BATTLE REPORT: The Webway List vs Orks

I was able to test my 3 portal Webway list this passed Wednesday night at the FLGS. Big Mek Scrap Klaw and his boyz came for a good scrap and they got one. The modified Webway list ditched Lelith and the Razorwing Fighter for an Archon and a group of Trueborns. We had a Spear Head deployment with a capture and control mission. I set up 3 wide to get the best possibly deployment zones for the portals. I was set up inside a village while the orks mustered in the outskirts of the village in a 3 wide battle wagon wall.

Turn One

Having gotten first turn I moved forward. The Archon and his Trueborns took their raider to the left side of the village while the Haemonculi and their Wracks took their Venoms up the middle and to the right side. I got good deployment on the portals. Sadly the Trueborns Failed to do any damage to the nearest battle wagon. The orks surged forward and opened up with all the dakka they could muster. A mob of slugga boys poured out of the battle wagon nearest to the trueborns and began to take them apart. You see ol Skrap Klaw is ded cunnin and most of his boyz are snipers. Matt has an uncanny ability to do pretty well in the shooting phase with his orks. Me thinks Skrap Klaw has been looting targeters from all his crushed enemies. The Trueborns were cut to pieces by slugga fire and then beaten down under the weight of massed choppas, only the Archon defied the green skins and lived.

Turn Two

With the portals open The Beast Masters whipped their menagerie of death into a frenzy and came howling out of the middle portal. The first two squads of Wyches came out of the far left and right portals. The Haemonculi and their wrack bodyguards began to retreat back towards my objective while the Venoms continued to engage the Def Koptas hitting my flanks. The Beast Masters and Wych squad on the left slammed into the mob of boyz assaulting the Archon. The Wych Squad on the right side slammed into a battle wagon. They immobilized it. The other 2 wagons found themselves damaged but still operational and the mob of boys was cut to pieces by the Beasts and Wychs, but somehow managed to stand fast as not all of them were killed.

The orks responded by moving the besieged battle wagons back, but not before disgorging their cargo of shoota boyz. The Wych squad on the right side was laid low by a hail of bullets and Big Mek Skrap Klaw letting loose with his favorite skorcha, while the remaining slugga boyz were finally cut down with a second battle wagon made immobile.

Turn Three

The Archon had been killed in the swirling melee of the previous turn. The Beast Masters and Wychs on the board moved to engage the battle wagon in the middle of the army, as well as the now empty battle wagon on the left side of the board. The last Wych squad came screaming out of the right side portal towards the immobilized battle wagon. The Clawed fiend managed to destroy a battle wagon in close combat while the Wych squad that came late to the game got a little overzealous and slammed their haywire grenades onto the immobilized battle wagon on the left. This caused one of the best explosions ever as it hit pretty much every unit on the table except the Haemonculi and their Wracks jetting back to the objective while blasting the remaining Def Koptas.

The Orks now on the ropes, and wondering where in the hell the Warboss and his Nobz were, ( they apparently had better things to do as they failed to come in for two turns now.) Brought all their remaining Dakka to bear. The Wych Squad that blew up the battle wagon got to do the burnie dance as Skrap Klaw took vengeance for the destruction of his prized battle wagon.

                                                                                    Turn Four And Five

Turn 4 and 5 saw more destruction and mayhem as the orks Were killed to the man. Well that is until the Warboss finally arrived with his nobz and laid into the remaining wyches. The Beast master pack had been broken after the Remaining wyches had been slaughtered. The Haemonculi and their Wracks had disembarked to hold the objective while. The Venoms moved to support the Wyches which had been laid to waste. A nob had been killed a couple injured but that was about it. So the game ended in a tie

Overall I like the 3 portals. I really have to reevaluate the method of deployment for the third portal though. I am going to try the list in another game just to make sure as we kind of got into the thick of things pretty quick. I should have just held back the Trueborns for webway Deployment and Just slapped the Archon out on his own. I honestly like having the razor wing in the list. It is so effective at dealing with massed infantry. I am going to play with the point totals a bit and see what I can come up with.

Until then......

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Webway Portals Now In 3D: Webway List Development Continues

I got in a game vs CVintons new space wolves army this past weekend while I was in Lansing at the FLGS. I have dubbed the list “The Tour Of Fenris” as it really hits all the high points of the codex. We played a strait up book mission. Capture and control with dawn of war deployment. It ended in a tie. I think he might have edged me out in kill points though as I took massive casualties.

I may do a blow by blow of the game later this week. I really want to talk about the Webway list and some post game changes I made after some rather expensive pieces of wargear once again failed to do anything. I speak of Agonizers. The 20 point power weapon that always wounds on a 4+. Its a main stay of Hekatrix Wargear to add some more kill power to a wych unit for those monstrous creatures and tough opponents. A main stay that is now dead to me. Much like the Dark , or Fail, Lance The Agonizer will now have no place in any of my lists. I have taken them all out of the webway list and replaced them with venom blades. I have also stripped out the night shields on the venoms. After stripping out over 100 points in Agonizers I was able to add a Chronos Parasite engine to the list.

After further thought I was thinking about how I can add some more flexibility to the list. The Razorwing fighter has been pretty solid in killing things, but is a big target that I can't hide behind anything. Lelith is also pretty solid, but lacks some punch against tougher foes when she does not have any pain tokens. I digress a bit though. The whole thought process about flexibility started when CVinton surrounded my furthest forward Webway portal with a group of Grey Hunters.

Although the Webway style list is not that widely used and opponents have a hard time adjusting tactics to combat it, CVinton has been part of conversations about it and has already played against it once. With one portal effectively cut off I had all of my forces pouring through one portal. I thankfully had placed it in a good spot with lots of surrounding cover, as I knew there would be Long Fangs on the table. Regardless my whole army was packed into a proverbial barrel for a frag missile fest. I decided I need to add a 3^rd portal. I could just add a 3^rd Haemonculus, but I need to have some punch as the addition of another Haemonculus would require the removal of Lelith, due to points and stripping out the Chronos, as its an untested new addition.

My solution is to strip out Lelith and the Chronos and possibly the Razorwing. This will free up a good number of points. I will be adding an Archon and a warrior squad. I may also add in a fully dizzied out Ravager. Basically the whole point is to add a 3^rd Webway portal. After having 50% of my deployment options cut I decided I need to squeeze a 3^rd portal in. The list is based on this alternate deployment method. It revolves around engaging the enemy quickly and brutally. With the Haemonculi and Wrack units hanging back to seize objectives as momentum carries the Wych squads forward. The Beast Master Pack tears apart large low toughness units while occupying tougher units for a turn or two.

I am prepping for a game as we speak so I hope to have a report up Saturday about how the changes worked, or did not work. Warboss Matt and his Orks should be an excellent test.

Until next time.......

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Hero Falls: The Webway List VS Grey Knights

Well I have been rewarded this week with a great night of 40K with the gang at the FLGS. Most of the Dark Future Games crew was on hand, as well as GT from MI40K. After weeks of no 40K I finally got in a game. I broke out the Webway list once again to test the tweaks after my narrow loss to Old School Terminator in my last game. With a current record of 7 and 2 I was hoping to get a good test. I indeed found a decent test for the Webway list in the form of the Emperors finest. Grey Knights.

Tony, one of our resident Tau players, broke out his growing Grey Knights force. He has been testing his list and as he was the first person there that night I accepted his challenge. I streamlined the webway list down to 12 kill points. The left over points from the extra units were pumped into improving the wargear on my hekatrixes and haemonculi.

I was going up against a force made up mostly of purifiers lead by Castellion Crowe. They were supported by 2 Dread Knights, a venerable dreadnought and a Strike Squad. We rolled a capture and control mission with my favorite deployment type for the Dark Eldar. Dawn Of War.

I got first turn and I was able to deploy my Haemonculis with his Wrack body guard in their venom almost on top of the Grey Knights objective which was placed near the center of the table on a hill. A Razorback containing a squad of Purifiers set up behind a ruined building.

Turn 1

My venom on the board moved to the objective in the center while the second one moved on from the board edge towards my objective. The Razorwing fighter moved to the left side of the board to engage the loan Razorback on the table. Both Haemonculi and their Wrack body guards disembarked. I deployed the webway portals and took a couple of dark lance shots at the Razorback but despite being able to see could not hit.

The Grey knights moved on in force. A second Purifier squad moved to support the one that had set up on the table. Crowe moved onto the table flanked by two weapon laden Nemesis Dread Knights and the Venerable Dreadnought. The strike squad and the 10 man Purifier squad moved up on the right to engage my Haemonculis and his Wracks. I lost the lead Venom to Assault cannon fire, while most of the Wracks were mowed down by Heavy Psilencer and Psycannon fire.

Turn 2

With the webway portals deployed next to the objectives I rolled for reserves. The Beast Master Pack came howling with bestial fury from the lead portal sitting on the Grey Knight objective. The first Wych Squad sprinted out of the second portal moving towards the approaching Purifier squads moving up the left side of the board. The Razorwing managed to stun a Razorback while the Beast Master opened fire with their splinter pods and wounded the Dread Knight set up for close support. They then assaulted the Dread Knight and struck it down before it could even manage to swing its massive sword.

Crowe, Incensed seeing his brother marine struck down moved to engage the Beast Master pack. Assault cannon fire tore into the unit from the nearest Razorback as did the second Dread Knight. The Strike Squad had disembarked and added their storm bolters to the torrent of fire. The second Dread Knight and Crowe charged the Beast Masters and although a wound was dealt to both, the Pack was cut down.

Turn 3

The second Wych squad Emerged form the lead portal followed by the third. The last squad also contained the Mistress of the Cult Of Strife, finally deciding to grace the field with her presence. Lelith Hesperax strode onto the field like a hunting cat. She locked eyes with Crowe and bade him to wait his turn with a single raised finger and a malicious grin. The Haemonculus, now sans wrack body guard, joined the second Wych squad giving them 2 pain tokens in the process. Lelith and her squad moved towards the Strike squad and the remaining Dread Knight. The Second Wych squad moved to engage the Dreadnought. The first Wych squad made it to the Purifiers held up n their Razorbacks. The Razorwing managed to immobilize a Razorback while the remaining Venom manged to wound Crowe with a torrent of splinter cannon fire. Lelith hit the strike squad like a bullet while a majority of the rest of the squad engaged the Dread Knight. The second Wych squad charged the Venerable Dreadnought while the first squad charged the Razorbacks on the left flank. Lelith cut down the strike squad to a man and the last was cut down by the Wychs next to Lelith. The Dread Knight was wounded 3 times and manged to cut one Wych down. The combat lost the Dread Knight turned and although it could of stood strong, it was just to close to the board edge. The venerable Dreadnought fell to haywire grenades as did a Razorback.

The Grey Knights fought back with fury. Crowe moved to help the Purifier squad now liberated from their Razorback. The 10 man strong purifier squad closest to Lelith combat squaded and moved to engage the Wych squad the killed their venerable brother and that was now holding their objective. The Purifiers inflicted heavy casualties . The Squad forced from their transport moved and engaged the lone Venom immobilizing it and then destroying it with a Daemon hammer.

Turn 4

The Grey Knights were loosing ground fast. Lelith moved to engage the Purifiers on the objective. The Razor wing moved into optimal firing position on the Purifiers that had destroyed the Venom and unleashed its load of missiles. Crowe moved to engage Leliths squad while the remaining Razorback on the left flank tank shocked the wych unit that had destroyed its counterpart. They Wyches moved and were assaulted by the Purifiers left after the missiles barrage from the Razorwing. They were cut down and the Wyches surrounded the Razorback that had tried to run them down. Lelith killed the remaining Purifiers while the remainder of the Wych squad on the hill dispatched the rest of the squad that had assaulted them in the previous turn.

Turn 5

The remaining squad of Purifiers was unable to get out due to the wych squad surrounding their crippled Razorback. Crowe Stood alone on the field. The Wyches parted as their mistress strode forward with purpose and malice. She gestured to Crowe and charged. He struck with mercurial speed. Lelith parried and pirouetted like a deadly ballerina and separated Crowes head form his shoulders. The Razorback containing the last Purifier squad became their coffin as the wych squad, as one, primed their haywire grenades and slammed them onto the hull of the crippled vehicle. The Mon-keigh had been cleansed to the man. The humiliation Lelith had been dealt by The Master of the Deathwing had been re-payed by a fraction. The debt will only be satisfied with Belials head. Decorating her chambers.

So it ended with a near tabling. All that was left at the end of turn 5 was a razor back with no weapons and a gimped out rhino. We did not get a turn 6 so the game ended with me controlling both objectives. I have to say despite the purifiers striking at the same initiative with the wychs, thanks to force halberds, and hitting me every turn with purifying flame every turn it was not as bad as I thought it would be. The FAQ stated that it counted as a close combat attack so I get the 4+ save wyches get in close combat. This helped immensely and I am glad it was spelled out in the FAQ. After the game we went and broke down the action. Tony gained some very good insight and we discussed what to change in his list to make it more effective.

Well next time I will be discussing the new Meta that seems to be catching on again, at least at our FLGS. Foot Armies. Also I have acquired a bunch of orks from OST. The Thunder Porkas are making a comeback.

Until then.........

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls............. …....WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!

The Webway List Development Continues: Wych Weapons and Beast Masters

Picture By Beckjann

Now that the Dark Eldar codex has been out for a while, I have finally reached the point of discovering things seemingly for the first time. That is wargear or weapon load outs I have dismissed in the past are gaining some ground and in some cases surprising me with their effectiveness. Once you have time to get a real feel for an army this happens. It even happens with armies you have been playing for years, case in point my new love affair with Storm Guardians and Swooping hawks, a very potent combo, more on that later though.

I have been experimenting with the “Freak Show” list, a Haemonculus coven list, and of course my Webway list which is 95% give or take Wych cult. I have been experimenting with different weapon load outs on my Wych squads to keep them flexible, so they can adapt to any situation, and Lethal To stay in line with the 11^th Foundation of Vengeance.

As is the Hekatrixes are armed with power weapons and a Phantasm Grenade launcher to give them a slight edge and because I can't afford to give them all agonizers. All 3 Wych units have Haywire Grenades as will to deal with armor and anybody who thinks they are going to be cute and charge them with a dreadnought. The wych weapons are the things that have been changing. I originally had a pair of Shard Nets and Impalers to start. This was decent as long as I could get them in base contact. I then discovered how good Razor Flails are. Given the toughness of most of my opponents having a re roll to hit and wound is nice so I swapped to just Razor flails. I have decided on one of each in the wych squads now. I could double up on one, but I would have to try and find 30 points in the list to do it.

My real discovery was Hydra Gauntlets. I decided to experiment with them in my game against Old School Terminator last week. My unit of Hekatrix Blood Brides had 3 pairs of them. For those of you who don't know Hydra Gauntlets cost 10 points, as do all the other wych special weapons, and count as 2 close combat weapons. Instead of giving you one bonus attack though, they give you D6 bonus attacks. I figured this would make up for the unit being 10 members as I am going for an overwhelming number of attacks to make up for the lack of powered attacks.

With the Blood Brides having 2 attacks base plus one for two close combat weapons, a bonus attack on the charge and Lelith Hesperax in the unit made it pretty stabby to begin with. The 3 pairs of Hydra Gauntlets kicked the number of attacks up by a lot. My average roll was about 12 more attacks combining all 3 D6's. The 15 member wych squads get give or take about 45 attacks on the charge, 4 of these are the hekatrixes powered attacks. Lelith aside, as she was getting about 11 attacks give or take,all powered, against the Death Wing Termies, the Blood Bride unit was getting almost the same number of attacks as the 15 member squads and in some cases more despite having 5 less members.

A lot of people complained about the Blood Brides and their points cost. The big beef was is the extra attack worth the 3 extra points, you also get a leadership of 9 instead of 8 which is nice. Honestly though other than having extra bodies the numbers all hash out to about the same. The Blood Brides are just more concentrated killy. In fact in this case they were a little cheaper as I left out the Syren as Lelith is attached to the unit. I am still trying to fit in haywire grenades for them as well, but this may be a pipe dream as I am already budgeted on points pretty hardcore.

So take a second look at units you don't usually use and experiment with weapon load outs. One of the major keys to victory is using things people have not seen before. I know I have also bee promising pictures and I have one of my newly constructed clawed fiend. I have Decided to not use any of the beast master models to do my beast master pack.  This Clawed Fiend was made from leftover Chaos Span bits gifted to me from Old School Terminator.  I am also using Chaos hounds as Kymerae which are from Old Schools filed Chaos Marines count as Space Wolf Experiment.   I may have to use Razor Wings if I can't find some sort of bird model I like.We will See.  once I get the Hellions converted I will post some pictures of the Beast Masters Themselves.

I am almost done building all the models in the list.  Ebay has been pretty instrumental in getting all the models.  I really like having a big bits collection.  It pays to get bits off of people when the chance arises, you will never know when you might need them.   Now the task of painting and making a display board begins.  I will try and post progress picks as I make actual progress.

Until then.........

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls.............. ….........WAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!

Battle Report: The Webway List VS CVintons Guard Blob

The Battle Field before the carnage

As I contemplate the 10^th Foundation Of Vengeance: Adaptability, I thought it would be nice to do a battle report. Last Wednesday I squared off against Dark Future Games painting and green stuff wizard CVinton. I was using the Webway list. The Webway list has been kind of on a back burner because of my want of putting fun back into my hobby. Since its my tournament list in development I have been ignoring it. I decided to break it out again, as I am in the process of tweaking it.

Vinton brought the hurt in the form of his Imperial Guard. His Creed and Al'Rahim powered out flanking blob squad list has racked up some impressive victories. Its a very non standard Imperial Guard list and I like to test lists against non standard lists. They keep the games fun and throw some real different situations at you. In essence they keep your mind and tactics sharp.

I had first turn. We had a spearhead deployment and it was a strait up annihilation mission. I deployed my raiders while he kept his whole army in reserve. I moved forward and deployed my webway portals so that each end of the table was easily within striking distance of my emerging units.

Turn one went by quick as I moved into position and deployed. Turn two my units began to arrive. In fact all but one of the Wych units made it in. The first blob squad moved onto the table and moved for cover. Despite the amount of reserve manipulation Vinton only got his scout sentinels on vendetta and a blob squad. Big Al did not come onto the table nor did Creed. There was a minimal amount of fire but he did down one of my raiders.

Turn three saw the rest of my units come in. As you can see this game went rather quickly thanks to the deployment styles. I was clearly out of position I realized. Vinton wanted to avoid my full beast master pack at all costs as his blobs would have been shredded before they could even strike back thanks to the sheer number of attacks it generates. He brought all of his army onto one table edge thanks to the re-roll he got for his out flank.

The first wave of the Guard onsluaght

Turn 3 saw my Wyches finally engage the first blob squad, sadly the second Wych squad was an inch short for the charge as I was forced to charge from cover. The second squad was gunned down thanks to Al'Rahim coming in with the second blob squad. The first rank second rank order made short work of the 15 Wychs. The first squad was mired down by the sheer number of guardsman. I lost my second raider and my beast master pack started hauling ass towards the enemy. Sadly they would never reach the lines. The distance was just to far. My Chronos also bit it thanks to concentrated las cannon and heavy bolter fire

Turn 4 saw The wych squad in combat with the first blob squad finally succumbed to sheer numbers. The Hekatrix almost held out by herself killing several guardsman before succumbing to weight of numbers. My wrack units had been stuck in combat with the scout sentinels unable to hurt them since the previous turn. The other Wrack unit was moving across the table moving towards my edge to help the other unit out. The Succubus's and her Wych unit proved to be useless as they had come out on the opposite side of the table and proved to be unmotivated as my difficult terrain and run rolls were no more than 2 or 3 inches. I also started loosing Wracks as the Sentinels finally started to hurt them. I even lost the Haemonculus once the second blob squad joined the fray.

The Wychs had their hands full

Turn 5 saw nothing but the death to wracks and me trying to move my units closer. I might have been able to pull something off if I had not taken 25% casualties in my beast master pack thanks to massed lass gun fire and then fail my leadership test.

The 2nd wych unit before the shooting phase

We rolled for turn 6 but I knew I was done. So I conceded and was sad to learn I had no kill points. The Webway list after 7 games finally had a loss and it was a resounding one. It was a very good learning experience though about position and deployment. The Chronos was given a second chance as in the previous game I had replaced it with a Talos and was not impressed. The Chronos is now out of the list. As is the Succubus. Neither has proved to be worth the points and generally have not been able to carry their own weight. I have decided to go with only one shard net in each wych squad and two razor flails. The re-rolls proved to be valuable.

The wych squad after.......crap

I am adding in the mistress of death and master of the Wych Cult of Strife to the list. Lelith is an engine of destruction and the amount of powered attacks she adds to the unit are very nice. I am also shrinking the wrack units and adding in some aerial firepower in the form of a Razorwing fighter. We will see how this works. I am also tempted to remove the raiders and shrink the Wrack units to almost minimal levels so I can accommodate them with the Haemonculus on Venoms.

We will see. Next time I present the 10^th Foundation Of Vengeance: Adaptability. I learned a lot about this from this very game. Also I may have an update on the Ork horde as I have added a Burna Boy unit to the mix. If I can get some more boyz and a Battle Wagon I may be up to 1000 points.

Until then...............

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls...........................WAAAAAAAAAAAGH