cold one knights

they  may be armless and unpainted but their certainly not out of the fight.

as iv been playing more and more fantasy  i thought id talk about when i tried  out my cold one knights.  for  27pts you get ws5  str4 i6 and a 1+ armour save which isnt bad at all  they can buy a 50pts  standard  so you either take ASF for re-rolls as hatred only goes so far!!  or you take banner of murder  for armour peircing so on the charge u get -4 armour saves  which will hammer the hardest of cavelry even  the might crushers of khorn will be at a 4+save.

the only addtion i will make is adding malus dark blade  constant re-rolls and ignores armour is awesome hes hitting on 3's and wounding on 3's on average or 4's if their bit bigger lol   

rumours

something slightly  different  today  and as the title suggests  rumours!!  firstly  chaos deamons  plenty of chatter about wat coming no rules rumours as yet.  the preorders will be up end of this month with the codex as its an overhaul of points rules etc.  i think the new boy has been given the codex to play with but well see

Wave 1 alongside the codex

BloodThirster/Skarbrand (plastic)
Great Unclean One (plastic)
Chariot of Khorne/Herald of Khorne/Khorne Cannonade (anyone remember the old epic Doom Blaster)
Plague Flies of Nurgle
Palanquin of Nurgle/KuGath upgrade/Herald of Nurgle
Fiend of Slaanesh
There is also word of a named Daemon Prince and several smaller finecast models as well.

Wave 2 penciled in for June

Keeper of Secrets/(Named GD of Slaanesh)
Lord of Change/Fateweaver
Furies/(Chaos ground daemons...I've heard this alternate kit unit has an "unstable" rules granting them an extra save, a 12" teleport, and a chance to lose models (determined randomly).
Hounds of Khorne
An all new Tzeentch Flyer... (NOT the Heldrake)
Chariot of Tzeentch/ Flame cannon alt kit)

now  looking at both waves wave 2 wont be with us till summer  they cover  all the models so far so theyll be a model for everything finally  and in plastic or finecast.   its  looking gd for deamons  jus need to seewat will happen to the new screamers and flamers ill be annoyed if they go back down to 1 wound or we lose eternal warrior.
 

on to  tau  their hasbeen  plenty of rumours  about tau  being  re done and here are some tit bits

Psychic Defense

Tau having little presence in the warp, get a re-roll for Deny the Witch. 

Tau in Suits get a 5+ Deny the Witch  re-rolls  with  a 5+ is quite gd 

Kroot Monster

Expensive and short lived, as its a CC beast the size of a Maulerfiend

Monstrous Creature with Trample Attack: 3d6 causes 2d6 S6 AP6 wounds trample sounds like a warmachine thing with a mix of fantasy thunderstomp!

Uber Suit

Playtest statlines WS3 BS5 S5 T7 W3 I3 A2 L8

Plasma weapon with ignore cover

It's a mobile weapon platform, with rail guns as it's main weapon system, - which can be upgraded to a plasma weapon system or ion cannons. Classified as monstrous creature. 2+/4++ save. It can forgo shooting and movement to gain 2++ save. The Uber can move as jump infantry if it does not shoot it's main weapons. this  big guy has been floating round for a few months  and after reading these rules he needs an impressive points cost  to match these rules

Fire Warriors

BS3 but can be upgraded to BS4 with a 50pt squad leader 50pts for bs4 is great 

Ethereals

Grant various army wide special rules, similar to Dark Angel banners thats better than having 2 sacrifice them for prefered enemy

Kroot

Scout, Furious Charge, Move through Cover

Kroot Hounds and Kroot Hawks

Shaper unlocks additional upgrades

Sneaky Kroot (obviously not the name)

An elite type unit that can hide in terrain like Ymgarl Genestealers

not sure about kroot they only got saves in jungles n their not great  but well see wat gets changed

 

Vespid

The maligned bug men are redeemed! Big improvements, weapon range increase, point reduction, hit and run.

 

vespids were the same  pretty much useless  but with the new 6th ed rules with the above rules their are plenty of uses for this unit

Fortifications

Deep striking turrets as fortification options. Burst cannons or missile pods options. very good for laying down suppression fire on 1 flank

Stealth Suits

Models unchanged. Have stealth, plus optional drone granting shrouding.  stealth and shrouded  the ultimate  in mobile harrasment lol 

Sky Ray

Flakk missiles, plus has orbital bombardment (much like SM version, but with a lingering effect).

orbital blast ability. sky ray has to forgo his full turn

strength X AP 3 (wound on 2+,plasma corrosion, blast) plasma corrosion - any enemy model hit under the blast rolls a d6 every turn for the remainder of the game on a roll of 1-3 the unit or model suffers d6 strength 4 AP5 hits. On a roll of 4-5 the unit suffers 2d6 strength 5 AP 4 hits. On a roll of a 6 the unit is hit with 2d6 strength 6 AP 2 hits with the blind special rule. (these are test rules and subject to change)

 

flakk missiles is fine  each new 6th ed codex has a flakk missile variant both chaos and DA are 175pts ish  for  4 missiles with flakk but this other effect  seems  over the top  u only need 2 take 2 of these  to cause havoc

Equipment

Drones: Any drone can be used for Look Out Sir rolls for any model in the unit they are attached to.

Markerlights

A single hit increases BS of all other units targeting the victim by +1. Multiple markerlights have no additional effects. OUCH - look out for possible BS:5, Fire Warrior volleys now! Markerlights improve snapfire against marked flyers to 5+ instead of 6, but must first hit the flyer with a 6 themselves.

 

i was thinking  BS 5  fire warriors  and here they are not only that im not sure how having no effect from mulitples wil work as it wasa great combo  uppin bs reducing cover etc but well see   

Networked Markerlights

A longer range twin linked version. Vehicles only. this is an interesting  addition  andmakes them viable for taking on flyers  :)

so their you have it  deamons  on the way backed up with plenty of tau goodies

 

2nd challenge results + summary

again  for those who arent  keeping track of whats  happening with this is that im deciding wat makes a top tier list so gd  is it  simpley the list or is it the player?  so  far  iv played  7 games  now  and here is a run down of games  6 and 7 i will also  add the results  of games  8 9 10  to this as well so at the moment its only half finished

Game 6 VS marines
these marines were quite balanced  big deathstar unit that was termies with a minotaur special character asault marine with minotaur special character then troops and a contemptor and a stormeagle it was a nice list.  we played vanguard strike and kill points at turn 5 the special character was standing and that was it.

game 7 vs dark angels pure death wing army
this was my first game vs the new death wing and it was a gd game.  they have some great little tricks  +1T for deathwing knights this army i think faired better  after id got him 2 spread out n go for my screamers as we were playing the scouring  i did damage and took damage but again i manage to survive the attrition.

game 8  vs dark eldar  (first round of an 1800pt tourny)
this wasnt easy their was lots of shooting and as iv found out lots of shooting means you give away plenty of points!! the only real bonus is  screamers  can  chew up vehicles with their  d3 attack.  play agressive shut down the venoms  quickly  and cut off the support isolate each unit  with multiples of ur own and with some luck  ull win.

game 9 vs marines (second round of the 1800pt tourny)
this was VS a huge marine army i got them 2 go first and set up first luckily for me he spread his entire army across the board 2 catpure 2 objectives that he placed at either end.  i place mine on the left flank(his right)  then DS my army into this side and worked on that flank before moving over.  i had a few mishaps  gave first blood aways with a scatter and had a deamon prince shot down but like with the dark eldar match u flood  one flank with multi wound models and most enemies cant respond.  it took a few turns but by the end his flank collapsed and i worked my way across to the other.

game 10 vs Blood angels (final of the 1800pt tourny)
this was gunna be hard from the out set  he got the re-roll saves hex and 4+ inv for his guys.  the mission was annilation with vanguard strike.  i played agreessive  and dropped down the lord of change 2 flamers 2 screamers and a unit of troops the flamers and screamers were placed near his units 1 unit of screamers were infront of his scouts that were on his far righ flank. he wiped out my flamers and got firstblood with a unit of assault troops with captian and apothecary the terminators tried to assault some flamers as well and the took 4 casualties and failed the charge. i isolated libby and killed him off. he had bad reserve rolls and lost all units before it could come on the board.

Summary
iv lost 1 game and won 9. deamons arent an auto win if they have 2 go first bad scatter and u isolate  the most threatening units first you can win.  the problem is deamons come packed with multiple units that can fill the most basic roles kill troops kill tanks  and with units that can do both equally well it makes 90% of games alot easier also  goin for the weakest  flank  and immidiate threats  its not hard to see why  deamons are dominating so much right now.

i still need to play  eldar and nids as i think these armies have a gd chance of winning

first challenge results !!

now from the previous post i was and still am determined to find out wat makes  top tier lists so gd is it because the lists are so unstoppable that no normal list can beat them or is it a combination of player skill as well as superior lists that makes an unbeatable combo!! for those who have randomly clicked and not read the previous posts i have started playing the top tier deamons list  with an added blood thirster for extra  anti flyer to find out why their so gd. at the moment tho iv been using the baby list for the first 5 games due to the tournament restrictions but for the next one its 1500points  full FOC  so ill be unleashing chaos!! lol

so iv played 5 games  with this  list so far and here is the break down 

1st game  Vs gk
it was a coteaz  list  and it was taken to turn 7 where the speed of the screamers helped me win  being able to move a maximum of 36" a turn is only a smal part of their awesome ness needless to say their was not enough fire power to take down the multi wounded deamons

2nd game VS guard
this was a really nice list  he even knew abit about deamons so set up spread across the back of his baord (we played relic and hammer and anvil)  he had 3 tanks on the board  1 chimeara 1 punisher leman russ and manticore.  i took out the chimeara  turn 1  and shot up the unit inside with flamers turn 2 the manticore died so did the unit the punisher killed a unit of flamers but the second unit killed the punisher and finished off hte troops  the LOC  killed off his vendettas and that was game ended turn 4-5.

3rd game Vs the same army as game 1 (first game was a practice for the tournament i entered sunday and that game 1 is the 2nd game i played)

this time it went very differently it still went to turn 6 but i learnt how gd screamers are at destroying  fortifications !! i still took heavy casualties losing 2 full flamer units the screamers are still worth their weight in gold!  this game went 2 turn  6 he had 4 guys left in the corner and a fleeing death cult that was it.

4th game VS necrons

this was another gd game 30 immortals 2 characters and a flyer the flyer gave me alot of hassle my LOC refused 2 shoot it and took  6 turns to blow it up wat id learnt by the end is how resilient the deamons really are  30 immortals is impressive shooting power but i decided his right slank was where i would start the attack and focussed on collapsing it before moving on to the middle and by this time i had all units on the board so i cud close on both sides to many targets and then grinded them down untill their was nothing left.

5th game VS necrons
this was a filth filthy list 2 flyers basic troops zandrek and a scarab farm  i ended up with -1 t oreserve rolls and lost my LOC on turn 2 it was so bad i cudnt shift the scarabs at all  sadface :(  lol so at turn 6 it ended with me not being tabled but id lost.

conclussions
so 4 wins 1 loss  not a bad start at all  80% win rate. at smaller points i think its the durability of deamons and that each unit can take on multiple roles  all the screamers can take on tanks and troops  and all the flamers can do the same.  this will work out really  well as the next tournament is 1500pts so my opponents will have more shooting but il have more units as well well see wat happens  game 6-8  then the next month 9-11 is 1750  so it scales  really well.

painting - screamers

so  iv allways  enjoyed  painting and playing deamons  theie jus such a kool looking army so with that in mind  i decided  to try blending  on my screamers  so here is  blending  by a begginer for begginers!!!

firstly  heres wat ill be using

regal blue and liche purple
blue and purple wash
ultra marine blue (highlight)

first   i decided  how i wanted the end model to look which is  blue in the middle hten goin to purple  at the end an bottom of the fins with that in mind i did this

for blending  ull need a wet pallette or equivelent as ill be adding purpl to the blue to the point where it becomes purple  in this  next picture iv added a slight amount of purple to the blue so that u can see the purple comming out of the blue

dont forget to do the same underneath!!!!  u may need to use a few layers to build up the colours orless if u want 2 create a patchy pulsing  look to the colour. after this i added more purple

now u can see the  blue has gone completely  and u can see the steps blue  bluey/purple finally purple.  finally  wash the middle blue section  with blue then the  other sections with purple this will help tie all the colours to gether  and u end up with something like this

 

 

the transition is not a smooth as it probably should be but this is my 2nd attempt but u can still see colours and im still happy with it

new deamons list thoughts etc etc

now as a general 40k player  i try to stay away from  the instant choices in each codex and put together a viable list with out the key units the internet says will work.

and iv managed that with most of my lists   some times  raw killing power is lost due to awesome models etc etc  but generally i do ok.  with rumours off a new deamons codex shortly on the horizon i decided to set my self a challenge and here it is

HQ
lord of change

bloodthirster
might
blessing

Elites
flamers x6
flamers x6
flamers x6

Troops
plague bearers x10
plague bearers x5
plague bearers x5

FA
screamers x8
screamers x8
screamers x8

now  those who read net lists  rumours  tactics articles will see this is pretty much a net a list and their right it is.  so people may be wondering where the challenge is in playing a net list.  well here it is  i was speaking to a freind of mine about top tier lists and what makes them so powerfull is it the skill of the player OR the list or a mixture of both.  now the answer is to try 1 and find out as currently i do well with a chaos marine list in small tournaments  20 people  5-10  roughly  so if i take deamons and i start winning regularly  then it maybe the list that has made me better although i fel im in no way a bad player to begin with.

first thoughts  i have a baby version of this for a 1k tournament and here is what iv found ill talk thru each unit and break down wat theyll do or did lol

HQ
lord of change  is mainly flying harrassess flyers with  vector strike    and bolt  can also  go for quad guns etc

blood thirster will do the same  but much more reliably  with str8 thats only 4's to glance  much better than  6's lol  he can also  tie up  the death stars and jump around being a distraction so my other untis can harrass  without being tied up

elites
flamers  becarefull with these i found out last nite 2 wounds if gd  but a 5+ save isnt lol  stay away from things like coteaz  go for a weak flank and work ur way down their also  gd as blockers for the troops  if u can wring a troop unit from a slow moving unit then can wall of death if their stupid enough to charge.  also  putting flamers near tanks is quite gd as most tanks so u hide behind the wreckages!

Troops
are crap  lets face it their terrible BUT if u take strategic traits  stealth ruins makes them alot better  +3 cover with 5+fnp is awesome also  u have 2 small 5 man units to stay on ur side of the board then the 10 man to try and get an opponent objective 

FA
screamers are the icing on this  evil cake these guys are amazing  use them to harras  big units  or vehicles  either way their awesome  heres  how i used htem last nite

VS troops  turbo boost over a squad u will be charging  to do  d3 hits per screamer  at str4 that shoud significantly reduce the units strength if their stronger  use another unnits and slash them agen

turbo boosting is really important  1 u can move 36" a turn 2 u can attack 3 u get a 3+ inv save

then charge  also if u can charge with 2 units  i would suggest doing that as well as you get hammer of wrath attack before the combat starts so if we take hte big unit above  8d3 before combat then up2 8str5 hits before combat starts

against vehicles  str5 armour bane and ap2 means that  with 2 dice u can easily glance av12 but the number of attacks means u can risk going for higher av with certainty ul do some damage

final thing as these are the CC monsters  remember allways  turbo boost  3+ inv with 2 wounds makes them very hard 2 shift  especially in big units

final  thing  deamonscause fear  !!!!