Batrep and Sneak Peek

 So first of all I'd like to apologise about the following batrep as it may be a wee all over all the place, as thats pretty much how the battle happened. We all had 700 points, and decided to play a 3x3 game. I believe the mission was Crusade, with 5 objectives. Teams were....

Louis and Imperial Guard, Corey and Space Marines, Mike with Chaos Space Marines.

Myself, Bam and Carl all with Space Marines.

Corey, our youngest member is still getting to grips with the rules so Carl wrote his list and his own, even though he'd never played Space Marines. This led to much confusion later on! Not only this but we were late starting and had to finish a wee earlier than usual, so only four rushed turns were made. It was terrible in terms of gaming, but the weird thing is we all seemed to really enjoy the game somehow! 

I can't recall the forces, so I'll just talk about what I remember as I go through the battle. Wish me luck!

We won deployment and opted to go first, so myself and Bam took the left and centre positions, and Carl took the right with his scout bikers. He'd taken no troops, just three three-man units of scout bikers, a Librarian and a Chaplain. Corey then set up opposite Carl, his termies would deepstrike but he set up his 5 man tactical squad with plasma cannon in the buildings with his Captain and Dreadnought just outside. Yes, 5 man tactical squads cannot take special or heavy weapons. Mike set his Chaos forces up in a central position and Louis took their right flank, facing myself and Bam with his Chimera and Demolisher.

I'll try to remember to main parts of the early stages.... I surged up the flank with my assault squad lead by my captain with jump pack and  thunderhammer, Bam pushed up centrally with his land raider and termies and Carl pushed forward with all his bikers. My drop pod crashed to the ground and a tactical squad pushed out, meltagun aimed at the demolisher but missed. Oops! The demolisher then killed 8 of my tactical marines, who were finished off next turn. My assault squad then charged the chimera in the next turn, and wrecked it forcing the IG veterans to come disembark. Bam advanced more to get into a position to charge with termies and chaplain and Carl charged into typhus with his bikes. Not a good move! 2 units of bikers went in and 2 units of bikers died.

 Louis' demolisher took aim at my assault squad and managed to kill 4, thanks to cover I didn't lose more! Mikes Chaos Marine squad advanced into the ruins to hold an objective, and managed to take 2 hull points off my drop pod. As far as I'm aware Corey advanced with his dread and killed Carls Librarian in combat. Carl thought SM librarians were like GK librarians, and they're not. Splattered Psyker!

My captain and assault squad wiped out the veteran squad in combat and then charged the demolisher taking that out too. The drop pod survived, as the chaos marines who were shooting at it were charged by Bams termies who butcherd them all and cleared the objective. Louis' vendetta came on and dropped a unit off on an objective where Carl had deployed, killing the chaplain and claiming it. We made a last gasp attempt to kill Coreys (who had to leave by now) 5 man tactical marines so the other side had one objective to sneak a win but it was not to be, and we lost on turn 4. Another turn may have made a little difference, but who knows. 

The game suffered from a lot of confusion and a lack of time to play properly, but it was still entertaining and we all laughed throughout. We're going to keep playing some smaller games of doubles and fingers crossed, on our next all dayer play a little doubles tourney! More on that when we've got a better idea as to what is happening. 

Also worth a mention, I should be going to Hammerhead Games Convention with Huw on Feb 10th, near Nottingham. If any of you are going let me know and say hello!

As for the sneak peek I mentioned, this is what I've recently purchased...

Phobos pattern bolters and 10 Sergeant torsos to make a Sternguard unit. I've always fancied having a unit, the special ammunition makes them a very versatile unit and whether sat back using the kraken bolts to lay down fire or drop podded in and taking out power armour with the plasma ammo they'll be used lots! I've also got 10 veteran shoulder pads with the terminator honours on, and a Ferrox parrtern bolter for the sarge. Hopefully some wip shots on the weekend, maybe before!

The Old Enemy: SM vs CSM Batrep

A coalition of Chaos forces invade another Imperial world. In the Emporers name, we shall send them packing! 

Myself and Bam teamed up to play Louis and Chris, Space Marines vs Chaos Space Marines. 1500 points each, so a decent game size too. Unsure of exact forces... so heres a quick rundown

Myself and Bam: 2 Land Raiders with termies, I had a chaplain, and Bam used Lysander. 5 tactical squads in total, vindicator, 2 storm talons.

Louis and Chris: Typhus, 70 plague zombies (yikes) chaos lord in termie armour and termie retinue in a land raider, daemon prince, khorne bezerkers, another 10 termies in two squads, maulerfiend and forgefiend, couple of obliterators and chaos lord on juggernaut. Mission? Scouring! 

We set the game up, and placed objectives. We then deployed and revealed. We had a 4,3, and a 2 in our half, so that went into the plan of letting the Chaos forces come to us and try to whittle them down and then lay a smackdown on anything that comes close.

First of all, the dice gods were with us. Bam shot his land raider at the chaos counterpart, one lascannon, six for penetration, and then a 5 resulting in an explosion. No cover save possible. Boom!!!! Took out 4 zombies from the two squads either side too and a termie from within! I whittled more of the zombies down with plasma cannon and heavy bolter fire, and that was pretty much our first turn. The Chaos team did little, advancing and getting into position the main objective for them thus far. 

I knew I'd roll good dice too when every single unit I had in reserve came into play.... including both... yes BOTH, storm talons. I positioned one on the right flank to threaten the fiends combo, and the other zoomed towards the Daemon Prince in the middle of the Chaos forces. We pretty much stayed put, just little adjustments here and there for line of sight. My first storm talon did nothing bar a hull point on the maulerfiend. Shame, they were ready to threaten a couple of Bams units. The other Storm Talon? Well, thats another story.... It opened fire on the Daemon Prince, two assault cannon shots wounded the creature and Chris failed both armour saves. Good start! I fired the krak missiles in tandem, and chris rolled for its invulnerables. Another two fails! Daemon Prince DEAD! Ha take that Chaos filth! More whittling of the zombies, with one unit down to 14 by this point. 

The Chaos forces struck on our right flank, blowing a rhino up and exposing one of Bams tactical squads. Nearby Chaos marines took a couple of that squad out, and it looked like Bam was in trouble. 

During movement however, Lou brought down his two Terminator units. The first came down, scattered onto to some terrain and the result on the mishap table was that Bam could put them down. Furthest corner! The other Termie squad came down almost on target, and gave us a new threat as they tore open the vindicator with combi meltas.  

We now made small advances, getting ready to be in position to punish any more advances the chaos forces made. My Storm Talons danced in the air, immobilising the Maulerfiend and the other taking out another 8 zombies. Still they came! The centre of our deployment was looking dangerous, so a combination of 2 tactical squads took out a few of the terminators and bezerkers that were upon us. 

 Below, the zombies come with Typhus in support. This could be trouble!

 

Turn four, and it turns out its the last as closing time is encroaching. Bam rushes headlong into the zombies, Lysander challenging Typhus to a duel. The Maulerfiend is finished off, and the threat in our centre is dealt with. Chris' termies are also destroyed including his Chaos Lord, not giving my now disembarked termies and chaplain a chance to get stuck in. Just as lysander and the termies hurl themselves at the zombies, my storm talon unleashes another payload and kills another 8 of their number, assault cannon rounds ripping zombies apart and frag missiles exploding amongst them. The Terminators then kill another handful, as Lysander and Typhus come toe to toe. Typhus scores 4 out of eight hits, Bam rolls and equals with four out of four. One wound gets through on Lysander, but Typhus is crushed by the First of Dorn.

The end of the game comes prematurely, and points wise we're level pegging. However, had another turn been played, we almost certainly would have jumped into a lead. My Chaplain was a scoring unit thanks to his Warlord trait and just one movement phase from a 3pt objective, a tactical squad near a 4pt objective, and lysander and his unit almost overrunning into the Chaos deployment for another bonus point. We had killed the two Warlords, and while our right flank was up in the air the left was incredibly well secured.

In all a great game, we had some amazing dice rolls, even me(!) but it was still close up until the fourth turn where we surely would have won the battle in the name of the Emperor. We had great fun and we're hoping to do a lot more doubles games, even toying with the idea of a one day tourney at club in a doubles format. Should be fun.

In other news, I picked up something new today... a camcorder! Its a nice little cam, easy to move around, unlike filming on my DSLR, and doesnt need to be focussed manually! Can't wait to start doing some video battle reports and general updates and posts with videos. Til then!

The New Year

So 2013 has arrived, and after a busy couple of weeks I've finally been able to get some time to do a retrospective post and a look ahead to the new year. Firstly, as club was shut over the holidays a few of the guys came over where we spent the day playing Blood Bowl, eating pizza and krispy kremes, and introducing the lads to Rare Exports. I won two of my games with my humans, but lost to Morgan who simply had the better dice rolls. I couldn't get any of his players off the pitch! I did manage wins against Aluns humans and Owains Dark Elves though, plenty of winnings and I managed to dig out the old Special Play cards that added an extra bit of fun to the game.

 So looking back over the past year, and its been huge for myself personally. Not only at the tail end of 2011 did I find a wargaming group with a great bunch of guys I now call friends, but I became Chairman, helped to rebrand the club and we became members of the GCN, which is an honour. This means we'll be advertised on their website, and invited to events such as Hammerhead which is in February, which a few of us may be at! 

The biggest part of wargaming calender was most certainly the release of Warhammer 40,000 6th edition. There were so many rumours, people burning effigies in the streets, others creating new statues to the gods to earn favour, all in the hope or disbelief of what they heard were in the new rules. Well, the rules came out, and they've been pretty sublime. They have added new tactical decisions, reasons to take new units and mix things up, generally just so much better than I could have hoped for.  We've played many games since its release and I think every game has been enjoyable whether its a comfortable win, horrible loss, or a tight game.

Something else of note for me in 2012, was being able to play in Warhammer World in Nottingham. Playing apocalypse was tiring, exciting, tedious, amazing, such a mix of emotions as you play, and the await while your opponents play their turn. With each turn taking around an hour it was hard at times but the amount of stories and events that happened in just one game more than made up for this. Highlights for me was my Legion of the Damned taking over 120 shots from various weapons before 'dying', my Chapter Master Vincent Eniko taking on Imotekh the Stormlord and utterly destroying him, and just seeing my force set up on the Battle for Fort Pain board with everyone elses armies. It was astounding! Anothing highlight was meeting James and his wife. James is a great guy and we chat regularly on Facebook about life, gaming, jerky and much more. It really is a highlight of the hobby that through its social interaction new friends can be made.

So 2012 was a great year, but what for 2013? Well, what you see above is a box of Skaven Gutter Runners. I've long had an affinity for the ratmen, and as they were my first team, I've decided to have a go at converting a whole team from scratch as a slowburn project... that could become a crazed fast convert-a-thon as I hurriedly claw and sratch my way to make a team to compete! 

Another aspect is that I've heard from someone within GW, that as Warhammer Fantasy Battle is 30 years old this year, there 'could' be some sort of surprise release in the summer involving perhaps a campaign book or even a boxed set... intriguing! Intriguing enough that I may just start collecting a Fantasy army for the first time. Skaven are obviously an option, but Beastmen are the leading temptation so far. I love the feral and brutal look of them, so may skip my hooves down to my local store to pick up a box or two. I'm also intrigued that the new Tau codex is possibly around the corner... this could influence whether my attempt to get into WFB will actually happen!

Club wise we're just looking to improve what we have in terms of terrain and tables, get more exposure and hopefully more members. More members means more income, and more income means more things for the club. Hopefully Hammerhead will happen for us and we'll get some interest from that, and also Huws Pirate game keeps developing nicely, could turn into a treat!

Blog wise, I'll be here blogging all the latest from myself and the clubs activities, wargaming news and rumours and hopefully a few more videos here and there. I'd also like to see who is interested in meeting up at Games Day 2013, as I'm intending on going again. For now though, I shall wish you all a farewell and I hope your new year is a great one.

The Fallen Rise.

And so the Dark Angels have officially arrived. I've seen the leak pics, and I have to be honest I thought I'd best reserve my opinion until we get official pictures. They're finally here, so heres my thoughts.

Belial. A fair static model, but I think it shows off a commanding presence, and works pretty well. I'm not a huge fan of the bone armour with green robes... it looks a wee odd. Overall though a nice model, and I think a better colour scheme would improve.

Ah the return of Asmodai. A nice update, and I think DA fans will lap him up. 

The Codex itself, it'll be hard to have many thoughts on this until I've seen the rules and how the book looks and feels, but artwork wise the cover is pretty darn nice!

 Thsi first variant flyer. I really think this looks terrible. Why on Terra would you put stone like statues on a flyer? Absolutely horrible only made better by being able to make this...

 Now thats more like it. You can see the Storm Talon influence, but has an Imperial Guard feel to it too. Looks nice, and has no statues on it. Thank the Emperor! Missiles under the wings look good too. Also intrigued with the nose cannons...

Wowser. And I don't mean that in a positive way. One of the things that did appeal to me about the Dark Angels, was the Ravenwing. The idea of an army of bikes and speeders is always good, and like the white scars would be an impressive looking army on the table. Unless you have this speeder variant. This is horrible beyond even Nurgles doings. I like the idea about the rumoured rules for it, but this is just terrible. The gun point at the front is bad, the engines look pretty pap where they are... I just cannot stand this model.

This variant of the hideous flyer is only marginally better for the plasma cannons on top... but even those look unlike the usual plasma cannons of the Imperium.  Still a dire looking thing.

More bad colour scheme, but the models themselves look alright.  One thing that used to bug me about the 'watchers of the dark' is this... they're so mysterious, yet wear power armour. Look at the foot? A really odd choice that always confused me with Azrael's watcher.

Terminator command squad? I think these are kinda cool. The plasma cannon looks nice, and I'm jealous I can't use one in my Evandalists! The only negative I have for these is the banner. It looks daft on the top, how do you fit that in a Land Raider? I remember seeing one with a termie holding one, and that didn't look right either. I think they could have changed it to be holding a relic of some kind that had the same rules and purpose as a banner. 

So they are my quick thoughts on some of the new DA releases. Very hit and miss, I don't think many non DA fans will be turned but users of the Fallen will probably enjoy the new set of releases. What are your thoughts?

(All images property of Games Workshop)