Double Trouble - The List and The Review

Hello dwellers of the internet!

The weekend just gone saw the first Double Trouble event as organised and run by Alex of From The Fang. This was also my first ever doubles tournament so I was looking forward to that but doubly so (see what I did there?) because it was an unusual (but excellent - more on that in a minute) format of random pairings.

Those of you who follow the blog know I have been preparing for this by writing roughly a billion lists for different armies but ultimately I settled on Tau.

Here is the list:-

Tau CAD - 750pts

HQ

Ethereal - 65pts
Hover Drone, Recon Armour, Honour Blade

Elites

XV8 Crisis Battlesuits - 139pts
Shas'vre - Twin-linked Fusion Blaster
2xShas'ui - Twin-linked Fusion Blaster
Bonding Knife Ritual

XV95 Ghostkeel Battlesuit - 196pts
Cyclic Ion Raker, Twin-linked Fusion Blaster, Stimulant Injector, Velocity Tracker, Bonding Knife Ritual, 2x Stealth Drone

Troops

Breacher Team - 140pts
5x Fire Warrior with Pulse Blasters
TY7 Devilfish with Disruption Pod

Breacher Team - 140pts
5x Fire Warrior with Pulse Blasters
TY7 Devilfish with Disruption Pod

Fast Attack

Pathfinder Team - 70pts
Shas'ui
4x Pathfinder with Pulse Carbine/Markerlight
Bonding Knife Ritual

This is quite a soft list for Tau but I figured it has good mobility, transports to keep my nasty blasters alive beyond a turn and some deep striking for precision (ha, chance would be a fine thing!) striking, not to mention the hard-to-kill Ghostkeel.

All in all though it didn't fare too badly in the face of lots of much stronger armies and even caught a few marine squads off guard (love those Pulse Blasters).

I'll hopefully try and do some sort of battle reports for my 3 games but they will be more narrative than anything as I didn't record a single detail.

The reason for this was because I was having too much fun! I was looking forward to this format anyway and it turned out to be everything I hoped. I got to play with or against 9 guys I had never had a game with before and every one of them a thoroughly good chap. We had some laughs at some ridiculous outcomes and that and nobody seemed to care when they lost everything (including me!). I've only been to 3 tournaments so far (all of them Alex's) but this was the most relaxed of them all. Just a fun day of gaming all round.

The painting competition was great again with the usual fantastic work on display (I didn't get a vote for mine but, in fairness, it wasn't finished and there was far better work on display so I don't mind) and the raffle was fantastic again. 5 Start Collecting sets and Deathwatch: Overkill were on offer. I managed to scoop myself a Start Collecting Space Wolves box which is excellent because I always fancied painting some Thunderwolf Cavalry. Now I have some!

Shout out to Luke, Tess and Dan who had to put up with being partnered with me and to Rob, Matt, Kai-Uwe, Owen, Peter and Tobias who had the pleasure of pummelling my little fish men throughout the day!

More to follow soon!

Painting Progress - XV95 Ghostkeel

Carrying on from the last post, I have moved over to painting the Ghostkeel for a little bit of a change.

The main colour for my Tau army is GW's own Sotek Green. I wanted something a little less vibrant for my stealth-related suits so after some deliberation I took the green down a step to Stegadon Scale Green for the Ghostkeel (and the actual stealth suits which are not part of my DT force). This has given the suits a slightly more stealthy green colour while still tying in with the rest of the Tau.

This will likely be the format for my posts for the next few weeks as I get my Tau painted up for Double Trouble. Next post will hopefully be the finished Ghostkeel!

Getting Things Done

I'm back!

I haven't posted anything ages and the reason is simple. I have a deadline. With just under 4 weeks to go until Double Trouble, I have a large amount of painting to do. I could take Skitarii again as they are 3 colours and based (even if they are not finished yet) but I really want to give my Tau a run out in a smaller points tournament. So that's what I'm doing. Unfortunately that means getting quite a few models painted quite soon but I painted most of my Skitarii in under 2 weeks so it's doable.

Here's a little photo of one of my Devilfish, just about at the minimum standard for the tournament. I'll hopefully have another painting update soon for you all.

List Writing 750pts - Blood Angels Part 2

Happy weekend everyone!

Here we go again with another 750 point Blood Angels list. This is a fairly big departure from the previous Terminator based list. This time we are running fast...

Blood Angels Combined Arms Detachment - 750pts

HQ
Sanguinary Priest - 66pts
   Blood Chalice, Narthecium, Chainsword, Frag and Krak Grenades
   +Auspex
   +Additional Weapon - Bolt Pistol

Troops
Tactical Squad - 170pts
   4x Tactical Marine
      Boltguns, Frag and Krak Grenades
      +Heavy Flamer
   Tactical Seargeant
      Bolt Pistol, Boltgun
   +Razorback - Smoke Launchers, Overcharged Engines
      +Lascannon and Twin Linked Plasma Gun
      +Stormbolter

Tactical Squad - 205pts
   4x Tactical Marine
      Boltguns, Frag and Krak Grenades
      +Grav Gun
   Tactical Seargeant
      +Grav Pistol
      +Power Sword
   +Razorback - Smoke Launchers, Overcharged Engines
      +Lascannon and Twin Linked Plasma Gun
      +Stormbolter

Fast Attack
Bike Squad - 84pts
   3x Space Marine Bike
      Twin Linked Boltgun, Frag and Krak Grenades
   Space Marine Bike Sergeant
      Bolt Pistol, Twin Linked Boltgun

Heavy Support
Fire Raptor Gunship - 225pts
   4x Stormstrike Missiles, Twin Linked Avenger Bolt Cannon, 2x Twin Linked Autocannons

So straight off you can see this is meant to be a force that is going places. Everything in this army is mobile and designed to snatch objectives or move quickly to react to threats. With the ability to Deep Strike the Fire Raptor in a pinch, and otherwise arrive spitting hot, flaming death at MEQ or worse, it is a fun include for me. I could save a few points by taking a Stormraven instead, but for 25 points I am getting an extra hull point, Strafing Run, Deep Strike and some interesting weapons. The Tactical Squads with RBs is a no-brainer for me in this kind of set up frankly. Two 24" moving Obsec transports that can then dump their squads next turn but still maintain ObSec is just good stuff for Maelstrom games. A little bit paper thin on the armour but packing the punch of a Predator. They will prove to be a headache or at worst, a decent distraction. The Sang Priest is the cheapest HQ I can take and yet serves a good function, if only for Feel No Shame and +1WS (although I hope not to see too much assault with this one, hence the Auspex and CAD rather than a Baal Strike Force. Every fibre of my sanguinary sensibilities says fisticuffs but I am fighting the urge in the current meta.)

There will be some of you who will probably be wondering why I have taken expensive Grav in one of the squads.Good question! It's purely because I am a stickler for WYSIWYG, and they are modelled with Grav. Plus you never know when Grav might come in handy. I may swap those out for a Flamer/Hand Flamer but we'll see.

The sharp-eyed amongst you may have spotted the Bike Sergeant with a Power Weapon and that one of the Razorbacks is actually a Baal Predator with a Forgeworld turret. Well spotted! Yes the Bike Sergeant is driving my O.C.D. crazy but hey ho, and I may buy another Razorback before June, but the Baal Pred makes an excellent stand in.

You may have also noticed the 'lots to paint' motif still running through these armies. Again, well spotted you clever lot! That's why I need to choose my army soon and get on with it!

Let me know what you think of this one again. Far more manoeuvrable than the the last list but also easier to kill. Also, Stormraven or Fire Raptor? (Hint, I'd really like to take the Fire Raptor!)

List Writing 750pts - Blood Angels

Good morning internet land!

It's time for a bit or list analysis. Coming up at the start of June I am taking part in Alex Brown's Double Trouble tournament (details here. Also make sure you check out the rest of Alex's blog From The Fang. It's far superior to mine!). The basis of the tournament is randomly drawn, 1500pt pairs (750pts each), so I thought it was high time I decided what to take and get it painted.

So here's my first list for your perusal. I like to call this the Deep Strike Menace.

Blood Angels Archangels Strike Force - 750pts

HQ

Terminator Chaplain - 150pts

Storm bolter, Crozius Arcanum
+Teleport Homer
+Melta Bombs
+Veritas Vitae

Elites
Furioso Dreadnought - 160pts
Power Fists, Meltagun, Stormbolter, Magna-grapple
+Drop Pod

Terminator Assault Squad - 225 pts
Thunder Hammers, Storm Shields

Terminator Squad - 215 pts
Storm Bolters, Power Fists, Power Sword (sgt)
+Chainfist
+Heavy Flamer

The theory behind this list is a semi alpha strike list. The Archangels Strike Force 'formation' (really more of a detachment) has the benefit of scattering D6" less when deep striking, and get a re-roll for reserves. This will give me a guaranteed 6" scattering pod turn one and almost guarantees 2 deep striking termies turn 2 *if I choose to deep strike*.  If my partner for a particular game brings a shooty list, this lot can deep strike and take objectives/cause confusion/split the enemy fire. Deep striking the thunder hammers will see them wasted for a turn but they should be resilient enough to weather storm and protect the chaplain before going vehicle/MC hunting in turn 3. At very least they might force units out of cover to stay away from them and into lines of fire from the other half of the team.

If my partner for a game brings their own alpha strike setup, I will deploy the termies to weather the storm if they want to null deploy or join the strike with the furioso and drop pod before mopping up with deep striking termies.

In both cases the chaplain can roll on the Archangels Warlord Traits which are not too bad as a whole, but the ObSec for Warlord and his unit could see a unit of stormshields sitting on objectives with ObSec. Nice. The chaplain also has the Veritas Vitae which gives him a roll on the Strategic table in the BRB all of which can add another nasty edge to the force. 

So this is the first choice for my 750 army for the Double Trouble tournament. I think it's low model count is balanced by it's resilience and although not hugely mobile, it has the potential to cause havoc with deep strike. There's no flier control here at all so I would have to just largely ignore the skies and push to wipe out ground forces. Let me know what you think in the comments. More lists coming soon so keep popping back and help me figure this out!