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As the title suggests, I'm not one for showing off really (although some of your might think otherwise). In person, I'm quiet and calm, not the type to rant about how great I am.

Yesterday though, I truly excelled myself. I had a game against yet another marine player in his 30's who swore the 4th edition codex was greatest and would not even bother buying the new one. Why? He claimed units cost less in 4th while being more effective, and the old Traits system means his army is better in 4th than it could ever be in 5th. I don't know why I attract these crazies, but never mind.


His List :-
Master with Plas Pistol, Lightning Claw and Artificer Armour, Iron Halo (145)
7 Assault Terminators, all LC's (280)
Venerable Dreadnought with Heavy Flamer and Multimelta, Extra Armour and Drop Pod with Deathwind Launcher (195)
10 Scouts with sniper rifles (180)
10 Tactical Marines, Power Fist, Plasma Gun & Heavy Bolter (190)
Vindicator, Extra Armour and Storm Bolter (140)
Whirlwind, Extra Armour and Storm Bolter (100)
Land Raider Crusader (265)

Total = 1,495

I almost choked while reading this list. Far far too much wasted on extra armour and storm bolters that will make almost no difference (like on the Whirlwind - when will that ever need its storm bolter?), a tactical squad that doesn't know what its doing or even have transport, and a drop-pod Dread that wont turn up on turn 1 when its most effective! I just couldn't understand this guys list or how he intended to play it. So I flicked through my list of army lists, came to my favourite and asked him about the 'Shrike infiltrating another IC' rule. He said Shrike could infiltrate another IC for the purpose of this game, so I was laughing.

My list :-

Counts-As Shrike (195)
Chaplain with Jump Pack and Digital Weapons (125)
Dreadnought with MultiMelta in Drop Pod (140)
Dreadnought with Twin-Linked Heavy Flamer and Heavy Flamer in Drop Pod (150)
10 Tactical Marines, Power Fist, Meltagun, Multi-Melta in Drop Pod (235)
10 Tactical Marines, Power Weapon, Flamer, Missile Launcher (185)
10 Scouts, Sniper Rifles, Heavy Bolter, Telion (190)
10 Assault Marines, Power Fist, Two Plasma Pistols (245)

Total = 1,500

We rolled a Seize Ground mission on Table Quarters. He won the initiative and elected to go second, hoping to get an idea on my tactics before the game began.
My walking Tactical squad stayed together and held my home objective, while the scouts infiltrated to hold the central objective, then Shrike + Chappy + ASM's arrived 14 inches away from his home objective.
He was obviously shocked by the infiltration, but carried on regardless. He lined up his scouts to have line of sight to mine, kept his Tacticals and Master on his home objective with the Whirly and Vindi right next to them and hid his Termies inside the LRC. Then we started.

Shrike and friends moved out and were easily within assault range of his tacticals. My two Dreads arrived, one next to the LRC (with 3 inch scatter putting it on the front armour), and the flamer Dread arriving right on top of his scouts (moved 2 inches to finish right behind them). In Shooting, my 'Home' Tacticals had no targets while Telion and the snipers picked off 5 scouts (the best they ever performed!) Shrike and friends threw bolt and plasma pistol shots at the tacticals, killing 3 and putting a wound on his Master which was just damn unlucky for him (plas pistol > invuln). Flamer dread toasted another three scouts who then failed their leadership test and ran back towards the LRC as the MM Dread stunned it. Assault, and Shrike did his thing. Because his Vindi and Whirly were so damn close to the Tacticals, Shrike could hit the Vindi while the fist could hit the Whirly, leaving the Chappy and 9 ASM's to slap the squad. The Vindi took two glancing hits and one penetrating,ending in three Weapon Destroyed results where having that storm bolter saved it being a wreck but left it utterly useless. The whirlwind however was penetrated and popped with ease. The ASM's managed a similar feat, taking 3 losses (2 from the Master) while destroying every last Tactical Marine and putting another wound on the Master. He lost combat but held his ground, amusingly, which left 7 ASM's including the Fist, the Chappy and Shrike breathing down his neck.

His turn, the Termies jumped out and moved to the MM Dread. He went for an amusing Tank Shock with his zombie-Vindi which moved 3 models about two inches towards the termies but otherwise did nothing. His remaining 2 scouts fired and hit thin air which was the grand total of his shooting! The termies assaulted the MM Dread but failed to do anything, while the Dread killed one. The Master was less fortunate. Striking at the same time as Shrike but without the skills or number of hits, the Master gave one would and took two, failing his last invuln. Shrike consolidated 3 inch towards the Termies who were now locked in combat with the Dread.

My turn two and the Tactical squad decided to chill in space for a while longer. Shrike moved into assault range of the Termies and LRC while the Flamer Dread moved back to catch up with the fleeing scouts but wouldn't get a template into range. Annoyingly I had partially blocked line of sight to the scouts from my snipers, so he had a 4+ cover save which he hoped would save him from Telion, which it did. 1 rending sniper shot was unsaved by cover, while Telion abused his skills to bring the Hellfire shell right on the head of the remaining Scout, finishing him off. In Assault, Shrike's team played another blinder. The Fist made it into 1inch of the LRC, which took a weapon destroyed result (MM) and a Shaken result. Shrike hit out 4 wounds, killing 3 termies. The remaining three termies focused on the ASM's, killing 5, however the Chappy and Dread finished them off. Had he taken a few storm shields, those termies would have survived by at least 1 model!

He conceded here. He had a Dreadnought in DeepStrike which possibly wouldn't arrive for another turn, plus a LRC that couldn't fire for another turn, while I had two Dreads, Scouts and two Tactical squads all reletivly undamaged, plus Shrike /Chappy /Fist and 1 ASM bod left.


We laughed over the victory which was as much bad-luck as a bad list. He asked me to sit down with him and his army and re-write an army list for him so he could have another game before the end of the night, and have me give him tips on what to do. This is what I wrote up for him :-

Chapter Master, Artificer Armour, Plasma Pistol, Lightning Claw (170)
Venerable Dreadnought, Multi-Melta, Flamer, Drop Pod (210)
7 Assault Termies, 4 TH/SS, 3 LC's (280)
10 Tactical Marines, Power Weapon, Flamer, Missile Launcher (185)
10 Tactical Marines, Power Weapon, Plasma Gun, Plasma Cannon (200)
10 Scouts, Snipers, Missile Launcher (150)
5 Scouts, BP/CCW, Power Fist (100)
Vindicator (115)
Whirlwind (85)

I gave him my copy of the codex to play from as he went into his second battle, this time against Eldar. I cant for the life in me remember the Eldar list, but it was certainly troop-heavy.

Before the game, I told him to drop the pod as close to the HQ as possible while steering away from the biggest group of Eldar, infiltrate the Scouts to push on one side of his army and try and get into assault range when possible, have the sniper scouts on the home objective with the Whirlwind while moving the other tacticals and Vindi forward to the centre objective and heavy cover, then on his first shooting phase, drop the OB on the biggest mob of Eldar he could find then bring the Termies in on the enemy objective to contest, using those storm shields as protection until they get to slap the enemy back.

He followed my advice to the letter. Dread arrived on the left flank to his the enemy HQ, the scouts were not far behind the Dread, Tacticals and Vindi pushed forward, then the pie-plate landed and it really finished the game there. He scored an amazing 13 kills with the OB, put multi-melta in the face of one jetbike model as the Scouts assaulted them and locked them in combat.

By turn 4 it was all over once again and the man that hated 5th edition realised just how damn powerful it was when you played it right. He had a full tactical squad, half of the other tactical squad, sniper scouts, whirlwind and a unharmed Master, to the enemy's total annihilation.

So, to all those out there that are stuck in your ways, allow me to give you one piece of advice. When you get the biggest butt-kicking of your life, don't sulk, talk to the guy who kicked your butt and ask what went wrong



CR

I'm at work so I'll be breif. I don't get the I'm chosing to use the old codex. When did it become okay to use out dated gear? Rather is better or not, the game is moving on.

Hope he's cured now from clinging to 4th ed

Maybe you look like a 4th ed gamer?

But there is always a chance to find someone asking for a 3rd ed game too....



Are these "i still play 4th" guys also COD/PS/Apoc resistant?

In my local gaming clubs, you can use what ever edition of the codex you want, you simply have to stick with the most recent rule book. Some people like to use the older codex for some reason, I honestly cannot see the attraction.



I know one guy that loves his 1st edition Chaos army. What a strange guy he is!
I'm a long-haired, well built guy in a suit. I dont fit the typical 40K persona
As far as I know, only last week's 4th edition player has an army big enough for Apoc, but I think they all dont play the expansions. That said, I've only played Apoc twice...

CR

I really wonder what he did expect in assaulting your Dread with only LCs Terminators .... pointless

You played a good game, it seems.

I'd left the LRC in his list.
Assault Terminators on foot are only good with Fleet.
And DS them is not a truly reliable option.

For a guy thats played countless times with that list, I dont think he expected such an METAMORPHIC KOALA!-kicking. He was unlucky with some of his ideas, but the 'lets assault the Dread with LC Termies' was about as smart of dragging a stick through dirt...

Thanks, yea, it really went well for me. As usual though, Shrike + Chappy + ASM's really did the deed, killing the majority of his 'core' army. Its a tactic I'm getting quite good at.

Yea, I wanted to leave the LRC in the list or drop the termies, but I couldn't find the points for the LRC without giving him a list as bad as the one he had, and he wouldn't let me drop the termies. They're his 'prize unit' or something, lol...

It went well, hopefully he'll go buy the new codex now =)


CR