King Tiger Wargaming

King Tiger Wargaming

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Mech Guard in 6th Edition

Howdy folks,



IG players, Remember in 5th Edition when you could just pack a melta vet squad into a chimera and run around the board laying waste to pretty much everything? Ah glorious times those were. But can we still do that anymore?



With death by glancing over the horizon it would seem the strength six on the multi laser would actually come to good use. Think about it - three S6 shots (not to mention another three from the S5 heavy bolters) could potentially glance rear armour or even rhinos to death. Yet at the same time our poor chimera is also very frail with only slightly better frontal armour. Not only can we now expect chimeras to be glanced to death but the risk of forcing your guys to snap fire from chimeras sort of ruins the old drive by shooting technique. We could of course still use chimeras. Move them flat out and get your contents out of the vehicle onto the capture point and act as a barricade to shelter them from fire if need be. 


Of course if you're planning to take them just to get troops to objectives quickly then maybe you could consider using infantry squads - much cheaper. True vets get three special weapons and three meltas can now kiss a deepstriking monolith goodbye, but then again they take up a lot of valuable points especially in low point games. 

Veterans themselves are still great - slightly expensive but great. The fact that you can still give them three meltas is great but now camo cloaks or stormtrooper amour saves (I think) are key. If like before you intend to sit and hold an objectve the cover save or better four plus armour save is going to increase its survivability. Albeit a chimera melta vetted squad with camo cloaks is going to be taking up so much points that this brings into question its survivability. After all if per chance that chimera decides to go down from either lascannons or just glancing shots - your vets are going to have to walk the remaining distance to that objectice.

Although I still do the melta vet build - I honestly think that unless you're doing competitive guard go ahead. But expect that the chimeras will pop - and expect that you might as well have brought a infantry squad for all the good that the vet squad does for you throughout most games. 

If you do some research you'll find many new lists being formed consisting of infantry squads - maybe a vet or two in a chimera but it sure wont be their focus. IG can rely on their mass shooting for a good effect on target and, perhaps more so than ever, commands are essential to makin these shots succesful. So the best type of IG would be one that combines infantry mass fire and some vehicles to support. If you have the points you could try airborne guard (Vandettas and Valks with troops inside) and grav chute your men onto objectives (praying they dont die in the process). Mech guard can still be used but expect your chimeras to pop and before they do make sure they get to their destination. Use Leman Russes and Medusas to draw fire and attention away from the troops an their transport and once you've gotten where you need to be make sure you prioritise targets. IG may have had small tinkerings but by no means are they weak. 

Let us know what you think about Mech Guard in the comments below? Do you use them? Would you use them?

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Battlefield Bangkok - Bangkok's No.1 Game & Hobby Store


 Since there aren't exactly a large amount of gaming stores in the Asian region, it's well worth mentioning a few, and I decided to start off with our local store: Battlefield Bangkok.

Even the name is so intense it makes you wanna play >.< (fangirl squeals)

If ever your down in Bangkok and you feel like you could use a game or two of Blood Bowl, 40k, WH fantasy,Warmachine, GOT, Hordes or any board/tabletop game at all then stop by all means stop by Battlefield Bangkok. There's so much to see and do at this place even if you are here for just a short while - it's also not too crowded and at the same time not too quiet to make you feel like your sitting all by yourself. Don't be shy to ask around, the folks there are always kind and willing to lend a helping hand to any newbie, recommend what you should buy, help you paint and greenstuff your goodies or introduce you to a new game.

Warhammer 40k is regularly played here at Battlefield Bangkok, in fact most of the items in the shelf in the picture below are 40k "stuff".
Here not only can you play games freely, but you can also purchase board games, rulebooks, role playing games - and the prices are well worth their value. The shelf in the picture above gets restocked regularly with goodies and there's certainly an item or two that will catch your eye and perhaps beckon your wallet. The place is run by gamers for gamers and speaks both Thai and English.

Of course there's more than just 40k going on. The pictures below give you a good idea of how large the store can be, and how many people it can hold at one time.


Competitions and tournaments also take place and are an amazing experience to behold but be sure to check on their website, their newsletter and facebook page provided in the links below for when these take place.



 I promise you, every minuite and second I've had at this store has been a memorable one. I sure as hell will miss this place, even if I haven't really been here as often as I wanted to or enough for me to become a regular customer, and look forward to coming back once again. The shop's owners are lovely and will always be willing to engage in conversation with any customer.

Website: http://battlefieldbangkok.com/

How to get there: (taken from Battlefield Bangkok website)
On the BTS Sky Train take the train to the stop for Punnawithi (E11) , then from there it is a 10 minute walk or 30 seconds on a motorbike taxi.
Or by road, drive or take a taxi to Sukhumvit 101/1 , turn left up the soi and go about 300 Meters. Battlefield Bangkok is located on the left in the large orange building (Opposite Soi 8) that is also the Golden Pearl Residence. They are on the second floor of the building in front of the hotel. If you pass Soi one on your left, you have gone too far.
Or by bus, the following buses all stop at Piyarom Plaza and then it is a 300 Meter walk from there :: 45 , 132, 2 , 2 Air, 46, 48, 25, 23, 38, NGV454, NGV 48, NGV 132.

Contacting Battlefield Bangkok:
Battlefield Bangkok
71 Sukhumvit 101/1 Road
Second Floor
Bangchak, Prakanong
Bangkok 10260
Email Thai : Krit /at/ battlefieldbangkok.com– In Thai Please
Email English : Play /at/ battlefieldbangkok.com– In English Please
Phone : 02 747 9719– In Thai or English

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/battlefieldbangkok/

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

1000 point Imperial Guard vs Sisters of Battle

1000 point Imperial Guard vs Sister of Battle


Ok so after a long break from 40k I decided to throw myself against Battlefield Bangkok's Nat and his bolter bitches but little did I know how much of a beating i was about to take. I never played against Sisters of Battle before, sinply because they are only a handful of human beings who play such an old army, and naturally assumed that because they have yet to recieve an update that they would be an easy opponent for someone who just got back to playing 40k.



So at 1000 points, I went with my standard mech guard list:

HQ:
1xCCS w/Lc + 2 Plasma
+Chimera

Troops:
4xVet Squads w/ 3 Meltas
3 Chimeras

Fast Attack:
1x Vandetta (one vet squad inside)

Heavy Support: 
1x Leman Russ Demolisher w/ Lascannon

1x Leman Russ w/ Heavy Bolter sponsons and hull

Sadly I can only recall a few elements of his army - and my poor knowledge on the Sisters does not help. But I can recall that he used roughly three immolators with meltas on then, two excorcists, three troop squads with meltas and a hq that just wouldn't drop dead...Saint Celestine.

As the game began we set up deployment and since we were playing only a small 1000 point game we made the board even smaller - if you look in the picture above its the four squares closest to the camera - and sadly this meant my tanks would be at a slight disadvantage.

The demolisher started it all off by throwing a pie plate on an immolator (predator proxy) and blowing it up immediately. The range of the explosion hurt a nearby sister squad with a multi melta in it and ended up removing the multi melta model as well ($$)





The command squad disembarked from the chimera and went to fire down at the HQ alongside the chimeras. It was killed but strangely since it had the ability to regenerate or something like that - all that I ended up doing was rendering Saint Celestine immobile for the next turn or so. 



Since the heavy bolter russ could see a squad of sisters hiding at the back he fired all three heavy bolters and tried to pie plate them just for good measure. The russ was successful and got rid of all but two of the sisters in that squad who passed their leadership test. The chimeras moved up in an attempt to seize the points and so did not manage to do much this turn.



On his first turn - his immolators and excorcists immediatey prioritized the veterans in the chimeras and the demolisher (since he now knew what a Strength 10 Ap 2 round was fully capable of) and proceeded to move into positions where such targets were visible and struck several of my chimeras. Unfortunately many (ok most of them) troops were injured as a result of chimeras going pop and his dice rolls, needless to say were lucky. He landed his sixes on the vehicle damage table on all but one chimera who became immbolized as a result and the demolisher was tracked from the excorcists six S8 shots to its side armour. He moved the sister squad who had been shot up by my heavy bolter russ behind a excorcist for cover. And luckily his HQ was not back yet...


This was not looking good. 



The sister squad in a nearby building unleashed their ammo and killed more guardsmen whilst the immolators dealt with the rest, I then failed leadership tests and numerous squads were then pinned for the turn. To make matters worse they were still far from the objectives. Only an excorcist sat on one and since it was not a scoring unit this did not count.

My next turn began with me rolling for viva vandetta who decided not to show up. Great. Just my luck.

The CCS HQ sat down and blasted at an immolator leaving it with one hull point and a crew shaken result. The Demolisher had one more round fired at the building where the bolter bitches sat in but lucky for him the round missed completely and so did the lascannon.


The squads in the back raced behind the chimeras for cover. A move I will later regret. 

Then my bolter russ decided to miss the shots he took against the exorcist but luckily stripped him of a hull point. 



The remaining chimera moved up to sit on an objective and deploy troops dangerously close to an immolator. I had hoped my meltas would do the job but unfortunately today they decided to miss every shot. 

Now that it was back to his second turn, the HQ somehow came back to life and went after my HQ who had now taken cover in a building. 


Against power armoured flame wielding units like his HQ - they were pretty much doomed and they me their demise within this turn and the next through an assault by his lone winged angel HQ.



His immolator fired a melta round into the side of bolter russ and screwed with his weapons - he could now only snap shot and at the same time the excorcist fired at the russ immobilising it. 

He proceeded to outflank an immolator with several troops wielding meltas at the back of my deployment zone and within seconds destroyed the last russ and any hope my guardsmen had left. The Excorcist unleashed its remaining payload on the Leman Russ  Demolisher and blew it to smithereens. 


The leman russ bolter could do nothing more than take more rounds leaving it with barely a hull point left. However in all that chaos, he still didn't seize the objectives.



So now that most of my guys were pretty  much screwed, the vandetta decides its finally going to come on. It luckily blows a hole in the outflanking immolator whilst zooming and one chimera that remained tried to burn some sisters sitting afar. That did not work so well even if it did kill the handful of troops and it soon saw its own demise from a nearby squad. The bolter russ's shot but failed its hits against the immolator and it casually looked on in glee. And my troops managed to finish off the three remaining sisters who outflanked.

The assault phase was pretty much a one hit ko as his HQ punched my seargent and turned to hunt down more kills. 


The sisters then struck back against the vandetta - the excorcists madly firing d6 s8 shots at it in a futile attempt to down the flyer. Meanwhile - the excorcist and immolator were joined in their attempts to  down the remaining russ. Funnily enough that failed miserably with all eight shots not penetrating the side or frontal armour. His HQ proceeded to hunt my remaining infantry squads and rapidly anhilated one of them.


So a few troops who were left had their last chance to get away from the HQ or immobilize it for another turn - I chose the latter much to my own regret. Could only make two wounds but he succeeded his invulnerable save on one of those hits.

Right away my russ also pounded at the excorcist - dealing a nasty strike against its side that sent it going up in flames.


The vandetta turned around and destroyed the last two sisters in a squad from before. I would have chosen to kill an excorcist but that was beyond my line of since zooming flyers are restricted to 90 degrees rotation.

Then finally that immolator saw its opportunity and struck the leman russ again only to fail with rolls of ones. The remaining squad of sisters fired at the vandetta with not a scratch and the HQ swept away the last line of guardsman and sat on my deployment zone for the rest of the game... 



Ultimately we finally concluded the game after the vandetta destroyed an Immolator leaving Nat with only his HQ, one dying excorcist, one troop squad and me with a badly damaged Leman Russ, a Vandetta and veterans in the Vandetta who then helped to sit in the deployment zone. Ultimately I thought I lost but it turned out to be a draw both in kill points and in primary and secondary objectives. He slayed my warlord, but I got first blood. He sat in my deployment zone but so did I with my vandetta and the troops. 

It was a great game, and an intense experience for me as well as a heart warming welcome back to the game once more. Overall I wish I wasn't so stupid as to crowd all my troops like that and if only I had known that his HQ couldnt be slayed then I'd have prioritised other targets.