Battlefield Birmingham 16 musings

So Battlefield Birmingham 16 is done and dusted and I thought I’d share my musings with, well me probably!

First up I have to say I love the event. It’s got solid armies with no easy games but good guys to play against. The level of dickery is low which is good because I’m at an age where I can’t be arsed to argue over a game of toy soldiers.

For this event I took my wolves which are decent but not top tier.

If I go 3-2 at an event with them then I consider that I’ve done well.

My list was:

Battalion Detachment +5CP (Imperium - Space Wolves) [1,039pts]

+ HQ +

Wolf Lord [124pts]: Jump Pack, Saga of the Beastslayer, Storm shield, The Wulfen Stone, Thunder hammer, Warlord

Wolf Lord [124pts]: Jump Pack, Storm shield, Thunder hammer

+ Troops +

Blood Claws [74pts]
. 4x Blood Claw
. Blood Claw Pack Leader: Power fist

Blood Claws [74pts]
. 4x Blood Claw
. Blood Claw Pack Leader: Power fist

Blood Claws [74pts]
. 4x Blood Claw
. Blood Claw Pack Leader: Power fist

+ Elites +

Wulfen [273pts]
. 5x Wulfen: Thunder hammer & Stormshield . Wulfen Pack Leader: Frost claws

+ Dedicated Transport +

Rhino [74pts]: 2x Storm bolter

Rhino [74pts]: 2x Storm bolter

Rhino [74pts]: 2x Storm bolter

Rhino [74pts]: 2x Storm bolter

Battalion Detachment +5CP (Imperium - Space Wolves) [484pts]

+ HQ +

Njal Stormcaller in Runic Terminator Armour [153pts]: 1. Living Lightning, 2. Tempest's Wrath, 5. Storm Caller

Wolf Guard Battle Leader [109pts]: Jump Pack, Storm shield, Thunder hammer

+ Troops +

Blood Claws [74pts]
. 4x Blood Claw
. Blood Claw Pack Leader: Power fist

Blood Claws [74pts]
. 4x Blood Claw
. Blood Claw Pack Leader: Power fist

Blood Claws [74pts]
. 4x Blood Claw
. Blood Claw Pack Leader: Power fist

Super-Heavy Auxiliary Detachment (Imperium - Imperial Knights) [468pts]

Household Choice: Questor Mechanicus
House Krast

+ Lord of War +

Knight Crusader [468pts]: Heavy Stubber, Ironstorm Missile Pod, Thermal Cannon, Avenger Gatling Cannon w/ Heavy Flamer

Total: [1,991pts]

So how did it do?

Game 1 was vs a Custodes player who had a solid army, using the old forge world points and rules. In my favour was the fact he had no troops so couldn’t score on the mission and I could hide one unit so I’d always have more objectives at the end of the game. In the end I took a minor loss because I buggered up my charges on his tanks and then was on the back foot. My mistake for sloppy positioning but lesson learnt.

Game 2 was against Necrons with a bunch of stuff but based mainly around 3 doomsday arcs. This was a good example of what happens when you get charges right (positioning, pile in moves and fighting twice stratagems). I weathered some early firepower which made quite a dent but then on turn 3 I got THE charge off which killed 6 destroyers, 10 of the jet bike things, his warlord, his other character, a squad of troops and a spider walker thing. After that the game was mine and I took a  32-26 win.

Game 3 was vs a plague bearer army. He had 3 units of the damn things. Luckily he made a positioning mistake which let my wolf lord kill 2 daemon princes at the same time as combi charges from pretty much my entire army (shout out to controlled aggression strat for the knight!) took out 2 of his units of plague bearers. The Knight was the MVP here after taking out his castellan equivalent with help from the headsmans mark. In the end he crumbled and I took a 40-16 win. I’m not sure he appreciated just how many attacks claws get on the charge and when they’re supported by the characters they’re pretty solid at taking down lightly armoured stuff even with negatives to hit.

Game 4 was against an Ultramarine gun line using the new codex. They are nasty and Calgar really helps them dish out damage. I passed some saves at crucial times but personally a few things stood out to me:

1. He moved towards me to get better los which was a big mistake. It meant I was on him a turn sooner than I otherwise would have been. I’m not sure he appreciated how fast the rhino rush wolves are when you factor in all the bonus movement in the assault phase. He lost a lot of stuff in one turn and didn’t really have much left to counter that afterwards.

2. It takes precision to play a gunline and he got a bit flustered, target priority was a bit off and his moves backed him into a corner which let me pin him in a small part of the board so I could score objectives.

3. Most important it kind of highlighted what my coach says in that armies like that will always have a weakness. Mine does too and I’ll waffle about that in a separate blog post. It did highlight I’m right to change armies if I want to look for a reliable 4-1 or better result at events with some degree of consistency.

Anyway, I was able to take a 37-12 win from the game which gave me my 3 wins for the weekend!

Which was just as well because game 5 was vs Orks.

I’ve never played Orks really in this edition so whilst I knew a little about them from reading the web and watching some battle reports I didn’t truly appreciate what they can do. And for me, they are the perfect counter to my list (see point 3 above).

I can blame being tired, I can blame a lack of knowledge of opponents army and I can blame switching off a bit after having got my 3 wins for the event but whichever way I cut it, I took a beating, losing 32-18 in the end.

I could probably have done better, especially if I appreciated just how fast the characters on bikes (apologies to my knight! 😂) and played the mission a bit better but honestly I’m not sure I could beat that army with mine. It just doesn’t have the tools to do it. Or maybe I should say, at the moment I can’t see how it has the tools to deal with it.

Anyway, overall I went 3-2 and came 35th out of 98 which with wolves isn’t too bad.

I also won best in faction, besting the other wolf player in attendance (call me the great wolf?) and got nominated for best painted despite not really having finished my army.

Great weekend overall and now I’m looking ahead to the team event at Warhammer World in October...

1st Confrontation Alliances - The Pride of the Gods

Greetings Sinners!
A bunch of the Cold Steel Mercs made the long journey south to the sunny climes of Havant for a doubles tournament held by Confrontation Events. Neil, Iain and myself travelled down together, stopping for a quick coffee at Michael's and continuing on to Havant.
Everything was going swimmingly, we arrived at our destination without any problems and piled out of the car, straight into the pub opposite the hotel. After several pints, we phoned my fallen brother, Steve to see how far away he was from joining us. We were delighted to hear he was 10 minutes away. After another couple of beers, we phoned him again asking where he was, only to be told he was outside the hotel looking for us. We told him to look across the car park and he would see us sat outside the pub......"Err.....lads, we're at the wrong hotel!......Oops, can you come and pick us up Steve because we've had too much to drink now?"
So not the best of starts then.......

The Cold Steel Mercenaries Invitational - The Chronicles of Sorkar

Although the journey had been relatively short for the Castigators, it had felt like an eternity to Sorkar. The young Sorceror had tried to hide his delight at his inclusion within the task force, but the veterans of Squad Divine had seen through his feigned indifference and had mocked him mercilessly. His master, Lucian Soulweaver had looked on with mild amusement, but Sorkar was under no illusion that the Chief Sorceror was scrutinising his every reaction.
Finally, they had entered the Preston system and Sorkar had been honoured to accompany his master to the Gathering. As they entered the great hall, Lucian's voice echoed within his mind.
"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious."

The 40k UK GT Heat 2 - Lucian's Tale

Arise! Arise Cold Steel Mercs.

Fell deeds awake, fire and slaughter.

Spears shall be shaken, shield be splintered.

A sword day, a red day!

'ere the sun rises, ride. 

Ride now to Sanctuary.

The Southern Invitational - Nestor's Tale

The Journey had been long and perilous. Traversing the whirls and eddies of the storms had been relatively simple thanks to Weymouth's psychic beacon lighting the way. The danger came not from the storms, but from the bitterest of rivals travelling the same route. Nestor had ordered the Castigators to keep a wary eye on Festus Foulspawn's Death Guard that had shadowed them for the entire journey. Tensions rose even higher when Damien Broadcloak's Tzeentch warband came into view, but all of them respected the truce accorded to the participants of the Southern Invitational.

The Cold Steel Mercs Invitational

Taking a break from their Storms of Judgement campaign, the Castigators made the perilous journey to the Preston system to do battle with countless rogues, villains and miscreants. Many, lured by the phantom shrieks of the fabled Dragon and Golden Turkey echoing throughout the warp, answered its call. Some coveted the glory and power that only the Dragon can bring, whilst others sought solace in the strangely alluring and comforting talisman that is known as the Golden Turkey. For Nestor and his Castigators, these trinkets paled into insignificance next to the prize of defeating his Brother Vorlath the Forsaken and reaffirming his divine title of Chosen of Slaanesh. Here is the tale of the Castigators exploits.....