Doubles tournament FS Victoria 05/11/11 report

Yet another tournament for me this month. This time it was Doubles, so slightly different though. Check here to see the conditions for building the list since it was identical to the one I recently won. This time I would be playing together with my friend Manos. He has an awesome collection of Tyranids (complete with a Hierophant Bio-Titan and more than a dozen Monstrous Creatures) but he was never big on playing 40K. We have recently started some practice games though and I thought a Doubles tournament with a more experienced player (me!) would be an ideal introduction to tournaments.

What Does Your Army Say About You?

I was walking to my local net cafe today , thinking about the short story of Dark Angels i read in the Imperial Armor 5 book, siege of Vraks. When it struck me that, the army that i play and love (Dark Angels) actualy in a way represents me. So i found some time to make a compilation of what each army may say about its owner, from a fluff point of view!

Doubles tournament report

Third tournament for this month. Maybe I'm overdoing it? Nah, it's all good. This time would be a bit different though since it was a Doubles format. That means I had to cooperate with someone. I always hated that part...Anyway, Moskitokiller suggested that we should play together and I accepted. Few days later he canceled on me though. Oh, well, what can you do? At that point I guessed I had to miss that one. But few days after he was available again. I've already changed my plans for that Saturday twice. I should be glad I have such a tolerating wife! 

We had to have 750 points each of whatever race we fancied. One HQ and one troops each was mandatory and if we wanted to double up a slot (i.e. two elite units) we had to have at least one unit in each other FOC category (i.e. 1 elites, 1 FA, 1 HS before we could put another HS down). We were supposed to be working around our army lists all week but in typical Greek fashion, Leonidas called me at 9 o'clock in the morning before the tournament to discuss our options. Check out the list and how we fared after the jump. But before you do that make sure you've checked out Invulnerable blog for another report and some very unflattering pictures of me (then again I would need a lot of make up and photoshop manipulation for a decent picture).

Demolition Men (New IG list)

I was getting kinda sick and tired with my previous list so I think it's about time for a change. Pushing all these footsloggers around can be hard work and time consuming so I want to get back to fully mechanised list. I got the models for everything (I think) so it's not really such a big issue. So here it is (after the jump):

Vintage Imperial Guard army for sale

Don't worry, I am not retiring my good ol' guard army just yet. There is still a lot of play in it. I am just helping my mate Spyros to sell his vintage guard models since he never uses them anyway. We started the Warhammer hobby with Spyros back in early highschool. I was more into Fantasy then but he was more into 40K. He has accumulated a lot of models over the years and now he wants to get rid some of them.

Practise games and learning from your mistakes.

After reading this awesome article in House of Paincakes by Mr. Νικηφόρος ,I decided to drastically change the paradigm concerning playing 40K with my gaming buddies. You see, I'm at a point now, with certain people, that there is nothing to be gained for my (or their) gaming experienced battling them on a normal setup. We know each others' lists pretty good as well as our playing style. Going against each other on a random mission/deployment has nothing to teach us and winning or losing at these games is quite unimportant. So, we  started doing practise games instead.

Interview for 11th Company Podcast

At last! The new episode for the 11th Company Podcast is out! Check it out here if you want to listen to a small interview from yours truly. Mainly about the Guard and gaming in Greece but also some other stuff of general interest. Make sure you enjoy it (and don't make fun of my dodgy english!) and let me know what you think.

I would like to thank Pat and the rest of the people over there again for their support to my blog. Cheers guys!

Interchangeable Weapons for the Demolisher

Games Workshop has spoiled the Guard players lately with the introduction of some very versatile and nice models. I am talking about the new Leman Russ and Leman Russ Demolisher kits and to some extend the new Sentinel and Manticore (even though I must admit that the new Basilisk was a big disappointment). These new miniatures can be built with many different configurations so there is no need for conversions or hybrid (metal/resin and plastic) kits anymore. In order to make the most out of these models we should use a combination of magnetising and pinning the various weapons so we can to field it as any of the different variants.

Placing Objectives for the Guard

Usually, I take my time thinking about my strategy and tactics for Warhammer. Constantly tweaking my lists and try to resolve worst case scenarios in my head. Deployment, target priority, possibilities, movement etc. These are all things that I constantly consider before and during a game. Although I want to believe I plan my games quite meticulously, in reality there is phase that I didn't really care enough until recently. That is, placing the objectives on the battlefield. I think this step is as important (if not more) as any other aspect of successful competitive play.

FS Kifisia Mini Tournament

Just got back from another mini tournament. This time it was held in Fantasy Shop Kifisias where it's located in the northern suburbs of Athens. The turnout wasn't very good unfortunately. Only five people showed up, so Takis ,the organiser (aka Overmind, supreme Tyranid aficionado), had to play too in order to have a pairing for everyone.

Warbands League Round 3

Having missed the previous round due to my health's poor condition at that time, I was really looking forward playing a league game again. Six sweaty gamers packed tightly inside a small room for eight hours is just irresistible! Plus, all of our opponents were using orks so this would be very interesting.

It was also the time for the trimonthly meeting with the Imperial Seals guys. Around ten of us met at a very decadent cafe in the city center. We had a few quality hours bickering about the feasibility of the Imperial socioeconomic infrastructure. Fun times! Meeting went very well and we totally geeked out and had a great time. We will probably run a tournament with alternative scenarios in the future but that is a different story.

Need...more...lists!

It's been a while without any posts again (at least for my recent standards). To be honest, I didn't do much this last week. I've been recovering from my illness so I wasn't in the mood to do anything hobby related.  My painting has fallen way behind and I really need to pick up the pace and get some stuff done. I've been painting my Manticore since August! Only thing I've really done was to slightly tweak  my list to what I think works a bit better.

This is what I've been using in my recent games with some slight variations here and there. The army has performed very well this far. I've only lost one game out of fifteen which is pretty good considering I'm fairly new to playing with heavily mechanised Imperial Guard. However the sucsess, there are some units that aren't quite working for me yet. Following this, are a few changes I want to apply to the list and try to make it stronger.

Warbands League second list

It is final. I cannot use the Inquisitor in any of my Warbands League games since the Allies rule won't be valid in the GT format (they force you to use the PDF even if you have a normal copy). So no more Emperor's Tarrot or  Mystics. This is not a major drawback but it's annoying nonetheless.

Also I figured out that using the Officer of the Fleet isn't a good idea anymore. Furthermore, one more scoring unit could be handy. Veterans tend to die a lot and so does the Platoon Command squad, due to the short range nature of their weapons. This leaves me with 2 Infantry Squads in Chimeras which are not very reliable units. I wanted another scoring unit that could sit comfortably in the back and claim and objective but also be a little bit useful at shooting. I first thought of a Heavy Weapon Squad with Mortars but I couldn't squeeze the points out for them. My second best choice is a Special Weapon Squad with 3 Snipers. So, I could either have 6 Psykers (not including the Overseer) and the HWS or 7 and the SWS. Not sure which one I should take. The list looks like this:

Officer of the Fleet : asset or liability?

It seems mandatory that you include an advisor in your command squad, these days. I never liked the Master of Ordnance since he would force me to keep my unit static. I play with a mechanised army so I rely on mobility. The Astropath could be very good in certain builds but since one of my armies assets is a strong Alpha Strike, I don't like to put anything in reserve. So including an Officer of the Fleet seemed like a good idea when I was building my list.

Tutorial: Meltaguns for Guardsmen

If you are like me and like having a dozen meltaguns in your army then it's almost mandatory that you get these from the GW webstore. All the other options are just too expensive to consider except if you are particularly good as scratch building.

Upon looking at them you will instantly realise that these are made for Space Marines. The hand that is holding them is armoured and way too big for a guardsman. Also the weapon is quite large and can't fit easily on the model. Some adjustment is required to make everything work.

Back to the Guard, Manticore WIP pics

Enough with the orky shenanigans already! People will start wondering what this blog is all about. Now that the tournament frenzy is over I can get back to my Imperial Guard. I've been thinking about a new list for the Warbands league (I will explain what this is in another post) and I have to keep painting my army. Haven't really done any work for more than a month. Eleven vehicles aren't just  going to paint themselves (plus all the infantry I still need to do) so I have to get back in the habit. My main priority now is to build my psykers since I am proxying them using Necrons at the moment and it's just not pretty.