More blood spilled

Had a second game (1500 point) with Grimcron this morning. Black Beard assulted the Tau encampment as the sun reached its zenith, ready to capture some slaves and trophies (skulls anyone) to embellish the new Raiders with. The plan is not to do what I did in game 1 and melt his tanks with mybarrage of formidable dark lances.

Grimcron's 1500 list (vaguely, sorry)
Boss in Crisis Suit
2 Crisis SUits
2 Squads of fire warriors in devilfishes
2 Hammerheads
2 Piranhas
1 large squad of Kroot (12 dogs and 11 Kroots I think)
5 Stealth Suits

Black Beard's 1500 List
(HQ)Dracon, Shadow Field, Drugs, Punisher, T. Helm, Grenades, RJB
(ELITE) 2 X 5 Wyches, 2 Shredders in a Raider, Nightshield.
(FAST) 4 RJB, 2 blasters, Succubus, Punisher
(TROOPS) 4 X 5 Raider Squads, Raider, Nightshield
2 X 10 Warriors, 2 Dark Lances
(HEAVY) 2 Ravagers, 3 Disintegrators, Nightshield

Things do not actually go to plan though.

Highlights
1. 14 dark lances (and 2 blasters) and 5 turns later, non of the 6 Tau tanks were wrecked or destroyed. I got immobilised results at best.
2. Teach the Dracon failed 2+ shadow field save. Hmmm I kinda expected this haha.
3. I can go on ranting but Grimcron played a good game and I made noobish mistakes again (e,g,, sending my Wyches on a Raider to go after the Stealth Suits (bait), away from the main battle.
4. 2 Ravagers and 5 Raiders scrapped by Railgun (leaving only 1 Raider at the end of the game)

Many thanks to Grimcron for the wonderful game and feedback to improve my army list (Increasing (Raider squad's) warrior-count from 5 to 10 with close combat powress too).

Planned changes
1. I will reduce my RJB to 3 with Succubus and 2 blasters. Normally they die in one turn to volume of fire anyway.
2. Change Shadowfield to Horrowfexes (not sure)
3. Addition of one more dracon with retinue on a raider (or wyches for more CC capabilities)
4. WWP. Hmmm still trying to see what I can come up with...

Thanks for accompanying me on my journey to build and play the pirates correctly. It had been really fun using them though I lost horribly for the first two games
(which I would definitely love to attribute to my rubber lances lol. Still, having more CC goodness could serve as a good backup when that happens. What do you think?) My pirates will recuperate for now and attempt once again to charge up their dark lances batteries. Next battle will be my wolves. Krom is restless. Really restless.. =)

Thanks for reading,
Teach

First Blood

First bloodGrimcron has kindly invited me to his place for a game today and I can't wait to blog about it, considering that it was my first game in more than a month! Teach's Black Beards are ready for gold, slaves, honor and (first) blood. Yes, always in short supply of blood =)

Grimcron played his usual 1750 Tau list (refer to his blog) with some minor adjustments- Crisis Suits now have BS 4. During deployment, I realised I am 250 points short so I added troops and foot mainly. Well I only have 7 ships!

Black Beard (temporary) 1750 list
HQ
Teach the Dracon, RJB, Shadow Field, Punisher, Tormenter Helm, Plasma Grenade, Combat Drugs
Elite
2 X 5 Mandrakes (lol)
2 X 5 Wyches, 2 Shredders. Raider with Nightshield and Torture Amp
Fast
1 X 5 RJB, Succubus with Punisher, 2 blasters
Troops
2 x 10 Warrior Squads, 2 Dark Lances
4 X 5 Raider Squads, 1 Dark Lance. Raider with Nightshield
Heavy
2 Ravagers, 3 Disintegrators, Nightshield

Yeah I used Mandrakes =)
I heard so much about how crappy they are, I just cannot resist using them lol. It was a learning game and Grimcron has graciously allowed me to do stuff that would earn me the inglorious 'Idiot' title more than 10 times over.
Highlights
Seize and Control deployment with 5 objectives
Turn 1
I choose to go second Wohoo!
Both squads of DE Warriors were wiped out by turn 2, after bearing the blunt of Tau firepower. Of course, the Dark Lances were not charged up and dealt no damage to the Hammerhead and Piranha.

Turn 2
All (4) Raider Squads, 1 Ravager and 1 Wych Raider came in. Raider Squads only managed to shake ONE Hammerhead. I begin to think of the "rubber lance syndrome". Ravager vaporised a few insignificant Kroots and 1 Pathfinder, then got itself melted by the Piranha that was constantly 'hit' by rubber lances in Turn 3.

Turn 3
Tau immoblised one Raider, destroyed the Wyches' Raider. Mandrakes appeared from cover and assaulted the same Kroot bubblewrap unit. Of course they did not kill enough (killed 6 for 5 of their units) which was a good thing. Wouldn't want them to be shot up by the second unit of 15 kroots. Raiders' combined fire destroyed Railgun from ONE Hammerhead. Wohoo! I think of Brettonians charging with rubber lances =)

Turn 4
If you are wondering. This is when my boss, Teach (Dracon) finally arrived on his slow RJB. Finally blew up one Piranha, leaving the other to wreck one Raider later. Now how did the other Piranha survive? Teach and the RJB made their maiden entrance in front of the last Piranha and proceeded to roll snake eyes for both blaster lol. (I see Brettonian lancers again lol)

Turn 5 and on...
All Raiders destroyed. Teach died under volume of fire from Crisis Suits. Time to shake hands.

Thanks Grimcron! I really saw for myself what an unforgiving army the DE is and I really liked it =) This is the ideal army to learn the strategies of 40k from. I can't wait to learn more using this list and Grimcron has kindly offered a rematch tomorrow. Wohooo!

Stuff which I did and will NEVER do again with DE include:
1. Choosing to go second
DE is about attacking 'too FAST too FURIOUS'. Giving up the first turn meant giving the initiative and any chance of winning to my opponent
2. Using Mandrakes (lol, by the time they finally reached combat in turn 3, both squads were run down for all they're worth)
Okay, it was for the fun of it. Honestly, they were fun to move about until they showed up. Lol, not so fun after that.
3. Reserving everything (for going second) except...- allowing my pirates to come in piecemeal
Even if I have to go second, target saturation is better than coming in piecemeal. My counterattack was pathetic, not due to the rubber lances (lol) but rather the inability to 'gang up' and do substantial damage to any part of the battle. Same goes for point 4.
4. Deploying only my foot warrior squads in cover and the Mandrakes. They were inevitably wiped out by turn 2 for my stupidity and lack of targets.

Conclusion
The real Black Beards will be back (and with more ships) after charging up the batteries for the Dark Lances and feeding all Mandrakes to the Lions. Can't wait for my second game tomorrow =) Oh by now you should know that my title refers to Grimcron drawing my first blood (my first defeat!) wahahaha.

More to come. Now to pick up my penknife and handsaw for the 8th Raider...

Signing off,
Teach (Krom's alter ego aka dark side hee)

The age of pirates

THREE weeks without warhammer…

I am on the brink of depression. Saturdays have never seem so lonely and boring but oh well, better times ahead. Better times ahead.

Thankfully I have my Dark Eldar Raiders to build. So far, I have added five raiders to my Black Beard’s crew (notice his flag lol). Just want to update you guys of my progress towards the dark side =)

I am thinking of using Silver Helm (calvary) to proxy for the Reaver Jetbikes too. That would mean I better get them painted up as well. How’s that for killing two birds with one stone? I will get to play with one of the least played armies (Dark Eldar) and I am also compelled to paint my High Elves. Well, better get my High Elves painted before the new Dark Eldar minis are released and letting my itch (to collect them) get the better of me!

The raiders are only about 80% complete but I am pleased with how they turned out. Special thanks and credit to Jeremy’s templates! I really can’t wait to start painting them once the entire Black Beard crew is assembled. Practicum has reached its last week so I should have more time to paint and plan my army lists too. Better times ahead indeed. Ahwoooo! Oh and a special shout out to Sam for making me a female lonewolf (whistle). I can’t wait to draft out her fluff (losing her husband seems to commonplace and over-used in Hong Kong Kungfu series). I definitely welcome ideas.

The Pirates are coming!

Life has been a blur with all the lesson plan deadlines and student issues during my practicum. I mean teaching has been great but I really need my dose of Warhammer too! Anyway, it will be a good hiatus for me as YC takes his exams. God bless you with good health and strength, YC!

Now I love my Space Vikings. I even came up with a mech list (direct opposite of my Krom Dragongaze foot list) but I am constantly reminded of the times when someone will simply say that SW are overpowered and Runepriest cheese and yada yada yada... I haven't even played them with my SW! Kinda depressing but thankfully I know I have the best WH40k peers with YC's gang, Alvin and Edward and gang, and of course the amazing guys from Serene Centre (they gave me a truly wonderful WHFB experience [I play HE] and I hope to catch up with them after my practicum).

Ya, sorry for the rant. Anyway I was reminded of the conversation I had with Sam before he left (miss ya bro!) where I told him about my love for Eldar jetbikes - too fast too furious eh. Well, I was reading my One Piece Manga when it struck me that the Dark Eldar pirates suit me better =) Especially since it is an underused and "not overpowered" army. So I checked out Stelek's list for some inspiration and Lo and behold! I found this list that I can scale down to 1500 and it has SEVEN Raiders and THREE Ravagers. Question is how I can afford 3 Ravagers. Sigh. Now, this is my idea of too fast too furious but without the OMG-OP-Fortune-Seer Council bikers. I also found this DIY Raiders website (http://www.batreps.com/gjb-work.htm). Should be a fun project to occupy myself with after my practicum =)

Now of course my high elves will be the pirates hee hee. Should be fun!