Beer-Hammer 40,000 at Nottingham

Morning all,

It's took me a few days to recover from it, but over last weekend the 40k'ers at MAWS went to Warhammer World in Nottingham, to drink copious amounts of alcohol and play a 500pt 1 day Cup - dubbed the Beerhammer Cup.  The aim was simple - to play 1 game against each player, whilst recovering from pre-game drinking the night before.

My army idea was simple, whatever will take the least space as possible in my bag. I had a plastic tub which, if the list couldn't fit inside of, it needed to be changed. Luckily the 500pt Necron list I'd used a few weeks ago was small in number and (with a bit of help) just managed to get in the tub.

It weighed in as follows:
10 Necron Warriors
2 x 2 Units of Destroyers
2 x 1 Unit of Tomb Spyders with Particle Projector.

Lowe and behold, after finding out everyone's forces, it seems it was the Old Blood against the New Kids. Three 3rd edition Codexes - Necrons, Dark Eldar and Daemonhunters, playing off against 2 of the newest codexes -Blood Angels and Tyranids.

Game #1
So, after a fair bit of messing about with tables at Warhammer World, we got into the gaming and I kicked the competition off playing against Angryman's Tyranids:

The list was something along the lines of:
2 x 1 Zoanthropes
2 Hive Guard
2 x 20 Gaunts with Toxin Sacs and Adrenal Glands

This was the game I was dreading. The sheer amount of Gaunts on the table, backed up by High S and Low AP killy stuff that was there.

Fortunately, my Destroyers managed to snipe one of the Hive Guard early on, took out the Zoanthropes a bit later on and then the Gaunts struggled for Synapse.

Combine that with failing an assault charging Necrons into, then being run down by an assaulting Tomb Spyder as they fled.

Result: Win

Game #2

Game 2 was against Blood Angels (if I remember rightly), the new kids on the block. No vehicles, but focus on the numbers:
5 Man Tactical Squad
2 x 5 man Devastators with lots of weapons
4 Jumppack Death Company with 2 Power Weapons

We played a Capture and Control mission, 1 home objective each.

Thanks to an absolute ton of cover saves from AP2 weaponry, and extremely poor rolling by both of us for shooting, we played out to a draw. I held my Objective, the Blood Angels held theirs.

Result - Draw

Game #3
Game 3 was the battle of the 3rd Ed Codexes. Necrons v Dark Eldar. Now, this is the first time I can remember playing against Dark Eldar and I really enjoy playing against them since they're rare to see.

The list was along the lines of:
Drachon
2 x 10 Warriors in Raiders
Ravager

The mission was again Capture and Control, this time with Dawn of War deployment. The Dark Eldar, being Dark Eldar, hoped to cripple the 1 unit of Necron warriors on the board in the first turn. Unfortunately, thanks to a lot of cover saves on my part from Dark Lances.

Unfortunately, whilst holding my own, the amount of Dark Lances and Disintegrator (?) shots tore into my Warriors and made the army phase out.

This was after a first 2 turns where I managed to destroy 2 of the 3 paper planes in the Dark Eldar army, forcing them to foot slog it over to the Necrons.

Result: Loss via Phaseout

Game #4

Again, another battle of the third edition Codexes, this time Daemonhunters were the opposition. Straken was the opponent, and he chose to use an all or nothing army of Deep Striking Grey Knights with a squad of Inquisition Storm Troopers.

Stormtroopers with 2 Meltas in a Rhino
2 x 5 Grey Knights Deepstriking with Incinerators(?)

The game was Capture and Control, 1 "home" objective each. The Stormrooper Rhino parked in cover, with the Destroyers looking for an easy kill. Unforunately, the Rhino just would not stop making successful cover saves from penetrating hits.

Unlucky for Straken, both Grey Knight units came down in different turns, so couldn't overwhelm the Necrons and were picked off.

It took a while, but eventually the remaining Destroyers managed to shift the Rhino and Stormtroopers from the objective, to give the Necrons a 1-0 victory.

Result: Victory

Final Results

So with 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss to my name, I think the Necrons gave a good show for their money, by ending up on 7 points putting me in 2nd place.

1st place went to Brother Captain Ventris with his Dark Eldar army, through a combination of clever play and taking advantage of everyone's lack of knowledge of Dark Eldar! Combined with the fact his Dark Eldar are yet to lose a game at the club, it's well deserved win.

1st Place - 8pts - Brother-Captain Ventris (Dark Eldar)
2nd Place - 7pts - SuicideBadger (Necrons)
3rd Place - 5pts - Sanguinius (Blood Angels)
3rd Place - 5pts - Angryman (Tyranids)
5th Place - 1pts - Col.Straken (Daemonhunters)

It was a really fun contest, and I really enjoy the smaller scale games where everything hangs on a knife edges - less of a war of attrition.

Here's looking forward to the Combat Patrol Cup in November / December!

Peace,
SB

Manutia Defence Strike Force

+++ Incoming Transmission+++

I have recently received information about your plight at Portsmotha and as such am going to divert my armies to assist in the defence.

Inquisitor Maleth
Ordo Malleus

+++ Transmission Terminated +++

Inquisitor Maleth has Commandeered (or so he believes) a strike force built from Space Wolves and Grey Knights. He has sent them straight to the defence of Portsmotha as he believes the Tyranid assault will cause havoc with the planet and has pulled as many men from the front lines as he could do so without weakening the defences.

Below is Inquisitor Maleth who is over all commander of the defence and Jimmy the Gauntslayer flanking a squad of Veteran Long Fangs and their Razorback transport.




The main bulk of the Space Wolf Strike Force, consisting of a Grey Hunter squad and two Wolf Guard squads in Tactical Dreadnought Armour. These will be spearheading the counter assault while the Grey Knights get into position.

The Grey Knight element of the strike force, consisting of two Dreadnoughts, 6 Grey Knights, Grand Master Varco and his Teminator Retinue and a Land Raider Redeemer to deliver them to the heart of the Tyranid forces.

Lastly is a Marauder Bomber which the Imperial Navy has spared from the battle in space against the Tyranid Fleet, this will provide air support for the Strike Force while the PDF provides long range fire support to the counter attack.

Hopefully, the combination of the Strike Forces assault capabilities, the PDF's ranged firepower, and the air support provided by the Marauder Bomber will be able to overwhelm the Tyranids attacking force. What horrors await the Imperium if they fail to hold the Xeno at Portsmotha, we can only guess at, and will fight to the bitter end to prevent them travelling further than the outer reaches of the spaceport.

+++ Incoming Transmission +++

13 hours until Tyranid force reaches defence lines... I pray to the Immortal Emperor we can hold them off here, we of the Ordo Malleus have seen untold horrors, but I believe this may be my last command, as nothing the warp can spawn can compare to the unwavering focus of the Tyranid Hive Mind.

We will reach the spaceport within 12 hours, I hope that leaves enough time to prepare the final defences and co-ordinate our counter-assault.

The Emperor Protects

Inquisitor Maleth
Ordo Malleus

+++ Transmission Terminated +++

[News] GW Clarify Daemonhunters and Witchhunters PDF

Morning all,

Seems like a busy 48 hours for GW dealing with mess ups. They've cleared up the whole missing Allies situation from the Witchhunter Daemonhunter PDFs.

This comes straight from the GW blog on their website:

We recently made the Witch Hunters and Daemonhunters codexes available to download as PDFs. Since then, we've received a spate of emails asking questions about the difference between the PDFs and the original, printed copies. Rather than reply to you all individually, I thought I'd try to answer your questions here. Firstly, the rules for allied Space Marines and Inducted Imperial Guard were originally written to reference books that have since gone out of print, so we streamlined the rules required to allow players to collect an army of Daemonhunters or Witch Hunters. The Daemonhunters army list uses the Standard Force Organisation chart, which you'll find on page 87 of the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook. The other point that seems to be causing the most confusion is whether or not the PDF versions supersede the printed versions. They don't: you should feel free to continue to use whatever resources you have available to play your games with; the PDF does not overrule or invalidate the printed Codex book. Yes, this may mean that you and your opponent are using what are essentially different army lists for the same army but not every Inquisition force will comprise of the same elements (highly specialised and secretive forces that they are). And if you'd rather use the same one as your opponent, why not simply decide which version you collectively want to use and share the rules between one another? As for tournaments and gaming events, it's entirely up to the organisers to decide which version to use; it is after all their event. Now that we've cleared that up, you can get on with downloading the Blood Angel FAQ and Tyranid FAQ.

You can check it out here: GW "What's New Today"

So yeah no more "DH can't take allies now" grumbling. They can, assuming you have the proper Codex or can borrow it.... and that practically ruins the entire MAWS FAQ page!

Happy allying DH and WH players, and look forward to the internetz complaining about Mystic / Tarot spam and Vulkan's Sisters of Battle melta-flamer fun.

SB

[Update] Daemonhunter and Witchhunter PDF

Thanks to Mitch for the comment he left us on the last blog entry, where has emailed GW HQ and got an answer to the question about Allies:

Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 10:34 AM

To: US Customer Service

Subject: Rule Book question

I noticed there is a codex: deamonhunters pdf now on the website
The english version is missing the inducted guard/marines, where the german/french/itallian/spanish version includes the allies part
Does that mean that English speaking people got a mistake on the book?
Does this PDF override the paper codex I just purchased for 30$?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mitchell!

The new PDF is up for the people who do not have access to buy the codex anymore. The missing Alies section in the U.S format is indeed a mistake. And whichever one the tournament/event organizer says to use is the one that we have to abide by. I know that for our tournaments we will be using the Physical codex and NOT the PDF. I hope this helps!

Thanks!

John Hollingsworth
Customer Service Specialist

So basically they're saying the Paper Codex trumps the PDF and that Allies ARE allowed, which is cool and the way we would have ended up playing at the club anyway.

It's worth noting however it's still down to individual tournament organisers, so it's best asking in advance - although I can't see why they would have any problem with it.

Once again, thank you to Mitch for getting the answer, which I've copied and pasted from his blog Mitch - Ottawa Gamer onto here to share with people.

Peace Out
SB

[News] Daemonhunter and Witchhunter Codex PDFs

Hey guys,

It's been a while coming, but GW finally deliver the Codex PDFs for the Daemonhunters and Witch Hunters.

Image courtesy of: Dakka Dakka

You can find the Codexes on the GW Website, but you'll need to Register / Log In to get access to them

• Daemonhunters: Download Here
• Witch Hunters: Download Here

The first thing the Internet seems to be up in arms about is the supposed removal of the Allies rules from the Daemonhunters book. A lot of blogging sites have jumped on this as an attempted move to "Nerf Imperial Guard Mystic Spam" from the "Meta Game". I personally think it could be an oversight on the part of GW.

They've cut a LOT out of the PDF codexes, even removing the section on building a Grey Knight army (with the Force Org chart picture) and some other ones such as defining what is and isn't a Grey Knight unit... leading some Internet idiots to start quoting things like:
"Grey Knight Dreadnaughts are Grey Knights now... so they get all the special rules etc."

Apparently there's also some variation between Regions. Apparently, the French Codex has a 4 shot Assault Cannon and the Allies rule present.

It's also noted that the Witch Hunters codex still has the box for what can be allied into a Witch Hunter army, but no mention of what can be allied out.

The last point of debate is whether this PDF over-rides the printed Codex, or if it is simply a tool to allow Electronic access to a book they no longer wish to print, providing the stats for new players and a reference printout for existing players? People are arguing the Blood Angels PDF and the Warriors of Chaos Fantasy one in White Dwarf superceeded their relative Codex and Army Books, but this doesn't seem to be an update, just making it available.

So what do you reckon?

Balls up by GW and they forgot some pages? Conspiracy theory to get rid of Imperial Guard Mystic Spam? Blogging sites are all over-reacting? Or even a mega conspiracy from GW to remove allies and force players to buy new models to fill that chunk of their army?

Personally, I think that they're rushed the release of this, when really, if they're cutting some pages from the book, they should have replaced them with new pages covering the necessary information and a big filler picture for the rest of the space.

If they have got rid of Allies from both, then that's about the end of my Brotherhood of the Forge army plans...

Peas and Glove.
SB

[Rumours] Daemonhunters, Witchhunters and Inquisition Forces

Normally, I'll avoid posting news and stuff on here, but a couple of us have been talking about Grey Knight rumours found across the web, so I thought I'd compile them and discuss it properly on here.

Image Courtesy of: http://turin-the-forsaken.deviantart.com/

The first lot is a biiiiiig list of what is supposedly to come with it all:

=][= Inquisition
There will be no new DH/WH books, and there will be a single =][= book
Release window is not 2010 for Codex =][= Inquisition – Rumours are it might just be a release of Storm Raven / Terminators in September
GK and =I= forces are much further along in Development than Sisters and Priests.
All inquisition units to get new models...eventually
Codex: Inquisition to combine all orders of =I=
No allies, but indoctrinated units will include choices from other Imperial armies
Lots of Psychic Nullification Sounds like GK
Lots of Ignore Invul Sounds like GK
Another flyer/transport kit Valkyrie-sized being planned for release Could be a Valkyrie box with options like the LR Crusader kit – This is obviously the Storm Raven
Imperial Assassin now a single unit, Culexus, Callidus, etc all gone. Unit will have numerous lethal options. Very Expensive.
New vehicle : Jetbikes?
New Character/model : A named preacher. New model for Imperial Missionary Jacobus?
New Character/model : Confessor with a big staff with what looks like integrated flamer New model for Imperial Confessor Kyrinov?


Grey Knights
GK being focused on for release, Sisters 2nd wave
GK models may see light of day early tied into another product release. (commentary: I hear rumors of a Space hulk expansion being planned, but they are vague and disorganized, so much salt needed here) – This could be when the Storm Raven / GK termies are released
New GK Terminators 3ups (5 poses, 1 HQ/leader)
New Daemonhunter concept art
New Grey Knight fluff, definitely enough there for a full codex. Much more detail on organization and history. Background on "heroes." Good stuff.
New DH vehicles/support
New Character/model : Looks like a Grey Knight Chaplain.
New Character/model : Grey Knight named justicar, with 2 ended force weapon.
New Character/model : Grey Knight vehicle based character. Grey Knight on jetbike? Earlier refference to Sammael taken into consideration


Sisters of Battle
No faith points Does NOT mean no more Acts of Faith, most likely similar to IG Orders – BOOOOOOOO! Faith Points were ace.
New Witchhunter concept art
New WH vehicles/support
New Character/model : Sister with what looks like twin arm mounted SBs.
New Character/model : New concept for Throne of Judgement, less like a converted dread.
New Character/model : Sister with twin cat o nine tails. Named Repentia Mistress? Sounds interesting but unlikely. Sister Repentia box set being discontinued supports rumour on plastic repentias
New Character/model : Named Seraphim with new jump pack, more marine like (large jets) but retains some archaic details, also has sword and combi weapon



Named Characters : "Around a dozen named characters, incl existing"
WH has Saint Celestine and Inquisitor Lord Karamazov
DH has Brother-Captain Stern of the Grey Knights and Inquisitor Lord Torquemada Coteaz, allso mentions Inquisitor Quixos and Helgrund


Inquisitor Quixos is mentioned in the DH codex but is not a playable character. He´s a radical Inquisitor being the one to create Daemonhosts (one binding the Daemon Cherubael and the other not quite identified but was known as Prohaniti)
He allso mastered the art of creating Soulguards - individuals who were psychic vacuums that could absorb magic and protect those nearby from the baneful energies of Chaos
Wields a daemonblade containing the ferocity of Kharnagar the Deathly, a being he had defeated some decades earlier and whose essence had been boing into his sword
Could invoke the full power of Kharnagar, causing Helgrund to explode into flames and immolate when driving his daemonblade into Helgrund´s guts


Inquisitor Helgrund is mentioned in the story about Quixos who is later killed by him with his daemonsword.
Has Redemptionist priests and an arco-flagellant in his retinue
Wields a Force Hammer, charged with faith and purity
Was able to call upon the Emperor´s blessings and drove hard at Quixos, his force hammer smashing through psychic shields and warp-wards alike (Ignore inv save I take it)

That's a big hefty list there and a lot to read through... but oh wait - there's more!

Changes to Grey Knight weaponry:

Normal Grey Knights/Justicar - Powerweapon, Wounds daemons on a 2+.
Grey Knight Terminators/Paladin - Powerweapon, Wounds daemons on a 2+ (Possibility may be master-crafted)
Brother Captain - Forceweapon, Wounds daemons on a 2+ (Possibility may be master-crafted)
Grand Master - Forceweapon, Wounds daemons on a 2+, Re-roll invulnerable saves (Again possibility may be master-crafted).

Also Aegis Armour:

Aegis Armour now gives a 5+ Invulnerable save from Psychic attacks targeted on the wearer(s) and a 4+ Inv. Save for Terminators armoured GKs and HQs.

So what do you guys reckon? Reportedly it will be a Storm Raven and Grey Knight Terminators release in September, with conflicting rumours whether the rest of it will be at that time (including the codex).

Thanks to Librarium Online for me finding the rumours, specifically JarranVanKell and Rhyn0 for posting them on there.

- What do you guys think? There's nothing solid at the min so apply some salt on all this!

SB.