AS vs SW/BA 400 Power BatRep!

Welcome to the first Batrep in a while, a battle between Imperial factions no less. One consisting of 200 power of Astra Militarum commanded by myself and Mark, the other army a 100 power Blood Angels force commanded by Lewis with a 100 power Space Wolves detachment led by Adam aka Fuzz. It had been a little while since we played so we kept it reasonably simple with 6 objectives and drawing upto three cards a turn per side. Secondary objectives as usual, line breaker, slay the warlord and first blood. 

"Howls cried in the distance as the mist began to clear from the nights embrace. Morale was low, although the Cadian 193rd had tried their best to get the hive gangs spirit lifted in what would probably be the moment they meet death. Their home, Hive Probatious, had been obliterated by a crashed starship and the onsuing battles that came afterwards. Sightings of everything had been seen, from multilimbed aliens to power armoured giants and even green skins. War had come to the world of Corbel and what was left had to fight back to survive. Many of the gangs had fallen but each house still had some strength. Adelia's father had once been an officer in the Corbel Tank Regiment and his stories were better than any school for Adelia. The hum of the engines of this Leman Russ she now commanded made her feel comfortable, as if her father was at her side. She took a glance at the dataslate and could see the defences were all in place. The Escher had found an old factory and apprehended some Leman Russ tanks, a couple Chimera APCS and given the Goliath gang that still stood, aptly, a Goliath truck. The Cadians who stood with them also had several of their own tanks, more Leman Russ, Taurox and even a couple of the Basilish with their huge Earthshaker cannons. Hope filled Adelia that survival could be a possibility, until she heard the howls again. "

 

"The sun never shone that brightly on Corbel but with Give Probatious in ruins its rays crashed through the dome ceilings, bringing more light into what was left of the hive than it had ever seen. 'Defenders of Corbel, death is imminent, but what we take with us is not an option. You may face the most elite and fearsome enemies today but you shall stand and you shall fight". Adelia listened as Commander Creed took to the vox. She looked around as his voice filtered through, the infantry standing on edge taking some level of courage from Creeds inspiring words. "Your homeworld burns around you, but your spirits must burn like an inferno if we are to walk away with victory. Stand for your homeworld and your Emperor shall stand with you!" Cheers went up all around the lines as Creeds message hit home. 'So we're gonna die' said Ophelia, the driver of Adelias Leman Russ. 'Probably, but we have plenty of guns to try and kill them with, lets pound at least some of them into death before we get fucked up' Adelia replied. The vox flared again, and the ruff voice of Ghrox came into life. 'You heard this Creed, we aint got much chance of seeing this day through but we get to kill some of them Astartes bastards. Why they attack we dunno, but we make em pay.' The abhuman was a strange one Adeila was sure, but as different as he looked there was no doubt he was one fo them. A horned beast like head whose mouth always had a cigar smoking from it, Ghronx was a bounty hunter in the Underhive before the war came and had now become a leader of sorts in the defence force. Birim, one of the few Demiurgs had also become a figure of command and both were capable fighters she'd seen. "

I was using my hive gang guard for the first time, and had managed to get together a brigade to give our side 9 command points giving us 18 in total. Obviously we had to take the trait and relic that let us regain or steal command points. The armies were faced were much smaller but very elite. Adams Wulfen and Thunderwolf cavalry were scary, whereas Lewis' Terminators could hit us from anywhere via deepstrike and Land Raiders are always hard to damage. 

After both armies had deployed the BA/SW combo won the right to go first. I rolled to seize and rolled a 3. To command point or not? Ah go on, we had 18 command points to use so why not. What did I roll? Lets just say some Leman Russ tanks lumbered forward to get the first shots in! I rolled a six!

We managed to get first blood after the Hellhound burnt up some wolves but to be fair out first turn wasn't the most effective. Now we had some scary Astartes coming at us!

"Her thoughts started to shift to all the people standing with her. Aldreyus the Psyker, whom many still took wide berth of, his powers had saved many of her fellow Eschers and despite his dangerous skills they happily stood with him. Commissar Graven was a very old man as war had come to Corbel but had taken up his bolt pistol and uniform again after being saved by some of the local troops. Birim had got the last of the Demiurg on Corbel together and they hunched together in their Chimera ready to take the fight to the enemies wherever they need to be. The Goliaths had taken an astropath called Nelsium amongst them, their attempts to persuade some local Ogryns to the cause had failed however. The howls started to sound louder as the mist had almost cleared. Adelia realised that battle was upon them as the Cadian tanks engines roared into life, drowning out the wolves. The defences turned to offence, as the Cadian forces lurched forward cannons erupting towards the grey and red lines that opposed the defenders. The enemy opposite Adelias lines began advancing, and the battlefield lit up. Lasers streaked across the battlefield, cannon shells tore holes in both lines. A massively large giant lumbered towards the lines surrouded by huge wolves, warriors in both grey and red armour accompanying it. The Goliaths and one of Adeilas Escher gangs rode forwards in their APC's, autocannons blazing away at the lines but only killing the wolves. It would silence some of the fucking howling she thought as she commanded another tank to concentrate fire where Cadians were firing"

Fuzz'es Wulfen were slicing through a lot of Marks units on the right, but our tanks were making them pay. Logan Grimnar found his wounds cut down quickly but as he made it to combat it was hard to finish him off. The thunderwolf cavalry scared us a lot too, but we were slowly able to push them back.

"Reports on the right flank were that the grey armoured Astartes were advancing with great speed, some like bestial demons leapin forward with great speed, raking the Cadians tanks with claws and axes butchering the troops inside the Taurox. Others rode the backs of massive wolves, pistols firing wildly into the allies lines as they too tried to close the lines and wreak havoc with their own axes and thunder hammers. As Adelias Leman Russ fired she glanced out of the cupola to see the air shimmer and buzz, before 5 huge armoured marines appeared. 'Fucking terminators!' she cursed as they storm forward into the local defence troops, lightning claws tearing their bodes apart and hammers collpasing skulls. Just as Adelia was beginning to lose hope Birim and his fellow Squats disembarked and unleashed a fusilade intot he terminators alongside more of Adeilas fellow eschers. 3 fell as hundreds of lasgun shots bounced of their armoud. Aldreyus concentraded and from his hand another Terminator fell as energy surrounded it and made its armour collapse. One remained however and with a pack of wolves that had sprinted towards the defenders lines smashed its hammer into the Leman Russ Exterminator whos autocannons and heavy bolters had taken its toll on the enemy. The explosion took out most of the wolves, a few of the Demiurg were caught and even a sentinel looked to take some damage from the blow."
 

Marks lone Cadian sergeant surviving against all odds! Those odds don't include those terminators though that sluaghtered him

After a few of my infantry units and the Veteran Goliaths were able to take down Lewis' Terminator Captain I got duly charged by Bjorn. The battle ended before he did more damage thankfully but I did lose a few transports and a sentinel to him and a couple of meltaguns held by accompanying troops. 

After racing out to a 9 point lead in the first two turns our objectives became dry with some difficult ones to attempt. Make the Astartes fail morale and defend 2 objectives for two turns. Both were too far away! The Blood Angels and Space Wolves clawed their way back and on Turn five it was 10-9 to the Astartes. 

As turn 5 finished the Astra Miliatrum had managed to collect 11 points to the Astartes 13. It was a close game and if we'd have remembered a couple of things then who knows. Either way we had a cracking game! The amount of tanks that blew up was astounding despite sixes being needed and did a lot of damage. 

"The left flank however did seem to be keeping together, although the huge grey Dreadnought still advanced, with 5 of its smaller brethren and five of the blood red troops too. Another Terminator teleported nearby, this time one that looked to be a commander, its armour more ornate than the others that had come into play just moments earlier. Once more Commander Creed took to the vox. 'The Emperor will protect, the Emperor inspires, whatever is sent to destroy us will ultimately fail as our faith shall never fall!' Seconds later Commander Creed was dead, wolf like warriors tearing him and his command squad apart in an attack down the right flank. Scions had been killed, and the Basilisks were now being stalked. One of Adelias Leman Russ tanks had been charged by the wolf cavalry, but survived and reversed as the Executioner Leman Russ behind it levelled its weapons dropping some of them dead. A couple more died from the Cadian firepower, as a wolf pulled chariot that hovered above the ground flew foward into the Cadian lines butchering more of the guardsmen. More vox chatter came in, the Goliath gangers had levelled the Terminator Captain with some of the other troops on the left, but the Eschers nearby were torn apart by the Dreadnought. The red armoured troops had taken down more of the infantry but had also almost been wiped out by chimeras. The centre seemed to be holding but both flanks were collapsing. One of the Basilisks blew up, taking some of the enemy with it but it gave little solace. Wolf cavalry was wiped out by a combination of Leman Russ fire and infantry squads, and the wolf chariot was also blown out of the sky which seemed to anger and confuse the wolfen forces even more. Adelias tank fired again taking more of the red astartes down, but the battle was over. Both forces had taken a pummelling, the Cadian lines were almost wiped out, the Goliaths barely surviving. One of the Escher gangs had been wiped out and only half the Demiurg were left. The Astartes had suffered too, but whatever their mission it seemed to have been fulfilled. The rocky outcrop in the middle of the battlefield seemed to be a point of interest to the Astartes and Adelia could only hope it wouldn't be the end of their world. For now, the defence would rage on."
 

So my first outing with the Imperial Guard was a very enjoyable one! Compared to Space Marines they are a lot more varied in how well dice rolls do, as you're 50/50 compared to most Space Marine rolls where its 70/30. When you get those good rolls by Emperor you appreciate them! I can't wait to get more games in with them. I'm planning on a box or two of Orlocks to upgrade soe of my infantry, I love the Squat infantry but the models just don't fit in. I'll keep them around if needed but they will probably become retired in time, especially as new gangs are released for Necromunda. 

What else to add? I think a couple of heavy weapon units would be useful, and I'd like to try out my Vendetta and Stormlord at some point too just to see how they are in a game. I just love Leman Russ tanks though! I have another two to get painted up which will give me 5 plus the Tank Commander. The sentinels disappointed me although they were my most recent purchase so wasn't surprised. Psykers are fantastic, the power giving you +1 save was especially useful in cover to make my goliath veterans much more survivable. 

Hopefully my next game is soon to try out more combinations and remember those bloody stratagems! More soon on all the Necromunda info coming out of the HH Necromunda weekender with thoughts, hopes and holy Emperor fantasies for the game!

The fiction bit was written by myself and is probably terrible. Its been a while so I hope you weren't expecting much!

The Second Battle for Fort Pain.

What follows is my attempt at writing a story about our apocalypse game which we played on the Fort Pain board at Warhammer World. This is pretty much the first draft, and I'll update it more when I can. Any feedback is appreciated!

Imperial Forces were alerted to a Chaos fleet coming out of warp space in the sector that carried the planet Gnosis, home of the legendary battle of Fort Pain. Whatever evil artefacts were being uncovered had remained on the planets surface, and it seemed the Chaos forces were intent on obtaining these technologies. A combined force of Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Black Templars, Ultramarines and newly found chapter the Evandalists were sent to oppose these Chaos forces. The traitors were found amassing troops near the fabled Fort Pain, and so the combined Chapters created their defence. As dawn approached Imperial forces could hear the rumbling of heretic marines, and it was soon apparent that Chaos were not alone. The Alpha Legion, Thousand Sons, Death Guard, Black Legion, and the World Eaters were all present, and they had somehow allied themselves with an Evil Sunz clan, Necrons, and the vile Tyranids. The Eldar architecture that had been partly uncovered was put under high level defence, as rumours are that Ahriman wishes to gain access to the Eldar's Black Library.

As the evil alliance were ready for their assault the Imperial forces burst out and attempted to catch the vile allies off guard. As Land Raiders of the Templars, Space Wolves and Evandalists sped out Draigo and a large amount of paladins joined the fray, looking to spill the blood of the ancient enemy. First blood was claimed by the Evandalists, whose force of dreadnoughts where able to attack behind the Alpha Legions lines were able to destroy the Alpha Legion dreadnought and sought to give more time to the Imperium forces to get into combat. The dreadnoughts soon found themselves assaulted on all sides by Ork speed freakz led by Wazdakka Gutzmek, and although helped to give precious time were ultimately stopped and destroyed.

The Blood Angels forces combined Death Company proved highly effective against the Necrons, Death Guard and Tyranids, who were all slowly being wiped out by the Sons of Sanguinius. A huge Necron destroyer squadron were also destroyed by the Death Company, Dante himself was able to slay one of the dreaded C'tan, along with Necrons and Tyranids. Much of the Blood Angels force was able to relieve the beleaguered Grey Knights who were under attack from all sides but stubbornly refusing to give in.

As it looked like the Space Marines would carry the day, a Necron force teleported down in front of the gate, a monolith phalanx with none other than Imotekh the Stormlord leading a large number of Necron Warriors. Just as the Imperial Defenders started to concentrate fire on this new threat the Vile Nurgle Daemon Scabeiathrax the Bloated and the Khorne Daemon Ann'ggrath the Unbound materialised, and now it became clear just why the Grey Knights were present. They however had more pressing concerns.

Kharn the Betrayer and a sizeable force of World Eaters saw Draigo and charged into him and his paladins, and a huge fight erupted in the centre of the battlefield. Many paladins died but ultimately, Kharn was killed. Akos of the Faithless, part of the Alpha Legion warband involved in the battle, was able to kill a weakened Draigo, gaining revenge against Draigo from the Siege of Vraks.

The Despoiler himself looked to get into the fight, but a brave Ultramarines Chaplain was able to teleport nearby and threw one of the highly unstable but dangerous Vortex grenades, which stopped Abbadon for a short time as he looked to meed Logan Grimnar in combat. Abbadon looked out for a new target, and led his retinue craftily past the now swirling vortex grenade and was met by Marshal Darian of the Valican Crusade. The Black Templars held their own, and were then able to force Abbadon into retreat when Grey Knights assisted them and hurled back the Despoiler. With all his retinue dead, Abbadon teleported back to his ship. Horus' favoured knew that their mission was almost complete, and death would come to the Imperium soon enough.

A thick haze slowly rose amongst the Necron and Thousand Son's lines, where the fallen Warhound Titans head sat. The Chaos Marines looked to see where it had risen, but as the cloud became thicker out stormed Space Marines like ghosts, ethereal fire blazing across their armour and bolters spitting ghostly death. The whole of the Thousand lines and several squads of Necron Warriors diverted their attention to meet this new threat, and, after many vollys of bolter and guass fire, the squad of apparations slowly disappeared, the Sergeant laughing behind his skull-like helmet. Reports were scant about the Legion of the Damned being at Fort Pain, but it is believed a small number of the Blood Angels witnessed the mysterious Space Marines, with even Dante mentioning the Damned. It is said they only appear in the direst of times, was this battle something more serious than the Imperium could know about?

Behind the armoured walls of Fort Pain, several Chaos Dreadnoughts appeared, along with Death Guard and Alpha Legion forces. These were halted in advancing too far across the Imperial lines but then the ground tarted to tremor. It was here that a dread Bio-Titan entered play. Unable to stop the creature, the Space Marines tried to concentrate on the Chaos Forces and were able to deplete them, but the Bio-Titan was another matter. It stomped through the Imperial defence and slowly headed to the Eldar relics that were being excavated many years previous.

As Imotekh watched in horror as his monoliths were slowly being destroyed, Chapter Master of the Evandalists Vincent Eniko and his Terminator brethren launched into the Necrons with hate unseen. The Necron Warriors tried desperately to fight back but were all wiped out by the Evandalists, Eniko's own sword spearing the metallic form of Imotekh. Orneus Gyozo, one of the Chapters most venerated Chaplains lead another squad of Terminators into the Alpha Legion Lord and his Terminator retinue. The Chaos Lord laughed maniacally as his daemon sword hissed destruction, and Gyozo was brutally wounded.

Ahriman, leading his Thousand Sons at the rear of the enemy lines, seemed to be making sure one area of the battlefield was safe. A lone Space Wolves dreadnought caught the attention of the ancient psychic and knowing his men were too busy gaining control of whatever device or artefact they were ordered to take, he rushed in using a rare stasis power he had learnt from ancient texts. He kept himself and the dreadnought out of the battle until he knew his loyal follower had cemented control over whatever it was they were after.

Scabeiathrax and his plague bearers had found themselves their target, the Grey Knights, and made them pay dearly for their intervention, wiping them out. Ann'ggrath, looking for a skull worthy of his Lord Khorne was instead found by the Thunderwolf Lord Harald Deathwold, and a titanic combat ensued. Logan Grimnar and his Wolf Guard retinue were able to wipe out World Eaters, possessed, and an enormous scarab swarm, keeping them at bay with huge swings of axe and squashing the insectoid robots underfoot. A huge Obliterator Cult, which had been taking a toll on the Imperial force found themselves assaulted by a Wolf Priest, Blood Claws and Venerable Dreadnought, who managed to slay half of them until more bezerkers entered the fray and then destroyed those.

Kyrann Locke, the Evandalists Master of the Forge, controlled the combined Chapters devastators on the fortress gate and together they took a terrible toll on the enemy armour. Monoliths, Land Raiders and Rhinos all succumbed to the concentrated fire of the Space Marines heavy weapons. As the battle intensified, the combined Devastators turned to face the rampaging Bio-Titan. It had so far wiped out a huge number of the defenders and was on top of the excavation site, where it roared victoriously. Evandalists sergeant Yngbvar was able to break into one of the large excavating vehicles and while the devastators concentrated fire the Veteran was able to pierce its large body with the long arm that previously held up the Elder artefact, where it was eventually killed. Yngbvar was killed when the Bio-Titan exploded and covered the encroaching area with bio acid. His name shall be remembered in the Evandalists halls of remembrance, along with those who tried to stand in its way.

Much of the Chaos force was now defeated, Orks had turned tail, and Necrons had phased out. Scabeiathrax, whistling to himself, could see there was little else to do. The Grey Knights had been defeated and the Nurgle daemon was happy. He hummed a delightful tune as he and his retinue materialised back into the warp. The Blood Angels rampaged still through the Necron and Tyranid line, who, unable to stop the fury of the Sons of Sanguinius, now fled the field. The Chaos forces that had managed to sneak behind the fortress walls were slowly being taken out by Black Templars and Ultramarines, and the gateway was looking uncontested. The heretics were backing away under fire but the Imperial allies had suffered many casualties.

After the battle, each Chapter Master gathered, and it was discovered that the Thousand Sons were seen carrying something away on heretic transports while the Death Guard protected their rear. It seems whatever the Chaos Forces wanted, they had obtained. Was the Eldar architecture a feint and the true objective elsewhere? Inquisitor Silas, who himself battled a Chaos Dreadnought and won, asked questions of Dante about his sighting of the Legion of the Damned and was met with nothing but a cold look that he could feel through his Terminator armour.

The Allies knew this battle was possibly only the start of things to come. Whatever the Chaos forces had it could only mean destruction and menace for the Imperium.

The Second Battle for Fort Pain Gallery 

PlanetStrike and Gaming!

Well hello there! Monday night gaming this consisted of having a go at planetstrike for the first time, as the club bought the 40k expansion at its Warhammer World trip. Myself and Carl were to go against Alun, but Carl had to leave and so Morgans Space Wolves teamed with my Space Marines against Aluns Daemons, which included 5 daemon princes or greater daemons... Ouch!  We set up so each bastion was either side of the table, hoping to create a killing ground in the middle. Didn't work! Aluns Daemons, through clever (evil dickishly dastardly) use of icons in his units were able to deepstrike down very close to my forces whereas Morgan was fairly unmolested! The first turn and a DP took out a combat squad, luckily everything else was just out of range. My Captain and Termies charged in and butchered the daemon prince, score! Their consolidation was then a line up in front of two units of bloodletters, I could just imagine my termies and captain giving them the 'C'mon, charge us' looks. And they did!

Two units of bloodletters and a Blood thirster swept into my unit and caused devastation, but not before my captain wounded the bloodthirster earning its bloodthirsty respect. This wound was critical! The blood thirster then charged my land raider, and failed to dent it too much, so one plasma cannon and 8 bolters later the bloodthirster was dead, thanks to it having one less wound! Morgans guys were able to shoot at range until a Lord of Change started to rampage through his lines and destroy his bastion... but was then taken out eventually. I originally though defending against the daemons would be incredibly hard, but we had successfully stopped them. First game of planetstrike a win and a thoroughly enjoyable game!

Bam's Legion of the Damned and Chris' Khorne Bezerkers also played, and also looked like a bloody affair.

 Bam managed to get the winafter holding one objective and managing to either contest or wipe out the defendersof other objectives. Win for Bam!

We may be starting a campaign at the clob, small number of players so it will hopefully last. I however will be taking a backseat as I had an idea to run a smaller campaign to try and get some of the less experienced guys (myself included) more familiar with the rules. This will benefit us all as everyone starts to get to grips with the rules. Planning will be done for that! 

Painting wise I haven't done much since Warhammer World, a rest has been needed and Fez came out, which is an amazingly addictive game on the Xbox which tugged at my childhood... no, all time love for 2d Mario games. I am planning on getting my Terminators and assault squad more complete though as I intend to try out slightly more attacking forces in the future. 

Myself and Bam had a couple of games sunday, which gave me one draw and a win, and helped bam know a couple more of the rules for the game he played against Chris. Tuesday night I went to Jason, my Blood Angels nemesis! We played two games there, and surprisingly, I won both! I was able to prioritise targets well, my first round of shooting took out a dreadnought, and immobilised both his baal predator and the rhino carrying his expensive death company! After that I was able to handle what he could charge in. Second game was similar, dreadnought out in the first turn, and control taken by the third. Noice!

I'm hoping to write some fluff about the apocalypse game in Warhammer World soon too, especially as my Chapter Master seems to be doing pretty well for himself. He's slayed Imotekh, Astrogath and a fair few troops too, which for me is everything as I have purposefully chosen not to take a special character and create my own. He's creating a history already and will hopefully get to add plenty more!

Thats all for now, adios!

Tredegar Wargames visit to WHW!!!

This is the trip to Warhammer World I'd mentioned in my first post, with a selection of photos. I'm hoping for the next trip we can try get more of the mini's painted as they look so much better in the pictures when they're done!

Sorting out deployment, took a little while!

Battle commences! Each player had 3000 points, with an allied force of Blood Angels, Eldar, and Grey Knights taking on a Chaos force with Necron allies.


One Eldar titan missing... a Necron monolith appeared at its rear, blew up the titan and then was caught in the blast. As if that wasn't crazy itself, the monolith took out several nearny Space Marine scouts!

An almost overhead shot of the battle midway... everyones going for the bridge objective!

Nurgle marines on an objective... hard to shift!

The last image of the table, an allied win! The bridge objective was the crucial win, as the Imperial/Eldar allies took this and captured win. Close game though, and definately inspired me!

And heres everyone at the end. For myself it was an amazing experience and seeing the miniatures gallery was simply awe-inspiring. Can't wait for the next trip to actually play!

Tredegar Wargames club website can be found here http://tredegarwargamesclub.yolasite.com/