Showing posts with label Space Marines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Space Marines. Show all posts

Sunday, December 20, 2009

1850/2000/2500Marine Razorspam

This one is for Codex Marines.

HQ
Librarian-Null Zone, Gate of Infinity

Elites
Sternguard-5, 2 heavy flamers, 3 combi-meltas, Razorback w/ lascannon, twin-linked plasma guns
Sternguard-5, 2 heavy flamers, 3 combi-meltas, Razorback w/ lascannon, twin-linked plasma guns
Sternguard-5, 2 heavy flamers, 3 combi-meltas, Razorback w/ lascannon, twin-linked plasma guns

Troops
Tactical Squad-10, lascannon, meltagun, combi-flamer, Razorback w/ lascannon, twin-linked plasma guns
Tactical Squad-10, lascannon, meltagun, combi-flamer, Razorback w/ lascannon, twin-linked plasma guns
Tactical Squad-10, lascannon, meltagun, combi-flamer, Razorback w/ lascannon, twin-linked plasma guns

Fast Attack
Land Speeder-multi-melta, heavy flamer
Land Speeder-multi-melta, heavy flamer
Land Speeder-multi-melta, heavy flamer
Total~1850

6 Razor chassis, 2 speeders in reserve, lots of firepower up close and down range.

For 2000:
Add sniper scouts. A nice buffer and objective holder.

For 2500:
Add a MotF, 3 Rifleman Dreads and bulk out the Scout units. Gives you 3 more armored vehicles and more firepower down range.

Using what I have mostly, but with 6 Razors, 3 Dreads and 2 Speeders plus some cheap infantry sitting back, I can deal with light mech from afar and get in closer to handle heavy armor or BBQ infantry.

Marine bubblewrap

Bubblewrap is like my new favorite 40k euphemism. It means, simply, using disposable units to block enemy movement, shooting and assault to protect your valuable forces, if only for a turn. They can be great protection against alpha strikes, quick assaulters, outflankers, deep strikers, and pretty much anything that can close quickly and is nasty at a relatively short range.



The most common types of bubblewrap are cheap units that can take up a large area, bonus points if they can infiltrate or scout to better draw your opponent in to the roadblock. Kroot, Scouts, Guardsmen, and the like are all very handy bubblewrap units. At face value they're fairly meh, not too survivable or killy, but they're cheap and take up lots of room.



Well, with bugs coming soon, I predict bubblewrap is going to be very useful for many armies. It's going to be nigh impossible to stop so much crap coming in at the same time, from infiltrating bargain bin Genestealers to Spore Pods, Gargoyles, flying MCs, Lictors, outflankers, Deep Strikers, and so on. To counter it, you can do three things: 1) Suck it up and die, 2) Go into reserve and alpha strike the alpha strike, or 3) wrap your army up and let them come. They all work, depending on your army. 1) is best for armies with lots of disposable and versatile units, like mech Guard or marines, 2) works nicely for pretty much any mech army, and 3) is handy for anybody with access to such useful units.



But hey, does bubblewrap always have to be so flimsy? How about some tinfoil wrap? Something that can take a punch and maybe swing back. Inspired by a throwaway comment by Stelek regarding using normal Terminators as bubblewrap, I came up with this little number.



Terminator Librarian-storm shield, Null Zone, Gate of Infinity

10 Terminators, 2 cyclones, 2 chainfists

2 Rifleman (dual TLAC) Dreads

3 Tac Squads in Rhinos, multi-melta, flamer, combi-melta

3 MM/HF Speeders

3 dakka Predators



Ends up around 2000 points, give or take random gear. Basically a best of army with a big anvil unit of Termies. Normally I'd say TH/SS Termies win every time, but in numbers the normal fellas can bring the pain at range and up close. Set up your Maginownt line of Termies and stick your fun bits inside the wrapper. Keep yourself protected and dish out 4 missiles and 20 storm bolter shots with a boat load of powerfist attacks and a force weapon for kicks (Tyranids lose Eternal Warrior, Force Weapons get awesome again). Plus, you've got your normal mechanized, mobile, versatile marine army.



Should be fun

Thursday, October 22, 2009

My Proposed Marines

Here's the marine list I want to build up to for the 'Ard Boyz and various tournies.

HQ
Librarian-Epistolary, Terminator Armor, Storm Shield, Null Zone, Avenger
Elites
Assault Terminators-10, Land Raider Crusader w/ Multi-Melta, extra armor
Dreadnought-2x twin-linked Autocannon
Dreadnought-2x twin-linked Autocannon
Troops
Tactical Squad-10, Multi-Melta, Flamer, Sergeant w/ combi-melta, melta bombs, Rhino
Tactical Squad-10, Multi-Melta, Flamer, Sergeant w/ combi-melta, melta bombs, Rhino
Scout Squad-10, camo cloaks, Sniper Rifles, 1w/ Heavy Bolter
Fast Attack
Land Speeder Squadron-2 Typhoons
Land Speeder-Multi-Melta, Heavy Flamer
Land Speeder-Multi-Melta, Heavy Flamer
Heavy Support
Land Raider Crusader-Multi-Melta, extra armor
Predator-Autocannon, Heavy Bolters
Predator-Autocannon, Heavy Bolters

Total-2500

So, I've got 2 LRCs full of angry Termies to smash face, lots of firepower down range from the Dreads, Preds and Typhoons, with anti-tank from the Multi-Meltas spread around. Firepower, mobility, redundancy, flexibility.

To drop it down to 2000 I will probably lose both Typhoons, the Dreads, Epistolary upgrade, and any spare points come from combi-meltas or whatever.

For 1850, I would either drop more to keep both LRCs or go for more disposable dakka. I'm thinking the latter so I have a better balance and backups in case the LRC goes down.

The LRCs are big targets, but they are quite resilient and I do have an army besides them to dish out plenty of firepower at range and up close.

I think I'll paint these up as a different chapter to keep things fresh. Mentors maybe, or Space Sharks.

Thoughts?

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Battle Report: Orks vs. Ultramarines

Hey guys, got a game in yesterday and I figured I'd tell everybody about it.

I wasn't expecting much action at the store since a bunch of my regular buddies were out carving pumpkins. Losers. Luckily enough, Genestealer and I came across two people I hadn't seen before who were looking for games also. We pulled the old switcheroo and everybody got a new opponent, yayz.

I brought my 1850 Ork list I'm prepping for any events coming up in an effort to finally finish an army:

Warboss w/ PK, cybork body, kombi-skorcha
Big Mek w/ KFF, cybork body, bosspole
2x 9 Lootas
5 Meganobs, 2 kombi-skorchas, BW w/ armor plates, grot riggers, big shoota
19 Boyz, Nob w/ PK, bosspole
2x 12 Boyz, Nob w/ PK, bosspole, Trukk w/ ram, grot riggers
20 Shootas, 2 big shootas, Nob w/ PK, bosspole
14 Grots and 1 runtherd
2 Koptaz w/ rokkits and buzzsaws (indpependent)
2 BW w/ armor plates, big shoota, grot riggers, boardin' plank

My opponenet had his Ultrasmurfs featuring some neat paintjobs and some cool RT models. Sadly I couldn't get any pics since I left my camera at home.

Captain w/ relic blade, digi-weapons, storm shield
Command Squad w/ company champion and Rhino
Epistolary w/ Avenger and Force Dome
5 shooty Termies w/ assault cannon
Techmarine w/ servo-harness, 2 Tech Servitors and 2 HB Gun Servitors
Dread w/ assault cannon
10 Tacs, heavy bolter, famer, power sword
5 Scouts, camo cloaks, snipers, 1 missile launcher
10 Assault Marines, power sword
10 Devastators, 4 missile launchers, Razorback
Whirlwind

We played Annihilation with Pitched deployment, I rolled first turn.

I had my Lootas on the left flank in and behind some ruins, another unit on a hill behind a Grot screen, all 3 Battlewagons to their right, Boss+Boyz and Shootas in front of Mek+Meganobs (upside down triangle thingy). There was a big LoS-blocking rock formation on the right flank, so I put both Trukks in there. I put the Koptaz about 1/3 of the board length in and as far forward as possible so they could cover the most ground.

He deployed his command squad in its Rhino on the far left, opposite my Lootas (uh oh). The Devastators combat-squadded, each one in a different terrain piece on the left, opposite my other Lootas, with their Razorback and the Librarian behind them. The Tactical Squad deployed further back in the center. The Whirlwind deployed to their right, behind a rock formation. The Dread and Techmarine deployed on the right flank behind some low ridges. Assault Marines and Termies were held in reserve. Scouts infiltrated to a big building to the right of in between the far left Lootas and Rhino.

Deff Koptaz jumped 24" towards the Whirlwind and 1 Devastator squad, he failed to seize the initiative.

TURN 1:
My Koptaz moved closer to their targets, ready to assault. The vehicles all surged forward, meeting up in the center going fromt left to right: Boss, Shootas, Trukks with the Mek's wagon behind them all giving KFF protection. I knew that since his only real AT was krak missile, I had the BW facing them, while the Trukks blocked their vulnerable side armor and faced down the Dread and Techmarine. Lootas opened fire, shaking the Rhino and killing 3/5 Devastators. 1 Kopta blew up the Whirlwind, another killed a Devastator. I actually forgot to charge my other Deff Kopta >,< I didn't ask my opponent for a re-do when I realized because I wanted to make sure I didn't forget in the future.

He zoomed the Rhino up and shot stuff. This is where his luck ran out. The Techmarine and retinue, Tactical Squad and Dreadnought all fired at a solo Deff Kopta and caused all of 1 wound! The other Kopta was not so lucky, getting downed by the Razor and Librarian's template. 4 frag missiles landed in the Loota/grot hug fest, killing all of 1 Loota! Scouts did jack all to the Lootas in the ruins.

TURN 2:
Party time! The Trukks zoomed to the right, disembarking in front of the Techmarine and Dread. The Kopta jumped behind the Dread, rokkits ready. The Shoota wagon moved 6" to get a clear shot at the Tacticals. The Boss's wagon headed towards the Devastators and 20 angry Orks jumped out. The Mek's wagon moved behind the Boss's wagon, but nobody felt like jumping out. The Trukk mob and Trukks' shooting accounted for 2 Servitors, the Kopta failed miserably, the Lootas immobilized the Rhino and stunned the Razorback, and the Shootas killed 4 marines. The Techmarine and buddies were wiped out at the loss of 2 boyz (powerfists never even got to swing, gotta love that majority WS and T!), the Dread got wrecked without killing anybody, and 5 Devastators got wtfpwned by 19 Orks and the Warboss.

Both the Assault Squad and Termies showed up, the jump packers arrived from the center heading towards the Boss and his buddies, while the Termies popped up right behind the recently re-deceased Dread. The Command Squad jumped out of their ride and headed to the Boss's unit as well, while the Tacticals moved to support. Uh oh. Shooting reduced the Boss's unit to 8 boyz, putting the Assault Marines out of charge range. It wasn't a total loss though; the Librarian rolled boxcars for Force Dome, taking a wound! Termies did jack all for shooting, killing 4 boyz (Boyz in the open, mind you). Scouts killed a Loota, pinning test passed. Rhino sputtered around. The Command Squad and Libby charged into the Boss's unit, killing all but 1 boy, 1 Nob, and the Boss. They proceeded to slaughter all but the company champion, yayz! Ld passed, keep on trucking. Termies killed 6 but lost 3 of their own, Ld holds.

TURN 3:
Meganobs spring into action, zooming up to meet the Assault Marines head on, the other Trukk mob moves to support their beleaguered brethren, Shoota wagon moves to get a good sight on the Tacticals, Kopta zooms towards the Razorback, and Grots abandon all caution and rush the Scouts. Shooting sees 3 assault marines, 5 Tacticals, 2 Scouts, and 2 Devastators buy it while the Razorback gets re-stunned. Meganobs wipe the Assault Marines with no casualties. The Captain knocks a wound off the boss while the Librarian and Champion finish the boyz. Captain goes down, Command Squad is finished. Ld holds. Termies get wiped, 1 more boy dies (just the Nob left).

Rhino fixes itself, Scouts kill 1 Loota, Warboss loses another wound. Yawn.

TURN 4:
Everything heads to the left to mop up. Grots continue their charge, no damage from grot blastas. Tactical Sgt downed by shootas, Razorback stunned by the Kopta in assault, Rhino re-immobilized.

Warboss finally buys it, Captain and Libby move away.

TURN 5:
Libby eats shootas and buys is, Captain wtfpwned by Meganobs.

At this point we called it, since all he had left was an immobilized Rhino, immobilized Razor and 3 Scouts. I lost 1 Kopta, my Boss, his mob, and a bunch of random boyz and lootas. 3 KP total. We decided to let the Grots and Scouts fight anyway, Grots got wiped :P

Obviously this was an epic mismatch, no weapons higher than S8 with little mobility vs. a BW list is not going to end well. This is your typical "battleforce" style list, a little bit of everything with no real focus. I think my opponent was new to 5th ed because of his list and overall lack of familiarity with the rules (had to go through wound allocation every time). It was fun and he was a great sport, but a challenging game it was not. Hopefully he'll stick around and we can turn his army into a real killer.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Battle Report: Orks vs. Space Marines

Hey, I got a game in yesterday with my Ork list here. I went up against my buddy Zach's Vulkan marines. Zach's a great guy, but his dice seem to hate him when I'm around :P

Here's an approximation of his list.
Vulkan
2 MM/HF Dreads, 1 in a Drop Pod
7 Legion of the Damned, power weapon, plasma cannon, plasma gun
2 MM/F/PW Tac Squads, 1 in a Drop Pod, 1 in a Rhino
2 4 man Bike Squadrons with AB, melta/flamer, power weapon
1 long MM Attack Bike
Vindicator
LRC

Obviously it's not an optimized list, but Vulkan still worries me since meltas fuck battlewagons up like crazy, and boosted flamers are never good for Orks.

We ended up playing Spearhead deployment Seize Ground. From here on I will describe the board from my POV, so left, right, top and bottom are consistent. Most objectives were placed in the middle strung out in a line going left to right. One of each was in a corner, top left and bottom right.

I won the roll off and deployed first, because I wanted to get my Bikers boosting early so I could survive the melta and Demolisher cannon certainly coming my way. I deployed as far forward as possible with my Nobs, spreading out the Bikers maximum distance and covering all the Battlewagons with the KFF. The empty Trukk set up in front of the Grots, who started in cover on the objective.

Zach deployed forward too, which surprised me. The LRC deployed to block LoS to the Vindicator and Rhino, while each unit of Bikes went to the flank, so top mid and left mid, with a Dread on his right flank and the Attack Bike dead center.

Turn 1 Orks:
Everything zoomed forward, Bikers spread out. Very uneventful.

Turn 1 SM:
The LRC moved to reveal an angry Vindicator and marines. The Dread dropped in the empty bottom left corner facing the Nob Bikers. Left bikes stood back while the right bikes zoomed around center for a shot on the Trukk. Dread and AB went to center to hit the lead Battlewagon belonging to a shoota mob. Vulkan and his boys jumped out of the Rhino, intend on messing up the Nob Bikers.

The Vindicator, Vulkan, his Tac Squad, the LRC, the left Bikes, and the Dreadnought all fired to full effect on the Nob Bikers. End result? 2 wounds! The right bikes popped the Trukk (twin-linked melta + Trukk - KFF = lol) and the other Dread and Attack Bike bounced off of the KFF trying to shoot a Battlewagon.

Turn 2 Orks:
Fun times! Nob Bikers move to multi-assault the recently dropped Dread and Vulkan's unit. The Nob Battlewagon attempted to zoom through cover to ram the LRC, but I rolled double 1's and it got immobilized >,<>

Nob Bikers burninated and dakka'd the marines, killing all of 2 while the Shoota boyz unloaded into the bikes killing 1. To save the shooting phase the Koptaz blew up the Vindicator, w00t! The other kopta unit killed off a biker.

Nob Bikers ran into assault, murdering 5 marines and the Dreadnought while taking 3 wounds from Vulkan and losing 1 model. Vulkan laughs at the Warboss's 4 wounding hits and passes all his saves. The Koptaz that shot the bikes charged in, lost 1 wound and smushed a biker.

Turn 2 SM:
Not looking good! AB and Dread move to pop the ram-happy BW, Tac Squad drops in next to the grots and LotD drop closer to the middle bottom.

Boom! The Bikes 'splode the Battlewagon facing them (so much for AV14) while the Dread and AB fail to knock out the other shoota wagon, even against side armor! LotD and the new Tac Squad fire on the recently vacated shoota boyz but only kill 4 (thanks KFF!)

Nob Bikers finish off the Tac Squad, Vulkan kills 2 Nobs and he sticks around soaking up all kinds of S10 loving. Bikes and Koptas do 1 each and keep it tied.

Turn 3 Orks:
The shootas on foot move towards the Tac squad, while the only mobile Battlewagon decides it doesn't like the Dreadnought's face and rams it, crushing it under its spiky deff rolla of doom! The Nobs hop out of their wagon (I kind forgot about them and the grot riggers) and head towards the LotD.

The Shootas on foot kill off 2 marines, the shootas in the wagon blow away 4 out of 5 bikes and run the Sergeant off. Nobs Waagh!

2 Koptas charge to help their komrades. Nob bikers lose another model and finally splat Vulkan. Nobs on foot charge the LotD, lose 3 wounds and splatter all but the Sergeant. Shoota boyz multi-charge the Tactical combat squads and wipe them out.

At this point we decided to call it since all my opponent had left were an empty Rhino, running Biker Sergeant, 2 Pods, the Attack Bike, and LotD Sergeant stuck in combat.

So, what did we learn?

1) Vulkan should munch BW spam, but when you make every cover save there's nothing you can do.
2) Never get out of your transport, especially with murderous Nob Bikers running around!
3) TANK SHOCK! It's only 7 models in the Nob Biker unit, shock them until they run or at least push them into better template formation.
4) Up against assaulty mobile armies? Deploy further back, let them come to you and try and take some down as they approach.
5) Dreads fuck Nobs up, before getting smashed by PKs. Use them to snipe the Warboss or do as much damage as possible before 'sploding.

I'd like to get more testing in against more powerful armies before I pass a verdict on my army or Vulkan armies.