Saturday Salvo: Controversies and Sisters.

This weeks Saturday Salvo takes a look at two things... so lets get the biggy out of the way... Go here for more.

Beasts of War are parting from Wayland Games, due to Games Workshop being upset that they'd shown unreleased images and sketches of unreleased images on some of their shows. The Beasts of War boys are now a completely independant entity and I wish them the best of luck in their future endeavours (wrestling reference there). They'll be relocating to Nottingham and a couple of other possible locations which means they'll be in the hub of British Wargaming. They will also continue to expand shows to cover the Games Workshop brands, so it will be interesting to see how this works out.

However, the internet has gone wild.

As per usual, people have been putting their hate-filled rants online. One of the comments called GW scum, and that they'll support Beasts of War. But wait a second, what exactly IS BOW's stance on Games Workshop? They're continuing to support the company and its games in videos, so how can others vent such rage when the people affected by it are continuing to do shows dedicated to its games? It could be argued that not showing anything based from GW would hit its audience... 

The problem is BOW had several letters sent to them warning about showing off unreleased GW images and material, yet they kept showing these despite GW's efforts to stop this. Why GW are so protective and secretive we may never know, but if you're a company and you want to release products in a certain way surely you're entitled to that right to do so? Natfka, man of Faeit212 had similar trouble after showing many images of unreleased Games Workshop material and was promptly shut down after failing to take heed of a number of warnings from GeeDub. They have both since reached an understanding and Faeit212 still thrives despite not showing so many rumours and by increasing its range of games.

I do not understand why GW have not created some sort of newsfeed to perhaps dispel rumours or create them via a video show. They're not high cost anymore since Youtube has become such a huge platform, and they even advertised for a 'video presenter' a number of months ago. In an interview I had with two members of the White Dwarf team they even stated about going into video with some sort of show that would appear online, but its seems as this idea has been shot down. The point is Beasts of War were told not to show material that GW hadn't released but continued to do so. Hopefully, like Natfka, the Beasts of War guys will continue to grow and use this as a positive step towards an even better range of shows. What are your thoughts on this subject?

Next up, along with a digital Blood Angels release, is this.

While not a full codex SOB fans won't be SOB'bing anymore as they finally get some sort of love. Even though its just another update from the White Dwarf list its still a good sign and fingers crossed if sells well, GeeDub will produce a full codex for fans of the army. 

Finally, some of you may have not just seen this but already given your money to Mantic for a copy.

Mars Attacks! the board game has reached its target in just 15 minutes, beating the record of Deadzone by around half. Thats pretty insane fair play! Personally, I don't think I like the look of it. I'd have a go but theres not enough there for me to want to drop money on it. The target was initially $50,000, but its now on $171,674. Thats incredible and a great feat! How do you guys feel about Kickstarter and how companies are using it to launch games? Do some companies even need to use it and hurt the smaller guys who are trying to get off the ground?

This weekend I'll hopefully be putting a post up with a battle report, my new almost finished Chapter Master and news on an event thats happening in the Valleys of South Wales. 

Battle Company and Chapter Name Reveal!

So the Evandalists have now gone. Its now offical, that I have finally found a permanent name for my own custom Space Marine Chapter.... Behold...

The Krohmus Guard it is! The reason I've gone for this is that the word Krohmus is a twist of the original word that 'chroma' comes from, which is the value or effect colour can have. It seems very apt considering the colour scheme I chose for my force! Enemies shudder as the might of the Space Marines approach, but why are they so colourful? Surely they cannot be the Emperors finest? As the enemies are confused the Krohmus Guard strike to full effect! This effect for me is part of the idea behind the name, and its here to stay!

Also, you'll have noticed that I've got a big Aocalypse game coming up on the weekend and one of my aims was to get a battle company. Well, here it is!

The only thing not done is the Standard, but thats mainly because I'm certainly not rushing into painting something that should be a centrepiece for the army! I did find my old apothecary, but decided to get some bits to make a new one. Heres the command squad below!

Here are the three dreadnoughts that will be part of the company, although I may switch the heavy flamer toting dread to one with a lascannon as I can bring him down in a drop pod and torch a lot of heretics or Xenos! 

My two assault squads, units I've not really used much before but I'm getting to grips with them and finding them very useful. 

The other formation I wanted to do for the Apoc game was the predator assassin squadron. And what a deadly bunch they are! If all weapons on a predator hit you can exchange the three lascannon shots for a single strength 'D' hit. Yes please! 

I also made this guy, as one turret I obtained was missing a hatch. I think he looks pretty good and the pointing hand works well as he acquires the target to bombard with lascannon fire!

So as you can see I've been pretty busy, now I just have to wait until I get my big mitts on the new codex and get a list written! Can't wait to see how these, plus my other units will do in game and what Chapter Tactics I'll go for in the big game this coming Sunday. Whatever I choose, the Krohmus Guard shall eradicate the enemy!

No Quarter: Biggest Game Yet!

It been a while, but I've been a busy lad over the last couple of weeks with an enormous amount of work to get done! However, to make up for this here is a guest post by Huw Williams, with details on how his game, No Quarter, went on our last all dayer less than a week ago. Enjoy! 

Saturday saw the biggest and for my money, most successful play-test of the "No Quarter!" ruleset, yet staged.

The scenario was chosen to accomodate as many players as possible, from various factions, working towards the same objective. This was a terror-raid organised by the British against one of the largest towns of the Spanish Main; 'Portocabino' Portocabino, 'the jewel of the Yucatan', is a Spanish colonial town which has become rich in the rum, raisin and chocolate trade, it is also a major exporter of silver from the mines inland in which British prisoners are worked to death. It has a deep water harbour which is approached through a narrow channel among treacherous sandbars. This approach is guarded by a stone built fort mounting massively heavy artillery.

 The town itself is a charming example of colonial architecture famous for its many fine taverns eateries and brothels. The cathedral of St ignacious The Flatulent houses fabulous treasures wrought in Peruvian silver, gold and emeralds, while the Governor himself is rightly famous for his extensive collection of modern money.

At the waters edge is the rowdy dockside district with warehouses crammed with the produce of the indies and to the South is the Creole quarter a charming tangle of slum-housing peopled by casual labourers and their sultry dark-eyed women.

This then is the place upon which proud Britannia would unleash bloody murder.

To get a fleet together to do this kind of shit aint easy.

You need a lot of boats mounting a lot of artillery, you need rough men willing to do bloody murder for the price of an egg and cress sandwich and you need a convenient patsy to take the fall when it all goes tits-up.

As luck would have it we got all three hanging round the docks in jamaica. A motley fleet of French and ex-Spanish pirates, privateers under government contract and Captain Carl and his Royal Navy frigate, who had already failed his last three missions and could be quietly blamed for everything and hanged if it all went wrong

Carl had a pig of a job ahead of him, not only was the port defended by the fortress but there was a garrison of infantry in the town and two 40 gun Spanish men-o-war anchored ready to defend the channel into the harbour. Add to this the fact that none of his fleet were inclined to obey his orders or take him seriously and you can see that it weren't going to be an office picnic.

Oh no.

I never thought for one minute this game was going to get any further than the entrance to the channel. I kinda assumed the two well-armed, heavily manned Spanish men o war would blow them to bits, or Carls ship at least. Shows what I know.

Before the game started any players with the gold or gems could 'buy' improvements to their ships, extra hull, rigging or speed points, I also gave those who had serious money an opportunity to buy information about the town. Lou did this and got a map showing him where the major stashes of cash were and the information that the fort had less than half its guns and garrison in place.

One major arse-pain during the set-up was the no-show of the second umpire. under the informal rule of 'Don't Got, Can't Have' it was decided that his man o war would not come into play until it had cleared for action, loaded guns and weighed anchor, a process that wuld take fifteen moves! 

"Kick-off" came at about 11 am with the British 'fleet' entering the board line abreast, Carl in the HMS Obvious taking the narrow channel to the South, the others heading down the main roadstead or set risk crossing the sandbanks.

The Spanish flagship, guns double-loaded with chainshot turned slightly and headed boldly out to meet them. The red flag at her mast-head indicated 'No Quarter' given or expected, the sun flashing off the gilded works on her stern she advanced along the narrow channel directly into a storm of shite.

Accurate long-range gunnery from one of the privateers splintered her mainmast which crashed down anchoring her to a sand bar. In her struggle to get free the HMS obvious got the drop on her, come alongside and lashed her with a full broadside of grapeshot which killed or maimed half the crew.

Shocked silence among the Spanish and the pirates: Carl had done something right.

As the Spaniard limped further into the channel to reorganise and return, Carl turned North into the harbour to protect the fleet from the guns of the fort.

As my old great granma said "Never get into a head to head pissing contest with a spanish fort, me gosson". And so Carl found a good third of his rigging points shot off by the wicked long heavy guns of fort Santa Monica Di Verjazzel. Turning back out to sea, he came up on the second Spanish man o war as she got under way and shielded the pirate fleet as it either crashed ashore or turned like jackals on the shipping in the bay.

Captain De La Haye's brutal band o' buckos were first to bring their bad attitudes and general surly demeanours to bear on the port and in a rampage of several hours they looted the dock-side warehouses and stores and sent a party to rob the Central Bank of The Indies before heading back out to sea.

Then the first of the privateers unloaded his cargo of mayhem. in a bold move Cap'n Aaron beached his sloop in a landing-craft stylee, allowing his band of hardened salts and marines to stor ashore.

The Juan Carlos's ('Juankers' for short) hadnt been idle, tho the garrison was strck' with the yellow jack, some brave officers gathered together such men in the taverns and bawdy houses who could still raise a blade to build barricades and face the on-rush. They clashed among the chandlers shops and stores East of the main square and a deadly duel began: Spanish pluck 'gainst English steel and lead!

Out upon the bay the city's fate was sealed. Captain Carl Parfitt turned his frigate to the East, pulled along of the second Spanish warship. and give them the same medicine already dispensed to their sister ship. The decks were littered with blood brains and broken bodies; They had never even had time or leisure to load or run out a single gun.

 The surviving Spanishers struck colours and handed their swords over to the prize crew come over from the obvious. Part at least of the British armada was struggling; Alun had wedged his boat against a sand-bar and was in danger of a good bombing from the fort, while Mikes crew had yielded to the several blandishments of Spanish gold and betrayed the British plan to the enemy!

Back in the town looting and terror and the clash of steel held sway, one stranded Spanish sea-captain and his officers held off the marines and privateers of Capn' Aaron but more were arriving and might soon overwhelm them. It wasn't looking good for Spanish interests in the town so it was that with a heavy head and a couple of heavy iron bound chests the town governor bravely ordered his butler to prepare his coach for a quick escape.

Back out in the harbour things were changing rapidly, Captain Owain, he of the long-lie-in, finally rocked up in his brig of many leaks straight into an artillery duel with the damaged Spanish flagship. In the event it was an inconclusive exchange and the Spanisher manouvered hard to shake him off and head towards Carl to cut off his escape with the other captured man o war.

 Pretty much all resistance was over in the town now, the last of the spanish sailors and civilians were starting to leg it into the forests and swamps, only three bastions remained: The garrison of the artillery fort whose shot were now landing uncomfortably close to the ships anchored at the docks and the bishop and his retinue who had shuttered and barred themselves inside the cathedral...... Oh and the governors entourage who had set off in his coach for the safety of nearby Cartagena, but first had to get through the town...

BANG! 64 pound of iron shot and chain tore through captain De La hay's rigging convincing him that his work in Portocabino was finally done, before another could land he decided to cut his cables and scarper. his place was taken by Owain who came in for a perfect landing to back up his partner in sea-crime, Aaron in sacking the town. The heavy guns at the fort reloaded slowly so most of the time could only gaze upon the horrors of the sacking helplessly. Time was on their side though, sooner or later they would smash any ship anchored in the bay.... unless they were silenced.

 

There was one last desperate chance open to the spaniards; The flagship was heading back, her starboard guns loaded and skeleton crewed with a will, she bore down on HMS Obvious. once more these adversaries drew board and board and....

Carl aced it again with a combination of grapeshot and musketry he killed her captain, slaughtered her crew and in no time siezed her with a boarding party and was sailing back to Jamaica at the had of a captured flotilla, looking forward to tea and medals with the governor and all the buns and well-born ladies his tongue could cope with.

With the spanish navy dealt with the majority of the pirates now headed back out to sea, seeing no profit in braving the forts guns any longer. Only the privateers of captains Owain and aaron remained. They were wicked and set on looting the rest of the town and the cathedral in particular which had gotten away with it till now. A peach fell into their lap as the roving gangs of liquored up old salts captured the Governr in his coach not once but twice, forcing him to pay a ransom both times.

 

Finally they let the coach and most of its occupants go but kept a hold of him for bargaining purposes.  unfortunately with the departure of the fleet, the forts guns were now playing their two sloops with iron and it was only a matter of time before they would fine themselves stranded in the town. They made a plan: Owain would dismount one of his cannons onto a cart to blow in the cathedral doors and Aaron would take the great stone fort. Now I was reasonably confident that the fort would hold, it was well provisioned and armed and nigh on impregnable.

 

It took him four moves.

With the garrison conquered, the cathedral opened and looted, it only remained to burn down the whole town. After that they made off into the gathering night, with the flames of the burning hospital and orphanage of Santiago dabbling their sails a soothing crimson. It had been a profitable venture, even if the 'governor' turned out to be just some random wino in a nice suit the real governor had used as a diversion, they were both well-pleased with their haul.

The End

And there we have it, another truly epic game of No Quarter brought to you by Huw, if you'd like to know more and see and even purchase some of the models, you can go here to Scurvy Dog 25mm Pirate Miniatures on facebook. I'll have more from the all dayer concerning the games of 40k played, but we from the Tredegar Reavers hope you enjoyed this post!

Batrep SM vs IMPGUARD.... Chairman vs Chairman!

I apologize for a lack of blogging lately, but Big Kev's been a busy lad! Heres a battle report from last weeks club night, and its a special one! My opponent this week is the incredibly awesome Byron who is the chairman for the Crow Valley Crusaders who are based in Cwmbran. We fancied a nice big battle so 3000pts were decided and army lists made! I had no idea what Byron was going to take, he'd mentioned a lot of armies so I decided to just take what I fanced and be versatile. He did however mention a Caestus Assault Ram.... He then went on to tell me the rules and I have to be honest, I was concerned!  The day of the battle came and I discovered an Imperial Guard force with Dark Angels allies. This was going to be brutal! Deployment below!

I set up first, eager to get a round of shooting in before the Guard could send a barrage my way. Sternguard dropped down toting combi meltas, and managed to blow up 2 Leman Russ tanks. First blood and some of the enemy firepower gone, relief! I managed to take out one Chimera but that was my first turn. Byron punised my sternguard and wiped them out with some veteran firepower who had disembarked from a nearby chimera. The Executioners spat death and 5 tactical marines (who were the only ones they could see) died, the ruins they sheltered in failing to save them Elsewhere however I was relatively unharmed.

My reserves failed to come on although I was able to do a little more damage the the IG tanks, although nothing blowing up I did cause some hullpoints here and there. I did manage to blow one chimera up however when the vindicator aimed its demolisher cannon at it, but out popped more veterans! Byrons reserves came on, a Valkyrie and... gulp... the Assault Ram! Bryon rammed my Land Raider for a ST10 hit and getting to roll 2 dice picking the highest... but luckily for me he rolled two fours... just a glance! The meltashot did fry a couple of my devastators though, ouch! 

Turn three sees my flyers come into play, the twin linked multi melta on my stormraven blowing up the Assault Ram... no wait, it missed! Even twinlinked I failed to hit the DA flyer, although the storm talon did roll three penetrations against the valkyie... and Bryon chose to evade and made all three Jink saves! At least it would be snap firing next turn!  Byron then got out his Deathwing, 10 strong with a Chaplain and assaulted my Land Raider wrecking it with their ThunderHammers. We had a problem arise here as we didn't know if the unit inside the LR was destroying or trapped, as it doesn't really specify in the rules. Byron had set up his termies to encircle the tank and covering all the doors, but because the vehicle hadn't exploded it didn't say if the unit inside were destroyed or not. We ruled that if the vehicle wasn't blown up they would be fine if they could escape the tank in a future turn. 

In my turn I managed to finish off the two executioners and whittle the termies down so I could escape the Leman Russ wreck in the following turn. 6 Termies killed by pretty much my entire army! Byron then charged headlong at my dreadnought with the Terminators and Chaplain and destroying it, following up into my tactical squad that was supporting it. After the Dread had killed one and overwatch another, only two were left and not many tanks. The Assault Ram hurtles into my dreadnought who had previously killed the veterans from the blown up chimera, blowing the dread up where it joins the wrecked vindicator, melta holes covering its chassis.

The tactical squad manage to hold on against the Chaplain and last Termie and cause two wounds, just about finishing off the Deathwing and leaving the chaplain on one wound. At this point with closing time approaching myself and Byron call it a game, I'd managed to pull off a win mainly due to Byron not having the best of luck when it came to dice rolls. Score wise I have no idea what it was, but Byron had little left whereas I still had a decent amount on the table. If Byrons dice had been a little kinder I can see the game being really close, probably me getting a loss! It was a great game though and Byron was a great opponent. Hopefully he'll want a rematch sometime and try to get his revenge!

In other wargaming news I do have a little side project as I step into the world of Fantasy... I shan't tell you what army yet but you may be able to hear some gutteral braying in the distance.... This weeks club game is against the Elf boy himseld Alun, 2.5k pts and I'm using ALL of my Tau... should be interesting as I think he's using the new Eldar codex. Report up in the week, but thats all for now!

New FW Necron Release

I'll be the first to admit, I'm not a huge fan of Necrons. I can see the appeal, but its just not something that makes me look and want to collect them. Forge World have however released some new Necron bits that will most likely tie into the imminent release of the new Imperial Armour book. First up, is the realm of battle board featured in a past White Dwarf.

Now fair play, four of those slotted together looks pretty awesome, I'd love to battle em on there! I sort of reminds me of some of the Lizardmen temples that had been seen many moons ago in foreign Games Days and such. The other new release is the Night Shroud Bomber.

How much better does this look with the side blades? Such a better look than the normal variant, it almost looks like a weapon you'd expect to see on Stargate or some othe scifi adventure. I'd always disliked how the cockpit was open, so this is another aspect that holds much improvement in my eyes.

Well done FW, some likeable Necrons!

Khorne to the Curb

Battle report time! I was up against Chaos again this week, but in the form of Chris' Khorne Bezerkers. Last time we played it was fairly close, and fielding the new Helldrake this promised to be a difficult affair! I did however have a couple of new tricks up my sleeve..

In my last game against Louis, I borrowed a drop pod off Bam, and it worked ok considering the scatter was well off. So I decided to treat myself to one... along with a second Storm Talon! Chris had bantered that his Helldrake would 'bend the Storm Talon over' so when I showed Chris the two of them I mentioned he'd be having a threesome. His look was priceless! Just had to make sure my dice would do me justice... Yoinks!

2000 points, Crusade, and Dawn of War deployment.

Looking at Chris' force, the Daemon Prince and Helldrake scared me. Daemon Princes can be taken down by mass bolter fire, but I'd planned on using rhino's so would either have to disembark to take care of it and then be left open to attack or counter it with my termies and captain. The Helldrake I could take care of, however I knew even in one turn of it being alive its Baleflamer could do a lot of damage. The Bezerkers themselves were Chris' weakness as these were his only two troops choices, so taking these out would stop him from capturing objectives. Kharn was in one of these units, but I'd taken plasma cannons to take infantry and rhinos out. My dreadnought in drop pod would disrupt part of the enemy battle line, and rhino's wait for the right time to surge forward and capture objectives late in the game. 

This was deployment, and on the first turn my Land Raider was immobilised. This meant the termies had to come out and look to assault asap. My Rhino on the left flank was blown up and I lost three marines from the explosion, so they took position up on the left most objective. The Daemon Prince came down but I couldn't ground him to charge, so had to try and charge some bezerkers whose rhino I had managed to wreck. Failed! I then got charged by the DP and Khorne Bezerkers, pain! I managed to take out half the bezerkers and took two wounds off the DP but lost my captain and termies. 

The helldrake came on, and as predicted, its baleflamer did pain. Wiped out my devastators with plasma cannons, and also a tactical member from a nearby squad. Just over 200 points killed in one fell swoop! Luckily, my Storm Talons came on (surprisingly reliably) and the first shots with an assault cannon took it down, almost blowing a Khorne Rhino up. Payback! I couldn't have this surviving too long, it would slaughter my troops! 

Wrecking both of Chris' rhinos meant exposing his troops, and the unit with Kharn was heavily fired at. I managed to Kharn out with a couple of Krak missiles by a Storm Talon and whittle the squad down over two turns. The other Bezerkers moved back to hold the objective, and after Chris had wrecked my Rhino I advanced carefully firing as much as I could.  The Vindicator took out 7 of the 9 marines, but the two survivors held fast as I tried to blow the Vindicator up. Going into hovering mode, the Storm Talon unleashed its firepower and tore the vindicator apart.

The game ended 10-2, but going into turn 5 Chris lead 5-4, and it was a hugely close game. Chris' lack of troops meant destroying two units stopped him from capturing objecives, whereas I took three tactical squads and broke one up into combat squads, giving me 4 scoring units which was well worth doing. The predator didn't do a whole lot, managed a couple of hull points on one Rhino, and took a couple of Bezerkers down. What it did best though was attract enemy heavy firepower, surviving 4 shots from a demolisher cannon and numurous lascannon shots from an obliterator. 85pts well worth it! The Storm Talons worked a treat, although I'll rarely use both again in this sized battle. The Termies and Captain stopped the Daemon Prince from running rampage, who was promptly gunned down by a disembarked Tactical Squad. I love boltguns! 

Great game in all, close til the end and Chris is really starting to get the hang of his army. He does need to be a little mroe aggressive, but thats something that will come with experience. 

Now, a quick word about projects! In less than two weeks we have the all dayer, and I've got about 6k of Evandalists I want to field but some work to do first. I've got two chaplains to build/convert, the biker and a running one, I've just got my ratling sniper to convert into a Squat to use as Telion (will explain more when I cover this) plus a limited edition Boarding Captain that I swapped the Games Day BA Captain for. I've got an old school jump pack I may use for him and the chaplain, and it looks amazing on him, so we shall see!

Keep tuned for more details, not just on my stuff but also some of the club members who I'm bugging to send WIP piccies of their mini's.

Too Stealthy for some and BatRep

So, an update at last! Been over a week, but a busy one. Not so much hobby wise, although partly so. As we're getting the club through the transition we've had a couple of setbacks, regarding GCN status. A little more time and money and we'll be applying soon, score!

But for now... Remember these guys?

What the... where did they go?

Ah! There they are, bloody stealth suits! Anyways... remember these? Well, I wanted to get another three for a full unit, and I had recently spoken to Jacob who sells some models at the club occasionally. I asked him what Tau stuff he had, and he mentioned a few stealth suits, and a hammerhead somewhere. The hammerhead failed to materialise unfortunately, but the stealthsuits were there.

A few he said! 9 will do nicely, and all for the princely sum of £15. He also gave me some drones and a bag of Tau weapons, score! So, in two hours while listening to the Thousand Sons audio book, I basecoated all 9 of em! Thats progress methinks. Still a lot more to do, and with all the lines the highlighting really takes a little while to get done, but its worth it. I also picked this guy and the other two Dark Vengeance bikers off Jacob...

But why you may ask? And you'd be right too. Am I doing some Ravenwing? Well... No. Never been a fan of Dark Angels, but this model... I see potential! I'm gonna have a crack at converting him into a Chaplain on a bike. I'm unsure about how to add a crozius, so will be looking at that and I was also given a helmet from the venerable dreadnought off Bam, along with the pictured Dreadnought Plasma Cannon. More score! Plenty of things to get cracking on with, I've already taken the iconography off that I don't want on the bike so its ready for chopping. Do I take the arm off and go for a talon-like powerfist? Or go with a custom crozius? Options...

Also I got my first game in a couple of weeks! Being Chairman at the club does mean that playing happens a little less, but its something I'm fine about. This week I play Alun, who visited back from university. I made an allround army, mainly of stuff I fancied taking. Rough list...

captain and 5 marines on bikes, 5 cc termies in land raider, 2 tactical squads, scout snipers, vindicator, predator, and my chaplain dread. Alun took 4-5 units of storm troopers, a unit of GK termies, Coteaz and another character, whose name eludes me. And to top it off, 3, yes THREE.... Vindicare assassins. Ouchen! 

Big Guns Never Tire and Hammer and Anvil!

Against a lot of infantry, my predator would not do an awful lot, as it was equipped with lascannons. It was to hold back and add fire against a unit I was targetting while claiming an objective. Bikes, TS, and dread on the right, LR and TS on the left, then Vindicator and SSnipers in a central role. Alun stole the first turn, and almost wiped out the snipers and telion. Assassin took out the vindicator, but luckily my LR survived... for now! All of his units had storm bolters, but did little as most were out of range, missed, or failed to wound. Predator fired at the termies, 3 hits, NO wounds. Yes, 3 ones. ARGH! However, the dreads plasma cannon scattered and went from hitting one to 4. 3 dead GK termies! 

 

So may land raider and predator are blown up, scouts finally wiped out, but I carry on looking to claim objectives. Termies deepstrike down behind the enemy, and do damage to a unit holding an objective in aluns deployment zone. Bikes charge forward into the termies but do little damage, and are all butchered after two turns. Not good, but I do like using them! Assault termies wipe out a character and a unit. then move centrally to threaten objectives. Plasma cannons take their toll on Aluns infantry, although his assassins are hard to wound. 

We went all the way to seven turns, and it was really close. While I killed a lot of infantry, Aluns Assassins had blown up two of my heavy support vehicles (which give bonus points in this objective), had first blood and warlord. I, had one objective, and killed his warlord. As we went into the last turn I needed to deny him an objective and capture it myself to win. And.... it didn't happen. His last couple of terminators managed to survive and hold the objective while I couldn't get him off. So close! Final points were 5-7 to Alun, a really good game fair play! Good to see him and his elvish looks back at the club, although hopefully he wont be back too soon... HA! 

We've got our next all dayer confirmed too, November 11th! If you'd like to come let me know in the comments or take a look at the Tredegar Reavers website, as we'll post news when we know more. 

Adios for now, hopefully 9 finished stealth suits by the weeks end, which will make two full squads of 6! Now I just need path finders for some markerlight goodness!

Monday Night Gaming

And here we are once again, the day after a great battle has been fought. 

This week I had a 2500 point game versus Morgan and his Space Wolves, an army I hadn't yet fought. The Emporers Will was the missions, and deployment was Hammer and Anvil. We set terrain up previously and one wide edge was fairly empty... so when deployment was rolled I hoped to win. I didn't. All I had in my zone was two bastions (we used them as buildings but nothing more) and a hill. This could hurt! Morgan's zone was a lot more occupied, and would be hard to mount an attack. I deployed with most of my force held back. Taking Khorsarro Khan meant I could outflank, and by hell I'd need it with this deployment!

Morgan advanced and took a few shots, but killed nothing. I stayed where I was, and killed nothing. 

Turn one over! Turn two saw Morg bring on a unit of blood claws, a wolf guard in termie armour and a wolf priest in an outflank move, along with a unit of wolf scouts right next to the bastion I'd be using as my objective. This was nasty!

And nasty it proved to be. The tactical squad I had there killed a few wolf scouts but were torn apart by the big blood claw unit,  and the scouts were able to blow up the bastion, the 3 devastators left inside, and four of their own troops in the resulting blast. Myself and Morg found this to be hugely entertaining, as we'd only just discovered the seperate damage chart for buildings. Up it went taking loads with it, amazing!

Elsewhere my forces came on, but one tactical squad, Khan and the Storm Talon didn't show up. Land Raider with termies and Chaplain came on at Morgans rear, as did some regular Termies. The Legion of the Damned came on in front of Morgans Objective, which meant he had to choose between these and my termies which unit he attacked with his Wolf Lord. The Damned it was! There were too many attacks for the Damned to contain and were all brought to bay after 3 combat rounds. The Termies were able to kill the Eldar allies Morgan had taken, pathfinders and farseer and stayed on the objective. Morg then counterattacking brought his assault troops jumping over, who unleashed bolt pistols. I took 4 wounds, and failed THREE SAVES!!! Thats right, 3 ones showed up and I cried. This left one termie left and ten assault troops! Needless to say he died.

Khan, the tactical squad and the storm talon took until turn 4 to arrive, and it looked like it may be too late. My other termies were unable to have much affect on Morgs objective, but I threw the tactical squad up there to try and contest should the game end on turn 5. The Storm Talon and other devastator squad fired at the blood claws and were able to wipe them out after two rounds of shooting leaving Khan and his bikers to assault the wolf scouts and try to get the 6" or so they needed to claim my objective. If they did this, and the game ended, I'd have sneaked a win even though I'd lost much of my force. Morg had 2 points, first kill, and for having units in my deployment zone, where I only had one for having my units in Morg's zone. If I could claim the objective, I'd get a win. Khan attacked first, 4 dice and all I needed to roll were 3's. A one, and two two's sucked. But I did hit once. Anything but a one.... One. ARGH!!! C'mon bikers, do me proud. They killed one biker. The scout passed his leadership test and my bikers had failed miserably even though the odds were easily in their favour. Damn you dice gods!!!

Just to rub salt in my wounds, the game ended on turn 5. 2-1 to Morgan, a game that points wise, doesn't show just how much I lost! Morg still had half an army intact, whereas I had lost a lot of troops. I'm incredibly happy that I managed to get myself into a position to almost pull off a win however, as I really shouldn't have had a chance! Kudos to Morgan though, he played well. Very entertaining game and another loss in 6th edition, but I still think its much better than 5th. Just wanna get more games played!

6th. Oh My Eyes.

And so it begins. Sixth edition is here, and I've been thumbing through it looking at the rules and whats new. We knew what a lot of them were, but its nice to see it in black and white. Only, thats the thing. Its not in black and white. Its in aged yellows, oranges, and the complete book is full colour. Wow. I'll talk about the rules a little later on, but first of all I'd like to talk about the aesthetics.

Simply put, the layout design is amazing. Lots of nice little touches, and you never know whats going to make your eyes weep in joy next, weapon designs, emblems, or the latest in spectacular John Blanche pieces. This seriously is some good stuff.

The background section, 'The 41st Millenium' is full of fluff for where the world lies now. The Emperor could be on his last brain cells, aliens are growing ever more varied, and it really does make you wonder if there will be some sort of broken Imperium in the future. Theres also some nice sections for all the other races with some history and artwork, some of which is old but still looks nice.

As a photographer myself, theres some great images in there too. Whether they could have been a little more experimental is questionable, but I think you go too far and you're not showing the full quality of the miniatures off. 

All in all its a great looking book and, I have to say, worth the money. Its a pity that the price hike has been so high on the miniatures themselves with no reason as to why. 

The rules themselves are pretty good. Myself and my nephew had a small game, about 500 pts or so, just to teach him the basics and so I could see how a few of the changes work. Wound allocation has potentially slowed the game down, but I think its worth it as it makes so much more sense and adds implications to assaulting, whether its doing it yourself or getting assaulted. We both fielded a dreadnought to see how the hull points stsyem works, but what do you know? My nephew blew my dreadnought up with some rending assault cannon and then a 6 on the damage table. Damn! He proceeded to win the game 3-1. It was a good laugh though and just a simple exercise to see how the rules work. Assault troops with the Hammer of Wrath are a bit more deadly, although 3d6 falling back meant mine rolled 13" and feld. Doh! 

Looking forward to the first night at the club playing, and seeing what everyone else thinks of the rules. 

Whats your thoughts so far?