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I got a game in with tinfoil last night at the game club, and luckily we were able to dig out the snow table! I've been dying to play on this table since I started my Valhallans, and I was really stoked to finally get a game in on it! Mind you I don't know Daemons terribly well, so I'm probably missing a thing or two here. For one, we forgot Daemons cause Fear, so that never came into effect throughout the entire game. We also forgot mysterious objectives come to think of it! Anyway, here are the lists:
Valhallan 32nd Rifles:
- CCS with MoO, lascannon, company standard
- PCS with 4 flamers
- 31 man blob with power sword, power axe, melta x3, Commissar with power axe
- PCS with 4 grenade launchers
- 31 man blob with power sword, power axe, melta x3, Commissar with power sword
- SWS with 3x sniper rifles
- HWS with mortars
- HWS with heavy bolters
- HWS with lascannons
- Basilisk x2 in a squadron
- LRBT with lascannon x2 in a squadron
Elements of Crimson Fists 2nd Company:
- Space Marine Librarian
- 5 man tactical squad with combi-plasma
- Razorback with lascannon

Forces of Tzeentch:
- Lord of Change with Daemonic Gaze
- 6 Screamers of Tzeentch
- 6 Flamers of Tzeentch with Blue Scribes
- 9 Horrors with bolt of change
- 9 Horrors with bolt of change
- 5 Horrors with bolt of change
- Soulgrinder with Phlegm, Harvester Cannon, DCCW x2
Chaos Marine contingent:
- Sorceror with Terminator armor, Inferno (some pyromancy small blast spell?) and bolt of change
- 10 Chaos Space Marines with lascannon, champion, icon of Chaos glory
- 2 Obliterators

For our mission we rolled Big Guns Never Tire (d3+2 objectives, Heavy Support scores as well as troops) with 3 objectives, and deployment was Dawn of War. Two objectives wound up on my side and accessible, while one went behind the landing pad. We rolled for Warlord traits and he got one that let him reroll reserves rolls while I got one that let me reroll 1s on attacks at enemy models near objectives. He won the rolloff and had me deploy first. My deployment looked like this:

I deployed in a close 2-flank setup with my tanks, lascannons, and CCS anchoring down the middle, while my right flank held my Basilisks and snipers. A blob was on each flank as well, with a PCS in tow. The Marines were all in their Razorback on the left, as a sort of mobile reserve.
His deployment looked like this:

Colonel Petrovik stood in the center of his battle line, filled with pride at the sight of so many men, so many guns, and so much bravery on this icy front. After years of fighting in desolate cities, sweltering savannas and rolling grasslands, it was comforting to be back on frozen ground. While Phendrana wasn't quite their homeworld of Valhalla, it was familiar enough to every man on the line. The spaceport here was critical for commerce and military actions in the area. Word had spread of figures in sinister, crimson power armor skulking in the trees, committing unholy rituals and butchering outlying villages. Petrovik knew the situaton was serious when Librarian Marco and a bodyguard of Space Marines from the Crimson Fists chapter were attached to his company.

The men of Valhalla had their orders...

... and they would win!

My opponent rolled to seize the initiative and got a 6! We also rolled and it would be nightfight for the first turn.
A dark miasma covered the battlefield as Chaos magicks went into effect. Visibility was minimal, and the Guard could hardly see their hands in front of their faces, let alone the Tzeentchian evils that were tearing out of the warp and into realspace...

The flamers dropped behind some rocks in the center and ran behind them for concealment. The screamers dropped behind the barricade and ran to get far enough from the objective that I wouldn't be getting my rerolls to hit them thanks to my warlord trait. The Soulgrinder dropped behind the spaceport, and the Chaos Marine units moved up. Some lascannon shots were fired at my Basilisks, but cover, boosted by nightfight rules, kept them safe. End of the turn looked like this:


Through the purple mist, figures were beginning to appear. They were heinous, twisted, and their silhouettes were absolutely sickening to behold. Trooper Konrad dropped his lasgun and started vomiting uncontrollably on the ground, as did a number of the weaker-willed Guardsmen. Petrovik felt his stomach turn, but kept his resolve as he ordered his men forward.

The Commissars kept the soldiers under control as they observed the general advance, and observed that they follow the orders of their officers to the letter.

I advanced my infantry blobs to get in some rapid fire shots. I also moved the Marine Razorback up the left flank with the intent to hit the Soulgrinder in the rear armor and/or take the objective over there. With the Soulgrinder outside of 36" for the time being, I turned my lascannons towards the Obliterators. FoMT didn't help much, since my lascannons couldn't hit anyway! The one that did get through was saved by the 2+ cover from both nightfight concealment and the barricade the Oblits were behind. My right flank PCS ordered the 30-man blob to FRFSRF on the screamers, putting down something like 59 lasgun shots on them. Three of them were gunned down, while a wound was put down on a fourth from my sniper team. My left flank did the same with the flamers, but were only able to down one and wound another. I also turned my Leman Russes on the Daemons:

Unfortunately all they did was look cool and make a lot of noise. I also called my Basilisks in on the CSM squad behind the trees; the nightfight concealment wasn't enough for the few of them out in the open, and the shots landed on target! Five Marines were blasted, including the icon bearer and the lascannon! End of the turn looked like this:


TURN 2
Reality bent as more Daemons birthed themselves from the Warp.

His flamers advanced towards my left blob while the screamers moved in towards my Leman Russes. The Lord of Change drops near the Soulgrinder, planning on going airborne next turn, along with the five-man squad of Horrors near that objective while a nine-man squad drops on the landing pad.
The sickening, man-yet-not-man shaped creatures bounded towards the Valhallans, spewing flames from every angle. Men collapsed either in pools of their own sick or engulfed in unholy flames. The only thing keeping the platoon in order were the shouted threats of the Commissar and the steely resolve of the men left standing.

The flamers and the Blue Scribes burned down 10 of my Guardsmen; not as bad as I was expecting, but still a nasty blow to the squad. The Soulgrinder shot its phlegm at my lascannon teams, killing two bases of them. Obliterators morphed a pair of lascannons at the Leman Russ squadron, but neither shot managed to get through the armor. The sorceror advanced with the Chaos Marines, and tried to cast his fireball spell. He rolled an 11 for the psychic test, failing it, and the bolters of the Marines either missed or failed to wound. Lascannons and the left blob made morale tests, and both held. My opponent forgets to assault with his screamers, but he rolls just to see what would have happened if he did; he rolled a 7, which put him about an inch and a half out of charge range of the tanks. End of the turn looked like this:


"Stand to!" bellowed Commissar Stinovik as the men of his wounded platoon gathered themselves up in the face of the Daemons before them. "Ranks!" Came another order from their platoon commander. "First rank, FIRE! Second rank, FIRE!" and with that, the troopers formed up and unleashed a fusillade of lasfire into the unholy abominations. After ten seconds of sustained fire, there was no trace of any of the monsters, save the charred corpses of the Guardsmen around them.
My Guardsmen continued their general advance, and after a 61-shot FRFSRF the left side blob brought down the flamers. The right side blob did the same, and were able to take down one of the two Obliterators while taking the objective. I go in for a cool picture of my Razorback but forget to do anything with it:

The snipers and heavy bolters are able to finish of the screamers while the Basilisks blow the Harvester Cannon off the Soulgrinder. End of the turn looked like this:


TURN 3
A 9 man squad of horrors drops behind my left flank Guardsmen blob.

The Lord of Change swoops above and uses his Gaze to cause a wound on the mortar squad. The Soulgrinder and horrors on the pad shoot the left flank blob and kill 15 men. The freshly arrived Horrors turn around and shoot a ton of fire into the rear armor of my neglected Razorback, glancing it to a wreck! The Chaos Marines advance on the right flank.
The men of the Valhallan 32nd manned the barricades around the supply point, ducking under the sustained bolter fire from the advancing Chaos Space Marines. Troopers were being cut down left and right by the explosive shells, and while they kept their heads down they were unaware of the advancing Obliterator treading towards them. Its grotesque bio-mechanical arms formed into a heavy flamer and let loose a gout of daemonic promethium, incinerating a number of Guardsmen.

Suddenly the flames stopped, and the monstrosity started running at the comparatively puny troopers. "Cut him down! Cut him down!" shouted the sergeants while scores of lasgun shots went wide in a futile attempt to bring that thing down before it hit their line. One bold meltagunner brought his weapon to bear on the power-armored beast and while his shot hit, it barely slowed the damn thing down before it could bowl over one of the troopers. Bayonets, chainswords, axes and bare fists clanged off the thick bio-metal carapace of the invader, and its armor was all but impenetrable. The rallying cries of the Commissar kept the troopers standing where they were as they continued their efforts to kill the thing.

End of the turn looked like this:


The CCS lascannon finally hits something, and blows the phlegm cannon off the Soulgrinder. The mortars and flamer PCS kill 5 of the horrors on the pad, including the bolt of change. The Leman Russes take aim:

"Loader!" commanded Viktor, tank commander of the Valhallan Leman Russ Sickle. The loader placed one of the heavy Munitorum shells in the breach of the battle cannon. "Gunner, take aim!" and the turret started to turn. "Fire!" he shouted, as the tank bucked from the kick of the gun. The riders on top of the tank held onto their helmets and rifles as they tried their hardest not to fall off the tank. A shell went downrange towards the figures in red power armor, smashing through trees on its way there. The blast deforested the immediate area, and left nothing but a crater and a pile of body parts. "Direct hit! Loader!" and the loader put another shell in the breach.

The Leman Russes together killed four of the Marines from the Chaos Marine squad, leaving just the champion and the sorcerer. My Marines shoot and charge the small horror squad, wiping them out without losing a man. The wounded left flank blob, losing five troopers to Overwatch but wiping the daemons out. The melee on the right continues, with the Obliterator killing two Guardsmen and taking one wound in return, courtesy a sergeant's power axe. The Sorceror and his Champion make a morale taste, failing it and falling back! End of the turn looked like this:


TURN 4
The Lord and his lone Chaos Marine buddy fall back off the table after failing to regroup. The Soulgrinder tries running after the Marines but is out of charge range, and the horrors kill everyone in my left flank PCS except the commander himself. But something is stalking my infantry...

The Lord of Change charges them and kills 3, but morale holds. End of the turn looked like this:


It's about 10:15 and we have to be out at 10:30, so I just put some fire down and kill some horrors, put a third hullpoint of damage on the Soulgrinder, and secure all three objectives. We call it, and the end of the game looks like this:


Librarian Marco advanced with his bodyguard onto one of the three supply points around the starport. He dropped to a knee and started speaking an incantation. As he chanted, the remaining daemons around him hesitated, turning away from the Valhallans and towards him. The largest of them started bounding towards him, but vanished before it could get too close. Curses in tongues unknown to man echoed throughout the forests as the few Daemons still on the field dissolved as suddenly as they appeared. With that, he and his Marines left the field, without so much as a parting word to Petrovik or his men. Petrovik suspected they were in the sector on Inquisitorial business, but thought it best to just be thankful for the assistance of the Space Marines.

The mess hall the following evening was filled with stories of troopers arm wrestling daemons into submission, killing squads of Chaos Marines singlehandedly, and toasts to their fallen comrades. For facing the manifest evils of hell itself, Petrovik's men were in decidedly good spirits. While the men were rowdier than the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer permitted, he kept his Commissars from doling out demerits and executions tonight. Petrovik had already received orders from command that they would be leaving this planet soon, and heading into the heart of hell itself. While they had held the line, the Chaos sorceror still lived. Until he was dead, daemonic incursions would grow in frequency and severity in the sector. Their next assignment would take them deep into Chaos territory, onto the hellworld the sorceror called home...

That was a fun game! While we had to end it a turn early, it was a pretty decisive victory for my Valhallans. We forgot quite a few rules, as stated earlier on, but it's still very early in this edition for both of us. Unfortunately my opponent's dice weren't so hot for much of the game, and despite having the ability to dictate where the battle was fought, ended up spread out against my army. You need to focus on one big chunk of my army at a time to really do much damage, and his forces were generally too spread out to do much damage. I was able to clinically pick apart each part of his army fairly well after the first turn, and there wasn't enough redundancy in his list to really keep his dangerous units threatening. I'll let him go on further though; he took a bunch of pictures too and will be posting a battle report from his side of the table soon! I'm looking forward to it, since it means more awesome pictures of two beautifully painted armies fighting over a great table. We also will be doing a rematch sometime soon on the club's daemon world table. We had a fight on my turf, now it's his turn!

Indeed it was an epic battle! As SRM promised (threatened?), I'll work up something like a battle report of my own and post it here in a few days. In the meantime, I'll agree with his strategic assessment: I spread my daemons too thinly along his line, letting him bring the entire, awesome firepower of the Imperial Guard to bear on my forces. What I should have done, in retrospect, was to try to come in on one flank (something the terrain would have let me do). Really if it hadn't been for night fight, I would have been mowed down earlier. As it was, Campbell played his hand very skillfully and earned a victory that was both decisive and well-deserved.

Here are some of my favorite pics from the battle.

First, a look at Valhallan heavy iron unlimbering in the predawn chill:


And look at the guardsmen gathering their resolve as fearful forms take shape in the mist:

(I love that picture. It really captures the tragic splendor of SRM's army.)

One particularly "cinematic" episode came when combined warpfire from the Horrors and phlegm from the Soul Grinder...

... shredded one of Campbell's blob squads, leaving only the Commissar standing. Of course he didn't break. Instead, he bellowed defiance at the foul minions:

There it is right there: classic 40k folks.

From there it was downhill for the Harrowed. I'm rusty at this; I feel as though I've forgotten how to play daemons. But I learned some sharp lessons, and my Harrowed are baying for a rematch. Valhallans beware!

I have to say as I read this battle report my eyes were stuck in the pics and I have to say you have a beautiful terrain mate!
As for the game and your defeat all I have to say is that you will remember how to play in the end.
All it matters after all is to enjoy the game.

Great report and I agree with coming down on one centralized flank to deny some enemy shooting when playing Daemons.

Also, remember that although Screamers cannot run the turn they arrive - they can turbo boost now, which means they can do their new fly by attack and get a cover save to boot (which is boosted by the Night Fight rules for Shrouding/Stealth).

A blob army like this one though is a hard matchup no matter what, I think the key is to challenge with those Monstrous Creatures or Heralds to take down the Characters that make blobs so dangerous (hidden swords, axes, fists and comissars) while staying safe from the rest of the blob or at least keeping that character out of the combat.

 avedominusnox wrote:
I have to say as I read this battle report my eyes were stuck in the pics and I have to say you have a beautiful terrain mate!
As for the game and your defeat all I have to say is that you will remember how to play in the end.
All it matters after all is to enjoy the game.

I wish I had terrain this nice at home! This is terrain from the gaming club I frequent, and the terrain there is pretty much all stellar. If you go through my battle reports, I've played quite a few games on the excellent terrain there! You'll get to see more of my terrain too since I'm moving into a new apartment with room to game.

Called it super early for the Vals for a win! good list.
I think maybe Chaos came in a little piecemeal and disjointed which hurt badly?
23 horrors VS a gunline/blob was going to be nasty for them? (not too familair with Daemons).

Great table btw, love snow effects.

What world is the rematch on?

 Ratius wrote:
Called it super early for the Vals for a win! good list.
I think maybe Chaos came in a little piecemeal and disjointed which hurt badly?
23 horrors VS a gunline/blob was going to be nasty for them? (not too familair with Daemons).

Great table btw, love snow effects.

What world is the rematch on?

The Daemons have to come in piecemeal unfortunately; everything has to deep strike, and aside from your preferred wave at the beginning of the game you don't get to dictate what comes in when. He did drop them too far spread out though, which you can't afford to do against an army that has a footprint as big as mine. 23 horrors is actually pretty scary for me though; each of them have three shots at Strength 4 and AP4 which cuts through my Guardsmen like butter! His unit placement really mitigated this though, so I was able to keep my dudes alive pretty handily. The turn where I lost 15 men from one squad to shooting really made me see how scary this stuff could be if it was all in the same place!

So SRM, how are blobs treating you this edition? I'm halfway tempted to start running them again to mix things up, as MSU infantry blobs get boring after a while. Ailaros's naysaying of blobs put me off of them for a while, but after playing 6th some more, I think they still may have a chance at being useful, at least in friendly games. I haven't seen precision strikes nearly as much as I thought I would, so who knows, maybe they can still work if played right.

Gotta say though that that army looks amazing on the table. Excellent work!

The Daemons have to come in piecemeal unfortunately; everything has to deep strike, and aside from your preferred wave at the beginning of the game you don't get to dictate what comes in when.

Oh absolutely, but as you said, the DS option should maybe have been concentrated in a single area, to crush one flank.
Point taken about str4 ap4 but remember always go to ground and then issue orders to repop. + if blob A goes goes to ground, blob B can cover them and then next turn reverse it!, like a rotating wall!

You had 2 objs and he had 3 is that right?
Should he have sat is CSMs on 2 objs; shooting and try and nick a 3rd from you - even contest one? You werent ever going to pile forward were you? - mobility-wise?

 MrMoustaffa wrote:
So SRM, how are blobs treating you this edition? I'm halfway tempted to start running them again to mix things up, as MSU infantry blobs get boring after a while. Ailaros's naysaying of blobs put me off of them for a while, but after playing 6th some more, I think they still may have a chance at being useful, at least in friendly games. I haven't seen precision strikes nearly as much as I thought I would, so who knows, maybe they can still work if played right.

Gotta say though that that army looks amazing on the table. Excellent work!

Thanks! Glad you liked the look of the game. Blobs have been treating me well so far. I have to say that I haven't gotten many assaults off with them though. I could probably save myself 60 points a game by not taking any and I'd probably do about the same, but I like keeping them around. I don't think I've really gotten to use my meltas too much either. I don't know how much of that is the intimidation factor of huge blobs of Guardsmen, or just because it's often better to FRFSRF than it is to run closer. I built this army because Ailaros' playstyle seemed fun, but I was definitely a bit scared of fielding it when I read what he had to say about blobs in this edition. He's more exacting than I am from what I can tell, so what bothers him might not be bothering me as much. Maybe because I never played this army in 5th I don't have anything to compare it to, but I can't complain so far! The only army that's given me real trouble were Grey Knights, and it was only because it was a killpoints game and this army hemorrhages killpoints with all the small 5-6 man squads running around.

 Ratius wrote:

The Daemons have to come in piecemeal unfortunately; everything has to deep strike, and aside from your preferred wave at the beginning of the game you don't get to dictate what comes in when.

Oh absolutely, but as you said, the DS option should maybe have been concentrated in a single area, to crush one flank.
Point taken about str4 ap4 but remember always go to ground and then issue orders to repop. + if blob A goes goes to ground, blob B can cover them and then next turn reverse it!, like a rotating wall!

You had 2 objs and he had 3 is that right?
Should he have sat is CSMs on 2 objs; shooting and try and nick a 3rd from you - even contest one? You werent ever going to pile forward were you? - mobility-wise?

There were two objectives on my side of the board and one on his. He probably should have tried to hold his one objective with the Marines while putting pressure on one of my other objectives; this would have made me either reinforce mine or divide my forces more and hit his, which would have been difficult. I wasn't planning on moving the main force past those two easy objectives, since if I'm holding two I don't need to grab the third. That's what the small Marine squad was for.

As for going to ground: I'm not a huge fan of doing so altogether. Yes, I can order the squad back up which is awesome. However, you'll see I was doing FRFSRF every single turn, and with good results. Going to ground in the open would have only given me a 6+ cover save, which doesn't do much. The only unit that went to ground this game was the lascannon teams when they got hit by phlegm, and I failed both of those saves anyway. The only other time that blob was hit really hard was by flamers, which ignore cover as well as my armor!

Good points SRM, FRFSRF seemed to work excellently.

When do you tend to use it/VS which armies?
I havent used it much with my Mordians tbh.
Any advice?

Oh yeah I'm very familiar with this army style leaking kill points like crazy. It's just something you learn to accept with this playstyle. Still trying to figure out a way around it. Not much you can really do except hide the PCS's and try to keep the HWS's alive as long as possible...

Nice looking models. I especially like the Valhallans as they looked like they came straight out of Soviet Russia in World War II

I just FRFSRF on anything and everything that looks like I can kill it! If you force enough shots on something, you'll kill it eventually. I've gunned down TMCs with FRFSRF volleys before. I used it + Enfeeble against a Grey Knight Terminator squad, and let me tell you, lasguns wounding on 4s is a beautiful thing! I wouldn't use it if you don't think you'd be able to get a lot of shots off, and it doesn't really come into its own until you're within 12" of something. It's definitely better with the changes to rapid fire though, and there are a bunch of warlord traits and psychic powers that can make it something truly terrifying.

Yeah the whole point of FRFSRF is death by a thousand cuts. Yes, lasguns suck, but when you're shooting something like 30 of them in rapid fire range with 3 shots a piece, they can mess up just about any unit in the game T6 or under. Just remember that you still need your special and heavy weapon upgrades, otherwise those blobs will be very inflexible and very vulnerable to certain targets.

I don't agree with Ailaros that blobs are dead, he never even tried them in 6th before making that claim, which is ridiculous to me. The fact that Tony Kopach just won the Nova open and Invitational anchoring his list with a 50 man guard blob is a good start at evidence that they are still awesome. Precision strikes are never going to be prevalent or close enough for long enough to impact a blob.

Loved the armies! Loved the batrep. Truly inspiring, those valhallans look awesome.

Just curious, what was the point of the space marine allies? They kind of seemed like a token addition to make the army look cool (which it did well)

Was there a tactical reason to bring them?

 Red Corsair wrote:
I don't agree with Ailaros that blobs are dead, he never even tried them in 6th before making that claim, which is ridiculous to me. The fact that Tony Kopach just won the Nova open and Invitational anchoring his list with a 50 man guard blob is a good start at evidence that they are still awesome. Precision strikes are never going to be prevalent or close enough for long enough to impact a blob.

I don't think blobs are dead, they've just changed. They're more shooting-oriented than they were before, but can still hold things up in close combat fairly well. I think after playing them a certain way in 5th for so long it was probably just a shock to him to see how they'd fare in 6th. I hope he returns to them at some point.

 MrMoustaffa wrote:
Just curious, what was the point of the space marine allies? They kind of seemed like a token addition to make the army look cool (which it did well)

Was there a tactical reason to bring them?

They were there pretty much for points reasons. I'm still in the middle of building an outflanking mechanized platoon and until I do there's a bit of a hole in my points for games over 1600 points or so. I was finagling with points for like an hour before I just said screw it and threw in some Marines! The tactical reasoning for them (which sorta came in to play) was to get both a psyker and a mobile scoring unit into the army. That was kind of an afterthought though.

 Red Corsair wrote:
I don't agree with Ailaros that blobs are dead, he never even tried them in 6th before making that claim, which is ridiculous to me. The fact that Tony Kopach just won the Nova open and Invitational anchoring his list with a 50 man guard blob is a good start at evidence that they are still awesome. Precision strikes are never going to be prevalent or close enough for long enough to impact a blob.

Yeah I'm starting to notice this as well. Ran two 30 man blobs in a 1,000pts list yesterday, and they were worth every point. They'll need a bit of tweaking obviously, but I was very surprised. I've only used them twice so far, and while there's a lot more work to do figuring out what to tweak, I think they're nowhere near as bad as we thought they were.

The problem with blobs is that they are no longer the monstrous infantry hordes of doom that just walked across the board, laughed at gunfire, and beat everything to death in close combat. Infantry just aren't that durable any more, and wounds from the front make getting into assault harder. However, we weren't the only army with this problem. From what I've noticed from Ork players, they've hit this wall as well, as they're just getting annihilated every time they try to run across the board. So they walk up to the middle, hold a spot, shoot the enemy all game, and make the enemy assault them to pull them off the point. I tried this idea with blobs, and it worked very well. They've gone from a balls to the wall agressive element, to a more defensive, hold the line type unit. Which isn't a bad thing.

In other words, you can no longer just build a list with nothing but power blobs and expect to win. Now, they're just another tool in the guard army to help you win the game. I'm considering at higher points running two 30-40 man blobs to hold the line, as I've had difficulty with assault units reaching my tanks and HWS's halfway through the game. A couple of solid blobs would allow me to hold them off while the big guns and objective grabbers can focus on winning the game. I mean, I watched a 30 man power blob with maces beat death company in close combat, I watched a 30man blob with axes wipe a crusader squad (we were both amazed at that one ) and even saw the mace squad manage to get a harlie squad to under half strength, before they ran and a second full strength unit had to come in to finish the blob off. With proper support, they can be scary. However, I haven't run into a unit like nobs or palidins yet, and they're what i'm truly worried about. Of course, these units would've wiped the blobs back in 5th as well, so I wonder if it's really going to be much of a difference...

I think Nobz or Paladins would wipe the floor with a blob in close combat, given the right size and wargear. I wouldn't want to get those units in close combat without thinning them down severely first, and that's where the combined arms tactics come in. I do need more heavy weapons though; when his Soulgrinder killed two of my lascannons in one shot, my anti-tank was lacking.

I'll probably have 2 20 man blobs hold the line while two infantry squads and Al'Raheim outflank in Chimeras. 30 man blobs are nice for the durability, but I want some more mobility in this list.

Awesome report, and beautiful terrain.

Just a note to tinfoil however, you cannot trade one power in and keep the other; it is all or nothing, rulebook or Codex.

Cool report!

How I envy you that valhallan army, they look great. The deamons look very interesting as well, good report

 Illumini wrote:
How I envy you that valhallan army, they look great. The deamons look very interesting as well, good report

I urge you to check out more of tinfoil's stuff; his daemons are completely unique and incredibly cool!

Great stuff, really nice seeing all those lovely IG duking it out.

Have you considered GLs for your advancing units? MGs are more dangerous but the cheapness, versatility and range of GLs is very useful.
I don't think they're dead at all. I use 2 x 20 blobs to anchor my flanks, they work well, i normally find my opponents are keen to assault me so charging at them across open no mans land isn't normally an issue.

Just a query, can the Marine combat squad charge on the turn it was shot out of a vehicle? I'm not trying to catch you out, just unsure.

Meltaguns are only 5 points more a piece, and in big blobs of Guardsmen they're hidden well enough to survive. I like having the close support anti-armor, and the ability to deal charge with some firepower. GLs would be okay, but they don't tend to do much damage in my experience and I'm not exactly hurting for points. I do think I don't get to shoot my meltas enough, but I feel that the insurance they give plus the potential threat they pose is worth it.

Also, as of the latest FAQ, the Marines would not have been able to charge! I don't know how big a difference it would have made as I would have rapid fired instead, but who knows. Also, the Lord of Change would have come on Swooping instead.

Just checking my understanding really (re: charging).

I find I get to fire GLs all the time but they dont achieve much, MGs hardly ever, and when I do they miss....my one unit of Mech vets have 2 and they are more reliable at least..

Makes me jealous to see all your stuff fighting away, I've only managed 2 games of 6th and both with my blue marines, really itching to bust out my IG...

Wow, that is a really pretty table. Your Valhallans look great. It's nice to see two painted armies go at it on such a nice table. Good narrative, too. Thanks for sharing.

Definitely going to say keep melta over taking GL's. Yeah, you'll feel cool shooting for those first couple of turns. And then your opponent will go "hey wait, GL's suck! I'll just tankshock him to death!".

You will then know sadness.

Plus, you can overwatch them now, and even only 2 in a unit gives you a 1 in 3 chance of just obliterating the lead model in the charge. They're just way too good to not take, and I would definitely keep them. Plasma may be viable, but I have terrible luck with them. Plus, melta gives you a handy way to kill multiwound T4 models (nobs, palidins) and a way to smack around MC's. They're worth the extra 5pts as far as I'm concerned.