Hive Probatious: Defend Against Pestilence

'All was darkness. Memories and dreams flew through Adelias mind as if a tempest was inside her mind. Her hard childhood learning to defend herself in the depths of Hive Probatious, improvising weapons until she joined the Eschers and was giving her first gun. Her father, who was an officer had started to lose his mind, and her mother had dragged them both away from the eyes of those who may question what he had fought and seen. The Inquisition will cleanse anyone who sees Chaos, and her father had seen much. He would often wake up shaking, murmouring of disgusting creatures that slowly stalked the battlefield, clouds of flies buzzing around their humanesque forms as smaller creatures would gather in great numbers playfully laughing and attacking the guardsmen. Sometimes he could not speak at all of what he had seen. Her thoughts began imagining large Astartes in armour that rotted, the smell of disease and filth strong and their relentless advance, firing boltguns and plasma wherever they pleased. With a jolt, Adelia shot up.'

 

Welcome all to a 2000 points battle report between the insidious Death Guard lead by none other than Typhus versus the gallant (yet slightly scummy) Hive Guard! First time using points and it worked out pretty well, managed to fit in a little more than I did in 100 power.  Deployment was a standard set up along the lengths of the board, I rolled and got first turn but Lewis seized the intiative! Darn it!

'Her vision was blurred, but she recognised her surroundings quickly. The dark ceiling and the low green lights of the command centre was now a familiar sight, a welcome one at that too. As her eyes started to focus she saw the crew of her Leman Russ battle tank to the side, all sat around a table sullenly drinking whatever was in their cups. "Awake I see. Bout fucking time" a gruff voice said. Her fellow Escher looked over to see her awake, as she looked to the side seeing Birim, his huge grey haired mohawk looking black from the battle but a smile on his face. "Wha... What happened?" Adelia asked. "One of those Death Guard bastards smashed your tank up, but its being fixed. Your girls are all fine apart from some scratches and smoke inhalation, but you got thrown out from an explosion on the main turret. Should be fine though. Massive bruise on your arse made all the lads laugh" he said joyfully. Then she felt the ache through her entire body, her arms were covered in scrapes and her backside throbbed, Birim wasn't lying. Ophelia, the driver of the Leman Russ, walked over and put her hand on Birims shoulder. "you alright sis?" she asked. Adelia let out a sigh, "I think so, medicae administered anything?" "Yeah" Birim replied. "Drink this and get up" he said handing her over his hip flask. Adelia had drank from his flask before and the liquid inside burned her throat. For once, it didn't feel unpleasent.'

Lewis commanded his forces forward quickly taking the two bastions with deep striking terminators right on the top. It took quite a while to get them out of there! My plasma executioner tank took a lot of damage early on and wasn't very effective but with how much damage it took it did its job! Autocannons vs Death Guard are pretty good though and even though it wasn't ordered it did well! Deffo keeping him around.  Those terminators though took out 2 squads of infantry, the damage to the tank and almost killed a sentinel. They got some bad ass weaponry!

"So some of us are alive, did we acheive the mission? Whats the casualties?" she wanted to know. Birim walked over to a desk where some people were discussing a hologram. He picked up a dataslate and walked back over, the red glow from the slate lighting his face up. "Pushed em back, made the fuckers pay. A lot of em are left lying face down in the dirt, though their stinking corpses probably like that. Ghronx went down, but hes not dead. Well not yet anyway. He still owes me 30 credits. We lost a few vehicles and about 40 men. Lot of repairs needed all being worked on. Some stupid bitch let a Marine slap her tank... oh yeah thats you." Birim snorted heartily under his breath. "We got em retreating and whatever they were after we don't think they got. Beat em to some of the supplies so we should be good until reinforcements." Adelia swung her legs over the side of the bed, taking a moment to stretch. "Who did we lose?" Birim looked up at her solemnly. "Most of my boys are gone, some are wounded pretty bad but that won't stop em from getting stuck back in if needed. A lot of your lasses are wounded too, not sure how many dead. Them Goliaths seem ok but the Defence Force squads lost a lot too. Reinforcements are hopefully coming in soon." Adelias experience of gang warfare was that you might lose a couple of comrades during a skirmish, but war brought loss to a whole new level."
 

Objective wise it was a close battle, I managed to get a few early on but Lewis kept close too. I'd edge forward by a couple then he'd catch up, and coming towards the end of the game he had just pushed ahead by a point.  I love how the objectives keep you guessing what you need to do. The best example, was me having to advance all my forces out of my deployment zone, which I manmaged to do and then on Lewis' turn he had to move 4 of his units back to defend his deployment zone. Narratively after his slow grinding advance I rushed forward and took him by surpise forcing him back. We loved that moment! My Vendetta took out the Plague Drone which was the scariest unit for me as it could surge forward with flamers and tie up valuable units. It had to go! 6 Lascannons worked haha.

'Memories of the battle started flooding back. Part of the mission had been to reclaim two old Bastions, but the enemy had managed to somehow teleport straight on top and the firepower from them took a toll on the defenders lines. Eventually they were cleared and one of the Astropaths had made it into one, the information claimed potentially being valuable. She remembered a smoking Vendetta gunship screaming around, its Lascannons blazing bright lights across the sky before it was struck and tumbled to the ground. The Death Guards flanks seemed to have been pushed back, but the middle had been the problem. Adelia suddenly remembered the masked Astarte that had strode forward over the bodies of friends and foes alike and struck at her tank with force she never knew one person could wield. After that, she could remember nothing. "Ghronx is in the medicae if you wanna go see him, along with the more badly wounded" Birim mentioned. As she set her feet on the floor, pain stung up her legs and her back. Her first couple of steps were uneasy, but the pain wasn't an alien feeling. "Best go see how the horny bastard is then" Adelia said as she walked away.'

These Death Guard Plaguebursters are brutal. Lewis has informed me hes getting more to add to the two he already has and I am worried! We had a little Callidus vs Typhus action (eventually, we kept forgetting we had them in reserves!) and I was gutted the Assassin didn't do more damage. Damn Chaos Psyker of filth!

My commander fell to a Plaguecaster, who then went into my command tank and finished it off. That was brutal! He then fell to lasgun and plasma gun fire from some infantry and the Goliath Veterans. Typhus had moved forward to try and contest an objective but I was able to slow him down enough before he could add his considerable weight to the fight. 

'She saw Aldreyus to one side, who was talking to the Astropath she had seen with the Goliaths before. A Ratskin shamen was also present, although he seemed distantly in thought elsewhere. She nodded at the Primaris Psyker who noticed her. "Ah Adelia, you're up and ok. It is a blessing to the Emperor that you are well". "Yeah I'm pretty happy about it. Although death means a good sleep" she replied. "Oh dear, thats not good... Oh I see! A joke! Ha I like that one!" he proclaimed as Adelia rolled her eyes walking past the old man. A few corridors along she came to the medicae. Some of it had been shut off, some illness had been caught by a couple of guardsmen although it seemed to be contained. She walked into the area and could see Ghronx's body lying on a bed, a couple of machines seemed to be hooked up to him. A man in civilian clothing bar an apron walked over to her, giving her a courteous nod. "Adelia I believe?" Adelia nodded, "Yeah, hows he doing?" "Not great, I'm afraid. He was found unconscious but barely breathing, we're hoping we can stablize him." the man said. "And you are?" Adelia asked. "Claus, I'm the medic here. Well sort of, not offcially but I've had some training. Not military grade training but just down in the Hive." he explained. "Good to have you here Claus. Hows my girls doing?" Claus checked his dataslate and scrolled through the hologram. " out of the 17 casualties, 4 were dead on the battlefield, and we lost another 3 since. The others should be alright to some level however." Adelia felt relieved that more were not lost, and patted the balding Claus on the back. "Appreciated Claus. Let me know if Ghronx wakes up." "Will do maam" replied the medic as he walked off to attend some of the wounded. Adelia had never been called that before, and it took her off guard. She thought back to her father and how he was an officer, and it seemed she would follow in his footsteps. 'Lets just hope I don't go crazy and see the shit he saw' she thought to herself.'

So tose Death Guards are brutal. Armour saves then extra saves on top of those on a 5+, they are hard to put down! I'm glad they're not cheap to bring too because facing a horde of them would make me cry. Well cry because of the challenge brought by the emperor of course... Ahem. 

A great game, I hope you enjoy the story I wrote too. Fancied doing it from a different perspective and theres probably a lot of mistakes but its all good. 

Whats next for the defenders of Probatious Hive? One thing is certain, there is always war!

The Alliance. Tau and IG vs Chaos Batrep.

"Gyozo looked up into the night sky of Garandus as the three alien craft came into sight. As a voice of the Emperor, he felt compelled to preach his words and thus ready the Xenos to graves. Vincent Eniko stared at the emotionless mask sat upon Orneus' head. "It is not a fight these aliens look for, at least not yet Chaplain. Read them, react, but do not initiate." Orneus turned his head towards the Evandalists Chapter Master, and took his skull helm off. "Of course my Lord, meeting aliens is one thing, trusting them, that is another." Enniko looked up and saw the craft nearing them. The Tau were xenos, this much was true, and the old Chaplain was right in that they could not be trusted. But when a common enemy shows itself, the Tau had proven themselves on the battlefield and could become a useful ally.

As the three Devilfish touched down, Eniko, flanked by Gyozo, strode forward to the middle skimmer. Its rear door unleashed a hiss and lowered itself onto the cold plascrete landing pad. Out came 6 Tau Firewarriors, who fell into line to create a small path. Then stepped out a figure in similar armour to the Firewarriors but with what could only be the Tau's own version of heraldry Eniko thought. "I am Leo'audo. I lead my Firecaste brothers here to stem a threat neither of us can allow on our doorsteps despite our own differences. It is with honour we fight beside you."
"I am Vincent Eniko of the Evandalists Space Marines. We accept your assistance in this hour of battle and in the name of the Emperor shall fight beside you regardless of differences or beliefs." Eniko nodded his head, and Leo'audo did the same. The Tau leader then strode back into his Devilfish as the Firewarriors followed him, and within seconds the APC was heading back to where it came. Vincent turned to Orneus.... "Tell Shiori the alliance is on, I want the Librarian to test their word."

Welcome all to another battle report, 3k points per side! Once again I teamed up with Alun, I took Tau with Space Marine allies, and Alun took Imperial Guard with Grey Knight allies. We played against the daring duo of Adam aka Nurglecommand, and Chris with his Khorne Bezerkers. The mission was Big Guns Never Tire, each objective offering a valuable strageic point we would battle for. This also meant our heavy support choices could capture them, very useful with myself taking two Hammerheads. We deployed and went first.

Both myself and Alun formed a formidable gunline, but we also knew if anything came close and assaulted... we'd probably have a drubbing! The Hammerheads with their incredible range took the right flank, where they could aim their guns almost anywhere on the table. The Riptide stood guard behind the bastion that occupied my Fireblade and 12 firewarriors. 

The Chaos forces also had a Bastion, in which stood a squad of havocs with autocannons, and below was a plague marine havoc squad with heavy bolters. Both dangerous to our forces! A large deathguard unit stood with Typhus, while Khorne forces mostly mustered on my right. Two hordes of Zombies took the centre behind khorne rhinos. 

Adam aka Nurglecommand looking suitably disgusting, drinking Plaguefly Bile. 35% apparantly!

The Imperial Guard were weary of the new alliance, they had heard stories of fighting beside Tau and against them. Some whispered that the Tau even inducted humans into their 'septs', although this could surely not be true. Who would turn their back on the Emperor? Guardsman Ornack looked across to the enemy line. Those traitorous scum had turned their backs, and they would now pay. 

The Imperial Guard started to rush forwards eyes firmly set on the objectives given to them. They heard autocannons firing, and as Ornack looked at the enemy bastion from where they came it was suddenly illuminated with strong beams of light. Then the Pulse Rifles of the Firewarriors sang. An astounding number of shots flew from the friendly fortification and tore apart the heretics standing atop the tower. Ornack noted the sudden silence of autocannon fire despite the chatter of other weapons. Seeing this he heard the familiar booms of battlecannon, blood red rhinos torn apart and Bezerkers flooding out of them.

"My Lord, do you feel we can trust the Xenos?" Sergeant Varyun's question was the very question that had been flowing through Shiori Kiyoshi's mind since he had been tasked with this mission. A force of Imperial Guard and Tau were repelling a Chaos force, but reports had sighted a vile Nurgle Zombie horde flowing towards the area. Chapter Master Enniko had entrusted Shiori and the Tactical Squad Varyun to drop pod down to the sight and attempt to stem the zombies from entering the battle. As the drop pod thundered down to the planets surface, all Epistolory Kiyoshi could think was how much the Tau could be trusted. So far, they had proved their word was true, but Kiyoshi would think twice about turning his back to the aliens. "The have remained honourable so far Varyun, they may also wonder if we are honourable, its time to prove it." 

 Leo'Audo had seen one Chaos squad dead. Their heavy weapons were lo-tech, but were as deadly as the Tau's and would decimate his brothers if allowed, but this was now rectified. He could see Ra' Fellau zipping around with his marker drones, commanding from the front and assisting all he could. As the humans blew up one of the Chaos Rhinos, he could see a squad of the dreaded bezerkers leap out of the wreck and aim straight for the Tau leader.Then the Angels appeared.

"The sudden impact always brought a rush to the Librarian. The drop pod smashed onto the ground as the pistons hissed and the doors swung open. Landing amongst the Chaos lines the Librarian saw a Death Guard havocs squad firing their heavy bolters at the Imperial lines. Kiyoshi immediately brought his psykers abilities to the fore. As power rushed to his fingers, an energy covered he and the Tactical Squad Varyus to protect them from what would come their way as he unleashed a blue flamestorm over the Havocs. Somehow nothing happened, although bolter fire from the Tactical Squad took down one of the plague ridden marines. Shiori looked around suddenly feeling a presence, to see that from both sides they were being rushed by Khorne Bezerkers. Their numbers were small, but any number of the crazed traitors were dangerous. The Librarian then saw 'them'. Mutated, shambling hordes of zombies coming out from a mist. There were at least a hundred. Three of squad Varyus were shot apart as three of the Khorne Bezerkers hit into them. Shiori trusted them to hold them up as he would take care of the others. As the Bezerkers came within the last 20 yards, lights suddenly lit their armour, and then they were vapourised as a Tau Crisis suit used a melta like weapon to annihilate the heretics. He saw the Crisis suit do a nod-like gesture as it jumped off to assist others, and felt reassured suddenly about the alliance. He turned to see Sergeant Varyus and the rest of squad about to embrace the zombie horde. He leapt in and took down a score with his force sword, but still they kept coming."

Alun explains some dastardly tactic or how many natural extracts he uses to wash his hair. 

Ornack hunkered down from the enemy fire. Heavy bolters had slaughtered the squad, and he was left with Guardsman Jenk. "I thought the xenos were helping us!" he screamed as the air exploded above them. Ornack glanced up and saw that the immense Tau walker had unleashed a huge beam of energy towards Typhus and his deathguard. He looked at the target and could see half of the plague marines were killed in the explosion. "That helps" he shouted back to Jenk. As he turned to see his reaction Jenk launched up to reach the objective, a dead Tau with some sort of device in his hand. As the guardsman jumped over the crator bullets jolted into his body, taking his legs from under him and making him tumble back down the crator edge next to Ornack. "Shit" Ornack thought to himself, he was now the last man in his unit. He peeked up again to see more Imperial and Tau fire hit Typhus and his squad, a Forgefiend, at least what was left of it, sheltering them from some fire but still a couple of the resiliant marines fell.

The Tau Fireblade looked for his squads next target. He glanced to the right, and could see a Chaos Terminator stomping towards the Imperial lines with a retinue of Bezerkers. Just as he was about to give the order for his squad to fire the Imperial Guard line opened up, taking most of the Chaos Marines away. The Chaos Lord bellowed in defiance and stomped ever closer. Leo'Audo then saw a silver figure leap over the aegis defence line and bound into the Chaos Lord. Mighty swings of swords clashed, and both launched vicious attacks into each other. The Tau Fireblade was partly impressed, very few in the Tau culture could stand up to such ferocity in hand to hand combat, and even give back as good as they gave. The two titans fought and it seemed everything else stood still.

 Crowe returned the blows and struck out with his tainted blade. The Chaos Lord took the shot, then swung his own weapon at the Castellan, severing his arm from the shoulder. Crowe winced as the Khorne chosen took out his blade and readied his arm to strike again. Crowe used the last of his energy to pull his weapon free of the traitors terminator armour and stick it into the vision slit of the heretics helmet. The Daemon weapon was still coming at Crowe however, the Guardsmen nearby watching the battle gasping as one of their champions fell. The Chaos Lord laughed, then fell silent as his ancient terminator armour slumped to the floor motionless.

"The Marines held their own, and none had fallen of the Evandalists apart from the three that were against the Bezerkers, who had all died either facing each other or by the swarm of dead pouring over them. Varyus tore heads off with his chainsword and shot others in the face with his boltpistol, while the rest of the squad used their bolters to fend them off and shoot down zombies when their guns were free. The Sergeant ripped another zombie in half, stepping back to help free his chainsword. As he did so, 3 zombies fell onto him clawing at him desperate to end his life. Shioro kicked one off quickly as his sword took anothers head clean off by the neck. One of the squad fired bolter rounds, sprayed the decayed brains of the third all over the armour of Varyus. The Marine turned around and was suddenly set upon himself by more of the mutants. falling as their mutated limbs broke through his power armour and tore at his flesh."

Ornack took another glance, hoping not to be spotted by the traitors. Gunfire was becoming more and more hard to hear, but it still rang in the Guardsmen ears. He saw Typhus and his last few death guard walking towards the dead Tau warrior, and knew that whatever the alien ally had held, the Chaos forces wanted it. He turned his back to them about to offer another prayer to the Emperor, when suddenly the ground around him vibrated. He opened his eyes back up to see the huge Tau walker striding towards him, firing over the crator behind which he was hiding. He took another glance over the edge and could see Typhus and the Plague Marines being hammered by Ion cannon, missiles, battlecannons and Pulserifle fire. As the last of Typhus' retinue fell, a huge force struck the Herald of Nurgle and suddenly he was gone. Ornack launched himself over the crator edge and kneeled next to the dead Tau firewarrior. The device was flickering, and he would never know what it was, but he had helped secure it. The Riptide strode over into the crator, and planted each of its legs either side of Ornack and the objective, firing at the last remnants of the Chaos forces.

"Shioro leapt into the last 3 zombies and decapitated them with his force weapon. Sergeant Varyus ordered the last of his men to check for any left, but they all seemed to have been dispatched. Shioro turned to see the Tau battlesuit jetting towards him. It stopped a few yards in front of the Librarian and stood as tall as a dreadnaught, one drone hovering near the shoulder. Its small head nodded at the Evandalist psyker, and it jumped back away to its comrades. "Lord Eniko, the Tau have stood by their word. We have completey decimated the Old Enemy and all objectives are ours. Sergeant Varyus and 5 of his squad remain along with myself. Drop pod took a hammering but it still operates, its machine spirit is strong." Kyoshi closed the small communicating device built into his wrist armour and walked over to his comrades. "My Lord, it seems they do hold honour. Does this mean we can trust them?" The Librarian looked at Varyus. "It would seem that we do, at least for now. Be ready for transport, we'll assess this with Eniko and I'm sure we'll hear from our new 'friends' soon."

So another game with Tau, this time with some Space Marine allies. I wanted to take them so I could link them in with the previous game me and Alun had against Adam and Chris. Its nice to keep the narrative going! We finished the game with 17 points to the Chaos total of... 0. Wowser! I think our strengths were being able to concentrate fire on what we needed too, although Chris' Chaos Lord did get close, and I did lose a squad of Firewarriors to a single Raptor that didn't die in overwatch. Otherwise the game went well! My plan to hold up the centre of the Chaos line for a couple of turns with the Marines worked a treat, with a few surviving the game including the Librarian alive too. 

Using a Crisis suit Commander with a squadron of marker drones was amazing too, I always got at least 6 marker hits out of 8 which made them incredible reliable. Do I prefer these or Pathfinders? Close call I think! The Hammerheads did ok, although their first turn wasn't, they both hit but failed to crack the front armour of a Chaos Predator. The Helldrakes were a nuisance, but didn't control the game as much as they can. The Riptide and Firewarriors with Fireblade were my best units, their firepower tore apart Chaos squads including Typhus, who was then finished off by a Railgun shot. All in all a great game, lets see if the story continues!

Special Guest BatRep!

Welcome all to another battle report, this time against a special guest! If you enjoy the evil odour of the Great Unclean one, painting Chaos Space Marines in a mucky green scheme, and your best friends are a bunch of flies, you will know Nurgle Command from his blog and also his youtube channel. He's also known as Adam, and is one of the nicest guys you'll meet, especially being as he is a fellow Transformers fan!

We initially decided to play 1500, but Adam mentioned he wanted to fit a defiler in so we upped the points. More models, more fun! We rolled off for mission and got Crusade, with 4 objectives. I won first turn, but then Adam stole the initiative! Damn! Deployment in the following pictures.

Check out Adams Forgefiend, how disgustingly good is this? Adams army was a treat to look at and the battlefield looked great with two painted armies on. More of this please!

 So the first turn, Adam advanced with his force, with his defiler taking the only shot, kiling two Space Marines and making the other 3 members of the unit to run. Ouch! Knowing this would be a threat if not taken care of I tasked my combi melta toting sternguard to try and take this out and in true form they were upto the task.

I think my shooting elsewhere was pretty lacking, and caused no other damage. Killing the Defiler did however get me first blood, good start!

The Death Guard silently advance once more, the Forgefiend targetting my vindicator and taking a hullpoint off, also stopping it from moving and shooting next turn. The Deathshroud shoot at the sternguard and gun down two with their combi-bolters, but luckily Typhus' physic test was failed and saved them from certain doom for a turn.

Both of Adams plague zombies meet an end too, one in combat against two combat squads, and the other to a lot of shooting to clear them off the leftmost objective.

The Death Guard sorcerer deep strikes down next to my rearmost tactical squad, threatening my objective. If I could not get through his terminator armour I would be in serious trouble next turn when he assaults... and assault he does! Having to challange my Sergeant, I decline so I can at least try and overwhelm him The sorcerer goes first, hits, but fails to wound! After shooting him and getting him down to one wound I need to cause one more to strike him down... and I barely manage it! I get two wounds and Adam fails one of the armour saves. 

My Thunder Hammer terminators storm out of my Landraider and assault the forgefiend, wrecking it easily. They then consolidate over towards the hellbrute in an effort to clear the objective of the vile Nurgle followers.

Adam charges the hellbrute into the terminators, and with help from a weakening psychic attack which takes my guys down to ST and T 3, the combat spills into my turn where I finally get enough penetrations to wreck it. Then comes Typhus! He and his Deathshroud bodyguard swarm into my Termies, Typhus challanging my Chaplain, Orneus Gyozo. Gyozo strikes Typhus with his power fist, making the Nurgle leader stagger back for a second but then he sweeps his sythe and kills my chaplain outright. Warlord point to Adam! Both of our terminator squads take each other out, leading the dangerous Typhus free to contest the nearby objective and sluaghter the combat squad nearby. I tried to pour firepower into him but he just would not die! 

A couple of vindicator shots onto the Plague Marines holding the objective in Adams deployment zone. Over the course of the two turns however one plague marine survives and holds the objective. Yet another nurgle follower that will not die! 

Elsewhere I'm able to capture the middle objective and still control my own in my deployment zone.

The game ends and I've won 7-4. Fair play to Adam, he kept going even though his dice rolls were terrible, its not often I feel sorry for a Traitor! He is a great opponent though, and has already asked for a rematch in the near future to claim glory for Papa Nurgle. Any time, any place!  Go check out Adams blog and youtube, linked in the intro for more about his Deathguard, they really are a treat to look at and he's an entertaining fellow on youtube!

One other thing, I'll be announcing the winner of my giveaway tonight, I've had some great pictures and new followers and you'll all be in the draw, so eyes peeled!

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 Dice Hurt Me.

Warning:

If your stomach is easily churned at the mention of bad dice rolling, please do not continue reading. This may cause a rift in reality and the warp inside threaten to pull you in. If you are used to such stories, like myself, read on.

Sorry about the amateur dramatics, but I've happened upon some seriously bad dice again! It was hilarious though. Myself and Louis played a 2k game in a Capture the Relic battle, Hammer and Anvil deployment. Louis was looking to christen the Chaos Codex properly, and I wanted to foil his plans! Looking at Louis'' list, I was pleased to see so many cultists as I'd taken a dreadnought with two heavy flamers to take these out. I also took Vulkan, which made both the heavy flamers twin linked. A Landspeeder with two twin linked multi meltas to deep strike next to the dread and its drop pod(which had a locator beacon) would help make these units arrive safely and in the thick of action. At least that was the plan! I also took 5 termies to support these in a forward role while my other unit of termies in a landraider followed up with a tactical squad following behind to capture the relic. The large unit of termies Louis had and the obliterators scared me, as did the forgefiend and maulerfiend (Louis wanted to try both these out, and seeing as one looked so lovely I let him proxy a flying base as the other).

So the first turn, drop pod comes on and scatters away from the chaos army. First mistake, should have aimed for a cultist squad and let it scatter to the outside of it. I then moved up the Raider and the tactical squad following my plan, while the other squads shot.I managed to kill a few cultists, who I found out were actually zombies due to Typhus being used (Huron Blackheart model) so they had feel no pain, which made them a little more resilient. The heavy flamers of the dread managed to singe a few more but was nowhere near as many as I would have loved to see burning. I think I managed a glancing hit on both the fiends, but no pens.

Louis also moved his force foward, then blew my dreadnought up with his obliterators. My drop pod survived, and I was able to bring in the land speeder and termies. The storm talon failed to show up even though my warlord trait allowed me to roll reserves... Bugger! The Land speeder landed next to the maulerfiend and the termies just behind. Raider and Tactial squad moved up again. At this point I wish I'd been more aggressive with the land raider, but ah well. The land speeder hit with both shots (reroll needed for one) and then only glanced the maulfiend. This meant the landspeeder would die without really doing anything... oh well! I shot the termies at the zombies in front of them... with only 3 storm bolter and 2 assault cannon shots I think I killed 2... not good enough! 

As you can now see, Louis wiped these out in his turn. No damaged cause by either and they die! They did soak up a lot of the enemy firepower however so I then advanced and made a bit of a gamble...

If the land raider could survive or at least take all of Louis' firepower, and have Vulkan and the Thunder Hammer termies survive they would be in a good strong position to take on anything, however only one terminator survived the tide of multi meltas, ectoplasma shots(although the forge fiend finished itself off by overheating ha) and everything else Louis could muster. Not my day! The Storm Talon showed up and missed with two frag missiles and killed 2 cultists with its assault cannons, and the other 2 tactical squads did kill a few more trying to prevent the capture of the relic by than chaos hands. My tactical squad in the centre took on 2 assaults by the chaos, one squad of chaos marines and then by a chaos lord and terminators, and survived more than one round of combat! BARELY!!! 

This is how the table looked at the end of the game. I lost 6-0, and swore at my dice more than I'd care to admit! The maulerfiend tore a building up at the end and killed four marines inside through the ensuing rubble which was a great thing to watch, and possibly the highlight of the game. It was a good laugh fair play, I just wish my dice would behave! Next time you chaos scum, NEXT TIME!!!! 

Also last night Huw set up his pirates game which is starting to look really special, and I think all the members at the club are feeling quite honoured to have Huw bring it and let us try. I'm yet to have a go, but hoping to in a few weeks.

I've left this pictures large so you can zoom in and see the details, as all of these are scratchbuilt by Huw, although one of the ships may be Mikes.

 

I believe Huw is hoping to put a demonstration game on at a wargaming convention in Penarth, so we're hoping to be in attendence for that, myself armed with my camera! 

The all dayer approaches fast too, and I've been getting some painting done. I've now got four tactical squads based, and in varying degrees of painted-ness. I managed to get another five asaault squad members basevoated up taking me upto 15, with another five to build. I also picked up another tactical squad, possibly as a fifth TS or to bulk out my devastator squad to 10 men and have a few guys left over, maybe as a command squad. Tau wise I've got another Hammerhead and a Devilfish after getting a couple of bargains so I'll try to crack on with those too!