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Tuesday 24 December 2013

Screamer Council Dillema's - Part 1: Introduction

Hi guys,

Half a year later, and I'm here again to not only give a small update as to where I'm at now in the world of wargaming, but also because I'd like to talk about some things that... Well, I don't know any other places where I could talk about them.

Allow me to explain: ever since mr. Dave Simcox from my favourite podcast 40kUK (40kGlobal now) started talking about the dreaded list called Screamer Council, I was hooked.


The reason for that being that I feel that mr. Simcox and I have a very similar playing style. It sounds really cocky, I know, to say you have a similar style to a top UK tournament player, but I think I'm pretty safe when I compare myself to a cowardly, reserve-the-lot player like Dave.
My previous tournament lists were also very similar to his, so yeah, I had to check this one out.

Fateweaver
Herald of Tzeentch, Grimoire of True Names, Disc of Tzeentch, Mastery Level 3
Herald of Tzeentch, Portaglyph, Disc of Tzeentch, Mastery Level 3
Herald of Tzeentch, Greater Locus of Conjuration, Disc of Tzeentch, Mastery Level 3
Herald of Tzeentch, Disc of Tzeentch, Mastery Level 3
2x 10 Pink Horrors
Company Command Squad with Flamers
Veterans with Flamers
2x Vendetta's with HBolters (squadron)
Manticore

And oh my god, it's awesome. For everyone not familiar with the Screamer Council, here's a great link: http://sanguinesons.blogspot.fr/2013/07/etc-lists-tzeentch-screamer-councils-be.html
However, because I don't want you all to lose interest by visiting a more awesome blog than mine, here's a small recap of that article + the list I'm currently playing and it's problems :


The screamer council is based on a single Jetbike (!) unit consisting of 9 screamers of Tzeentch (Codex: Daemons) and 3+ Heralds of Tzeentch on discs (some say 2 are good enough to but ehm.. We'll get to that later), which was created by some very ingenious people from the Spanish/Polish/... ETC teams.
As you all know, there's a lot of random stuff, powers and equipment going on in the Daemons codex. What a player playing the list basically does, is maximising the chance of him getting exactly the powers and equipment buffs he wants, and then combining those specific buffs to create a super-duper unit.

In this case: you take numorous Heralds with Mastery Lvl 3. In my case, this results in 8 rolls (+4 possible extras, but we'll get to those later) on divination. Basically, what you want is the 4+ invulnerable save. However, scriers gaze is also an essential one, and ignores cover/prescience/misfortune is great!
Getting to the point: your big unit of jetbikes now has a 4+ invul, rerolling 1's because of the Tzeentch special rules. Add to that there's something called the Grimoire of True names, which gives daemons a +2 to their invul, you get the infamous 2++, rerolling 1's. Ouch.
So, yeah, 36 wounds in order for the unit (26 wounds in total) to fail a single save, that's the definition of tough. Needless to say: this list was created in order to beat the crapton of shots Tau pumped out when they first came out.



Hang on, didn't that grimoire only work on a 3+? That's why mr. Kairos is important: a 3+ with a reroll is almost like a 2+, so huzzah!

So we now have a very tough unit, with great mobility... But what about damage output? Well, the heralds can also each of them take Flickering fire: 24", 2D6 (or more, depending on how many Warp Charges you stick into it), S5 shots. Usually, this will result in about 12D6 S6 shots, with prescience, precision fire (characters), ignors cover, on a misfortuned target. That's the sort of thing that kills riptides. S6 you say? Yes, because, just like one of the heralds takes a Grimoire, another freak takes the Locus of Conjuration, which means +1S to your psychic shooting attacks.
The screamers add in: S5 AP2 attacks, slashing attacks should you turbo-boost...


Alrighty, now, let's get to the meat of today: Dilemmas, and plenty.

Because there are plenty of options out there to change up the council, and even more when it comes to things to add... Because, although the council has a lot of strengths (some of which I still have to explain in more detail), it still has some hard match-ups.

The main problems I'll be trying to counter are:

1. Vulnerability to a Turn 1 Blitz. Yeah, with a 5++ as a save, you even need something to protect you against the smallest of guns. Let alone tau gunlines or 6 serpents.

2. Vulnerability to tie-up units. A wraithknight can ruin Tzeentch's day easily: 12" move (plenty of BControl) and a damn stupid thing to fight against as a council (9 attacks, even with prescience, still need 6's to wound). Riptides do the same thing, just not for 4 to 6 turns. Or any fearless unit that's difficult to take down basically.

3. Vulnerability to Barrage/Sniping. Yeah, I frakking hate TFC's. Or manticores. Or: thudd guns! Not only are they difficult to counter (only one way really) as for pt 1, they can also be used to snipe the grimoire herald. Yeah, with a bit of nice positioning, you can minimise this... But still, it's the one thing that can really take you down

4. Fatey's Vulnerability. I added this later, but it's exactly what has lost me most of my games. You need a place to hide fatey, so can at least be defensive with him (sthing I didn't do all the time). Again, easy fix, but, you need it.

So, first off, this is the list I've played the past months, bear in mind this is limited to the models I have.

Fateweaver
Herald of Tzeentch, Grimoire of True Names, Disc of Tzeentch, Mastery Level 3
Herald of Tzeentch, Portaglyph, Disc of Tzeentch, Mastery Level 3
Herald of Tzeentch, Greater Locus of Conjuration, Disc of Tzeentch, Mastery Level 3
Herald of Tzeentch, Disc of Tzeentch, Mastery Level 3
2x 11 Pink Horrors
Primaris Psyker
Veterans with 2 Flamers, Pistol
2x Vendetta's
Griffon
Bastion

As you can see, I took mr. Simcox' advice, but adapted some bits I felt were necessary to counter some of the above problems. So, why did I change some things?

1. The Primaris Psyker: this dude can add himself to the vet squads, so they can both ride the 2nd vendetta in the squadron (so they can at least survive most intercept fire and so on). + The primaris psyker and vet squads can pop off the vendetta to different places, at different stages of the game.
Although the CCS with flamers certainly has a way better damage output, the primaris is in my experience a great suicide unit. He can take a heavy flamer on himself (Pyromancy), but even better: can go for Puppet Master or other telepathy goodness. Why did I mention Puppet Master? Wave serpent doom ofc! Nothing is as fun as simply dropping a single tiny dude, taking control of a single Wave Serpent, and using it to pop another.

2. Bastion: Yeah, I wanted a Skyshield, but ehm.. Yeah, I'm at the point where people seriously suspect me of trying to use a Pizza box as one, that's how infamous my ehm... Stand-ins (well, some of them) have become.
So a bastion it is. I can use it to hide fatey/griffon if I go first, or just the council if I go second. If my opponent has very little anti-AV14, I'll hide a troop unit in there.

3. Griffon: Yeah, barrage stays awesome, don't have points for a manticore. Main reason I stuck with it was simple: because often an opponent asks "You got any blast templates?" And I can then go: "Yep". I'm not a jerk, I'll explain it in my army list, but I still feel I'm giving my opponent an easy time if I'm not bringing any blasts to make him worry about his positioning (if I have to, you will too... Muhahahaha!). It's till damn vulnarable and gives up an easy KP.

So, what do you guys think about the council? Have you played against it? What were you/your opponents taking?

Next article, I'll talk about the Tzeentch/Khorne build and the perfect Herald number!


Navaer,

K

ps: I'm actually painting up this army to the best of my abilities... I'll try and put up some pics up for Part 2.

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