Friday 8 June 2012

Won my first Practice Game!

Went to a local store who run a games night and encouraged me to come, I had scrabbled together a makeshift army of models from things I haven't yet stripped or was planning to sell and took them along. It closely resembles a lower level of what I'm putting together so I thought a good chance to practice with my intended army and see how I got on. My opponent was very patient with me as I explained I hadn't played a game in about 11 years! But having read the rules and many battle reports I was quite quick to catch on. He had an Ork army and we settled on 1150 points as I could muster 1167 easily and he was happy with me taking that as it was my first game. I stupidly didn't note down his Army when I left but basically he had a Warboss, 90 Boyz, Lootas and one of the new Flyers. The Army I used is below. Sorry no battle report, I was concentrating too hard each turn on checking the rules! Maybe in the future when I get a hang of everything. We ended on turn 6 with his Army wiped out bar the Flyer which had been stunned for 3 turns. I had the Ratlings, Marbo, Leman Russ, Basilisk and 1 Sergeant and a Commissar left of a blob made of  3rd and 4th Squad.

I did learn a few things:

  • Taking the Powerfists and Commissar in the PCS was a complete waste, the squad got wiped out in one turn of shooting. 65 Points is another platoon squad with grenade launcher and powersword, no brainer really.
  • By that token the Commander should probably have a Powerfist to make good use of those three attacks. CCS could also have done with more bodies as well as he targeted it quite heavily (because of the MOO) so maybe will chuck bodyguards in. 
  • The basilisk and Master of Ordnance definitely proved their worth against hordes,
  • I also had much more success with the missile launchers dropping frag than the Autocannons who I always rolled badly for and got only 1 hit out of three turns of firing from the 2! Made me realise guaranteeing a blast against weak armoured horde troops is better, but obviously not as good against better armour and light vehicles so something to tailor dependant on opponent. 
  • The 3 power weapons in the two blobs did really well against the whittled down orcs and one blob managed to send one squad of boyz running after a failed leadership test, after I luckily rolled 7 wounds from them. 
  • Maybe priests would be an idea attached to blobs, expensive though.
  • Ratlings were ace against orks, need more!
  • Penals were an excellent cheap screen, but I need to remember just because they have rolled and been given furious charge does not mean I should assault orks! Got wiped out and stopped them from being a nice road bump like I planned.
  • The Leman russ missed with the lascannon on every turn, as it was there to fire at troops I definitely want ones with just a bolter. 
  • Apart from the missiles I had no real AT which was fine against just his flyer but I think a squad of meltagunners and some lascannons is in order.
I'm playing a Tyranid player next week, which I think will be a learning experience. All very well gunning down Orks running at me, Tyranids deep striking amongst me will cause much more problems I think!

List I used is below:


Unit
Upgrade
Cost
HQ


Company Command HQ1

50


Company Commander
Power Weapon
10

4x Veteran
Regimental Standard
15

Medipack
30

2x Plasma Gun
30

Master of Ordinance

30


165

Elites


Ratling Squad

30


X5 Ratlings
2 extra Ratlings
20


50

Marbo

65

Troops



1st Platoon


PCS

30


Officer
Powerfist, Bolt Pistol
17


4x Guardsman
4x Flamer
20


Commissar
Powerfist
50


117

1st Squad

50


Sergeant
Power Weapon
10


7x Guardsman
Grenade Launcher
5


2xGuardsman (1)
Missile Launcher
15


Commissar
Power Weapon
45


125

2nd Squad

50


Sergeant
Power Weapon
10


7x Guardsman
Grenade Launcher
5


2xGuardsman (1)
Missile Launcher
15


80

3rd Squad

50


Sergeant
Power Weapon
10


7x Guardsman
Grenade Launcher
5


2xGuardsman (1)
Autocannon
10


Commissar
Power Weapon
45


120

4th Squad

50


Sergeant
Power Weapon
10


7x Guardsman
Grenade Launcher
5


2xGuardsman (1)
Autocannon
10


75

Penal Squad
N/A
80


Penal Custodian
N/A
N/A

Heavy Support


Leman Russ Battle Tank
Lascannon
165

Basilisk

125

Total
1167

4 comments:

  1. I've found heavy flamers to be very useful on my russes. Even if their main gun gets blown off, you still have a Str 5 template you can lay down. Horde armies fear templates because you can roast their big squads, and even units with 3+ and 2+ saves worry a little because you'll put quite a few wounds on them as well. Not to mention the template makes up for the Russes BS 3.

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  2. Congrats on winning your first practice game too. :)

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  3. Congrats! Sounds like there were a fair few models in that game, always fun playing orks!

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  4. Congrats!

    I've always kept my units as simple, cheap and expendable as possible. You get murdered on Kill Points, but it means you don't have to mourn the loss of expensive (but very squishy) Guardsmen.

    Whilst I don't tend to tailor my force to my opponent, beware that Master of Ord is fairly useless against any other force. He can't fire if he moves [although he can elect not to move in 6th] and his weapon always scatters. On the flip side, now in 6th blast templates use their full strength Vs vehicles, so it's suddenly another useful large template.

    Marbo's demo charge is great and has killed an awful lot for me. He almost always dies immediately afterwards, so I try the following: target units worth more than 65pts (easy); avoid giving targets a cover save; try always to place Marbo in cover (don't forget he has Stealth) and (here's a winner:) if possible, always try to place him behind the enemy, so that they have to turn round, pause or backtrack in order to kill him. Remember he's BS6 so the most his demo charge can scatter is 6"!

    Did you remember to use your orders? The CCS ones can be very useful indeed...

    It's a truth universally acknowledged that Leman Russ lascannon always miss.

    Tyrannids will really, really bring the pain. a lack of AT weaponry is always tricky with a traditional guard list like this (or mine) but Monstrous Creatures are even harder to damage. At least Guardsmen (in 5th, at least) can assault AV10 rear armour with frag grenades...but against a high-toughness MC you'll need every high-strength weapon you can muster.

    Then, once you finally wound the blasted things you find it has a 4+ or 3+ save, maybe an invulnerable save, almost certainly a cover save and...3 wounds. Very, very tricky to kill. Plus, its HQ will probably give it 'Fearless' as well.

    The fearlessness means that neither your barrage weapons nor your snipers will pin them...which does at least make sense for automatous teeth-filled psycho-aliens.

    May I respectfully suggest that you ask your opponent notto bring 'Doom of Malan'tai'? - Only it's a ridiculously overpowered unit, and will cause untold woe in a game of this size.

    Try to keep your firing lanes free from cover for them...

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