 

As for the role - Infiltrators keep drop zones clear and apply pressure, Reivers drop in to take care of CC and hand out morale debuff/flashbangs.

Reivers in general provide options to reinforce or capture certain areas of the field in turn 2 or 3, while most primaris stuff just advances at walking pace, so I usually take one CC/grav squad.

[ShinyRhino]

 

 

I have this feeling Reivers are somehow supposed to ne involved in the Vanguard unit mix, but can't quite figure out in what capacity.

I might add, one squad of these (CC, grav chute) decided the game yesterday. Deep strike turn 3 into the enemy backfield, kill a red terror, sit on an objective until end of turn 7. Turned a clear loss into a draw.

 

As for the role - Infiltrators keep drop zones clear and apply pressure, Reivers drop in to take care of CC and hand out morale debuff/flashbangs.

Reivers in general provide options to reinforce or capture certain areas of the field in turn 2 or 3, while most primaris stuff just advances at walking pace, so I usually take one CC/grav squad.

Nice. Five or ten man squad?

[MajorNese]

Always just five. If I'd field 10, it would be two units to be at two places at the same time, for the exact same points. Twice the chance to make the deep strike charge, less morale issues, and they are too expensive just to max out the squad because I could.

 

To be honest, except for Inceptors (which add a noticeable amount of dakka), I'd only fill up squads if I have enough leftover points, and only dump them into more intercessors. Those are the cheapest primaris and there to stick around, which makes sense to add more bodies.

Edited April 27, 2019 by MajorNese

[Panzer]

 

I have this feeling Reivers are somehow supposed to ne involved in the Vanguard unit mix, but can't quite figure out in what capacity.

I might add, one squad of these (CC, grav chute) decided the game yesterday. Deep strike turn 3 into the enemy backfield, kill a red terror, sit on an objective until end of turn 7. Turned a clear loss into a draw.

 

 

That's pretty much what they always do for me as well. Come in turn 3, overhwelm a weaker flank and then 'sneakily' sit on objectives for the rest of the game. :D

Unforatunately that only really works against armies that come out of their deployment zone for me. Against AdMech it never worked even once and when I rush my opponent into his deployment zone so he can't really get out they can't do that job either. 

[thewarriorhunter]

Got two games in last night which was a pleasant surprise. One was a demo game of Bolt Action and another was a game of Kill Team.

 

A couple points on BA that are relevant to 40k - what a great activation system. It's random and it (potentially) alternates.

 

I. Love. It.

 

I would love to see 40k adopt a similar system, or at the least Kill Team so it can be trialed. The 'not knowing' who goes next is really nerve racking and makes your choices really matter. Do you gamble on a specific movement hoping you'll go again to get a great combo or do you play cautiously because you just don't know? I feel like it's very thematic and allows for really great story telling.

 

Second point is that I think it's good for gamers to play in more than one system. Personally I've been entrenched in 40k for ~3 years and haven't played any other table top games. Playing a different system was refreshing and helped me to have some perspective on 40k. I feel like playing more BA will help me appreciate the aspects I need to in 40k while ignoring or caring less about the things I don't like as much.

 

So back to 40k and my game of Kill Team. It was great and came down to the wire. I forgot to take pictures... sorry.

 

We played the Terror Tactics mission for the KT Rule Book. My Spectral Sicarii vs his Imperial fist.

 

His list was roughly:

 

Primaris Sgt - Leader

Marine with combi flamer - Comms

Marine with heavy bolter - Heavy

Marine with plasma gun - Sniper

3 x Scout snipers with Camo Cloak

 

First turn was rough. I thought a piece of terrain was LOS blocking (because I'm tall and was looking down) so my deployment was less than ideal when I realized it was mostly open. My opponent also got the initiative for all 6 rounds that we played. I charged my combat sgt into his sniper who hit on a supercharged overwatch and promptly vaporized my guy... oof.

 

Turn 2 he readies most of his models and I stare at a gun-line. Luckily my Intercessor was a tank and soaked up most of the firepower and made his saves.

 

Turn 3 a few more models are killed on each side.

 

Turn 4 I advance my reiver towards his board edge, at this point I don't think he realized what was going on and I was hoping to sneak out a win on VP because he had the model advantage.

 

Turn 5 I'm off the board with my reiver and my comms is in combat. He ended up being a hero and took out 2 of his models in CC, getting me two VPs that I really needed. He had 3 models he wanted to get off the board and had to advance all of them, he needed a 9, 10, and 11 respectively and made all of them on the nose... very demoralizing for me but that's the game.

 

Turn 6 my comms takes out his last guy in CC after piling into him to lock him up in turn 5. My last intercessor gets off the board and we're tied at 8 VP each. Tie condition was the weaker force wins. His Team clocked in at 100 points, mine was at 99 because I didn't take a grapnel launcher on my Reiver so a victory for me.

[Shadow Captain Vyper]

Congrats on the win! Sounds like you had a good/close game :) 

[thewarriorhunter]

Yeah, it was nice to pull out a win given how my last handful of games have been. It would have been a good game (because it was close and back and forth) even if I'd lost but I won't deny that winning felt good, and I think mentally I needed it.

[Claws and Effect]

My Raven Guard 4th Company have gotten embroiled in a 25-50-75 PL escalation campaign at my local GW store.

 

That my wife and I happen to be running :)

[Race Bannon]

Wife included?!

 

Can I join your universe ...

[thewarriorhunter]

Yeah bring me too! My supports my hobby but I'd be over the moon if she engaged with it.

[Lord Raven 19]

Finished my Phobos librarian and Phobos lieutenant a couple of days ago.

[Dracos]

Pics please :)

[Stoic Raptor]

I finished my Captain the other day - Librarian is almost done.

[Claws and Effect]

Wife included?!

 

Can I join your universe ...

She has a massive Nids army.

 

And more Blood Angels than I have Raven Guard........

[ShinyRhino]

I finished my Captain the other day - Librarian is almost done.

Nice. I used the exact same head swap for mine.