Tag Archives: Warhammer 40K

Hammer in the New Year

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Saturday, Ashley ran a “Hammer in the New Year” 40K tournament.  Three rounds, using a format Casey‘d been wanting to try for a while now.  I had a great time, didn’t do so well, but ended up scoring better than I’d have expected.

I’m super-rusty with 40K, having not really done much with 6E in general, recently, or competitively.  Furthermore, the list I brought was driven entirely by expediency.

Here’s what I ran:

HQ
Bloodthirster – Blessings of the Blood God, Warlord (Command)
Bloodthirster – Blessings of the Blood God

Elite
Flamers x4

Troops
Blood Horrors x8 – Changeling
Blood Horrors x8

Heavy Support
Daemon Prince – Tzeentch, Flight, Daemonic Gaze
Daemon Prince – Tzeentch, Flight, Daemonic Gaze
Daemon Prince – Tzeentch, Flight, Daemonic Gaze

Desperate Allies
Big Mek – ‘Eavy Armor, Ammo Runt, Kustom Force Field, Burna
Boyz x21 – Shootas, Stikkbombs, Big Shoota x2, Nob w/ ‘Eavy Armor, Bosspole, Power Klaw

So, two things should leap out with this list: there’s kind of a dickish amount of Flying Monstrous Creatures in there and those Ork Boyz WTF?

Obviously, I’ve been working on Orks, so that’s what I want to put on the table. The Orks I put on the table are basically all the painted Orks I have, so I can’t run (if I want to be fully painted, and I do).  So, I decided to run my Daemons and throw the Orks in as Desperate Allies. They’re little better than wasted points; forget being non-scoring, non-denying models: allied with Daemons, they’re the only thing on the table at the beginning of the game.  They basically suck up an army’s worth of shooting immediately.

All the Flying Monstrous Creatures were in there ’cause I wanted to see how they worked. I played in an Apocalypse game with them, and that wasn’t the best venue to see how they worked. I can totally see how they look intimidating, but I’m not convinced that they’re the best choice.  I think I’d have been better off taking the Daemon Princes without Daemonic Flight and enjoying an additional 180 points.

Also, if it’s a legitimately dick thing to do, I think the utterly poor decision to run 300 points of useless greenskins counteracts it. :)

My MVPs for the day were easily the Flamers.  I definitely need to make some more.

Anyway, each round had a different deployment, and was scored thusly:

Scoring a Kill Point: 1 point each
Capturing a Quarter Objective: 2 points each
Capturing the Center Objective: 3 points
First Blood: 1 point
Slay the Warlord: 1 point
Linebreaker: 1 point

Game Points are used to determine your Battle Points.
If you have…
…half as many Game Points as opponent or less: 0 Battle Points
…3 fewer points than opponent: 2 points
…1 or 2 fewer points than opponent: 3 points
…tied opponent in points: 5 points
…1 or 2 more points than opponent: 7 points
…3 or more points than opponent: 8 points
…double or more points than opponent: 10 points 

The person with the most Battle Points wins the game. Game Points will be used for tie-breaking purposes.

The Center Objective will be a Mysterious Objective, all the others will be normal. The Night Fighting special rule will be in effect for all rounds.

Round 1

was vs. Kevin F, someone I used to see a lot of around the gaming store back when I first started playing 40K, fell off the Earth a few years ago, and started turning up just as I fell off the Earth. I’d actually been trying to schedule a game with him, so it was nice to start the day out playing him.

It was also the closest game I had over the day.

HQ
Overlord – Warscythe, Mindshackle Scarabs, Sempiternal Weave, Command Barge

Troops
Immortals x10 – Transmorgrification Cryptek
Immortals x10 – Transmorgrification Cryptek
Warriors x9 – Despair Cryptek, Ghost Ark
Warriors x12 – Destruction Cryptek
Warriors x9 – Storm Cryptek, Night Scythe

Fast Attack
Canoptek Scarabs x5

Heavy Support
Canoptek Spyders x3
Monolith

Stuff came in, he shot at it. He focused on trying to ground something, then vomit fire into it until it stopped twitching.  This was also the only game the Ork Boyz saw the end of Turn 2.

We only got through Turn 3.  I’m not sure why we didn’t have nearly enough time; although we weren’t playing quickly, we certainly weren’t playing slowly.

At the end of Turn 3, I’d gotten some stuff into combat and killed a few things, he’d obviously shot some things to bits. I ended up losing by a couple of points.

Round 2

was vs. Aramis, a solid dude from the old gaming club that I haven’t played often though I’ve always enjoyed playing against him.

HQ
Duke Sliscus – Warlord
Baron Sathonyx

Troops
Kabalite Warriors x20 – Splinter Cannon x2
Wyches x5 – Haywire Grenades, Venom
Wyches x5 – Haywire Grenades, Venom
Wyches x5 – Haywire Grenades, Venom

Fast Attack
Beastmasters x3 – Khymerae x5, Razorwing Flocks x4
Beastmasters x3 – Khymerae x5, Razorwing Flocks x4

Heavy Support
Ravager – Flickerfield
Ravager – Flickerfield
Ravager – Flickerfield

Fortification
Aegis Defence Line – Quad-gun

Battle Brothers
Farseer – Guide, Mindwar, Runes of Warding
Guardians x10 – Shuriken Cannon

You can imagine how overwhelming this army looked: twice the bodies I had, not counting all the vehicles… and that quad-gun did a nice job of countering my flyers.

By the end of Turn 3, I’d killed nothing and had nothing left save 8 lonely Blood Horrors hanging out, ready to get jumped on by two Beastmaster Packs. We shook hands and called it: 0 points to 24.  Ouch.

Still, I enjoyed myself, and that’s what really matters.

Round 3 

was against Joe, who’s part of a group of players that have started turning up at the store over the past six  months or so.

HQ
Chaos Lord – Bike, Sigil of Corruption, Melta Bombs, Gift of Mutation, The Black Mace, Warlord
Sorcerer – Terminator Armor, Lvl 3, Spell Familiar, Burning Brand of Skalathrax

Elite
Terminators x10 – Power Axe x5, Power Maul x4, Power Fist x1

Troops
Chaos Space Marines x10 – Meltagun x2, Veterans of the Long War, Power Maul, Rhino
Chaos Cultists x20 – Autoguns
Chaos Cultists x20 – Autoguns

Fast Attack
Chaos Bikers x6 – Meltaguns x2, Power Fist x1

Heavy Support
Forgefiend – Extra Ectoplasma Cannon
Forgefiend – Extra Ectoplasma Cannon

To be honest, I went into this expecting a not-great game.  It was super-clear coming off the game with Aramis that my list was bad, Joe had what looked to be some pretty hard units, and he had a friend hanging around the table who I’d just seen kibitz my friend Bart’s 2nd Round Game into a loss (which really kind of pissed me off).  Having folks hang around to chat is cool: having to play two people at once is not cool.  Correcting people on rules is okay: reminding your bro to use such and such psychic powers is not okay.

Fortunately, the chatty cathy wasn’t too bad, so that concern proved to be unfounded, and Joe was a fun opponent. And while his tough units were tough, mine managed to hold their own, too, which never hurts.

Champion of Chaos really worked against him: his Terminators charged into my Bloodthirster… and had to challenge. Although a Bloodthirster is probably going to have a tough time with eleven Terminators, one is actually pretty manageable.  His terminators ended up spending the game tied up with one Bloodthirster or the other.  Ultimately, the second Bloodthirster bopped the Sorcerer on the head, the Terminators had a crap Morale roll, and (unsuccessfully) ran for it. That was pretty game-changing.

Where I’d been tabled in Game 2, I’d managed to do the tabling in Game 3, which was really surprising to me.

Ultimately, the surprising turn of events in the third game helped offset the rolling I got in the second.  Between that and a really great painting score (second highest) managed to put me in sixth overall.

I’d have done much better, I think, if I’d just run my regular old Daemon list. Much lighter in the FMC department but I’d have had a lot more models on the table. Plus, I wouldn’t have wasted points on the Orks. But I don’t regret it; I wanted to run the Orks, so I ran the Orks.

The format worked well, I think.  Everything (from the Secondary Objectives to Kill Points to Objectives) mattered, which is nice.  I get that KP in 5E didn’t work perfectly, but dang it: there’s got to be some drawback to running MSU, and this seemed to do an okay job of making it work. I definitely would like to see more of the format.

Again, overall, I had a great time and it really motivates me to want to get out and play some more.

First Stab at some 6E Lists

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Frustratingly, I haven’t had the chance to play 40K yet.  It doesn’t help that I’m still getting over this cold or that the AC’s busted/not working/not working well enough at GPC.

I have been thinking about what I’m going to do with 6E, though.

To recap, I have three 40K armies:

  • Tau Empire – My first army post-return to the hobby.  It’s about half-painted and rough (since it consists of some of the first minis I’d painted after a ~decade long hiatus).  I’m desperate for an excuse to revisit them.
  • Dark Angels – I think I’ve got something like 7,000 points of painted Dark Angels and probably about as much unpainted, hanging out.
  • Khornate Daemons – A fun, if gimmicky army.  Still in need of some repairs from when they were dropped.

Starting a new army at this point, while probably fun, is simply not an option.  I’m still neck-deep in painting Empire, and the goodies from the Kings of War Kickstarter are going to start materializing before I know it.

  • Tau – Got a shot in the arm with the Rapid Fire fix.  I say “fix,” because I don’t think Rapid Fire ever worked the way it was supposed to (“Hey, I’ve got this gun that shoots really fast, so obviously I can’t move and shoot it!” and the “half range” vs. “12”” thing has always infuriated me)… but I’m not sure.  Their vehicles look like paper now, and everything’s costed at 4E points.  Not the best start for me to learn the new game*.
  • Dark Angels – Easy.  I’m fully painted with this stuff, and Terminators look to be even better in the new book.
  • Daemons – Daemons themselves might be able to work out okay, but my specific list feels like it’ll be a non-starter.  No shooting means I still have trouble dealing with armor.  Hellblades are now a bit more like Heckblades.  Beasts feel less speedy now (but that might not be the base).  I don’t know.

So, Dark Angels it is.



This first list is effectively the list I threw together immediately after the FAQ that fixed our cut-rate equipment issues was released:

1,750 – Deathwing

HQ
Belial – TH/SS
Interrogator Chaplain – Terminator Armour, Combi-Plasmagun

Troops
Deathwing Command Squad – Apothecary, Standard Bearer, TH/SS x2, Lightning Claws x2, Heavy Flamer
Deathwing Squad – TH/SS x2, CML
Deathwing Squad – TH/SS x2, CML
Deathwing Squad – TH/SS x2, CML

Heavy Support
Whirlwind
Whirlwind
Whirlwind

This second list is one I threw together the other day: I don’t expect it’s a great list, but it’s a start:

1,850 – Deathwing & Ravenwing

HQ
Belial – TH/SS
Librarian – Terminator Armour, Combi-Plasmagun

Elite
Venerable Dreadnought – Heavy Flamer, Plasma Cannon

Troops
Deathwing Command Squad – Apothecary, Standard Bearer, TH/SS x2, Lightning Claws x1, Chainfist, CML
Deathwing Squad – TH/SS x2, Lightning Claws x1, CML
Deathwing Squad – TH/SS x2, Lightning Claws x1, CML

Fast Attack
Ravenwing Squad x3 – Plasmagun x2, Meltabombs
– Attack Bike – Heavy Bolter
Ravenwing Squad x3 – Plasmagun x2, Meltabombs
– Attack Bike – Heavy Bolter
Landspeeder – Heavy Flamer, Heavy Bolter

Heavy Support
Whirlwind
Whirlwind

Finally, Casey’s suggested that I give something like this list a spin. I don’t think it’s great (or will be fun to play against), but it’s a goof.

1,850 – Chaos Daemons

HQ
Fateweaver
Bloodthirster

Troops
Blood Horrors x8 – Changeling
Blood Horrors x8

Heavy Support
Daemon Prince – Wings, Mark of Tzeentch, Daemonic Gaze, Bolt of Tzeentch
Daemon Prince – Wings, Mark of Tzeentch, Daemonic Gaze, Bolt of Tzeentch
Daemon Prince – Wings, Mark of Tzeentch, Daemonic Gaze, Bolt of Tzeentch

Allied HQ
Daemon Prince – Wings, Mark of Tzeetch, Sorceror, Warptime

Allied Troops
Thousand Sons x5

* Because that’s what it is: a new game.  If you try to play 6E like it’s 5E, you’re not going to be very good at it.  I probably have a longer kvetch about that in me at some point soon.

The biggest change in 6E

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If you’re still making noises about Allies: stop.  I’m tired of hearing people complain about/try to break the rules.

Much more significantly, it’s not the biggest rule change in the new book.

“Bigger Games”, page 110:
This being the case, if you’re playing a game of 2,000 points or more, you can take an additional primary detachment. This gives you access to up to six choices each from elites, fast attack and heavy support, up to four HQ choices, a massive potential of up to twelve troops choices, and additional allied detachment and an additional fortification.

This is huge.  It means 2,000 point games are explicitly not in the range of default game sizes.  It means crazy shit like 8 HQ choices in a 2,000 Space Wolf army.  It means I could drop over 50% of my points on HQs in my Daemon army.

New Edition – Acquired!

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40K 6E’s here!

As planned, Casey, Ashley, blogless Bart and I drove out to the Bowie Bunker for the midnight release.

Unfortunately, a severe thunderstorm hit both us and the Bunker on the way up.  The drive up was crazy: we saw thee wind blow one of those giant “<--" signs across a lane of traffic and into the side of a truck.  We had to dodge a orange traffic barrel as it blew across our lane.  It was crazy.

It also knocked out power at the Bunker, which was kind of a drag.

Instead of being able to check out the Bunker’s new digs, take pictures with the space marine, and maybe/maybe not buy random Warhammer 40,000 swag … we couldn’t actually go into the bunker to look around, much less buy anything.  Totally, utterly understandable, but it was kind of a long, dangerous drive in the middle of the night to just collect a box and go.

I suppose I should be thankful that they handed out preorders; there would have been Problems if they hadn’t, but still, I appreciate it.

Haven’t gotten anywhere with the book yet: Friday was a long day for me, but on an initial casual flip-through it’s the most beautiful book Games Workshop’s published yet… and given how gorgeous Warhammer Fantasy 8E was, that says a lot.

Great job, GW!

Warhammer 40,006!

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Finally!  Sixth Edition’s up for preorder!

I ordered mine last night; I’m really looking forward to playing 40K again (I basically stopped after Grey Knights came out).

Casey, Ashley, blogless Bart, and I will be hitting the GW Bowie Bunker‘s midnight release event to pick up our copies.  If you’re planning to be there, too, give me a shout so I know to say hi!

Necron Test-Run

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I got in a test game with the new Necrons on Tuesday.

Here’s the list I threw together.  I’m sure that it only bears passing resemblance to any Necron list I’d be playing six months from now, but I’ve got to start somewhere, right?

Necron Test List – 1,850

HQ
Nemesor Zandrekh

Elites
Triarch Stalker
Triarch Stalker

Troops
Warriors x20
– Cryptek – Eldritch Lance, Solar Pulse
Warriors x9
– Cryptek – Eldritch Lance, Gaze of Flame
– Ghost Ark
Warriors x10
– Ghost Ark

Fast Attack
Canoptek Scarabs x6
Canoptek Scarabs x5

Heavy Support
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge
Canoptek Spyder x3 – Fabricator Array, Gloom Prism

I proxied everything with AT-43 Therians, which wasn’t terribly inappropriate (though they were all on bases that were too big).

I ended up playing against Ashley‘s Slaaneshi Daemons.  It was pretty brutal: I wrecked them pretty badly.  That shouldn’t be too much of a surprise: these Necrons are really hot when it comes to zapping infantry… and she had a lot of infantry.  I’ve got to get in a few games against Imperial Guard to see how it copes (if at all) with a parking lot full of transports.

Some observations:

  • Nemesor wasn’t a whole lot of use here.  The special rules didn’t make a huge difference, and she didn’t have enough units with special rules to take a way.  I opted to not Deep Strike anything, so that didn’t make a difference, either.  I’m curious to see how he fares against armies that leverage special rules more, though: he seems like a really good choice.
  • The Triarch Stalkers were amazing.  A double-tapped multimelta’s not bad, but making everything else twin-linked became a little obscene.  We can pray that Tau Markerlights are this effective.  What’s better than 50 gauss flayers shooting at a unit?  50 twin-linked gauss flayers.  Zap.
  • Ghost Arks were pretty sweet.  She had a hard time cracking through Quantum Shielding, which meant they were pretty safe, and they belched out an obscene amount of fire.
  • Scarabs did okay, despite the fact that there was no armor for them to munch on.
  • Annihilation Barges were okay, but I’m not sure how useful they’ll be against armor. The Tesla rule was pretty dang crazy: at no point did I not get at least one Tesla hit.  So, with 5-8 (yeah, that happened) S7 shots, I should be able to handle transports with them at least.
  • Spyders didn’t get the chance to do much: I need to work to keep them in range of the scarabs.
What have other folks’ experiences been with the Newcrons so far?

Paintification Progress – 20101214

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Managed to block out all of Sunday to do catch up on some much-needed hobby work.  Things, as I’ve said, have been unbelievably hectic lately so it was a really great feeling to slap some paint around.  Particularly on these, since I hope they’ll go over well at the Battle for the Cure.

I took some pictures while doing the ribbons; I hope to throw together a quick walk-through on how to do them and post it tomorrow.

Before I do just a dump of pictures, I wanted to call out a specific one that kind of breaks my heart:

This was accidental.  I used all of the bald heads ’cause I’m not crazy about the wacky Daemonette hairstyles.    All of the Daemonettes, being Slaaneshi are supposed to be androgynous; given this is GW… that’s expressed by making them extremely feminine but only giving them one breast.

In the context of a model painted for a breast cancer awareness event, however, I see: the determined, resolute face of a survivor.  The bald head of a chemotherapy recipient.  The results of a mastectomy.  The rest of the model is pretty ridiculous, sure, but it hits a lot of buttons.

Also, the larger batch of Daemonettes came out a bit lighter than my test model:

I’m okay with that.  I think the tone one the larger batch looks much better.

Anyway, here’s the rest of the models.

Other than that: I’m working on a mini for my D&D game (for what qualifies as a “recurring villain”, I suppose) and I’ve finally assembled Skulltaker’s Chariot so I’ll probably start painting him soon.

I had big plans for hitting the Dogfish Head Alehouse a mile from my FLGS that I just learned about (their 60 Minute IPA’s been my default beer for something like six years, now) before heading into game (I’ve got a couple of hours between when I boogie out of work and when people start showing up for games)… but forgot my wallet at home.  Maybe next week.

I’ve also made some breakthroughs on automating my Hobby Status spreadsheet, so I hope to have that available for consumption in the next week or so.

Painting Progress – 20101120

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Past week or so, I’ve been jammed up, waiting on hobby time to make itself available and for some bits to show in the mail.
The bits finally showed up, so I made sure some hobby time presented itself.
First on the list was Skulltaker’s Chariot; I’d been waiting on some wheels to complete the chariot and the juggernaut to pull it.  All of that came together splendidly, until I realized I’d forgotten to order a base for the whole thing.  D’oh!  That should hopefully show up next week.
Tonight, while waiting on some code to checked in so I could compile it, I got the ball rolling on the rest of the Daemonettes.  (I think I’m going to call them “Bloodbrides” or something goofy.)
Speaking of Slaanesh: I’ve started on my first non-Khornate unit for my Daemons.  (The Daemonettes don’t count: they’re for the tournament only.)  I hadn’t set out to shift to an ecumenical list, but a deal turned up where I could buy two Varghulf for $10 each.  Ended up grabbing some other kits from the guy, one of which I was immediately able to turn around and trade for a third Varghulf.  One of those Varghulf turned out to have a fairly miscast arm, which meant a call into GW for a replacement.  
So, with a good amount of greenstuff work, I’ll be fielding four slightly converted Varghulf as Fiends of Khorne.
Not much going on here.  Because they’re so mono-posed, I wanted to do something to make them each a little more unique… and more Khornate.  I’m not entirely satisfied that I’ve made them sufficiently less mono-posed, but I think it’s probably the best I’m going to be able to manage.
Basically, I just stuck some Bestigor horns on their heads.  Lots of greenstuff work, though.  Tons of gap-filling, too.

Verdigris – Honored Imperium

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I’m working from home this week while we have some remodeling done, so it wasn’t hard for me to rotate my chair 90° and fiddle with what I touched on Monday night while waiting on an e-mail.  I’d say this thing easily took less than an hour (spread across a workday, but ready in time for the game store tonight).

I set things up by getting the statue ready.  Here’s what it looked like before:

This came together very easily.  Spent a little more effort on it than I normally do: Tin Bitz base followed by a heavy Brazen Brass drybrush, a less emphatic Shining Gold drybrush and a fairly light Burnished Gold drybrush.

I mixed up pretty much the same color I tried out last night.  (Apologies for the crappy focus.)

Roughly equal amounts of Goblin Green and Ice Blue (with a bit more blue than green) and a tiny dab of white (Morrow White; I love the P3 whites).  After mixing this, I immediately decided to add more blue.  In hindsight, I think even more blue would have been the way to go. I’m thinking that maybe 2:1 Ice Blue : Goblin Green might be the better way to go.

Then, a fairly light drybrush of this pretty much everywhere.  That gets me:

Finally, I based it the same way I’ve painted all of my 40K terrain: Ceramcoat Charcoal base, a heavy, heavy Ceramcoat Hippo Grey drybrush and a light Rain Grey drybrush.  This combo looks fantastic.  Really.

The end result is something I’m happy with.  It looks like old brass.  Not super old, not super weathered, but definitely old.  It’s clear there’s room for improvement: more blue, more streaking and some pooling, but I’m happy with it.

Thoughts?

A Few Games of 40K

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This has been a good couple of days for 40K.

Saturday

On Saturday, I braved the drive up to Germantown to help test drive MVB’s NoVApocalypse format (the drive up was surprisingly easy; the drive back considerably less so).

I was paired up with Dameon Green who was running his Thousand Sons. His list looked something like:

HQ
Daemon Prince – Wings, Mark of Tzeentch
Daemon Prince – Wings, Mark of Tzeentch
Summoned Greater Daemon

Elites
Dreadnought – DCCWx2
Dreadnought – DCCWx2
Dreadnought – DCCWx2

Troops
Chaos Space Marines x5 – Aspiring Champion, Combi-melta, Melta
– Rhino
Chaos Space Marines x5 – Aspiring Champion, Combi-melta, Melta
– Rhino

Heavy Support
Defiler
Defiler
Obliterators x2

After some brief discussion about what he was bringing and the two lists I’d been considering, we decided I should play the following (the list I’d been considering last week):

HQ
Bloodthirster – Unholy Might
Bloodthirster – Unholy Might

Troops
Bloodletters x8 – Fury
Bloodletters x8 – Fury

Fast Attack
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury

Heavy Support
Daemon Prince – Daemonic Flight, Iron Hide, Mark of Khorne
Daemon Prince – Daemonic Flight, Iron Hide, Mark of Khorne

So, basically, we were a pair of jerks running seven monstrous creatures and five close-combat walkers in a combined 3,000 points.

Game 1

Our first game was against Kevin Comer and David Gonzales.  Kevin was running a sharp looking Vostroyan First-born Imperial Guard list that was, basically, a lot of chimeras and three Leman Russ Demolishers.  David was running Dark Angels: terminators, predators, a dreadnought and some mechanized tactical marines.

There were two scenarios in play.  The first was to capture the three objectives running down the center of the board; only Dameon and Kevin’s units were able to do that.  Meanwhile, five of my units (both Bloodletters, both Flesh Hounds and one of the Princes) and five of David’s units (both Terminators, both Predators and the Dreadnought) produced Kill Points.

I had some odd scatters, which meant the game was mostly Dameon’s 1,500 points doing kind of an unreasonably good job defeating their 3,000 points (while my daemons popped in on the other side of the table).

Mid-game, my guys started getting more involved, and the tide started to turn.  Ultimately, we ended up tabling them (Kevin’s Lord Commissar wasn’t quite able to survive a fistfight with Dameon’s Greater Daemon).

This was a well-fought game, and our opponents were really great guys.

Game 2 

The second game of the day was considerably more intimidating: we were matched up against Joe O’Malley and Mark Aksel: Joe was running, basically, nothing but Blood Angel Rhino chassis and Mark was running Space Wolves.

Two scenarios, again: The first scenario was a tough one: non-vehicle models could “plant a flag” on one of four hills.  They only got one flag to plant per unit, and started accruing points for each round they remained on this hill after planting the flag.  Killing a unit that had planted a flag would produce the number of points that unit had generated -1.  The second scenario was controlling an objective in the center of the table.

I’m not kidding when I say they had a lot of armor on the table: Joe had eight ten Rhino chassis (three Predators, three Baal Predators and four Rhinos) and Mark had three six (three Razorbacks and three Vindicators); armor’s something I have trouble with.  Monstrous Creatures wreck armor, but it’s a poverty when a WS 10 Bloodthirster is hitting on 4’s (or 6’s).  Then, Chaos was fickle and sent me the wrong wave to start with.

I ended up camping out the Bloodletters in the ruins (not bunkers) near the objective and sending the Flesh Hounds into the parking lot.  The Bloodthirsters and Daemon Princes trickled in.

One of the Flesh Hound units was obliterated on the first turn; the second unit went after the Baals; trashing one and putting a serious hurt on the others.  One of the Bloodthirsters chewed his way through the Wolf Lords.  The Bloodletters did nothing, except hide in cover and wait to claim the objective.

Mark sent his Lone Wolves to plant flags and Joe had a Rhino Immobilize itself on a hill early on, so the squad riding in it planted their flag, as well.  Because of the unfortunate Daemonic Assault roll, we were never in a position to really drop flags. Because of our low number of units (actually, I wouldn’t say it was all that low, but theirs was so high), we wouldn’t have been able to sit around on the flags even if we’d been able to… so we conceded that scenario early on.

It looked like we might be able to pull off a tie, holding down the center objective, but an overly aggressive move with the Chaos Marines and their Rhinos exposed it to our opponents.  Even after six turns of what was a knock-down, drag-out fight, they were able to get enough models onto the objective to contest it.

Again, our opponents were great guys and put up a very tough, fun game.

It was a long day, but it was absolutely a really good day of gaming.

(Pictures are MVB‘s)

Tuesday

I met up with Austin to take a run at his newly-completed 23rd Necromundan Ash Waste Guard.

I’d realized, while waiting around for him to show up, that I hadn’t actually written a list for the day.  I dug through my bag, found one, and tweaked it a bit with the results of some lessons learned.  I ran:

HQ
Bloodthirster
Bloodthirster

Elites
Bloodcrushers x4 – Fury, Icon, Instrument
Bloodcrushers x4 – Fury, Icon, Instrument

Troops
Bloodletters x8 – Fury
Bloodletters x8 – Fury

Fast Attack
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury

Heavy Support
Daemon Prince – Daemonic Flight, Iron Hide, Mark of Khorne
Daemon Prince – Daemonic Flight, Iron Hide, Mark of Khorne
Daemon Prince – Daemonic Flight, Iron Hide, Mark of Khorne

He ran something like:

HQ
Company Command Squad – Plasmagun x2, Lascannon
– Chimera – Heavy Flamer
Company Command Squad – Meltagun x2, Lascannon

Elites
Psyker Battle Squad x10
– Chimera

Troops
Infantry Platoon
– Command Squad – Flamer x2, Meltagun x2
– Infantry Squads x40 – Commissar, Power Weapon x3, Lascannon x3
Veteran Squad – Plasmagun x3, Powerfist
– Chimera

Heavy Support
Leman Russ Squad – Exerminator x1, Vanquisher x1
Leman Russ Squad – Battle Tank x1, Executioner x1
Colossus x1

The above is certainly not accurate; I’m pretty sure he had more Chimerae, but it’s the gist.

We rolled up Seize Ground (3 objectives) with Spearhead Deployment.

Didn’t get the wave I wanted, but Austin insisted that I take it anyway.

Bloodthirsters came in first, followed by the Daemon Princes (hoping to get cover from the ‘Thirsters) and a unit of Bloodcrushers to provide an icon for the rest of the army.

By the end of the first turn, I’d lost a Bloothirster and, if I recall correctly, one of the Daemon Princes.  Then, the Flesh Hounds and one of the units of Bloodletters came in while the monstrous creatures that survived the initial salvo advanced and started slaughtering anything they could get their axes into.

The surviving Bloodthirster was a little too successful and too frightening in slaughtering Guardsmen: his opponents ran away, leaving him to suck up all the fire from the blob of infantry.  He didn’t last… the squad that ran away rallied, however.  I’d gotten down to one Daemon Prince, who started banging on tanks and then the Colossus.

The Flesh Hounds charged into the blob of infantry: miraculously, enough survived to kill a bunch of Guardsmen and win combat. Later, the surviving Daemon Prince, and a squad of Bloodletters joined them to wrap the squad up.  The first squad of Bloodcrushers was extremely intimidating… but fell in combat to a very tough squad of Vostroyans.

The game ended on Turn 5: just in time for my Bloodletters to kill the last of his Infantry Platoon and consolidate onto the objective (and behind the Daemon Prince for a bit of cover) while the late-arriving Bloodcrushers ran into range to contest one, maybe (but probably not) both of the other objectives (neither of which were actually held at the time).  Had the game pushed into Turn 6, it’s a tough call to say whether or not he’d have been able to eliminate my Bloodletters (my guess is yes) but it’s unlikely he’d have been able to push off my Bloodcrushers… so it would probably have been a draw.

As always, a great game with Austin.