Magnets, weapon swaps and Devastators...

Well, finally getting to use the wee tiny magnets I picked up from Dave up at the Gopher (http://armored-gopher.com/)...  I have WAY too many Plasma Pistols on my Jump Troopers, but with the Death Company set, there are Inferno Pistols, Hand Flamers and oh yes, MORE Plasma Pistols...  So, my test case is done with in essence a hand swap with Plasma and Inferno Pistols....  Looking like I'll wind up doing this on a few of the lads if it works out, and it is looking very good so far...

Devastators,  thinking that I'll field one unit of the lads...  But not necessarily the standard 4 Missile Launchers...  Thinking of a few Heavy Bolters, maybe a Missile Launcher or two...  Finding the weight of fire thing is pretty important, a LOT of saves forced is a good thing.  Not so sure they will do squat for me in terms of AA fire, I guess the DE and maybe Necron fliers might be concerned about Heavy Bolters...  But missing the GK Psycannon s...  Leads me to a bit of a mini rant :-)

The more I think about it, the more I am annoyed by the GK codex.  Yes, they have a limited selection of Heavy Weapons, but the ones they have are almost perfect for about anything.  No snap fire needed for it because they can shoot Assault 2 OR Heavy 4.  It's Str 7, Rending, so it can punch through whatever is out there as opposed to say, a Heavy Bolter...  The Lightning Claws they use are NOT LC, but they do the same thing without the disadvantage of losing the shooting attacks they have...  And oh, wait, theirs are Str 5 and Assault 2 when they buy the upgrades...  So a HUGE mass of Str 5 shooting followed by Force Weapons hitting in HtH if needed.  Yes, they all have Power Weapons...  Actually Force Weapons, so multi Wound models can all just die too...  And fliers that just murder Psykers...  Scoring units all over the place, an option for anything :-)...  Sadly, I HAVE a GK army, but honestly I feel bad fielding it.  It just seems like I am min maxing and borderline cheating by just fielding the options in the book.  Not really much of a challenge to field a really powerful army, so I'd rather field an army I will have an actual challenge winning with than one I can just wipe people off the table with...

:-)  Looking at converting a Pedro Cantor, or if I can find the actual figure in METAL maybe picking it up...  This way I can resurrect some of my ancient Crimson Fists as an Allied Detachment in REALLY big games to make Sternguard scoring and even more awesome...  Will have to throw together more Drop Pods as well of course...  LONG term plan, especially with this being a 2000+ point concept I think for me...

REALLY tired, changing out some of my workout stuff...  While "planking" LOOKS easy, it is not so much so...  Sore and exhausted...

Yes, they can kill tanks...

So, between the Sternguard, Assault squads following on and the Death Company assaulting, I WAS able to  deal with an overload of Leman Russ class tanks.  Fortunately, there were not nearly enough Infantry to bog me down, and his fliers got stuck in reserve long enough for me to deal with his Punisher tanks.  Did have my Sternguard and CPT Tycho endure a turn of him unloading some 90+ shots into me, killing 4 of my lads.  And by soaking so much fire, the Death Company and DC DN were able to roll across the field and wreck lots of stuff, each accounting for a squadron of Russes...  So, I think the Army is tweaked enough.  Time to see what else I can field, maybe try a Dev Squad and the Storm Raven...

New FAQ, and let's see how the army does this week...

Well, new FAQs came out at the end of last week...  Tycho for instance can completely ignore armor in his HtH attacks.  Neat I guess, and since I am fielding him I'll take it...  I thought it was kind of odd because "ignores armor" IIRC was just the wording for "Power Weapon" in the previous edition.  Could be wrong of course :-)  I just don't feel like looking it up.  Not sure the justification for Bone Swords ignoring all armor, effectively becoming AP 2, but not facing any in the League at least...  Jamie will likely field them of course, so likely see them there, but nothing yet to be concerned about.

So, fielding a variant of last weeks force I think:

CPT Sariel (Tycho)
Sanguinary Priests (2, 1 jump pack, 1 power weapon, Axe)
Scout Squad (10, snipers, Heavy Bolter or ML, might drop the PF)
Assault Squad (10, flamer, melta gun, SGT w/PW/PP or inferno pistol)
Assault Squad (5, Razorback with TLAC ro Las/Plas, melta gun)
Sternguard Squad (Drop Pod, 5 Combi Melta, 1 Combi Plasma, Heavy Flamer)
Baal Predator (TLAC or Flamer, HB sponsons
Whirlwind

Aegis line w/ Quad Gun

Looking at dropping the power fist on the Scouts, so saving 25 points that I have yet to use during this league...  Maybe put a power weapon on one of the Sang Priests...  Maybe Terminator Armor?  That seemed to work out well in the Drop pod...  Or 30 points that I have left over becomes another Sternguard trooper with a Combi Weapon...  Hmmm...  That might be the plan.

I still think army is weak against a mass flier army, but overall it is looking good...

Fleshtearers Heavy Support?

Well, I haven’t used the Heavy Support much in the BA list…  Wound up winning on VCs because I was able to kill off a bunch of them like a Land Raider, Vindicators, etc…  Dropped in Sternguard, Assault Squads and Death Company assaulting are pretty hard to handle for Vehicles these days, assuming that it cannot be bubble wrapped to prevent the charge or Drop in the first place…  But overall I have been playing my Fleshtearers as a fast assault force, so almost no room for non scoring things that do not move quickly…

Thinking about bringing a Dev Squad, but concerned about the whole idea of fielding a bunch of 3+ armor save guys whose job is really to be shot at…  On the other hand a squad of lads with Heavy Bolters and Missile Launchers might just tear something up, especially if I have the Aegis line or a building to base them in…  Keeping a Medic nearby might be a really good idea, and mixing them in with my Sniper Scouts might be amusing.  If I bring 10, I can Combat Squad and either run a super Dev squad with 4 HW’s or split them into 2 Squads with 2 HW each.  Neat, but not being Scoring for most of the missions I’m not so sure they will be valuable enough in general.  Have a hard time bringing a Las Cannon or even a Heavy Plasma given the point cost, but the Heavy Bolters and Missile Launchers are 10 points and so might be worth overloading on.  Bringing a Razorback for the Squad might give me another Assault Cannon or keeping it cheap another TL Heavy Bolter on a fast chassis…  But having a hard time with that over say, a Predator…  In fact, having a really hard time thinking the Dev Squad would do better than a Predator roaming about.  2 Las cannon and an Auto Cannon gives me 4 shots, so fewer I guess, but FAR more mobile if push comes to shove… 

:-)  Just killing time and trying to think about slightly different things to add to the list... 

Fleshtearers 3rd Co, now with pictures...

Mkay, remembered to take my phone downstairs...  Meant to post yesterday, but exhaustion being what it is...

Yeah, crappy camera on the phone...  But getting there on the painting.

So far, Drop Pod and Sternguard are ready.  Threw together a Heavy Flamer trooper, and he has been awesome.  Happy overall with the Medic riding with the Squad...  Change from the 10 man squad that combat squadded and potentially killed 2 things as they come in.  That is the plus, for the biggest negative I think that it was really a one shot suicide squad.  If they failed to kill something, they'd get taken down in HtH.  Running Seth or CPT Sariel (Tycho) and the Medic in the squad has improved the survival of the Squad  by leaps and bounds.  And of course the 2 ICs can be split off to potentially deal with 2 additional things, and of course the potential placed shots are potentially huge...  REALLY happy with my Tycho equivalent when I fielded him, the SI ammo and the Melta

Scouts are ready, but I'm thinking about swapping out the SGT (Power Fist/Sniper Rifle) for something else...  Probably just the Sniper Rifle, but I'd be open to trying Storm Bolter or something else...  Dunno, but the way I play it, I almost never use the Fist so that's 25 points I can use somewhere else...

Assault troops are coming along, just need to finish up a few things here and there...  Need to get a few other special weapons set up...  Only one Melta Gun so far, but I am finding that one Melta one Flamer is a pretty good mix.  Plasma pistols I have WAY too many of, part of that legacy of them being almost standard issue in the ancient times I guess :-), but I guess the SGTs will be using a few of them...  And/or Power Weapons of course, being an Assault army of course...

Librarian/Mephiston?  I have a few painted up and Mephiston, thanks again to 40K giveaway!  But I have almost no experience using Psykers in this edition, and points being limited... I have yet to face a Grey Knight army in this League, but I am really concerned about them being able to be singled out and easily killed....  The GK Storm Raven is really powerful against a single or small number of Psykers...

Brings me to the other one I have yet to face a Necron army with an overload of fliers...  I HAVE a semi Storm Raven now that I could field to go for an Air to Air fight...  But what I have painted and ready, what I fielded last week will be pretty good, I hope...  The Quad Gun and Aegis line has been pretty good all around for me, and while it CAN be shot up and destroyed, I'll take my chances with the cover save I guess :-)  It's what I have, so that's what we run with...

Fleshtearers, 3rd Company...

Well, picked up a "Storm Raven" conversion in a trade...  So, it's a Vendetta that is put together differently, and it actually doesn't look to bad...  Will need to rebuild it and of course it needs to be painted...  So, I now have a flier available to dogfight should I choose to...  Transport capacity of a full squad plus a Dreadnought... But transporting as a Flier is extremely risky I think, I will have to read over those rules again.  But an Assault Vehicle with an assault squad or Death Company and the DC DN?  Devastating if I can get the assaults off...  And with Jump Packs/Fleet?  Yeah, decent odds I think...  On the other hand, it is a BIG target...  And facing a Necron Flying Circus?  Well, I guess it pulls air superiority duty...

Have to say that I am liking the list I used this week though...  CPT Tycho leading out the Sternguard for a quick first strike, the Scouts deploy and hold objectives I guess...  Might drop the Power Fist on the SGT, I do not think I have used it once this league.  With the rest of my army being HtH and generally charging toward the enemy, the snipers don't get charged often.  And to field the Storm Raven I need to find 200 or so points...  100 from the Aegis line and so 25 from the Fist...  :-) So...  Well, have to get it painted up in time...  We'll see.

List about set...

Played the CPT Tycho list this evening, and I think it's about the best I can field at the moment...  Comparing Tycho with Seth, I do think that Tycho is better in every respect for my list...  I need to work a bit on reserves, as I lost First Blood and my Razorback (forgot to roll for Night Fight), I think I could have reserved it and kept it alive a bit longer...  Tycho was able to charge off and destroy a Leman Russ with his Str 5+2d6 HtH attacks so I think he'll so almost as well as Seth against light vehicles.  And with the Combi-melta and SI ammo combined with him being a Character I think he will be able to place shots pretty well.  With the Drop pod, I CAN drop them in, or I can start the squad in cover and shoot say, no cover save shots to deal with things hidden in a horde...  I can also split him off and run him with anther squad, or even I guess as the Death Company version...

So, the Sternguard are good, and with the Drop Pod here and mostly painted the squad is done.  The Heavy Flamer is working out FAR better than I'd hoped as well.  The Scouts are done and FINALLY actually killed a few things...  The snipers picked off a specialist in the IG HQ with the 6 to hit, and the SGT running the Quad Gun allowed me to kill off a bunch of HW teams...  Still haven't faced a flier in a while, so not sure how viable this setup really is overall, but working well so far...

Assault Squads are painted, just need a bit of work on the bases I think, might need to work on the weapon mixes a bit...  Flamer and Melta are working wonders for now...  So, 2 more full squads about done with just some detail work and base cleanup to do.  Will likely run one as a minimum size squad in a Razorback though, seems to work just fine with the discounted fast Tank...

Baal Predator was good, and frankly a game winner for me as he had no answer for it when it finally appeared on turn 4...  Can't count on that happening often, and frankly would rather have had it on turn 2, but...  Just a bit more paint and seal it up...