Broken Paintbrush

So I’ve been thinking about attending the NW GT in January hosted by Conquest. It is 2k, 5 game tourny which will be an intense weekend both because the games are larger than I normally play as well as way more games than I normally play in a weekend.

I have until mid December to decide if I want to go or not so in the mean time I am going to prepare for it by making a 2k list and playing as many games as I can with it. So here it goes:

HQ: Company Command Squad @ 290 pts (Medi-pack; Regimental Standard; Vox Caster; Plasmagun x1)

• Lord Castellan Creed
• Officer of the Fleet
• Chimera (Heavy Bolter;  Multi-Laser)

Troops:  Infantry Platoon @ 207 pts

• Platoon Command Squad ( Krak Grenades; Vox Caster; Grenade Launcher x2)
  • Platoon Commander (Melta Bombs; Bolt Pistol; Power Weapon)
• Infantry Squad ( Power Weapon; Vox Caster; Flamer)
• Infantry Squad (Power Weapon; Vox Caster; Flamer)

Troops: Infantry Platoon @ 567 pts

• Platoon Command Squad ( Krak Grenades; Vox Caster; Grenade Launcher x2)
  • Platoon Commander (Melta Bombs; Bolt Pistol; Power Weapon)
• Infantry Squad (Power Weapon;  Vox Caster; Flamer)
• Infantry Squad (Power Weapon; Vox Caster; Flamer)
• Heavy Weapons Squad (Lascannon x3)
• Heavy Weapons Squad (Lascannon x3)
• Heavy Weapons Squad (Missile Launcher x3)
• Heavy Weapons Squad (Mortar x3)

Fast Attack: 2 Armoured Sentinel @ 150 pts (Plasma Cannon)

Fast Attack: 2 Bane Wolves @ 290 pts (Chem Cannon; Multi-Melta)

Fast Attack: 2 Scout Sentinels @ 90 pts (Missile Launcher)

Heavy Support: Leman Russ Battle Tank @ 185 pts ( Lascannon; Heavy Bolter Sponsons x2)

Heavy Support: Leman Russ Demolisher @ 220 pts (Lascannon; Plasma Cannon Sponsons x2)

This may not be the most competitive list, in fact I’m sure it is not, but it should be fun and uses everything I’ve built so far. The only things I need to add are: the Demolisher, Chimera and officer of the fleet. I also have to paint the mortar squad.

Let me know your thoughts (good or bad). I have 2 months to tweak the list and build any other units I need.

So I stopped by the hobby shop near my new place last night to try out the 1500 point list for my Iron Warriors and found I need to rethink my list. I played against one of the store owners with his IG list (you can read his battle report here). Moral of last night’s battle: don’t take two Chaos Dreads at 1500 points. These guys did nothing but shoot at each other and make their ‘team’ mates go running the whole game. This is motivating me to take one f the two alternatives I made it the original list. Right now I’m leaning towards the defiler due to his versitility and the fact he doesn’t go crazy. Also I’m going to take Zen’s suggestion and remove both dreads and give my other tanks daemonic possession. So here it is: 1500 CSM list take two:

• Chaos Lord with terminator armor, twin lightning claws and mark of khorne (140 pnts)
• CSM x10 AC w/ power fist and plasma pistol; plasma gun; meltagun; icon of chaos undivided (240 pnts)
  • Rhino, extra armor (50 pnts)
• CSM x10 AC w/ power fist and plasma pistol; plasma gun; meltagun; icon of chaos undivided (240 pnts)
  • Rhino, extra armor (50 pnts)
• Khorne Berserkers x8 AC w/ power weapon, plasma pistol and melta bomb; 2 plasma pistols (248 pnts)
• Land Raider, daemonic possession (240 pnts)
• Vindicator, daemonic possession, twin linked bolter (145 pnts)
• Defiler, reaper auto cannon, heavy flamer (150 pnts)

Total Points: 1498

Kill Points: 9; Scoring Units: 3; AP 2 weapons: 13, large blasts: 2

In the future I am going to remove the Defiler’s other guns and give him more close combat attacks but I don’t have models for that yet. Also I was advised to remove one of the assault weapons from each of my troop squads and give a longer range, heavy weapon, or at least trade a melta and plasma. This came up from the game last night where I had my meltagun troop squad stuck in a ruin hiding from two Demolishers but nothing to hurt them with.  You may have noticed I did switch the two guns, but I don’t have anything but old (and crummy looking) missile launchers right now to try the heavy weapon option. I will have to build and paint the two lascannons I have sitting in my bitz box to try this out.

Thoughts, criticisms and comments welcome!

I stopped by my LFGS yesterday to try out my traitor guard but instead I was surprised everyone playing fantasy! (quick side note: fantasy is what brought me back into the hobby but everyone at the store stopped playing when the new 40k edition came out, maybe that new steam tank lured them back in…). I did find out about a 40k tournament happening at the store on Sunday though (wasn’t I just talking about tournaments last post?).

Since I don’t have my traitor guard finished, let alone even play tested (or even played any IG at all), I’m going to bring my trusty Iron Warriors to the battle. The guy running the event hasn’t worked out the missions yet but he did say there would be judging on painting, best army, best general and composition.

With all this in mind I took my normal 1850 list and removed some of the extras to bring it down to the 1500 point limit for the tournament. After writing the list I realized my entire initial setup will be vehicles!

Any comments or suggestions would be helpful as this is my first 40k tournament, and although it is just a small local event, I’m sure there will be some nasty surprises for me.

• Chaos Lord with terminator armor, twin lightning claws and mark of khorne (140 pnts)
• CSM x10 AC w/ power fist and plasma pistol; 2 plasma guns; icon of chaos undivided (245 pnts)
  • Rhino (35 pnts)
• CSM x10 AC w/ power fist and plasma pistol; 2 meltaguns; icon of chaos undivided (235 pnts)
  • Rhino (35 pnts)
• Khorne Berserkers x8 AC w/ power weapon, plasma pistol and melta bomb; 2 plasma pistols (248 pnts)
• Land Raider (220 pnts)
• Vindicator (125 pnts)
• Dreadnought with plasma cannon, heavy flamer (110 pnts)
• Dreadnought with multimelta, heavy flamer (105 pnts)

Total: 1498 pnts

Alternative:

• - Dreadnought w/ multimelta, rhino and the icon for plasmagun squad
• + 2x oblitorators

The thought on the alternative is that I don’t have a great deal of long range shooting and the versatility of the oblitorators make them an almost must have (plus its fitting for an Iron Warriors army). I like having the dreadnought and rhino in there for two reasons: they are both painted much better than my old (3rd edition old!) oblitorators, and it is two more vehicles to choose from for the opponent’s shooting, leaving my other tanks less vulnerable.

To start off with, I am not a ‘power gamer’ and have never played in a 40k tournament (yet…) so my lists may not be that competitive. My goal with this list is to build up a ‘core’ army to build off of when I do want to build a specialized list or gain some experience in tournaments. It is also an excuse to build and play with some really fun units.

I present two lists, the first is a 1000 points of what I currently have assembled and the second is the 2000 point list I am building up to and will hopefully have finished by the end of the summer. Please let me know what you think and any suggestions on units to add, remove or tweak. One thing I know is worthless points are the standards, but they give so much character to my army, as well as further tie them into the Chaos theme.

1000 Point List:

• HQ: Company Command Squad 137 pts
  • Company Commander with bolt pistol, power weapon and melta bombs
  • Veterans with regimental standard, medi-pack, plasmagun, vox, krak grenades
• Troop: Platoon #1 442
  • Platoon Commander with bolt pistol, power weapon, melta bomb; standard, 2x grenade launchers, vox 77pts
  • 2x squads with vox, flamer, power weapon, melta bomb , krak grenades 85 pnts each
  • Heavy Weapon Squad with 3x lascannons 105 pnts
  • Heavy Weapon Squad with 3x missle launchers 90
• Troop: Platoon #2 412
  • Platoon Commander with bolt pistol, power weapon, melta bomb; standard, 2x grenade launchers, vox 77pts
  • 2x squads with vox, flamer, power weapon, melta bomb, krak grenades 85 pnts each
  • Heavy Weapon Squad with 3x lascannons 105 pnts
  • Heavy Weapon Squad with 3x mortars 6

Total points: 991 with 10 scoring units, 11 kill points, 10 small blasts and 4 flame templates

Tactic for this army list would to have the company command hang out near my objectives with the heavy weapons teams while the hoard of troops and platoon command swarm the enemy objectives. If the mission is kill points I would combine the two platoon squads reducing my kill points to 9 and hide the command squads behind everything or in bunkers while the fire power takes out the enemy. I know I will have a hard time with any dreadnoughts or high toughness monsters that assault me due to the lack of power fists, but hopefully my 6 Lascannons will do enough damage to not cause a worry.

2000 Point List:

• HQ: Company Command Squad 127 pts
  • Company Commander with bolt pistol, power weapon
  • Veterans with regimental standard, medi-pack, plasmagun, vox
• Troop: Platoon #1 407
  • Platoon Commander with bolt pistol, power weapon; standard, 2x grenade launchers, vox 72pts
  • 2x squads with vox, flamer, power weapon 70 pnts each
  • Heavy Weapon Squad with 3x lascannons 105 pnts
  • Heavy Weapon Squad with 3x missle launchers 90
• Troop: Platoon #2 377 pnts
  • Platoon Commander with bolt pistol, power weapon; standard, 2x grenade launchers, vox 72pts
  • 2x squads with vox, flamer, power weapon 70 pnts each
  • Heavy Weapon Squad with 3x Lascannons 105 pnts
  • Heavy Weapon Squad with 3x mortars 6
• Troop: Penal Legion 80 pnts
• Troop: Veteran Squad 115
  • Power weapon, 3x meltaguns, vox
• Fast Attack: Sentinel Squad 100 pnts
  • 2x Scout Sentinel with Lascannon
• Fast Attack: Heavy Sentinel Squad 150 pnts
  • 2x Plasma Cannon
• Fast Attack: Bane Wolf Squad 290 pnts
  • Hull Multi-Melta
• Heavy Support: Leman Russ 170
  • Leman Russ with heavy bolter and heavy bolter sponsons
• Heavy Support: Leman Russ 170
  • Leman Russ with heavy bolter and heavy bolter sponsons

Total points: 1986 with 12 scoring units, 18 kill points, 2 large blasts, 12 small blasts and 6 flame templates, 5 meltas

Tactics: the two platoon squads would cover my objectives with a large mass of bodies and fire power while the scout sentinels and veterans take out any enemy tanks. The veterans and penal legion would be the two scoring units to take any enemy objectives with the Leman Russes and bane wolves providing cover. The heavy sentinels are mostly for any terminators that decide to drop in, making them either run (rather than shoot my poor guys up) or risk getting hit with two S7 AP2 blasts. Ideally i would like to work in a Chimera for my veterans to protect them a bit and give them a better chance at taking an objective. This would work if I removed the points for all the banners and took no options.

While waiting to get some pictures up of my done minis I thought I could post my current army list for 1750 point games.

• Chaos Lord in terminator armor, dual lightning claws, mark or Khorne. This gives him base 5 attacks with strength 5 on the charge.
• Khorne Berserkers x8 with Aspiring Champion with power weapon, plasma pistol, and melta bomb; two berserkers with plasma pistols.
• Chaos Space Marines x10 with Aspiring Champion with power fist and plasma pistol; two marines with plasma guns.
• Rhino with combi-weapon.
• Chaos Space Marines x10 with Aspiring Champion with power fist and plasma pistol; two marines with melta-guns.
• Raptors x5 with Aspiring Champion with power fist and plasma pistol; two raptors with plasma pistols.
• Dreadnought with multi-melta and heavy flamer
• Dreadnought with plasma cannon and heavy flamer
• Land Raider
• Obliterator
• Vindicator, combi-bolter, daemonic possession

Basic idea is I wanted a fast and hard hitting army. I view this as the companies main strike force, the spear tip of the siege.

Gamewise I mount the lord and berzerkers in the land raider to take any objectives the enemy may have. I can place it rhino with troops to either strike at the enemy objectives or protect my own. The dreads I often leave in reserve and bring them in where needed, giving me gaurenteed control their first turn on the table.