Taking my Mordrak list to 1850

All right I have been playing my Mordrak list exclusively at 1500 points as of late. For whatever reason all the tournaments lately have been 1500 points. The one coming up at the end of this month is 1850 however and I am looking to take my 1500 point list to 1850. My 1500 list is:

Mordrak + 3 Ghost Knights w/Halberds

Librarian w/Homer, Rift, Shrouding, Sanctuary & Might

5 Termies 4 w/Halberds 1 w/Hammer Psycannon

10 Man Strike Squad Halberd 2 x Psycannon Psybolt Ammo

Storm Raven w/TLLC & TLMM

Dreadnought w/ 2 x TLAC & Psybolt Ammo

Dread Knight w/Great Sword & Heavy Incinerator

My 1500 point list has been doing great going 9-1 at the last three tournies. (Would be undefeated by I had a cranial - rectal inversion in my last game.) Now I could just add some purifiers or some more dreads but I don't like spamming units and am trying to actually have some theme to my army. I envision this list as a planetary assault force led by Mordrak. Everything either needs to deep strike in or ride in a Raven. Thus only one dread. I could put purifiers in the Raven but that is usually the command group's ride. I very rarely deep strike Mordrak and his men. Thus I am left with a couple of options either more termies, strikes or interceptors. After thinking about it I am going to add a ten man squad of interceptors. My reasons are 1) they actually can move fast which other than the raven everything is very slow in my army once it lands. 2) I can make them scoring if I need to using the grand strategy and 3) If I do deep strike Mordrak first turn their 30" move allows them to support his group.
All right I will have a ten man squad with justicar w/hammer and 2 x psycannons. Here is where I could use some opinions. I have 60 points left over after this. I have come up with two trains of thought on how to use these. The first is give the interceptors psybolt ammo and add a heavy psycannon to the knight or give Mordrak another buddy. I like this because it makes my two big squads have strength 5 stormbolters which are good for applying wounds to meqs and mowing down horde orks (which we seem to have a lot of around here). I could go either way on the extra termie or the heavy psycannon I will have to get some practice in to see which I like better.

The second option is to drop the psybolt ammo on the strikes and add a personal teleporter to the Knight. I would probably tack the other five points on to the strikes to get their justicar a hammer. I like this idea because it gives me another fast unit to complement the interceptors. Plus I could also use this with the interceptors and a first turn Mordrak deep strike to really put some pressure on an enemies weak spot or flank. Three units basically deep striking in with out deviating could really put a crimp in an opponent's plans and put him on the defensive. If am able to give the knight and the interceptors scout I could basically move 42" on the first turn and lay a lot of shooting on my opponent plus they would then have a bunch of angry silver men to deal with on the next turn. Coupled with a turboing Raven filled with termies I could in theory overwhelm a flank before my opponent could mount an adequate response.

Well there are my two trains of thought. Just wondering what you guys think. Would appreciate and comments or constructive criticism.

Knock-Off Companies - Good or Bad?

Ok - a little discussion around something that I'm seeing a lot of lately.   There seems to have been an upsurge in people who are making knock off copies of GW products.   I'm sure many of us have seen the websites that offer "Forgeworld" products for a fraction of the prices of the real thing.    Prices almost too good to be true.  Most of these seem to be from China - who is well known for having little regard for copy right laws or others intellectual properties.

I have heard several views on this.  It's a great deal.  Good products and a great price.  GW price gouges us and is a terrible company to it's loyal customer base.  The list of reasons why it's a good thing goes on and on.   The guys doing this are probably just a few talented folks that want to make a buck, and live in a dirt poor part of the world.

But I am concerned about what the impact of this is on the people who make our games.  Let's say it's GW- my personal favorite.   Games Workshop is in business to make money.  Period.  I'm sure they love games and gamers - are probably gamers themselves - and aren't out to "exploit" their fanbase.  But they company has to make money.  No money - no reason to be in business - no hobby for us to play.   They invest a lot of money in their intellectual property.   Let's face it - almost no other company has the pagentry and story lines that the Games Workshop universe offers.   How many total Black Library books have they published to date.   Their investment in their products is far from insignificant.

So to me it seems unfair that they have no way of protecting this with the bootleggers.   I personally think it is wrong for the knockoffs.   At the end of the day though - they stay in business because we - the gaming community-support them.   We look at the short term that we get to save a couple bucks - and forget the long term that the company that is REALLY making the product - has to make money to keep making the product.

As gamers, we have to make our choices on where we get our stuff.  I try to support the local stores as much as possible.  Without them I don't have a place to play and a distributor of the stuff I want to buy.   That's my personal choice.   I encourage each of us to think about the impacts of where we spend our hobby dollars beyond just the best deal you can get.

Thoughts?

Adepticon 2012

So - Adepticon planning has begun for the Blade and Bolter Boys.  Something new for us this year - after three years of Ultramarines in the team tourney.  The Team Tourney is the main reason that we attend Adepticon - a ton of fun with good friends.  Nothing against the rest of the tournament - but the Team is something special.   We've been in the top 5 last two years - but still missed out on any of the awards.  So close - but still so far away.

Anyone else going and have you started planning already?

Draigowing Xs & Os • Shooting 101 • Psyflemen

NOTE
As a brief note I'd first like to mention I no longer am fielding Draigo for army - I'm using a generic Grand Master in his place. The swap allows me to take grenades, not wasting the points for the overcosted Techmarine, plus I arm mine with a psycannon as well. So I'm not sure what exactly to call the army - technically it's not a true Draigowing list for the obvious reason given above.




Introduction
I'll now move on to the subject matter which will be a short tactical piece about using psyflemen. I find that most Grey Knight players who use psyflemen field two to three. Currently I'm using two in my 2k list. Psyflemen are one of the few units in the codex that appear to be undercosted in terms of what you get for their points. Long range AT was a major problem for the old codex - there weren't any really good cheap choices for the points. A few players had success using landraiders but this was an expensive approach and shoehorned the armies into a one dimensional style... Sit back and shoot the entire game. Dreadnaughts were ineffective since they were easy to pop plus they didn't benefit from The Shrouding and did not have Fortitude. With the release of the new codex it didn't take long for the 40k community to figure just how good are the new psyflemen. To me a psyfleman dreadnaught is better than a squad of Long Fangs with five missiles... On average you will get just as many hits plus the psyfleman can move and shoot which is a major advantage over Long Fangs. Take Fortitude into consideration and you've simply got a better heavy support unit. Of course I haven't really said anything so far most people don't already know but this is the introduction. ; )

Deployment
Let's first consider deployment for Pitched Battle and Dawn of War. Let's also start off by assuming the Grey Knight army has two psyflemen just to keep it simple. I had a friend recently tell me the best deployment is to put one dreadnaught in each corner of your deployment zone (DZ) - the reason being this will help to ensure more side shots on enemy transports. At first I didn't take him serious and thought maybe he was trying to trick me into deploying in that manner. If you deploy both psyflemen on the centerline of your DZ they can shoot up to 80 percent of the distance to the far corners which leaves a small pocket of 12" radius in your opponent's two table corners. A smart IG player might deploy their Manticores in their corners but other than that I don't see any major advantages for the opponent. Deploying both dreads on the centerline also means they can both benefit from your Librarian casting The Shrouding. On the other hand if you deploy them in the far corners it will be hard to support them, they can be targeted by outflanking units and their fields of fire have very little overlap - just doesn't make much sense to me just for a chance to shoot at side armor. Also note that a smart opponent can deploy and move their transports in such a manner to drastically limit shots on their side armor to the bulk of their transports and it's actually fairly easy to do. Finally versus an army such as dark eldar they can easily pop one dread then flank around to hit you on an exposed side, cutting your long range AT in half on the first turn.

Now let's consider the case of an army with three psyflemen. The addition of an extra dreadnaught opens up another dimension in terms of using deployment to your best advantage. Against IG I would most likely setup one on the centerline and one 12" away on either side. Your fields of fire now all overlap and overall cover the entire table. It might be worth investing the extra points to upgrade one or two to Venerable class since they won't all be protected by The Shrouding.

The third deployment (Spearhead) is an interesting choice as deploying in a table quarter can drastically limit your field of fire - no wonder IG players hate this one so much. The important thing to remember is your opponent is in the same boat. I would generally place my dreads (whether it's two or three) back along the diagonal line using cover when available and if appropriate. You'll quickly be able to reach midfield with the bulk of your army which is where Draigowing style armies can really shine. It is pretty simple when you think about it for just a moment. : )

Targeting
At first glance this might seem rather obvious but versus certain armies such as razorspam or IG it's not quite that simple. Razorspam is going to sit still for the most part during the beginning of the game and hope for the opportunity to alphastrike. IG on the other hand will be moving the vets forward to blast your Paladins and GKT with massed melta and plasma. What you need to keep in mind is that you should use your mix of psycannons (Paladins and GKT) with your dreadnaughts to most effectively deal with high multiple threats - that is shoot the transports with your psycannons and use the autocannons to pick off longer ranged threats such as Vendettas and Manticores. You might be best served to combine the two weapons platforms to take out a big chunk of transports the first turn in an alphastrike if the opportunity presents itself. Versus razorspam I'd probably focus on destroying the razorbacks first then deal with Predators and Vindicators.

Conclusion
I've focused this article primarily upon the best use of psyflemen giving specific examples how to deploy and target select your firing solutions. Remember as I said above sometimes it's best to combine your weight of fire using both the psycannon and autocannon to alphastrike and decimate a particular component of your opponent's army.