#24: Second Strike Game 4 - Do you want to see a magic trick?

As the last game of the tournament loomed, I found myself in a fantastic position. I was at the top of the leaderboard with 60 out of a possible 60 battle points. The closest player to me was on 47. What this meant was as long as I didn't get a Major Loss, first place was mine. I was pretty confident, but at the same time, very nervous because I knew that all my hard work could be for nothing if I couldn't handle business at the finish line. And then there is the old proberb...

Don't count your chickens before they hatch. 

My final opponent was a player I have only ever played once before in fantasy, where he systematically dismantled my army with a left-of-field Wood Elf army. By running elements I was not familiar with, he was able to press small advantages into horrific and devastating game changers. And in true fashion, he did not disappoint, deploying Harlequins of all things. 

Now, while I know that Harlequins are quick, very elite and very points-heavy, I honestly did not know what I was facing. I've battled harlequins all of once and it was in a very casual and non-competitive setting. 

And while I was unable to get a copy of his list, here it is from memory. 

Shadow Seer 

Solitaire

4 Harlequin Jetbikes with Haywire Cannons

A 5-strong troupe with a power sword, Caresses, in the Venom-esque transport whose name escapes me

Again, very unfamiliar with the army. I knew not to let the Solitaire live, and I knew the Shadowseer could cause me some serious problems with his tricksy psychic abilities. Past that I was running blind, and that terrified me. This is a player who can think three turns ahead, and I think I was already in the wrong mindset. I wasn't focussed on winning this game. My goal was to make sure I didn't lose horrifically. And therein lay my first mistake. 

I will say as well, apologies but there are very few photos of this game due to the intensity of the situation. After turn two, half the tournament was gathered around our table, which only heightened my nerves, so taking images completely slipped my mind for the most part.

I deployed centrally in my usual formation, with the only objective being "KILL". If anything, I perhaps deployed too far forward, having the upper hand when it came to range, but alas, against an army that ignores terrain pretty much completely, the dense ruins on the did not play to my advantage. Perhaps I also should have spread out a little more, but hindsight is 20/20. 

As for his deployment, the Shadowseer and Troupe in their transport lurked in the ruins on the right, while his bikes and lone solitaire deployed in very open ground, taking advantage of the intervening terrain to protect them. 

I seized first turn, and wasted no time in moving to clear fire lanes with both my Blades and Destroyers. 

The Destroyers moved to the left and gunned down the lone Solitaire before gliding back into formation, claiming a tertiary objective for first blood, while the blades pushed forward to draw the troupe out and perhaps force an error. I think this was a blatant mistake and expressed my mindset in this game perfectly. I was in damage control before my opponent had picked up a dice. 

My opponent's opening gambit was swift and lethal. The troupe piggybacked out of their transport, flipping and twirling into combat with my exposed Tomb Blades, losing one of their number to Overwatch. 

 The Jetbikes advanced into range of my Stalker, unleashing their haywire weapons, which bypassed my Quantum Shielding altogether and wrecked the towering construct. This was a huge blow, stripping me of the bonuses of the target array as well as a versatile flamer weapon that would have doubtless caused catastrophic damage if applied to the right target. 

The Tomb Blades surprised me by not being slaughtered, instead slaying another Harlequin in exchange for two of their numbers. This combat dragged on until the end of my turn, when the harlequins Hit & Ran, leaping toward my Warriors. My shooting phase achieved very little, thanks to a nasty Malediction on my Destroyers and my warriors standing helplessly by as the Tomb Blades blocked any remotely useful shooting. 

Thanks to their newfound flexibility, the troupe charged headlong into the warriors and began their systematic slaughter. Not to say it was an easy fight for them! Toughness 4 with Reanimation Protocols is nothing to sneeze at for any eldar to bring low, but thanks to a well timed charge from his Jetbikes, my warriors were slaughtered to a man in the space of two combat phases. From this point onward, things were a blur of dice and panic. But, with a distinct lack of photos thanks to frantic gameplay and more than a little bit of stress, the key game changing points were as follows.

My single living (and I use that word with a pinch of salt) tomb blade successfully gunned down the skimmer lurking in the backfield, netting me some valuable points, before hiding behind a building in my opponents right backfield for the rest of the game.

The troupe was disintergrated by my destroyers before the bikes charged in and killed a single model at which point, I failed a LD9 check and was cut down as I ran. 

And lastly, despite the urgent traversing of the board, the Harlequin Jetbikes could not kill my Tomb Blade before the game ended. Everyone around the table was chanting for me to rush out guns blazing from behind the safety of the building, but I refrained. 

And so, by a whisker, I managed to land a Minor loss with an extra two points for killing his Solitaire in the first turn. If that tomb blade had died, I would have missed out on the podium altogether, so caution saved the day! This left me with a final score of 67, landing first place. My game 4 opponent, thanks to the brutal victory over me, came second with 65 battle points, while the other Necron player got 64 battle points. 

Despite the win, it was a tough and exhausting way to end the day. As I mentioned in my Tournament preparation post, I mentioned that I didn't really have an answer for elite assault armies, and Harlequins proved that to be true. I think I panicked and made some errors early on that cost me dearly later in the game, but my opponent was ever the gentleman, even allowing me to roll for Illuminor's augmentations mid-game due to my complete absent-mindedness in deployment. It had next to no outcome of the game, but it's gestures like that that go a long way towards being a fantastic sportsman! 

So, at the end of the day, I managed to tick off a New Years resolution, with this event being the second tournament this year in which I came first. The first was a similar 40k event that was held before 40k made its way onto my blog, in which grey knights performed admirably! 

But I digress.

Second Strike was an absolute joy to be a part of and was an incredibly satisfying and enjoyable day, in which community felt like the focus. 

Thanks for reading, 

Gabriel

 

#23: Second Strike Game 3 - Crash and Burn

The third game of the tournament pitted me against another regular who had chosen to run Space Marine Salamanders. It caught me by surprise to see he had chosen not to mount up in vehicles or even drop pods, but had still taken short-ranged Salamander-friendly weapons. 

His librarian rolled on Pyromancy (as every good Salamander should) and rolled up Fiery Form and a flamer template witch fire. This was a relief, because I have very little in the way of tools to stop enemy psykers... Other than an abrupt, brutal death by Guass. 

His librarian led the force, backed up by two five man marine squads and five Sternguard. Armour came in the form of a venerable Dreadnaught and a storm talon. 

The scenario was objective based. Each player placed an objective in their own deployment zone, while a third occupied the very centre of the board (in our case, the central ruins). I chose to drop my objective behind a building near my board edge, upon which I would park my Tomb Blades for the best part of the game. My opponent placed his objective in area terrain near his Dreadnaught. 

I deployed in a pretty central position. The board was pretty bare of terrain, so my goal was to cause as much damage as I could to his ground forces before the storm talon flew in and brought a hail of death to my army. 

His first turn was largely uneventful, being out of range of all of my ground troops. His Sternguard snapped off a few Kraken bolts but with no results. When I took up the tape measure, I wasted no time in advancing up the battlefield, firing as they went. Because of his drawn-back deployment, my Stalker could not reach his Dreadnaught, but my Destroyers and Warriors unleashed death upon the Marines, the Librarian and his Sternguard bodyguard falling to the heavy fire of Destroyers, while the Warriors and Szeras obliterated the right hand squad guarding his Dread thanks to some incredibly lucky rolling. 

Suffering horrendous losses so early in the game, my opponent was caught on his back foot and needed to pull some magic out of the bag. His Storm Talon arrived right on schedule and unloaded its formidable arsenal into the face of my stalker. The Assault cannon failed to achieve anything more than a glance, while the twin-linked Lascannon blasted the Heat Ray clean off the underbelly of the towering mechanical crab. With a single hull point remaining and no weapon, I was left with little choice but to skitter onto the central objective and hide in the ruins. 

Illuminor and his minions, having lost the anti-tank support they were so used to relying on, let loose a barrage of guass upon the Dreadnaught, wrecking it with ease, while the Destroyers made short work of the last five marines behind a barricade. The tomb blades crept around the building in my backfield to try and damage the Talon but to no avail. 

In the dying moments of the game, his talon flew directly toward my Blades in an attempt to drive me off an objective, but after only killing two, I passed my leadership check and returned fire with the Tomb Blades, who somehow (luck against luck) managed to score some lucky glancing hits and drop it out of the sky. In my mind, this completely justified my choice to select Guass blasters on them over the more popular but less versatile Particle Beamer. Having the ability to overwatch, snap-fire and target fliers allowed me to close out my third game with a third consecutive 20-0, putting me firmly at the top of the ladder, 13 points clear of the player in second. I was very happy with where I was, but after having three matchups that favoured my list, the fourth game was by far the toughest and most bloody. 

Or whatever leaks out of Necrons when you cut them... Motor oil?

Looking back, I honestly don't know what I would have done if I had been in my opponent's shoes. I think without the mobility offered by vehicles or the masses firepower needed to take me on in a head to head firefight, he panicked a little and froze. His marines were sitting well back off his deployment line, armed with short-ranged flame and melta weapons that never got the chance to fire. I could tell after the game that he was pretty shattered, as this loss had pushed him down into the middle of the pack and out of podium contention. But as harsh as any loss is, we were all there to win, and we've all suffered heartbreaking defeat. 

Onward to the final game.

Thanks for reading, 

Gabriel

#22: Second Strike Game 2 - Khorne's Concrete Boots

My second game put me up against the only other 20-0 player from round one, one of about eight chaos players. Speaking of which, the spread of armies attending was weirdly uncharacteristic. While there was an abundance of Chaos, there was only a single Eldar player, only two necron players (one of which is myself) and no Tau. 

Here is what I was facing down against. 

Chaos Terminator Lord with Mark of Khorne

20 Nurgle Cultists

10 Chaos Marines with Mark of Khorne, a flamer, a power fist and a plasma pistol

Rhino

Forge fiend with 3 Ectoplasm cannons

The biggest concern for me in the opening turns would be surviving the Strength 8 barrage of plasma from the Fiend. Hopefully, I could draw some heat on it with my overloaded amount of Guass! The only other thing of note from this game is that my opponent, being a little inexperienced, wasn't aware that Marks were mutually exclusive within units, and deployed his Khorne lord with his Nurgle cultists. By the time It clicked in my brain, it was the end of turn four and so I didn't bring it up until after the game, and from his reaction, it was a genuine mistake. I say this purely because I know that one of you, dear readers, will put two and two together while reading and raise the question. 

Scenario! Ok, so this scenario was the classic "table quarters" take and hold-style game, with any given unit only able to hold a single table quarter, even if they are spread out over two or more. This leant to a more aggressive playstyle, having to push my opponents units out of each quarter and then staunchly defending it against attempts to recapture. 

I deployed heavily upon my far-right side, preparing to scramble in order to bring down the forge fiend. My Tomb Blades, being by far the fastest unit in my army, would be given the role of drawing elements of my opponents army away from the bulk of my force, and I was confident that due to being jetbikes and having decent guns, that they would really shine in this match. 

The game began with Chaos pushing hard down the left side of the board, with his rhino moving up as far as it could without exposing its side armour to my Stalker. The mob of cultists marched toward the ruins in the centre of the two-tone board, being aware that cover would be one of the only saves he was going to get. 

I braced myself for the Forge Fiend's onslaught, but despite killing a handful of warriors, it was largely disappointing for my opponent, with one cannon overheating and stripping off a valuable Hull Point.

My turn consisted mostly of movement. My Blades slid smoothly out from behind the ruins and opened fire upon the Rhino, tearing two hull points off, but failing to halt it. I managed to also sneak a crafty shot between two buildings with my Heavy Destroyer (right of picture) on the Forge Fiend, penetrating it and Stunning the mechanical monstrosity. He rolled a one for his Daemonic Possesion, and the hit stuck, leaving him on a single hull point and more importantly, forced to Snap Shot. It offered me a whole turn of sweet reprieve from the crushing salvos that the Fiend could dish out. 

The crazed chaos marines continued to barrel across the board toward my Blades. One of my blades was felled by the Chaos Lord's carefully aimed combi-bolter while his crippled Fiend back-pedalled into the safety of nearby ruins. 

In my turn, the Blades shifted right into the corner. This left my opponent with a difficult choice. To claim a major victory, you had to claim three table quarters. If he ignored my Blades, that was a quarter firmly in my hands (given, of course, that I could clear the midfield). If he committed a unit (presumably the mechanised marines) to seek them out and kill them, he would have to come all the way to the corner to do so, wasting valuable game turns and resources trying to catch a unit that could quite easily boost away to another quarter in a heartbeat, relocating to another, uncontested table quarter. 

It was a basic ploy, but it payed off. My warriors moved into rapid fire range of his cultist blob, and my destroyers moves into such a position that gave them some clean shots at the wounded fiend, while still benefiting from the Stalker's targeting array. 

This turn, I dropped the hammer upon my foes. The warriors killed six cultists who were sulking within the ruins, while the Stalker's Heat Ray used its heavy flamer mode to kill another five. The Tomb blades administered the final blow to the rhino, forcing the rage-fuelled marines inside to pile out toward my warlord and his retinue. To round out the turn, the Destroyers unleashed hell upon the Forgefiend, which erupted in an eldritch explosion. 

Then came "that moment" that comes in every game where events swing deliberately in one player's direction. Declaring a charge on my stalker with the Lord and his cultists, and likewise against my warriors with his marines, I prepared to overwatch. The dispersed Heat Ray slew the three closest cultists, and Illuminor and his warriors mowed down five marines. To add absolute insult to crippling injury, he failed a four inch charge with his cultists and a five inch charge with his marines. Khorne would be ashamed. Talk about the dice going against you... 

In what I was expecting to be the end game, and showing uncharacteristic presence of mind, I shifted my destroyers wholly within the far right table quarter, but still maintaining a view of the doomed marines. The warriors marched forward to maximise their rate of fire, while the stalker skittered into the far quarter, preparing to roast some more cultists or perhaps take a shot at his lord. The Tomb blades remained where they were, prioritising the objective over unnecessary bravado. I fired off a handful of shots at the cultist unit, but to no avail, thanks to some cleverly located terminator armour. The two surviving marines met a predictably bloody end in the face of unrelenting fire power, and the stalker's flamer weapon claimed another two lives. 

In a final gambit, my opponent charged out of the building and entered combat with my towering machine. While I managed to squish two crazed heretics, it was not enough to stop the lord raising his cumbersome power fist and wrecking my walker in one brutal blow. 

Though a satisfying kill, my opponent was in no better situation. The last moments of the game saw both warriors and destroyers unleash wave upon wave of crackling death upon the hapless lord whose terminator armour held off all but the Heavy Destroyers carefully aimed shot, striking him dead instantly. 

I had a good conversation with my opponent afterward, and explained the mutually exclusive nature of marks. He sounded genuinely surprised, and it was unfortunate because with that in mind, he really had nowhere to put the lord. If he joined the Khorne marines, they would not fit in the rhino, and his army would fail to operate as he intended. I honestly can't say how his games (or his unfortunately-marked lord) faired going forward, but i hope he wasn't too disheartened by this new revelation about his army. 

This game once again displayed the synergy that makes necrons so powerful! My destroyers were invaluable in bringing priority targets to their knees, and the Tomb Blades showed off not only their speed and agility, but their flexibility in battlefield roles. Both priceless units in this tournament!

Having secured another 20-0 win, this put me well and truly on top of the leaderboard, having slain his warlord and wiping him out completely to claim secondary and tertiary objectives. And with such a tumultuous first two games, I genuinely did not know what to expect in my third game of the day. 

Thanks for reading!

Gabriel

#21: Second Strike Game 1 - Descent of Angels

Well, tournament day was upon us! We were ready to go! And after a frantic morning of model assembly (and shattering my Stalker on the floor at home) particularly strong coffee with some friends, we began our first round.

My first matchup was against a Blood Angel drop pod list. Here's what he was fielding. 

Mephiston 

5 Scouts with sniper rifles and a missile launcher

Furioso Dreadnaught with a Frag Cannon, heavy flamer and fist in a drop pod

 

5 Sternguard with 2 combi-grav guns in a drop pod 

5 Devastators with 3 heavy bolters, a missile launcher in a drop pod.

Now, my first thought was that it was an odd choice putting a Devastator squad in a drop pod. With four heavy weapons, I think they would have been of better use in a backfield role. My second thought went something down the lines of panic and terror at the sight of Mephiston. He is still a beast of a psyker and I have next to no psychic defence. He was fast becoming public enemy #1!

So, the scenario was a variation of kill points. You had to keep track of how many points worth of models you kill, rather than each unit being worth one point. To top things off, every time a Troop choice was removed from play, it would be recycled and return to the board via ongoing reserves. While this scenario would completely turn most armies on their heads, we each had a single troops choice, and I can say now that this rule never came into play! 

Not wanting a Dreadnaught behind my lines, and being protective of my Stalker's squishy rear armour, I deployed in tight formation in one corner. 

(As you can see, I spent the morning of the tournament madly assembling neglected tomb blades, and yes, it pained me to deploy bare plastic)

The thing I am slowly learning about 40k is that an army can be both aggressive and defensive in the same game, and in this situation, I leant heavily upon a defensive deployment, anchoring my flanks on ruins and using my warriors to shield my more valuable units. You can just see my warlord, Illuminor Szeras (using the Orikan model, due to recent stock delays) dead centre to best share his Reanimation bonus, with the stalker sharing his BS bonus, which would become a common theme this tournament. Illuminor also conveyed +1 Toughness to the Warriors from his augmentations. 

My opponent held almost everything in reserve (not surprisingly) with the exception of a 5 man scout squad in the left hand ruins. 

After cheekily seizing initiative off me, my opponent began his assault! And he did so, fearlessly. Mephiston accompanied the Sternguard on my left, while his Furioso slammed down on my right. 

Now came the first time that I witnessed the tenacity of the Necrons. Mephiston added Smite to a barrage of grav-guns, frag cannons, heavy Flamers and special issue ammunition, not to mention the pod Storm bolters and some sniper fire. Only six warriors went down. That was not nearly enough! 

I returned fire with brutal efficiency. The Heat Ray turned his Furioso into an eruption of flame and schrapnel, felling another nearby warrior. The Sternguard suffered the full brunt of my army's arsenal. When the crackling guass faded, Mephiston, the last of his squad, slumped to his knees and expired. 

Still reeling from his horrific losses, my opponent deployed his third and final drop pod, Devastators taking up battlefield positions to my right. I was relived to suffer no significant losses from their guns, due to Snap Fire. 

Being satisfied that I had withstood the worst of my opponent's assault, I finally broke formation and began to move across the board, systematically glancing drop pods to death on my march toward his terrified scouts. 

The destroyers proved their worth, deleting the Devastators from the game in a single salvo thanks to Preferred Enemy and the Stalker's targeting array. 

From this point onward, my stalker implemented the unstoppable Heat Ray to destroy the final drop pod as my Tomb Blades slaughtered the scouts, as they tried to flee, thanks to their cover-ignoring Guass Blasters. 

At this point of the game, my opponent opted to end the game. The scenario special rule meant that he could bring the now-dead scouts back into the fray, but moving onto the board with heavy weapons meant he would be Snapfiring at an all-but-full strength enemy only to be gunned down again. 

My opponent was a true gentleman in defeat, however, and he got my vote for top Sportsman. 

So, with my first game being a crushing victory, in which I managed to secure secondary and tertiary goals (wipe out your enemy completely and kill a unit in the first turn of the game respectively), put me at the head of the rankings on a 20-0 win. 

I prepared for game two, knowing I would be in for a tough matchup!

Thanks for reading, the next three games will be up shortly!

Gabriel

#20: Preparing for War...

Well, I have one week until The 750pt Tiny Hammer tournament. And in that time, I have a LOT of painting to do. So, between work, landscaping my property and a very busy social schedule, I have been hitting the brushes as speedily as I can. 

And while I usually play my cards pretty close to my chest when it comes to tournaments, but I have thrown caution to the wind for the sake of you, the reader. While I may very well face down against one of you, I am one list in a pool of many, and there is really not a great deal to lose by being open. Lists are all in and submitted, so it's out of our hands. 

So without more ado, this is my list.

Illuminor Szeras (Warlord)

15 Necron Warriors (Compulsary Troop)

Triarch Stalker with a Heat Ray (Elite)

5 Tomb Blades with Shield Vanes, Nebuloscopes and Guass Blasters (Fast)

4 Destroyers accompanied by a Heavy Destroyer (Fast, Wildcard slot)

So, as I mentioned in my last post, I've learnt very heavily toward shooting. Szeras has enough special rules to supplement an army, gives the big unit of fifteen warriors a healthy stat-buff, as well as bringing some hard-hitting death with his Eldritch Lance. Aside from his special rules, his model is wicked! 

The rest of the army was chosen from the units in the book that carry any kind of decent gun. The Stalker is the centrepiece of this army, towering over the surrounding models. 

I do hate sub-assembly painting, but Necrons leave me with no choice. The vehicles are way too large and multi-layered to be able to fully build it before you paint. The end result is very satisfying though, when all the components come together. 

One thing you may notice in my list is the distinct lack of Particle Beamers on my tomb blades. Every necron player seems to have an obsession with S6 ignores-cover blast, and I can see the appeal, but I wanted to try an outside the box set up. I've still got Ignore Cover thanks to the Nebuloscopes, but I veered away from the Particle Beamer in favour of the less disgusting but more versatile Guass Blasters. Think your Rhino is safe behind that ruin? Think again!

So, I know that this army is harsh in the setting of the tournament. As far as I know (from the only two other lists I've seen), it's on the nastier end of the scale, but I'm still prepared to get my teeth kicked in more than once. 

So what are bad matchups for me?

I fear dedicated assault lists! While I have a pretty solid shooting phase, I don't really have much of an answer to something like Daemonkin, and despite the guns I can bring to bear, a list like horde Orks or Tyranids will still have plenty of bodies after my shooting to tear a few metal heads off. 

The second type of list that worries me is an army that can outshoot me. Tau and Astra Militarum spring to mind. If a list can do what I do, but better, I am gonna have a rough time. Eldar are going to give me some serious trouble, too! Not only do they pack the punch in the shooting phase, but they are so quick and so hard to catch; not to mention the carnage that could be caused if a gang of Striking Scorpions gets into my lines. 

My army only really has four units, so any unit that goes down is gonna hurt! Reanimation Protocol mitigates damage, but it's no fool-proof insurance against getting your face caved in with a blunt object. 

But I'll tell you why I am looking forward to this tournament so much. This is the first time I have competed in 40k in years.  And I cannot wait to deploy an army that I am proud of and that I (hopefully) have painted, and just roll some dice, win or lose. And if I get smashed four times in a row, there's always Best Sports!

So yeah, I am really pumped for this coming weekend. There shall be Battle Reports in abundance to come! 

But in that time, I still have heaps of painting and basing to do, so I must leave you to lavish some artistic attention upon some space robots.

As always, thanks for reading!

Have a fantastic week.

Gabriel

#19: Lock and load

As the start of May comes and goes, it dawns on me how much I still need to paint if I am to have my necrons ready by the tournament at the end of the month! 

For those of you unaware of the tournament I am preparing for, it is this. A 750pt 40k tournament run by our local Games Workshop (mt Gravatt), which is designed as a welcoming environment to new players and experienced ones alike. The trick with this tournament is it's force organisation. There are no Imperial Knights, no formations, not even codex-specific force organisation charts such as the Decurion or Windrider host. So here it is...

The only compulsory choice is one unit from troops. This allows for some serious flexibility and also opens the door for unorthodox armies such as Harlequins and Skitarii (both of which do not have HQ's) to legally compete. 

Then there are your optional slots. 

0-1 HQ

0-3 troops

0-1 Elite

0-1 Fast Attack

0-1 Heavy Support

And to close it out, you have a "wildcard" slot that can be used as either a second Elite, Fast or Heavy support. 

The thing that leapt out at me with this players pack, is that you have to be pretty deliberate with your unit selection. By taking an elite unit, you are excluding all other elite units in the book unless you're willing to use your wildcard, in which case, you'll face the same problem with Fast and Heavy. So I spent a lot of time staring at the necron book trying to work out what kind of army I wanted to build. While I was spoilt for choice with good units, I kept going back to a great piece of advice I had received from another, far more experienced Necron Player. 

Pick on thing and do it well. 

Necrons have the units, characters and vehicles to have a strong presence in every phase (except psychic of course), but to excel at one phase in only 750 points, I would have to sacrifice strength in another. So when it came down to the crunch, I was torn between a fast, Canoptek-heavy combat army, or a relentless shooting army capable of destroying anything foolish enough to step into open ground. And yes. I went with shooting. 

The tournament is not without composition, however, with lists going before a panel of judges for either approval or resubmitting. So, not knowing what I would be able to use, I just started writing lists. And all of those lists had three units that seemed to continually pop up. The first is Illuminor Szeras. This crab-like cryptek is an incredibly versatile utility character. He improves the Reanimation Protocol of all nearby models, he has a 12" leadership bonus, he increases the stats of his own unit, and lastly, he carries around a laser stick of death that only adds to my barrage of firepower. Not amazing in combat, but if he ends up in a hand to hand fight with my enemy, things have gone very wrong!

The second is the Triarch Stalker. This towering walker is well at home in a shooting list, bringing decent armour, a tank-melting Heat Ray, as well as his ever-useful targeting array which improves the Ballistic Skill of all other units when they target the unit he has already shot. Not only that, he makes a great centre piece (and las cannon magnet) for my army, looming over the troops around him. 

The third unit that kept making appearances are Destroyers.

These floating death dealers have had a significant improvement in the last book, having been barely seen at all beforehand. It's not that they were ever truly bad, it's just other things from the same slot were better. Dragon Ogre Syndrome strikes again.

But in this book, they are harder than ever to kill, and while not cheap, they do bring some great AP3 shooting to the table to handle any pesky power armour that comes my way. 

And while I won't publish the list here in its entirety, it gives you a good idea of the direction I am going in. 

So, what else have I been up to? Well, my High Elves have not been without love this week, having added two Bolt Throwers to the force.

The addition of these, my only war machines, I now have the ranged hitting power to scythe down light infantry with relative ease, as well as having an efficient counter to monstrous cavalry and any gigantic creature that fancies an Elf entrée. Since I put the shout out for challengers interested in battle reports, there has been more than a few interested in spilling Elf blood, so with my schedule allowing, I'll be jamming in some thousand point games which will hopefully produce an entertaining battle report or two!

What have you been working on? And would YOU like to face my elves? 

Until next week,

Gabriel