The importance of numbers in BA list

So, after playing a couple of games with the BAs, ive determine that all the new toys cant substitute for a horde of assault marines with FNP and F.Charge. I played a few games with the web famous RAZ squads, and they arent as great as I thought they would be. While they are nasty on the charge against other marines, they still get chewed up by any assault eldar unit or a mob of boys. So, with that said, my tournament list is evolving. Below is what I have thus far (for the 1850 tourney). As you can see, I have 130 points left. Im thinking of beefing up the sqauds and adding 2x attack bikes with multi meltas.


HQ
125 Librarian w./ Jump Pack
Unleashed Rage, Blood Lance

Troops
227 9 Man Assault Squad in Rhino; Powerweapon, Meltagun, Inferno Pistol
227 9 Man Assault Squad in Rhino; Powerweapon, Meltagun, Inferno Pistol
235 10 Man Assault Squad w./ Jump Packs, 2x Melta, Powerfist
175 5 Man Assault Squad in Razorback w./ TL Las; Flamer, Powerweapon
175 5 Man Assault Squad in Razorback w./ TL Las; Flamer, Powerweapon

Elite
65 Sanguinary Priest w./ Power Weapon
65 Sanguinary Priest w./ Power Weapon
*They join the 9man squads in rhinos

Heavy
135 Predator - Lascannons


Fast Attack
145 Predator - Baal - Ass Cannon, Bolters
145 Predator - Baal - Ass Cannon, Bolters


1719 total 131 left

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My First Tournament - Help Me!

So, im going to be asking the 40k community for assistance on two fronts...

1.) What one tip would you give someone going to play their first tournament? My guess is playtest your list well, but with that in mind, what else? What tips should I remember when playing against the green tide, or the dark eldar lance list?

2.) My army list. I cant finalize my 1850 blood angel list, but I cant seem to wrap it up. I have what I believe is a strong 1750 list, however this is an 1850 tournament, so I need help in analyzing the strength and weaknesses of my list. The core 1750 points of my list are:

Blood Angels

HQ
125 Librarian with Jump Pack
Unleashed Rage, Blood Lance

Troops
200 10 man Tactical Squad w./ Lascannon, Plasma gun, Combi Plasma
180 5 man Assault Squad in Razorback w./ Lascannon; w./ Power Weapon, Meltagun
180 5 man Assault Squad in Razorback w./ Lascannon; w./ Power Weapon, Meltagun
225 10 man Assault Squad w./ Jump Packs, Powerfist, 2x Flamers


Elite
65 Sang Priest w./ Power Weapon (w./ Raz Squad)
65 Sang Priest w./ Power Weapon (w./ Raz Squad)

Heavy
135 Predator - Lascannons
135 Predator - Lascannons
150 Dreadnought with MM and H.Flamer in Drop Pod (aka DDM)

Fast Attack
145 Predator - Baal - Ass Cannon, Bolters
145 Predator - Baal - Ass Cannon, Bolters


With the last 100 point, do I add a Sang Priest to the Assault marines squad with lib, or throw in a 5 man scout squad with fist, or 2x MMelta Attack Bikes, speeders???

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BoLS Player List - Tournament Army Article

So, first of all, take a moment and read through these killer lists posted on BoLS. They are some very serious tournament lists poster in this article. Certainly something not made for friendly games.


Click this link to read the article

So, as im going to my first tournament in late June, Im certainly "meta-gaming" the crap out of my army list (I just need to hit the table top more now). After reading this article, my response to the following army lists is:

1. Da Ork Mob
With over 150 orks on the table, and my 1850 list built for taking down tanks, this would be an interesting one. I believe that however, I have enough firepower to thin out the hordes with the twin ass cannon baals and a 10 man librarian led sang priest assault squad should be able to each take out a horde a turn. I do believe I can take on this lists, but Ive never faced a horde like such (and I assume at 1850 he would drop down the horde sizes a bit). Taking out the Tank Busters would be a priority to keep them off my Baals. The two lascannon preds would be near worthless this game after taking down the biker warboss outside of tank shocking. My mobility should help me as stated in the article. The list player says he wins 85% of games with this list though, so Im sure he is a much stronger player than I am.

2. Leaf Blower IG
This list scares me the most except if I get to go first... Im not sure I have much to counter this list when it goes first. The amount of fire power it can hit me with would likely cripple me... I would consider reserving everything if I had to go second here so I wouldn't get alpha striked. The problem is if I come in piecemeal I can still get taken apart. If i went first however, I think I could take out a lot of the armor with my 1850 list, as I have 2 lascannon preds, a DDM (drop pod dreadnought with multimelta), 2 lascannon predators and a lascannon tactical squad (with enough meltas to take out more armor). In the assault, I would have no problem taking this out. My jump pack assault marines with power fist, 2x melta and blood lance lib would certainly be key in this battle.

3. Hybrid Space Wolf
The longsfangs in this list do scare me, however I feel good in the assault given the smaller sized grey hunter squads. Target priority #1 is getting this longfangs to concentrate their fire on anything but my transport, and the DDM may help me do that. The wolfguard here are scary too, with those cyclone launchers.

I think if I play well, its probably a 50:50 between BA and SWs.

The key here of course is making sure im on top of my game for these types of matches... What do you think?

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My BA list, and why Tactical Squads matter

So, after hearing more and more about how the BAs are playing out, Im glad my lists is as follows:








HQ
125 Librarian with JumpPack

Troops
180 10 man Tactical Squad w./ Lascannon,
Flamer
180 5 man Assault Squad in Razorback w./ TL Lascannon; w./ Power Weapon, Meltagun
180 5 man Assault Squad in Razorback w./ TL Lascannon; w./ Power Weapon, Meltagun
125 5 man Assault Squad w./ Jump Packs, Powerfist

Elite
65 Sang Priest w./ Power Weapon
65 Sang Priest w./ Power Weapon

Heavy
160 Dreadnought w./ Assault Cannon & Heavy Flamer in Drop Pod
135 Predator - Lascannons

Fast Attack
145 Predator - Baal Ass Cannon, Bolters
145 Predator - Baal Ass Cannon, Bolters

It actually comes in to 1505, so hopefully my opponent will go with the flow.

Now, as far as the tactical squad is concerned, everyone say it at the same time... WHY??? Well, for one, I like the additional lascannon in my list. That isnt the reason for taking that squad though. If you read anything about the BAs online, youll likely hear that can be a little fragile and are a finesse army. Well, given im not the most finesse player I needed a rock hard unit to sit back and hold that ever important objective. In 2/3rds of the games in likely to play, this squad will be holding an objective, and because of that I feel confident in my ability to use the rest of my army to forge ahead and strike the enemy.

Your thoughts? I for one dont think ill be dropping my tactical squad. As for the dreadnought, I love that unit but Im not yet sold on it.

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BA Scout Army = FUN FUN

With all of the RAS razorback spam list builds out there (and yes, it is the list I run too), I decided to try and craft a another competitive list which will be very different on the table top. It goes as follows:

HQ
Astorath the Black - He will grant any of my units furious charge on a 1-3 roll of the dice (as opposed to a 1).

Troops
6 man Assault Marine Squad - Power First and Melta Gun (accompany Astorath)
10 man Scout Squad - close combat blade and pistols, power first and combi melta sergeant
10 man Scout Squad - close combat blade and pistols, power first and combi melta sergeant
10 man Scout Squad - close combat blade and pistols, power first and combi melta sergeant
10 man Scout Squad - close combat blade and pistols, power first and combi melta sergeant

Fast
Baal Predator - Assault Cannon, Heavy bolters

Heavy
Predator - Lascannons/Autocannon
Predator - Lascannons/Autocannon

This list comes in around 1500 points or so, and includes up to 9 scoring units, of which 8 can infiltrate/scout. If your lucky with Astorath, your going to get furious charge for 4 or 5 or the scout units. This list wont be as "competitive" as some of the other builds out there, however It will be very different than anything else youve likely ever played, and will cause some chaos on the table top. Your opponent wont know how to defend against this... Give it a try sometime (im sure you can proxy in some marines for scouts to just give it a run, as im guessing you dont have 40 scouts).

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Ravenguard/B.Templar 4 Sale & BA update

Well, first and foremost, I did put up a few of my Ravenguard units up on eBay, so if your interested check them out. I think youll be able to get them for a great price:


My Beloved Ravenguard Dreadnought:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180479229816&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

A Ravenguard Rhino:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180479231050&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

Now, as for the blood angels, progress is resuming. Without seeing the codex, Ive painted up a nice base army which I will likely use and my backbone to expand upon once I get my hands on the codex. At this point, I have 10 assault marines with jump packs, 10 tactical marines, a drop pod, rhino, razorback, predator and dreadnought ready to rock (still need to paint dreadnough and predator).

Now, with those core I plan on running:

10x Tactical squad - Combat Squad with Lascannon; Sergeant w./ Powersword, combi melta, meltagun, razorback (may switch to flamers from meltas)

10x Assault Squad - Powerfist, Meltagun

Dreadnought in drop pod - No idea what variant I will run

Predator - Las/Autocannons

2x Attack Bikes - H.Bolters or Meltaguns (not sure, but they hang back with the predator to provide cover)

I think this puts me at about 825 points or so, then again Im not certain without yet seeing the new codex...

So, I have about 1025 points left for goodies... Im thinking assault termines, more assault marines or veterans/d.company, 2 baal predators(maybe), another Dread in pod, and finally an HQ... For those of you who have seen the codex, share with me your thoughts... Where do these new marines strengths land? How good are the furioso dreadnoughts over a standard one with multimelta? Will a librarian lead my army? Are veterans really better than their scoring assault marine counterparts (I know Dante makes them scoring, or so I heard, but I don't think ill run a a uber character)?

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The list I cannot beat!

So, I was on a bit of a roll as of late, getting in a few games and getting a good chunk of victories. Then comes the list which I cant ever, ever seem to beat with my list... I used the 1500 point list I described below (Khan led), and faced up against the wall of walkers... 9 eldar war walkers, 6 of them pumping out 8 S6 shots each, and 3 with missile launchers and lances, an avatar, a farseer and some "other things". Not only is 48 S6 shots a turn impossible to defend against, but they get to reroll their misses with guide casted on them with the farseer.

It was spearhead deployment, kill points, and he got to go first. Lets just say after the first round of shooting, I had lost all my transports and footslogging it would turn out to be a very painful option. Im not really sure what tactic I could have used against this list, however Ill be pondering the next few days... Ever step forward I took, he took one step back, all while firing a wall of shots at me. Fell free to chime in (granted, im not looking for an army list to beat this one, as I cant craft that, but how can I beat this list with MY list...)

Lastly, take a look at the poll to the right. As I stated last time, I was really surprised at the distribution of folks favorite SM chapter. All the love is going to the Black Templar's and Blood Angels, with a few other Raven Guard fans out there too.

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Blood Angel Vanilla Marines army list

First things first, as we can see from the poll I placed, there seems to be a lot of love for the loyalist SM legions, and none for those heretic fallen battle brothers. I was expecting some more votes for the World Eaters (my fav. chaos legion, along with the best legion name in the 40k universe...).

So, as I continue to paint away on my new blood angels army (will post pics next post, I think they are coming together well - see post below), Ive decided to continue to play test army lists in the space marine codex. My latest army is led by K. Khan, a very under utilized SM character in my opinion. First, he grants the unit he is with furious charge (in this case, my command squad in razorback), and allows any reserve to come in using the outflank rule (my 2 assault marine squads). The command squad should be a nasty one to deal with. Veterans with 4 attacks on the charge (at S5 and I5) with feel no pain... These guys will slice through a 10 man marine squad in no time. With outflank, my assault marines will be coming in from the board edge of choice 66% of the time. That's great considering they'll get off a 18" assault on the turn they arrive. Ill be sure to keep any objectives I place along the board edge... Here is the list:

160	Khan
115	Command Squad		Furious Charge, Feel no Pain, Hit and Run
15	Company Champ
10	Meltagun
40	Razorback
90	Tactical Squad
80	x5 Marines
5	Meltagun
10	CombiMelta
0	Rocket
90	Tactical Squad
80	x5 Marines
10	Plasmagun
10	Combiplasma
0	Rocket
35	Rhino
200	Assault Terminators
105	Dreadnough
0	M.Melta
10	H. Flamer
35	Drop Pod
100	Assault Marines		Reserve
25	Power fist
90	x5 Marines		Reserve
80	Attack Bikes (2x)
20	M.Meltas
60	Predator
25	H. Bolters
1500

Im becoming more fond of plasma as you can see. I never used plasma in my army before, but with the new Nidz codex, it should be helpful in killing those MCs (Tervagons - this is the one new Nid unit that "can" be spammed and ruin a game (if the dice rolls are going for the Nid player)). I also never realized how great it feels to shoot 2 plasma guns and take down 3 MEQs in a round of shooting regardless of the rest of the squads bolter fire. And with 1/2 the armies out there MEQs, not to shabby...

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Is my Army that good?

So, without actually playing a game with the raven guard yet, im constantly trying to tweak my army list and maximize its potential based on my playing style... As I have more followers now, I decided to repost my list and see what feedback you have. After each of the units below, I list what my intent is with the unit.

• Captain Shrike - Infiltrate with TH/SS Terminators, Assault round 1 if soft target is avaliable OR I need to hold down a shooty unit (wraith guard, emperors children, fire warriors), otherwise stay with terminators.
  
• Command Squad - 2x Combi Melta, Company Champion, Power Sword, Razorback - Rush forward and assault elite any units, assault units; otherwise use meltagun on tank (dont shoot transport, only to get assaulted next turn).
  
• TH/SS Terminators (led by shrike) - Act as the hammer, draw fire, assault any armor or transports (they have fleet from shrike and are already infiltrating).
  
• 2x 6x man Assault Squads, Power Fists in both - Run in tandem, If one squad assaults transport, other squad assaults units that were in the transport is needed. Otherwise, assault scoring units (possible 24" assault range with fleet). Contest enemy objectives.
  
• 2x 10x man Tactical Squads, Melta/Flamer & Rockets. 1 Power Fist, 1 Power Sword/Combi Melta & Melta Bomb - Combat squad on non kill point missions, concentrate missiles on transports and other 5 man squads on going after objectives.
  
• Dreadnought with MM, H. Flamer in Drop Pod - Drop in turn 1 and take out enemy transports or template dropping armor, otherwise flamer troop/scoring unit.
  
• Predator with Autocannon/H. Bolters - Provide cover for moving tactical squads, assault cannon on transports turn 1, lay down fire on hordes or troops, act as fire magnet.
  

Do your best...

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The Raven Guard w./ Sisters of Battle???

Well, as I continue to try and determine how to expand my 1500 point list to a solid 1850 tournament list, im looking at all my options. Im thinking the addition of a thunder fire cannon may do just fine to help me thin out those hordes or foot slogging guard, or maybe even the new wolves (and upcoming Tyranids! why do I never see anyone playing with one? Answer me that readers, I would actually like to know). I know its vunerable, but with my list, hopefully I throw enough in your face to keep you occupied off the cannon for 3 or so turns (see army list below in previous post).

Well, if I do add in the cannon, it leaves me with 250 points. I really wondering if it would be worth it to throw in a squad of sisters (at 11 point WS 4, 3+ save). Im concerned my current list is really centered around assaulting. I think thats great for facing 75% of the list out there, but I do want more options for taking out the new wolves at range that I know im going to be seeing. Unfortunately, the damn wolves have as many attacks on the defense as I do with my assault marines on the charge... I need to take them out at 12 inches away or more. Plus, I can get 2 melta guns in a rhino for taking out those mech lists.

Any of you ever ally in a witch or daemon hunter? I know the list that won 'ard boys was a guard list with a daemon hunter HQ. He had some pretty mean combos in there, I suggest you ready over his list if you will (I think they refer to it as the leafblower on BoLS).

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Raven Guard - Shock and Awe

As you can see, Im making slow (but steady) progress on the Raven Claw - a raven guard 3rd company 1500 point squad. I just finished the second of my sergeants on resin base. Well, for those of you who are new to the blog, Ive decided to build the following raven guard list (see below).

So why the raven guard you ask (over the salamanders lets say)? Well, I think the build I have below is a very strong shock and awe force . Shrike infiltrating with the Assault Terminators who get fleet, with a MM/HF Dreadnought in drop pod slamming into the front lines with two assault squads flying down the flanks (again with fleet), and a command squad ripping across in a razorback. I just love the image. How can you not...

So, for all of you expert 40k players out there, let me know how I can make this list even stronger. I have everything here listed, and not a marine more. Im think of throwing out the rhino and going with a scout squad for another scoring unit, but I want to hear the opinion of those who follow by blog.

• Captain Shrike
• Command Squad - 2x Combi Melta, Company Champion, Power Sword, Razorback
• TH/SS Terminators (led by shrike)
• 2x 6x man Assault Squads, Power Fists in both
  
• 2x 10x man Tactical Squads, Melta/Flamer & Rockets. 1 Power Fist, 1 Power Sword/Combi Melta & Melta Bomb
  
• Dreadnought with MM, H. Flamer in Drop Pod
• Predator with Autocannon/H. Bolters

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