My plans for 8th Edition

Tale of Gamers Result

Whoops, forgot to post. The campaign for Tale of Gamers is over and Deathwatch came first, although it involved a bit of luck as the guy who was tied first went on holiday and everything was falling quiet due to 8th Edition. Whilst they were strong in the lower points brackets, I noticed the Deathwatch as a pure army list are very difficult as the points cap rises. Games towards the end involved victory based on luck and I only won the final game due to a Valkyrie that was added because I lacked the money for a Corvus flyer.

Still, I had fun and managed to get 1500pts painted in sixth months which is a record as a lazy painter. But it's time to re-open an old project for the remaining half of the year.

Tale of Gamers Month 5 - Result

The Battle

You can have the best arms, armour and warriors under your command. But they mean nothing if they are under the banner of an incompetent commander.

That's how I felt as the game this month drew to a close against an army I should know like the back of my hand. Being a Dark Eldar player, I felt I could second guess my opponent and know what he was going to do, but it led to some very silly decisions.

We were playing The Relic and in the first turn my Land Raider was immobilised then blown to pieces. Like a fool I'd placed it in the open because my Dark Lance fire is normally poor and misses or fails to penetrate. Not this time, it took a lot of firepower but was shredded to bits. First mistake.

Now my big scary unit was down, Reavers moved forwards and claimed the objective to start running off with it. My own units chose to shoot at the Reavers instead of rushing fowards into their faces. It worked and caused horrific causalities, but one survived and it retreated into a nest of Raiders where it passed the objective off to a Talos.

Tale of Gamers - Month 5

Tale of Gamers - Month 5

New Units

The models for May have been completed and are heading to the battlefield tomorrow! First of all is the Venerable Dreadnought to fulfill my monthly challenge (which is to fill an Elites slot). Armed with a Lascannon and a Power Fist, it should put out some supporting fire against bigger targets before smashing them to pieces up close. The question is if I keep it back to guard a unit/objective or move it up to pose a bigger threat. The enemy will know it poses a threat at all ranges and will need to keep good line of sight across the battlefield to avoid being made irrelevant to the fight.

The sniper squad I decided to give a Razorback armed again with a Lascannon. This represents not only their ability to stay mobile but it complements the squad as well. The Razorback pops a vehicles, the snipers shoot the squad that comes out. It probably won't move much but can also be used to protect the snipers and try to tank shock enemies away or block their line of sight or charge corridor.

Tale of Gamers Month 5 - Unit Choice and Prepping for 8th

Unit Selection

Five months into this 12 month journey and I look at my growing army with a sense of satisfaction. This has to be the quickest I have ever painted an army to the 1000pt milestone and I feel like I have a force that covers most bases. This month I get to round it out even further with the Elites slot and a dedicated transport.

After the last game I realised I need some more long-range punch to deal with big nasty things. This is an area of limited availability in the Deathwatch Codex as they are designed to shoot things at medium range, so I had a good idea of what I wanted to take this month.

Tale of Gamers Month 4 - The Game

Pre-Game

So here it is, game 4 of the Tale of Gamers campaign for Mid-Sussex Wargamers. I settled on the Land Raider Redeemer out of simplicity and cost, it was already sitting around begging for some love and would have cost nothing extra. A good job with Salute this month but that's another post entirely.

Unfortuantely the Multi-Melta fell off and wouldn't go back on, so I slapped some Melta-bombs on one of the Veteran Sergeants and went in with a 5 point deficit. It will hurt the Land Raider's anti-tank capability but it also makes transport and painting much easier.

It was painted rather last minute and still has some touching up to do, but tabletop quality is good enough and I can re-visit some areas I don't like. It should make a nice distraction though, so on to the game...

Tale of Gamers Month 4 - Heavy Support!

Month 4 Unit Selection

A New Month

A new month is always exciting in Tale of Gamers. Whilst we are adding 250pts a month (well, slightly off for the first few months due to game formats) there is also a campaign ladder where you score points based on what you do. Paint at least one model to completion and you get one point. Turn up and play, get another point. Win your game (making it important to paint more than just one model) and you have another point up for grabs. You can then bank the points for the campaign or spend them on allies, super-heavies, etc.

To encourage some diversity and make things more unpredictable, each month also has a challenge. Month 1 didn't have one as we were starting out but Month 2 was include a Fast Attack choice and Month 3 was paint 6 objective markers. Complete the challenge and you get a point. This can also mess with your army lists and change your plans.

And so Month 4's challenge rolls round. Include a Heavy Support choice. This sounds ideal for "long range anti-tank fire" but it means the Dreadnought and Razorback with twin Lascannons is on hold. The Deathwatch's only Heavy Support choice is the Land Raider which eats all 250pts of the monthly allocation. I could use the Godhammer pattern with a pair of Lascannons but money is also an issue as my tabletop gaming budget for April was eaten by the car. Plus the Godhammer Land Raider doesn't know what it wants to do, stay back and shoot or get up close with passengers?

So I'm delving into the incomplete project shelf for ideas.

Tale of Many Gamers - Month 3

Month Three

Development

Month 3, 750pts with no restrictions. I could pick anything I want, but first I needed to look at the force I used against the Craftworld Eldar player to decide what to pick.

I realised the Deathwatch were lacking solid ranged firepower with a mostly template-based squad in a Rhino and a Frag Cannon squad that saw it's heavy weapons sniped out the game before running off the table edge. I didn't want to get too close to my opponent's Wraithguard with their D-Weapons that could rip apart a super-heavy titan, let alone five marines in power armour. Long range felt lacking, so I decided to beef that area up.

First in was a squad of five Stalker Bolter wielding Veterans. I refer to these as my sniper squad and their job is simple, hang back and shoot the enemy at range. The special ammo allows them to hurt most targets, they provide a psychological terror in the opponent's mind to no mill about in the open and they have a long reach. They are also dirt cheap.

A Librarian was brought in to comply with the Combined Arms Detachment. Cheap and run without any extra options, they are an ideal leader for the low points bracket. Psychic powers can be tailored to suit the game depending what part of the army you want him to support.

Next the Bikers were fleshed out with three more riders. The Codex describes them as a battering ram, so Power Mauls and a Power Axe are order of the day. S6 lets me ride up to vehicles and smash them apart using the weaker rear armour value and provide some much needed anti-tank support. Twin-linked Bolters would send more special ammo downfield but the Power Weapons also add more punch in melee. A double bonus.

Finally, a Rhino to protect the Frag Cannon squad and use the top hatch as a mobile fire point. It turns a humble and cheap transport into a make-shift battle tank (something the Deathwatch sorely lack).