Tournament: Battleforge Games 5-10-08

It was time again for another 'eavy tournament up at Battleforge this weekend. Something like 12-14 people showed up with all the cheese they could carry; big bugs, mceldar, double lash chaos, and triple monolith necrons were all in full rapelicious effect. I waded into them with my inquisitorial army, earned a single win and went back home to the drawing board. Third exorcist here I come. The retributors will be broken down to make a third sister squad. I'm also ditching the Callidus for good. Maybe I just don't use her right but she never seems to last past a single round of combat, c'tan tech or no. Last month somebody requested more pictures of the other armies in battle, so here's a few:

Jhag's Mechanized Guard



Sean's Tyranids vs. Travis's Orks



Robert's Chaos



Thomas's Chaos



Frank's Ultramarines vs. Aventine's Eldar

Game 1 - Necrons

Primary Objective: Victory points
Secondary Objective: Destroy an enemy vehicle or monstrous creature
Tertiary Objective: Kill an enemy independent character
Bonus Point: Have a friendly unit in your deployment zone

I drew Jay's triple 'lith list for the first round. I destroyed all of the immortals and two of the monoliths but the bulk of the force made it close enough to my lines to bring the megagauss storm to bear. I accomplished the secondary objective, Jay got the first and second objective, and we both earned a bonus point.

Game 2 - Chaos

Primary Mission: Table quarters
Secondary Mission: Victory Points
Tertiary Mission: Have fewer scoring units than your opponent at the end of the game
Bonus Points: Have a unit in the enemy deployment zone

After like a year or two of missing each other at plenty of tournaments, Thomas and I finally faced off. For this tournament he was fielding two flying demon princes with lash, two noise marines in rhinos, a thousand sons squad in a rhino, a berzerker squad in a land raider, and two obliterators. He got first turn and moved up with his transports and demon princes. One fried himself a wound right off the bat with a failed perils test, and the other couldn't see to lash anyone. I wrecked all three of his rhinos through their smoke launchers, killed several passengers, and pinned them all. He managed to lash and assault a guard and retributor squad but all my heavy weapon fire wiped out one of his units after another and he conceded. I achieved the primary and secondary missions, with a bonus point, and he got the tertiary objective.

Game 3 - Chaos

Primary Mission: Victory points
Secondary Mission: Table quarters
Tertiary Mission: Get a selected friendly unit into the enemy deployment zone
Bonus Point: Don't Remember

Robert definitely made up for our last game and totally wrecked my shit with his two walking lash sorcerers, 32 thousand sons, and nine obliterators. I might have done a bit better by first placing a sacrificial unit near the table center (in order to push his forces back 18") and deploy the rest far back in my own hidey hole. As it was he was able to start lashing me right off the bat and plasma and inferno bolts ate me up a squad at a time. I conceded sometime in the fourth round.

Tarots and Peas

I'm bringing a new character on board my never ending inquisitorial soul train, next stop, purgation station, get your palms read for a paltry pittance, your blasted warp beasts banished for a buck: a daemon hunter inquisitor with emperor's tarot. I had the perfect model sitting in front of me the whole time, but I was thinking I was going to use him as an acolyte instead. Nah. I'd rather get a leg up on first turn. Plus he can hang out and still get love from the chirurgeons (don't tell him he's just an ablative wound after 1st turn). I still added another acolyte to the witch hunter's retinue, gave the seraphim VSS an eviscerator, and switched over to the callidus assassin. Pick side, go first, word in your ear. Not a bad 2k army I think.

Cannoness
blessed weapon
inferno pistol
mantle of Ophelia
cloak of St. Aspira
jump pack
book of St. Lucius
frag grenades

Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor Lord
liber heresius
psychic hood
carapace armor
2 chirurgeons
2 acolytes
carapace armor
3 gun servitors
3 heavy bolters

ELITES

Ordo Malleus Inquisitor
emperor's tarot

Callidus Assassin

3 Death Cult Assassins

TROOPS

10 Sisters of Battle
meltagun, storm bolter
vet. sister superior
book of St. Lucius

10 Sisters of Battle
meltagun, storm bolter
vet. sister superior
book of St. Lucius

Infantry Platoon
Command Squad
Junior officer
bolter
2 plasma guns
lascannon team
Infantry Squad 1
plasma gun
lascannon team
Infantry Squad 2
plasma gun
lascannon team
Infantry Squad 3
plasma gun
lascannon team

FAST ATTACK

8 Seraphim
2 hand flamers
vet. sister superior
eviscerator

HEAVY SUPPORT

Exorcist
extra armor
smoke launchers

Exorcist
extra armor
smoke launchers

10 Retributors
4 heavy bolters
vet. sister superior
book of St. Lucius

Tournament: Dragon's Lair 4-06-08

There were 11 of us up at DL on Sunday, including a couple of new younger faces I didn't recognize but mostly regulars. There was a great mix of armies present: Eldar, Ultramarines, Orks, Dark Angels, Demonhunters, Chaos, Tyranids, my own Witch Hunters, and maybe one more race I'm forgetting. A few were tightly tuned, others not as much. I had a great time and got to play three interesting games against cool people. I played pretty much the same army as last time, minus one guard infantry squad, the inquisitor and retinue, and all of my precious assassins. As it turned out, I didn't miss them all that much, since all three opponents were more about shooting than horde or assault. I had a strong terrain advantage for at least the first two games, as almost all the tables basically consisted of two rows of cover separated by a 20" no-man's land. Great for me, since I was usually able to set up with good lines of fire and screen my exorcists from anti-tank, but maybe a little boring. I slipped up and forgot to hit and run with the Seras at a crucial moment in the last game, but otherwise I was able to remember and apply the sisters' rules and tricksies fairly well. First place went to Nick and his Storm Reaver space marines, second place went to Brendan and his Dark Angels, and I took third place. I picked up a box of dire avengers that will round out my 2k Saim Hann army. More on that tomorrow.

Game 1 - Eldar - Seek and Destroy

I played against Marshall in the last DL tournament, and come to think of it we played annihilation that time, too. For this game he had an avatar, a couple 3-man jetbike squads, a squad of guardians in a wave serpent, 5 or 6 fire dragons, 5 or 6 rangers, 5 warp spiders, a vyper with a scatter laser, two kitted-out falcons with scatter lasers, and a wraithlord. I rolled to go first and immediately took down the wraithlord with the exorcists and lascannons, as well as a ranger or two with the retributors. I may have wounded the avatar once too. He advanced with his mobile elements, shooting up guard or sister squads with his skimmers and their passengers, but my return fire usually cut the attackers down quickly. I just tried to shake or stun the skimmers first in every shooting phase and put any remaining guns into his infantry, until the vyper and falcons were all he had left. The avatar wasn't able to get within shooting range before I fried him with lascannon fire. My exorcists did really well, thanks to me rolling at sixes for the missile count at least twice. I tried to advance the seraphim and canoness, stopping briefly to wipe out the warp spiders and fire dragons that had dropped in front of my gunline, but the seraphim had to make too many saves and actually had to regroup with the spirit of the emperor before hiding for the rest of the game. The canoness, however, made it all the way across the table to light into some jetbikes and wipe them out in close combat. Witch Hunters win, crushing victory.

Game 2 - Chaos Space Marines

I also played Brandon's chaos army at the last tournament. This time he had a cool-looking betentacled tzeentch demon prince, a deep-striking squad of 6 terminators, a dreadnought, two squads of 10 marines with rhino transports, three obliterators, and a defiler. We both set up our firing lines in hard cover, with the exception of his demon prince, who came flying over on my left flank towards one of my exorcists and a guard platoon command squad. He took three wounds along the way, and managed to destroy the exorcist's main (only) gun, but lascannons finished him off before he could do any more damage. A lucky break for me, as his wind of chaos and warptime would have probably rolled up my line. Slowly but surely I picked the rest of his forces off, destroying everything but the defiler and a few marines (IIRC). I had two units near the center, giving me enough points to win by a large margin. Witch Hunters win, victorious slaughter.

Game 3 - Dark Angels

Brendan had a dark angels force consisting of Belial and a bodyguard of terminators, the landspeeder master of the Ravenwing, a veteran squad in a rhino, three more assault cannon/multimelta landspeeders, two or three attack bikes, and a couple squads of bikers. We went into the third round playing at table 2, which had somewhat of an awkward set up for me. He more or less went for a refused flank with his fast units, though it was really the big piece of terrain in my right corner that allowed him to post up next to my forces with his speeders and attack bikes and avoid the rest of my shooters. It probably would have gone a lot worse for me but he was a little hesitant in the early turns and I was able to drop a few units piecemeal before he made his main attack. Once that happened, though, it was only a matter of time for the troops on my right side. He did pop an exorcist first turn, though my second one survived to do plenty of damage on its own as well as drive into his deployment zone for recon points. My seraphim traipsed up on my left side, falling back once only to regroup and continue the assault. Belial and a few assault terminators eventually wiped them out, but only after suffering significant losses themselves. It was a very interesting game, and together with the near-disaster in the second match, I really need to work on a way to prevent fast units from flanking me so hard. I have a few tactics I'm going to try the next time I use the coed gunline. The game ended in a draw.

For next Saturday's hobby tournament at BFG, however, it's going to be the Wolftime. Hopefully I can get them all painted by then.

Tournament: Dragon's Lair 3-22-08

The Scourge of Zugarramurdi did very well on Saturday at the 2000 pt tournament at Dragon's Lair. Not one, but two recalcitrant chapters of space marines, as well as a sinister Eldar warhost were all judged guilty of heresy and made to submit to righteous excoriation in His name. Not all of the prisoners survived their penitence. I came in second place out of 12 people and got to play three interesting games against friendly opponents. My witch hunters have served me well, creating entertaining games and reliably earning solid or crushing victories, helping me to fly below the radar and ease into second or third at several tournaments now.

Game 1 - Ultramarines - Secure and Control

Lundy had a nicely painted ultramarines force consisting mostly of min lasplas squads with an assault squad led by a chaplain, two melta squads in heavy bolter razorbacks, assault terminators led by a chaplain in a land raider crusader, and a couple standard dreadnoughts. We rolled for three loot counters and I got to place two of them in my own deployment zone. He hadn't played against Witch Hunters before, which might explain why he charged the crusader forward in the first turn towards the same flank as the exorcists. They promptly lit the big guy up like the fourth of July, exploding the tank, pinning the terms, and scattering flamey wreckage into the nearby marine squad. They all survived the flak but were later whittled down by the exorcists and guard lascannons. I had deployed the assassins behind the center piece of cover, and he sent the two razorback squads in after them. The eversor was melted before he could do a thing, but the death cultists wiped out one squad and killed four more marines in the second. The dreadnoughts strode forward out of cover, and though I brought one down fairly quickly with a missile barrage, the second one survived to the fifth and final turn and nearly claimed a second objective after his assault marines had pushed my forces off the hill in the middle of my deployment. My Canoness and Seraphim had valiantly counter-attacked and defended the position for as long as possible, but powerfists will be powerfists and eventually they were destroyed. Both of us ended up claiming a single objective but with the witch hunters ahead by 400 or so victory points. Witch Hunters win, solid victory.

Game 2 - Eldar - Seek and Destroy

Marshall was a nice guy playing with a mixed eldar force consisting of an avatar, farseer, 10 guardians and a scatter laser (?), 10 harlequins, 10 dire avengers in a wave serpent, 6 rangers, 6 fire dragons, 6 warp spiders, 2 falcons, and a wraithlord. I think it was his first game against a witch hunters list too. I actually thought I was doing much worse this entire game than I actually was. He managed to wipe out a few guard squads and seriously deplete the retributors with shooting from the falcons, wraithlord. The warp spiders and fire dragons both jumped at my front line and got vaporized after singe rounds of shooting. I let the harlequins and scorpions get to the closest edge of the center terrain piece before springing the canoness, assassins, and seraphim at them, completely wiping them out suffering minimal casualties in return. The canoness in particular performed very well, shrugging off the mightiest attacks with her 2+ invulnerable on innumerable occasions. I finally destroyed the blasted Wraithlord (!) after two or three rounds of heavy shooting, earned a ton of points back from my surviving forces, and won by a decent margin. Witch Hunters win, crushing victory.

Game 3 - Space Marines - Take and Hold

Brian, I kicked your ass in this game! Only kidding. I had several lucky breaks that saved me a lot of work and helped me to win in the long run. He was running a jump commander, jump chaplain, two large assault squads, two terminator squads with assault cannons, several small tac squads with missile launchers, and a small dev squad with missile launchers and a lascannon. I set up my guard across the field from his shooty squads, with the retributors and a sister squad nearby to help out with leadership. When the assault squad led by the chaplain and commander crossed the battlefield towards the center, the retributors killed just four of them with divine guidanced heavy bolter fire and they broke off the table... totally tragic. I set up the eversor on the right side of his deployment, but he got first turn and assaulted him with jump pack squad. Somehow he survived like 20 attacks including a powerfist and actually won combat. Unfortunately he wasn't so lucky in the subsequent turn and exploded on his attackers to no effect. His terminators moved up out of cover toward the middle and the exorcists shot the shit out of them. Unfortunately the assault cannon termies survived and the exorcist in the cover on my right was rended into early retirement. The death cultists jumped down and finished off one terminator squad, while the other climbed atop the building and were eventually destroyed by the canoness and seraphim. His missile batteries wiped out my entire left side minus the exorcist with a never-ending frag barrage. On my right, his surviving assault marine squad made a dent in a sisters squad before being finished off by the canoness and a death cultist. The seraphim claimed the center and earned back their points. Witch Hunters win, solid victory.

Tournament: Ninja Pirates 3-16-08

Last Sunday I went up to Ninja Pirates for a 2000 point rules of engagement tournament. There was an unusually small turnout, only 6 players, perhaps due to the big blowout in the corresponding event thread on the Austin forum, but more likely resulting from the games taking place on the last day of spring break. I don’t think many of the usual players at NP read the forum that much anyway. I actually wrote out a long entry about the argument but abandoned it after I realized I didn’t really give a shit about a few different people not getting along for whatever reason. It was a predictable flare-up in a community somewhat segregated by differing opinions on the competitive aspect of the game (there might be some old bad blood involved in the mix too). I don’t think it says anything bad about the Austin scene; in fact I think it’s a good thing that new players are more likely to find a sympathetic peer group with the different viewpoints represented, a few inevitable episodes of threadrage notwithstanding.

Aaanyway, after trading for another whirlwind missile rack to make my second exorcist, I decided to take a new variation on my old witch hunters/inducted guard list (see previous entry). The tournament sort of fell apart before the third round when a couple of the players took off for one reason or another, and my own two games were a little sloppy and somewhat anticlimactic. The main liability of my list is mobility. I have plenty of anti-horde and anti-armor shooting and a decent assault wing, but besides the seraphim, the only scoring units I have that can move 12" are the exorcists, and they aren’t really made to drive around and grab objectives. I could drop the cultists for a couple of rhinos for the 2 sister squads, but it would make the gunline less effective by moving their leadership-bracing books of St. Lucius away. In both of Sunday’s games I was pretty rusty with the acts of faith; hopefully after a few more warmups I’ll be back in the swing of things with the coeds.

Game 1 – Eldar

Aims drew "firebase" for her mission, requiring her to capture any two objectives on the board, and I drew "foothold," meaning I had to capture both of the enemy objectives. As I’ve already mentioned, mobility is not a strong point of this army and so I was already at a disadvantage from the start as we had both placed one objective each deep in our own deployment zones (the big triangle-shaped setups). I deployed my assassins far forward, which turned out to be a good distraction for her assault units (banshees, harlequins), but I made the mistake of anchoring the sister squads heavy on my right side rather than my left. The retributors were never able to bring their heavy bolters to bear, and after the single sister squad on the left was taken out, my guardsmen were left to fend for their own. The seraphim and canoness eventually repelled the banshees and harlequins, but the seraphim were brought below scoring and broken before they could try to contest Amy’s home objective. One fire prism was destroyed by exorcist and lascannon fire, but the second grav tank zipped around to take my distant objective. Since I had second turn, I contested it with a sister squad, and I would have taken one of her objectives in my 6th turn with the surviving retributors and tied up the game, but the time ran out and we didn’t have time to finish. Eldar wins, 1-0.

Game 2 – Armored Company

I was paired off against Jay going into the second round. He had an armored company list featuring a hellhound, a vanquisher, an exterminator, 3 or 4 standard russes, 2 basilisks, and a demonhunter inquisitor with a retinue and a land raider. He drew "rescue" for his mission (not great for an all-tank army) and I rolled for "firebase." I got first turn and things went downhill for him quickly. I was able to destroy a leman russ and a land raider right off the bat, and with all my lascannons and melta-missiles I was able to keep the same killing pace for pretty much the entire game. With no chance of victory, he started to kinda fuck around at the end, which led to a scenario in which the eversor exploded a leman russ vanquisher and a hellhound in a single turn with death or glory meltabomb attacks. Spectacular! The explosions even killed the death cultist hanging around behind him, but the eversor himself was untouched. Witch Hunters win, 2-0.

Game 3 – Clay’s Barber

My third opponent, Clay, went to get a haircut. I supposedly got a bye win, and I might have even gotten third place overall, but who knows?

Which Hunters?

Out of friggin nowhere, here's a new witch hunters list I'm thinking of trying:

The Scourge of Zugarramurdi

In pursuit of a sophisticated den of heretical psykers called the "Sisterhood of Sol," Mother Belandra and the sisters of Banon joined forces with elements of the Tiefwalder 14th and investigated a rumored Sol citadel on Zugarramurdi, a carbon-mining outpost in the Ultima segmentum. When they realized the obscene taint of the witches was attracting barbarous xenos raiders from the entire segment, they immediately made plans to purify the central colony of Iberia with cleansing bolt and flame. In the hours just before the main attack, Belandra was contacted by Lord Inquisitor Xocratos of the Ordo Hereticus, and made to know that her forces would be augmented by his own personal cadre of assassins and cyborgs.

"Let nothing stand in His righteous way, God Emperor of Mankind!"

HQ

Canoness - blessed weapon, inferno pistol, cloak of St. Aspira, mantle of Ophelia, jump pack

Inquisitor Lord - liber heresius, psychic hood, carapace armor
2 Chirurgeons
1 Acolyte - carapace armor
3 Gun Servitors - heavy bolters

ELITES

Eversor Assassin

3 Death Cult Assassins

TROOPS

10 Sisters of Battle - storm bolter, meltagun
Veteran Sister Superior - book of St. Lucius

10 Sisters of Battle - storm bolter, meltagun
Veteran Sister Superior - book of St. Lucius

Imperial Guard Infantry Platoon
Command Squad - 2 plasma guns, lascannon team
Junior Officer - bolter
4 Infantry Squads - plasma gun, lascannon team

FAST ATTACK

8 Seraphim - 2 hand flamers
Veteran Sister Superior - power weapon, book of St. Lucius

HEAVY SUPPORT

2 Exorcists - extra armor, bulldozer blades

10 Retributors - 4 heavy bolters
Veteran Sister Superior - book of St. Lucius

* edit: I dropped the 3 imagifers, 2 of the seraphim, and a few other little things to bring in the death cultists. And a new crusade.

Some WIP

Recently I broke apart my exorcist and immolator and changed around some parts, putting the missile launchers on the immolator turrets and gothic top armor. After a day or two of pondering my leftovers, I used the old whirlwind launcher axle to hold two heavy bolters to remake the immolator. So above we see the final Exorcist. Here's what they used to look like. Still gotta find a way to bring that banner pole back in. I'm probably going to ditch the immolator entirely when I can get my hands on another set of whirlwind and immolator bits and make a second exorcist similar to this one.

I finally decided to add wings to my hive tyrant, so I broke apart two smaller fex scything talons and stuck them on his back where the two double fin thingies used to be. I think it came out looking pretty insect-like, which is great since I designed the army's look around yellowjackets. I took away his psychic scream and gave him warp field instead to keep the 2+ save. He's expensive but I think more ded kunning overall (this new orks madness is getting to me). Here's another yellow bug army that I found on the nets. I like shiny black armor better but the shaded grey is cool too!

You just can't keep an old fex down, and this guy's proof. Probably the first tyranid model I ever bought, only now he's articulated in something of a running pose, with new fex devourers and armor plates above the arms (without them the new segmented arms looked a little goofy coming out of the fat old body). I kept the tusks I had added to him the last time around, but I won't actually equip him with it in the game. He's just a cheap elite dakkafex to soak up wounds, sit on objectives, and maybe squeeze off a few corrosive larvae himself a time or two.

I also put together my new second sniperfex, dabbed various colors of paint on some genestealer carapaces to differentiate squads, and took a 2000 point mess up to Dragon's Lair on Sunday to have a go at their advertised tournament. Only two other guys showed up about 30 minutes late, and it seemed more like they were just friends coming in to play a casual game. Soooo I took a rain check on the whole shebang. The new 40k coordinator at DL, Kurt, said the Sunday tourney was more like an experiment to see if people would show up, so maybe next time more folks will show up on a Saturday. Whathaveyou. I did see their new drop-down game board, and it was quite an impressive piece of lumber - I think they used like 5 sequoias to make the cabinet. The board itself is a cool ruined highway with two sides perfect to scatter buildings on, which they also had handy.

The Horsley Chastisement Revisited

I rearranged my 2k Witch Hunters/Guard gunline list a bit. Basically I went back and took out a lot of the 'ard boyz experiments, bringing the seraphim back up to 10 girls, and dropping the russ in favor for the retributors and an extra heavy bolter immolator. In this edition I also took out any and all chimeras and rhinos, so my assault units will have less of a screen than before, but it allowed me to fit in more guns.

HQ

Canoness - jump pack, cloak of st. aspira, mantle of ophelia, book of st. lucius, frag grenades, inferno pistol, blessed weapon

Inquisitor Lord - carapace armor, psychic hood, liber heresius
2 chirurgeons
1 acolyte with carapace armor
3 heavy bolter servitors

ELITES

Eversor Assassin

TROOPS

10 Sisters of Battle - storm bolter, meltagun, imagifer
Veteran Sister Superior - book of st. lucius

10 Sisters of Battle - storm bolter, meltagun, imagifer
Veteran Sister Superior - book of st. lucius

1 Guard Infantry Platoon
Command Squad - junior officer with bolter, 2 meltaguns, lascannon team
Infantry Squad - plasma gun, lascannon team
Infantry Squad - plasma gun, lascannon team

1 Guard Infantry Platoon
Command Squad - junior officer with bolter, 2 meltaguns, lascannon team
Infantry Squad - plasma gun, lascannon team
Infantry Squad - plasma gun, lascannon team

Fast Attack

10 Seraphim - 2 twin hand flamers
Veteran Sister Superior

Heavy Support

1 Exorcist - extra armor, dozer blade

1 Immolator - extra armor, heavy bolters

10 Retributors - 4 heavy bolters, imagifer
Veteran Sister Superior - book of st. lucius

Warhammer 30,000: Week 2

The second week of the campaign featured a lot of soon-to-be traitor legions whupping up a little overzealously on faithful worlds. Given that the names and places of these have been described in more detail in the fluff than most of last week's matches, the stuff I wrote up beforehand didn't really apply. Oh wells, I still had a couple of interesting games against two tough legions with the 2000 point witch hunter list I brought.

My first game was against the Luna Wolves, playing the Rescue scenario, as they swept the wounded Warhamster, er, I mean Warmaster, to safety from one of the moons of Davin. My forces represented the Davinite Cultists, in the middle of a surprise attack on the Wolves' positions. I inflicted a few casualties in the beginning, and I believe my Seraphim and sisters managed to drop one of the special characters, but his drop pod squads really made the whole thing a non-starter. Once he discovered the correct token, Abe's drop pods were able to land directly onto the objective, shuffle it around in his marine squads and move it backwards. I didn't take any pictures, as the DreamBlade boxes he pulled off the rack and used for his drop pods just looked a little too retarded to be captured for posterity. I mean, I understand you do what you have to do, but I just think posterity would have been disappointed. Anyway, after he moved the objective out of my reach we called it early, Luna Wolves win.

The second match was against Jon's Night Lords, as they attacked the previously compliant Imperial world of Anargo. We played an alpha night fight mission. Nightfighting was always in effect, using table quarters as the objectives and deployment zones. We both deployed in two main wings, his bikes, vets, dreadnought, and assault squad heading towards my seraphim, assassins, repentia, sisters, retributors, and inquisitor retinue, and on the other side,
his infantry squads and land speeders against my exorcist, penitent engines, storm troopers, and another squad of sisters. I managed to play rope-a-dope for nearly the entire game, inflicting damage on units here and there and trying to stay out of his grasp. It was a very challenging game; perhaps without Night Fight I might have been able to get enough early shooting in to prevent myself from being so inevitably overrun. Probably the most fun part was launching into the oncoming bike squad with the last few repentia and two of the death cult assassins, wiping them out, then sweeping into his deep striking terminators and teaming up with the Seraphim to take them out. The Eversor and third death cult held off the veterans and brought them below scoring. I was contesting every quarter until I failed four or five armor saves on my retributors in his last turn, bringing them below 50% and giving up the home table quarter. Night Lords win a really great game.

I witnessed my first game of Apocalypse being played between Mkerr and Bigred from BOLS. It was a massive 5000 point battle pitting a ton of Death Guard and a titan against a large Witch Hunter/Guard force. It looked very cool but perhaps a little tedious, but as I was playing my two games I didn't really watch enough to get a feel for the mechanic. You can read Red's specific comments on the game here. The BOLS rundown of 30k Week 2 is here.

In Defense of the Priory Scarlet: Witch Hunters 2000

I'll be taking this 2000 point Witch Hunters list to the second week of the Warhammer 30k campaign, being played at Battleforge. It's a pure list, focusing mainly on close quarters fighting, using all of the WH assault models I have - the Cannoness, Seraphim, Repentia, Engines, and Assassins - as well as some core troop and support units to back them up. It's the best I could do at representing a loyal crusader force about to be betrayed and viciously attacked by the Emperor's 8th legion, the Night Lords. With night fighting in effect, I have no worries that this one's gonna be a bloodbath!

HQ:

Canoness - blessed weapon, jump pack, inferno pistol, cloak of st. aspira, mantle of ophelia, frag grenades, book of st. lucius

Inquisitor Lord - liber heresius, carapace armor
Retinue - 2 chirurgeons, 3 heavy bolter servitors, 1 acolyte with carapace armor

ELITES:

6 Repentia
Mistress
Priest - power weapon

1 Eversor Assassin

3 Death Cult Assassins

TROOPS:

10 Sisters of Battle - meltagun, storm bolter, imagifer
Veteran Sister Superior - book of st. lucius

10 Sisters of Battle - meltagun, storm bolter, imagifer
Veteran Sister Superior - book of st. lucius

10 Storm Troopers - 2 flamers
Rhino - smoke launchers

FAST ATTACK:

10 Seraphim - 2 flame pistols
Veteran Sister Superior

HEAVY SUPPORT:

2 Penitent Engines

1 Exorcist - extra armor

10 Retributors - 4 heavy bolters, imagifer
Veteran Sister Superior - book of st. lucius

Tournament: Thor's Hammer 10-6-07

I went to a standard tourney at Thor's last weekend with a slightly changed around Witch Hunters list that I for no good reason at all call "the Horsley Chastisement." It's the same Witch Hunters/Inducted Guard units that I've been using so heavily in the last month or two, just a little more streamlined, with a full Inquisitor Lord and heavy bolter servitor retinue, an immolator with heavy bolters, and retributors switched in for the Leman Russ. I did alright, coming in third place overall out of 6 (7 initially, but he left after catching the the first round bye).

Game 1 - Space Marines - Recon

I drew Brian for the first round, who I had first played against at a Battleforge Tourney a month ago. A nice guy with some awesome dreadnoughts and terminators (love those bases), he had some bad luck and things started rolling downhill in a hurry. The mission was Recon, which I don't think I've ever played on the very first round of a tournament. I grouped all my mobile elements together on one flank that was defended by one venerable dreadnought and a small devastator squad, with a largish assault squad hiding behind a hill. After heavily disabling the dred and wiping out the devastators with my own heavy bolters, I moved up the armored units and drew the assault troops out into the open with the armored fist squad. They took shooting casualties and fled on cue, leaving the assault team open to a shooting gallery, led by the canoness and seraphim. The other side received no less than 2 different terminator deep strike assaults, but always managed to wipe the armored troops out before they could dig in. The Eversor led one particular counterassault and took out the last three terminators by himself. The retributors took most of my shooting casualties, leaving the guard lascannons to harrass the dreadnought and tac squad on the opposite temple as well as the terminators that approached on foot. When the smoke cleared, most of his force had been destroyed and several of my most expensive units were in his deployment zone. Witch Hunters win, massacre.

Game 2 - Tyranids - Seek and Destroy

I had watched from a distance many times already as Sean's bugzilla list chewed through anyone and everyone at Battleforge, and for my second game I finally had the honor myself, with Seek and Destroy as the mission no less. He's an agreeable dude, really experienced with this extremely powerful army. Fully guarded tyrants, 6 shooty, extra wound carnifexes, and 6 small teams of genestealers. Fucking retarded. I lined up and hunkered down, stretched out my firing line, and did my best to shoot what I thought were priority targets. One heavy fex went down first turn to the retributors holding the middle, but after that they had terrible luck with shooting and eventually died when the big, fat, T6 wave finally broke on my shore. At the end of the game, I had managed to drop several tyrant guards, weaken or destroy half of the genestealer squads, kill two of the heavy fexes, and kill or wound two elite fexes. I was left with one squad of sisters, a depleted but scoring seraphim squad, and the immolator. The Eversor performed like a champ and dropped in on one of the heavy fexes, rolling 6 extra attacks and inflicting the last four wounds on the big lug. He segued into some genestealers, who chewed him up a bit before he exploded, unfortunately only killing one of them. The canoness also survived longer than expected but only killed a couple of genestealers before they pulled her down, too. Tyranids win, major victory. Robert also played Sean with his Thousand Sons and only lost by a minor victory. I never really thought about it, but AP3 bolters and 4+ invulnerable saves are a decent answer to some of bugzilla's challenges. Plus Robert wields them like a scalpel, or at least he has in my experience.

Game 3 - Tau - Recon

I totally forgot my opponent's name for this last round, but I've seen him around before at Battleforge, nice guy. He had a decent tau mixed force, with two crisis hq's, another crisis suit squad, pathfinders, two stealth teams, two squads of kroot, two squads of firewarriors with devilfish, a broadside, an ionhead, and a hammerhead. Sigh, Tau is never an easy game. You start not taking them seriously and all of a sudden squads completely behind cover are being wiped out by shooting from god knows where. The eversor started the game out in the open, in position to charge into three crisis suits, but my opponent rolled first turn and shot the assassin down before he could do a thing. The exorcist, guard, retributors, and inquisitor did their best to shoot up anything that poked its head out, including the suits and stealth teams, while the canoness, seraphim, and a sister squad rushed across the board, taking out the pathfinders, broadside, and kroot that were holding one of his objectives. We ran out of time or he would have easily reclaimed it with his devilfished warrior squads, which had sat untouched behind buildings for the whole game. He managed to fight my mobile units off though, and I ended up with just two objectives to his one. Witch Hunters win, minor victory.

Task Force Manticore: Witch Hunters 2500

HQ

Canoness - inferno pistol, blessed weapon, cloak of St. Aspira, mantle of Ophelia, jump pack, book of St. Lucius, frag grenades

Inquisitor Lord - liber heresius, psychic hood, carapace armor, auspex, 2 Chirurgeons, 1 Acolyte (carapace armor), 3 Heavy Bolter Servitors

ELITES

Eversor Assassin

3 Death Cult Assassins

TROOPS

10 Sisters of Battle - meltagun, storm bolter, imagifer
Veteran Sister Superior - book of St. Lucius

10 Sisters of Battle - meltagun, storm bolter, imagifer
Veteran Sister Superior - book of St. Lucius
Rhino - extra armor, smoke launchers

Infantry Platoon
Command Squad - Officer (bolter), 2 plasma guns, lascannon
2 Infantry Squads - plasma gun, lascannon

Armored Fist Squad
Infantry Squad - plasma gun, lascannon
Chimera - multilaser, hull heavy bolter, smoke launchers, extra armor

Armored Fist Squad
Infantry Squad - plasma gun, lascannon
Chimera - multilaser, hull heavy bolter, smoke launchers, extra armor

FAST ATTACK

8 Seraphim - 2 hand flamers
Veteran Sister Superior - power weapon

2 Sentinels - autocannons

1 Sentinel - autocannon, searchlight

HEAVY SUPPORT

Leman Russ - hull heavy bolter, sponson heavy bolters, heavy stubber, extra armor, rough terrain modification

Exorcist - extra armor

10 Retributors - 4 heavy bolters, imagifer
Veteran Sister Superior - book of St. Lucius

Tournament: Thor's Hammer ('Ard Boyz) 9-22-07

I was looking forward to the 'Ard Boyz tournament since it was first announced (to me, at least) at the citywide a couple of months back. I like to play the field when it comes to regular weekend tourneys, but I really wanted to optimize the chances of making it to the regionals. After some deliberation, I decided to play at Thor's Hammer, having had the most success with my Guard and Witch Hunter armies on their particular terrain boards. There was a total of 18 contenders, made up of some familiar faces, some strangers, and everyone stayed for the whole shebang, playing through to the end. The Emperor was shining down on my little coed company of heroes, and after three great games I came in at first place! Very satisfying, and I picked up some nice reinforcements for my future Eldar army. What's the prize at the crack smoking contest? More crack, of course.

With the increased points limit, I saw an excuse to add a servitor/chirurgeon Inquisitor retinue and Eversor/Death Cultist "demise" combo to my usual witch hunter/inducted guard list. I don't know if I always played them as described in the BOLS tactica, but these units were absolutely critical to my success today. Hardly anyone shoots at the inquisitor's servitors! I love it! Even though they're aggravating plenty of squads with BS4 heavy bolter fire, I think they just kinda fade into the background. Unless an enemy is totally committed to wipe out the unit (and devoting plenty of fire to a backfield pest unit rather than a forward assault/objective taker unit), the one or two wounds that come their way pretty much evaporate, especially with a cover save. I remembered many of the more elusive Witch Hunters rules today, with the notable exception of the Eversor's self-destruct. Verdammt! Such a complicated list. It just so happened that none of my opponents fielded any psychic offense, so the psychic hood was something of a waste, but I will still keep it to deal with Eldar and Chaos (and any Wierdboyz down the line). The liber heresius gave me table edge choice each match, and I rolled first turn in every game. Overall my luck was excellent, but I also had a couple of downswings that temporarily threatened to cast me into the abyss. Another big factor was surprise - few people are extensively familiar with the Hereticus' capabilities. But then again, noone expects the Inquisition! Burn the heretic! Kill the mutant! Purge the unclean!

Game 1 - Space Marines (White Scars) - Seek and Destroy

First round I drew the lava board against Russell's Star Wars Storm Trooper army (complete with galactic empire logo banners and a Vaderesque Emperor's Champion). The mission was seek and destroy (annihilation). I guess I just thought of White Scars as a vanilla dex list with a specific assembly of traits (bike-heavy), but Russell's armybuilder list was printed as if W.S. were a chapter with their own codex. Maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle...? In any case, it was a fairly diverse assembly of marines with a couple of small bike squads, a rhino tac squad, sniper scouts, rocket launcher dev squads, an assault squad led by a chaplain, a rhino command squad, and a venerable dreadnought. I was able to infiltrate the Eversor fairly far forward, and first turn he jumped around the center hill to cut through one of the bike squads, following up into the assault squad that had just jumped past. First turn also let me stop his command squad's rhino in its tracks, which was something of demoralizer for him. I used the Chimera and Rhino to screen out the scouts and dreadnought, wiped out the other flank with the seraphim and exorcist, and used the firing line to erase everyone else in sight. The death cultists didn't see any action but stayed around to counter-attack anyone who got too close. The eversor did quite enough by himself! In the end, I had nearly 2300 points left on the board and I had killed everything but the dread, the scouts, and one devastator squad. Witch Hunters win, massacre!

Game 2 - Chaos - Take and Hold

I had only witnessed Sam's Chaos Rhino Emporium from afar at Battleforge, until we were paired together for the second round on one of the felt tables, fighting the take and hold mission. First turn let me take down a couple transports right off the bat, leaving their riders stranded in the B.O.B. The other rhino squads drove forward towards the center objective and deployed behind them. With not much else to shoot at, I quickly took the rest of the empty whips out, giving him some permanent cover to huddle behind and wait to grab the objective. I hereby call that an ARR! (Artificial Rhino Reef). His havocs also became early target priorities, and I either destroyed or screened out both units effectively for the entire game. They also missed quite a bit (I have noticed that my own havocs fail to deliver in key situations, even though they're technically relatively good shooters), and only took out two of my sentinels and a guard squad. Other than my Leman Russ, he was unable to reduce my heavy firepower by much, and so his deep-striking obliterators and terminators didn't last too long once they arrived. Due to some poor placement on my part, he shot up the eversor early on, and though the two death cultists nearby survived to charge one of the marine squads, they didn't make much of an impact and were wiped out handily by the unit's powerfist champion. In the end, I had four scoring units within the center ring to his three, and won bonus match points for winning the objective. Witch Hunters win, solid victory, objective accomplished!

Game 3 - Tyranids - Recon

Third game on the same felt board, mission: recon. Steve had a big bug list with an even mix of gaunts and genestealers mixed in. Seeing as how I'd never actually played against a bugzilla list before, I don't think I consciously designed the witch hunter/guard army to deal with it, but in this game it felt pretty goddamn tailor-made. Not to mention the dice were hot for me, too. The canonness, seraphim, and sisters on my right flank repelled the flying hive tyrant, minifex, gaunts, and genestealers, while my left harrassed a venomfex and more genestealers. In the middle, my main gunline did their best to repel the approaching gaunts and various fexes. The large spinegaunt squad crashed into the two armored fist units, and were repelled or tied up in assault for most of the game. I killed a ton of fodder with mass heavy bolters early on, but even then I was cringing about the approaching wave of monstrous creatures about to crash on my shores. A couple of the large ones made it, but the citizen soldiers of the Imperium turned up the heat right at the last minute and wiped out everything but the guarded hive tyrant and less than half of the spinegaunts. When one of the last heavy fexes went rampaging into my retributor squad, the cannoness and eversor burst from the nearby building and charged into assault. The eversor wounded the big beast a time or two, but it was the canoness who used one last faith point for hand of the emperor to fell the big lug. I have no problem saying that heretofore I was pretty scared of the big bug comp, and while I don't know if I'll fare so well against it next time, it was nice to stand up to it at least once and come out on top. Witch Hunters win, major victory, objective accomplished!

Tournament: Battleforge Games 9-8-07

I played in the usual monthly tournament yesterday, taking the Purging of Tir IV Witch Hunters/Guard list. I broke even, winning a slaughter first round, losing by slaughter the second round, and fighting out a draw in the third. I didn't place or anything but it was some good experience with the girls.

Game 1 - Space Marines - Cleanse

My first opponent, playing on the chaos board, was probably the youngest I've ever been paired against. After we straightened out a small issue with his list we set into the mission: Cleanse. I personally have had great luck with my witch hunter/guard army in cleanse missions, they can usually sweep out to become fairly intractable in the adjacent quarters. He had some small tac squads, assault marines, a small terminator squad, and a couple of devastator squads. I lost the Leman Russ when he rolled first turn and destroyed it with a chance glancing krak missile. My canonness and seraphim started the tourney out with a bang, jumping into and wiping out his assault squads with divine guidanced flamers and great rounds of close combat. The eversor (I forgot my own at home and borrowed one of Mkerr's models - thanks Mkerr) wasn't shy either and together my assault wing rolled him up from one side and almost all the way into his home quarter. My guard heavy weapons and Exorcist chewed up the terminator and devastator squad in the other adjacent quarter well enough to claim it as well. Witch Hunters win, victorious slaughter.

Game 2 - Thousand Sons (Chaos) - Take and Hold

Second match was against Robert, again on the chaos board, who had a great-looking Thousand Sons army with a greater demon, nine double-wound terminators, two squads of flamers, two squads of Thousand Sons in rhinos, and a couple of predators. I rolled first turn and launched towards the center. My eversor was able to dash over to his lascannon predator and attach a meltabomb, but I rolled a '1' for the damage result and his demonic possession meant I accomplished absolutely nothing. I should have known from my previous match against a tzeentch army to approach them a bit more warily. I was able to tie up the lord of change with a single squad of sisters for three turns, but the sheer numbers and resilience of the terminators and flamers that teleported into the center of the table was too much for all the heavy weapon and divine guidance I could dish out. I don't know how much it would have affected things but I did forget about the sisters' shield of faith ability in the midst of all the tzeentch magic shooting around. Lesson learned. In the end, his many units near the center objective gave him a ton of points and I lost by victorious slaughter.

Here's a picture of the Lord of Change fighting my battle sisters. I know this came out pretty bad but it was a cool fight and the sharpen effect on my photoprocessor janked it up in a neat way.

Game 3 - Space Marines - Recon

* Crap! No Photo! *

My third opponent, playing on the desert board, was another basic space marine army, with a specialization in venerable dreadnoughts and terminator squads. He had a couple small tac and dev squads as well as a predator annihilator. I managed to roll first turn but could only stun the predator. Unfortunately the eversor had a poor avenue of approach and had to wait for the seraphim to catch up before moving in, screened behind some dummy chimeras. Later, both of his terminator squads deep struck into my left side, behind the seraphim. The assassin jumped to engage one squad, but the seraphim lost three of their number and i rolled double 6's to break and high tail it for my table edge. The next turn I forgot about the "light of the emperor" act of faith (allows them to regroup automatically), and they continued their exodus off the table edge, because I figured the enemy terminators were too close to allow my birds to stop and regroup. Aw shucks. A guard squad and sisters squad died fighting back the terminator captain and one of the dreds as they advanced on one of my objectives. Luckily on my last turn the sentinel and disabled exorcist jumped forward to contest the objective. On my right my cannoness and immolator shot up the very edge of the board to try and sweep around into one of his objective markers. They overran the commander and marine squad protecting it but the immolator was destroyed in our last turn, denying me the objective. After the dust settled, he controlled two objectives and I controlled just one. Technically the game was a draw but he was only short of a victory some 50 points. It was probably the most enjoyable game overall, with some great shooting and assault on both sides, and then a bystander pointed out my "light of the emperor" oversight in a way that was a bit irritating. If you want to comment about someone's mistake, something which I understand comes from a good place, i.e., you wanting to be helpful and share from your own experience, still - don't start the conversation out with "Can I ask you a question?" and say things like, "I was just really confused when you did that." If you want to discuss the issue, just come right out and give the advice you want to give. The studious, incredulous routine comes off as disengenuous and arrogant and does a disservice to the friendly and benevolent fellow enthusiast you may otherwise be. I appreciate the heads up, but I'm just saying.

No worries, it was three fun games, and I'm excited about getting my 2500 hereticus army together soon. After some advice and consideration, I'm going down to 8 seraphim to make both divine guidance AND spirit of the martyr more dependable in the early game. A squad size of seven would actually be the sweet spot - 81% to roll above and below seven with an imagifer or VSSS - but I like round numbers for victory points/scoring unit purposes. I converted three repentia into death cultists and swapped them, one sisters rhino, and two more sentinels in for the big ole repentia squad. Good riddance. I think it's the right decision. I got my servitors in and converted up their heavy bolter arms from three I had left over from guard weapons teams. Also in my order was my last chaos terminator, making ten in total.

The Purging of Tir IV: Witch Hunters 2000

HQ

Cannoness - jump pack, frag grenades, blessed weapon, inferno pistol, cloak of St. Aspira

ELITES

Inquisitor - hammer of the witches, liber heresius

Eversor Assassin

TROOPS

9 Battle Sisters - meltagun, storm bolter, imagifer
Veteran Sister Superior - book of St. Lucius

9 Battle Sisters - meltagun, storm bolter, imagifer
Veteran Sister Superior - book of St. Lucius

Infantry Platoon
Command Squad - junior officer with bolter, 2 meltaguns, 2 plasma guns
Squad 1 - plasma gun, lascannon
Squad 2 - plasma gun, lascannon

Armored Fist Squad - plasma gun, lascannon
Chimera - extra armor, smoke launchers

Armored Fist Squad - plasma gun, lascannon
Chimera - extra armor, smoke launchers

FAST ATTACK

Sentinel - lascannon

9 Seraphim - 2 twin flame pistols
Veteran Sister Superior - eviscerator, plasma pistol, book of St. Lucius

HEAVY SUPPORT

Exorcist - extra armor, dozer blade

Leman Russ - sponson heavy bolters, hull heavy bolter, heavy stubber, extra armor, rough terrain modification

Immolator - extra armor, smoke launchers

Battle Report: Witch Hunters vs. Chaos 8-11-07

Bully vs. c2 - 2000 points - Cleanse

I changed my 2000 point list from last weekend's Thor's tournament to switch out the armored fist squads' autocannons with lascannons, and removing the infantry command squad's lascannon to include two meltaguns and a plasma gun. I planned on driving them around in the back of the immolator to hop out and deliver some low AP fire. c2 ran her usual chaos army.

Turn 1

Witch Hunters: For the first time, my inquisitor's liber heresius failed to work and c2 was able to pick sides. I rolled to get first turn, however, and tried to get my money's worth working on the only squad I could see: the havocs. I used "word in your ear" to move the chaos heavy weapons out of cover and opened fire on them with the leman russ, sentinel, and infantry squads. Five of them went down. The seraphim, immolator, infantry command squad, and one of the chimeras moved up on the chaos flank.

Chaos: The berzerkers roll blood frenzy and go screaming through the ruined church toward the immolator. The demon prince moves into the ruins along with the obliterators. They try to shoot the seraphim with heavy bolters but fail to kill any. The havocs blow up the immolator's heavy flamer turret.

Turn 2

Witch Hunters: The berzerkers were exposed so I tried to pour fire into them while I could. The leman russ, the nearest chimera and several infantry squad lascannons shoot up the squad, killing five of eight. The exorcist pulls out around the other chimera and puts four blessed missiles into the obliterators, inflicting two instant deaths, wiping them out. The immolator moves further up the flank, staying in between the havocs and the seraphim. The callidus assassin arrives, kills two khorne bikers with the neural shredder, whiffs in close combat, but survives another turn.

Chaos: The demon prince jumps from the church ruins to a nearby wall. The terminators deep strike in and open fire on the seraphim, killing four. The havocs wreck the nearby chimera. The possessed jump in with the bikers and kill the callidus.

Turn 3

Witch Hunters: The seraphim jump into the terminators, flaming them up good, but they fail their divine guidance faith test and only one is killed in the shooting phase. The busted immolator moves up and the infantry command squad tries in vain to wound the demon prince. The sister and infantry squads move back to avoid being charged. The exorcist manages to pick off the berzerker aspiring champion with six rockets. In close combat, the seraphim use three different faith points to kill three terminators, only losing one of their own. The chaos terminators fail their leadership and are wiped out by a sweeping advance.

Chaos: The bloodletters arrive only to scatter off the table! The demon prince bounds over the immolator to take revenge on the seraphim. The surviving havocs and berzerkers pull back into the church ruins. Four of them are killed quite handily and the last breaks and retreats towards my table edge.

Turn 4

Witch Hunters: The command squad and sentinel try to shoot up the demon prince again but can't inflict any damage. The exorcist and leman russ burst forward to get close to the chaos-held quarters. The last seraphim continues her retreat towards my table edge.

Chaos: The demon prince lays waste to the command squad and regroups behind the wrecked chimera.

Turn 5

Witch Hunters: The last seraphim flies off the table. The exorcist and leman russ drive full bore into the chaos home quarter, and the immolator races away to avoid the demon prince. The rear-most infantry squad moves over into the adjacent quarter.

Chaos: The rhino drives out from behind the church to cover the possessed and bikes from the exorcist, shooting its smoke launchers. The demon prince moves closer to the retreating immolator.

Turn 6

Witch Hunters: The leman russ drives far into the chaos quarter to avoid the demon prince's charge. The immolator tries to turtle up, backing into a nearby wall and leaving its best armor to the outside. The exorcist destroys the rhino regardless of the smokescreen. The sentinel moves into the adjacent quarter.

Chaos: All the hiding chaos elements burn out into the open to secure quarters at the last minute. The demon prince brings down the immolator with several swings of his mighty axe of khorne. The havocs in the corner of the ruins destroys the sentinel.

Some good rolling on my part and bad rolling on c2's part left Witch Hunters with a solid victory - but just barely! She maneuvered well to overcome some early setbacks and severely reduce my margin of victory. I've found that boldness rarely pays off with the fragile witch hunters and tried to keep myself from getting too greedy.

The Purging of Tartaron - Witch Hunters 2500

HQ

Cannoness – blessed weapon, cloak of St. Aspira, jump pack, frag grenades

ELITES

Inquisitor – liber heresius, hammer of the witches
Retinue – 3 heavy bolter servitors, 1 acolyte with carapace armor, 2 chirurgeons

Eversor Assassin

9 Sisters Repentia with Mistress
Priest – power weapon, laspistol

TROOPS

10 Sisters of Battle – storm bolter, meltagun, imagifer
Veteran Sister Superior – book of St. Lucius

10 Sisters of Battle – storm bolter, meltagun, imagifer
Veteran Sister Superior – book of St. Lucius

Infantry Platoon
Command Squad – Junior Officer with bolter, 2 plasma guns, lascannon team
Infantry Squad 1 – plasma gun, lascannon team
Infantry Squad 2 – plasma gun, lascannon team

Armored Fist Squad – plasma gun, lascannon team
Chimera – extra armor, smoke launchers

Armored Fist Squad – plasma gun, lascannon team
Chimera – extra armor, smoke launchers

FAST ATTACK

10 Seraphim – 2 twin hand flamers
Veteran Sister Superior – plasma pistol, eviscerator, book of St. Lucius

1 Sentinel – lascannon

HEAVY SUPPORT

Exorcist – extra armor, dozer blade

10 Retributors – 4 heavy bolters, imagifer
Veteran Sister Superior – book of St. Lucius

Leman Russ – sponson heavy bolters, hull heavy bolter, pintle heavy stubber, extra armor, rough terrain modification

Whereas I regard the 2500 Wolves army (see previous post) as probably fun but questionably effective, I look over this list and I think to myself: fucking hooray for Witch Hunters! 105 infantry, 5 vehicles, 6 faith points, TONS of heavy bolter fire (21 shots at BS4, 15 at BS3!), assault, counter-assault, anti-infantry, anti-tank, anti-psyker, and a good chance of picking my table edge to boot. Obviously the most questionable unit is the repentia squad, but I already possess and like the models, and thrown in with the eversor and seraphim they enhance an enemy’s dilemma of shoot my refused flank vs. shoot my gun line. Any 2500 point game on a 4’ x 6’ board is guaranteed to be a blood bath, but as long as my guns can deploy in cover, it will be a real bitch to get past my assault wing to dig them out.

Tournament: Thor's Hammer 8-4-07

This was my first time playing a standard monthly tourney at Thor's, but I was familiar with the boards from the citywide matches. I had two and a half great games with the Tartaron Witch Hunters list and came in second out of 9 people. I had actually won best army right off the bat just for having the only fully painted army!

Game 1 - Daemonhunters - Recon

Matt had a terminator HQ, an inquisitor with several gun servitors, a vindicare assassin, four squads of Grey Knights, two heavy weapon dreadnoughts, and an annoying orbital bombardment. My liber heresius worked on its first go round (Rommel, you magnificent bastard! I read your book!) and I picked my side, but they were fairly even terrain-wise (the desert board). Half of the grey knights advanced slowly while the other half parked in cover and rained down psycannon fire. Their shooting, along with that lance strike targetting the oasis where my infantry platoon was stationed, did a small amount of damage, and the immolator was immobilized early by the inquisitor's retinue as well. In the end, the callidus' arrival and some great exorcist and lascannon shooting (destroyed both dreds) turned the tide. The seraphim wiped up behind the callidus and jumped into his deployment to grab recon points. His terminators deep struck close to my lines but time was called before they could move in and do the same. The hammer of the witches never dealt any wounds to his inquisitor. I just noticed a rules mistake I made - if ordnance scatters behind a hill, out of LOS, any folks underneath the template do get cover saves for the intervening terrain. That was my bad. I don't think it mattered in the end, as the victims in question weren't brought below 50% scoring and they were too far away for their storm bolters for nearly the whole game. Witch Hunters won, solid victory.

Game 2 - Tau - Seek and Destroy

This was the half-a-game. I didn't grab a picture because my opponent quit early and it slipped my mind. David brought two hammerheads, one sky ray, several squads of fire warriors with devilfish transports, pathfinders with a devilfish, two squads of two battle suits, a squad of six stealth suits, two squads of gun drones, and two HQ battle suits. I was a little nervous at first, since we drew the cityboard and he had so much anti-tank, but by the end of the first turn I felt pretty confident. He went first and moved his grav tanks en masse towards one of my two guard/sister groups. He laid down some serious markerlights on one of the infantry squad and used the tanks to light it up, wiping it out. Stealth suits, Fire warriors, battlesuits, and a railhead all shot at the seraphim and the chimera, but only three ladies were killed and one chimera was shaken. The smoke cleared and I still had plenty of guns left. I stunned one tank, shook another, and knocked down both squads of battlesuits with guardsmen and the exorcist. The seraphim jumped forward and opened fire, sending the stealth suits fleeing for their table edge, but not far enough to avoid the subsequent charge; they failed their morale test and were wiped out. The seraphim were left in a great position to run rampant among the tau infantry line only a block away. At this point he wanted to call the game, feeling a bit tired after a long night shift. Bummer! Witch Hunters won, victorious slaughter.

Game 3 - Eldar - Cleanse

I had a great time playing against J again, this time fielding his wife's eldar army, slightly modified to his own specifications. The most noticeable change was a second fire prism - I don't know what he got rid of to fit it in because otherwise it seemed like nearly the exact same army. This was a very tough match (on the cityboard again!) and J played with skill, but I really made some stupid errors that caught up with me in the end and denied me a win. First and foremost (I cringe when I think of this), I deployed and charged my Callidus assassin into a squad of pathfinders in cover. In my zeal to include a vehicle along with the squad in her neural shredder template, I totally brainfarted and forgot she did not have frag grenades. Did I mention the fire prism had already just been shaken? Honestly, she had no business charging a target in cover in the first goddamn place. Total amateur hour; I should have gone straight for the dark reapers that were standing exposed in front of the other fire prism, recovering from being shaken on the previous turn. When she totally whiffed with her CC attacks, all it took was a couple of failed 4+ saves and *doink* there goes 120 points, sacrificed to kill one silly pathfinder. Garr! The exorcist also bunked right at the end, failing to inflict 4 simple wounds on a squad of banshees, banshees for chrissakes, and he was able to contest that adjacent quarter. Losing the leman russ to a prism shot in the butt wasn't too fun either. His rear armor was something like five inches in cover, and of course I failed the obscured roll, *boom*, adios. I did finally manage to destroy both of the fire prisms' main weapons. At the last minute, I charged forward with the seraphim to repel the dark reapers that had creeped into the other adjacent quarter. The alien scum were purged by the righteous firey breath of the emperor! Alas, their death screams attracted th