Recon Tournament Prep

From the PtGRtS Event Calendar

When: July 23 - 11:30am
Where: Main Store - Carousel Center Mall
Prize(s): Store Credit
Entry Fee: $10
Details:
Who says you can't choose what to play before every game?
Players bring up to 4 different 1850 point lists and chose which one to use before each match.
Each list may only be used one time during the event.
Players roll off to determine who chooses their list first.

So I still have to clarify details, but I am assuming the lists have to be from the same codex (if not my Blue Angels are coming out!), and there is no limitation on how similar the lists can be. Basically if you bring 4 of the same list, you are sacrificing flexibility for playing a familiar list each game. That is just my assumption though.
So for now, I am planning on sticking with Vanilla Marines because I don't have enough Assault Marines, Baal's, Furiouso Dreads, or Stormravens to make multiple BA lists. That and I plan on taking this as an opportunity to use Calgar. There are two ways to go about making lists for this event:

1. Gear lists towards countering specific army types (e.g. having an anti-horde, anti-msu, anti-melee, etc)
2. Gear lists towards specific missions (a troop heavy army for Sieze Ground, outflankers for Cap and Control, and KP denial for Annihilation)

At this moment I am leaning towards gearing for missions, as I KNOW I will face one of each of those in the tournament, while I may not face certain armies or hit the same army type all three games. I can build three dedicated lists for the missions and have a list dedicated for a certain matchup I might face (I'm looking at you GKs). Here's my general archtypes:

1. Downsized version of my standard Vanilla Marines
2. A more MSU-style Marines list (both these lists are for the objective-based games)
3. Double LR 10 TH/SS Termies (KP Denial)
4. List 1 with Calgar (for giggles or another KP denial threat)

I'll post specific lists later, but hopefully I can make it work. Most of the armies are pretty similar though, so that will give my opponents a slightly easier time selecting their army lists. I've got plenty of time to think on it though.

TMI Update

Warning:  This post is about my plans for the next couple of weeks in regards to gaming.  Nothing terribly interesting.

I have had a lot of irons in the fire over the past two weeks, but hopefully things will slow down soon.  On the gaming front, I've had just as much going on.  I traded some of my old models that have been collecting dust for some new items, including a Dreadknight and PAGK squad for my GK force.  So now I have a decent-sized backlog of stuff to get painted for my GK force.  Additionally, a significant portion of the trade went towards some Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game (LotR SBG) stuff. 

I have been wanting to try a different game system for quite a while and looked hard at WHFB.  However, feedback on Fantasy has been pretty mixed and it seems to be pretty costly to start one, let alone two armies.  The reason I say two, is that because my wife is going to play with/against (depending on how you look at it) me.  She enjoys strategy games and painting, but the sheer number of models involved with 40K was a deal-breaker for her and that game.  However, LotR should be a good fit for us to play together.  With armies consisting of a limited number of figures with no $1=1 point figures (I'm looking at you Razorspam), it should be easier for us to buy and paint opposing forces.  So when I am not working on 40K stuff, I will be painting up a small force of Dwarves, while she will be doing Wood Elves.

On the GK front, I should get some more proxied GK games in this week using my modified Draigo list.  I am going to remove all the metal PAGKs halberds and replace them with power swords and falchions to stretch my buck as far as I can.  I am hoping that 1-2 more boxes of PAGKs should fill out the rest of my army. 

My Smurf army is still in maintence mode, but I am going to try and repaint two more Tactical Squads. I may also try to redo a couple Assault Squads just to open up a few more options in my Blue Angels lists.  Because of work, my next tournament won't be until July.  It looks interesting, as each player brings four different lists and can pick one for each round after pairings.   Each list can only be used once.  I have some ideas of how I plan on setting up my lists and will probably do a post on them in the next couple of days. 

The final thing on my mind is figuring out whether or not to head to the Nova Open GT or Da Boyz GT.  I haven't made it to a GT yet, but I bet they would be a blast.  I am leaning heavily towards the Da Boyz GT because of cost/logistics, but I still am working out details.  In either case, I will be taking my Space Marines as my GKs won't be finished yet.  That and I don't feel like debating about what color BAs/GKs should be in order to be WYSIWYG.  Hmmm... that's also another future post...

New Draigo List

I think I might have a handle on a reasonably competitive Draigo list now.  I stole most of it from Hulksmash.  I won't have as much S8+ target saturation as my previous lists, but I think the extra bodies will compensate:

HQ
Draigo

Troops
GKSS with Pyscannons x2, Pysbolts, and Rhino
GKSS with Pyscannons x2, Pysbolts, and Rhino
Paladin Squad
  DH and MC Pyscannon
  Halberd and MC Pyscannon
  Halberd
  Sword
  DH

Elites
Purifier Squad (5) with Pyscannon x2 and Rhino
Purifier Squad (5) with Pyscannon x2 and Rhino

Heavy
Dreadknight with Teleporter
Pysfleman
Pysfleman

5 Termies from hell, 30 Marines, 4 Rhinos, a DK, and 2 Pysflemen seems like a fairly solid force. 

More GK Thoughts

This week has been crazy busy at work and at home both, so I have not had too much time for 40K.  However, last Saturday I was able to get two more 2K games in with my proxy Grey Knights.  I was going to do Bat Reps, but life got in the way and unfortunately I don't remember enough of the details to make the read interesting.  Both were KP games against Mech Marines and they were both pretty convincing wins.  Here are some of the main takeaways I had:

Draigo and his Paladin Bodyguard (or vice versa):  8 MC Pyscannon shots a turn are nothing to laugh at.  They shred light vehicles and even LRs don't like eating that kind of firepower for more than a turn or two.  They hold up pretty well against the occasional lascannon/MM shot, but torrents of shots still down them fairly fast without an Apothecary.  I still love the unit and want to make it work. 

Interceptors:  I want to love them, but they are very expensive for what they currently do.  The Pysbolt upgrade and the MC on the DH might have to go to make them more affordable.  Both upgrades are temptations to either shoot at AV11 or try to take on Dreads (both of which I tried to do in test games).  Fully upgraded, they cost almost as much as the Paladin squad, so using them as a simple harassment or sacrifice unit just isn't cost effective.  The shunt is simply amazing though.  It can be used to hop into a hole in enemy lines or a parking lot, jump out of a bad position, or go for a last-turn objective grab.  The tactical flexiblity is great, but it is a yet another pricey unit in an expensive army.  I plan on keeping this unit in the list, but trying to strip the points down some. 

MM/HF Venerable Dread:  Another unit that has been "solid" but overall untested and unimpressive.  One MM shot at BS5 isn't terribly impressive on such an expensive platform.  The WS5, S10 DCCW is nice, but a DK can do it better and cheaper.  The Reinforced Aegis can be useful, but I'm not sure if it is worth it.  Overall, I think this unit is probably getting axed.

GKSS:  The 10 man unit is a solid block and has done a good job of supporting the Paladins.  If they get the chance to anchor in a stationary spot, they can dish out some serious hurt with their Pyscannons.  With the full 10 men, I feel confident with them hanging outside of their Rhino during KP games.  The 5 man squad, not so much.  I didn't feel like they were worth exposing to small-arms fire and risking a KP.  In both cases, they are overly expensive to use as screening/charge absorbing units. 

Pysflemen:  I love these guys... they live up to they hype and then some.  Point them at anything AV12 or less and it gets shredded.  My only quibble is that I only have 3 Heavy slots for them, which leads to my last unit:

Dreadknight:  The DK has performed very well for me.  In one game it got to shunt punch a LR on T1 which was basically an autowin.  The second game it never even shunted and used its 12" moves to force my opponent to double-back with TH/SS Termies to kill it.  This bought me an extra couple of turns to kill his LR and ignore his Termies.  Had he not diverted to kill it, the DK would have ran rampant through his backlines.  Yes, it can be shot to hell pretty fast, but most armies have a limited amount of high strength AP2 to split between it and Paladins.

Overall, the army has been effective against Mech Marines, but it definately has a lot of weaknesses.  It is slow with limited long-range reach and power is concentrated in a small number of units.  It has no screening units or movement-blocking units to slow down aggressive assault armies and has only a single MM to handle LRs.  I definately plan on reworking it tomorrow.

In other news...

Chuck Norris was seen exiting Pakistan early this morning...