Aliens : RG vs Tyranids 1850 pts

Raven Guard:

Shrike

Cypher

Dreadnought with MMelta and HFlamer

- Drop Pod with Deathwind Launcher

10 Tactical with Meltagun and CombiMeltagun

5 Snipers with 1 Heavy Bolter and Camo

5 Snipers with 1 Heavy Bolter and Camo

10 Assault Marines with THammer

10 Assault Marines with PAxe and MBombs

3 Grav Centurions

Storm Raven with TL-MM, TL-LC, Hurricane Bolters

Aegis Defense Line with Quadgun

Tyranids:

Flyrant

3 Zoanthropes

3 Hive Guard

2 Hive Guard

Tervigon

30 Termagants

6 Raveners

6 Raveners

Hive Crone

Biovore

Biovore

2 Carnifex

Mission : Emperor's Will, Night Fighting

Deployment : Hammer & Anvil, Raven Guard deployed first

RG deploy: 

We use preset table so the ADL was deployed after we choose table sides, adjusting the terrain a bit to fit the 3 inches minimum requirement. Then I deployed the 2nd Assault Squad in the middle of my deployment zone. The rest would infiltrate or came in from reserves.

Tyranids deploy: 

Everything deployed on table in a horde. Raveners and Carnifexes lead the way. Tyrants, Crone, and Tervigon at the centre of the horde.

Infiltrators :

1st Sniper squad deployed in a forest, and the other behind the ADL to man the Quadgun. Cypher infiltrated with Grav-Centurions some 18 inches from the Ravener brood 1. They are tasked to take out the Tyrant at all cost. Shrike and 1st Assault Squad infiltrated behind them.

First Turn

Tyranids failed to Seize The Initiative. Cypher left the Grav-Centurions to join Shrike and the First Assault Squad. Grav-Centurions moved 6 inches forward to get in range of the Tyrant and shot it, leaving the Tyrant with only 1 wound. My Dreadnought which had just dropped, finished the job with Multimelta shot to the back and wounded the Hive Crone with Heavy Flamer at the same time. Mission Accomplished! First Blood and Slay The Warlord belongs to my Raven Guard.

Assault Squad 2 moved forward and stop just outside the Mountain of Skulls. Snipers did nothing.

The death of the Tyrant almost has no effect on the Tyranid hordes. They advanced forward. Ravener brood 1 and fleeting Carnifexes destroyed the Grav-Centurions in a devastating assault. The 2nd Ravener brood advanced swiftly atop the Mountain of Skulls to assault my 2nd Assault Squad. The Assault Squad lost about 5 guys but managed to kill a Ravener.

Hive Guards and Zoanthropes failed miserably to harm the Dreadnought, succeeded only one glancing hit to the AV12 machine. So they now had to send the Tervigon to destroy it, which it did, but suffered one wound in the process.

Both Biovore's shots scattered, producing Spore Mines near the 2nd Assault Squad and Sniper unit 1. Hive Crone flew off the board to safely engage my Storm Raven if it turned up in the next turn.

2nd Turn

Storm Raven came in and targeted the Carnifex brood, caused 3 wounds, not enough to down even a single Fex. Sniper unit 1 followed up and took that last wound, leaving only one Fex. Cypher took down 2 wounds with his plasma pistols, and the unit caused another with bolt pistols. They later assaulted the Carnifex, killing it Raven Guard style, with Hammer of Wrath.

The fight between my 2nd Assault Squad and Ravener brood 2 continued. This time, it also ended with our lost but they held their ground.

First Sniper team took out the Spore Mines nearby. Drop Pod killed 7 Termagants with Deathwind Launcher.

Hive Crone entered from Ongoing Reserves and shot the Storm Raven with haywire missiles. It missed, even with rerolls! All 5 Hive Guards did the same, causing 2 penetrating hits. Lucky the result was only Crew Shaken. Phew! I would have lost my 10 man Tactical Squad if the Storm Raven crashed this turn.

Biovore's shot scatter again creating another batch of Spore Mines to threaten my Snipers. Zoanthropes failed their Psychic Check to cast S10 lance.

Ravener brood 2 continued to kill more of my and 2nd Assault Marines, leaving only two guys left to fight. By this time, there's 4 Ravener still in the brood.

Ravener brood 1 assaulted, took 2 wounds from Cypher's overwatch, but easily closed the gap. They caused 7 unsaved wounds, which killed the Veteran Sargent and wounded Shrike once. One Ravener were killed in the fight. My marines passed their break test, but I decided to do Hit and Run 13 inches backwards to allow new tactical arrangement next turn.

Turn 3

Tactical Squad disembarked within Rapid Fire range to the Ravener brood 1. Cypher left the Shrike's team and joined the Tacticals. They shot the Raveners, killed 2. Sniper unit 1 followed through and killed another. Storm Raven skimmed 12 inches and Snap Fired, destroying the brood.

Shrike jumped over the Tacticals to support the fight against the 2nd Ravener brood. The assault was a success, killed 2 Raveners and reduced the other 2 to one wound each. RG lost only one guy from Assault Squad 2.

Manning the Quadgun, Sniper unit 2 wounded the Hive Crone and the thing suffered another wound when it fell to the ground. Drop Pod again targeted the Termagants, but this time scattered, caused 3 wounds but all was saved with 4+ cover from area terrain and +1 cover due to mysterious objective.

Biovores moved forward and shot towards the Tacticals. Despite major hit with large blast, none of the wounds caused got through the 3+ armour. The Hive Crone flew closer and spit a S5 flamer weapon, hitting 8 but killed only 1 marine. Very good armour saves on my part.

Hive Guard took this chance to take down the Storm Raven. First brood failed to go through the armour, but the second brood penetrated twice. Storm Raven downed.

Zoanthropes destroyed my Drop Pod with S10 lance. Shrike killed the last two Raveners. Spore Mines tried to assault my Snipers, but was destroyed with overwatch.

Tervigon gave birth to 13 Termagants. It rolled a double 6 in the process and lost that ability.

Turn 4

The Raven Guard did good so far, but there were still too many Nids on the table. I need to somehow take care of the enemy objective, and only the jumpacks had any chance to do anything. So despite having only 4 jumpacks left, I sent Shrike and both Assault Squads towards the enemy objective, coming from the other side of the Mountain of Skulls.

Cypher and Tactical squad moved to behind a stone ruin for cover against the Zoanthropes, spread out in anti-template formation,

Shrike and his team killed 2 Spore Mines nearby. Tacticals killed 2-3 Termagants at long range. Quadgun caused another wound to the Hive Crone, it fell down and died. But the best shooting was from the 1st Sniper Squad. They shot at the Tervigon, 4 hits causing 2 rending and 2 normal wounds. The Tervigon failed all saving throws against that and was left with one wound. Wow!

The Tyranids continued to advanced. Biovores began pounding S4 AP4 Large Blast on my back unit, aiming to deny me my objective. 3 Snipers died, but they passed their Pinning and Moral Check. Hive Guards targeted Shrike's team. But all that S8 shots killed only one guy.

Turn 5

Cypher and Tactical started to move backwards, but I rolled 1 & 2 for moving through difficult ground. They shot and killed some more Tarmagants. 2nd Sniper Squad destroyed a Hive Guard unit with Quadgun and Sniper rounds.

The 1st Sniper Squad finished the job they started earlier, killing the Tervigon with well placed sniper shots. That in effect killed some Termagants from both units that happened to be within 12 inches from it..

Shrike and the Assault Marines assaulted the Termagants holding the Tyranid objective. Only Shrike made it to combat and he single-handedly destroyed the whole brood of 13 Termagants. He suffered one wound. My gamble paid off, the Tyranids were denied their home objective.

In Tyranids turn, Biovore succesfully took out my Sniper unit 2, clearing my home objective. Zoanthropes moved back and casted S10 lance towards Shrike, but it was cancelled with Deny The Witch.

Termagants 2 assaulted Shrike but they were easily defeated by the Shadow Captain.

Turn 6

Cypher and the Tacticals moved as fast as they could towards the home objective. But failed short by a few inches. I need another turn.

The lone Veteran Sargent made it into combat, but failed to wound the Biovore. Shrike wiped out the remaining Termagants fighting him.

The Hive Guards killed 2 Snipers. Zoanthropes attempted to cast another S10 Lance towards Shrike, and again it was denied! The Veteran Sargent wounded the Biovore.

Turn 7

Cypher and his team reached the home objective and held their ground. Shrike assaulted the last Biovore, but it stayed alive with one wound. The other combatants striked the air.

Hive Guards shot at Cypher's team, killed 3 (!!) and forced a Morale Check. It was about 7-8 inches from the board, so I can't afford to have them fled of table. Rolled the dice.. and they passed.

With that the Tyranid player conceded.

Result : Raven Guard WON!

Post Game Assessment :
That was my first experience against the new Tyranids. I kept reading all the bad things about them on the internet, but I don't think they are that bad. It was a bloody fight, one that I was lucky to win.

The Ravener broods are superbly good being a beast with rending. Without support from Shrike's team (thanks to Cypher's Hit and Run), one of the unit would probably had broken through my center and took out my Snipers.

The Carnifexes are scary, and fast too with fleet. My opponent did a mistake when he sent the Hive Crone off table. That allow the Storm Raven, Cypher and Snipers to focus on the big monsters. Things might have been different otherwise.

The Biovores are really dangerous against my Snipers. Need to be more careful the next time I see them across the table.

All in all, it was a really good and fun match. Thanks to my opponent for the game ...
... and thanks to you all for reading my batrep.

Have a nice day :-)

WFB : DE Corsairs WIP

I've been painting my DE for the past weeks and completed 20 out of 30 Black Ark Corsairs. Now that I'm used to painting them already, each model would take about 45 minutes to finish. I'm out of black primer to do the last 10 man so will have to stop doing them for a while. 

30 Black Ark Corsairs, lead by Lorkhir Felheart (usually played as a Unit Champion) 

I believe there must be several types of Sea Dragons in the Old World.
Hence, the difference in colours.

Now I'm gonna move on to the Battle Standard Bearer. I'm not sure what to draw on the banner though. Red Hair Shanks? The Whitebeards? Or a proper DE motifs?

Have a nice day guys.

The Mind Freak : Raven Guard VS Eldar 1850pts Batrep

RAVEN GUARD
Shrike
Cypher
Dreadnought (MMelta) in Drop Pod
10 Tactical (Melta, MMelta, CMelta)
2 x 5 Snipers (1 HBolter)
10 Assault Squad (THammer)
10 Assault Squad (PAxe+MBomb)
3 Grav-Centurions
Strom Raven (MMelta, Lasscannon, Hurricane)
Aegis Defense Line (Quadgun)

ELDAR
Autarch on Jetbike
7 Warlocks on Jetbikes
3x5 Avengers in 3 Wave Serpents (EML, Shurikannon, Holo Field)
2 Hemlock Wraithfighter
2 Fire Prism

MISSION : Purge The Aliens, Night Fighting in the First Turn
DEPLOYMENT : Vanguard Strike, RG deployed first

RG : Tactical to man the Quadgun. Assault Squad 2 next to them, behind the ADL. SRaven and Dread will come from reserves.

Eldar : Everything (except Wraithfighters of course) deployed behind the 2 small Bastion (played as Ruin) at the centre.

Infiltrators : Shrike and Assault Squad 1 infiltrated on top of the Skyshield. Cypher and 3 Grav-Centurions infiltrated right next to them. 1st Sniper Squad infiltrated behind the Bastion to the left (played as Dilapidated Bastion - AV12) while Sniper Squad 2 Infiltrated behind the tall Bastion to the right (also played as Dilapidated Bastion - AV12).

Turn 1. Eldar seized the initiative!!. After all the spellcasting, they lost one Warlock from Perils. They begin the game hunting Shrike and his unit. 2 Wave Serpents moved atop the Small Bastion and shoot, killing Shrike and 1 Marine. It was followed by the Fire Prisms, but with Stealth from Night Fight protecting my men, they killed only 1 more guy from the unit.

The Autarch and Warlocks turbo boosted 36 inches, stopping behind the tall bastion where the Scouts were hiding. The 3rd Wave Serpent moved flat out to the far left, beside the square bunker. Despite getting 1st Blood and Slay The Warlord, the first Eldar wasn't so damaging.

On my turn, I sent the Assault Squad 1 to destroy the closest Fire Prisms. They wrecked it with well placed Krak Grenades. Grav Centurions immobilised the Wave Serpent right in front of them with their Gravcannon.

A Drop Pod landed next to the other Fire Prism and the Dreadnought stepped out of it. Now it had to choose between Fire Prism and Wave Serpents as target. I went for the Wave Serpent to stop it from moving away in the next turn, shoot the Multimelta to the rear and Immobilised it.

Assult Squad 2 assaulted the Jetbikers, killed 2 with Hammer of Wrath, and one more with normal attacks. The Veteran Sargeant fought the Autarch to a draw. My Marines won combat but the Eldar were fearless due to a certain item.

Turn 2. Both of the Hemlock Wraithfighters came in, one from the left and the other from the right. Both going to wards the centre. My interceptot failed to destroy the one coming from the right. It killed 5 Assault Marines from Squad 1, sending them fleeing back with a failed morale check. The other one targeted the Centurions, causing one wound. The Wave Serpents also shoot at the Centurions, causing another wound with the Serpent Shield (1 guy died) and pinned them to the ground. The last Fire Prism moved to behind my Dreadnought and shoot it's S9 AP1 cannon from merely 1 inch away but missed! (:lol:)

The Autarch killed my Sargeant in challenge. The Assault Squad 2 failed break test and flee 6 inches, short by about 3-4 inches from the table edge.

On my turn, the marines rallied and moved forward. Assault Squad 1 to the bastion near the Drop Pod while Assault Marines 2 jumped over the Jetbike unit, towards the 3rd Wave Serpents. My Storm Raven came in from my right, destroyed a Wraithfighter and took one Hull Point from the leftmost Wave Serpent with the Lasscannon. Later, the Centurions wrecked the same Serpent with a lucky snap shot, 5 Dire Avengers disembarked atop the ruin.

Dreadnought destroyed the last Fire Prism. Deathwind Launcher from the Drop Pod hit all the Dire Avengers, but killed only one guy. Assault Squad 2 assaulted the 3rd Wave Serpent, but failed to do anything. Snipers killed one Warlock.

Turn 3. The last Wraithfighter casted Terrify to my Centurions, but they held their ground. It then flew towards my Tactical squad, shot the D-scythe and killed a marine. The 3rd Wave Serpent sent my Assault Squad 2 running with a Tank Shock. Then it shot at my Tacticals and killed one marine. The last Wave Serpent shot at the Centurions but failed to cause any wound. Autarch and the Warlocks killed 2 more marines from Assault Squad 2, forcing them to flee off table. Dire Avengers moved to the edge of the ruin and shoot at Assault Squad 1 below, killed 1 and send the last two guys running back 11 inches.

My 3rd Turn. The Assault Squad 1 rallied and jumped next to the dilapidated Bastion to my left. Storm Raven killed 3 Dire Avengers on top of the ruin. Centurions wrecked the 2nd Serpent, only 2 passengers may disembarked due to lack of space on top of the ruin. Snipers killed the last two Warlocks. Tactical Squad took down the last Wraithfighter with Quadgun.

Turn 4. The last Wave Serpent shoot at the Centurions, took one wound off Cypher. Autarch wrecked the tall Bastion with Fusion Gun, killing 3 Snipers inside the collapsed building. 2 Snipers succesfully got out of the building, but was killed by the Autarch in the ensuing Assault Phase.

In my turn, Cypher destroyed the last Serpent with Plasma Pistols, 3 Dire Avengers died in the explosion. Storm Raven killed the lone Avenger on top of the ruin. Quadgun took one wound off the Autarch. Snipers killed one Avenger from the 2nd Avenger Squad.

Turn 5. My opponent calculated the VPs. The Eldar had 5 VPs (Shrike, Assault Squad, Snipers, Slay The Warlord, First Blood) while my RG had 9 VPs (3 Serpents, 2 Prisms, 2 Wraithfighters, 1 Avenger Squad, Warlock Council). With the difference of 4 VPs, my opponent conceded.

RESULT : Raven Guard Win!

Post-game Assessment :
My opponent wasn't a new guy in 40k. But this was the first game my opponent had with his Eldar. So the lack of experience with the army truly shows in this game. His weapon of choice for Wave Serpents isn't optimized. EML can never beat Scatter Laser with its Twin-linking ability. Summore the Warlock Council isn't as strong with Autarch as compared to with Farseer.

Having said that, it was indeed an interesting Eldar army. Playing around with lots of pinning weapon and Hemlock can be really damaging. Unlike other Eldar list I've seen here, this one requires a lot more thinking and is really scary if played correctly. I'm sure he will come back much stronger the next time we fight.

This was also the first time I used Cypher in a real battle. But after so many play test back home, I'm no noob to his tricks already. Him and his Grav-Centurions were easily the best unit in the game :)

That's all for today. Thanks for reading my Batrep.

Have a nice day :)

Fantasy Fever

I have always prefer Warhammer Fantasy Battles compared to 40k and the 8th Edition is easily the best of all edition we have so far. There has been an increase in the number of WFB players and we can see WFB being played almost every day of the weekend at Hobby Forge. Fun moment, I hope it will last a long time.

Last Friday (7th Feb 14), my DE had a match against our misguided kin, the High Elves. The battle was promising for us DE, but it had to end prematurely due to a distress call from my opponent's family. Looking at my opponent's army across the table, it was almost fully painted and that kinda put me to shame. The guy was just a newbie with only 4-5 months into the game. Of course his army was smaller with 2 Dragons, but having it all fully painted was quite an achievement for a newbie.

Me on the other hand, began my DE 10 years back in 2004. After 10 years, they are only about 70% painted. They don't even have proper movement trays. So that night when I reach home, I took out my tools, the movement tray set, and began working on it. By 4.30 am, it's done and as you can see in the picture below, they are now properly organized and ready for battle. 

Missing from the picture was 8 Dark Riders, 10 Shades,
a Dreadlord on Cold One, a Sorceress, and a BSB on Cold One

The following days I started painting the Corsairs whenever I can and completed 5 minis in addition to the 5 painted years back. I will for now focus on this unit and try to complete as much as possible before the next gaming session.

In the last post, I said that I would finish the 2nd RG Sniper Squad in about a week. With the focus to the DE Corsairs, I now put the Snipers aside for a while. Though I did painted one of them just to try out the colour scheme. Not bad eh :)

Let us pray I can keep the momentum and finish the whole 30 man unit. 10 done, 20 more to go.

Well, that's it for today. Thank you for reading. Have a nice day :)

Raven Guard Sniper Squad I

This wasn't supposed to take too long, but suddenly got so busy with kids (homeworks) and CNY (despite being a Malay Hahaha!) and the progress were delayed slightly. But last night, I finally finished this small unit of Snipers with one Heavy Bolter. After a few play test, this unit is fast becoming a favorite in my Raven Guard list.

4 Snipers, 1 Heavy Bolter with Hellfire Rounds ...

... and camo cloaks

Raven Guard Sniper Team in action

I have another unit of snipers to paint. Should be able to finish them in a week I think.
Till then, have a nice day and Happy Chinese New Year to all my Chinese friends.