Kirby vs Archnomad - List Selection in WM/H

Hi everybody. Kirby and I are going to have a game of WM/H on Vassal in the near future, and I'm using this as an example to talk about list selection in steamroller format games for WM/H. So, without wasting any more time let's get a look in at these army lists. They're 35pts, Menoth for Kirby and Legion for me. 

So, I'm running these two beauties:

Vassal Bat Rep

SirBiscuit and I did some Vassaling today so I decided to record one of our games and do a voice over. It's Vassal so not the best depiction of play but hopefully you get the general gist. I've sped the video up and taken snapshots at each phase of play and added in a voice over. Let me know what you think in terms of this style of bat rep when real games are unavailable.

Edit: so of course my video software didn't work. It recorded, but didn't work so rather than a commentary battle report we'll just look at some things that cropped up in relation to the new edition. (end game picture above)

Email in: Battle Reports/Vassal

"Hey, I was reading through some of the old posts (Batreps), and I was curious if there was anyway to watch games being played on Vassal? While I am more or less on the opposite side of the world, i think it would be fun to watch some of the more experienced list builders and what not get some games in. (40k internet celebrity death-match? Haha)

I am still coming along with the Tau, although, I'm hesitant to get my suits (or converted suits as the case may be) all up and running with what I hope will be a tau update soon. Still got plenty of work to be done, and a life to busy to do it. Which leads to a question. Any experience with lists seeking to bring massive amounts of Birdmens? (talking minimum 60+). Flamer Deathrain suits, 88's, pathfinders and Kroot?

Vassal Ladder Season 2

Season 2 is getting under way for the 2nd part of the Vassal league with the playoffs (top 8) for Season 1 being planned as well. There has been a bit of a delay with Katie Drake having been busy of late and SageoftheTimes has jumped in to help out the DevGaming League in running the show. You can check out more information here with the annoucement re-printed below.

3++ Vassal Ladder Season 1 has begun!

Hi everybody, this is Katie and I'm here to let everyone know that Season 1 of the 3++/Devgaming.net Vassal Ladder has begun!

If you've been living under a rock the past couple weeks, you can read about it here. Additional details can be found on the Ladder forums.

For those who expressed interest but haven't signed up yet, or have yet to submit their army lists now is a good time.

I look forward to seeing you guys on the Ladder.

Katie D

3++ Vassal Ladder Season 1 - Launch

Hi everyone, this is Katie Drake bringing you Ladder-related news!

I have a pretty big announcement to make. 3++ has teamed up with Athran from Devgaming.net to present to 40K players everywhere Season 1 of the V40K Ladder!

The official forums are up. To get involved, begin here. You’ll need an account to make posts and join the ladder.

There have been some changes to the rules because of the way that Devgaming.net’s ladder software works, so be sure to read the updated rules post found in the forums. It’s nothing major, just the way points are earned and lost after games as well as a couple clarifications.

The Ladder will open for registration at 12:00AM on July 31^st, Eastern Standard Time. People are encouraged to use the time between now and then to write army lists, read over the rules, ask questions and maybe get some practice in.

I hope to see people signing up to the forum and posting questions, comments and more soon. Looking forward to laddering with you guys!

Katie D

Vassal Battle Report: Grey Knights vs Blood Angel Jumpers (Bloodhammer)

So GWvsJohn decided to play a game in practice for the Vassal league. I decided to play him because it's my day off and I need more practice with my GK (do I ever)! We rolled up regular BRB missions since that is what is being used in my next couple of tournaments + the Ladder and got C&C + Dawn of War. We laughed as I predicted this and so went with Seize Ground + Dawn of War with 4 objectives. The objectives all ended up placed on one side and that is where the game was fought.

I won the roll-of and gave GWvsJohn the first turn. This allows him to be more aggressive but lets me have more options for objective taking near end game and I was confident in my ability to slow his ASM advanve with my tanks. The lists were as follows:

3++ Vassal Ladder - The Roolz

Hi everybody! I’m back, this time with the rules for the 3++ Vassal 40K Ladder. I read all of the comments and have come to a couple of conclusions on the questions I asked. I’d like to thank everyone for their contributions and input as well as Kirby for help with formatting and technical stuff (I’ve never used blogger before, see?) as well as providing me with a platform to reach all of the readers from. I’d also like to thank VT2, ZJoekov and Mcdmk2 for giving me the encouragement I needed to take the leap to start truly putting my thoughts out there.

I’m not into long introductions, so let’s get right into it!

3++ Vassal Ladder - Asking Around

Hi 3++! I’m Katie Drake and this is my first time writing anything for Kirby. Some of you may know me from the chatbawks or Heresy-Online.net. In time I’ll be doing at least one Codex Review either solo or alongside others and maybe even offering my viewpoint on gaming culture-specific issues. Today though, I’d like to come forth with ideas and ask the readers of 3++ how they would prefer a Vassal-based 40K Ladder work. Some may remember Kirby’s V40K ladder from a few years ago. This will be similar, but fine tuned a bit. Hopefully it’ll be even more successful.

Grey Knights versus Tyranids: Puppy...oh hi there!

So Puppy and I wanted to game. Me to get more Grey Knight practice in and Puppy to see if his thoughts on Grey Knights were true. The game...well you'll see. We did a NOVA/Centurion based mission with Objectives as the primary, Table Quarters as secondary, Kill Points as tertiary and a Spearhead deployment. Lists were the following at 1850:

Libby w/Quick, Might, Shrouding, Sanc
Inq w/3 Servoskulls; Henchmen w/3x MM, Chimera
2x5x Purifiers w/2x psycannons, Psyback
2x10x GKSS, w/2x psycannons, MC hammer, psybolt ammo, Rhino
2x5x GKSS w/psycannon, Psyback
2x Psyflemen

Tyrant w/LW, BS, HVC, OA, Parxoysm, Leech; 2x Guard w/LW
2x3x HG; 2x HG
2x tervigon w/Adrenal, Toxin, Catalyst, Cluster
2x10x Termagants
2x Harpy w/HVC
T-Fex w/Rupture, Cluster

Here's the deployment (and yes we did it on Vassal, bite us).

Why Use Vassal?

Learning Vassal is not exactly easy (although this may be useful to newbies...); so why bother? It's not really representative of 40K because you don't learn important skills like judging distances, assessing the battlefield from a proper perspective, playing for speed, moving and positioning units correctly, etc. So what's the point? There are several, really.

1. Your schedule

Yeah, yours. And also that of the FLGS you go to for games. Now, maybe you're lucky and your store is open until 8 or 9 PM and you never have any problem getting a game in, but for many of us, scheduling our life around plastic spacemans is just not feasible with work, school, etc. Vassal doesn't care about any of that- any time you get on, there are probably some folks from somewhere in the world looking for a game, and if you're hanging around the 3++ Chatbawks you can probably even find some folks who aren't jerks.

Battle Report: the Littlest Termagant

I am going to tell you the story of The Little Termagant That Could.

No, wait, I mean I'm going to tell you story about a Vassal battle report.

Wait, actually, can it be both?

So TastyTaste and I had a battle here a little while back, and this time around I actually got pics taken of everything, so here you go.

1 Hive Tyrant (HC, OA, HVC, Parox, Leech)
2 Tyrant Guard
3x3 Hive Guard
2x10 Termagants
2x Tervigon (Cluster, Catalyst, Adrenal, Toxin, Talons)
2x Trygon (Adrenal)
1 Tyrannofex (Rupture, Cluster, Dessicator)

1 Ko'sorro Khan
1 Tigurius <-- what the fudgemuffins?
5 Honor Guard (1 TH/SS, 3 LC/SS, some flamers?)
10 Scouts (Sniper, Missile)
10 Scouts (Sniper, Missile)
5 Tacticals (Combi-Flamer, TLLas Razorback)
5 Tacticals (Combi-Flamer, TLLas Razorback)
5 Tacticals (Combi-Flamer, TLLas Razorback)
5 Tacticals (Combi-Flamer, TLLas Razorback)
5 Devastators (2 Missile, Rhino)
5 Devastators (2 Missile, Rhino)

Vassal Batrep: AbusePuppy vs Chumbalaya

Since Fluger had to bail out on our Vassal game, I ended up playing Chumbalaya instead- which was hardly a bad thing, as BA are one of the matchups I don't have a lot of practice against. I played my Tyranids- lists were roughly as follows:

2000pts
Tyrant (HVC, OA, HC)
2x Tyrant Guard
3x3 Hive Guard
2x10 Termagants
2x Tervigon (Catalyst, Cluster, Adrenal, Toxin)
Tyrannofex (Rupture, Cluster, Dessicator)
2x Trygon (Adrenal)

Dante
Honor Guard (3 Melta, 3 Flamer, SS, PF)
2x Sang Priest (JP, LC)
Sang Guard (2 Infernus, PFist, Banner)
3x Sang Guard (2 Infernus, PFist)
2 Van Vets (SS, Sarge w/PFist)

Grrr! Kittens vs. Puppies, go!

So Fluger (of Blood of Kittens) and I are gonna be playing a Vassal game in about two hours here, for those interested in watching. Most of the communication will be via Skype for those who want to listen to us B.S., but the room always has a continuous commentary from the peanut gallery as well, so no one should be left out.

Come and join us and see a mediocre player (and Nathan) in action!

Blood Angels and Rhinos. I present my case.

Hello people. This fine evening I'm going to be talking about Blood Angels. I've been doing some playtesting with them lately, using builds that you wont find in places like this. I've been pushing boundaries and stuff (and wearing black, also listening to linkin park), just to see what I could come up with. So, what did I come up with, you ask (or maybe you don't, cause you're just on here killing time when you're bored, or have something better you really should be doing)? Well, the main thing I've been testing is rhinos over razorbacks. And honestly, I think I'm sold.

Why? Well, the main (read:only) advantage over a Razorback is the fire point. Well, that and self repair (which is funny when it happens). Ok, AND it's 5pts cheaper. But the main one is the fire point. It's actually a pretty massive advantage. Today, I'm going to try and get folks to open their heart to the rhino, because it's waiting outside with a present. A big present that's very heavy, and it wants to come in and put it down. And that present is love.

Err, sorry, too many cartoons. Ok, so while 5pts cheaper doesn't sound like much, over 6 units that's 30pts. In my current army build for example, if I was using TLHF razorbacks, I'd be down a landspeeder. Quite often an amount of points like that mean you can fit something entirely new into the army. It's not a big selling point, but it's nice. You also get the stormbolter. Don't laugh! Stormbolters are actually not bad, especially when you have 8 of them running around. They're good for picking on squads you've de-meched, especially if you're fighting IG or (Dark) Eldar. You can also use them to clear (most) bubblewrap. As most bubblewrap doesn't have better than a 5+ save. Of course cover comes into it, but 16 bolter shots are bound to help. People tend to ignore the threat of stormbolters (until it's too late) which is a major advantage, means they can expose infantry squads and not even realise it. Never forget to fire them.

GWvsJohn playtests Centurion

This is my 2nd playtest of both my BA Jumper list (the 1750 version) and the Centurion Missions on Vassal At some point, Chumby/Kirby should post the first batrep here, but this is the 2nd vs. BroLo. He whipped up a quick 1750 list which is below. The only weaknesses I saw pre-game (both of which came up) were no smoke and a lack of psychic defense.

GWvsJohn vs.... YOU!

Just a quick post for now. I'm off this week and I'd love to get some 40k in. It's probably going to be mostly on Vassal due to my model situation (as in, they're all in a pile in my parents basement 300 miles away). I'd love for them to be against people I don't hate (like you guys).

So, look for me on Vassal or shoot me an email and let me know when you're available. I'll also try to get some real posts up too.

Vassal Battle Report: Nipple Hammer versus Hybrid SM

(pic from Tim @ The Vanus Temple) I was bored of entering data today so I decided to play a game with Smurfy on…Vassal! We had no LoS arguments, amazing. I decided to try out Nipple Hammer and am pleased with the results (see below) whilst Smurfy ran a Hybrid SM list w/Bikes, Armor & some ASM.

We roll DoW w/C&C. Yay for auto draws. Smurfy wins roll-off and takes the top spot which I wanted with his objective hidden behind LoS blocking terrain. I slap mine behind some forest terrain (I’m a real man) and Smurfy drops two bike squads and his Bike Captain in midfield in a V shape to access both corners on my side and discourage me from deploying anything. I oblige and don’t deploy anything with 2 sang guard squads including Dante, libby and a Priest Deep-striking with everyone else walking on.

Trial run of Lords of Terra Tyranids on Vassal

Had a game with Brother Loring on Vassal for giggles and practice with my Lords of Terra Tyranids army. Here’s what my Tervigons did:

Pooped 13 & 11
Poop 9 & 12
Poop 9 & 8
Poop 13 & 15 (both worn out).

Uh wow! We were going to write a batrep for this trial game on Vassal but it turned into too big of an lol. I’ll show you this pic from T3... Ya that’s 83 gants, and still counting (a total of 90 gants were spawned for 111 total…wow; all for 105 pts! + 2 tervigons). This is how you block without tanks. Layers and layers! His LRC couldn’t access my MC due to all of my gants. If he had 2 he could of created a wedge and assaulted from there but 2 @ 1750 doesn’t leave you with much else. I got lucky with my HG (glancing only smokes suck btw) and Immobed the LRC but wasn’t planning on it (target priority significantly changed when AV11 can only be glanced…did what 3 or 4 shakes in the first 2 turns against them?). When LRC got immobed could use gants to guide Termie exits and then simply swamp them whilst ensuring stragglers move slowly so they are within 6” of tervigons & sometimes Tyrant. FC/poisons/CC/PE is awesome for a 5pt model yes? Problem with the game boiled down to it being c&c and Tyranid lack of general AV14 means I wasn’t venturing too far away from my cover. Once I had neutralised the Raider it was really too late to gain BrotherLorings objective.

Vassal BatRep on Blocking

Well my mate of mine who is starting 40k read over all the rage and pinkness about blocking recently. Let’s look at his overarching comment:

“I agree although I haven't played. Smurfy did seem to be making a few assumptions though, but it's hard to say without having played myself.”

&

“He kinda assumed he'd just be able to do it, where as the other people were suggesting there was more to it than that. Also I think Wyddr's posts were actually a bit better as Smurfy kinda lost his temper... always a turn off = p but the logic of blocking a really powerful unit with a shitty unit seems like a common sense thing…”