Dakka Dakka Paint Challenge November

 Hello all,

    The theme for November's challenge is going to be Saints and Sinners, and I am going to finally build my Dark Elf Queen with servants. This will be the center piece for my Dark Eldar army that I have been working on for a while now. The idea is that they are more akin to Drow, and the coven side of things mutate everything like spiders for their god Lilth. Let me know what you think and I will be updating this as the weeks go by!

I learned a lot from October's challenge, and this time I am really going to go more for the theme instead of the paint job. 

Derek

Extra Life 2020

 Hello all, on Saturday I will be participating in Extra Life 2020. This really will be a jump start on streaming as a service, my goal will be to get some painting done on stream and hopefully a few games of 40k. Other than that there will be much video game playing from an arrange of games, so please stop by and hop in the chat, and if you can donate to a good cause.

https://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donordrive.participant&participantID=431586

Calexus Assassin Complete!

 Hey Everyone!

    I finished up my Calexus Assassin and I even took pictures with our fancy DSLR Camera let me know what you think about it, and make sure you go to the Dakka Dakka website and vote on which ones you like, there are plenty of great looking and scary monsters.

Luck Dice RTT 10/11/2020

    Over the weekend I attended another 40k event, this one was a smaller one, playing combat patrols at 650 points. My list was pretty simple, seeing as I wasn’t really sure if we were going to be using the new space marine rules or not. 

HQ

Astorath

Lemartes

Troops

Intercessor Squad

Elites

Sanguinary Guard x7

Sanguinary Ancient, Warlord, Artisan of War and Standard of Sacrifice.

    Pretty straight forward list, I had opportunities to be plenty aggressive but for this event I really wanted to work on counter attacking with the sanguinary guard, since being hyper aggressive is good but you don’t have anything left to hold objectives in the late game.

    Round 1, the mirror match, Blood Angels. This was a really good opportunity to put the plan of counter attacking into play. My opponent’s list was even more straight forward than mine with a Smash Captain, Intercessor Squad, 5 Sanguinary Guard and 8 or 9 Death Company marines. I deployed Sanguinary Guard and Characters all around on the left flank and had my intercessors on the back objective. I deployed Lemartes to where he could be picked out and too close to my front line, giving him the ability to turn one assault with his death company. Lemartes was picked off and a couple sanguinary guard went down too, standard of sacrifice was really clutch in these moments, however it does not improve Lemartes’ FNP. I cleaned up the squad, but saw his sanguinary guard and captain looking to sweep in a finish up the job. On my turn I just sat back a little bit more and prepared for his units coming in, luckily for me his captain did not make the charge and I cleaned up the sanguinary guard. From there it became an uphill battle for me as his Captain had the speed of the primarch, so I would have to have something to tank the hits, but I just couldn’t get through. In hindsight I think I should have charged him with everything I had, to force him to split up attacks. I think if I had done this I would have walked away with the win, but it was a very close game and I would love to play it again.

    Round 2, Sisters of Battle. I have never played against the sisters since they received a new updated codex and models, and this was my opponent's first tournament. I deployed aggressively because I had to take out the Exorcist or it would have made quick work of my army. Luckily I got to go first and have Astorath and Lemartes run up and hide behind the cover, and on turn two I got Lemartes in a sister squad and Astorath made the charge into the Exorcist. Sanguinary guard advanced up the board and went into the other sister squad that was being babysat by Celestine, Greyfax and a Standard Bearer. At the end of the round all that remained was Celestine, because she just never goes away, I scored big on this round.

    Round 3, Iron Warriors. This was a really fun and quick match, his list had a Master of Possession, Greater possessed, 10 Cultist, and two squads of 2 Obliterators. It was a really funky deployment where there is a little layover of the deployment zone to be right across from your opponent. I lost the roll to go first and it was an up-hill battle from there on out, obliterators with the Master of Possession is no joke. Spending command points to re-roll the stats on the Obliterator’s weapons is really strong, and adding +1 to the invulnerable save made them more of a pain to remove. However I didn’t lose too much from the first volley of shots, and I got a great counter punch with basically everything I had, Lemartes got Mantra of Strength off and wiped an obliterator squad, and the sanguinary guard, ancient and Astorath tied up the greater possessed, master of possession and another obliterator squad. However in the end there was just too much damage coming in to save the day, I really think this was a close match and was dependent on who goes first. 

Which really brings up something that I have been wondering with all the games I play, going first is really strong especially if your army can hold the midfield for at least a turn or two. It forces your opponent to decide if they want to get some shots off and get behind in the primaries or are they going to head charge you in the middle, which some armies want. It’s a lot to consider when you are deploying, repositioning units are going to be really strong as you can deploy aggressively, then if you lose the roll to go first you can just deploy into a defensive position.

All in all I learned alot, and combat-patrol is a blast to play, the matches go by quicker and it still feels like you are playing a full game of 40k. I will be attending their next event in December this time it will be 2,000 points. Look forward to my new list being posted soon!

Calexus Assassin WIP

 Hello everyone! Just wanted to post this quick picture of my work in progress for my Dakka Dakka Challenge.

Looking forward to completing this little guy soon!

Tactica Thursdays: 02 Battle-Forging our Kill Teams

Welcome back Rangers to our second installment of Tactica Thursdays, last time we discussed the movement phase. This week we are going to focus our attention on building a proper Command Roster.

What's in a Roster?

So you have a few games of kill team under your belt and you are feeling on top of the world, then you come up against something that is unexpected and you are not prepared for it. You actually may not have felt like that, but I will admit it took a while for the concept of the Command Roster to sink in myself. If you are playing matched play then you need to sit down and make a Command Roster for your Kill Team that is comprised of twenty models that are available to you. Points at this point don't matter because what you are doing is preparing for your next match, tournament or campaign. This is the time to make sure we have all of our grounds covered, but what exactly are all the different grounds to cover?

First thing we should look at is what kind of weapon options we have available to our specific army, if you are limited to a certain amount of gunners you should probably take all the different combinations of that model. I will use Dark Eldar for my example, the Kabalite Gunners are allowed to take either a Blaster or Shredder, and another one is allowed to take a Dark Lance or Splinter Cannon. We can only have two max gunners on the table when we play our match but that doesn't mean we can't have all four options in our Command Roster. This is one of my favorite parts of Kill Team so far, because it gives you options on how to deal with your opponent whoever it may be.

If we are dealing with a horde Kill Team, they will usually have average stats with low armor saves. A blaster and dark lance would pierce through them effectively, however it isn't as efficient as we would want it to be. The task better suited for the job would be the Splinter Cannon and Shredder combo that way we are shelling out more shots to potentially take out multiple units in one turn. In the reverse order if we are dealing with an elite Kill Team then we want those high strength, high damage outputs so that we can kill at least one unit a turn.

It's a Horde of Zombies!

Not only can we fill our Rosters with all the best toys that will come in handy for all different match ups we can think of, we should look at some of the combos we can deal with the Specialisms. You can only have three on the field at a time, but we could fill our roster out with only specialist. (Don't plan on winning much with 4 models) Some of the specialist often pair well with each other, such as Comms and either Sniper or Heavy, the plus one to hit with either of their natural perks are fantastic. Running a Veteran, Combat and Zealot for an in your face hit squad also sounds amazing, but it may not have full potential if it's just going to get shot off turn one by your opponents gun line.

There are going to be times when you just have bad match ups and having all the best options to deal with everything you can mitigate the damage to potentially help you achieve victory. Some armies with the more expensive guys will have an easier time building list, but if you rely on horde then sometimes you will have to really think about your specializations. I believe that you can find all the best synergies with a lot of though and experience in the game. Campaigns are a great way to balance between fun and somewhat competitive play, just make sure you only start off with twelve guys on your command roster.

Faction Focus: Adeptus Astartes Kill Team

Welcome back Rangers, today we are going to start a new segment called Faction Focus, where we will break down individual units and potential play styles. I will highlight the pros and cons of each faction and leave you with hopefully a nice list to start playing and to tweak in your future matches of Kill Team or Warhammer 40,000.

We are going to be looking at the Adeptus Astartes or in old school terms the Space Marines, these are just general rule seeing as Kill Team doesn't focus on the different chapters, as of this writing. The golden boys of Games Workshop have an impressive six Tactics that they can use.

Death to the Traitors can give you some more attacks in close combat if you are battling an enemy of the chaos, which could happen, this will be more of a situational tactic.
Armour of Contempt not a bad little "invul" against mortal wounds, take a mortal wound spend a command point and you have a 33% chance of ignoring it.
Masterful Marksmanship probably the best tactic for the Space Marines spend a command point on an Intercessor and you can add ones to hit and wound when shooting. It's still only from a stalker bolt rifle, however anytime you can increase your chances to succeed in making something bleed, you can in fact kill it.
Honour the Chapter if you are fighting something that absolutely needs to die but you didn't kill it in your last melee phase, then spend two command points and get another chance to whack that mole in the head!
Hellfire Shells this is situational however it does make taking a scout with a heavy bolter able to rain some more hell. If you hit the shot then you are going to inflict d3 mortal wounds, this would come in clutch against some of the heavier armored units in the game.
Shock and Awe this tactic only applies to the Reiver units, when you declare a charge you may make a single shot with a shock grenade. If your Reiver hits it's target then the target may not fire overwatch, this could be a huge shift in the tone of the match, however it is limited by a 6" range.

Scout Marines

Coming in as the cheapest option to field the Scout can be quite versatile, they have essentially the same stat line as a Tactical Marnie except in the Save department. Coming stock with boltguns, bolt pistols and all the grenades, they can also be kitted out for more specialized operations. Scout gunners can take with them a heavy bolter, missile launcher or a sniper rifle, which can be paired up nicely with the Sniper or Heavy Specialties. You could also take a Scout Sergeant to hide in a corner and give you that Command point every turn if you so did desire. Camo Cloaks are also an option to give them an additional -1 to hit when being shot at, this could make them potentially more tanky than their heavily armored friends.

Tactical Marine

Coming in for only 2 points more than a Scout, Tactical Marines are a solid choice with their 3+ save and larger variety of weapons. You can have two Marines as Gunners in which one can take flamers, melta, plasma or a grav gun. As well as upgrading one to a more heavy weapon roll with a missile launcher or heavy bolter. Sergeants can be upgraded to add an extra "punch" to close combat with access to power fist or power swords, as well as the Auspex which can help by removing the -1 to hit an obscured object. There are plenty of specialties you have access to, add heavy to your missile launcher for 2 krak missiles, or sniper missile launcher for re-rolling ones on your frag missile. Demolitions is a nice specialty you can take for your other gunner, as well as giving your powerfist sergeant the veteran ability to get that powerfist into combat turn one!

Reiver

Reivers are a new breed of space marine that came out when 8th edition of 40k was released and these guys put the shock in shock troopers. They have the same threat range as scouts, but boast a nice 3+ save as well. They can be upgraded with Grapnel Launchers or Grav-chute to essentially ignore vertical terrain, leaving nothing in your way to close the gap on your opponent. Shock grenades can negate overwatch and stun a model that it hits, it has a 6" range so it could be a little tricky getting to use those. The Terror Tactic rule gives all enemy models within 3" -1 to leadership, that can be helpful if you are close to breaking your opposition. There are really no upgrades as far as weapons, however with veteran specialty you can get a turn one charge, use the tactic Shock and Awe and get tied into combat turn one. The should be able to hold their own ground with their 3+ save, 2 wounds and 2 attacks!

Intercessor

The taller, stronger, better, faster space marine you tell all your Tactical Marines not to be afraid of, but we all know these guys are the new hotness. While they may not have all the wonderful benifits of different weapon upgrades as their smaller, older brothers, they can still pack a punch with their base guns. The bolt rifle is a bolter with an extra 6" range, making them a solid choice for a start of a gun line or a good objective holder. You can upgrade one to a gunner who has access to grenade launchers which let you toss grenades up to 30" which can still give you options, but why can't we upgrade them to hellblasters? That's the Intercessor we really want, isn't it?

A Basic Kill Team

Here is a list I threw together, it's only for 100 points and not a command roster but I built it around the core concept of having a gunline that can throw out a lot of shots with a Reiver and a Power Fist coming from the flank.

Leader:

Scout Marine

Specialists:

Scout Gunner, Heavy Bolter, Demolitions

Scout Gunner, Heavy Bolter, Sniper

Tactical Sergeant, Power Fist, Veteran

Non-Specialist

Intercessor

Reiver

Tactical Marine

You can and should pick that list apart, it's not the best but it uses one of every model and if I had the points I would make the Demolitions Specialist a Missile Launcher just because two krak missile shots is really powerful.

That's it for this week's faction focus! Make sure to be on the look out for next weeks break down of the mighty DeathWatch! As always leave comments and let me know what you think of anything, check out our discord where we talk 40k all day every day. Have a great day!