[2500] Mech Assault BA - Prepping for 'Ard Boys

Yay a Blood Angels post! I've been playing Mech BA since I've picked up the Codex and I have to say, the way I've been playing at least has been getting boring and as I recently found out, quite ineffective.

My BA list usually copies the basic AV13 spam/Razorspam builds you find all over the internet. Razor Spam'd TL AsC, Baal Preds and Heavy Preds with Librarian Support. The thing you need to know about this type of list many people play is that it is very CC ineffective and plays very defensively. 5 man squads of RAS are wussy's. They die to anything in CC and are not even good as screens when you desperately need it. Basically you are using your fast movement to run around and kite your opponent while you gun him down in a hail of Las/ TL AsC and AC. I found with this llist losing a Razorback or a Predator of any kind was a huge stopping force to trying to win the game. Losing one effectively neuters a major portion of your shooting and the guys inside aren't even a big enough threat to draw fire away from my vehicles. If I lose 3-4 Razorbacks (which isn't uncommon in 1,500 or 1,750 pt games) I already know I am going to lose. My RAS are walking, Baals and Preds don't have enough fire power to win the games themselves. Your also effectively playing for a draw in objective games once your RB's are down since they lack mobility to get to an objective, lack numbers to be able to survive shooting when trying to hold the home objective and lack CC power to be able to take an objective guarded by enemy units.

Now yesterday I played my IG army (mostly proxied) vs a friend and found the play style very similar to what I was trying to achieve with my Blood Angels. Sit back and shoot. IG can lay the smack down with a possible 3x Strength 10, Ordnance Barrage, AP4, 120" shooting range Large Blasts. That is from one vehicle. This nullifies the need to deploy near the opponent like Blood Angels have to since their average range shooting is 24". IG can deploy tanks as far as they want and shoot across the board easily with a majority of their tanks. Not to mention their transports are AV12 and their Leman Russ are AV14.

This got me thinking.

What the heck am I doing with Blood Angels? I'm playing them as if they were an IG army. I decided to sit down and re-think my strategy and came up with these questions. What can I do to play to BA's strengths? What are the vehicle weapons best used for? BA's is great at CC with all the force multipliers they have in Chaplains and Sanguinary Priests. Then they have Terminators and a very nice Banner with their Honor Guard that can boost any CC capability by tremendous amounts with the bonus +1A. Their vehicle weapons are all mid-range shooting and thus should probably best serve the role as support to assaulting units, not my end game strategy.

Thus this list was born.

After much mulling around and tweaking I finally figured out a list that I was quite happy with. This list will make use of close combat as intended by the BA Codex and make use of the awesome weaponry provided by our vehicles to support the CC squads.

-The Librarian is there for his Shield since I still have quite a good amount of Mech to protect and his Blood Lance is just sexy AV poppers that support the CC units to get into the insides.
-Reclusiarch will run with the Assault Terminators to provide the reroll to hit and add to the killyness of the Terminators.
-Razorbacks for the TL Assault Cannon support to pop light vehicles and take objectives. One will use a Heavy Flamer to support infantry killing.
-There will be one 10 man Assault Squad flying behind the LR's and RB's. They can easily hide behind these vehicles. They will provide a counter punch to anything wanting to get close. With effectively 2 Sanguinary Priests they will have FNP and FC as well as the Banner effects. Very sexy squad to have and not to mention they are another fast scoring unit.
-Baal Predators, my favorite tank. One will be equipped with a Flamestorm Cannon and will scout up to an opponent and pop smoke. This will not only draw fire from my opponent but if it somehow survives it will be putting down the hurt on any MEQ or weaker. Devastator (Longfangs), Tactical Squad and Loota's assassin extrordinaire. The other will be a anti-infantry master and possibly position for side shots with its HL ML during it's scout move.
-MM Attack Bikes need no introduction. They stay behind LR's till they can get good positioning, move 12" and pop something valuable.
-Terminator Assault Squads will be wanting to get into CC asap and hence the LR:R. The LR will have a cover save via the close-by Libby and will get bonus' from Reclusiarch, Sanguinary Priest and Banner. Scary...
-Honor Guard are in an LR and the Libby will be with them to provide a wider Shield bonus. They will also be there to provide banner support, FNP/FC bubbles, assault fairly effectively but primarily pop whatever they feel like since they will be with 4 Meltas. These guys are a core piece to bringing this army together in CC.
-Finally I have a Furioso with Talons that drops in turn 1 and attempts to pop something with it's Melta or Flame some long range heavy support infantry. AV13? Check. Scary CC capabilities? Check. In opponents backfield turn 1? Check. The Furioso effectively adds another threat the opponent has to deal with that will be sitting near his backfield at the beginning of the game. Also you can play some tricky strategies with the Drop Pod like hindering a Land Raider or Battle Wagon's movement.




[2500] Mech Assault BA

Librarian 1
ShieldofS/ Blood Lance

Reclusiarch 1
Terminator Upg: C-Melta 1

Assault Squad 5
Meltagun 1
Transport: Razorback 1
TL Heavy Flamer 1

Assault Squad 5
Meltagun 1
Transport: Razorback 1
TL Assault Cannon 1

Assault Squad 5
Meltagun 1
Transport: Razorback 1
TL Assault Cannon 1

Assault Squad 10
Meltagun 2
Sgt: Power Fist 1

Baal Predator - Flamestorm 1

Baal Predator - TL AsC 1
Heavy Bolter/ HK ML 1

Attack Bike Squad 2
Multi-Melta 2

Terminator Assault-Squad  5
TH/SS Upgrade 3
Sanguinary Priest 1
Transport: LR:R 1
Multi-Melta 1
Extra Armor 1

Honour Guard 5
Meltagun 4
Chapter Banner 1
Transport: LR:R 1
Multi-Melta 1
Extra Armor 1

Furioso Dreadnought 1
Extra Armor 1
Heavy Flamer 1
Blood Talons 1
Transport: Drop Pod  1

2,250 Batrep - Nids vs Orcs Mekkan

My list:

Tyranid Prime 1

Lash Whip/ Bonesword 1

Toxin Sacs 1

Hive Guard 3

Hive Guard 3

Venomthropes 2

Tervigon 1

Adrenal Glands 1

Poison Sacs 1

Catalyst 1

Termagant Brood 15

Tervigon 1

Adrenal Glands 1

Poison Sacs 1

Catalyst 1

Termagant Brood 14

Genestealers 20

Broodlord Upgrade 1

Implant Attack 1

Scything Talons 1

Carnifex Brood 2

TL Devourers - set 1 2

TL Devourers - set 1 2

Trygon 1

Adrenal Glands 1

Tyrannofex 1

Rupture Cannon 1

Orc List:

Here is about what he had. Not 100% sure on what was everywhere but this is what I remember he used.

3x 3 Killer Kanz

1 group of 3 Buggys

2x Big Meks

3x 28-30 Shoota Boys

2x 5 Lootas

1x group of 15 infiltrators with the infiltrating guy

-----------------

We roll, I deploy and I go first.

He fails to seize.

This is how I deploy. I make sure my synapse is all tight and everything is close knit. Centrally deploy for an aggressive hard to counter-deploy move. Not really thinking much on cover saves as I was deploying but more thinking of how I can more successfully stack everything in to get shooting first turn. Also string Stealers along for area denial of his scout moving Deff Koptaz.

He deploys in the typical KillerKan formation with the Kanz blocking assault to the Shoota Boys in the back.

*Note there aren't very much pictures of the turns. Sorry I'll make sure to remember to take more next time. Was kind of in a rush of excitement to try out my newly converted Tyrannofex and new list and kind of forgot >_>*

My turn 1:

I move everything up and birth 15 and 14 bare Gants with my Tervi mommies without rolling doubles. I get Catalyst off on my Stealers and a Hive Guard squad. Everything else goes shooting or runs. My main focus for shooting was the Killer Kanz and Kopters. The Kopters are armed with the powerfist and will make my Tervigons cry so I try to focus them down. After all my shooting at his Kopters that turbo-boosted during their scout phase I killed 1. Luckily he failed his LD and ran off the board. I kill 1 squad of Lootas and destroy 1 Killer Kan. I've never played against a list like this before nor do I play against Orc normally so I did not know his Buggies were in a squad together...Otherwise I think the right decision would have been to shoot at them instead. Their Rokkits are also TL! >_< Oops.

Oh, as a highlight of this phase here is my shots on his Lootas :)

His turn 1: 

He moves some Kanz out of the way and puts his squad with a Big Mek in front of my Stealers. Easily within charging range. This is where I really messed up badly and forgot to string out my Stealers to my Veneomthropes >_< He almost kills my Tervigon on his left with the Buggies being the MVP of the round putting 2 on the Tervigon. Most everything else shoots at the Tervigon as well and brings it down to 2 wounds left. My Stealers lose 1 body from shooting. My Trygon also takes 1 wound. I'm so scared of Rokkits...

Assault phase happens and it is a crushing victory for my side. High I win it for the Stealers. They kill an insanely large amount of Orcs and wipe the remaining Orcs + Mekk off the table with a sweep. It was a mistake on his part to do this but he learned and now he knows how scary Stealers can be in CC.

My turn 2:

Move up again with everything that can. Run up with my Stealers and surround the middle group of Orc Boys with the remaining Mekk. Every single thing I have that can hurt a KK shoots at those KK in the center. I get a destroyed result on one of them...That's 12x Impaler Cannon shots, 1x Rupture Canons and even 24x TL Devourers. Ouch >_< I also shoot up and kill 1 more Kopta on his left. 

My Trygon assaults the Buggies that moved 6+ but he get's rerolls and I score 3 pens! I get a 6, 2,1 which becomes a 6,3,2. I take off the Rokkit off one of them of course and the other suffers a 2 so I can say the Buggies have safely been neutered. Genestealers form up around the destroyed KK in the center and assault as many shoota boys as they can. Luckily with move 6 and run, I got a 4, I was able to get all into combat. Wiped everything out again extremely easily. Genestealers really show they are to be feared in CC! They consolidate but can't make into cover. 

I assault the group of 2x KK with a brood of 15 Termagants to tie them up from shooting at my low W Tervigon next turn. He kills 2 and I can't do anything at all to his armor 11. (The ones I assault are those 2 red ones in the picture)

His turn 2:

He moves his last squad of Shoota Boys into cover since Nids lack Assault Grenades mostly and his Outflanking guys with the guy who lets them come from any table edge comes in. The Outflankers move in towards the Genestealers that I forgot to Catalyst...He runs his 3x KK back out of "tie-up" range. He puts another wound on the Tervigon through shooting so it's down to 1 last wound. I also lose 2 Stealers to shooting. (No FNP and no cover)

Outflankers and the lone KK (KK's are proxied as those little bottle tops) assault the Genestealers. Genestealers win with only their special Outflanking guy (Grot Snigg??sp??) left. He does 5 wounds and I save 3, 2 die. His KK kills 1 more. 

2x KKs tied up with my Termagants whiff and my Termagants flail around.

My turn 3:

Everything moves up and the Trygon runs to help the helpless Termagants against the KK's. My Tervigon on my right side Spawns 15 Termagants again without clogging up! Move newly spawned Termagants + Old spawned Termagants + Devilgants up to lay waste to the Orcs in cover.

Shooting the group of 3x KK's that moved back his last turn with my HG finally brings good results. They've been whiffing all game! I destroy 2 and the last one gets a 2 and 3 result. All my Gants on the right side shoot at the Orcs in cover. I take out about half and then they prepare for assault. (The Gants on the far right of the picture got FNP from the Tervigon)

I assault the 2x KK in the center with my Trygon and destroy both to free my Gants. Genestealers destroy the CC weapon on the KK, thanks Rending. Gants with the FNP roll to assault and they make it! Other Gants fail to assault. Orcs go first and they kill 2 Gants and my Gants fight back fiercely and wipe them with the blessings of the Tervigon! :)

Victorious Termagants!

His turn 3:

Stealers whiff vs last KK with no arm and it whiffs vs me.

My turn 4:

Trygon runs for the final KK. Carnifex's run to aid the Stealers. HG destroy all the buggies, Trygon annihilates the KK and Carnifex's kill their KK 5 times over.

Victory shot!

My total casualties. They will be recreated by the Hive Mind!

Conclusion:

Overall it was a very fun match for both of us. We both used some models we haven't used before and it was both of our first games over 2,000 points. We discussed for a good half hour about our mistakes like how he should not have assault such a deadly force of Stealers and how I should have strung out guys to my Venomthropes. (I forgot to put them closer up so my Stealers get the Defensive Grenade and difficult terrain gifts.) There was more discussion but I'm getting really tired and I'll leave that for possibly another day...

The Tyrannofex was awesome when he fired his templates but was mildly to highly mildy disappointing. I believe he is better replaced as another Trygon or the anti-infantry version of the Tyrannofex. Carnifex's were awesome most of the time and Hive Guard showed up at the end. One thing I was surprised at was I spawned nothing lower than 13 Gants whenever I did the Tervigons power and I also never rolled doubles! At the end of the game I couldn't spawn anymore because I ran out of my 75 Termagant pool...Stealers were great and pushed his scouting Koptas back from getting close to my Tervigons. A great strategy of area denial. Also he might have been able to assault my Tervigon on his first turn but I had bubble-wrapped it with the first group of newly spawned Gants. 

Great game! Thanks Pete! 

Here are some pictures of my modified Tyrannofex before I take off. I ripped up my old one from my tutorial and made his gun better and smoother. 

Good gaming and good night!

Tyrannofex Conversion

Hello and welcome to my Tyrannofex Conversion tutorial!

I don't claim that this is the best Tyrannofex conversion above the rest. If I say I do not like other Tyrannofex conversions it's simply a matter of personal taste. With that said this Tyrannofex does not follow the image in the Tyranid Codex so if that's what your looking for I apologize. I just want to give a tutorial after all my hard work because I haven't been able to find a T-Fex to my liking. Maybe this will help someone. This Tyrannofex is built from my own ideas of how I see a BS3, T6, W6 and 2+ save model. I am NOT claiming this is a completely one of a kind Tyrannofex conversion as I'm sure it will resemble some models out there. Only so little we can do with Carnifex kit bashing into a Tyrannofex :)

This Tyrannofex conversion is going to be modeled with a Rupture cannon mounted on his back. I see the T-Fex as a very tanky almost Riot Shield wielding Tyranid. I do not want a T-Fex with scything talons as I see his talons snapping in half after the force of firing a Rupture Cannon @ Str10. I wanted my T-Fex to be bulky and tough. After looking through a bunch of leftover bits I finally found the "bulk" and "riot-shield-esque" ideas I wanted to do and decided to finally give it a go!


Step1:
You need an empty Cash Register paper roll. You then need to carve and cut at it until it can fit on one of those Carapace that you put on a Carnifex smoothly. Assemble the Carnifex Body, Tail, and Legs standard.

Step 2:

Glue the form fitted Register Roll to a Carapace piece you'll eventually glue to the top of the Carnifex.

Step 3:
I'm going to combine a bunch of steps into step 3 since they are all the same thing. This step is where we start making the barrel look like more than a Register Roll. Start finding bits from other guns, claws, trygon jaws, extra trygon bits etc. and put them on the roll. You will cover the entire Rupture cannon with green stuff. Then  just start squishing the pieces into the green stuff.

Step 4:
Now glue the Carapace holding the now "be-dazzled" rupture cannon to the Carnifex body like you normally would. :P If you want it more of a barrage look then put green stuff under the Carapace holding the Rupture cannon first so it raises it. I like it straight since it isn't a barrage-ish type weapon.

Step 5:
Don't have a picture for this step but attach the head. Do not use the Carnifex head with antennaes. It pokes the rupture cannon. I used the one where he has the two spikey boney things coming out of his chin.

Step 6:
Get 2 arms that are holding something. Make sure they are different. A left and right arm that you can convert. I also had a buttload of extra Carapace bits so my riot-shield tank-ish looking Tyrannofex dreams were coming true! Collect them. Also get the Crushing Claws that comes with the Carnifex kit.

Step 7:
Cut the spikes off that come out of the crushing claws.

Step 8:
Cut the arms that have a left and right side you had earlier like the picture below and "link" them to the Crushing Claws arms with green stuff. I don't know how to specifically explain it but the pictures should be able to get you a good idea of what to do.

Step 9:
Glue the Carapace onto the Crushing Claws so the pointy part is facing downwards. I like to think of these as the T-Fex's "Armored Shell" biomorph! Also I placed them pointy side down because when the Tyrannofex fires his massive Rupture Cannon he shoves his arms into the group to act like a brace from the impact while still shielding his body kind of like a riot shield. Another fun note, is it covers almost everything except his face giving him awesome protection but limiting his view, hence BS3 instead of BS4. ROFL

Step 10:
Now glue the Crushing Claw/Carapace Shield to his body and your done! Here are some completed pictures. Hope you enjoyed the tutorial and good luck if you try it! :)

Painting: Which Army?

Currently I'm trying to get my army painted away. I first had the hard time of deciding which army I wanted to paint first.

My Blood Angels army is all primered a reddish-brown and all my vehicles are basecoated Mechrite red. All my infantry is basecoated with Army Painter Dragon Red.

Let me go off on a tangent real quick...Army Painter Dragon Red has been quite inconsistent with me. YMMV but for me it hasn't been that great. I loved my first spray can I got of it and the sort of "burnt" blood red look it game. My second spray can of Dragon Red was very bright, almost as if it was Blood Red straight from the pot. First I thought it would have been the wrong paint I purchased but after double checking everything it was for sure Dragon Red. Posted on the forums about it and others have had the same problems...beware Army Painted Dragon Red. YMMV!

The Tyranids are all base-coated Blood Red and then dipped in a Minwax Antique Walnut. I did not feel like buying 4+ bottles of GW Devlan Mud nor did I want to waste time putting it on 80+ Gants, 20+ Stealers, 20+ Hormies, 20+ Gargoyles...etc.

After a long while I decided to paint my Tyranids first. Though I really wanted to get down a green eye glowing effect on my Space Marines. Sadly I'm not that great with the glazing effect and it failed.

I didn't like that both my BA and Tyranid armies were red so I decided to try different color schemes. Posted the pictures up on various forums and I'll let the people decide! So far most people are liking my Red > Fiery Orange > Rotting Flesh/Fiery Orange mix 1:1 > Rotting Flesh > Skull White scheme.

I'll post my pictures up right now before I end my post. Don't look at the models as a whole, look at them per carapace sections. I just used my warriors as test dummies to try out different schemes.

(The first image is the one most people are voting on. Lucky for me everything is already based red so it's the easiest for me to actually do. Woo! Lucky!)

Have a great night!

Syypher

And so it begins...L2A^3

Welcome and thank you for visiting my blog, L2A^3, short for Learn 2 Aliens And Angels. Here you will find strategy articles, battle reports (batreps) and painting, modeling and conversion posts. I will do my best to keep this updated as things progress with my armies and my tactical strategies!

About me:
I just recently started playing Warhammer 40k about half a year ago and have quickly progressing to the more competitive scene. I'm aiming to enter a tournament (Ard Boys) over this coming summer here at my LGS. As the title of my blog hints the two armies I play are Tyranid and Blood Angels. My starting army was Blood Angels and I just recently picked up Tyranids about 2 months ago.

Before I go more into what I play let me tell you I'm like a sponge. Not like Spongebob Squarepants but like a sponge for soaking up water. I absorb information and seek it like a sponge would if it had a brain! There are many blogs and forums I wade through to pick out various tactics to best defeat my opponent with. Most of what I look for are in a competitive sense, not to say I'm the most competitive person there is out there but that is what I strive for the most.

I'm fairly knowledgeable on the two most common play styles of Blood Angels; Mech and Descent of Angels. (DoA) Playing Mech BA from when I started up so I am more comfortable giving advice and helping build lists with that genre but I also haven't lost a match yet with my Descent of Angels lists.

If my Tyranid knowledge was ranked based on units in the Tyranid Codex I would probably be a Gargoyle. Fast in that I'm learning to quickly play Tyranids in a much more competitive way instead of like a complete noob but I am still too weak to consider myself of any major help for advanced tactics. However, I am definitely understanding the basics and the most known tactics so if your a new and upcoming Termagant I'd be glad to help you and you may find some of my advice of use. I've helped quite a few new players with Tyranids on some of the forums I frequent already and I'm hoping to do the same here.

Oh wow...love that preview button for posting blogs...this is getting pretty long. (I had a painting update on this post originally.) Let's move that to another post. Yay for editing!

Thanks for the visit and hope you find this blog helpful!

Syypher