Week 1 - Predictions

Week 1 of Season 3 kicks off and I am here to bring you my ill informed and heavily biased opinions on how things will go. Of course I am also including the terrible AI art to accompany each match up.

The mission this week is Terraform/Swift Action/Sweeping Engagement. I love Terraform as it favours aggressive play and getting those banked VP in early doors. Infiltrators against slow armies are good here or just a bunch of hard dudes standing on an objective. Swift Action allows battleline units to shoot and action (I think, can't remember, something like that) so some nice benefits for those with them.

Craig V Ross - Mixed Arms Death Guard V Stormlord Ogryn Imperial Guard

This game has already been played, with a 17-3 victory for the smelly ones but I had to comment on the armies. Ross' absurd double Stormlord and a horde of Ogryn cannot be ignored. The mad firing decks on those things I think could accidentally just murder things, if they can ever move to a good position. I always rate someone trying something completely new. He did get bummed though so not sure how long this "something new" will last.

Craig's list keeps big man Morty around alongside a big mix of light vehicles and durable DG bodies. Hard to chew through and might have been quite favourable on Terraform. Good work Craig.

Ben V David - World Eaters V Tau (Mont'ka)

Ben is bringing the choppy boys versus David's very very shooty boys - triple Breacherfish, couple of Riptides, Broadsides and a smattering of Piranha's. So this is an interesting one because I am confident that whoever starts Terraforming first gets immediately murdered so a progressive trading game would be on the cards here. I say "would" because I am equally confident Ben is going to rush his lads forward eager for the fishy blood in front of him.

It is at that point that three units of Breachers will calmly disembark and blow the red horde back to the Warp. If Ben plays more cautiously and gets the jump on the Breachers it will severely hamper David's mission play and how much efficient output he can bring to bear. Alternatively just throw Angron in their face as a distraction and hope for the best.

I will predict a 15-5 here in favour of the Xenos filth.

Max V Andy - Custodes (Shield Host) V Dorn Heavy Guard

I am gladdened by the fact that the golden boys are still being seen in the league while I dabble in some fresh pastures. Max is running infantry heavy Shield Host, no Caladius to be seen, and I think it's a perfectly valid way to play. Especially if you have a fuck off brick of Allarus to answer any question your opponent might put in front of the 10,000. Ignoring cover and Sustained or Lethals on 14 Dam2 attacks + 7D6 Blast attacks is not something to be sniffed at.

Andy, on the other hand, is leaning heavily into the armour that the Imperial Guard know and love. Triple Rogal Dorn is just deeply unpleasant to deal with, only made up for the fact that Andy himself is so damn pleasant. The Allarus brick do 4 wounds at range and 20 odd in melee to a Dorn (according to Unitcrunch) so IF they can get there they can do some work. Also never ignore Trajann - man can punch!

The Wardens are also super happy to walk onto an objective, pop 4+++ and Terraform that shit. The flipside is Andy has a LOT of units for trying that and shrugging if they fail - what is 10 Catachans in the great scheme of things? The Basilisk's also do horrible horrible things to Custodes - not in terms of damage but making Allarus 3" move is very sad indeed.

My feeling is Andy will win the Secondary game and Max the Primary. With no way to effectively deal with the Tank Commanders at range I think Andy might pip this 12-8.

Jack V Leo - Aeldari V World Eaters

Leo drops Eightbound for Maulerfiends in his World Eaters list for a bit more chonk and Jack has about a bazillion units. If Leo can murder the Fire Dragons then it will be serious work to actually kill the Maulerfiends however, as they are zipping around in a Falcon, I am not quite sure how they do that outside of a mistake from Jack.

2 Swooping Hawks, 2 Shadow Spectres, Falcon, Windriders and Warp Spiders....if you catch them they will die no doubt, but you have to catch them. World Eaters are very fast though so again a bit of careful staging might allow for a big alpha strike T2 with Angron doing Angron things as a distraction. Leo will have to deny deny deny primary on this one as Jack is almost certain to max out secondary's with ease.

Jack bailing on double or triple Warp Spiders makes me sad - he is clearly weak willed and not a candidate for taking up the Spear of Khaine but perhaps his tricksy ways will serve better against the bull headed anger of Leo, sorry I meant Khorne. I think the Aeldari will smash up the score 14-6.

Dave V Gary - CSM (Pactbound) V Ork Snaggas (War Horde)

Dave has been flirting with the various different CSM detachments like a whore at a bachelor party and has settled on Pactbound for this part of the league. Crits on 5s with triple Vindicators and double Forgefiends is not to be ignored. Unless you roll a bunch of FNP, present across most of Gary's army, and then you do literally ignore it.

CSM are struggling for an identity a bit at the moment, despite having flavourful detachments, and falling back on the best priced gunline with good objective play is acceptably effective but leaves the heart wanting more. No Abaddon or Helbrute so Dave has resisted the dark call of the castle but what will is cost!?

Gary is still committing to the Beast Snagga lot and, as Luke will attest, they are filth into vehicles as well as being a really frustrating profile to kill. They are expensive as fuck though so they probably should be. If you can road block them on the Waaagh turn with some Cultists or Communes though they will be very expensive road bumps. I think T1 will be important here as it always favours the green ladz and I don't know if he will be able to hide it all if Dave gets his gunline able to fire right off the bat.

I am not sure how either army does much in the way of Terraforming as Dave's stuff will get murdered off objectives and Gary's doesn't want to be sat their like lemons actioning while getting triple Vindi'd.

I am going to predict a 14-6 win for Gary here if he gets T1. A draw or 11-9 to Dave if he gets T1.

Sam V Alex - Dark Angels (Gladius netlist) V Gribbly Heavy Nids (Invasion Fleet)

Obviously the most important match of the week is yours truly versus a bunch of monstrosities with claws so big they are clearly compensating for something.

This will be my very first time using the Dark Angels (or any Space Marines) in 40k so I can assume nothing will go wrong and I will play it perfectly - just spamming AoC is fine right?

Alex has three Maleceptors, Double Exorine, infiltrating gubbins and a fucking Trygon. The Hive Tyrant is also knocking around giving him free strats like a bellend. 5++ and crits on 5s for free makes me a sad Calibanite - even sadder than they usually are.

However I am bringing three units of Deathwing Knights, which are just a fucking pain the ass to kill by anyone's metric. With a unit of fights first Inner Circle, an Azrael Inner Circle and Eradicator Fire Discipline brick to counter punch.

I could see the Maleceptors and Deathwing Knights just hand bagging each other for four turns in the middle here and the Trygon sneak attacking my poor Eradicators.

Alex seems like he knows what he is doing, unlike the rest of us, so I would be happy to get a draw here but I will predict a 12-8 to Alex as it makes it look better if I win then. PSYCH.