Chaos Wins!

I took some time today to play with the draft viewer over at the daily MTG today. Their draft simulators are always fun for a brain teaser. Today they were offering M10.

Here is what I ended up drafting.


The first pack offers a number of really good choices. Overrun is a bomb. Dragon Whelp and Inferno Elemental are both very strong as well. I like Doom Blade here though. It is a powerful card, a typical first pick, and it doesn't commit me strongly to any colors.

My second pack is significantly weaker:


This pack is pretty horrific. There is nothing obvious to take for black so I now have to delve already into a second color. Options are limited here. I consider the Oakenform but then debate between the Merfolk Looter and Snapping Drake. I end up going with the looter. It's not really a "creature" but it's ability is very powerful.

Pack 3 has several options. I can take a couple of black creatures that are solid but not amazing or I can take Levitation. It's a bomb when used with correct creatures but taking it now is a bit early. I consider gravedigger but end up committing to blue here with Levitation.


The next pack offers little options. Blue has dried up. My options are Assassinate or the bizarre rare: Lurking Predators. I take Assassinate.


So my first four picks: Doom Blade, Merfolk Looter, Levitation, Assassinate. So far it's decent. No great creatures though. I need to start picking them up. Here is the rest of my pack 1:


Borderland Ranger
Oakenform
Rampant Growth
Giant Growth
Horned Turtle
Convincing Mirage
Undead Slayer
Tempest of Light
Kindled Fury
Burning Inquiry
Plains

Wait what? What happened to blue/black?

Here was my 5th pack:



It blows. I have a Zombie Goliath and a sideboard card in black and now blue is completely cutoff. I decide to jump at the Ranger for two reasons. 1) It establishes me in green and 2) It still lets me salvage my earlier picks.

The remaining picks from the first round are mediocre but useable. Oakenform and Giant Growth are solid picks. I grab a Rampant Growth to further color fix and accelerate. Horned Turtle is the best creature I come up with. I really need to start grabbing creatures in the later packs.

Here is what I open for pack 2:



This wasn't terribly difficult since I had already started drafting green. The Behemoth can just win games when it hits the table. I scoop it up and don't look back. I'm now playing green no matter what.

Here is the rest of round 2:

Gorgon Flail
Giant Spider
Craw Wurm
Llanowar Elves
Rampant Growth
Wall of Frost
Oakenform
Borderland Ranger
Emerald Oryx
Zephyr Sprite
Fabricate
Holy Strength
Telepathy
Swamp

I grab additional creature enhancements with another Oakenform and a Gorgon's Flail. I also start grabbing creatures: Giant Spider, Craw Wurm, Llanowar Elves, Borderland Ranger. I'm still kinda light, especially if I plan on running double oakenform. I really need to focus on creatures in pack 3.

This is what I open:


I've got another Doom Blade staring me in the face. There is also a Pacifism. I am in dire need of creatures though. I think about either the Acidic Slime or the Stampeding Rhino and eventually take the slime.

Here is the rest of round 3:

Deadly Recluse
Alluring Siren
Overrun
Horned Turtle
Stampeding Rhino
Elvish Visionary
Craw Wurm
Fog
Zephyr Sprite
Serpent of the Endless Sea
Regenerate
Ornithopter
Lifelink
Island

I end up picking up 6 more usable creatures including a Stampeding Rhino and an Alluring Siren. I also snag a third pick overrun. Despite missing it way pack in pack 1 it still ends up in my draft, and my deck.

So this was a pretty sloppy draft. I end up going green but don't do that until the fifth pick. Fortunately I'm able to use all of my early picks because everything is so easily splashable. I have a number of bomb creatures and a lot of enhancements. It's not a great deck, but I don't think it's bad either.

Spells

Giant Growth
Rampant Growth x2
Gorgon Flail
Assassinate
Doom Blade
Oakenform x2
Levitation
Overrun

Creatures

Llanowar Elves
Zephyr Sprite x2
Merfolk Looter
Deadly Recluse
Alluring Siren
Elvish Visionary
Borderland Ranger x2
Horned Turtle
Giant Spider
Acidic Slime
Stampeding Rhino
Craw Wurm
Kalonian Behemoth

Land

5 Island
1 Swamp
9 Forest

That's 10 spells and 15 creatures. Only 15 land and yes, 3 colors, although really this deck is basically mono-green with some blue and black spells. I'm able to cheat a bit on the land because I have double Borderland Ranger, double Rampant Growth and a Llanowar Elves. I don't think I'll have a problem ramping up to the big creatures and finding my swamp should be no problem at all. I also have a number of small utility creatures that can become monsters late game with Oakenform and Overrun.

I'm concerned I might be removal light but I think Doom Blade and Assassinate can do the job if necessary. I also like alluring siren as a secondary removal spell. At the end I may not need removal at all. Flying Craw Wurms and 7/7 Stampeding Rhino's tend to win games no matter what my opponent puts on the table.

Did you try this draft? Did you fare better than I? I'm wondering if taking a 3rd pick gravedigger could have changed my draft for the better.

The Sprue Posse presents the:

SPRUE POSSE OPEN

5^th Edition Warhammer 40k Tournament

Saturday, July 24th, 11:00 AM

Hosted by

Aero Hobbies and Games

1500 Points

4 Rounds Swiss-System

INAT FAQ*

Unpainted Models Allowed; WYSIWYG

Standard Missions from the 5^th Edition Rulebook

To be announced on day of tournament

Prize Support for Best General

Prize Support for Best Painted

$10 entry fee!

Limited Seating!

Sign Up at Aero Hobbies

Please submit a typed army list to the tournament organizer on the day of the tournament.

*INAT FAQ is the independent national tournament FAQ located here:

Aero Hobbies and Games

2918 Santa Monica Boulevard #3
Santa Monica, CA 90404

(310) 828-5264

Questions? Please contact Mark at markemn@yahoo.com

I'm hoping to get in some games this weekend with Absolute Blue. For a change of pace I want to field an Ultramarines army. I've been putting one together for a couple of months now and by leveraging my sisters of battle collection with some liberal use of "counts as" (immolators can be razorbacks right?) I can compile the following list:


Ultramarines (1500)

HQ

Librarian (Null Zone, Avenger)

Troops

Tactical Squad x10 (Flamer, Missile Launcher) w Razorback (Lascannon and TL Plasma)
Tactical Squad x5 w Razorback (Lascannon and TL Plasma)
Tactical Squad x5 w Razorback (Lascannon and TL Plasma)

Elite

Terminator Assault Squad (THSS x5) w Land Raider Crusader (Extra Armor, Multi Melta)

Heavy Support

Predator (Auto Cannon, Heavy Bolter)
Predator (Auto Cannon, Heavy Bolter)

Fast Attack

Land Speeder (Typhoon Missile Launcher)
Land Speeder (Typhoon Missile Launcher)

I think this is a pretty balanced list for 1500 that offers a lot of options. We have a quality death star unit that can control the middle of the table with the thunderhammer terminators embarked in the land raider crusader. Fire support options are plentiful: Double dakka predators for either light vehicles or horde infantry. Land speeders are outfitted with typhoon missile launchers to knock out vehicles from long range. The razorbacks have both lascannons and plasma guns to deal with heavy threats. I can combat squad one of the marine squads and then place three of them in the razorbacks. The fourth unit can camp an objective and fire a missile launcher from long range.

Anyone hate this list? I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to marines. I just try to get units into my lists that can deal with real threats effectively and efficiently. I think this list accomplishes that.

I hope to get a game with this list sometime in the near future. I'll report my results on this blog.

I've compiled the standings for the 2010 Sprue Posse Player of the Year race. This data was compiled based on results of the tournaments logged here, here and here.

We use Elo rating to determine the rating score based on player performance in our tournaments. Points and tournament wins serve as tie-breakers. The RTT's have a K factor of 10, meaning wins and losses have a "weight" of that number. Larger events, like a GT, would have a higher K factor to account for the bigger stakes per game.

There will be additional RTT's throughout the year and participants will be entered into the standings. I'll update them after every tournament.

Sometimes, when assaulting, you don't want to expose your Independent Character to direct attacks by the enemy. This can be for a number of reasons which could include; managing kill points or protecting from the loss of various special abilities.

One example could be protecting your Brother Corbulo, since his bubble of Furious Charge and Feel No Pain are probably valuable to the unit he is in and any unit within 6" of him. Since Brother Corbulo is an Independent Character, it might not be safe to have him on the front line charging the enemy head first.

So for part 1 of this 2 part post, I take a look at how to protect the Independent Character when assaulting the enemy. This assumes that a) you don't want to strand your Independent Character, such that he is standing alone to receive enemy fire, b) there is not another unit nearby he can attach himself to, or c) there is not a transport nearby for him to hide in. Note that assumptions b) and c) are ways to also protect the Independent Character, if those options are available.



The first thing to note in the above illustration is that I have purposefully exaggerated trailing the Independent Character at the back of the squad. This may not necessary when setting up the charge, but will become important in part 2 when I discussed taking a charge. The next thing to note are the rules for assaults using Independent Characters. When assaulting, you do not have to move the Independent Character first to attempt to get into base to base with the enemy. Again, part 2 will deal with the rules regarding being assaulted, which does require the Independent Character to try to move up to the front. Next, we do need to consider that all of my units must still go all out to try to get into base to base with a enemy model in the assault, if possible.

Considering the above illustration, the Blood Angels will be assaulting the Bloodletters. The Blood Angels have a 6" assault range. Being extremely conservative, one can see even if one of the Bloodletters had a place I could put Brother Corbulo in base to base, he cannot physically get there.



Now that the Blood Angels have assaulted the Bloodletters, one can see that all of the Blood Angels moved as far as they could to attempt to get into base to base with one of the enemy models. The unfortunate part about my conservative positioning, is now Brother Corbulo, and potentially one of the other Blood Angels, will not be engaged with any of the Bloodletters and will not be able to contribute any attacks towards the melee.



The last important aspect of protecting the Independent Character as part of the assault is considering the impact of the defenders reaction movement. The two Bloodletters that were not in base to base with any of the Blood Angels can react and move up to 6" to get into base to base with your models. If one was not careful to consider this, the enemy could potentially still get into base to base with the Independent Character. Considering this, Brother Corbulo moved up the middle with other Blood Angels on each of his flanks, knowing it would be more than 6" of movement to get around to him.

Anthony's Chaos Space Marines won best painted at our recent Sprue Posse RTT. You can see his full list here.



Anthony's Daemon Prince with Warptime.



And another with Nurgle's Rot.



A Chaos Sorcerer leads the Nurgle Daemon Princes to victory.



A Nurgle Obliterator



Obliterators deep strike into enemy territory and seek to spread the blight.



Plague Marine squads and their Rhinos.

As a tournament organizer, my preference for these RTT's is to not play in them. I prefer to organize and report rather than play and I want to keep entry slots open for people not affiliated with our gaming club. This day however we need an extra body or two to fill up slots. Absolute Blue was gracious enough to take on my usual full time organization and judging duties for the tournament. I entered as a participant.

My tournament list is here. I like Orks at smaller point levels and I am confident in playing this list since I've play-tested it extensively. Here is a round by round report:

Round 1 - Joaquin Atwood - Space Marines

This game was a Dawn of War / Annihilation. Joaquin places a tactical squad on the table. I hold everything off and roll on with triple wagons covering triple buggies and then walking lootas and kannons.

Joaquin drop pods in a Dreadnaught and Immobilizes the Nob Wagon. I put Loota and Kannon fire into his Whirlwind and the Drop Pod on turn 2 and destroy them. My other Wagons survive shots from missiles with cover saves and get to the center of the table.

From 40k_SpruePosseRTT_June5th

He outflanks with his Land Speeder and Scouts and wipes my Kannon unit. All my Lootas retaliate and kill both units. I try to ignore the Land Raider and put shots into the rest of his units. I Deffrolla his Vindicator to death, I blow up a Rhino with Lootas. I eventually wipe his Tac Squad with Shoota shots. I try to Deffrolla his Land Raider and fail. He wipes all 3 of my buggies eventually but when all is settled I've caused more carnage. The game ends on turn 6.

Result: Orks win 7 kill points to 5.

Round 2 - Anthony Wang - Chaos Space Marines

This game was Pitched / Capture Control. I sometimes am tempted to go opposite corner on objectives in this game, but this time I put my objective straight across from his in the near corner and try to play for the win.

I defer to him and he moves forward with his 2 Daemon Princes. He does not deep strike with his obliterators, but does with his terminators and just takes shots at my wagons but rolls poorly and doesn't do anything with lascannon fire. He gets a bit too aggressive with his Daemon Princes however. On my first turn of shooting I shoot one to death with Kannonz and Lootas and then wipe the other one with a Nob mob charge from a battlewagon.

From 40k_SpruePosseRTT_June5th

After he loses his DP's I surge forward with two of my wagons getting cover fire from my Lootas. I keep one Wagon back sitting in the corner on my objective.

His terminators show up in my back field and fail to harm my Battlewagon with Melta shots. The bad scatter from the deepstrike put him outside of 6" making the shot less than optimal. I kill off two of them with shoota spam from the wagon platform at the bottom of the turn but he still manages to wipe a kannon unit and a couple lootas with the lone terminator before I can finish it off.

Meanwhile near his objective I try crashing everything I have on top of his objective. I've wrecked all 3 rhinos with my shooting but he's turtled up behind the rhino wall with all of his troops and obliterators. I attempt to deffrolla his lines. One he death or glories. The Nob wagon gets back there. The remaining boys that fell out of the DOG'd wagon assault his marines. The remaining buggies contest his objective. He can't kill everything on the objective before the game is over.

Result: Orks win 1 objective to 0

Round 3 - Ryan Shepard - Tyranids

My list isn't really optimized for the 5 objective seize game. This deployment is spearhead. I pay for it here with only three scoring units. Shep's list is difficult for me to defeat because my lootas, usually all-stars again light mech transports, are terrible against his list. I do have Rockitts and Kannonz however. I have absolutely no reliable answer to Tyrannofexes though short of a full nob assault.

From 40k_SpruePosseRTT_June5th

Shep fans out his army putting some gaunts and a tervigon into the left, center, and right portions of the battlefield in an effort to swarm objectives. A Tyrannofex blows up the Nob wagon right off the bat. My remaining transports surge forward split to each side. The Buggies take shots at his tervigons with limited success. The Lootas basically have one target: Hive guard, whom I shoot and manage to kill almost all of over the course of the game.

From 40k_SpruePosseRTT_June5th

The Nobs run to the closest objective and end up assaulting an killing a Tyrannofex. Another wagon is blown up and the boyz that spill out clean up some gaunts. My other boy unit shoots gaunts in the corner but tries to keep distance from a closing Tyrannofex.

From 40k_SpruePosseRTT_June5th

As the game wears on it's becoming obvious I'm not going to win. The swarms of endless gaunts eat my boys. My nobs are contesting the objective and I end up killing a tervigon and a bunch of gaunts in the ensuing explosion but there are still 2 tervigons on the board and far too many gaunts camped on objectives to kill them all in time. I manage to contest one objective with a crippled buggy.

From 40k_SpruePosseRTT_June5th

I am able to wipe another gaunt unit of the far side objective but cannot score it because a Tyrannofex is sitting there as well. I can't even score my home objective. I don't have enough troops.

From 40k_SpruePosseRTT_June5th

I did some damage to his army but simply don't have the numbers to score enough objectives. He crippled my mobility and killed a troop. I couldn't get to his home objective and couldn't score my own without conceding some mid-field.

Result: Tyranids win 1 Objective to 0.

Round 4 - David Greenspoon - Eldar

The final round is pitched battle / annihilation. David is playing a hybrid eldar list with both monstrous creatures and wave serpents.

I deploy like so:

From 40k_SpruePosseRTT_June5th

From 40k_SpruePosseRTT_June5th

I win the roll and am on the play, I loota spam his warwalkers a blow up two and weapon destroy the third. I put kannon fire into his wraithlord, move my wagon on the left side 7" and then put shoota shots into nearby infiltrating snipers and move my other wagons and buggies 12-13" into the center of the table.

From 40k_SpruePosseRTT_June5th

He responds by turbo-boosting his wave serpents and positions melta shots into my wagon. He kills a buggy with my failed KFF cover save.

I debark my wagon with the nobs to assault the wounded wraithlord but end up just killing it with rockitt buggies instead. I then deffrolla an avatar, and put a full kannon barrage into it to finish it off. My lootas pepper shots at wave serpents but don't get any exciting results on the damage table.

From 40k_SpruePosseRTT_June5th

He meltas a wagon and then bladestorms the boyz that fall out. They manage to survive with cover saves. My remaining boyz in a wagon finish off his guardians. My nobz then assault his howling banshees. I put more lootas and rockitt buggies into his wave serpents and finally wreck them. I finish off the lame warwalker and fire dragon unit.

From 40k_SpruePosseRTT_June5th

From 40k_SpruePosseRTT_June5th

The game ends on turn 5.

Orks win 8 kill points to 2.

So those are my tourney results. A 3-1 record and I lost to Shep, who ended up winning the tourney. Good enough for second place. I'm pleased with my list for the most part but I think I'll try to find some points for a fourth troop, either a small boy unit or grots so that I have more flexibility in the seize games.

Orks can do well if they have enough strength 7 and strength 8 shooting to suppress enemy fire. This enables the mobile units to get wherever they need to go in one piece. In all the games I won, the deffrollas got to ram things. In the game I lost, they never made it.