Herohammer: Njal Stormcaller

Njal Stormcaller in his Runic Terminator Dreadnought Armour

Last time we explored the insane Space Wolves Herohammer list. Me and Norau decided that we just have to try this list out, and of course we need the proper minis! Here's the first one, Njal Stormcaller. We simply love this classic Rune Priest mini, and with a simple gun swap it's a perfect rendition of Njal.

I painted him with a basecoat of Fenris Grey, overbrushed Shadow Grey and highlighted with Adeptus Battlegrey. The runes are Mechrite Red, followed by lighter and lighter applications of Lord Solar Macharius Orange, Blazing Orange and Golden Yellow.

I like how Njal ended up looking, especially as i really didn't spend a lot of time on him. Norau is going to the Strategikon tournament next weekend, and Njal and his buddies just needs to be painted before then.

Herohammering the Wolves

Intrigued by Blog Wars over at From The Fang, where every army must include a special character, we wanted to make the ultimate Herohammer Space Wolves list. The result:

• Logan Grimnar
• Njal Stormcaller w/Runic Terminator Armour
• Bjorn the Fell-Handed w/Plasma Cannon
• Ulrik the Slayer
• Blood Claws Pack
• Lukas the Trickster
• Blood Claws x4
• Rhino
• Wolf Guard Pack
• Arjac Rockfist
• Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour x2

All this for the small sum of 1499 

This list is actually legal. Insane! And it scales really well too. At 1750, simply give the Wolf Guard, Logan and Njal a Land Raider! Obviously we have to try this out. We'll play a game with this army as soon as we are able. Stay tuned for the exciting battle report!

Eager to find an opponent we tried to do the same exercise with other codices, but the closest we got was a Space Marines list at 940. If you find anything higher, and legal, please let us know in the comments.

Haters gonna hate 2

So apparently Hitler plays Daemonhunters :)



The video author brings up an interesting point. A lot of trolls on the internet seem to be talking trash over guys that are jumping to the newest Codex when it is released. At the moment, that's Grey Knights. For me, the release of a new codex is very exciting, and I want to explore the possibilities within as soon as possible. If that makes me a guy that jumps on the bandwagon of cheese, so be it.

At least I paint my armies.

Video battle report: Imperial Guard vs Eldar

Mr. Sportsmanship and Knut is at it again! This time: Imperial Guard vs Eldar. The guys are testing out armies for the upcoming Strategikon 5 tournament with lists at 1500 points.

Video Battle Report: New Grey Knights vs Orks

We got some visitors from another club on our thursday gaming night this time. I played versus Inger Helene from Team Stormbolter, and she had brought her Orks.

She had a pretty good list, with Lootas, a couple of Kans, two Trukks full of Boyz, a largish unit of Koptas, and the big heavy hitter: Ghazghkull Thraka with a lot of Nobs in a Battlewagon. Nice!

I have gotten hold of a copy of the new Grey Knights Codex, and what better to try than a Henchmen-heavy list lead by everyone's favourite inquisitor, Coteaz himself!

My list:
Coteaz
Eversor Assassin
5 Purifiers w/2 Psycannons, 2 Hammers, Rhino
7 Grey Knight Terminators m/Psycannon & Warding Stave
10 Henchmen (3 Crusaders, 5 DC Assassins, 2 Warriors)
10 Henchmen (3 Crusaders, 4 DC Assassins, 3 Warriors w/Meltaguns), Chimera
7 Henchmen (3 Servitors w/Heavy Bolters, Jokaero, 3 Warriors w/Plasma Guns), Chimera w/HK missile
Dreadnought w/Plasma Cannon
Dreadknight
Land Raider

We rolled for mission and deployment and got Capture & Control and Pitched Battle. My objective is on the center hill and hers is in the big grey building.

Check out the video battle report for details on the game!

750 point madness

The last tournament I attended had four games at 1750 points and two games at 750 points. No comp in either meant that we saw some quite silly lists from the top guys. I have both hosted and played 500 point doubles tournaments before, and am adamant in that games under 1500 points require comp (restrictions) of some kind.



However, if there's no comp people will undoubtedly try to fit in the hardest units they can think of. Let's take a look at some of the more outrageous examples I can think of, and then you guys can post your lists in the comments! Maybe we'll create real gold here :)

I'm actually stretching the truth when I say no comp, as there was some. A modified Force Organization Chart: 1 HQ, 0-2 Elites, 1-4 Troops, 0-2 Fast Attack. 0-2 Heavy Support. This can't really be called comp, because at 750 points you'd be stretching it if you took three Heavy Support. I guess they tried to quell the urge to spam, and then gave us insufficient points to do any spam anyway.

My Chaos Space Marine list at the tournament was:

• Daemon Prince with Wings
• Summoned Greater Daemon
• 5 Chaos Space Marines with Meltagun, Champion and Rhino
• 5 Chaos Space Marines with Meltagun, Champion and Rhino
• Defiler
• Predator with Heavy Bolter Sponsons

This list can fight almost anyone in CC, has long range, high strength, multi-shot and area effect firepower, several fast meltaguns, mobility and many units.

After the tournament I did a little thinking and came up with this list:

• Daemon Prince with Wings and Mark of Khorne
• 5 Chaos Space Marines with Meltagun
• 5 Chaos Space Marines with Meltagun
• Land Raider
• Land Raider

Yeah, that's two scoring Land Raiders in 750 points. Even against Dark Eldar with as many Dark Lances as they can fit (barring bad luck), you should be able to triumph.

750 point games at the top tables of a tournament are extremely matchup-dependent. If you have a foot list and meet an Ork horde you're screwed. However, if you have the dual Land Raider sillyness i wrote about above, you are pretty much invincible. All due to matchup, which you have no control over.

Building a "balanced" list is also rubbish, because then you'll be equally screwed no matter what you meet. Remember we're talking about the top tables here, folks. You'll see Mephiston, a Land Raider, 5 naked Assault Marines and a Librarian Dreadnought in 750 points. Beat that with a "take-all-comers" list ;)

So, what crazyness can you guys conjure up? 750 points and the modified FOC, above. Otherwise NO RESTRICTIONS!!

Haters gonna hate

After last weekend's tournament, I asked on their forums whether they would send the results to Rankings HQ. Oh, the horror!

Haters gonna hate!

Rankings HQ is a website that aggregates tournament results from all over the world and ranks the players of each country. Each country have their own rules for scoring and ranking, adjusted to the size of the tournament scene of said country. For Norway, a player receives 100 points for winning a tournament of 40 people or more. The three best scores the last 12 months count, so the maximum amount of points a player can have is 300. Even if a player wins three big tournaments and finishes last in a fourth, his score is still 300.

The head honchos quickly informed me that they had discussed it, but had decided not to send in any results. They didn't give any reason as to why they had decided this.

Some local guys then protested, saying that they wanted them sent in and arguing that players from afar would have less reason to come if the tournament didn't rank. Also, by sending in the results, the community would get a lot of useful data. For example, the ETC team would have an easier time picking good players for ETC participation. It didn't take long before the protests started.

One guy argued that you'd need written consent from everyone before posting the results on RankingsHQ, which is nonsense. The results for each of these tournaments had been posted on the internet for the last 8 years, so this wasn't any different. Then, we came to the core of the problem.

• "It will promote powerplay to an even greater scale. Let's be the safe haven everyone can turn to in order to relax and have a nice good tournament."
• "It is an event, not a tournament. This is something some players haven't understood, as they bring ridiculously boring min/max armies."
• "Ranking is anathema to what 40k should be."
• "People shouldn't be completely unimaginative when it comes to army design."

Yeah, I asked them what they meant by "power play" It seems like it is unacceptable to play and win. You should play and only have fun and not win. And if you do happen to win, you'd better not be using an army consisting of more than one identical unit.  If you do, you have no imagination, are boring and an bad person.

One of the guys complaining about "power play" was the guy I played in turn 1. He had a rock hard Daemon list with 2 Great Unclean Ones, 3x3 Bloodcrushers, 2x5 Plaguebearers, 4x5 Horrors w/Bolt and 3 identical Daemon Princes of Nurgle. I liked his list and he was a pleasant guy to play against, but let's not kid ourselves: His list was spammy. So what? Apparently, it doesn't matter if you don't win.

It was only the top armies that got a lot of flak, so it seems like taking a hard army is OK, as long as you don't win.

Even the guy with the Kan Wall of spam accused me of using a boring list. GG guy!

So yeah, haters gonna hate!


PS: This is not a criticism of the tournament itself. It was very well run and I enjoyed the experience. This post is about the illusion some of the players there have, that there is such a thing as "balanced armies" and that you are a better person if you don't bring what you consider best to a tournament.

Video tournament report: Winter War 8

We need to obliterate the enemy!

When Predators and Defilers can't deliver enough carnage with their guns, we need Obliterators. These techno-mages, previously of the Adeptus Mechanicus, can deliver this for a bargain price. They can conjure up the perfect weapon for any task, get easy cover saves and Deep Strike to the perfect spot on the battlefield.

So I need some!

However, I don't fancy the current Obliterator model, so I converted my own. Check them out!





As you can see, the paint job is pretty gritty. I'm attending a tournament this weekend, and just needed them to be done. I'll probably revisit them at a later time, touching up the mistakes and adding some highlights.

Video tournament report: Chaos Space Marines vs the World!

Hi guys, I'm back with another tournament report. This was a mini-tournament we played @ the University in Oslo in March 2011.

750 points, 4 games using two of the missions from the upcoming tournament Winter War 8 in Bergen.

Missions 1 and 4:
Deployment: Dawn of War (no night fight in turn 1)
Primary: D3+1 Objectives
Secondary: Kill the most expensive Psyker (or the most expensive non-vehicle, non-HQ model if there is no Psykers in the army)
Tertiary: Kill Points

Missions 2 and 3:
Deployment: Spearhead
Primary: Kill Points
Secondary: Kill the opponent's HQ and save your own
Tertiary: Kill the opponent's HQ with your HQ.

Modified Force Organisation Chart:

• 1 HQ
• 0-2 Elites
• 1-4 Troops
• 0-2 Fast Attack
• 0-2 Heavy Support

My list, 750 pts Chaos Space Marines:

• Daemon Prince w/Wings
• Summoned Greater Daemon
• 5 Chaos Space Marines w/Champion and Meltagun in a Rhino
• 5 Chaos Space Marines w/Champion and Meltagun in a Rhino
• Defiler w/2 extra Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons
• Predator w/Heavy Bolter Sponsons

Watch the video to see how it went!



Game 1: Chriss' Space Marines
Cassius
10 Marines w/Flamer, Missile Launcher, Power Fist in Rhino
Land Speeder Typhoon w/Heavy Flamer
Land Speeder Typhoon w/Heavy Flamer
Predator Annihilator w/Heavy Bolter sponsons
Predator Destructor w/Heavy Bolter sponsons

Game 2: Norau's Space Wolves
Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf w/Frost Blade and Fenrisian Wolf
Thunderwolf
5 Grey Hunters w/Meltagun in Razorback w/Lascannon & Plasma Gun
5 Grey Hunters w/Meltagun in Razorback w/Lascannon & Plasma Gun
5 Long Fangs w/4 Missile Launchers

Game 3: Per Anders' Tyranids
Tervigon w/Catalyst
2 Hive Guard
10 Genestealers
5 Genestealers w/Broodlord
3 Zoanthropes
Biovore

Game 4: Hans Christian's Space Marines
Chaplain in Terminator Armour
5 Assault Terminators (3 TH+SS, 2 LC) in Land Raider Redeemer
10 Scouts w/Camo Cloaks and Sniper RIfles