This weekend I played my first Warhammer 40K doubles game. Games of 40K are all about the synergy of your army, but what about synergy between two armies and two opponents? When it works, it's brilliant and now I can see why Warhammer 40K Doubles tournaments sell out so fast!I was paired with 'best painted' and 'best sportsman' winner extraordinaire Graham Apperley against old rival Simon Thorne. Graham had 750 points of his stunning Chaos Daemons, I had 750 points Space Wolves and Simon had 1500 points of his awesome Tyranids.
Until my Daemonic allies arrived, I'd have to fend off 1500 points of Tyranids with just 750 points of Space Wolves. So I did what I always do -deploying my Long Fangs in cover with a good view to the whole battlefield while placing my Grey Hunter Rhinos as far forward as possible and firing their smoke launchers.
The Long Fangs inflicted a lot of damage early on while the later arrival of the Daemons allowed our units to 'team up' on some of the Tyranid units.
There was some discussion between Graham and Simon about Space Wolves being far too hard, so as this was a friendly game, I charged all my Grey Hunters out into the middle of the battlefield, cutting down the Trygon just as he turned my Rune Priest to mush.
Then the Tyranid Shrikes swooped down from the skies, charging the Grey Hunters and tearing them all to bloody rags! That's right, Tyranid Shrikes -keep an eye out for these, they are Space Marine killers without equal.
Having done serious damage to the Tyranid army with my Long Fangs, my Daemonic allies arrived just in time to prevent the Space Wolves from being wiped out while the Fiends of Slaanesh tore the remaining Tyranids to peices.
In the second doubles game of the day, Simon's Tyranids tore apart James's Dark Angels and Glenn's Word Bearers. So it sems that a single 1500 points list can successfully take on two 750 points lists and win. Although I can imagine that at a more competitive level, Character spam and a well co-ordinated combination of abilities between two armies could crush a regular 1500 points tournament force.I'll have a chat with James and see if he's up for some doubles games of Warhammer 40K with his Dark Angels and my Space Wolves. It'll be fun if nothing else!
Have you been to a doubles tournament?
5 comments:
August 24, 2010 at 5:23 PM
Doubles are awesome OGC (oxford gaming club) have a 40k doubles every year. this year we have a south of england GCN sponsored champion of champion event in november at spiky club in reading. On the GCN web site you can probably find a ticket still. I think 10 tickets were awarded for doubles winners accross the country :D ALL GOOD FUN.
August 24, 2010 at 8:09 PM
I've been before with my tau and my friend who played Imperial Guard. The two armies work spectacularly together due to the sheer volume of firepower that we were able to put out between my tank-popping broadsides and his marine-mushing colossus tanks. The game changes a lot though, depending on how you are allowed to do force organization charts. If each player has their own force org chart, then 2 players can beat one other guy easily just by spamming heavy support options (2 space wolves players with 6 squads of long fangs...sounds pretty unbeatable to me), but it's a whole different ballgame if both players have to share one. I'm sure that you could also find a way to make 1v2 fair, especially in smaller points, if you forced each player to take an HQ and 2 troops but also denied them the ability to exceed 2 HQ, 6 troops, 3 elites and so on. Interestingly enough, when my friend and I were at the tournament, the winning army was Chaos Daemons and Space Wolves..I guess they make a great team!
August 25, 2010 at 4:56 PM
Hi There!
We are playing a slightly different setup of doubles here. Rather a team cooperative 4x750pt, but the teams are decided just before the battle by chance.
Its really fun cos you do´t know what you will be facing and who will be your ally, so be prepared.
BTW, could you post some inf on your 750 pt SW list?
Mine goes roughly like this:
Rune Priest
2 Packs of grey hunters/melta/rhinos
1pack of longfangs with rocket launchers
Have fun!
Daniel
August 26, 2010 at 1:05 AM
That was my list too :)
August 27, 2010 at 5:42 AM
Did the shrikes have lash whip/bone sword? I haven't fought shrikes but i've found standard warriors are not too hard to handle unless they've got lw/bs.
Any strike first power weapon is nasty against power armour.
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