New guy at the club: Sawyer

This Sunday, I went to Oslo Miniature Games Club, looking for a game of Warhammer 40k. In my last post, I wrote a battle report from the game I played, but I also met a guy I hadn't met before. His name is Sawyer, and he has a great-looking Traitor Guard army! Check out these pictures I took (click the pictures for insane macro mode):


Note the empty ammo drum and the scratch-built empty casings next to the Autocannon. Awesome stuff!



Sawyer's next project for this army is a squad of Renegade Ogryns. Can't wait to see'em, can't wait to play'em! Bring it, man! ;)

Warhammer 40k battle report: Tyranids vs Orks

The Hive Mind barely registered the fungus-creatures hiding in the ruined human city. This world had fallen long ago, just as all other worlds had, as hive fleet Kraken had spread its tendrils. Why were they still resisting the inevitable?

In the end, it did not matter. They would all be eaten. It was simply a matter of time.

500 points combat patrol
In a month, we're going to have a 500 point doubles tournament, using the 40k in 40 minutes rules. For those unfamiliar to these rules, they are:

• No 2+ saves
• Max 2 wounds per model
• Max 33 in total armour on vehicles
• Min 1 Troop, no other Force Organization Chart requirements

I'm one of the organizers of the tournament, and went to Oslo Miniature Gaming Club this Sunday to spread the word and possibly get more attendees.

I met a guy I haven't played in over a year, and we decided to play a 500 point game using the rules outlined above.

My list:

• 4 Tyranid Warriors - Wings, Adrenal Glands (+WS), Adrenal Glands (+I), Toxin Sacs (+S), Rending Claws, Scything Talons, Flesh Hooks (192)
• 16 Hormagaunts - Adrenal Glands (+WS), Toxin Sacs (+S), Flesh Hooks (224)
• 12 Gaunts - Devourers (84)

His list (from what I remember):

• Weirdboy
• 14 Slugga Boyz - Nob w/Power Klaw, Big Shoota
• 14 Slugga Boyz - Nob w/Power Klaw, Big Shoota
• 12 Slugga Boyz - Nob w/Power Klaw, Big Shoota, Trukk w/Reinforced Ram

Wow, the Tyranids were outnumbered! Fortunately, I knew that my units were both faster and hit harder in close combat. All I had to do was hit his units one at a time, and deny him the charge. Easy!

Deployment
We rolled for mission and deployment and got Capture & Control and Dawn of war. This meant that my precious Warriors would be off-table first turn. Crap. If he managed to kill enough Gaunts, they would probably run off the table without any Synapse nearby. He took first turn and deployed in such a way that he was controlling two of the four objectives. I deployed my Gaunts and Hormagaunts far back, behind cover. Fortunately, the units were large, and Ork shooting isn't very accurate.

Turn 1
I failed seizing the initiative, and he started his turn. The Trukk boyz came up the board at full speed, and the two other boyz units shot their Big Shootas on the Devourergaunts. Only one of them hit and wounded, and I passed the cover save. Phew!

In my turn, the Hormagaunts pushed forward, ran 4" and charged the nearest Boyz, wiping them and the Weirdboy out to a man. Hormagaunts are Ace! The Gaunts and Warriors kept up, moving up the board.

Turn 2
Shocked by the carnage, the Orks were initially reluctant to engage. The Trukk Boyz drove to a better position, blasting away. A Tyranid Warrior lost a wound, and I lost a single Hormagaunt.

The Tyranids shuffled about, making sure that they were in a good position to charge next turn.

Turn 3
The Trukk Boyz drove up 13" and jumped out, perhaps hoping for a fight. They were an inch too far away, but their shooting killed a Tyranid Warrior.

The Tyranids were going for bust! The Hormagaunts charged the large unit of Ork Boyz, while the Warriors charged the Trukk Boyz, after the Gaunts had shot them up a bit. As there were only 8 Boyz left, the Warriors were confident of victory (12 attacks, hitting on 3s, wounding on 3s, 6+ save).

As expected, the Hormagaunts killed the entire unit of Boyz, taking a couple of casualties themselves. However, the Tyranid Warriors completely fluffed their charge, only killing 3 boyz! The 3 boyz and Nob still standing then wiped out the Warriors! Disaster!

Turn 4
The Trukk turned and tank shocked the Hormagaunts, which promptly fled the scene. Without synapse, the Tyranids were in complete disarray!

The four Orks left charged the Gaunts, killing a few and forcing them to flee.

Game end - Ork victory!
With no forces left, the Hive Mind had to accept defeat this time. It was the single round of combat with the Tyranid Warriors that made all the difference. On average, they would have wiped the Boyz out to a boy, but alas, It wasn't to be. Without synapse, the Tyranids were completely useless and lost very quickly.

The battlefield was suddenly blurred and distant for the Hive Mind. The Synapse creatures had perished. No matter, the planet was soon to be digested anyway. The Orks had won this battle, but the war was already decided. The fungus would be valuable bio-matter for the coming onslaught of the Imperium of Man.

5th ed compatible tournament terrain project

When 5th edition hit, Norau and I were relatively unaffected by the dreaded true LOS (Line Of Sight) rules. We had always used terrain pieces that were high enough to block LOS to most things. Granted, C'Tan and Land Raiders were hard to hide, but we didn't see this as a problem.

My buddy Briefspite, however, actually dumped 40k for a period of time because of "true LOL", as he calls it. I see his arguments, but my counterpoint was always that the terrain should be used to provide not only cover, but block LOS completely. In my opinion, no 40k board has enough LOS-blocking terrrain if a unit can have complete view of the battlefield.

Norau and I were using fairly large hills to achieve this. Briefspite has a lot of city terrain, that he wants to use for tournaments (after grudgingly admitting that 40k is fun after all, even with true LOS). To achieve "5th edition compliant" ruins, LOS had to be blocked. Not only for the little guys, but also for Carnifexes, Land Raiders and Defilers.

Today, we painted up the first building to a good gaming standard. This building blocks LOS in almost every direction. If you hold this building, you can get good firing positions if you want, or hide safely inside if that's your cup of tea.

Note that all the pieces for the ground floor are completely blocking LOS. We think that this will force players to use this tactically. Gunline armies are all great fun for about five minutes, but it takes the small gribblies, the guardsmen, the Fire Warriors and similar infantry-sized models to really shine here, in an environment where tanks cannot move, and Lascannons cannot get LOS to the target.


Our first building painted up.

How much terrain do you guys normally play with? Have you changed the way you use terrain after 5th edition was released, or have you just changed your armies?

Why use a suboptimal unit build?

I often discuss unit efficacy with my 40k friends. We choose a unit, and try to come up with the most optimal way to kit it out for a plethora of hypothetical situations.

This is a great way of coming up with a good loadout or role for a unit that can operate effectively while isolated and/or unsupported on the battlefield. For example Terminators, Land Speeders, Falcons, Hammerheads, Tau Battlesuits, Daemon Princes, and so on. However, when it comes to selecting an entire army, a collection of individually excellent units can be a mixed blessing. Even if these units are great at what they do, the synergy of the army may be hurt in the process.

A great example of this line of thought is the meltagun. It is widely renowned as the most cost-effective anti-tank weapon in the game. Taking all meltaguns must be the way to go, then? No. The meltagun is only effective if you can get it into range of enemy armour. If you don't have a single lascannon in your army, you're giving the enemy the freedom to move his vehicles outside the range of your meltas. Letting the enemy move freely around the board is a sure-fire way to lose the game in Warhammer 40k.

Another example is the guys in the picture up top. Thousand Sons are a peculiar bunch, and I've often seen tacticas on the web, telling everyone that the Doombolt is the only power one should give the Aspiring Champion. However, even if the power neatly matches the rest of the unit's shooting, one of the things I often lack in my Chaos armies are mid-range anti-tank. Something that fits neatly between the Lascannons on my Land Raider and the meltaguns on my Chaos Marines, is the awesome power of the Bolt of Change. Even though the unit of Thousand Sons themselves benefit more from the Doombolt, the army as a whole will benefit more from the Bolt of Change.

To emphasise my point; even if the Land Speeder with Multi-Melta is the greatest thing since Rending was on to-hit, if your army has enough mobile anti-tank, you should consider the Typhoon instead. Even if it is less cost-effective on its own, your army may benefit way more from an "inferior unit" than the optimized build.

What do you guys think? Are you always checking the internet for the latest optimized build of single units, or are you experimenting with which combinations of units works and which doesn't?

Video Battle Report: Chaos Space Marines vs Tyranids

After losing to Briefspite in the last battle of the Invasion tournament, I was looking forward to a rematch. Well, not a rematch per se, because this time I would bring my Chaos Space Marines to the battlefield.

We rolled randomly for mission and deployment, and got Annihilation (Kill points) and Pitched Battle (deploy up to 12" from the board edge).

My list:
2 Khorne Daemon Princes with wings
5 Thousand Sons in a Rhino
8 Khorne Berzerkers in a Rhino
14 Lesser Daemons
10 Chaos Space Marines
Land Raider

His list:
Hive Tyrant (shooty) with 2 Tyrant Guard
Broodlord with Genestealer retinue
Dakkafex (twin devourers)
Lictor
3x8 Gaunts
2x6 Genestealers
2xSniperfex (Venom cannon & barbed strangler)

My plan
Exploit outflanking Genestealers and race up the center of the board. If I could get into close combat before the Genestealers got into the fight, I would be using my 1500 points to attack his 1100 points. Add to this that my forces were very close combat oriented, whereas his were not, I would just have to get there to get a big advantage.

Deployment
He gave me the choice of table edge, and I set up with some mobile forces on the edges. I hoped this would make him put all his stealers in outflanking reserves. Unfortunately for me, he didn't. The Broodlord and 'stealer retinue was right in the middle. Crap...

In addition to this, he seized the initiative! I had not deployed in anticipation of this, so I was expecting a pretty brutal end to my mobile infantry forces. Watch the video battle report below to see how the game progressed.



Music from www.freeplaymusic.com

Tournament video report: Invasion 2009

Tournament report: Invasion 2009

Invasion 2009 was a blast! 5 brilliant games against friendly and sporting opponents.

Game 1
I played last year's winner. Last year, he played Sisters of battle, and this year he was playing Space Wolves. Logan Grimnar, a Wolf Priest and a Venerable Dreadnought, combined with 20 Blood Claws, 10 Gray Hunters and a Dread made me fear a big close combat.

The deployment was Pitched Battle (table quarters). I placed everything in reserve, and he did not. Unfortunately for him, he didn't know that my reserves could enter from my entire table edge, not only the corner. This allowed me to get all my meltaguns in range of his two Dreadnoughts, killing them and immobilizing a Predator Annihilator in turn 2. From here on, it was a simple matter of shooting up the rest of his forces from a safe distance, and take objectives for the win.

Game 2

In the second game of the day, I played Trond from Team Stormbolter and his Biel-Tan Eldar. I have played Trond's Eldar twice before, and both times he's beaten me thoroughly. I was pretty sure this time would be no different, as he deployed two Fire Prisms, a Falcon (with Fire Dragons), two Wave Serpents with Brightlances one unit of Warp Spiders and two units of Pathfinders.

The mission was to control more objective markers, of which there were three on the board's center line. With this in mind, I noted that he had few Troops choices and focussed on taking his long range firepower and his mobility. This went far better than I had expected, and in just two turns I had destroyed both Fire Prisms (which had both Holo Fields and Spirit Stones) and the Dire Avenger's Wave serpent. The rest of the game was a pretty one-sided affair, and the Witch Hunters grabbed first place in the tournament.

Game 3

Enter Kenneth's Imperial Guard. Kenneth believes in mono-themed lists, having played a Necron phalanx with two or three Monoliths or all-terminator Dark Angels in previous tournaments we have both attended. This time he brought a min-maxed list that went something like this: Company Command in Chimera, Two minimal platoons with all units in Chimeras, 2 Devil Dogs, 2 Demolishers, 1 Leman Russ with Plasma Cannon sponsons. All guys that could had either a Meltagun or a Flamer.

No disrespect to Kenneth, but that is a boring list (effective, though)

We played on a board where hiding things were almost impossible. The mission was Kill Points. I decided that I was not in any shape to try to win, so I bunkered up in a corner and tried to use my Lascannons and Exorcists to snipe tanks. Unfortunately, I rolled pretty poorly and either failed to hit, penetrate or do permanent damage to his Chimeras and Devil Dogs, which were my main targets. We played to turn 6, and it was then clear that he had won with 4 KPs to my 1 KP.

Game 4

The second day of Invasion 2009 saw me a little down on the rankings, but I was still a contender for a pretty good position.

The fourth game was against Thomas' Tau Empire. His list was a mobile cadre (Shas'El, 2 Hammerheads, 2 Devilfishes, 6 Stealth Suits) with a solid firebase (3 Broadsides, Fire Warriors). The mission was 2 objective markers, which we both placed in opposite corners. The entire battle would be played at night, so the Night Fight rule would apply. "Great", I thought as I read his army list. He had Blacksun Filters on both Hammerheads, so he would be able to spot me long before I'd reach his lines.

I considered bunkering up and hiding from the Railguns and Markerlights, but decided to go for broke. I'd already lost one game, and if I kept this up, I wouldn't be able to reach my goal of placing in the top 10. I deployed aggressively, hiding as much as I could behind the Land Raider and a centrally placed building.

Fortunately for me, both his Broadsides and Pathfinders failed to spot anything first turn, and his Hammerheads either missed, or I made my cover saves. Driving forward, all my long range weaponry shot at his Hammerheads, spotting them with ease. One Hammerhead got blown up, severely reducing the strength of his flank attack.

The rest of the game, he was on the defensive, reversing towards his objective. I pushed on, but was unable to quite get to it. Those three Broadsides (all with Drone Controllers and Shield Drones) were a great deterrent to my advance, and his defence held. I had destroyed almost everything in his army, but it was not enough. The game ended in a draw. Fortunately, I made both my secondary and tertiary objective and got enough points to get me up a few places on the rankings.

Game 5

The final game of Invasion 2009 was a strange one. Our deployment zones was 24" in from the short table edges, with a 24" no mans land and six objective markers in the middle.

My opponent for this game was none other than my buddy Briefspite. Check out his 40k blog over at briefspite.blogspot.com. He was playing his balanced Tyranids, with both big bugs (4 Carnifexes and a Flyrant), medium bugs (Lictor, Warriors, Broodlord with Genestealers) and small gribblies (4 units of Gaunts with without number).

I gave him first turn, hoping for some turn 5 shenanigans, stealing some objectives at the last moment.

The game was a real nail-biter, especially because of his three units of scuttling Genestealers, which would possibly Outflank behind my tank line. I put shot after shot into his Sniperfexes, but he kept passing about 75 % of his cover saves. That's one of the few problems I have with 5th edition; stuff dies too quickly out of cover, and lives too long when in cover.

I killed only one Carnifex in the first two rounds, and failed royally in handling the single unit of Genestealers that outflanked behind my lines. Not only did they kill an Exorcist outright, they even lived through a turn of me shooting everything I had into them!

In the end, we got to turn 5, with him holding 5 of 6 objectives. I went through with my plan, even though I wouldn't gain any points from it. I raced one of my Chimeras and one Rhino up to the closest objective markers, contesting two of them. I then rolled for game end, and got a 2. Game end, and only a minor loss for me.

Closing thoughts
I finished 7th, and my buddy Briefspite got 2nd place. I had a great time and five exciting games. I'm already looking forward to next year, and have started thinking about which army I would like to play.

I shot some video, which I will post when I've finished editing it. More to come :)

First tournament in over a year!

This weekend, I'm attending the tournament "Invasion" i Kristiansand, Norway.

I'm not bringing a very powerful army, and you'll not be finding this list on Warseer anytime soon, if you know what I mean. I'm a little tired of the guys bringing the latest internet list and doing well, not because they are stellar players, but because the list is very, very powerful.

This time, I thought I'd aim for the lower tables, where the not-so-powerful armies and not-so-competitive opponents are. Hopefully, I'll play someone I haven't met before.

Check out www.invasion.no for more on the tournament.

Review: Blood Bowl on the Nintendo DS

Let me be perfectly clear, I love Blood Bowl. I've played this game of fantasy football for over 10 years on the tabletop, and have tried both Fumbbl and the first PC game from 1995.

When French producer Cyanide announced that they were going to make a new version of this amazing game, I was ecstatic. My eagerness to play this game reached new heights when they announced that it was going to be released on the Nintendo DS.

The game is set for a September release, but I managed to get a copy from Amazon.fr in July. When I got the game in the mail, I excitedly opened the package and popped the cartridge into my DS. The first thing that hit me was how dark and gritty the game was. From the screenshots, it looks like the graphics are crisp and clear. Unfortunately, these screenshot were taken from a DS Emulator, and are not the least bit similar to what awaits the player.

Graphics
Cyanide went for a 3D-isometric representation of the Blood Bowl pitch. The players are pre-rendered 3D-animations, similar to the horrible DS game "Treasure Planet". The problem here is the resolution on the DS. The animations seem too scaled down from the original rendering. Stray pixels here and there really puts me off and feels irritating. Couldn't they be bothered to touch up the animations more?

The screen is dark. The dark browns, greens and greys makes it almost impossible to see what's going on. I've had to play Blood Bowl on the DS at home, with the curtains closed. The problem lies in the contrast levels. The DS screen isn't very big or bright, and it doesn't do contrasts well. The game developers need to overstate graphical contrasts on the DS to make things visible in normal lighting conditions. Cyanide didn't.

UPDATE: Since writing this review, I've been told that the DS Lite and DSi screens are much brighter than my 1st generation DS. I guess the game performs better on the newer systems, but I haven't yet had the opportunity to check it out myself.

I can't help to feel that hiring some classic pixel-animators would have been a better decision than hiring 3D animators. 3D just doesn't work too well on the DS, and Blood Bowl suffers in this regard.

Gameplay
I've played Blood Bowl for many years, so I started a league on "Veteran" difficulty. The only other difficulty is "Rookie", so that was right out. After winning my first match 3-0, I wasn't very impressed with the AI. After ten matches, the AI had scored a total of 2 touchdowns, whereas I was winning with 4 or more on a regular basis. Star Player Points were coming in by the bucket load, and my Team Rating quickly passed 200.

I was wondering why the AI didn't do better. In fact, it seemed to be getting worse every game! Then it hit me: The AI wasn't selecting good skills! Every time a player got a skill increase, the AI would give it Strip Ball. The next skill was Pass Block. This was true for almost every team I played against!

Never once did I see that the AI had selected Block or Tackle or Dodge for its key players. Sure, Strip Ball can be good, but on all players on the team? No.



Sometimes, the AI gets stumped on what to do next. Several times, I've had to wait over two minutes before it starts moving. Other times, especially with few players on the pitch, it doesn't do anything! Suffice to say, it's not much of a challenge.

And then it crashed!
Several times, after scoring a touchdown, the game has frozen when I try to set up my team on the pitch. This can be acceptable for a little while on a PC release, but it's not as if I'm getting a patch for the DS any time soon, is it? No, of course it isn't.

Fumbbl-bowl would have been a much better graphical representation on the DS

How it could've been
I still don't understand why French producer Cyanide couldn't have made the graphics more basic and fitting for the DS. The graphics demonstrated on Fumbbl is, in my opinion, perfect for the DS. It is cartoon-like, the colours have a high contrast and it is easy to see what's going on.

What do you think of Blood Bowl on the DS? Have you had a different experience regarding the graphics or gameplay? Please let me know in the comment section!

In conclusion I rate Blood Bowl on the Nintendo DS, a

(yeah, you know what that means, people!)

Video Battle Report: Ulthwe vs Tau

I've gotten some request for speaking English in my Battle Reports, and this is my first attempt in doing so. Please note that English is not my primary language, so be nice :)

Please let me know what you think about this Battle Report format, especially compared to my other Video Battle Reports.

For this Battle Report, I fielded my Ulthwe once more against my buddy Norau's Tau army. We played a mission from an upcoming tournament.

Alpha mission: Objectives
If both players claim an equal number of objectives, they both get 8 Battle Points
If one player claims 1 more objective, he gets 10 Battle Points, whereas his opponent gets 6
If one player claims 2 more objectives, he gets 12 Battle Points, whereas his opponent gets 4
If one player claims 3 more objective, he gets 14 Battle Points, whereas his opponent gets 2
If one player claims 4+ more objectives, he gets 16 Battle Points, whereas his opponent gets 0

Beta Mission: Quadrants
A player that has 1-3 units (scoring or otherwise) in either quadrant that were not used as Deployment Zones, that player earns 1 Battle Point
If a player has 4 or more units in these quadrants, this player gets 4 Battle Points

Gamma Mission: Enemy Leader
The player that kills or routs the enemy HQ unit with the highest points value gets 2 Battle Points.

Check out www.invasion.no for more on the Invasion tournament.