Warhammer 40k: DieCon Gateway Grand Tournament 2015 Results

Overall Winner Andy Ford's Amazing Eldar/Imperial Knight Army Converted to Appear as Necrons.

The final standings were as follows:

Overall Winner: Andy Ford (Eldar/Imperial Knights)

2nd Overall: Adam Warnecke a.k.a. Capnmoe (Eldar/Imperial Knights)

3rd Overall: (Tau/Tyranids)

Best General: Eric Darrais (Eldar)

Best Painted: Tobias (Space Marines/Imperial Knights)

Sportsmanship: Dustin Beck (Grey Knights)

Eldar and Imperial Knights ruled the day. There was even an Eldar list that had 5 Wraithknights. I must say, I expected that list to completely run away with the win. To my, and I would imagine many other's surprise, he was tabled in the first round and started the day with a 0. All of the top Eldar lists contained a Farseer, jet bikes, and a Wraithknight. While the odd man Tau/Tyranids list had 3 Riptides, 3 Skyrays, and 3 flying Hive Tyrants. All brutal lists to say the least.

Capnmoe was running his Eldar/Imperial Knights Combo

Bill Keys was running his Astra Militarum

Full lists and game summaries after the jump.

Battle Report: New 7th Edition Eldar vs Astra Militarum DieCon Mission

Please click this link and play this video in the background for proper atmosphere while reading

Adam (Capnmoe) and I decided to do a test game of the new Eldar Codex vs my 1850 Astra Militarum DieCon list.  I have never seen so much D in one game.  Before I go into what happened in the game, lets take a look at the army lists and a few notes about the units:

Bill's (VaderSeven's) Astra Militarum CAD

No Force Org Slot-
Commissar (Attached to Sabres)
Priest (Attached to Conscripts)
Priest (Warlord) (Bellowing Voice Warlord Trait [can issue orders]) (Attached to Lascannon Infantry Squad)

HQ-
Company Command Squad with Lascannon, 2x Sniper, Camo Gear, Carapace Armor, Krak Grenades, and Officer of the Fleet

Elites-
none

Troops-
Infantry Platoon
    Infantry Squad with Autocannon and Chimera
    Infantry Squad with Autocannon and Chimera
    Infantry Squad with Lascannon
    50x Conscripts
    3x Sabre Defense Platforms with Lascannons and 3x extra crew
    Platoon Command Squad with 3x Flamers and 1x Heavy Flamer (Inside Vendetta)
Veteran Squad with 3x Meltaguns (Inside Valkyrie)

Fast Attack-
Valkyrie (In Reserve)
Vendetta (In Reserve)

Heavy Support-
Wyvern Squadron with 2x Wyverns

Lord of War-
Shadowsword

Fortifications-
none

Adam's (Capnmoe's) Eldar CAD with Dark Eldar Allies

HQ-
Farseer with Singing Spear (Warlord) (Conqueror of Cities) (Mental Fort, Terrify, Hallucination, Psychic Shriek)
Farseer (Terrify, Invis, Mental Fort, Psychic Shriek)
Archon with Webway Portal

Elite-
10x Wraithguard with D-Scythes (All three HQ are attached to this Squad and it is in Reserve)

Troops-
5x Windrider Jetbikes with Scatter Lasers
5x Windrider Jetbikes with Scatter Lasers
5x Dire Avengers in a Waveserpent with Scatter Laser
5x Dire Avengers in a Waveserpent with Scatter Laser
5x Wyches

Fast Attack-
8x Warp Spiders

Heavy Support-
none

Lord of War-
Wraithknight

Fortifications-
none

Since DieCon is quickly coming up we decided to do one of the missions from the packet that was recently released.  We settled on Mission 2.  The Primary Mission was Kill Points with a modification of being able to earn an extra 2 points for every force org slot type eliminated from the primary detachment.  If players did not have a unit in a slot they gave those points up.  The secondary was a modified set of Maelstroms. Bonus Objectives were Slay the Warlord, Solo Blood, and Line Breaker.  To see the mission in detail, visit this link and check out mission 2.

Adam won the roll off to decide who deploys first and choose to deploy first.  He then decided to go first and I failed to seize.  There was three Maelstroms objectives which I have circled in the below picture (they are number 1, 2, and 3 from left to right).  We rolled for Night Fight and there was in fact Night Fight. Let's get into the actual game now.

Battle Report After the Jump!

Eldar 7th Edition Inbound: White Dwarf Rules Review

Thanks to Wargamer Shawn for posting this look at the new White Dwarf. Thing's are looking good for the Eldar. Despite the inevitable nerf to Waveserpents, almost everything I see here seems to be a buff for the codex.

Nerfs,Probable Nerfs, and General Gripes

-Scatter Lasers no longer have laser lock for twin linking.

-According to the Harlequin Codex, Holofields will now only give your vehicles a 5++ if they're not immobilized.

Those 2 alone depower the Waveserpent immensely. Hopefully point costs on the unit will be adjusted to fit its new power levels.

-A jetbike Farseer/Warlock model costs $33 freaking dollars. 

Buffs/Generally Good Things

-Bladestorm remains unchanged.

-Wraithknights are now Gargantuan creatures with D-Weapon options abound. My god I love this. I hope they aren't Lords of War which would suck for anyone that bought more than one.

-According to the video, Distortion weapons are now D. 

-Windrider jet bikes leave me dumbfounded. These are so good it's just plain stupid. They are now in my opinion the best troop choice in the game. Every bike can now switch its Shuriken Catapults for Shuriken Cannons or Scatter Lasers for only 10 points per model. That means a full unit of 10 is putting out 40 S6 AP6 shots with a 48" threat range, or 30 S6 AP5 pseudo rending shots with a 36" threat range. The best part is that the point costs on the bikes remains the same. Wow! And lets face it, the new models are exceptional looking.

-Decurion type detachments. I'm gonna have to pick up some Vaul's Heavy Weapon Batteries. 

Imperial Knight: 4/5

The last of the normal Imperial Knights is finished except for its base. This is my take on the Freeblade Knight Auric Arachnus. I really wanted to challenge myself with this model. Yellow is not the easiest color to work with and I got to do some freehand work on the spider. I couldn't be more pleased with the way this model looks. 

I also finally got a game in with the Adamantine Lance formation and was pleasantly surprised to see it didn't just walk through my opponent. Game pics after the jump.

Friendly Adepticon 2015

So the Havocs are going to make their way to Adepticon again this year and much like the Law this will be my first (Despite actually being from Chicago)! So I have been trying to get a better handle on the 7th edition rules as well as how my Eldar work in this edition. Personally I don't think much has changed with the exception of the psychic phase, which totally has it's ups and downs, but this post isn't a commentary on that, so here is what I have tried out with some success (comments and criticisms are welcome!):

HQ
Spiritseer- 70

Troops
Wraithguard x 5 d-scythes -345
-waverserpent with twin linked bright lances and holofields

Wraithguard x 5- 295
-Waverserpent with twin linked star cannons and holofields

Dire Avenger x 10- 160
-Exarch with shimmer shield

Fast

Crimson Hunter- 180
-Exarch two bright lances and a pulse laser

Heavy

Wraith Knight- 300
-Suncannon and Scattershield with a scatter laser

Dark Reapers x 4- 150
-Exarch with star shot missiles


That's what I have so far and I tested it out twice and both times the wraithknight was anything but friendly. I talked the wraithknight issue over with the rest of the Havocs and they agreed as long as I didn't run more than one it should be ok, and that the tournament was more about the attitude than anything else.  The Spiritseer was fairly lackluster, he had some awesome spells to cast, but because he had a very limited number of dice the spells were being countered by Dan almost every turn (despite not having any psykers, most gifted psykers in the galaxy my ass) nullified my spells. So I might dump the dark reaper exarch and instead take a farseer, but the exarch along with the rest of the dark reapers are pretty brutal especially against marines. I think the hard balance is wanting to win, but not making a super competitive army list that isn't fun against. So tell me what you guys think!

Imperial Knight Update & Battle Report: Eldar/Imperial Knight vs Tau/Farsight Tau/Chaos Space Marines

I finished all the painting on the Imperial Knight and he turned out fantastic. Now I need to finish the base and get the decals on. I ordered some Micro Sol and Micro Set. Once they arrive I'm going to take the advice I got from my last post and seal the model with lahmian medium or a matte spray once I get them on.

Last night I got this guy on the table for the first time. Sadly, due to my opponent, it may have been one of the most awkward and unenjoyable games I've ever played. To start, his list was about 2728 points from what I can tell. The league is supposed to run at 2000 points. That combined with his sour mood and whiny antics really just put me off. At any rate, here's a quick battle report.

Points: 2000 vs 2728ish
Deployment: Vanguard
Mission: The Relic

My List (Eldar/Imperial Knight):

HQ
Spiritseer (Warlord)(Dominate, Psychic Shriek, Hallucination)

Troops
5x Dire Avengers – Wave Serpent - Holo-fields, Twin Linked Scatter Lasers
5x Dire Avengers – Wave Serpent - Holo-fields, Twin Linked Scatter Lasers
5x Dire Avengers – Wave Serpent - Holo-fields, Twin Linked Scatter Lasers

Fast Attack
10x Warp Spiders

Heavy Support
3x War Walkers – 6x Bright Lances
Wraithlord – 2x Flamers, Scatter Laser, Bright Lance
Wraithlord – 2x Flamers, Scatter Laser, Bright Lance
Wraithknight

Imperial Knight
Knight Errant

My Opponent's List From What I Gathered While Playing and From His Comments (Tau/Farsight Tau/Chaos Space Marines):

HQ
Commander Shadowsun
Cadre Fireblade
Chaos Sorcerer – Mastery Level 3, Mark of Nurgle, Terminator Armor, Power Fist, Gift of Mutation, Spell Familiar (Summoning, Infernal Gaze, Sacrifice)

Elites
Riptide – Twin-Linked Smart Missile System, Ion Accelerator, Early Warning Overide, Stimulant Injector
Riptide – Twin-Linked Smart Missile System, Ion Accelerator, Early Warning Overide, Stimulant Injector
Riptide – Twin-Linked Smart Missile System, Ion Accelerator, Early Warning Overide, Stimulant Injector

Riptide – Twin-Linked Smart Missile System, Ion Accelerator, Early Warning Overide, Stimulant Injector

Troops
6x Fire Warriors – Shas'ui, EMP Grenades, 2x Markerlight Drones
6x Fire Warriors – Shas'ui, EMP Grenades, 2x Markerlight Drones
6x Fire Warriors – Shas'ui, EMP Grenades, 2x Markerlight Drones
3x Crisis Team – 6x Fusion Guns, 3x Shield Generator, 3x Bonding Knives
3x Crisis Team – 2x Flamers, Missile Pod, 2x Plasma Rifle, 2x Fusion Gun, 3x Bonding Knives
20x Chaos Cultists - 20x Autoguns, Mark of Nurgle
30x Chaos Cultists - 30x Autoguns, Mark of Nurgle

Heavy Support
Hammerhead Gunship - Disruption Pods
Hammerhead Gunship - Disruption Pods, Longstrike

Fortification
Aegis Defense Line

Warhammer 40k: DieCon Gateway Grand Tournament Results

Eric Darrais vs Avery Windau at one of the two top tables.

The final standings were as follows:

Overall Winner: Avery Windau (Space Marines/Tau)

1st and Best General: Adam Warnecke/Capnmoe (Tau/Eldar)

2nd: Brent Naumann (Necrons)

3rd: Eric Darrais (Tau/Necrons)

4th & Best Painting: Brent Gates/Makers (Chaos Daemons)

Sportsmanship: Dave Naumann (Orks)

3 of the top 5 armies had Tau and 2 of them had Necrons. We definitely weren't expecting Space Marine's to be in any, especially since it was 6th Edition rules. But there they were, in the top spot... thanks to the Centurion-Star. My god it's amazing.

It consisted of a Tau Commander with Command and Control Node & Mutlispectrum Sensor Suite which twin linked the units shots and allowed them to ignore cover. Tigurius and a Chapter Master with the Shield Eternal, Artificer armor, and a Power Sword. Finally, it had 4 Centurions with 4 Grav Cannons/Grav Amps and the Sergeant also had Missile Launcher/Omniscope.

He would use Tigurius to get Gate of Infinity and jump around the board destroying anything and everything he needed too.

Capmoe was running his Tau/Eldar Combo.

And Makers was running Daemons

Full lists and game summaries after the jump.

DieCon and the Gateway Grand Tournament

It's that time of year again. This weekend is DieCon!!! A list of events and tickets can found and purchased here http://diecon.com/D14/. Last year I took part in the Gateway Grand Tournament and managed to win the title of "Best General" with my Necron/Grey Knights combo. Hopefully this year I can do even better. If you love gaming, this is the place to be this weekend. I know they are also hosting 40k skirmish games, an Apocalypse game, and a 30k event. They also run a huge amount of Warmachine/Hordes events and more. This year I'm bringing out my Tau/Eldar combo. I have one Riptide left to finish painting before Saturday which shouldn't be a problem. Makers will also be playing in the tournament with his Chaos Daemons. Can the Lonely Havocs bring the noise? Stay tuned for updates.

Picture of this years army photographed with a potato. Better photos to come.

Riptide/Wave Serpent Finished for DieCon

DieCon and the Gateway Grand Tournament is coming up quick, (June 20-22) and I realized that my army needs to be fully painted if I want to be able to take the top prize. While a fully painted army isn't required to play in the event, it is if you want to win overall champ. So this past weekend, I started the big push to get everything I need painted up. Here are the first 2 fruits of my labor.  One of two Riptides and one of two Wave Serpents. I was pretty stoked about how they turned out.