First of all I went to a 1750 tournament down at Game Kastle in San Jose two weeks ago. This was a fun and smooth event and I had a great time. I took my pretty standard bike list, the only change up I made was I ran the attack bikes as 2 groups of 3 vs 3 groups of 2.
Game 1 was against Dan's Marine/IG army. I played Dan before at another Con I think with his orks against my bikes and I narrowly eeked out a win. This game turned out to be much different. First off the opening rolls never went my way. The mission was a roll off for the two and I got the mission I didn't want (Scourging). Had to go second. No nightfighting. The random objective points did not end up on my side. No turn 1 steal.
Eef.
In the end I probably spent too much time dealing with his 3 drop pods instead of just rushing his lines. In many ways I think the aegis/scouts are becoming a bit of a liabily/anchor that reduces the flexibility of the bike list.
Anyway by turn 6 I think he had pretty much tabled me. Le ouch, it has been awhile since I've lost that badly in a tournament.
My next game was a Eldar/DE combo with a Harliestar. Hey an army I've played against excpet mostly not! He didn't use vect and instead had the Barron running around with helions. He also had a big unit of Wraithgaurd to sit back on an objective.
His problem was he had no range and I just kited him around. It was single objective game and I ended up with first blood and line breaker. It was tactically sound on my part but admittedly a pretty boring game.
Game 3 I failed to take a picture, but it was against a Corteaz GK henchman spam with the additional twist of Mrorak and his Ghosts. This ended up being a tactically fun and challenging game. I made one error late in the game which let mordrak catch my captain and his bikes that had the relic (rather than screening them) and that made me drop the relic. However I had first blood and warlord by the end of it and his troops were badly out of position so we called the game in my favor.
So 2-1 which I can always be happy getting. The TO ended up giving the two guys that went 3-0 a split of 1sr and the 2-1 guys a split of the second place prize pool. So a $20 gift card is a nice take away as well.
As far as the list was concerned... well the bikes are still good. The farseer added a little to game 2 & 3 but wasn't all that. He seems to really shine against Tyranids, but even against the Harliestar usually you can't end up stopping fortune twice. It's nice but... eh.
The Aegis and scouts also didn't do much as I mentioned. I only saw one flier in Game 1 and since it didn't come on until turn 4 my gun/squad were already toast. The other 2 games it was an expense that didn't return it's points.
So I've got some considerations to make as I look to BAO. Do I change up this list to make my codec marine bikes better? Or do I look at Ravenwing?
Well I gave Ravenwing a spin at Frontline. I. Got. Smashed.
http://www.frontlinegaming.org/2013/01/24/tyranids-vs-ravenwing-1750-bao-match/
So I certainly messed up two rules. One my unit shouldn't have fallen back turn 1 because of the banner. Secondly I shouldn't have been able to assault out of reserves. OOOPs.
My big tactical mistake was leaving the Black Knights in range to be shot by the reserved Devilgants. But who know I would fail 6 out fo 7 saves.
So I'm not sure what to think of that game. I rolled horribly and made some errors. I really missed the farseer. The Banner of Devastation is pretty damn awesome I have to admit. I'm not so sure about the librarian, though I got not the greatest power (ignore cover for the unit).
So I am both considering my biker army done and ready for BAO, but likewise am wondering if I need to make changes.
In the meantime I picked up a few fliers and spent some time this weekend layering some paint on with the airbrush.
Dundracon is now 3 weeks away. It is 1500 points but (oddly) no allies and no fortifications. I don't really understand why this is the case as both of these things are pretty big deals in 6th edition. I guess the TO may not think they are fair but... well I could go on but it doesn't change the fact that this is what we've got.
This means stripping my bikes down from 1750 to 1500 and obviously the eldar and the aegis is out. I am debating adding the Storm Talon for a little more anti flier. Plus the attack bikes have been under performing as we move away from the tank heavy lists of 5th edition. A librarian could add something, but I'm a little concerned about scoring units if I pull the scouts and the aforementioned loss of the eldar jetbikes.
OR I could go double helldrake chaos. With no fortifications and the latest FAQ these guys are awesome. The only problem is the rest of the list and how much would I have to paint.
I could also try to pull together a ravenwing list. This might be a good 'test' for BAO even though it is only 1500 as I was not planning on using allies or the aegis. Again the question of how much to paint is the obvious challenge.
So I'm chewing on those options now, and I'll try to post up some thoughts in another day or two.
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