Sunday 24 August 2014

Tuesday Nights alright for fighting

PeteB managed to score a set of Tactical Objective cards from his local independent game store. They had 7 packs in store but didn't think to mention it! suffice to say there were none left by the end of the evening Pete got his. So we decided to have a little crack at the first mission and duly positioned six numbered MDF discs on our board. Pete was trying to make his Wraith Guard work again with the use of a Wraith Seer. I'd decided to go crazy, I had a list worked up for a specific reason so decided to see what it was capable of. 

Of note is the fact the Capillary Towers now have a number of chips in their clay Chitinous plates :(
Can you make out the Genestealers? Yes I went with a Maufactorum Genestealer brood. Knowing what I was taking I got Pete to put the terrain down, I didn't want any bias as to the advantage I can get with those - being able to Infiltrate in unoccupied buildings or ruins within 6" of enemy model. I realise that means they have to sit for a turn doing nothing because they can't assault and that means I'm likely to lose First Blood but that's an immediate threat you can't ignore which allows the rest of my force to go slightly less molested. Add in the fact I also had a Lictor Forest Brood, which I forgot to Infiltrate and that's another thing to occupy your thoughts down the line.


As it was, using a Skyshield may have seemed a bit redundant and for the most part my Tervigon [which spawned out on 8 first turn] and his Gaunts did little to nothing for the entire game [although I think he killed a couple of Jet Bikes with his Stinger Salvo] except camp on the nearest objectives. Maelstom of War Games are very much like the final mission from Blog Wars 7 in that you can keep getting VPs by achieving certain objectives - securing Strategic Objectives, killing people in assault or shooting etc. I was lucky in that first turn I had already secured objectives 4 and 6. I'd later get the maximum D3 VPs for taking out PeteB's Warlord, points for killing a unit in Assault, discovering each Mysterious Objective, and securing more objectives than my opponent. 


Ultimately the game ended up with me in double figures and Pete with around 5 or 6. To be honest the final score was irrelevant because I was more interested in the game play and my army list. The Genestealers were fantastic! As predicted I lost First Blood with them, but they took all the heat from the shooting first turn and 'going to ground' at night in a ruin certainly makes them more durable. There's great potential there to get a Flyrant into Synapse range the following turn to auto-negate going to ground, add in Dominion and that's even better. Even so with three broods in the ruins I still had enough troops to be a threat in this corner.


As it was PeteB charged me, with the Wraithlord and the Wraithseer. I'd added Toxin Sacs to these three broods and boy did it pay off, wounding on 4's and Rending on 6's. It took a couple of turns but both the Eldar Wraith constructs succumbed to the Stealer broods. It's hard to say how effective these can be on a different force but considering the Tervigon, Gaunts and the other two Stealer broods had no direct impact on the game - not assaulting at least, I had plenty of points that could have been doing something sould the need arise.


Also of note was the Lictor Forest Brood. they didn't deploy in the forest, I forgot and the forest was on my board side anyway. But deep striking behind the Wave Serpents... well I was worried about them deviating but Lictors dont'! So they turned up en masse, only did a glance and a pen on one of the Serpents but having five, three wound models turn up in your back field is another immediate concern. With 20 S6 Rending attacks on the charge that's also a highly effective killing squad, especially when they're in proximity to the already effective Genestealers 


I honestly didn't think this list would work, but the mobility of the units allowed me to be in parts of the battlefield I wouldn't usually be able to get to. For some reason this reminds me a lot of how I used to play with the Mycetic Spores. In truth it's not actually mobile, it can just be where I want it to be and saturate the battlefield so that it doesn't have to be fast because it's already where it needs to be.

One other thing of note, with only two psykers in this list the psychic phase was completely underwhelming. I struggled to roll more than 2 for my Warp Charge and even when I got a five still managed to fail to cast most of my powers. Granted I tried a number of Paroxysms but Dominion! And even passing that test I was repeatedly denied by the Eldar because Pete knew that Dominion would auto rally one Genestealer that spent the entire gaming running for my board edge but would have allowed it to actually assault a nearby Wave Serpent. Psychic Phase sucks, there I said it :P

One last thing I have to say GW, really has dropped the ball with the availability of the Tactical Objective Cards. I don't know what it is that's preventing them being in store, perhaps it's boxes they're in because the cards alone could be done at any printers. I nipped to the Manchester GW the day after this battle and asked if they had some in and they said no and they never would, as they're now order only. I finally relented and said I'd order them in only to find they're unavailable, AGAIN! The manager said he's sold out of stock 4 times now and hoped that when the months numbers went back to head office they'd up their orders.
I'm shocked that this hadn't been picked up already. It's a £5 item that changes the way you can play your game. After White Dwarf and paints it's nearly the cheapest thing in the store, almost Pocket Money priced [now there's a blog post I've had in draft for years] and it's like playing the game anew. They're even a really cool item and although you can dice roll for the same effect it's quicker and easier with the cards. I think you'd even find folk paying £5 for the cards without the fancy box just to have them. Add in some numbered objective markers, yes you can make your own and there's other objective markers that they make that could be used - the servo skulls with a munitorum dice on but why not make some 40mm circular ones with Ad Mech effect and gothic numerals. The Omnissiah knows they would sell!

2 comments:

  1. Nice to see you make good use of Stealers. I killed all of my opponents' in the last tournament I went to with Drool Cannons (going to ground does not help) which made me rage against them even more. Glad to see that you can make them work with a bit of planning. Agree with the Tactical Objective debacle. Its like they don't want to make money.

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    1. There were a couple of Flamers in that Wraithblob too, one I think was a Psychic Heavy Flamer template but I somehow managed to Deny it, which probably made all the difference.

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