Monthly Archives: August 2012
Tournament Review: Stomping Grounds 8.12 2k
Hey guys, Son of Adam here from MasterCraft Gaming to give you another tournament review. This last weekend I attended a tournament at Stomping Grounds Games and Hobbies out in Warminster PA. At the forefront, I apologize for the lack of pictures, I was the only one from MasterCraft to go to the event and I only have my phone camera (plus I forgot to take pics with it).
It was a great event for this new store. They were setup to accommodate 32 players and had the event fully catered with some great food that was available all day. There were three missions that were NOVA-like with some small changes and 2000 points per side with all new rules except a limit on fortifications due to size.
Yes I’m recycling an older image but this is part of the council that I brought to the event and I need at least one picture to feel ok about myself. (I forgot to take pictures while there).
I brought an Eldar list that I have been trying to hone for NOVA and got matched up against a very shooty Dark Eldar army played by Larry in the first match. He was a very friendly guy and had a nice yellow/black color scheme for his army. The mission was: Primary-Quarters, Secondary-Objectives, and Tertiary-KP’s, with a Dawn of War deployment. The game ended with me trying to catch up to his fliers in order to contest them for quarters, but I ended up with the win.
My second match was against an eldar played by Timmy. He took the current net list with two full wraitguard squads, a seer council, eldrad, and three wraithlords. The missions was: P-Objectives, S-Quarters, and T-KP’s with a Vanguard deployment. This match was a real slugfest. Most of both Timmy and my armies were whitled down by the end, but my punny little scoring units ended up killing his little scoring units to net the win.
The final match was against Frank from Ice House Warriors with his IG and demons allies. The mission was: P-KP’s, S-Objectives, T-Quarters with a Hammer and Anvil deployment. He really put the hurt on all my force, but the council ended up holding out and the game came down to the secondary objective which I held.
All in all it was a great time and a lot of fun. All the guys I played against were fair, challenging, and fun to play. I’m looking forward to the next event they hold.
I ended up getting interviewed by 11th company podcasts afterwards! I will be putting up the link when they publish it.
Road to Nova: Mission Packet and FAQ
There have been a few changes to drop pods.
Hey guys Son of Adam here with an update for the Road to NOVA.
Recently NOVA produced its finalized versions of their FAQ and their mission packet, and I want to go over some of it with you for the benefit of those that are going, and those that are following along in my progress towards it.
Before we begin, here is the link to the mission packet, and here is the link to the FAQ.
I want to start with the mission packet and point out a few interesting things that I will be taking into account and keeping a close eye on during play testing.
First, I want to point out the total of the missions’ significance:
Objectives- 3 Primary, 4 Secondary, 1 Tertiary
Quarters- 4 Primary, 3 Secondary, 1 Tertiary
KP’s- 1 Primary, 1 Secondary, 6 Tertiary
This is nothing revolutionary, but it is something to consider when building your list. For example, with the focus off KP’s (like it was in 5th) armies like mech guard, dark eldar, and drop pods are back on the table for consideration. You won’t have to worry about bleeding KP’s if they essentially only matter in the first game. To be fair, that is a whole game, and many of the other games may come down to KP’s, but something else to point out is that you need to have at least 3 more KP’s than your opponent to win this victory condition. Most armies can give themselves +2 and work from there in order to tie for the win.
Something else to consider is that having mobile enough scoring units will be fairly important. You need to be able to gain more very evenly spaced out objectives then your opponent, so plan your list and tactics accordingly.
And finally, regarding objectives and quarters, remember that one of the biggest nerfs to armor is that they do not count towards either of these victory conditions. To explain why that matters, if you bring 800 points worth of armor and your opponent brings none (hello nids) then you start the game with 1200 scoring/denial points, whereas your opponent begins the game with their full 2000. This puts you at a huge disadvantage. All tanks essentially count-as-dead for the victory conditions.
Moving onto the FAQ, I’m only going to discuss some of the things of interest that have changed since we discussed their earlier version of their FAQ. Here are a few to look at:
- · Vehicles that begin the game immobile (drop pods) give up half their points.
- · Units in a dedicated transport that must start the game in reserve do not count towards the reserve total.
- · Characters always count towards this total even if they join the squad.
- · There is no impassable terrain.
- · Precision shots are allocated and resolved one at a time.
- · Deny the witch may be taken per each squad effected by the power (Jaws of the World Wolf)
- · There is a full list of all relevant CCW’s in the game and their respective AP values (long chart).
- · All of the new Daemon rules in the August White Dwarf are to be used.
- · Units embarked in Night Scythes do not take the S10 hits when it is destroyed.
- · The Necron Death Ray has to declare whether it is using skyfire or not. Hits from the Death Ray can only be resolved against whichever type is chosen.
Anyway there are just a few things to look into. Throw up some comments. Anything in here change your plans?
Micro Gameplay Strategy: Defeating Deathstars with Tar Pits
How would you defend against a deathstar?
Hey guys Son of Adam here again with a little article about defeating deathstars with tar pits.
Since the new edition, deathstars have grown in popularity, and with them comes the need to shut them down. Generally people go about this by trying to find the best deathstar; one deathstart to rule them all. They will play test to see, deathstar vs. deathstar, which will win out. Others try to build a list around putting out enough shots to take down anything deathstar related. These are both valid methods, but I want to offer up a different idea for your considerations; tying them up.
Deathstars are made to crash into enemy lines and destroy all who oppose, but there are some units in the game that are made to do exactly the opposite. These are called tar pit units. Tar pit units are generally cheap, large, have an invulnerable save, deny attacks in combat, have fearless, feel-no-pain, or some combination there of. Some examples are plague demons, massed tyranid guants, or swarms.
The idea here is that you can tie up a large deathstar unit long enough to make them tactically irrelevant, or to lessen their impact on the game. And, with the cost imbalance for the rest of the game, you should be able to make enough of a difference with the rest of your army to gain the advantage, or apply this tactic again to further tie up the squad.
Consider that, in a perfect world, a Draigowing deathstar assaults 30 guants backed up by feel-no-pain. The guant squad only costs 120 points and the deathstar costs upwards of 1000 points (assuming normal deathstar overload with Draigo, apoth, and 4 psycannons). This deathstar will be getting 3 attacks on the charge, hitting on 3’s, wounding on 3’s, and the guants will get a 5+ feel-no-pain on all non-hammer attacks. That’s 36 attacks, with say 24 hits, 16 wounds, and 11 dead. So, with 11 dead at 5pts a piece, it cost you 55pts to hold that deathstar still for the top of a turn.
Now for the bottom of that turn. You know the drill; it’s only 25 attacks this time, with say 17 hits, 11 wounds, and 7/8 dead. So at the end of the full turn where they were charged it cost you 90/95 pts to make the Draigowing deathstar irrelevant to the game. Take that number over the course of 5 turns and make it 395 points (95 + 75 each turn thereafter) to keep 1000 points at bay. In a 2000 point game, it has now become 1000 points vs. 1605 points. The tyranid player will gain a significant advantage. (Please be aware that this is a perfect world scenario. However, when working with perfect world scenarios, we can look for what to try for in our actual games).
These ideas work with several different units against several different deathstars, but consider the fundamental idea, take small cheaper units to tie up larger, more expensive units in order to give yourself the upper hand in achieving the victory conditions. Now go out and see if you can work this idea into your list in order to deal with the deathstars of the 40k world. You don’t have to change what you are taking now, but it’s a good exercise none-the-less to see if there are more mild aspects of this strategy that can be helpful to you when considering what to bring to the table and while playing the game.
Tournament Review: Top Deck Games 7.12 1850
Hey all, Son of Adam here from MasterCraft Gaming with a review of the 40k tournament out at top deck games in New Jersey.
A bunch of the guys from Stomping Grounds were invited to come and bulk up the event there and Vanguard and I decided to join them. Top Deck was a nice store that supports tabletop, card, and video games. It was a real clean place in a nice town and had some very friendly TO’s. The event was three rounds at 1850 and used all of the new rules from 6thedition. Overall all of us at Stomping Grounds really enjoyed it.
Awesome converted Orks
The first mission was “The Relic” with “Dawn of War” deployment and was randomly paired off. I played my Saim-Hann Eldar against a Will’s Draigowing army. Will was a real nice fella and tons of fun to play against (we got done so early that we played a second game for kicks). I got first turn and jumped some guardian jetbikes up to the relic and slowly pulled it into my corner. Then I baited with rangers on one side and the council zooming over to the other. He took the bait and chased both of these. The council took its side and the rangers got curb stomped by Draigo and Boys. In the end I held the relic and had first blood and linebreaker and Will didn’t manage to score any.
The second match was “The Emperor’s Will” with “Hammer and Anvil” deployment, against Rob’s Dark Eldar. Rob had a nice mix of units with the Baron and the Duke. He managed first turn and went to work on the ranger/pathfinders. He gave me first blood by running his jetbikes over one squad and leaving them close to my flame templates. After loosing all of his scoring units, Rob made a real solid comeback and nearly killed all of mine as well. In the end I had 4 ranger/pathfinders and one running jetbike, but one of the pathfinders was on the objective that would have been contested by several venoms had it been 5th. In the end it was a well fought game against a great opponent, but net me another win.
Chaos rhino
For the final matchup I played John’s Ork/Cron list. He had a real beefy squad of Nob Bikers with some boys squads and two scythes. The last mission was “Big Guns Never Tire” with “Vanguard” deployment. I ended up not getting a single power I wanted and a useless warlord trait. We both danced around for the first two turns. He stayed out of range of the snipers and our deathstars were moving around trying to get position on one another. I ended up tag teaming his nobz when they were stretched out with a squad of boyz and make the nobz run off the table. John then crushed the council under the weight of two boyz squads, and our secondary units fought it out for objectives. In the end I had first blood, linebreaker, kill the warlord, and 2 objectives, while John had linebreaker, kill the warlord and one objective giving me the last win.
Space Wolves drop pod army
All said and done everyone seemed to have a great time, and got some great experience in 6th edition. Dan, a great player I learned the game from, won best painted and the top 3 were all from Stomping Grounds. Vanguard himself had a victorious day pulling out third and I was lucky enough to get the top seat.
Thanks for reading guys. Check out our otherstuff on youtube, and remember to like, friend, subscribe, and follow. Leave a comment below and let me know your toughts.
Battle Report: Eldar (Saim Hann) vs Space Marines (Salamanders) w Blood Angel Allies (1500pts)
Check this out guys. I match up against Paul over at “For Holy Terra.” We played mission 5 for those of you that remeber that strategy post, you can see it played out in action. If you have some ideas for more reports let us know. Any other armies you want to see played, just post below.
Check back soon for a strategy discussion video about this match. I will sit down and give you guys some commentary about how I decided to go about playing the game and the strategy that I had in mind.
Thanks to incompetek for the soundtrack.
Here is the Salamanders with Blood Angels army list.
HQ – Pedro Kantor
Troops – 5x Scouts w/Telion, 3x Sniper Rifles & Missile Launcher
Troops – 5x Scouts, Sergeant w/Sniper Rifle, 3x Sniper Rifles, Missile Launcher, Camo Cloaks
Elites – 10x Sternguard, Sergeant w/ Power Fist & Combi-Melta, 2x Meltaguns, Combi-Melta, Combi-Flamer in Drop Pod
Elites – 5x Sternguard, Sergeant w/ Combi-Flamer, 2x Meltaguns in Drop Pod
Allies: Blood Angels
HQ – Librarian
Troops – 10x Assault Marines, Sergeant w/Power Fist, 2x Meltaguns, Jump Packs
Heavy Support – 10x Devastators, 4x Missile Launchers in Drop Pod
Here was my list:
H.Q.: Farseer, Stones, Jetbike, Fortune, Doom
H.Q.: Farsser, Stones, Jetbike, Mind War, Storm, Guide
8 Warlock on bikes with 1 enhance, 1 embolden, 4 destructors
Elites: 6 Fire Dragons, 1 Exarch w/ tank hunters, crack shot
Wave serpent w/ Shuriken cannon, spirit stones
Troops: 5 man Rangers x 3 (forgot I payed for the pathfinder upgrade on these guys)
Troops: 3 man Guardian Jetbike with cannon x 2
Thanks all. Make sure to subscribe and like. Stop by our site to see some strategy articles and army showcases.
Quick Tip: Deny the Last Turn Dash
Hey guys, Son of Adam here again with another quick tip. By the way, we are working on getting some more videos out this week, but some things have slowed us down a little bit, expect at least two.
As we have looked into some of the methods for last turn contesting in articles here, it is worth mentioning that there are ways to try and slow down and better defend against this kind of move when it is being used against you. In this quick tip we are going to point out one of those ways.
In a tournament this weekend (which will have a video review very soon), I played against an army with a Necron night scythe. These guys are the kings of the last turn deny/claim move, almost as good as last editions Eldar Falcons. They are able to move very far in one turn and drop guys without chance or danger in a large radius around the base of the flyer. (Note: there are other models with a similar capability in other armies as well).
Thus the scenario runs, each side is claiming one objective and then on turn 5 the night scythe (or equivalent) jumps onto the other player’s objective and moves his warriors or immortals in to contest or potentially claim. Then the game ends, and at the very least, the result is 1 objective to none.
Aside from shooting down all of the night scythes on the table how can you prevent this kind of tactic? There is one simple method, though not foolproof and not guaranteed, it will in the least buy you a turn.
With whatever units you have near that objective move them to surround at least two inches of the objective. You may have to sacrifice shooting, even with a squad of shooting dedicated models (devastators), but if following the golden rules, this is the more than acceptable.
Eldar Rangers make a bubble around the objective.
Once your models look like this your opponent will not be able to drop off his troops within three inches of the objective, and is not able to assault you this turn in order to bring them within this three inch bubble.
This tactic does not guarantee the win or the objective, but it will slow down the opponent for at least a turn. This will make the last turn dash a bit harder to pull off as it requires the player to; first have this move in mind earlier, second dedicate their resources for at least two turns, and third, provide you the opportunity to return fire.
The rangers deny a last turn dash from the scythe.
I hope this helps out in one of your future games. Make sure to follow/like/subscribe to our stuff. Thanks again for reading fellas and post up some comments down below. Peace.
Army Showcase: Paul’s Salamanders w/ Blood Angels
Hey all, themightysquig here bringing you another army showcase. Today we’re looking at some beautiful Space Marine and Blood Angel models. Paul brought this army to take on Son of Adam in our most recent battle report. You can see photos of this army in action in our latest batrep teaser.
Two pieces that I like the most out of this army are the scouts and the assault marines. The camouflage cloaks that the scouts are wearing look amazing in forest terrain, while the assault marines just look really boss. But that’s enough talking for me – take a look at this pics!
Snipers with great camo scheme.
Converted Librarian
Beautiful Salamander tactical squad.
Great detail on the sergeant and his banner.
Salamanders proudly don the name of their forgefather.
Assault marines painted well on some resin bases.
Special thanks to Stomping Grounds for letting us take pictures in their store.
Like what you see? Be sure to like, comment, and subscribe! Have any cool models you want to show off? We want to see them! Email me at themightysquig@mastercraftgaming.com to share some photos and stories about your army. We’ll even link back to your blog (if you have one), so don’t hesitate to share!
Army Showcase: Vanguard’s Grey Knights
Hey all, themightysquig here bringing you another Army Showcase. This one comes to you from our very own Vanguard, who is our painting specialist here at MasterCraft Gaming. We’ll be getting a painting video with him on the site soon, but until then, check out his Grey Knights. They are beautifully painted and the level of detail is really impressive. But don’t take my word for it, take a look for yourself!
Paladins with their Grand Master, these guys look like they shouldn’t be messed with.
Everybody loves some heavy support.
Strike squads each have personal heraldry.
That’s a lot of muscle.
This dreadknight is beautiful and deadly.
Photogenic guy eh?
Grand Master, stave for challenges, and an Inquisitor provides some extra psychic support.
Special thanks to Stomping Grounds for letting us shoot in their store.
What do you think about these models? Please like and comment, we want to hear from you!
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