Skip's Astra Militarum Armoured Company- Beginnings of a Tournament Army Part I

I am always attempting to complete different hobby projects with 40k, but unfortunately while this has led me to complete different neat projects- it does not usually leave me with fully completed armies. Which is a problem when I want to attend local events, play in campaigns and participate tournaments with a completed army. To start off this year, I figured that I would focus on my ongoing Imperial Guard tank army, as it has been something I have been having a lot of fun with lately (converting and painting the command tank).

1850 point- Friendly Event List Headquarters- Company Command Leman Russ Vanquisher Tank- with Co-Ax heavy stubber/ Beast-slayer shells/ artificer armor Troops- 2x Armoured Fist Squadrons- 2x Chimeras with Heavy Bolter & Autocannon/ 2x Infantry squads with 2x Autocannons Battle Tank Squadron- 2x Leman Russ Battle Tanks with Heavy Bolters Siege Tank Squadron- 2x Thunder Tanks with Dozer Blades Fast Attack- Imperial Navy Support- Vulture Gunship with Heavy Bolter & Punisher Gatling Cannons Scout Sentinel with an Autocannon Heavy Support- Imperial Navy Support- Avenger Strike Fighter with Avenger Bolt Cannon & 2x Lascannons Imperial Knight Household detachment- Cerastus Knight- Atrapos 1850/1850 However, we will see how well I do with succeeding with this project this year, when this is about how much work/ grading I have to get done every weekend:

Tournaments & List Building: This will be my friendly tournament lists that I intend to go to events with a well painted and extensively converted army that many players are simply not used to playing against in the modern Warhammer 40,000 game. The list will perform incredibly poorly against the majority of armies out there- especially the ever present Death Star armies. As far as competitively goes- the list is a lower tier army, that will catch a few players off guard. I know in my test games, it was durable against our resident Eldar player- only because he lacked enough dedicated anti-tank and had to wait for his spiders and other units to deep strike in and finish me off. In my second game against a Khorne Demonkin player- I was able to do well only because he had no dedicated anti-tank and my Knight was able to hold up his big close combat units. Goals: My big goal with this army is simply to do well with the soft scores at the the moment. I want to have the army fully painted to a high quality, to hopefully win and keep winning the best painted awards at the different events that I attend. This is why I have the Knight Atrapos in the second larger list- (yes it does very well against super heavies)- but it is a huge striking looking model. When painted to match the rest of the force, it'll be a striking center piece to the army (one that people are not used to seeing and will have fun playing against). This will hopefully help me with dominating sportsmanship and painting scores, versus the battle points. However, I was personally thinking of maybe taking a Lancer instead- as I like the model just as much as the Atrapos and I feel that it may even fit with the army's theme better. However, when I playtested the model a few weeks ago, it was brought to my attention that the lance it holds is a dual profile weapon. Thus, meaning that I can only ever fire and then not use it in CC, or use it in CC and not fire. That seems to somewhat mitigate the entire strength of the concussive shots and the ability of the Knight to successfully take down other Knights and Wraith Knights without getting itself blown up... if anyone has information that counters this- I am all ears lol Strategy: My current aim is to complete the Avenger Strike Fighter first, then work on the two Russ tanks as I build up my display board. As I make the conversions on the Thunderers and the Vulture gunship I'll order the Knight Titan and hopefully have a finished friendly army done around the time the summer break kicks off. Once this is all done, maybe just focus on a few more guard units for the narrative games locally (?) or I'll start to work on my Mechanicus (or maybe Orks?). Current Projects:

I wanted to post a few pictures of my Command Vanquisher that I had finished, as this will give you an idea where the rest of the army is headed concerning paint scheme/ detail work:

I named the tank "Ol' Warhorse II" after a A Sherman Tank that I saw at the Yuma Proving Grounds tank museum- and I tried to add additional details and uparmored the sides and other little details that I had seen from various Allied tanks from books and images. I am really proud of how this model came out and I know that I will doing two more Leman Russ tanks along the same lines/ style as this one- and two Tank Destroyers (based on Chimera bodies). I have a quick shot of what I'm looking to do with my Display board as well:

Below are two pictures from the campaign game that I had played with Jholt & Loopy from last weekend:

As always, thank you for your time and I will have some additional pictures of the undercoated Russ tanks and Avenger once I get an opportunity to use my airbrush. -Skip

The Road to Adepticon, Part II

The Road to Adepticon, Part II

Greetings travelers! Cieged here with Part II of my ongoing series detailing my preparation and experience for Adepticon 2016.

Roughly a week ago our local group attended a tournament at The Portal in Manchester CT. The setting was 1850 in an official ITC event, drawing in a grand total of 37 people. Roughly a two hour drive from Albany, I was absolutely thrilled to see this kind of a turn out for a local(ish) event. The store was very well organized and timely, their tables were appropriately sized and spaced leaving room for only the mayhem of 40k.

As this event runs many similarities to the GT at Adepticon, I intended to use it as a primer in gathering as much information as I could to improve upon my tactics and list. I brought the following;

Combined Arms Detachment – Craftworld Eldar
HQ – Skyrunner Farseer (Warlord), Spiritstone of Anath’lan
Troop – Windrider Jetbike x5, Scatter Laser x5
Troop – Windrider Jetbike x5, Scatter Laser x5
Troop – Windrider Jetbike x3, Scatter Laser x3
Troop – Windrider Jetbike x3, Scatter Laser x3
Fast Attack – Hemlock Wraithfighter
Fast Attack – Hemlock Wraithfighter
Lord of War – Wraithknight, Ghostglaive/Shimmershield

Seer Council Formation – Craftworld Eldar
HQ – Skyrunner Farseer, Shard of Anaris
HQ – Skyrunner Farseer
HQ – Warlock Conclave, Skyrunner Warlock x7

I have been on a die-hard quest to make my beloved cheddar Seer Council a functional army list in a high-competition environment. In my local Meta, I have been souring the pot with my Psychic Shenanigans and as a result have seen a dramatic increase in the number of Culexus Assassins riding in their best bros’ Drop Pods. This tournament promised to be a new Meta for me to infiltrate, and as such I was hoping to grab three players by surprise and steal away victories using my Turbo-boosting nonsense. That being said my success rate with the Council has been quite good, however the variability/unreliability of Psychics combining their hard-counters (looking at you, War Convocation) has thrown more than a few sticks into my spokes.

I’ve taken quite a few pictures (and with a few extras of the event thanks to my friend Pete!) which are loosely attached to Battle Reports found here:

http://imgur.com/a/l5564

Back already? Good. What I’ve left out of these reports are my own thoughts and path forward which is what I’m aiming to address here. So without further ado;

How did the list do?!

Three victories is no scoffing matter. I’m beyond ecstatic to have walked away from a competitive event undefeated. That being said, I can’t help but feel I flew under the radar on these games. Having only minor victories and no majors meant that I was assigned opponents of similar standing through Swiss pairing. Not once did I have to come up against multi-tournament winner aficionado X, Y, or Z. Nor did I face any hard counters which were most definitely present. In that I do feel I cheated the system by circumstance, I’m not sure what I would have done against the Blood Cult (?) (FW formation with a Brass Scorpion and co.) or the Drone Recycling Program (Piranha formation). Despite walking away with phat cash, I’m disappointed that I didn’t get to brush shoulders with these types of lists.

In the games I did play, I was happy with the Council’s performance. Their durability is positively legendary, however my ability to score simplified Maelstrom Objectives was somewhat limited. Most games I struggled if not outright lost this portion of the two mission format. This is distressing, Windriders are incredibly powerful point-per-damage, but if you place them in a state of vulnerability by scoring an objective their lives are completely forfeit. They much prefer dancing behind terrain and pot-shooting ideal targets. This leaves room for improvement.

My reserves gambit in my first game was unacceptable. I feel it was the right decision at the time, but the amount of danger that put me could have lost me the game. As a result, I would much prefer to pick up some form of defense for the Council that lasts before my first Psychic Phase, or even more preferably doesn’t care about a darned Culexus Assassin.

Where do you go from here?!

Having my hands on the new Doom of Mymeara book, I’ve found what might be a fantastic solution to both of my problems. I plan on play testing this thoroughly, but my theory crafting has led me to this modification of my list:

Combined Arms Detachment – Craftworld Eldar
HQ – Skyrunner Farseer (Warlord), Spiritstone of Anath’lan
Troop – Windrider Jetbike x3, Scatter Laser x3
Troop – Windrider Jetbike x3, Scatter Laser x3
Troop – Windrider Jetbike x3, Scatter Laser x3
Fast Attack – Hemlock Wraithfighter
Lord of War – Wraithknight, Ghostglaive/Shimmershield

Seer Council Formation – Craftworld Eldar
HQ – Skyrunner Farseer, Shard of Anaris
HQ – Skyrunner Farseer
HQ – Warlock Conclave, Skyrunner Warlock x5

Allied Detachment – Corsairs (Doom of Mymaera)
HQ – Void Dreamer, Corsair Jetpack, Level 3 Psyker, Shadowfield
Troop – Cloud Dancer x3 – Scatter Laser x3
Troop – Cloud Dancer x3 – Scatter Laser x3
Heavy Support – Warp Hunter, Void Burner, Corsair Holofield

What has changed here is a drop of the Hemlock and two Warlocks in favor of an allied detachment for corsairs focusing on the Void Dreamer and Warp Hunter. If you’re not familiar, the Dreamer has access to the new table of Aethermancy which is potentially quite powerful, but alternatively can delve into Divination which is definitely tried and true. The Dreamer unfortunately can not ride a Jetbike, but does come with a Jetpack and more importantly the dreaded Shadowfield. If you don’t have waking nightmares of the Baron lists of old, a Shadowfield is a 2+ invulnerable save that persists until a save is failed on the bearer. This is especially relevant as Adepticon does not nerf 2+ rerollable saves (why hello Fortune). Therefore shoving this lovely caster out front to receive all turn 1 bullets and Grav could save the entire Council and prevent me from shoving them precariously into reserves. If you would like a primer on Aethermancy, check out this article and specifically ability #6 (WARNING, BoLS):

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2016/01/40k-new-eldar-psychic-discipline-aethermancy.html

The other major change here is the presence of a Warp Hunter. This is a bogus little vehicle that is stock Eldar defense, AV 12/12/10 with 3HP and is a Fast Skimmer. His gun however is a 36” D3+1 barrage Strength D small blast weapon. Holy smokes, that’s a Thunderfire Cannon on crack. This model is somewhat vulnerable whilst on the table, however I have given him Void Burners which is a Deep Strike ability in tandem with a 4+ invulnerable re-rollable save for his first turn on the table post-deepstrike and a 5+ invulnerable thereafter. This model should land me a solid fight against super heavies in the same way the Hemlock did, and isn’t particularly endangered by Tau interceptor fire, but most importantly will allow me to have an additional scoring vehicular body which the Hemlock could never do. I suspect this aggressive trade off will assist my struggles, but I’m very curious to hear what others think. If you have a suggestion that could improve upon my problems – don’t hesitate to speak up!

Thanks for reading as always, my next report will include a few new experiments to help me narrow in on a final list. I’m also looking for any players to play test games with as I would like to ram heads against the toughest lists others have to offer – the more prepared I am, the better!