When I posted earlier about week 3, I really meant week 2. I played 3 more games of AIIG goodness.
Game 1 was a rematch against the 8-0 Scrapmeister. Luckily, this time I got a loot counter spearhead. I was lucky to go first.
I proceeded just as I had in our previous match, except this time I was able to kill about 15 orks in my first turn. His run rolls were pretty good (like 5,6) so he did not have to call his waagh for a turn 2 assault. The game was me losing close combats like crazy and firing upon the survivors. Some highlights include my standard bearer with 3 attacks wounding his warboss twice in close combat and killing him. At the end of turn 5, I had one objective and my opponent had none. Out of the 121 orks I faced, 4 survived to turn 5. I had roughly 25 guardsmen left.
Some observations; In this particular sense, I think whoever goes first wins. (that is currently the standing between us) It all comes down to whether or not I get that extra turn of shooting before close combat begins. This is definitely a tough list to beat at 1000 points.
Game 2 was against a young man who was on the top of the pairings, so a match needed to be held. He brought 3 dreadnoughts, 10 space marines, tigurius, a 5-man sniper scout squad with telion, and a thunderfire cannon. The mission was annihilation. Needless to say, my opponent was severly outgunned. He had no real close combat units to speak of, and is relatively new at the game. His list was more designed to face power armor, I think. Thus it mattered not that he had lascannons and multi-meltas for I also had no vehicles. An easy win, but a bit regrettable due to the differences in our forces.
Game 3 was against Drop podding Space Wolves (using the new marine codex rules) Dawn of war capture and control. (thanks dice...) Well, I knew this would be an uphill battle because I would waste at least one turn of shooting. The downsides came when he detactched 2 independent characters from the blood claw squads and sent them towards my lines while the bloodclaws were able to capture objectives out of LoS (behind terrain and/or drop pods) Despite my entire force firing at the IC's, I only killed one. (I thought I had them both, but realized that the wolf lord carried the new and improved storm shield to thwart like 3 Krak Missiles. needless to say he wiped out some scoring units. The flamers in the BC squads did not help either... I lost 1-0 on turn 7. (Had the game ended turn 5, we might have drawn) the new BS4 storm bolters on drop pods is rough as well against guard. I was utterly eaten in close combat as wellas shooting but I did inflict severe casualties on my opponent. A loss for the AIIG.
-Mike
Monday, November 24, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Escalation Round 3: Week 3
So, I broke out the AIIG for another couple games of the escalation league. I played 3 games.
The first game was a loot counters mission, against one of the odd ork build lists. My opponent had a warboss and a unit of nobs in a looted wagon, 10 ork bikes and Wazzdakka Gutsmek. There were 3 objectives on the table. This battle was difficult due to the high toughness of the bikers and the 2-wound FNP nobs. This boiled down to a huge battle of attrition near the objective on my side of the board, at the end of the game, I had 2 scoring units on the objectives in the middle of the board. When the game ended, the looted wagon was contesting the 3rd objective. A win for the guard.
Next up was an Annihilation mission against a khornate-lash list. My opponent had a daemon prince with Lash, Kharn, 2 units of 8 berzerkers in Rhinos, and a Vindicator. 7 Kill points starting. I was not going to win a battle of attrition, i needed to wipe him out. I cornered myself on the right-ish side of my tabke edge, my opponent deployed across from me. His first turn he rushed everything forward 12 inches and popped smoke on all of his vehicles. I was able to destroy 1 rhino and wound the daemon prince once (he also wounded himself on a perils of the warp). The next turn saw me destroy the other rhino, and despite the many wounds I did with the rest of my army, I could not make the marines fall in any great way. The daemon prince charged my command squad, whiffed, lost a wound and failed his save for being fearless. Kharn, his squad, and the other berzerker squad plowed into my lines. I pulled the classic, feed a unit, let them die, shoot the survivors and managed to kill everything save Kharn and the Vindicator. My opponent, who was now up on kill points, hid Kharn and his Vindicator out of LoS, thus the game was lost for the guard, despite having a 25:1 model ratio on the board. The mandatory junior officer/4 guardsman 2 kp units are a killer for us.
The next game, I played another Annihilation mission against a horde ork player. He had 4 squads of 30 orks, a warboss, and 4 kannons (in squads of 2)
I let him go first so that I could infiltrate. (I messed this rule up, and I think it was a major factor in the game. I was under the impression that for infiltrators to use their rule I had to set up last , this is actually an Apocalypse rule)
Well, in his first turn he wasted no time, running all units towards my lines. The cannons, in a rare display of scatter-accuracy, caused 12 hits on my mortar teams, killing 5. A big part of my anti-horde went out the window. I pulled my classic get assaulted, counter fire... But to no avail. My 10 man guardsmen squads could usually only manage 1-2 casualties per firing attempt. I was overrun and called the game on the top of turn 5. ( I had killed close to 70-80 of the orks)
So the AIIG are undefeated in objective missions (draws are not losses), but remain horrible in kill point missions...
1-2-0 for the weekend.
-Mike
The first game was a loot counters mission, against one of the odd ork build lists. My opponent had a warboss and a unit of nobs in a looted wagon, 10 ork bikes and Wazzdakka Gutsmek. There were 3 objectives on the table. This battle was difficult due to the high toughness of the bikers and the 2-wound FNP nobs. This boiled down to a huge battle of attrition near the objective on my side of the board, at the end of the game, I had 2 scoring units on the objectives in the middle of the board. When the game ended, the looted wagon was contesting the 3rd objective. A win for the guard.
Next up was an Annihilation mission against a khornate-lash list. My opponent had a daemon prince with Lash, Kharn, 2 units of 8 berzerkers in Rhinos, and a Vindicator. 7 Kill points starting. I was not going to win a battle of attrition, i needed to wipe him out. I cornered myself on the right-ish side of my tabke edge, my opponent deployed across from me. His first turn he rushed everything forward 12 inches and popped smoke on all of his vehicles. I was able to destroy 1 rhino and wound the daemon prince once (he also wounded himself on a perils of the warp). The next turn saw me destroy the other rhino, and despite the many wounds I did with the rest of my army, I could not make the marines fall in any great way. The daemon prince charged my command squad, whiffed, lost a wound and failed his save for being fearless. Kharn, his squad, and the other berzerker squad plowed into my lines. I pulled the classic, feed a unit, let them die, shoot the survivors and managed to kill everything save Kharn and the Vindicator. My opponent, who was now up on kill points, hid Kharn and his Vindicator out of LoS, thus the game was lost for the guard, despite having a 25:1 model ratio on the board. The mandatory junior officer/4 guardsman 2 kp units are a killer for us.
The next game, I played another Annihilation mission against a horde ork player. He had 4 squads of 30 orks, a warboss, and 4 kannons (in squads of 2)
I let him go first so that I could infiltrate. (I messed this rule up, and I think it was a major factor in the game. I was under the impression that for infiltrators to use their rule I had to set up last , this is actually an Apocalypse rule)
Well, in his first turn he wasted no time, running all units towards my lines. The cannons, in a rare display of scatter-accuracy, caused 12 hits on my mortar teams, killing 5. A big part of my anti-horde went out the window. I pulled my classic get assaulted, counter fire... But to no avail. My 10 man guardsmen squads could usually only manage 1-2 casualties per firing attempt. I was overrun and called the game on the top of turn 5. ( I had killed close to 70-80 of the orks)
So the AIIG are undefeated in objective missions (draws are not losses), but remain horrible in kill point missions...
1-2-0 for the weekend.
-Mike
Friday, November 7, 2008
Thoughts in AIIG (All Infantry Imperial Guard)
I played 2 games with my AIIG at 1000 points last weekend. This army presents some unique challenges in 5th edition. I would like to outline them for my loyal reader.
The AIIG is an odd army that uses a TON of cheap troops. The benefit to this is to have a lot of scoring units, the downside is that AIIG hemorrhages kill points. In my standard 55 point junior officer command squad, i give 2 kill points for its destruction. That is 5 T3 5+ Sv models for 2 kill points...wowch. (wow + ouch =wowch, tell your friends.)
In missions that are objective based, the guard does pretty well, solely by having so many scoring units. (in 1000 points I have 8 scoring units) In the kill point mission, I give up 16 kill points. So, in a kill point missions, it is unlikely that I will ever be able to amass more kill points than my opponent. (unless I am playing against an AIIG list) Ergo, my goal in a kill point mission is to wipe my opponent off of the table (which will be difficult).
Now for some pointers when making an AIIG list.
-In Infantry squads, take either a special weapon or a heavy weapon, never both. Doing this clearly defines the squads role on the battlefield. Heavy weapon squads sit back on objectives, special weapon squads move forward to claim them. Leave the tactical flexibility to the Space Marines.
-The Missile Launcher is the Heavy Weapon of choice, for several reasons. It is incredibly versatile, able to hurt/kill anything in the 40k universe. It is either more effective or cheaper than heavy wepaons that perform a similar role.
-Avoid the heavy use of doctrines. Sharpshooters, Carapace Armor, Cameloline, etc... are a colossal waste. Iron discipline, close-order drill, and drop troops are low cost and effective. Light Infantry is a good doctrine because it allows units to use the outflank rule (through infiltration)
-Chimeras are overpriced and should never be used, for any reason, no matter how good you think that they are.
-With the popularity of the Powerfist armed Space Marine Sergeant, Ogryns are still a bad choice because they are instant-killed so easily.
-Commissars and Priests are still a bit costly.
Now for some sweet, sweet tactics.
-This is a game of attrition and mathhammer. 5th edition gives cover saves to pretty much everyone. this increases our "armor save" by 16.67% and gives us a save of 50% against small arms fire that usually ignores our armor save. A prolonged fire fight almost favors guard (provided you bring enough firepower) Letting loose with 3 frag missiles from an anti-tank squad is awesome and can cause a lot of wounds. (I wounded 8 Space Marines once) There is almost no reason to fire krak missiles at enemy infantry.
-Unless there is a Tau fire warrior within 6 inches, you should NEVER charge. Trust me.
So, as I take this list forwards I will post more glorious stuff.
-Mike
The AIIG is an odd army that uses a TON of cheap troops. The benefit to this is to have a lot of scoring units, the downside is that AIIG hemorrhages kill points. In my standard 55 point junior officer command squad, i give 2 kill points for its destruction. That is 5 T3 5+ Sv models for 2 kill points...wowch. (wow + ouch =wowch, tell your friends.)
In missions that are objective based, the guard does pretty well, solely by having so many scoring units. (in 1000 points I have 8 scoring units) In the kill point mission, I give up 16 kill points. So, in a kill point missions, it is unlikely that I will ever be able to amass more kill points than my opponent. (unless I am playing against an AIIG list) Ergo, my goal in a kill point mission is to wipe my opponent off of the table (which will be difficult).
Now for some pointers when making an AIIG list.
-In Infantry squads, take either a special weapon or a heavy weapon, never both. Doing this clearly defines the squads role on the battlefield. Heavy weapon squads sit back on objectives, special weapon squads move forward to claim them. Leave the tactical flexibility to the Space Marines.
-The Missile Launcher is the Heavy Weapon of choice, for several reasons. It is incredibly versatile, able to hurt/kill anything in the 40k universe. It is either more effective or cheaper than heavy wepaons that perform a similar role.
-Avoid the heavy use of doctrines. Sharpshooters, Carapace Armor, Cameloline, etc... are a colossal waste. Iron discipline, close-order drill, and drop troops are low cost and effective. Light Infantry is a good doctrine because it allows units to use the outflank rule (through infiltration)
-Chimeras are overpriced and should never be used, for any reason, no matter how good you think that they are.
-With the popularity of the Powerfist armed Space Marine Sergeant, Ogryns are still a bad choice because they are instant-killed so easily.
-Commissars and Priests are still a bit costly.
Now for some sweet, sweet tactics.
-This is a game of attrition and mathhammer. 5th edition gives cover saves to pretty much everyone. this increases our "armor save" by 16.67% and gives us a save of 50% against small arms fire that usually ignores our armor save. A prolonged fire fight almost favors guard (provided you bring enough firepower) Letting loose with 3 frag missiles from an anti-tank squad is awesome and can cause a lot of wounds. (I wounded 8 Space Marines once) There is almost no reason to fire krak missiles at enemy infantry.
-Unless there is a Tau fire warrior within 6 inches, you should NEVER charge. Trust me.
So, as I take this list forwards I will post more glorious stuff.
-Mike
Thursday, November 6, 2008
A great Apocalypse Rule
I recently played in an Apoc game that had a rule change to how the game was "won".
As we know, Apocalypse relies on 6 (sometimes more) objective markers and that the team controlling the most wins.
The change is that holding objectives now gives youpoints, worked out at the end of each player turn.
The team with the most points at the end wins.
The breakdown is as follows.
You get 1 point/turn for objectives in your deployment zone.
You get 2 points/turn for objectives in no-mans land.
You get 3 points/turn for objectives in your opponents deployment zone.
This change to the game focuses on getting to objectives and holding on to your own objectives. The group I played with found this both challenging and fun. Lone reader, if you like Apoc, give this a try.
-Mike
As we know, Apocalypse relies on 6 (sometimes more) objective markers and that the team controlling the most wins.
The change is that holding objectives now gives youpoints, worked out at the end of each player turn.
The team with the most points at the end wins.
The breakdown is as follows.
You get 1 point/turn for objectives in your deployment zone.
You get 2 points/turn for objectives in no-mans land.
You get 3 points/turn for objectives in your opponents deployment zone.
This change to the game focuses on getting to objectives and holding on to your own objectives. The group I played with found this both challenging and fun. Lone reader, if you like Apoc, give this a try.
-Mike
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Escalation League Round 3: Week1
Our escalation league went to 1000 points.
I opted to forgo my Eldar for the escalation league (they are and were always meant for Apocalypse, I have no need to purchase units I never intend to use)
With that being said, I resurrected my long dormant AIIG (All Infantry Imperial Guard)
1000 points.
HQ
senior officer, medic, standard.
3 missile launchers
3 missile launchers
3 mortars
3 mortars
Infantry platoon
Junior officer with boltgun, 2 plasmas, light infantry
10 guard with plasma, light infantry
10 guard with plasma, light infantry
5 remnants with Flamer, light infantry
Infantry platoon
junior officer with mortar
10 guard with plasma
10 guard with missile launcher
10 guard with missile launcher
Boom 1000 points.
8 scoring units. (yikes)
16 kill points (yikes)
The first battle was an Apocalypse game. Someone on our team brought a warhound. Someone else brought a malcador and a baneblade variant. The other team was simply outmatched. I will not go into the specifics, but it was called after turn 3. (One great thing that came from the Apoc game was a rule invented by our league organizer about objectives, I will get to this later)
For the second game, I played a Dark Angels (using the SM codex) player. The mission was capture the flag, or as we call it, "capture the draw" as it almost always ends in a draw.
So, he had a lot of space marine infantry, so I let him set up first (im very clever). I knew he would spread out too much over the board, as a result of my refused flank, 2 plasma cannons did not fire until turn 4.
*Mathhammer takes over
So the game went with us blasting each other with blast weapons. I was using frag missiles and mortars, he was using frag missiles and plasma cannons. Luckily for me the "most inaccurate blast weapon in the game" proved to be just that, the plasma cannons did little damage to me. (He had 3 that could fire from turn 1)
Some awesome highlights were his librarian using the gate of infinity to roll closer to my objective. When he got close, he charged, and was beaten down by a squad of Infantry Guard (Go close order drill !!!1!!one) The game ended unexpectedly on turn 5 with him having ONE scoring model on the board, that model happened to be on the objective. A draw for the guard.
The second game saw me face a horde of 70 orks. 60 boys, 10 nobs, a warboss and a battlewagon. Damn. Lucky for me, I had 94 guardsmen, and the emperor on my side.
The mission was loot counters, 3 of them. I started with 2, he started with 1. He began by rolling his battlewagon right towards my lines. Like the Veteran I am, I ignore it and focus on frag blasting scoring units. Frag missiles and Mortars absolutely PUMMEL hordes of orks (when they are not in cover) so, I had that going for me. I was able to fire my lasguns/frags first to thin the hordes down and then the mortars so my opponent got to take pinning tests for his mobs. All of his mobs failed at least one pinning test. This however, allowed the battlewagon to get dangerously close and assault my lines with 10 nobs and a warboss; everything they charged got shredded. Between close combats I was able to whittle down the 4+ save, Feel no Pain unit of nobs. (krak missiles helped) eventually, the mob dwindled to 5 models, and they failed their break test. The only thing left when we called it was my opponents immobilized battlewagon (which I had little chance of destroying)
So, I am liking the AIIG army.
-Mike
I opted to forgo my Eldar for the escalation league (they are and were always meant for Apocalypse, I have no need to purchase units I never intend to use)
With that being said, I resurrected my long dormant AIIG (All Infantry Imperial Guard)
1000 points.
HQ
senior officer, medic, standard.
3 missile launchers
3 missile launchers
3 mortars
3 mortars
Infantry platoon
Junior officer with boltgun, 2 plasmas, light infantry
10 guard with plasma, light infantry
10 guard with plasma, light infantry
5 remnants with Flamer, light infantry
Infantry platoon
junior officer with mortar
10 guard with plasma
10 guard with missile launcher
10 guard with missile launcher
Boom 1000 points.
8 scoring units. (yikes)
16 kill points (yikes)
The first battle was an Apocalypse game. Someone on our team brought a warhound. Someone else brought a malcador and a baneblade variant. The other team was simply outmatched. I will not go into the specifics, but it was called after turn 3. (One great thing that came from the Apoc game was a rule invented by our league organizer about objectives, I will get to this later)
For the second game, I played a Dark Angels (using the SM codex) player. The mission was capture the flag, or as we call it, "capture the draw" as it almost always ends in a draw.
So, he had a lot of space marine infantry, so I let him set up first (im very clever). I knew he would spread out too much over the board, as a result of my refused flank, 2 plasma cannons did not fire until turn 4.
*Mathhammer takes over
So the game went with us blasting each other with blast weapons. I was using frag missiles and mortars, he was using frag missiles and plasma cannons. Luckily for me the "most inaccurate blast weapon in the game" proved to be just that, the plasma cannons did little damage to me. (He had 3 that could fire from turn 1)
Some awesome highlights were his librarian using the gate of infinity to roll closer to my objective. When he got close, he charged, and was beaten down by a squad of Infantry Guard (Go close order drill !!!1!!one) The game ended unexpectedly on turn 5 with him having ONE scoring model on the board, that model happened to be on the objective. A draw for the guard.
The second game saw me face a horde of 70 orks. 60 boys, 10 nobs, a warboss and a battlewagon. Damn. Lucky for me, I had 94 guardsmen, and the emperor on my side.
The mission was loot counters, 3 of them. I started with 2, he started with 1. He began by rolling his battlewagon right towards my lines. Like the Veteran I am, I ignore it and focus on frag blasting scoring units. Frag missiles and Mortars absolutely PUMMEL hordes of orks (when they are not in cover) so, I had that going for me. I was able to fire my lasguns/frags first to thin the hordes down and then the mortars so my opponent got to take pinning tests for his mobs. All of his mobs failed at least one pinning test. This however, allowed the battlewagon to get dangerously close and assault my lines with 10 nobs and a warboss; everything they charged got shredded. Between close combats I was able to whittle down the 4+ save, Feel no Pain unit of nobs. (krak missiles helped) eventually, the mob dwindled to 5 models, and they failed their break test. The only thing left when we called it was my opponents immobilized battlewagon (which I had little chance of destroying)
So, I am liking the AIIG army.
-Mike
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