Chaos Wins!

Some people had asked about this so I thought I'd put together a brief informational:

There are two ways to register for this event:

1) Drive down to Dragon's Den Games and sign up in person.
2) Click on the "Buy Now" button in the upper right hand corner of this blog and purchase a ticket using paypal. You can add your name in the notes section if you wish. This ships money to my paypal account and I'll sign you up using your email address with Dragon's Den Games on your behalf.

The 25 dollar entry fee is dirt cheap for a two day event. It will pay for rent to the store, schwag, and prizes. The prize support for this event stands to be very generous. We're looking at somewhere starting in the $500 worth of product range and going up from there depending on attendance. For a 24 slot tournament that's a LOT of prize support considering most RTT's cap at around $150. We expect this event to fill up very quickly so if you're interested in playing please purchase your ticket as soon as possible.

Look forward to seeing everyone there!

The Sprue Posse presents the:

SPRUE POSSE GRAND PRIX

5^th Edition Warhammer 40k Tournament

Saturday and Sunday, January 22nd and 23rd, 2011, 11:00 AM

Hosted by

Dragon's Den Games

2000 Points

5 Rounds Swiss-System

INAT FAQ*

Unpainted Models Allowed; WYSIWYG

Standard Missions from the 5^th Edition Rulebook

Prize Support for Best General**

Prize Support for Best Painted

$25 entry fee!

Limited Seating!

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

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

**Best general also wins an invite to the upcoming NOVA invitational.

Dragon's Den Games

7522 Sunset Boulevard

Los Angeles CA. 90046

323-436-6200

Sign up instructions are here.

Questions? Please contact Kevin Nash

The Sprue Posse presents the:

SPRUE POSSE INVITATIONAL

5^th Edition Warhammer 40k Tournament

Saturday, December 4th, 11:00 AM

Hosted by

Aero Hobbies and Games

2000 Points

3 Rounds Swiss-System

INAT FAQ*

Unpainted Models Allowed; WYSIWYG

Standard Missions from the 5^th Edition Rulebook

Prize Support for Best General

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

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

Aero Hobbies and Games

2918 Santa Monica Boulevard #3
Santa Monica, CA 90404

(310) 828-5264

Questions? Please contact Kevin Nash

Messing around with army builder tonight I put together the following Ork list. I wanted something less than conventional that used different models but still offered reliable shooting and solid CC capabilities . I always enjoy Ork lists that combo shooty with choppy and I think they are among the most effective. This one delivers that while using trukk spam, a difficult challenge if not properly supported.

Orks - 1500

HQ

Warboss (Power Klaw, Cybork)
Warboss (Power Klaw, Cybork)

Troops

Nobz x4 (Combi Skorcha, Combi Rockitt, Bosspole) w Trukk (Ram)
Nobz x4 (Combi Skorcha, Combi Rockitt, Bosspole) w Trukk (Ram)
Boyz x12 w Nob (Power Klaw, Bosspole) w Trukk (Ram)
Boyz x12 w Nob (Power Klaw, Bosspole) w Trukk (Ram)
Boyz x12 w Nob (Power Klaw, Bosspole) w Trukk (Ram)
Boyz x12 w Nob (Power Klaw, Bosspole) w Trukk (Ram)

Heavy Support

Big Gunz (Ammo Runt x3)
Big Gunz (Ammo Runt x3)
Big Gunz (Ammo Runt x3)

Elite

Loota x5
Loota x5
Loota x5

That's an awful lot of shooting coming across the table on the first turn with re-rollable cannon shots and loota spam. The shooting is meant to counter your opponents firing lines. You might not blow everything up right away, but every shake or stun puts your trukk boyz that much closer.

The nobz are a cheap utility unit. They offer a variety of methods to deal with horde or vehicles. Paired with the Warbosses they can do some damage even to tougher MC units.

Obviously the trukks are getting blasted sooner or later but by the time they do you're hoping everything is already in their lines.

Nothing spectacular here and it's always hard to find a reason not to use deff-rolla wagons but if I'm playing trukk spam this is how I'm going to do it.

Alex Haag won best painted at our most recent Sprue Posse RTT. You can see his full army list here.

Congratulations to Levi Joos for winning this event and earning a spot at our Sprue Posse Invitational in December.

Full standings and Round Results are available here. Photos of the event and army lists of the competitors are below.

First Place

Levi Joos - Orks


HQ

Warboss (Cybork, Heavy Armor, Attack Squig, Power Klaw)
Big Mek (Kustom Force Field, Power Klaw)

Troops

Nobs x 8 w Cybork Bodies, and Painboy (Power Klaw x 2, Big Choppa x 2, Combi Rockitt x 2, Bosspole x 3, Waagh Banner, Ammo Runt x 2)
Shoota Boys x18 (Rockitt) w Nob (Power Klaw, Boss Pole)
Shoota Boys x11 (Rockitt) w Nob (Power Klaw, Boss Pole) w Trukk (Ram, Boarding Plank)
Gretchin x 20 w Runtherd

Fast Attack

Deffkopta x1 (TL Rockitt, Buzzsaw)

Heavy Support

Battlewagon (Deffrolla, Kannon, Boarding Plank, Grot Riggers, Stikkbomb Chucka)
Battlewagon (Deffrolla, Kannon, Boarding Plank)

Elite

Lootas x 5
Lootas x 5
Lootas x 5



Second Place

Robert Pait - Imperial Guard



HQ

Company Command Squad (Plasma x4) and Fleet Officer w Chimera (Heavy Flamer)

Troops

Veteran Squad x10 (Melta x3) w Chimera (Heavy Flamer)
Veteran Squad x10 (Melta x3) w Chimera (Heavy Flamer)
Platoon Command Squad x 5 (Flamer x2) w Chimera (Heavy Flamer)
Infantry Squad x 10 w Lascannon Team
Infantry Squad x 10 w Commissar w Lascannon Team
Autocannon Team x3
Autocannon Team x3
Autocannon Team x3
Autocannon Team x3
Inquisitorial Storm Troopers x5 (Melta x2)

Fast Attack

Vendetta

Heavy Support

Hydra
Hydra
Hydra


Third Place

Mario Acuna - Eldar



HQ

Farseer (Doom, Guide, Runes of Warding, Runs of Witnessing, Spirit Stones)
Farseer (Doom, Guide, Runes of Warding, Runs of Witnessing, Spirit Stones)

Troops

Dire Avengers x 10 w Exarch (Bladestorm) and Wave Serpent
Dire Avengers x 10 w Exarch (Bladestorm) and Wave Serpent

Elite

Fire Dragons x6 w Exarch (Crack Shot)
Fire Dragons x6 w Exarch (Crack Shot)

Heavy Support

Falcon (Holo-Field, Spirit Stones)
Falcon (Holo-Field, Spirit Stones)



Best Painted

Alex Haag - Eldar



HQ

Farseer (Guide, Doom, Spirit Stones, Runes of Warding, Singing Spear)
Autarch (Fusion Gun)

Troop

Dire Avengers x5 w Wave Serpent (TL Bright Lance, Nose Shuriken Cannon)
Dire Avengers x5
Rangers x5

Elite

Fire Dragons x6 w Wave Serpent (TL Shuriken Cannon, Nose Shuriken Cannon, Spirit Stones)
Fire Dragons x6 w Wave Serpent (TL Shuriken Cannon, Nose Shuriken Cannon, Spirit Stones)

Heavy

Warwalkers x3 (Scatter Lasers x6)
Fire Prism (Nose Shuriken Cannon)
Falcon (Scatter Laser, Nose Shuriken Cannon, Holo-Fields, Spirit Stones)




Remaining Lists

Christian Alessi - Space Wolves

HQ

Lord (Thunder Wolf, THSS, Runic Armor, Sage of Bear, Wolf Tooth Necklace) w Fenrisian Wolf x2

Elite

Wolf Guard x3 (Combi Melta x2, Power Fist x2)
Wolf Scout x5 (Melta x1)
Wolf Scout x5 (Melta x1)

Troop

Grey Hunters x5 (Melta x1) w Razorback
Grey Hunters x5 (Melta x1) w Razorback

Fast Attack

Fenrisian Wolves x9
Thunder Wolves x4 (THSS, Melta Bomb)

Heavy Support

Long Fangs x5 (Missile Launcher x4)
Long Fangs x5 (Missile Launcher x4)
Long Fangs x5 (Missile Launcher x4)

Jarod Khoury - Chaos Daemons

HQ

Fateweaver
Herald of Tzeentch (Bolt of Tzeentch, Chariot)

Troops

Pink Horrors of Tzeentch x8 (Bolt, Icon)
Pink Horrors of Tzeentch x8 (Bolt) w Changeling
Plaguebearers x10

Elite

Bloodcrushers x4 (Icon)
Bloodcrushers x4

Heavy Support

Daemon Prince (Gaze, Mark of Tzeentch, Bolt of Tzeentch)
Daemon Prince (Gaze, Mark of Tzeentch, Bolt of Tzeentch)

Marco Reynoso - Eldar

HQ

Fuegan
Maugan Ra

Troops

Dire Avengers x6 w Exarch (Dual Shuriken Catapults)
Rangers x 5
Guardian Jetbikes x6

Elite

Fire Dragons x5 w Exarch (Crack Shot)

Heavy Support

Falcon (Holo-Field, Bright Lance)
Wraithlord (Missile Launcher, Bright Lance)
Dark Reapers x5 w Exarch (Missile Launcher, Crack Shot)



Noah Smith - Imperial Guard

HQ

Company Command Squad (Melta x4) w Chimera

Troops

Veteran Squad x10 w Chimera
Platoon Command Squad x5 (Flamer x4)
Infantry Squad x10 w Auto Cannon Team
Infatnry Squad x10
Special Weapon Squad x3 (Melta x3)

Fast Attack

Vendetta
Vendetta

Heavy Support

Medusa x2
Manticore
Manticore

Steven Smith - Space Wolves

HQ

Rune Priest (Jaws of World Wolf, Storm Caller)

Troops

Grey Hunters x5 (Melta x1) w Razorback (Lascannon and TL Plasmagun)
Grey Hunters x5 (Melta x1) w Razorback (Lascannon and TL Plasmagun)
Grey Hunters x5 (Melta x1) w Razorback (Lascannon and TL Plasmagun)

Elite

Dreadnaught (Heavy Flamer, Multi Melta)
Dreadnaught (Heavy Flamer, Plasma Cannon)
Dreadnaught (Heavy Flamer, Twin Linked Lascannon)

Fast Attack

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

Heavy Support

Long Fangs x5 (Missile Launcher x4)
Long Fangs x5 (Missile Launcher x4)

Edit:  Army lists and pictures from this event are now available here.

Player List

No Name                    Rtg      Army

1. Acuna, Mario            1600     Eldar 
2. Alessi, Christian       1600     Space Wolves
3. Haag, Alex              1600     Eldar
4. Joos, Levi              1595     Orks
5. Khoury, Jarod           1595     Chaos Daemons
6. Pait, Robert            1600     Imperial Guard
7. Reynoso, Marco          1600     Eldar
8. Smith, Noah             1600     Imperial Guard
9. Smith, Steven           1600     Space Wolves

Round 1 Results

Pitched - Kill Points

No Name          Result   Name         

1 Acuna, M (1)    1:0    Khoury, J (5)
2 Pait, R (6)     1:0    Alessi, C (2)
3 Haag, A (3)     1:0    Reynoso, M (7)
4 Smith, N (8)    0:1    Joos, L (4)  
5 Smith, S (9)    1:0    BYE          

Round 1 Standings

Place Name              Feder Rtg Loc  Score Buch. Progr. Berg.

1-5  Smith, Steven               1600 1       0.5    1.0  0.00
     Acuna, Mario                1605 1       0.0    1.0  0.00
     Haag, Alex                  1605 1       0.0    1.0  0.00
     Joos, Levi                  1600 1       0.0    1.0  0.00
     Pait, Robert                1605 1       0.0    1.0  0.00
6-9  Alessi, Christian           1595 0       1.0    0.0  0.00
     Khoury, Jarod               1590 0       1.0    0.0  0.00
     Reynoso, Marco              1595 0       1.0    0.0  0.00
     Smith, Noah                 1595 0       1.0    0.0  0.00

Round 2 Results

Dawn of War - 5 Objective Seize Ground

No Name           Result   Name         

1 Joos, L (4)      1:0    Acuna, M (1) 
2 Smith, S (9)    .5:.5   Haag, A (3)  
3 Khoury, J (5)    0:1    Pait, R (6)  
4 Alessi, C (2)    1:0    Reynoso, M (7)
5 Smith, N (8)     1:0    BYE          

Standings after Round 2

Place Name              Feder Rtg Loc  Score Buch. Progr. Berg.

1-2  Joos, Levi                  1605 2       1.5    3.0  2.00
     Pait, Robert                1610 2       1.0    3.0  1.00
3-4  Smith, Steven               1600 1.5     2.5    2.5  0.75
     Haag, Alex                  1605 1.5     1.0    2.5  0.75
5-7  Smith, Noah                 1595 1       3.0    1.0  0.00
     Acuna, Mario                1600 1       2.0    2.0  0.00
     Alessi, Christian           1600 1       2.0    1.0  0.00
8-9  Khoury, Jarod               1585 0       3.0    0.0  0.00
     Reynoso, Marco              1590 0       2.5    0.0  0.00

Round 3 Results

Spearhead - Capture and Control

No Name            Result   Name        

1 Pait, R (6)      .5:.5   Joos, L (4) 
2 Acuna, M (1)      1:0    Smith, S (9)
3 Haag, A (3)       0:1    Smith, N (8)
4 Khoury, J (5)     0:1    Alessi, C (2)
5 Reynoso, M (7)    1:0    BYE         

Standings after Round 3

Place Name              Feder Rtg Loc  Score Buch. Progr. Berg.

1-2  Joos, Levi                  1605 2.5     6.0    5.5  5.25
     Pait, Robert                1610 2.5     4.5    5.5  3.25
3-5  Smith, Noah                 1600 2       5.5    3.0  1.50
     Acuna, Mario                1605 2       3.5    4.0  1.50
     Alessi, Christian           1605 2       3.0    3.0  1.00
6-7  Smith, Steven               1595 1.5     5.0    4.0  0.75
     Haag, Alex                  1600 1.5     3.0    4.0  1.75
 8   Reynoso, Marco              1590 1       5.0    1.0  0.00
 9   Khoury, Jarod               1580 0       6.5    0.0  0.00

Round 4 Results

Pitched Battle - 3 Objective Seize Ground

No Name            Result   Name        

1 Joos, L (4)       1:0    Alessi, C (2)
2 Smith, N (8)     .5:.5   Pait, R (6) 
3 Haag, A (3)       0:1    Acuna, M (1)
4 Reynoso, M (7)    1:0    Smith, S (9)
5 Khoury, J (5)     1:0    BYE         

Final Standings

Place Name              Feder Rtg Loc  Score Buch. Progr. Berg.

 1   Joos, Levi                  1610 3.5    10.0    9.0  9.00
2-3  Pait, Robert                1610 3       8.0    8.5  6.00
     Acuna, Mario                1610 3       6.5    7.0  4.00
 4   Smith, Noah                 1600 2.5    10.0    5.5  3.00
5-6  Alessi, Christian           1600 2       8.5    5.0  3.00
     Reynoso, Marco              1595 2       6.5    3.0  1.50
7-8  Smith, Steven               1595 1.5     8.0    5.5  0.75
     Haag, Alex                  1595 1.5     7.5    5.5  2.75
 9   Khoury, Jarod               1580 1      10.0    1.0  0.00

I showed you my card pool that I got here. Below is the deck I put together and how I got there.

Green was clearly the weakest color in the pool with only a few playable creatures and almost no tricks. I ruled that out immediately.

White really stood out for me with the card pool: Indomitable Archangel and Glimmerpoint Stag are extremely powerful and arrest is one of the better limited "removal" cards in the game. I also wanted to include red because of the double shatter and the galvanic blast. Finally, blue had some nice options to include but I ended up cutting to only the absolute most useful. Trinket Mage was leveraged to grab spellbombs and then the Lumengrid Drake became a nice removal option along with disperse.

I looked at black for a while but really beyond Instill Infection and Grasp of Darkness there wasn't much going for it. Only the Instill was splashable and I felt blue and red were both better options for those roles.

Finally, I started adding the artifacts. Contagion Engine went in, along with the double tumble magnet. The useful spellbombs, rust tick, and then started filling up from there. I had some trouble cutting the last few artifacts. I had two Darksteel sentinels and ended up having to cut one. The Soliton's also couldn't find their way into my deck either.

I think there are a few ways to go here but I went ahead and focused on removal and powerful finishers and came up with this:

Spells

Galvanic Blast
Shatter x2
Disperse
Arrest

Non Creature Artifacts

Horizon Spellbomb
Origin Spellbomb
Glint Hawk Idol
Barbed Battlegear
Tumble Magnet x2
Contagion Engine

Creatures
Gold Myr
Kemba's Skyguard
Trinket Mage
Rust Tick
Lumengrid Drake
Glimmerpoint Stag
Indomitable Archangel
Ghalma's Warden
Clone Shell
Kuldotha Forgemaster
Darksteel Sentinel

Land

4 Mountain
4 Island
9 Plains

My games have been pretty good and I'm winning more often than losing. One of my opponents landed a Koth and the other a Venser. I've had success against both. Disperse is pretty damn good.

What do you think? Would you guys have done this card pool differently?

I did a Scars of Mirrodin sealed deck this week. We each opened six packs and this is what I opened:

White

Arrest
Auriok Sunchaser
Fulgent Distraction
Ghalma's Warden
Glimmerpoint Stag
Glint Hawk
Indomitable Archangel (M)
Kemba's Skyguard
Loxodon Wayfarer
Salvage Scout x2
Vigil for the Lost

Red

Assault Strobe
Ferrovore
Flameborn Hellion
Furnace Celebration
Galvanic Blast
Molten Psyche (R)
Melt Terrain
Oxidda Daredevil
Shatter x2

Blue

Bonds of Quicksilver x2
Disperse
Darkslick Drake
Lumengrid Drake
Neurok Invisimancer
Riddlesmith
Screeching Silcaw x3
Trinket Mage
Twisted Image

Green

Blunt the Assault
Copperhorn Scout
Cystbearer
Ezuri's Archers
Lifesmith
Tangle Angler
Tel-Jilad Defiance
Withstand Death

Black

Blistergrub x2
Contagious Nim
Corrupted Harvester
Dross Hopper
Grasp of Darkness
Instill Infection
Relic Putrescence
Tainted Strike

Artifact

Barbed Battlegear
Chrome Steed x2
Contagion Engine (R)
Corpse Cur
Clone Shell
Darksteel Sentinel x2
Glint Hawk Idol
Gold Myr
Golem Foundry
Grafted Exoskeleton
Grindclock (R)
Horizon Spellbomb
Kuldotha Forgemaster (R)
Necrogen Censer
Necropede
Nihil Spellbomb
Origin Spellbomb
Panic Spellbomb
Moriok Replica x2
Rust Tick
Soliton x2
Trigon of Corruption
Trigon of Rage
Tumble Magnet x2
Vulshok Replica
Wall of Tanglecord

Land

Glimmerpost
Razorverge Thicket (R)

I suppose I'll be using artifacts here. What looks strong here? I like the double shatter. I'm gonna have a hard time not playing red.

I'll show you my deck in a future post.

Our final open tourney of the season is this Saturday and with it goes a slot to the Sprue Posse invitational tournament in December. So who exactly is going to the invitational? We have a pretty good idea already despite no formal invitations or RSVP's being filed. That said we have our Player of the Year rankings to go on and it paints a pretty clear picture:

Rank Name              Rating    Tourney Wins    Points

1   Regul, Jon          1630         1             7.0
2   Shepard, Ryan       1625         1            10.0
3   Townsend, Brad      1625         1             8.5
4   Burdine, Patrick    1625                       9.5
5   Northover, Mike     1620                       7.5
6   Alvarez, Sergio     1620         1             5.5
7   Wang, Anthony       1615                       7.0         
8   Moss, Jonathan      1610         1             2.5

This is your top 8 right here and it gives you a pretty accurate snapshot of who might be going to the invitational. But there's just one problem, the open winner this Saturday is getting a slot and one of the guys above will be getting bumped because of it. On top of that some of them might get caught by other players improving their scores even if those players don't get the automatic invite. Can some of these players improve their ranking to prevent that? They could if any of the above were playing this Saturday. All of them opted out for various reasons. That means we know none of their ELO ranks will be changing. That puts some of them in jeopardy. It also allows for rampant speculation and schadenfreude!

Who is getting bumped for certain then? The lowest ranked guy who doesn't have a tourney victory. That moves Anthony Wang out of the winner's circle (for now) and on the alternate list no matter what. The tourney winner will definitely replace him.

What about the other two competitors who haven't won an open yet: Burdine and Northover? Burdine's spot is safe. He's too highly ranked to get bumped by anyone since no players are in striking distance. Northover? He could slip in a scenario where an already established player ties his ELO rank, has a higher tourney point tiebreaker and then another player gets a secured tournament victory to dump him from the Top 8 as well.

So what are these scenario's to look for? We can view an early potential player list for this weekend. These two are likely entrants:

Rank Name              Rating    Tourney Wins    Points

10  Mann, John          1605                       7.5
14  Pait, Robert        1600                       4.0

Most likely to obtain a slot if he plays well: John Mann

John has put together several near misses early this season finishing 4th and then 3rd in the February and April tournaments before some disappointing finishes later in the season. I still think he can bounce back though and my smart money is on him doing well this tournament, either winning it outright or potentially scoring high enough to break into the top 8 via rating alone.


Positional favorite beyond the rest of the field: Robert Pait

Robert has turned in several decent performances in the last two tournaments but has had trouble getting past the 1600 baseline. Still, the tournament points are used as tiebreakers and he has 4 of them and expects to get more. That puts him ahead of anyone in "the field" on tiebreakers assuming he can string some wins together. Short of winning and getting an automatic slot, he could be a favorite for the alternate list if he performs well on Saturday.

Always a threat: "The Field"

The nice thing about the Sprue Posse Open is that anyone can win, and if you win, you are indeed "in" the invitational. Anyone participating Saturday has a chance to get an invitational slot. All they have to do is win the tournament.

Good luck everybody!

Manimal took the Dark Eldar codex for a test drive this weekend and decided to square off against Shep's Imperial Guard. They played a 1500 point test game and I got some of the coverage second hand from Shep.

Note the Dark Eldar codex isn't officially legal for another couple of weeks. But these guys got the inside scoop from a store copy and applied the rules to the list created below.


Dark Eldar 1500

HQ

Haemonculus with liquifier

Elite

4x trueborn with 4x blasters in a venom with extra splinter cannon
4x trueborn with 4x blasters in a venom with extra splinter cannon
4x trueborn with 4x blasters in a venom with extra splinter cannon

Troops

5x wracks with liquifier in raider
5x wracks with liquifier in raider
5x wracks with liquifier in raider
5x wracks with liquifier in raider

Fast Attack

3x reavers with heat lance

Heavy

ravager with flickerfield
ravager with flickerfield
ravager with flickerfield


IG 1500

HQ

CCS 3x melta chimera HHF

Troops

veterans 3x plasma chimera HHF
veterans 3x plasma chimera HHF
veterans 3x melta chimera HHF

Fast Attack

vendetta
vendetta
vendetta

Heavy

manticore HHF
manticore HHF
manticore HHF


The batrep per Shep:

I won the roll and used that advantage to pick the side with the tighter objective spread and deployed everything on the table. Manimal wisely reserved out his army.

A note on Vect. I have said that I like Vect, scratch that. I hate him now. He fights well, but the rule I liked him for was the seize the inititive on a 4+. We faked that roll to see if he would have successfully siezed, and he wouldn't have. Deploying on-table, and not getting frst turn is a pretty bad thing to happen to dark eldar. Lets just say that its very bad. Keeping the chance of that happening at 8% is the wise thing to do. So paying the massive amount of points for Vect does not seem wise to me, unless you went for some kind of resilient dark eldar list. The Baron wouldn't have helped this particular roll either. The barons rule is ok, it slightly helps going first, and his other rules makes one hellion unit 'playable'. You have to really want the hellion unit, and at 1500 points a speedy, survivable yet expensive troops choice isn't worth giving up tank hunting.

Ok, so here is how I deployed, and my first two turns of movement.

Some notes here. Ordinarily, I would have taken advantage of a scout move and two turns of moving to redeploy my vendettas. That move was taken away from me by the FRIGHTENING range from off table by trueborn. A unit of trueborn coming off-table has a 32" threat range. That kept me pinned in my back 16" until some DE arrivals happened and I can use my smoke.

On the bottom of turn 2, Manimal got some favorable reserves to turn up. Here they come....


He got 2 of 3 ravagers, 2 of 3 trueborn/venom packages, the reavers, one wrack/radier package, and the wrack/raider/haemonculous package.

He noticed that I had respected his trueborn, and so he went flat out with the two venoms, the raiders moved on 12" as did the ravagers.

Check out those reavers! That was there on table move, unbelievable! 36" turbo boost might have been difficult to quantify for some of you guys. Its sick. He is threatening all three of my vendettas next turn, and he has severely restricted the multi-lasers I can put on him with both range and LOS with that move.

Manimal matched his excellent reserves rolling with some pretty below average shooting. He went after the vendettas that had flying in very tight circles to confuse their targetting (cheesy 4+ cover) He immobilized one and shook one other along with a weapon destroyed result. He had one look at side armor on the CCS chimera and managed only to shake it.

TOP OF 3

Ok, now I've got my strategy to create. Unfortunately, although a high priority, I don't have the tools I need to take out those reavers. It was far too early for any real movement, I didn't take a picture of my shift. The manticores and their screening chimeras merely rotated to face the lances, and one troop chimera carrying meltagun vets shifted over to take a potentially lucky shot at the reavers.

I did my best with manticore shells and the one vendetta, immobilizing an already scoring raider, and weapon destoying a ravager. I also managed to weapon destroy a venom and crew stun both venoms with stationary plasma guns. And most importantly to me, I killed a reaver with a couple multi-laser shots. Did he fail his morale? No.

BOTTOM OF 3
In came the third trueborn/venom package another wrack/raider and the third ravager. The venom went flat out to join up to the other two stunned venoms, the third ravager came on in the centerish of Manimals long edge, and the wracks were allocated to the extreme objective corner, that isn't heavily pictured until later. In the regular moves, this happened...



Here come the Trueborn. They raised their blasters with lithe grace, took careful aim, and failed to wreck any chimeras! No wrecks means no tokens, and no tokens means, hot burny death awaits. His dark lances took a second consecutive turn off, and he even missed with his heat lance. Its good that his reserves went well, because the door is wide open for me to take a few steps out of the dark eldar trap. I think he managed to wreck a vendetta, and weapon destroy a chimera and stun another one.

TOP OF 4

Ok, the first of two armored thrusts happens right now, the manticores wheel around the stunned chimera and prepare to lay out some souffle, the mobile but flamerless chimera moves up as well, prepping an objective block move next turn. The CCS chimera shifts over to help on the reavers alongside the untouched IG chimera. The shaken vendetta takes evasive maneuvers for its cover save, and the immbolized vendetta just waits its doom.

I laid out the teardrops and killed 3 of 4 trueborn in one unit, and 2 of 4 in the other, embarked plasma was able to wreck the newly arrived venom, and the flamerless chimera killed one of the passengers. I used the CCS to kill the 4th trueborn, and two multi-lasers were able to take out the now, 4+ cover having reavers. The 2 remaining trueborns passed their morale, but the new unit of 4 failed morale and hopped back 10".

BOTTOM OF 4

Manimal was happy to see that he had two trueborns deep in my lines, albeit untokened. He knew that my mobile vendetta was priority number one, but I decided to get stupid hot on cover saves, he could only manage to stun it, which was downgraded to a shaken. He had to throw every lance to get even that, the only other shooting was the two trueborns who comically failed to pen armor 10, were yet again denied feel no pain, and destined to die on the next turn.

TOP OF 5

Go, Go, Go!


My moves were the best combination of contesting denial, ability to fire, and contesting that I could dream up. I had two, he had one, that was a turn from being overrun, but we both had enough firepower to change that score. At this point I was in 40k heaven, a tight game that is going to go down to the last turn. I tank shock past the trueborn, who pass their test and one decided to get brave, glory was not his, which just left death. Someone shot out of a firepoint to finish off his buddy, my CCS did a deadly drive-by on an empty venom that was angling to contest my center (and most important) objective. Various and sundry plasma and multi-laser wrecked another venom and immobilized two raiders. There was a loose Raider on my far right flank, which is TROUBLE. But I'm out of shooting, so we'll just have to look at the dice and see what happens.

BOTTOM OF 5

Manimal and I both knew what the deal was. He MUST kill the vendetta, then he MUST contest one of my objectives, then, well, the game has got to end.

And this time, thats exactly what happened.

I had a great fun game, I took a loss, but I'll take something close like that any day over rolling over someone.

Shep's Analysis:

Manimal and I both knew what the deal was. He MUST kill the vendetta, then he MUST contest one of my objectives, then, well, the game has got to end. And this time, thats exactly what happened. I had a great fun game, I took a loss, but I'll take something close like that any day over rolling over someone.

Since the DE book is new, I'm gonna share my thought on the units.


Haemonculous - Absolutely! Not only does he actually give dark eldar the vital 'resilient troop' that they have needed since 5th ed came out, but he has other flexibility as well. In this particular game, he should have begun joined to one of the trueborn. FNP would have been worth splitting liguifiers.




trueborn - No one should be having any trouble seeing how pro this unit is. The threat of a 12" move, 2" debark and 18" blaster shot, and then having them pick up FNP if that blaster shot hits paydirt. At 1500 I insist that 3x3 would be a starting off point.



wracks - It wasn't mentioned in the batrep, but I laid out a flamer flush over 4 wracks when I did my big turn 5 push. The reason it wasn't mentioned is that it only wounded 2 wracks, and only one failed FNP. Consider this unit to be the "missing link" to tournament success with dark eldar. Giving them access to an excellent flamer solidifies their 'best troop' status IMO.



raider - well, the venom is better, unless you are short anti-tank. You can't count on a mere three ravagers, especially in larger points size games. They don't suck, and you'll end up with a few of these just to shore up anti-tank.



venom - Astute readers might notice that at no point in the short game did I ever deploy a single infantry model, Through some twisted warped probability I lost a game without a single chimera being wrecked. I didn't need to see them in action for me to know that dark eldar need some consistent LONG RANGE anti-infantry firepower. Venoms deliver. As soon as I was comfortable with my anti-tank, I'd take venoms and nothing else.



reavers - This is how good those reavers were. Manimal has already decided to drop one trueborn from each unit in order to add a second reaver unit. And I wholeheartedly agree with him. Even with them whiffing, and even with Manimal being way below odds on the two rounds of cover saves they took, I was truly intimidated by them. They had no opprotunities to use their slave snares n account of me never having an infantry unit in play, yet just as a dirt cheap and insanely speedy meltagun, they are worth it.



ravagers - Well, they didn't get more expensive, they GAINED 12" move and fire all weapons, and gained access to a flickerfield. Res Ipsa Loquitur.



Just because I am raving about all of the units Manimal fielded doesn't mean there isn't plenty of fail in the book. That's ok as far as I'm concerned, their seems to be ample units with which to have a fun and competitive game against. I certainly didn't have any complaints about the fun I was having as their opponent.

This batrep while also posted over at dakkadakka.com

I spoke with Pat over at the 11th company about the Sprue Posse tournament system, ELO Rankings, Swiss tournaments and the INAT FAQ. My interview appears in episode 39. You can download the podcast here. My interview is at 2:06:34 of the podcast but make sure you check out the whole podcast for a variety of other 40k related topics. Also check out their archive as they have a ton of podcasts available for download with a lot of great 40k content.

If you like all things 40k, the 11th company is a great place to be.

Thanks a lot to those guys for helping promote our tournament scene!

INAT 4.1 has been published here. We will be using that document for our next open tourney so please make a note of any clarifications or changes from the previous 4.0 version.

Notable changes include removing redundant rulings already spelled out in the Blood Angel or Tyranid FAQ's as well as removing any conflicts with those documents.

As always, a transparent FAQ is better than "Judges Call".

GW finally has revealed what we've been waiting for. A fine looking Dark Eldar model collection.

Is this a competitive Xenos army? I have no idea since I only get to see the illustrated cover of the codex.

But I do see a fine looking model selection here. Those Raider's are a major improvement on the older versions see here. I also see some cool looking infantry, some detailed HQ choices and some fine looking reavers.

Are Dark Eldar going the way of Orks, Tyranids or are they actually going to be tier 1? I heard all the raiders get a 5+ invulnerable save. I like that already.

God forbid GW makes a viable Xenos army these days. We'll see if Phil Kelly comes through for us with the Codex spoilers in the coming weeks.