Looking at the difficult cases for my armies...

So, locally at least I can look around and see a few things none of my forces at the current time can deal with effectively...  Yes, I COULD roll lots of 6's and hope they roll all 1's, but realistically...

Necrons:  Fliers and Chariots of Doom...  I guess my DA terminators would laugh at the chariot, since it seems to be something they have to be in skimmer mode to use the fly over attacks with...  Fliers, I guess my Aegis line hits the table and hope I roll 6's until I can knock through their shields....  Eldar, FT?  Well...  Frankly I am not sure what I have that will stop fliers...

Dark Eldar:  Fliers and the metric crapton of shots...  Night Fight means that only my shots are at a disadvantage, my Wraithguard, Wraithlords and Artillery are all fighting at a disadvantage until I knock the Venom(s) out...  At least one DE player uses a lot of them, not so sure what the other uses, but I know he has fliers...


Thinking seriously about my Fleshtearers...  Looking over the Sternguard, I know I can have a few Drop Pods done by the tournament 8 weeks in...  But seeing a lot of people hiding things in or around good cover like the Aegis gun line...  Dropping in and shredding light troops manning the gun might be quite useful, combi meltas could be useful to deal with vehicles or heavy troops...  I have been using Vanguard Vets for a long time, but I think most of my regular opponents have seen me use that trick before :-)  Not to say I wouldn't use them too...  Hyper aggressive Jump Infantry?  Fits the Fleshtearers pretty well I think...  Yes, we are dying out, but we will be taking a whole lot of our enemies with us when by the time the last of us falls... :-)  Reminds me of one of my favorite songs, Riot on Broad Street by the Mighty Might Bosstones

http://youtu.be/lmlvLsJxsac

Not sure I will have a Storm Raven or not, but the option is there.  Air superiority given the potential 4 shots with 2 missiles and 2 real guns for at least the first two turns, assuming it survives of course :-)...  So, Scouts camping the Aegis line with one or more objectives nearby to perform AA duty...  They can combat squad as needed...  Death Company will be jumping around doing their thing...  DC DN and probably  a Furioso... With the FAQ change eliminating all changes to the Librarian DN, I haven't taken one in ages...  Maybe now, I wonder...  But I REALLY doubt it would work out well locally...  At least 3 GK players, and "a few" Storm Ravens...  ANY hit by a mindstrike = a glance with the Perils being automatic, so a cheap kill for the GKs...  Too many things that will likely screw over Psychers, so...

In any case :-)  Looks like my Fleshtearers will be what hits the table for me...

Deathwing this week...

So, getting ready for the 1850 League...  My Deathwing army is tiny, relatively of course...  And because it was the one I intended to bring to Adepticon, etc...  Did bring it to team up with Dave's Wolves over in Bloomington...  In any case, I HAVE the banner, the Medic, etc...  Won't really be WYSIWYG the first week or two, but with the 6th edition changes, regular Terminators seem a pretty decent option...  Fearless, one squad will get FNP, loads of missiles, Melta, etc. from my Ravenwing there...

So, 4-5 Deathwing Squads, 2 Speeders, 1 bike Squadron, Vindicator, maybe a Land Raider or Aegis line and?  Concerned about a flier heavy list, but with a LOT of 2+ saves on Fearless Troops...  Ignore the fliers and just complete the mission?  Horde control is a problem as well and lack of Psy defense...  Maybe bring a cheap Farseer to say "No One Uses Psy Powers But Me" :-)...  Would have to use Pathfinders to be Troops, and they'd run my Aegis line I think...  Might work, if a bit on the fromage grande side...

Drop armies are out...

So, my drop armies are out with the new ruleset...  But I think I can play a hyper aggressive "almost drop" armies...  Dark Angels with an Aegis line, manned by a Tac squad, a Ravenwing Squadron or three for the Scout and Teleport Homers...  I still have the Deathwing Assault rule and so can have half of my DW drop in the first turn, most likely without risk of deviation or "bad things happening"...  Chances are good that on turn 2 most of the rest of my reserves come in...

Always been a fan of General Patton, found this the other day, heard most of them, but not ever all collected:

Gen. George S. Patton's Commandments:

Do everything that you ask of those you command.
Say what you mean, and mean what you say.
Do not fear failure.
Do more than is required of you.
Do not take counsel of your fears.
Always go forward.
Take calculated risks.
Give credit where it is due.
Accept full responsibility for the actions of yourself and your men.

Kind of applies to a lot of the way I play...  Well, to be fair, how I live :-)  I had an excellent Squad Leader when I was off playing Army, and he showed me how to actually be a leader.  Was kind of important with me deploying directly to a combat zone almost right out of Basic...  But back on topic :-)  40K, like a LOT of other war games, rewards aggressive play...  The DW assault combined with the Ravenwing should provide a pretty good Alpha Strike, and camp my Fearless Troops (Terminators) in the enemy DZ and/or on objectives...  Melta and missiles should allow me to claim First Blood regularly...  Locally at least hitting hard and fast has the effect of keeping a lot of the players WAY off their game.  My FT army I think could do something similar, Vanguard Vets assaulting out of Deep Strike, the rest of the army just kind of surging forward...  Not as well mind :-)  and losing the ability to hold my whole army off the field hurts a lot...  Gone are the days of the Ju Jitsu "I'll go second" and counter strike...

The other side of this coin I find the Eldar...  Everyone else seems to play them as a fast, mobile army...  Me, I use them as a slow army based on aggressive Heavy Infantry marching right up the field...  Yes, I have fast flankers, but the basis of the army is the Brick marching up the field.  Pathfinders by and large do not move, Wraithlords and War Walkers move with the Brick, but not really too rapidly honestly...  So, like a river of ice I think...  Slow, flowing with the ebb and tide of the battle, but always moving in the direction they need to...

Guess I'll be testing out a few armies over the next few weeks...  I think I will be trying the "book" Psy powers...  I do suspect that in the long term those will be the ones that the armies get as their books get released....  Best to get used to them I think.

1850 for the next league....

Well, it looks like the next league will be 1850 and more "Hobby" based...  So, points for WYSIWYG, painting, basing, fluff, etc...  So, this leaves me a hard choice, what army do I play?

Dark Angels (Consecrators)...  Terminators are pretty powerful these days, and I am guessing that the less than 900 points for 3 squads of Fearless Terminators with a variety of weapons, including cheap Cyclones... Leaving me around 1000 points for more Terminators, bike squads, Dreadnoughts and...  Well, not sure what else...  Probably need Aegis Defense line with the AA gun, so a min sized Tac squad to man the line I guess...  Being 4th edition I have some decent weapon options for the 5 man squad IIRC, but they would just be there to man the AAA really...

Fleshtearers...  Powerful I guess...  I like my jump troops.  And I suppose I could run a Storm Raven...  The Death Company and DC DN are fun...  Lacking a Storm Raven at the moment though...  I don't know, strong army, and I have a LOT of options...

Eldar...  Interesting army, I think they'll be fairly strong...  Still not sure they will match well against Grey Knights or...  Well a lot.  the Eldar Brick I run is powerful, but slow and easily avoidable...  I do not have the Wave Serpents to do the Mechdar list, so foot it is what I can do...  Not sure what other foot options they have, I know the Avatar might be amusing with his immunity to Melta, etc...  Dunno if it will work or not...

Beyond this, Grey Knights and IG I think are just too powerful for a friendly league and I frankly do not think I will have fun playing them...  And a "vanilla" Marine force would probably just be boring for me...  Leaves Wolves I guess, maybe...  Dunno if they will hold my interest long enough though.  Loganwing was amusing, but his weapon got screwed over by the new rules...  Shame, he was at least amusing...

So, 4 choices I guess...  All at least "mostly" painted, should be easy to get there for the league and tournament at the end...  Have a few weeks to figure it out I guess...  Though, the other major consideration being what fits into the luggage on the motorcycle :-)...

The Eldar Brick still works...

Played a 2000 point game this evening, used the "Eldar Brick" or "Walking Castle"...  Eldar Wraithguard maxed out with a Spirit Seer joined by Eldrad, and backed by War Walkers, Wraithlord oh, and a Wraith Seer...  Using IA rules, this gives me a Fearless Troop block with at the very worst 3 5+ saves against anything...  T 6 as well, so really hard to injure normally and the 3+ armor for a lot of shooting...  REALLY hard to stop, and I just march the block across the table.  Guide cast once or twice along with Fortune along with the casting of FnP...  Heavy weapons, D-weapons, REALLY hard to kill, and impossible to ignore...

Still need to figure out Air cover or some sort of AAA...  Thinking that the Aegis line with the quad gun manned by Pathfinders will be it for the moment...  Tried the Nightwing fighter tonight for 145 points of one turn shooting...  Pretty fragile and ineffective really...  Though the Interceptor rule for the 2 quad guns on the other side of the table  probably kept it from being effective at all...  Not wanting to use Imperial terrain for this, so I'll have to come up with something "Eldar" I guess...  It is looking like there will not be a new Eldar book for a while...

Next projects...

Going through my old files, and I found an Eldar Vampire Raider pattern...  Printed it out on letter rather than legal paper so it would be a bit smaller...  Looking at using it as a Phoenix class bomber.  Kind of a mis naming I think, the bomber does not actually have bombs, but I think it will be a heavy interceptor and awesome ground attack aircraft for me.  Now, it is a Heavy Support choice, and 225 or 235 points, and the new rules for fliers...  Well, Holofields and it coming in from reserve might do really well for a turn or three, and with those turns being critical as I "rush" my Wraithguard block across the table, hoping mostly to keep fliers and other heavy threats under control...  Of course, I left all of my foamboard at my office, so no real progress there...  Planning on doing the frame with foamboard, then using paper mache to do the aircraft's skin...  Should be light, thin and fairly strong.  Between this and my Airship to be my Praetorian IG's Vendetta/Valkyrie replacement, a bit of random model work to do...

More ancient Marines being stripped and repainted...  Found a few squads of Scouts, not sure that they'll get used, but 15-20 sniper scouts and another 10-15 HtH and Shotgun Scouts...  Shame my Wolf Scouts became almost completely worthless between the near mandatory 4 shot AP 4 Interceptor gun and the fact I can no longer Assault when I go behind enemy lines has placed them on the "eh" list for my Wolves.  After SO many years of them being in every Wolf army I played (I used to do something like this when I played Army)...  So, they went from really powerful and I almost always felt kind of bad bringing them against most people (some others, not so much so) to a unit I feel like I am handicapping myself with... So, not sure which of the various Marine forces the lads get painted up as, maybe do actual camouflage and use them for whichever (DA, Fleshtearers, Regular Marines, Shotgunners might become IG Vets in carapace armor)...  We'll see I guess, leaning toward at least one full squad of snipers for my FT force, no clue what the DA will get in their next iteration...

Fliers, Forge World and the local group...

So, the Eldar Nightwing Interceptor in IA 11 can be taken by Codes: Eldar as a Fast Attack option via the FAQ from Forgeworld...  The Phoenix Bomber is a Heavy, and not so sure it will be as good.  145 points for the Nightwing with 2 Shuriken Cannons and 2 Bright Lances...  Yes, Armor 10 all around, and the Holo fields are not so impressive now, but by an odd coincidence, 4 weapons that can all be fired by the 6th ed flier rules...  Against another flier, 8 shots at BS 4 seem like if I can line up and get the first shot off, I might well be able to achieve air superiority quickly and easily...

So, wondering how close this will be to the version in the fliers book or the next Eldar codex whenever it does come out...  But in any case, iff the IA stuff becomes legal, then we have a few options...