A Shoutout to my buddy Malduran

My buddy Malduran in the UK has been a fellow 40k blogger for two years now.  Check him out here: http://skulkers-surprise.blogspot.com/ 

His blog has battle reports, painting, and is just an overall good blog.  Check him out and congratulate him!

Keep up the good work my friend!

New List with Eldar Main!

So as of late I have been toying with the idea of running an Eldar main army.  I know what you're thinking, and no it isn't because of the awesomeness of Wave Serpents or the really cool Wraithknights.  It is for Striking Scorpions!  I have been having a blast playing this army and think it has some potential.  it has played some stiff competition and came out on top of it all!  It has taken down Omega Prime's Necron Flier-Wing, Frankie from Frontline Gaming's 11 Oblits, Matt Bess's 7 Drop Pods, and both Horde Orks and Horde Nids! 

Here is the list!

HQ
Farseer w/ Shard of Anaris, Stone, Jetbike- 170

EL
x9 Striking Scoprions, Exarch w/ Claw- 193
x9 Striking Scoprions, Exarch w/ Claw- 193

TR
x6 Jetbikes, x2 Cannons- 122
x6 Jetbikes, x2 Cannons- 122
x5 Dire Avengers, Serpent w/ TL-Lance- 185
x5 Dire Avengers, Serpent w/ TL-Lance- 185

Allies
Baron- 105

x5 Warriors, Venom- 110

x5 Beast Masters, Fiend, x5 Khymera, x6 Flock- 250

Ravager w/ Nightshields- 115

TOTAL: 1750pts

So I like this army for a couple reasons.  For one it is something I haven't seen anyone run.  It's new and I think it can take people by surprise.  I have been playing with the same core of Dark Eldar and Eldar models for awhile now.  It has been getting rather dry.  So this new army has had me focused and winning games with strategy and cunning rather than buckets of dice.  Plus I like when people think Strikign Scorpions are bad.  Than they just own em!

For two, I like Striking Scorpions and their ability to distract people.  They don't score, but they will start the game 18'' away from you.  If you don't kill them, they will charge Turn 2.  And because most people take this bait, the Beasts get to run up the field all fine.  if people want to concentrate on the Beasts, that's fine too, I will then have the Striking Scoprions and Serpents ready to hit you.

For the third and final reason.... I have a TON of Eldar models and this will make me paint them if I intend o using them for a tournament!

I know this army is not without weaknesses, trust me there are several glaring ones!  I will list out what I think the strengths and weakness of this army are.  Please, if you disagree, let me know!

Strengths
1.  Surprise-   I covered it above;  I don't think a lot of people will know how to play against this or how target priority should go
2. Balance-  I have something for everything!  I do not have overwhelming AI, AT, or AA.  I have some here and some there.   I can deal with a little of everything if it came at me.  I won't be caught pissing in the wind if 3 Landraiders or 5 fliers show up.
3.  Speed-  This army is on you Turn 2.  Be it the Scoprions or the Beasts, this army will be in your grill Turn 2.  They have the weapons to deal with almost anything as well.

Weaknesses
1.  Fliers-  So the real flier defense I have is the Wave Serpents.  I only have 2 of them.  Helldrakes especially will roast me.  A guided ravager could help, but not reliable.  I would need to kill a significant amount of their army if I want to survive the Helldrakes.

2.  Gunlines-  Things like Thud Guns, Sabres, and the assortment of IG Heavy Weapons can bring the hurt.  First turn is needed as well as some bad die rolls for my army to make it to the line.  i think the Striking Scorpions would have to make some nice save rolls and endure a very heavy Overwatch before getting into CC.  Hopefully they can do it!  Tau Gunlines could provide some problems, but because they don't have the low AP to just kill units.  Missile-Sides will be a problem, but I think I can deal with them accordingly.  Riptides I have found are a little unreliable.  I know pathfinders boost their ability to deal damage durastically but they would be target priority #1.

3.  Snowball Effect-  Things can snowball with this list rather quickly.  If I start losing units, things get bad.  This sounds obvious, but because the army is built around supporting each other, if a support goes down, the list is very vulnerable.  Because the list relies on Shock and Awe, if it doesn't Shock or Awe, the list is done for.

As an aside, I wanted to make a quick comment on Strikign Scorpions.  A lot of people on the interent have been dogging them (shocker right?).  Lots of people think they got worse.  I just want to know how?  They have a basic Eldar statline... WS 4 BS 4 Str 4 (w/ weapon) T 3 Int 5 LD 9 Save 3+.  They possess Plasma Grenades, Fleet now!, and Mandiblasters.

 The latter equipment is what makes them awesome!  New Mandiblasters are awesome!  Scorpions in base contact at the Int 10 step in CC suffer a Str 3 hit!  This hit occurs every round!  Now I realize Mandiblasters last codex gave an extra Str 4 attack.  However,  With that extra attack you need to roll to hit.  Do you wound more often?  Sure... But with the new Mandiblasters the Roll To Hit is eliminated and the only thing that you need to worry about is a straight Wound roll.  Being able to hurt anyting up to T6 is awesome!  Stacking on an extra wound or two against an MC or a horde or Orks or Nids is very nice and can turn the tide of battle.  And it happenes at each Int 10 step!

The real gem in the Strikign Scorpions is the Str 6 Scorpions Claw that the Exarch gets.  it comes at a steep price (30pts! Yikes!)  but it strikes at Int and with an AP of 2.  All in all to get the claw it will cost you 40pts with the Exarch's cost built in.  The Exarch will have 4 Attacks on the Charge, hitting at WS 5, strikes at Int 6, and has a 2 shot Shuriken weapon at BS 5!  It is a must have for the Exarch.

An honorable mention equipment piece goes to the Shuriken Pistol the Scorpions carry.  With only 12'' range, you won't be kill loads of enemies, but with the potential to hurt ANYTHING, it is definately a nice piece of equipment to have.

So there you have it.... A big wall of text about a new list.  You also have a small analysis of Striking Scorpions.  I will be trying this out in the coming future and will let you know of the results!  let me know of any questions you have or concerns on the list!  Thanks for reading!

-YEE!  YEE!

All Linked Up!

This past weekend at Great Escape Games in Sacramento, CA was the 4th Twin-Linked Tournament of the year.  24 teams showed up for the event, matching the average for the year.  In all, it was a great tournament with tough competition.  However, in the end, yours truely partnered up with my buddy "Big" Ray Barrera took the tournament. 

For those of you who follow the blog and have read the previous posts, you would know that this makes 3 Twin-Linked Tournament victories in a row for me.  I won the first 2 with Matt Bess and this last one with Ray.  We earned 147/150 possible points!  The only points we failed to get was against our Round 2 opponents and killing their augmented Tau Command Suit.

This were the lists we brought to the tournament:

Farseer, Shard of Anaris, Bike- 155
Warlock w/ Jetbike- 50

x9 jetbikes, x3 Cannons- 183
x5 DAs, Serpent w/ Bright Lance- 185
x5 DAs, Serpent w/ Bright Lance- 185

Wraithknight- 240

The Baron- 105

x5 Warriors, Venom- 110
x5 Warriors, Blaster, Venom- 125
x5 Warriors, Blaster, Venom- 125

x5 Beast Masters, Fiend, x5 Khymera, x6 Flock- 250

Ravager w/ Nightshields- 115

Vengeance Battery w/ Battle Cannon- 85
Vengeance Battery w/ Battle Cannon- 85

I thin kthey are pretty solid lists and we were both using untis we had never played with before.  Ray hadn't used a Warlock yet nor the Wraithknight.  I wanted to experiment with the Battle Cannon Batteries.

So onto our games.  Our first two opponents played Dark Angels and Tau.  The Dark Angels included Belial with a healthy 10 Termies, a Vindi, and a Drop Pod of Tactical Marines.  The Tau player had a Command Suit, some Crisis Suits, a couple squads of Fire Warriors, a squad of Sniper Kroot, and a Riptide.  This game was essentially over Turn 3.  We had downed most of their units without takign much casualties.  There was 6 objectives in the mission, of which we captured 5.  The twist on the mission was that for each objective you captured, in mission 2 and 3, you could roll on a chart and "augment" a unit of your choice. 

Our second game was against Tau and Dark Angels as well.  This time Sammael and bikes made their appearance.  3 healthy squads of bikes with a squad of Black Knights.  A Tau Commander with 3 Crisis Suits, a Devilfish Fire Warrior unit, 2 Missile-Sides, and a large Sniper Kroot Squad all made another appearance.  (Something seems fishy!)  We chose to augment our Warlord, the Farseer and get received the augment "The Warlord and his unit have the 'Ignore cover USR."  This was excellent.  Our Farseer was riding around with 10 other bikes, including a Warlock.  We also augmented the Jetbikes.  The Jetbikes became Toughness 5 for their Augment!  Nice!  And then we augmented our Ravager and it received "Move Through Cover USR,"  which isn't terrible, but not that good considering the other augments.

Our game went down to the wire.  We were able to deny objectives with the bikes and kill two augmented units to capture the victory.  We were not able to kill their buffed up Command Suit for Warlord so we only got a 17/20. 

Our third game was against my old partner, Matt Bess and his partner.  Go figure we both would be playing for the Championship!  I guess it just proves that we're both xcellent players no matter who we're teamed with!  Matt brought his Drop Pod Wolves and his partner brough Eldar with soem D-Scythe Wraithguard, a coupel Serpents, some Jetbikes, a small squad of Spiders, and a Fire Prism.  Augements carried over for this game which helped us out a lot! Unfortunately, they also very much helped the other team as well!  Matt had 2+ Armor Save Grey Hunters which we could not dislodge!  In the end, we pulled it out with a perfect 20 after holding our home base objective and denying theirs!   Hard fought game with a lot of twists and turns.  Awesome ending to another awesome tournament!

The TO of the Twin-Linked Tournament, and fellow Sac City Punisher, Omegaprime is giving away an end of the year award for the team that has the 3 highest scores for the year.  This is a dilemma for me.  Do I go with my original partner, Big Ray and build onto the victory we just had and finalize our list for the GT at the end of the year; or do I go with Matt who has claimed 2 victories with me this year and if we essentially play in a third tournament we are almost guaranteed the Overall award at the end of the year.  I think I should go with Big Ray as we are playing in the end of the year GT and could use another tournament under our belt to finalize things for the tournament.

You can see all of the results at www.greatescapegames.com  Click the link for Forums and then click on the Twin-Linked page.

Also check out the Great Escape Games website for the Twin-Linked GT on December 7th and 8th.  2 Day, 6 game event following all of the Twin-Linked Tournament rules! check it out and sign up!  We have 15 teams signed up now!  Grab a partner and play in the last tournament in 2013!  I promise you will not be disappointed!

Getting Linked.... Twin-Linked!

All 6 of us from Sacramento went up to Nor Con and wrecked some face. Mark Broughton won the entire tournament with his flying Necron airforce!  He won this super cool gun that he gets to keep and can equip it to an Independent Character and use the stats for it in any of the tournaments the guys from Nor Con run.  the gun is AWESOME!   Big Ray Barrera won best Order General and Sirus the Virus Chapelle won best Disorder General.  I went 3-0 as well but finished 2 points behind Big Ray for the Award.  I however, did not leave empty handed!  I won a raffle prize Firestorm Redoubt.  I ended up trading it for a Wraithknight because the person which won it did not care for it!  I think I came up pretty big!  Thanks again to Matt and the gang for a fun event and I look forward to attending next year!

Coming up on August 25^th is next installment of Great Escape Games’ Twin-Linked 40k Tournament.  Check here for the rules, Comp regulations, and the tournament info.  My buddy Ray is back in the saddle as my partner and we have a good set of lists to bring to the tournament.  I am the reigning champ, along with Big Matt Bess, so I would not mind at all keeping my 2 tournament-winning streak alive! 

So our lists!

Big Ray’s Eldar

Farseer, Jetbike, Shard of Anaris- 155
Warlock, Jetbike- 50

x9 Jetbikes, x3 Cannons- 183

x5 Dire Avengers, Serpent w/ Bright Lance-185

x5 Dire Avengers, Serpent w/ Bright Lance-185

Wraithknight w/ Wraithcannons- 240

My Dark Eldar

Baron- 105

x5 Warriors, Venom- 110

x5 Warriors, Blaster, Venom- 125

x5 Warriors, Blaster, Venom- 125

x5 Beastmasters, Fiend, x5 Khymera, x6 Flock- 250

Ravager w/ Nightshields- 115

Vengeance Battery w/ Battle Cannon- 85

Vengeance Battery w/ Battle Cannon- 85

So I like the Composition of our lists.  We have plenty of everything I believe in the list.  Anti-tank is covered with the Serpents, Knight, Beasts, Ravager, and the Battle Cannons.  AI with the Bikes, Venoms, Beasts, and Battle Cannons.  Fliers could give us trouble, but with the Comp rules at the tournament, our opponents are only allowed 2 fliers max.  I think the Serpents would be good against them or the Bikes could be Guided by the Seer and 9 Str 6 shots is nothing to sneeze at.

I am also happy to announce that at the end of the year, the Twin-Linked Tournament will be holding a 2 day event in place of their normal December tournament, called the Twin-Linked GT.  The GT will be essentially a 2 day Twin-Linked tournament.  However, swag bags, extreme prize support, Painting competitions and 40k Jeopardy will be taking place on December 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th!  It looks to be a great event and I personally cannot wait for it!  50 spots are available for the event and tickets are going quick! 

The cost of the GT is $80.00.  Now this seems high when you first read it, but remember, it is a Team Tournament and the cost should be split among you and your partner!  $40 for a 2 Day GT style event is actually very cheap!  I will not lie, the swag and the prize support that is being given out is some of the best I have seen or heard of for such an event.  This is an event you will not want to miss.  If you attend the Twin-Linked Tournament next Sunday August the 25^th, the cost will be reduced to $70.  Get your tickets!  You can call Great Escape Games at (916) 927-0810 to reserve your spot now!  Remember only 50 spots are available and 12 have already been filled!  You will not want to miss out!  Check Here to check out the rules for GT.  Hope to see you there!

-YEE!  YEE!

July Contest of Champions Results!

So this past Saturday the bi-monthly tournament called the Contest of Champions at Great Escape Games took place!  46 people were in attendance, much more than I expected to be there.  When the smoke cleared, Gordon Danke and his Grey Knights took the top spot.

I played Gordon in the 2nd round and was unfortunately defeated after he seized the Intiative on me and out of my 7 Reserves on turn 2, none came in.  The game was sealed pretty much at that point, but i would fight on and deny him full points!

Out of 46 I placed 4th.  I had a great time and Sirus the Virus Chappelle did a good job running the tournament.  Some of the missions even had some things in them ot make them interesting.

Next up, Nor Con 2013 in Redding, CA.  Six of us from Sacramento are heading up, possibly a 7th.  We are hoping to wreck some havoc up there and take home home the top prize. 

Wish us luck!

-YEE!   YEE!

What's Coming Up!

I have a couple things 40k relate coming up in the next couple of weeks.

First Up:  1999pt Contest of Champions

This is the every other month tournament at great Escape Games in Sacramento, CA.  I won the 1750pt tournament 2 months ago, and hopefully I can plan on winning this one.  Unfortunately, attendance has dropped dramatically this year and it doesn't seem to be picking up, even after switching TOs.  Sirus the Virus is back at the helm and it is night and day difference between how it was ran earlier in the year.  However, attendance still sucks.  Hopefully some others will come out and bump it up a bit!

I will be bringing this list below.  It isn't anythign special, but it is things I have painted.  I just have not had the drive to sit down and paint, or do much of anything lately.  Here is the list:

The Baron
x5 Wyches, Haywires, Venom
x5 Warriors, Blaster, Venom
x5 Warriors, Blaster, Venom
x10 Warriors, Cannon
x10 Warriors, Cannon
Beasts w/ x5 Masters, Fiend, x5 Khymera, x6 Flock
Ravager w/ Shields
Voidraven w/ x3 Shatterfield, Flickerfield
Voidraven w/ x3 Shatterfield, Flickerfield

Farseer, Bike, Gemstone, Shard
x5 Rangers
x5 Rangers
x8 Warp Spiders
Nightspinner w/ Holofields

As I said nothing special, but it should do pretty well.  As I said above, I have had little motivation to sit down and do anything lately besides get a game in or two a week.


The other event I am excited about is Nor Con 2013.  This takes place in Redding, CA.  It is an 1850pt tournament and 4 others including myself will be making the 2 1/2 hour drive up there to hopefully wreck some face.  Check out their page Nor Con 2013.

I will be using a slightly dumbed down list of the one above.  Again, nothign special.  I am hoping to just get out of Sacramento and see how other play 40k and run events.  I think it will be fun either way.  I will be with friends and playing a game I thoroughly enjoy.

Let me know what events you guys are getting into and how your recent gaming experiences have been!

YEE! YEE!

Winner Winner... Well you get the Idea

About 10 days ago, the bi-monthly Twin-Linked Tournament at Great Escape Games took place and I was teamed up with my good buddy Matt Bess, whom won the previous Twin-Linked Tournament with me.  He brought his Drop Pod Space Wolves and I brought my Dark Eldar.  It was a full day of tabletop wargaming and some fierce competition was brought to Sacramento.

Lets dive in!

The lists we brought was below.  I will give an over view of the games, and let you know the results.

Space Wolves

Rune Priest w/ Termie Armor, Combi-Plasma

x5 Wolf Guard, x5 Combi-Plasma Guns, Pod
Dreadnought, TL-Heavy Flamer, Heavy Flamer, Pod

x8 Grey Hunters, Banner, Plasma Gun, Pod
x10 Grey Hunters, Banner, x2 Melta Guns, Pod
x10 Grey Hunters, Banner, x2 Melta Guns, Pod

Dark Eldar

The Baron

x5 Warriors, Blaster, Venom
x10 Warriors, Cannon
x10 Warriors, Cannon

Beasts, x1 Fiend, x5 Khymera, x6 Flock

Ravager, Nightshields
Voidraven Bomber w/ x4 Shatterfield Missiles, Nightshields, Flickerfield

Our lists reflect the Comp that is institutued at the event.  You can see the Comp break down Twin-Linked Comp and see the restrictions and how the points are calculated.

Game 1 vs Team Zoom Zoom

Our first game was against a couple of Twin-Linked veterans.  One ran Space marines bikers and the other rather a bunch of Eldar Jetbikes, Shining Spears and a Farseer on a bike.

Unfortunately for our opponents, the game was over before it started.  They left some things in reserve, and Matt Podded in.  We wiped 10 Jetbikes and a 9 man SM Bike Squad in the first turn.  it kind of tidal waved from there and everything was sured up by turn 4.  Our opponents were great guys and took the loss very well.  We were laughing and having a great time throughout.  Appreciatet he great game guys!

Crushing Victory for team Fat Ninjas! 20-5

Game 2 vs Double Eldar

Our second game was against the only other team to get a perfect score in the first round.  Our opponents had both brought the new Eldar.  4 Serpents with Wraithguard and Dire Avengers, a 10 man Wraithblade squad, a Fire Prism and a Crimson Hunter.

There was quite a bit of back and forth in this game for the first couple of rounds.  Our turn 3 turned the tide when we destroyed the Wraithblades, Fire Prism, and 3 Serpents.  (thank you Voidraven!)  The Crimson Hunter came in and did work.  Killed the Voidraven, the Ravager, and the Runepriest.  We shot it out of the sky with the last set of Storm Bolters from Mr. Bess' pod to complete the table.  Another great game and two more great opponents!  We each had one another on the ropes and the game could have gone either way, but glad we could pull this one out!

Crushign Victory for team Fat Ninjas!  20-5

Game 3 vs The Wolf Brothers HOWLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So throughout the day the Wolf Brothers and I had been going back and forth and telling each other not to lose so we can meet in the finale.  Lo and behold, we did! 

Some background on the Wolf Brothers.  For starters they pretty much run shit up in the Reno/Sparks area.  If there is 40k or MURDER to behold in the area, the Wolf brothers are behind it.  They come down to Sacramento in force and endorse the tournament scene in Sac.  It even makes me mad when they come down and win our tournaments, on a regular basis.  So this game that is going to be played for the Championship, is a respect thing, a bragging rights thing, and a straight up assured good game of 40k!  Not to mention, General Oade and Mr. ShotDownMind are the leaders of their gaming group, so the game is sure to be intense!

ShotDownMind brought his Dark Eldar which included the Baron, Beasts, some Venoms, a Raider, and soem Hellions.  General Oade brought his Grey Knights with Coteaz, some Strike Marines, a squad of Termies, a Bastion, and a Purgation Squad.  A Venerable army indeed!  The game was 3 Relics that could be captured by any infantry squad but worth 1 pt for non-scoring/Troop units and 3 pts for Troops/Scoring units.

The game was very intense and heated.  We both wanted to be champions and both wanted the bragging rights.  The Wolf Brothers went second and denied some spots for the Pods to drop in.  Luckily, there was a lot of LOS blocking terrain and that worked to our advantage.  Things turned when ShotDownMind failed a very short charge with his beasts into mine and things began to go badly for the Wolf Brothers.  My Voidraven came in and decimated the Beast Squad for their failed charge.  My Beasts would finish them off for their folly.  The following turn, the Bastion was Detonated! by the Ravager. 12 Wounds were caused on the occupants and the unit was completely destroyed (including Coteaz).  At the end, the Wolf Brother made a valient effort and came just short of coming back and winning!  One Warrior Squad was olding a Relic and failed their LD to drop it.  The Baron was holding his Relic but failed his LD check to drop his Relic.  Matt had the 3rd Relic and the shooting and assaults from the Wolf Brothers fell short of having him drop the last Relic.

Awesome game!  It came down to the very end and we squeeked out the victory!  You can see the write up of our game from ShowDownMind's blog http://shotdownmind.blogspot.com/.  Appreciate the game guys and know you will be looking for revenge!  By far the best game of the day and glad it was very hard fought!

Victory for team Fat Ninjas!  18-10

Overall a great tournament and great fun! Team Fat Ninja won Best Overall!  The Wolf Brother won Best Generals so congrats to them!