Ok, I have been slackin on my postin. I'm talking like an Ork! Don't worry, I'm not going to play orks.
I just wanted to give a quick update on whats going on in Jawa land. First, I have a couple more banners to show you.
Here is the finished Space Wolves chapter banner I sent out last week. I love painting this one and it came out way better than the first one I did.
And here is a fun one I am doing. It is a custom one for a client with his own chapter, The Lions of Harlech.
It is based on a Crimson Fist banner appearing in the SM Codex. There will be a lions head in the center and some other images placed about.
New Armies? The Grey Knights are coming along. But as I knew coming into them, they are going to be a long work in progress culminating in the fall tournament season. My goal for them is to perfect a competitive foot list that does not rely on extreme cheeze to win games, while competiting for Best Painted.
But in the meantime, I need a tournament army! My Nova army just isn't cutting the mustard. And while I was at that last tournament, I spent some time looking around and soaking what seemed to be trending in army composition, and what was doing well against it, paying special attention to Blood Angels success.
Simon Lean has some pretty good success, with a list very similar to mine, sans Mephiston and scouts of course. However, even his army is not consistent enough to do more than place him in the upper tiers. What was working? Well, I noticed players who use BA Storm Ravens with Furioso Dreads having some fun. But the SR usually serves as nothing more than a delivery system for it's occupants. Essentially a winged drop pod. A very expensive one. But it did the trick! Those ravens move up and die, hopefully taking a lot of fire power in the process. Then the dread gets out and tears into the squishy infantry, killing entire squads of purifiers at a time!
As it turns out, it seems that I believe I stumbled upon a brief window of tournament meta that has a pretty big weakness. And with a quick deal made with Spikey Bits, I am on my way to making it happen. Death From Above is back!
I made a pretty loud splash a few years ago using the BA PDF to win or place second in some fairly big tournaments. My list was unconventional. 3 Venerable Death Co. Dreads, Dante and Corbulo giving the ven diagram of death, 3x Baal Predators and two Tactical Squads. Thats right, only two troops choices. I won second at The Conflict earning a golden ticket with a list that worked not because it looked good on paper, but because the current meta was ill equipped to deal with it.
Well the dead pods are back.
My list: Roughly... 2k
Librarian with Shield and Lance
10 man Tactical with Melta, Multi, and combi melta in pod
7 man assault with melta, melta pistol, pw and pod
5 man assault with melta and pod
10 man Death Co with melta pistol, hammer and PW and pod
x2 DC Dreads with HF, BT and Pods
x2 Furioso with BT, HF, 1 EA and pods
x2 Heavy Support dreads in pods, one MM, one Asscan
x2 priests, one with PW
and if I drop upgrades, I add a third heavy support dread in pod with MM.
Game on fellas!
I already had two dreads and most of the infantry painted from previous armies. I had to paint the 10 DC which I am doing now. I also had 6 pods remaining from when I originally intended to do this army but held off because of the great Melta Explosion of 2010. So all I really have to paint new for this army is 10 pods and 4 dreads! But then I remembered the second reason why I didn't do the pod army... I hate assembling pods. But a quick fix was available. A phone call to Brother Captain James and a C note later and the BCJ Forge World is activated. He will have the first wave of pods done while I wait for the rest to arrive from Spikey Bits, whom I made a deal with, the stuff I need in return for a full sized banner for his store! Win Win.
Now the plotting.
I need to get Fritz over to the Jawa Cave to do some battle testing, but I already have a pretty good idea how to use the pods after playing my own dreads a few years ago, and talking a lot to Sean Nayden who plays Salamander dread pods. But the strategies are fairly simple. Drop and destroy. Try to take second so that my opponent has stuff on the table for me to destroy on turn one. If he reserves every thing, then the fun begins. I deploy some units on the table, and drop empty pods on his objectives and line his table edge, forcing him to come on in a choke point, where I have nasty dreads waiting for him. You get the picture.
Kill point games are going to be tough, but pods are not as easy to kill as you may think. Objective games are going to be fun, as I know from experience vs Sean that 3 pods on an objective can be quite the challenge to take off, and most guys will not start killing them until it is too late.
You can guess what the troops do. The 7 man unit has 3 openings in it's pod for my ICs. I keep them close, using one of the priests to split off and go join my tacticals, while the rest of the guys support the assaulting dreads. The 5 man drops into safety if it can, and uses it's melta if I need it, or just hides some place on an objective. On occasion, if needed, I can throw them a priest to help keep them alive. The death company wreak havoc.
I painted up some tanks using my airbrush as testers for my pods and came up with a fairly good method. So they should not take too long. End result, I will quickly have a fun and hopefully competitive army to carry me into 6th edition. Then I can go in either direction, GKs or stay with the pods if 6ED proves a boon to dreads. In that case though, I would need to repaint most of the army, as all the infantry are old and outdated, not quite competitive for painting honors in the big events.
What else? Warmachine!
Jim the Stout Smurf, Fritz and Myself have decided to delve into something new. Jim decided to go with Khador, Fritz may go with the blue guys, and I decided to try out Cryx. I simply looked at the website and picked the models I thought were coolest. There is a store nearby that has Warmachine night on Mondays and Jim and I are going to give it a go. I ordered up the battle box from Rob Baer and got my hands on some other models, and am looking forward to something different. I will keep you posted!
Thats it for now, time to get back to painting before the kids come in this morning. One more week til I am off for a week. Looking forward to getting some serious painting done during my spring break!
Jawaballs
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17 comments:
Banners looking good. Good Luck with the new list, ever want to run it past the DE just hit me up lol. And welcome to the Iron Kingdoms.
Love the drop-dread list! However, i did notice that you have an even number of pods. If you could boost your pod number by one, you could either drop all six dreads at once, or 5 plus your IC characters... Have you tried dropping the extra armor on the dread, the power weapon off the priest, and the dc hammer down to a fist, and then giving one of the priests their own pod?
I say this, because the dreads are likely coming down first. If they aren't, you can drop the tacs near enough to the IC pod that they can get some FNP lovin' from them. Then, you can put that second priest wherever he is most needed. Drop pods are big enough they should be able to obscure LoS to him, keeping him from being shot until he can join a squad.
As another sidenote, I'm pretty sure the sang priest's ability applies to dreads as well, which makes Blood Talons that much more scary, with the +1 str and +1 init on the charge...
They definitely get the priest bubble, which is why I have one going in a squad to offer close support. He has a PW because he is no doubt going to be in the mix and his best defense is a good offence. Interesting thought about giving a priest a pod. I will have to check the codex, but I don't think they can take transports.
I gave the furioso EA because his av 13 will likely leave him stunned from glances. I know all too well the frustration of a stunned assault dread not being able to assault. But this will have to be investigated. :) Nice input!
Oh and 5 or 6 pods on turn one won't make much difference. I definitely want one or two of my dreads coming later in the game.
One thing I do believe is that I can drop the priest in one pod with a squad, then he can leave it and join another. So If I drop the pod next to my tac squad, so long as he ends the movement phase within 2 of the tac, he is good, even though he arrived with the RAS.
"One thing I do believe is that I can drop the priest in one pod with a squad, then he can leave it and join another. So If I drop the pod next to my tac squad, so long as he ends the movement phase within 2 of the tac, he is good, even though he arrived with the RAS."
I don't believe you can do that in the same turn. I know that IC's that walk on the board edge with a squad cannot detach from it the same turn they arrive from reserves. I would assume the same would apply for those podding in.
Never mind all of that if you meant in subsequent turns though ;)
That said I can't wait to see this army painted up! Dreads are some of my favorite models and I know you'll make them look amazing!
Also the Death Company in a pod is a very effective unit. It really takes anti-tank to get rid of them and if your opponent is pouring all their anti-tank into DC then they won't have much left to deal with your dreads. In general the power weapon is not going to be all that effective though. You will cause so many wounds on a charge that any PW wounds will all be piled onto one poor chump and wasted. I think the points would be better spent on a second infernus pistol. Just my .02
Another observation of mine is that BT dreads don't need Heavy Flamers. They have all the anti-infantry they need in CC. In fact a shrew opponent will try to pull casualties from the HF in a way to deny you charges. I find the magna-grapple to be more beneficial. It can help to open those transports up to get to the squishy bits inside.
Great input Eric! Just some response:
Priests.. Does it actually say they cannot split off a group and join another if walking on? I've never seen that before. The only restriction I have ever seen to an IC leaving or joining a squad is the 2" thing at the end of moving phase. Got a page number?
Great input on the PW with the DC. You are right of course. PW wounds would be wasted beyond one since they will definitely be stacked. Its better to go none at all. I have always been a die hard PW on the Sgt. kind of guy. The pistol will be much better spent.
Now heavy flamers on the dreads though are a different story. I would only ever fire them on the drop, and I think that is a crucial time. IG and GK for example have troops that can carry a lot of melta, and are very vulnerable to HF. Popping the chimeras is not enough on the drop and I cant assault, so flamers would reduce that threat. Not all the CC dreads would have them though. Only two. And the shooty dreads. I need to take a look!
I love dreads too. I have my old Chaplain furioso that I painted years ago, and one I experimented with the Airbrush just recently. I need to get better! I have two new BA furiosos and an Ironclad enroute as well as a heavy support. Should be fun!
It took me a minute to find it but I knew I had seen it. From the GW rule book FAQ
Q: If an Independent Character is joined to a unit that is outflanking, when can he leave the unit? (p94)
A: If an independent character is arriving from reserve together with a unit, whether it is outflanking or not, he cannot leave the unit during the turn it arrives. He can, of course, leave it as normal from the following turn.
I can see your point about the HF on the drop. I still like the Magna grapple though. (Plus it looks kinda cool too, IMHO!)
Thanks for finding that rule for me. It helps.
I have always wanted to use a Magna Grapple. Maybe I will try to fit one in! I will equip them both on my models. Just in case. It's always better to have and not use in the case of wysiwyg than to not have and need.
Interesting list.
It must be tempting to bring a chapain.
Hey Chris I sent you an email about a tournament in warwic, RI on the 21st, if you can get that drop pod army done in time it probably could take the day. I am starting to use more pods and they really do work in this meta as people have little to defend against them....nice banner
Hey Jawa
Been secretly stalking you for awhile now. Well i mean reading your blog but not commenting.
Like where your going with the list. I am just finishing a BA drop pod/deepstrike list myself. Main components are:
3 x scout squads with beacons
2 x lib w/ lance shield and 2 x honour guard w/ 2 x Meltas and drop pods
2 x furioso w/ frag cannon HF and pods
Furioso w/ BT and melta
2 x 10 Assault squads w/ PF and flamer
Couple landspeeders with assault cannons and HB
libs and honour guard land on either side of enemy force with help of beacons and pop tanks with meltas and lance. Furiosos land inthe middle and hit head on. Libs shield and priest in the honour guard give them some durability. Assault squads support honour guard and benefit from priests. Landspeeders cruise around picking off lonely squads. I sometimes mix it up with attack bikes and HB.
Come up to the club and play warmachine with me sometime.
Also, how do you deal with warpquake?
Hey Dude, I will come play some time, but WM is definitely on the back burner. It is still just a little diversion at this time.
Warpquake? Do GK players actually play Grey Knights? I have yet to encounter some one playing Strike Squads. In that event, I would simply avoid them.
But also, it has to be used at the start of their movement phase, so they have to be deployed in order to use it. I can get my librarian in there to block it... etc etc.
Not too afraid!
Been thinking about BA drop pods for a while (I have 7 of the bloody things that very seldom see the light of day!). I used them in a Vanilla Marines list with 3 Iron Clads for a while, but came up against a number of problems. Been wondering if the BA Codex can overcome them.
The problems were (a) fast armies - eg eldar and dark eldar just ran away from me and shot me to death, (b) melta guns - drop pods just delivered my dreads into melta range. (c) getting bogged down - the Iron Clads were easily tar pitted by infantry, (d) opponent fully reserving against the army.
I overcame these issues to a certain extent. To deal with melta guns I found it was good to have a choice on what you brought down in your first wave - an army with little or no melta - bring down the dreads - an army with lots of melta - bring down something to deal with that. I used to run sternguard with combi plasma and combi melta, or command squads with all melta or all plasma. As for tar pitting I used to make sure that there was a quick assault unit to bale out the dreads - an assault squad, or if points allowed, a biker command squad. Never really solved the problem with fast armies are full reserving (even worse when a fast army fully reserved - my son ran a mech eldar list with an Autarch - never won against that army!)
In a BA army Furiosos and DC Dreads with claws solve the tar pitting problem. You can run honour guard or sternguard with plasma and melta as your first wave alternatives. That still leaves the problem of fast armies. I think what you need is long range fire power to down the venoms, waveserpents etc. I wondered whether it might be an idea to run 3 devastator squads in pods? It would give you the long range shooting to deal with fast armies, and you could deploy them rather than pod them in. As for fully reserving - that really is a problem - but again, the devastators can help with that.
EYIG
RE warp quake- out of all the GK armies I have faced, which is a good amount so far NONE have ever taken the strike squads with warp quake- it is all purifier and henchman spam.
Right on Fritz, In all of my tournaments I have never encountered a Strike Squad. I bet I will once I drop these pods on some suckas!
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