Necrons take 5th place in RedWar tournament!

Not been much posting on the blog for a while what with all these new-fangled video batreps!

I took my new Necrons to a small tournament run by my local club on Sunday 1st July. Had three games, the first against Tau, which I (very) narrowly won, a last turn deepstrike from my veil squad (see list below) managed to shoot some Kroot off an objective so I won seize ground 2-1.

Second game vs Space Marines and a flank attack by the Scythes wasted his tanks and Dreads, I then proceeded to crush his army with an unstoppable onslaught, winning capture and control 2-0.

Third game and I was on the top table (!) vs my arch-nemesis Rob and his Grey Knights. Some dodgy tactics on my part meant I lost 3-0 on killpoints, so a loss and pushed me down to fifth place (out of 14), with Rob winning the tournament.

Overall I was really chuffed with two wins, especially with a new army and only two practise games.

List is below:

Overlord - ccb and warscythe
Overlord - ccb and warscythe
10 warriors (2 dest teks here, 1 solar pulse)
5 warriors and Ghost Ark (2 dest teks here, 1 solar pulse)
5 warriors (veiltek here)
10 Immortals (lord with warscythe and mss here) in Night Scythe
6 scarabs
2 Doomscythes

Veiltek squad was great, Doomscythes performed really well in second game and had a nice threat factor to them. Scarabs were great, very survivable in cover. Overlords didn't perform that well, mainly cos the ccb's got blasted at the first opportunity. Not sure about the ghost ark in this list, but 2 would be good with a slower list and bigger warrior squads. Night Scythe was great. Immortals were ok.

Looking forward to playing some games with 6th edition!

Another defeat to Grey Knights...!

So I played Rob's Grey Knights again, he has modified his list (1850pts) a bit which is now:
Draigo + 10 Paladins with 4 psycannons (all diff wound groups), banner
5 Interceptors with 1 hammer and 1(or 2?) psycannon
10 man Purifier squad with 4 psycannons, 1 hammer
3 Psyfleman Dreads
A solodin with hammer, might have had a psycannon as well

Think this is a better list since more psycannons and some movement in the interceptor squad.

I took:
Belial + 4 DW squads, all th+ss except 2 with chainfists, 4 cml's, banner in one squad
Land Raider Crusader
Land Raider
Ezekiel
1 landspeeder with tml &mm

Briefly, I deepstruck 1 squad in a corner which was a mistake as they just died, should have walked them.
The Raiders were good, delivered two assaults, one into Draigo and a combat squadded Paladin unit - but Belial and co failed (17 hammer attacks killed one paladin), and the other took out the other Paladin 5 man squad which fled. One Raider and a DW squad was still operational at the end of the game. I contested one objective and he held the other with his solodin so I lost 1-0. Ezekiel was pants, he stopped 1 psychic power (hammerhand) all game and then died to Draigo as he made a run from his wrecked Raider to Rob's objective.

So, next list I will be trying is this (1850pts):
Belial + 3 DW squads (all th+ss, 3cml), banner
3 Landraiders - 2 normal, one Crusader (extra armour)
3 landspeeders with tml and 2 with mm, one with hb

for 1750pts I will drop one speeder, the extra armour and swap one of the cml's for a hf and cf.
Nice movement, at least two units should get the charge, 4 twin-linked lascannons and 6 missiles on the board, plus 3 multi-meltas. Also another 6 missiles if I deploy out of the raiders for things like orks or tyranids where they will be coming to me.

Deathwing vs Imperial Guard

Had a game against Vince and his Imperial Guard army at the club yesterday. I tried out the five speeder and 5 DW squad list and Vince took lots of stuff including some melta vets, a vendetta, a leman russ executioner, a missile thing with large blast+1" ap2 (FW rules, manticore?) and another artillery thing with large blast ap2(medusa?), a devil dog (ap1 melta blast) and a platoon of guardsmen. Basically lots of AP2/1 stuff.

Won't go through the whole battle but basically I deepstruck two squads right in front of his left flank and they proceeded to weather a hail of fire (losing a few guys) and then crunch an entire flank of his army, with the help of a 3rd DW squad which deepstruck turn2.

The speeders all got shot down by the end of his turn 2 with the help of an outflanking vendetta and some melta vets. That was 345 pts of stuff that really failed to do anything other than kill a few guardsmen and stun a tank. I won the game end turn 5 holding all three objectives :)

I am now thinking I will take 6 Deathwing squads, they are more survivable and can cope with pretty much anything.

Here's the list:

Belial - th & ss
DW1 - 5th&ss, apoth, CML
DW2 - 5 th&ss, CML
DW3 - 4 th&ss, CML, sb &cf
DW4 - 2 th&ss, assault cannon &cf, 2tlc
DW5 - 2 th&ss, CML, 2sb&pf, sb&cf
DW6 - same as DW5
2 x landspeeders - tml&mm (separate)

Only problem is I may struggle against AV14, although the chainfists help against that. Not much AP2/1 shooting so Dreadknights, terminators and Paladins will have to be handled in assault... No banner cos I can't afford it. Belial will prob hide at the back with squad 5/6 and the landspeeders will prob be reserved to help them survive. It may be a bit easy to do that mission of destroy the vehicles against me but only option really is to drop them and take the Int. Chaplain or a 3man melta bike squad, the landspeeders have just got so much more firepower but they can die v. easily...

Another defeat to Draigowing!

Here's a link to a report of my game against Rob's Draigowing on his blog:

http://embolden40k.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/battle-report-paladins-v-deathwing_25.html

Dark Angels List for 4tk tournament

I have been thinking about the list I'm going to take to the upcoming 4tk 1750pts tournament in May. Here are three options:

List 1:

Belial - th&ss (130)

5 x Deathwing squads - all with CML, at least 2 th&ss in each squad (1175)

2 x landspeeders with typhoon ml & mm (separate units) (150)

2 x Predators - auto/las (260)

that leaves 35 pts for two chainfists and a banner

This list gives some nice fire support with the preds and speeders.

Alternatively:

List 2:

Belial - th&ss (130)

5 x Deathwing squads - all with CML, at least 2 th&ss in each squad (1175)

3 x landspeeders with typhoon ml & mm (separate units) (225)

Predator - auto/las (130)

Leaving me with 90 pts for 5 chainfists and an extra landspeeder with mm for one speeder squadron - making that speeder more survivable with a cover save and ablative speeder.

This list has more speeders so more likely one will survive for last turn objective grabbing, plus more missiles but only one pred - could swap this for two more speeders making all 3 sqaudrons of 2 but losing the lascannons.

List 3:

Belial - th&ss (130)

5 x Deathwing squads - all with CML, at least 2 th&ss in each squad (1175)

2 x landspeeders with typhoon ml & mm (separate units) (150)

Land Raider (godhammer) (250)

Leaving me with 45 pts for a banner and 4 chainfists.

I'm thinking the lascannons will be better against orc battlewagons and mech than the crusader, but I can't transport Belial as well in it (capacity 5 terms for the godhammer in the DA codex)

This list gives some mobility and a big tank and fire support.

I think 6 DW squads is probably overkill for troops and some more fire support would be better, hence all lists have 5 DW squads in.

Any comments appreciated!

Dreadnaught and Sergeant done

I've completed the work on Revered-Brother Toten, an ancient member of the Imperial Fists that is currently undertaking work for the Ordo. As is becoming a theme for this army, he's got a silly number of optional magnetised parts. I've still got some muddying up to do, but it's basically there:

Here he is in classic Rifleman mode

But he prefers getting up close and personal with a siege hammer and close combat weapon:

To be honest, I don't even rate these upgrades - I am just addicted to maximising my choices when making lists

Like many of my vehicles His engine block could use a little tlc from the techmarines:

The idea is that Toten will have a partner dreadnaught from the Crimson Fists and that they will have fought together in the past prior to the legions being split up. They will also both have drop pods, but these are projects for a little further down the line. I have decided to prioritise a second tactical squad so that I'll actually be able to fill the FOC minimum slots and play a game without having to borrow figures! I have done the squad sergeant already. As with the Dreadnaught he needs mud but is otherwise done. I decided to exercise a modicum of judgement this time, so I didn't magnetise every single sergeant upgrade option, just 6 of them:

Finally ready for 40KUKGT

So Nasty and I head of to the 40KUKGT tomorrow and all my models are finally done.

I took a couple of picks as I was packing them up ready for their voyage to nottinghamshire.

This is the whole 1750pts ready for embarkation.

A couple of close-ups of the few terminators that I was struggling to get done.

This is the force of Daemons I'm taking to use in a giant apocolypse game, 11 models = 2500pts.

Wish us luck :-)

Dark Angels vs Ultramarines 1750pts

OK here is another battle report from last week at the club, no pics but I have done a diagram for each turn so hope you can follow the game better.

My List (Dark Angels):

Belial – th & ss (B)

5 DW squads – all with CML and chainfist, and the command squad with banner and apothecary. All squads had at least 2 th&ss in, the command squad had 4. (DW-C and DW1 to 4)

3 landspeeders with tml and 2 with mm, 1 with hb (RW)

Venerable Dreadnought with assault cannon and heavy flamer (D)

(Realised afterwards that I am 10points over – oops, was meant to have dropped the apothecary and taken extra armour on the dread instead)

Vince’s List (Ultramarines):

Chaplain Cassius with Terminator assault squad – 2th&ss, 3 tlc (C + T)

Land Raider Redeemer with mm (LRR)

Contemptor Dread with double kheres assault cannon (C)

Dread with plasma cannon & tl autocannon (Dp)

Dread with assault cannon and tl autocannon (Da)

Vindicator (V)

2 x landspeeders with mm (ls)

Tac squad (10man) with pc and pg (T-pc and T-pg)

Tac squad (10 man) with lc and mg and pf+sb serge (T-l and T-mg)

Razorback with tl assault cannon (Rz - a)

Razorback with tl heavy bolter (Rz - hb)

(also realised Vince had taken 4 Elite slots, so guess it’s all swings and roundabouts!)

Deployment

Spearhead, Annihilation

Vince won roll and elected to go second. I deployed everything, terminators across deployment zone, Dread in middle and landspeeders behind a ruin in the centre of my line. The command squad was in the centre.

He deployed his LRR as far forward slightly on my left with the three dreads behind it and cassius with the term squad inside. The tacs were combat squaded, lc and pc squads in a large ruin and other two in the reazors which were behind the ruin with the landspeeders. The Vindicator was on its own on my extreme right behind some diff ruins.

Deployment and turn 1 movement:

Key: Red circle = casualty, Red arrow = move or charge; yellow arrow = consolidate; green arrow = fall back; for some reason RW movement is with a black arrow. Sunburst motif = vehicle destroyed. Greyed out areas are ruins, other symbols are hills or craters. Black circle is the tall impassable building.

My Turn 1:

He chose not to try and seize the initiative and I walked all squads forward in a line, Belials squad was near the tall central building now. One mm speeder turboed behind this building and the hb one moved right while the other mm one moved left. The dread moved up as well.

Shooting resulted in a wrecked vindy, failing its cover save, an immobilised contemptor dread (glance then a six!) and another stunned dread (ac one?) and a single dead marine from the pc squad. Not bad for 12 krak missiles and 2 frags! The dread tried to get lucky with its assault cannon against the raider but failed.

Vince’s Turn 1:

He moved his LRR and a dread forward, while his speeders didn’t move and his razorbacks advanced slowly. His landraiders assault cannon shot at a term squad but did nothing and its mm blew up the ven dread despite its re-roll L One term on the right-hand squad fell to pc shot.

A 1 – 1 UM

Turn 2:

My turn 2:

I moved forward as fast as poss again with my terms, while the hb speeder moved right again and the mm speeder behind the building popped out in front of the landraider. The other moved right to the central building. The mm speeder failed to damage the Landraider despite hitting, kraks from the other speeders and squads stunned the two normal dreads and glanced the raider, shaking it.

Vince’s turn 2:

He disembarked his terms and moved them towards the centre left squad. His razorbacks moved forward and one speeder moved rapidly towards the centre. The LRR didn’t move. Shooting he blew up the mm speeder and then his term squad charged and wiped out the DW squad it was facing before it could strike back, he consolidated to try and get into cover but 3 terminators were still out.

DA 1 – 3 UM

Turn 3:

My turn 3:

DW squads 1&2 moved right up to his term squad, while Belial and co moved towards the landraider. The right hand squad advanced and the hb speeder moved left again while the mm speeder shuffled to get a good view of his speeder.

Shooting killed two or three of his terminators with kraks and sb fire from two squads who then charged in and wiped his terms and the chaplain for the loss of one or two of my terminators, and they consolidate forwards. My mm speeder took the mm off his speeder and the rest of my shooting did nothing. Belial and squad charged the landraider, 21 th/pf attacks and 4 cf attacks auto hitting…and the LRR was still standing (!) but had been immobilised and was just left with its mm.

Vince’s turn 3:

He moved his Razors up behind the LRR and disembarked the mg squad, while his speeder zoomed off behind a ruin. His Dreads moved forward, one to my left and one to my right. Shooting took down two terms from the command squad (th + cyclone) and one from another squad on the left (cf).

DA 3 – 3 UM

Turn 4:

My turn 4:

My squads on the left moved forward as fast as poss but were slowed by diff terrain. Belials squad moved left, next to the Razorback (ass cannon) and LRR. The speeders hung back on the right out of range of his contemptor, and the right hand squad moved forward. Shooting immobilised the dread on my right and a lucky krak destroyed the contemptor dread. Belial charged the Razor with his squad with the cf one assaulting the LRR. The left hand squad failed to charge the same razor due to diff terrain while the other two squads charged the immobile dread. The Razor exploded, the LRR was stunned and the dread was wrecked in combat, the two squads consolidating forwards.

His turn 4:

He moved the other razor back a bit and disembarked its squad, while the combat squad with the mg moved in front of them. The speeder with mm that had been lurking moved forward, peeping round the ruin. His last dread moved up onto a small hill on my left with the RZB. He shot everything into the two squads on my right, reducing one to a single model and taking out a second member of the other who was now down to three men.

DA 6 – 3 UM

Turn 5:

My turn 5:

I moved and charged Belials squad into his Razor and Dread. The lone survivor of one squad moved right towards a squad in the ruins and the three members of the other squad moved towards the mass of marines in the centre. Shooting killed just two marines in the centre and immobilised the speeder without the mm. The three marines from that combat squad fled 7” away from my terms until they were just at the board edge, but this meant I couldn’t charge them. Belail and the banner guy exploded the RZB and the cf guy and the apoth blew up the Dread J. They consolidated round the back of the wrecked RZB near the broken squad.

His turn 5:

His squad fled the board due to the proximity of Belial and he shuffled a bit and shot everything into the depleted term squads on the right (15 marines, 1 mm speeder and 1 mm from the LRR) but failed to kill any.

DA 9 – 3 UM

Game ends due to time, Dark Angels Victorious!.

Encrypted transmission:‘Master Belial reporting to the inner circle: Ultramarines survivors withdrawing, Ravenwing squads 1 through 5 to intercept and eliminate – we want no survivors to tell of our attack. The fallen we seek is among the wounded and will be taken to the Rock to repent, and die. Gather our dead and eradicate all trace of our involvement.’ Transmission out.

Deathwatch Land Raider completed

Hello from the Deathwatch!

So I finally managed to finish the Land Raider project. The mission was to create a model that could be used as any of the three variants and which could take any upgrade. Here's shell and all of its variable bits:



As you can see this is quite a bit more work than building a Land Raider and gluing it all together. Those bits have a total of 50 magnets on them! Here's the Godhammer Land Raider with no upgrades:






I am really pleased with how the rust effect came out on the engine block. Here the Land Raider as a Crusader with a Hunter-Killer Missile, Multi-Melta and Storm Bolter.





I didn't come up with a modelling solution to showing Extra Armour, but I am sure it'll be fine... Here's the Land Raider as a Redeemer, again with HK Missile, Multi-Melta and a Storm Bolter.





Finally, Terminators deploy!



I hope you like it. Next up on magnetisation insanity corner will be an Ironclad Dreadnought that can take any configuration and also be a Rifleman Dreadnought.

Painting log

So as per my list i have a LOT of painting to do.  however i'm happy with my progress.  Note I really don't like painting so i just aim for "table top" standing

40kuk GT list

1st my list and then i Will talk about my thoughts on it

Lord Commander Kelly (Mark) 656/659 Air Corps

HQ

70 points        4 Company Command Squad, (Meltagun x2)

1 Company Commander Laspistol and Close combat weapon

55 points        1 Chimera – Multi Lasser And Hull heavy flamer

70 points        4  Company Command Squad, (Meltagun x2)

1 Company Commander Laspistol and Close combat weapon

55 points        1 Chimera – Multi Lasser And Hull heavy flamer

1st Infantry Platoon,

45 points        4 Platoon Command Squad (Flamers x3)

1 Platoon Commander Laspistol and Close combat weapon

55 points        1 Chimera– Multi Lasser And Hull heavy flamer

50 points        9 Infantry Squad

1 Sergeant Laspistol and Close combat weapon

55 points        1 Chimera– Multi Lasser And Hull heavy flamer

60 points        9 Infantry Squad (1x Autocannon)

1 Sergeant Laspistol and Close combat weapon

65 points        6 Special Weapons Squad (Meltagun x3)

75 points        Heavy Weapon Team with 3 x Autocannons

75 points        Heavy Weapon Team with 3 x Autocannons

75 points        Heavy Weapon Team with 3 x Autocannons

2nd Infantry Platoon,

60 points        4 Platoon Command Squad (Meltagun x3)

1 Platoon Commander Laspistol and Close combat weapon

55 points        1 Chimera– Multi Lasser And Hull heavy flamer

50 points        9 Infantry Squad

1 Sergeant Laspistol and Close combat weapon

55 points        1 Chimera– Multi Lasser And Hull heavy flamer

60 points        9 Infantry Squad (1x Autocannon)

1 Sergeant Laspistol and Close combat weapon

65 points        6 Special Weapons Squad (Meltagun x3)

90 points        Heavy Weapon Team with 3 x Missile launchers

90 points        Heavy Weapon Team with 3 x Missile launchers

Fast Attack

130 points     Vendetta

130 points     Vendetta

Heavy

160 points Manticore With Hull heavy flamer

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So in numbers i have

1x S10 Large blast (d3)

6x Twin linked Lascannons

11x Autocannons

6x Missle lunchers

6x Multilasers

13 Meltaguns

10 Flamers

So plenty of Anti tanks and Anti hords (i hope)

13x Scoring units

9x AV 12 vehicles

Sadly kill points 24 (+ or - 2)

I'm happy going into any objective type of game as with multipul objectives i just have so many troops i hope most list will not be able to kill them all.  with capture and control i hope it will be to difficult to get through all my units without tacking heavy losses and i have plenty of units i can push through.  With kill points (which is played twice)  my saving grace is one of the round is dawn of war and as per new FAQ I can deploy both platoons :).  I'm hoping the fact my Heavy weapons will not have to move into position will give me an advantage.  the 2nd Kill points is spear head which i think is an OK deployment for me as its better for getting my AV12 pointing in the right direction to prevent side shots. 

Hey guys,

I just put together an autarch and wanted to have a bunch of options available to him, so I made this guy who can have the hawk wings, a jump generator or a banner. He can have a shuriken pistol or a fusion gun. And he can have a power weapon or a scorpion chainsword. I think that those should be most of the options I'll ever want to take. Maybe I should give him a reaper launcher option. Anyway, I thought I'd show him off and see what you think:

Dark Angels vs Tyranids 1750pts

Last Tuesday at the club I was playing Steve and we rolled capture and control, pitched battle (again!). The two lists are below:

Dark Angels

Belial – thunder hammer & storm shield (th&ss)

Deathwing Squad C – apothecary th&ss, banner th&ss, twin lightning claw, th&ss, heavy flamer & power fist (pf)

Deathwing Squad 1 – cyclone missile launcher (CML) storm bolter+pf, sb+pf, 3 x th+ss

Deathwing squad 2 – CML sb+pf, 2 x sb+pf, 2 x th+ss

Deathwing squad 3 - CML sb+pf, 2 x sb+pf, 2 x th+ss

Dreadnought – venerable, assault cannon, heavy flamer, extra armour

Ravenwing support squadron – 1 landspeeder with typhoon missile launcher and heavy bolter

Ravenwing support squadron – 1 landspeeder with typhoon missile launcher and multimelta

Ravenwing support squadron – 1 landspeeder with typhoon missile launcher and multimelta

Landraider Crusader (in DA codex it comes with a multimelta as standard)

Tyranids (think this is roughly what Steve had)

Tervigon – catalyst, cluster spines

Tyranid Prime – lash whip and bonesword

3 Hive Guard

1 Zoanthrope

1 Biovore

1 Lictor

10 termagants with devourers

20 hormagaunts with toxin sacs

19 hormagaunts with toxin sacs

20 termagants with fleshborers

16 (?) genestealers with toxin sacs

16 genestealers with toxin sacs

10 Gargoyles

Deployment

I won the roll off and deployed the Landraider in the centre of my deployment zone with Belial and squad C inside. It was flanked by all 3 landspeeders deployed hugging my board edge to try and be out of range of the hive guard I was scared of! The dread and 3 other squads deployed on my right flank on a hill near the centre and behind some woods on my extreme right (which my objective had been placed behind.

Steve then deployed his tyranids across the board with one horm brood in the centre close to the Tervigon, the other horm brood opposite my right flank with the Zoan, tyranid prime and the biovore and the rest of termagants all the other side of his tervigon on my centre left. The gargoyles were on my right as well and the Hive Guard he placed behind a hill opposite my left flank. His lictor was in reserve and the two genestealer broods infiltrated on my left 18” away from my landspeeders.

Steve made a mistake deploying his Hive Guard out of synapse range…

Here follows a rather protracted account of the battle, I got a bit carried away writing it! If you want you can skip to the end for a very short summary.

First contact:

The Deathwing advanced slowly and into the woods/onto the hill and the speeders moved rapidly away from the genestealers and behind the thin bone-coloured line of terminators. As the Tyranid swarm came into range, the Dark Angel forces unleashed its first salvo of missiles, most aimed at the hulking form of the tervigon. Intelligence had reported one of those abominations was present and Belial had given orders to target it first, an alpha strike designed to rip the heart out of the enemy force. The LRC rumbled forward and let rip but its bullets were spent before they reached the monster(it was out of range) and although severely wounded by krak missiles it still stood, some trees affording it some cover (it had 1 wound left). The only other thing killed in the initial salvo was a single unlucky hormagant!

The tyranids moved forward as one as fast as possible, with the exception of the Hive Guard who milled around out of synapse range. The tervigon which moved back slightly out of psychic feedback range of the termagants) and spawned a brood of termagants.

(Turn 2) Squads 2 & 3 near the hill retreated and squad 1 in the woods prepared to face the hormagants bounding towards them.The tervigon was finished off with missile fire and a few hormagants also fell to frag and storm bolter rounds. Orders were given to switch targets to the zoanthrope, now the only real threat to the LRC, but all the missiles and assault cannon rounds were deflected off its impenetrable forcefield. Squad 1 targeted the onrushing hormagants and downed 3 while the dread moved forward out of the wood and flamed a couple of gargoyles. The landspeeders shot one of the genestealer broods up reducing it to half strength with frags and heavy bolter rounds.

The tyranids continued forward as fast as possible, the hive guard moving forwards to try and get in the fight and the termagants and hormagaunts surging towards the middle of the board, just in front of the landraider. The termagants with fleshborers opposite the Dark Angels left flank were out of synapse and headed back towards some trees in the centre, the prime moving to connect them with the Hive Mind once more. On their right the hormagaunts charged Squad 1 in the woods and cut down 2 deathwing with the loss of 4 or 5 in return (a good result for me), the Deathwing striking simultaneously due to being in cover. The termagants held due to being fearless for now. The depleted genestealer squad in the centre and the large hormagant squad charged the landraider, they couldn’t hope to hurt the mighty machine but it allowed them to advance further across the table.

Forces Collide (mid-game):

The LRC rolled forward, tank shocking the hormagants in front and they bunched up as they moved to avoid being crushed. The ramp clanked down and out charged the Master of the Deathwing with his personal bodyguard, banner of the first company unfurled. The heavy flamer toasted 7 hormagants and a gargoyle while the hurricaine bolters on that side of the LRC downed a couple more. On the other side the machine spirit of the LRC fired and killed a single termagant. Belial and his men charged gloriously into the mass of hormagants, obliterating them although not before the banner bearer was torn to pieces under a tide of chitinous claws. They consolidated towards the tyranid objective on the far side of the table.

Squad 1 in the woods lost another 2 members in the assault phase for the loss of 2 hormagants in return, leaving the a lone terminator (with the squads CML) in a wood surrounded on all sides…heroic last stand anyone? Meanwhile DW squad 2 charged and ripped apart the remaining gargoyles, while the other dW squad charged into a severely depleted genestealer squad (5 models left) after being thinned some more by the landspeeders who continued to move towards the right. One landspeeder fired at the distant Prime, a krak missile tearing off a chunk of it. The genestealers were wiped as the thunder hammers did their work and they consolidated away from the onrushing full strength genestealer brood, screaming at the death of their kin.

Finally brother Obadiah, the venerable dreadnought, stormed through some trees and opened up with assault cannon and heavy flamer on the zoanthrope, its field failing it as it disintegrated in a welter of gore, the biovore also being caught and wounded by the flames.

Something like a third of the tyranid force had just been destroyed in a single turn, but the survivors threw themselves forward into the hail of fire. The biovore finally got lucky and downed a member of Squad 2 in bio-acid, while the genestealers powered into squad 3, ripping through their terminator armour as if it were paper, the last terminator being pulled down by sheer weight of numbers as he crushed a genestealer in his fist. Truly a heroic end (he failed his fearless save!). The genestealers consolidated behind the hill looking for shelter from the guns of the Ravenwing, but were now bunched up…

The termagants shot at Belial and company, taking one down before the Prime let out a mighty scream and plunged into the squad, lash whip and bonesword flailing. The disciplined first company veterans held their nerve however, one taking the bonesword on his storm shield, blue lightning arcing as the sword scraped a gash in it, but it held. Belial and the other members closed in on the enormous beast, hammers rising and falling as they smashed it into a pulp, they consolidated nearer to the tyranid objective. In the woods, the lone survivor of squad 1 uttered his litanies of ending, committed his soul to the Emperor and was buried in a tide of claws and teeth. With a thunderous roar he shattered one hormagant with his fist and crushed the head of another. A psychic shockwave at the death of the Tyranid Prime echoed across the battlefield and the hormagants suudenly turned and fled, no longer under the control of the Hivemind. In an instant the terminator was standing alone amid a pile of ruined aliens and his fallen battle brothers having escaped what he had thought was certain death.

The swarm suddenly lost cohesion, the last of the synapse creatures having been destroyed, a keening of loss and terrifying self-awareness flooding their minds.

The Dark Angels sensed their foes momentary hesistation and gave a triumphant cry that drowned out the chatter of bolter and scream of tyranid alike: ‘Death to the enemy! For the Emperor and the Lion!’. The LRC swivelled and tank shocked the large squad of termagants at full speed, pumping assault cannon rounds into the squad with devourers, the survivors turning and fleeing the battle. Belial’s squad moved forward and let rip with the flamer again, incinerating another swath of critters from the large squad who also turned and fled. With the bloodlust on them they were not satisfied with letting them escape and barrelled into them, laying about left and right with their mighty hammers they vanquished their foe before consolidating back to hold the objective.

The Ravenwing landspeeders banked sharply and unleashed hell at the genestealers behind the hill. Frag after frag smashed into the closely huddled forms and the explosions ripped through them. Squad 2 moved to seize the home objective and added their own firepower to the barrage, reducing the beasts’ numbers to five. The dreadnought turned his assault cannon on the biovore and once the barrels stopped spinning, smoking gently, the creature was a smear of ichor on the ground.

End Game:

With few tyranids remaining, the last termagant squad and the hive guard, still badly out of position, shot at Belials squad and took down one terminator, bio-weapons chewing through the plasteel armour to reach the flesh beneath. The genestealers nearing the Dark Angels’ objective sprang forward, claws snatching at the thin aeorfoils on a landspeeder as it raced past. It spun at a wild angle and crashed into the ground, exploding and sending the shattered bodies of the crew and several genestealers flying. A terminator in the woods was also caught near the blast, a shard of white hot metal piercing the eyepiece of his suit.

Out of seemingly nowhere a lictor appeared, flesh-hooks attempting to catch a second landspeeder but it failed. Moments later missiles from the remaining Deathwing members slammed into it, blowing it apart. The final genestealers were gunned down and the combined fire of the LRC, Dreadnought and the heavy flamer of Belial’s squad claimed the lives of the last termagant squad. After a final few desultory shots that failed to claim any victims, the Hive guard retreated from the field. Victory lay with the forces of the Imperium this day, a splinter of the tyranid incursion neutralised. For now.

Summary:

The Tervigon was killed by missile fire on turns 1&2. My LRC advanced down the centre, tank shocking hormagants and termagants which were then wiped by Belials squad aided by the heavy flamer which was awesome, and who also killed the Prime, ending up on Steve’s objective. My objective was held by the survivors of 2 Deathwing squads, having staved off swarms of tyranids through a combination of shooting and assault. The Ravenwing were allowed free reign since the Hive guard were out of position and were instrumental in destroying a lot of the genestealers. Near the end all Steve’s synapse creatures were killed and a lot of his hormagants and termagants fled (3 units), leaving me in possession of both objectives at the end of the game.

Final reckoning: Dark Angels 2-0 Tyranids

Saim-Hann Waveserpent

Here's my first waveserpent painted - need to redo the black lines on the fins cos they are a bit wonky but otherwise I'm pretty happy with it. Went for a saim-hann scheme in the end, got the idea for the white serpents from the back of the 4th edition rulebook which had one with a reversed colour scheme.

Deathwing vs Eldar 1750pts

Had a game against another guy at the club last Tuesday and he has written up a battle report of it at the following link, I have posted a comment so if you are interested in my thoughts on the game be sure to read those.

http://embolden40k.blogspot.com/2012/02/battle-report-eldar-v-deathwing-1750pts.html

i made a few mistakes that cost me the game which he won 1-0 on objectives and am wondering if I should try and paint up a sixth Deathwing squad or break out the Landraiders for a rematch. his list was 3 squads of 2 War walkers with dual scatter lasers, 2 vipers with scatter lasers+ sh. cannons and 5 waveserpents, 2 with bright lances containing 5 DA each, 3 with scatter lasers containing 2 squads of 6 fire dragons and a squad of 10 storm guardians with dual flamers and an autarch with fusion gun and a farseer with doom and runes of warding.

The Faaris IV Campaign Diary: End of Turn 1

• Pershore's Eldar defeat the Tyranids of the Macarion region.
• Wisdom's Grey Knights defeat the Orks of the Strige region.
• Nasty's Imperial Guard defeat the Space Marines of the Valadon Region.
• The Space Marines take control of the Mecadon region from the Tau.
• The Space Wolves take control of the central Castrum Praetorio region.

So the map now looks like this:

You can follow the progress of the campaign in our video battle reports which can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/user/TeamClueless40K?feature=mhee

So the next game at the club was against a 12 year old who didn't know the rules very well so I was generous with what I let him get away with. In fact he turned up to a 1000pt game and I thought it looked like he had a lot of marines for those points. After totaling them up he had just under 2000pts worth! I helped him write a 1500pt list and played my Eldar for the first time.

The game was Spearhead with two objectives. His tactical squads and scouts hung around in his deployment zone not doing much all game while he attacked on his right with a Landraider and a 5man tac squad, while on his left he deepstruck 5 termies led by a Chaplain and a Dread in a drop pod which blew up one of my waveserpents in turn 1.

I made a serious error as i jumped Eldrad and 10 dire avengers and a 10 strong harlequin squad out to waste them. Shootig killed two terms even with doom and bladestorm, and then I realised I couldn't assault them in the same turn as hopping out of a moving vehicle (used to playing Deathwing). He proceeded to butcher the dire avengers and Eldrad turned and fled the board. oops. I managed to finish them off with the harlequins on their own, who then got pounded by a whirlwind shot and also fled the board.

Cutting a long story short, I contested his objective with a 5th turn flat out waveserpent, whille I held my own with a guardian squad coming in from reserve turn5. He got distracted shooting things with his Landraider so he didn't reach my objective (5 fire dragons jumped out of a falcon and at point blank range caused 3 hits, followed by all 3 failing to penetrate or even glance it. They then died horribly, incinerated by his flamestorm cannons.

Was fun playing with the Eldar, even tho the victory wasn't something to shout about against an inexperienced player. Not sure Eldrad is best with the dire avengers due to vulnerability in an assault, and I might try a normal farseer in future since I think Eldrad requires a bit of finesse I don't have yet. The wraithlord didn't do muchh but then he was protecting my objective, while the harlies were good but very vulnerable to firepower - these eldar are a bit more flimsy than the Deathwing...

Next week I am playing my Deathwing against a double autarch eldar army with 6 war walkers and 2-3 squads of fire dragons with lots of waveserpents, led by a guy who came midtable at the Caledonian uprising last weekend.

My Landraider isn't finished yet, in fact I have started on my second one as well so am doing two simultaneously, trying to get them tabletop ready. Your campaign sounds good, how's it going?

Ok on to the rules of the campaign.

The Faaris Campaign - Rules

This is a map basted campaign designed for three players who will fight over a planet containing 19 different regions.

Each region has a specific mission, points guide and occupation bonus associated with it, these will not change during the campaign.

Each region begins the game under the control of one of the non-player races (NPR's) see attached table.

The Castrum Praetorio region starts the campaign under the control of a random NPR.
Each campaign turn all players will pick a region that they wishes to attack, if two or more players choose the same target then they must roll off with the winner attacking the choosen region and the loser(s) choosing another region that has not already been picked.

If at any point two players both declare the Castrum Praetorio region as their target they then play against each other for control of the region. If all three players declare the Castrum Praetorio region as their target then a three player game is played with the winner gaining control of the region. In either case any NPR that may control the Castrum Praetorio region is considered to lose control of it just before such a battle.

When a player is choosing a region to attack he may only choose a region that boarders a region he already controls, the two moons are considered to boarder the three regions closest to them and each other.

The attacking player gets to choose the points limit for the game from those listed for that region and a game is played using the mission specified against the race that currently occupies the region. If the occupier is another player obviously the battle is played against them, if it is a NPR them it is played against someone using that race as his army.

Due to the nature of the campaign there can be no drawn games so any games undecided due to the victory conditions of the mission is decided on victory points as in the 40K rulebook. If these are still drawn the defender wins.

At the start of the game the players control no regions so must make planetfall and attempt to gain a foothold. They may pick any region controlled by a NPR to attack in this first campaign turn and in each turn until they gain control of a region.

During these battles, where players do not control any regions, they get a special bonus as they surprise the enemy and their orbital assets are able to aid them in gaining a foothold.

This special bonus allows them to decide who wins any dice roll made before the game starts to choose sides, deployment area's, roles, who goes first etr.. Also at the start of the game after both sides have deployed the attacking player gets to make a single firestorm attack. This attack is resolved as a S:8, AP:3, Large blast, Pinning, indirect barrage attack that can target any point on the battlefield. The attacking player may choose to place a crater where the attack hits if able.

Each region has a special occupation bonus that is available to the player or NPR that controls it. These bonuses are always in effect and can be used in every battle that the controling race takes part in. Any unit effecting bonuses must be assigned on the army list during list building.

All things being well the players will be able to stay even with the number of games they have played and stay on the same campaign turn, but things crop up and someone may find themselves getting a little behind. If this happens a player may choose to let fate decide the outcome of a battle as he doesn't have the opportunity to play, so as not to hold up the other players.

If he decides to do this he declares the region he is attacking as normal but instead of playing the game he just rolls a dice, on an even number he is considered to have won the battle, on an odd number he is considered to have lost.

Obviously this is only to be used if a player gets very far behind and only as a last ditch resort to stop the campaign falling apart, not to be used to randomly take a hard to defeat region.

To keep the game interesting the NPR's have a chance of taking control of regions controlled by other NPR's and even gaining control of a region after they have lost control of all their others.
To achieve this 2D6 is rolled for each of the NPR's (in alphabetical order) at the start of every campaign turn.

If a race that controls any region gets a result of 11 or 12 then that race gains control of a random region boardering one they already control, that is currently controlled by a different NPR. If they have a boarder with the central Castrum Praetorio region and it is controlled by a different NPR they always gain controll of it instead.

If a race that no longer controls any regions rolls a 12 on its 2D6 it gains control of a random region controlled by another NPR.

A player is declared the winner of the campaign if at any point, when all players have taken the same number of campaign turns, he controls the central Castrum Praetorio region and any six other regions.

Below is the fluff for the campaign myself, Pershore and Nasty are about to embark upon.

I should be putting up the rules for the campaign and a load of special missions over the next couple of days (if I remember).

The Story Of Faaris

The peaceful world of Faaris had long ago been part of the Imperium but had been under the control of the Tau for countless years until the present conflict erupted, until the tyranids came.

A tendril of hive fleet Charybdis assaulted the planet and the Tau resisted with all the weapons at their disposal. Seeing an opportunity to retake the world in the Emperors name the Lords of Terra dispatched a large contingent of space marines from various chapters with the backup of a substantial Imperial Guard force.

Marines from the Blood Angels, Black Templars, Space Wolves ,Ultramarine and a few other allied chapters arrived on the planet and immediately began the process of eliminating all alien life.

They may have managed to contain and even beat the Tyranids and the native Tau but other foes were soon to arrive. Seeing a big fight brewing some eager mek sent a large ork rok crashing into Faaris bringing with it thousands of battle hungry boyz.

Another enemy announced their arrival at this time as well, the Dark Eldar saw the turmoil of a battle this grand and chaotic as the perfect place to gather new and interesting slaves for the fighting pits back on Comorragh.

With titanic weapons of war being unleashed all over the planet on such a large scale Faaris was being strained right to its very core and this was where the real threat lay.

Imprisoned tens of thousands of years ago in a powerful Tezzeract Labyrinth fused to the planet as a whole, a volatile and incredibly destructive C’tan Shard was partly released when his prison was weakened by the force of the weapons being brought to bear in the war raging on the planets surface.

His release sent a mental shockwave rushing over the planet, effecting each of the combatanting armies in its own insidious way, calling upon them to throw all their might into the conflict, to hold nothing back, to kill everyone.

The war raged to new heights of destruction, with burning piles of the dead growing each day. For this was what the C'tan wanted, if the planet was ravaged and destroyed there was a chance that his prison would fully break and he would be free once more.

Death on such a scale has other consequences, rifts into the warp appeared where the fighting had been the most intense and Chaos Daemons imerged to join in the slaughter, much to the C'tans glee.

Not all were so pleased at the events happening on Faaris, the Swordwind of Prince Euthrace of Biel-Tan have arrived to contain the threat of the C'tan after Farseer Fiathrandael forsaw its imminent release.

Inquisitor Damgrad of the Ordo Malleus, along with a strike force of Grey Knights, have come to put an end to the Daemonic incrusion and purify all those affected by the C'tan be they friend or foe.

Lord Commander Kelly of the 659/656th Air Corps, redeployed from the conflict in the Iraqistan area and arriving as backup to the spacemarines, has been ordered to take the planet back for the Emperor. He intends to see those orders through even if it means fighting against those warriors of the imperium who seem to be under the influence of some kind of filthy xeno skum.

Found a gaming club! (and quick battle report)

OK so I found a gaming club in Redditch which is ~ 25min from me and went along for the first time last night. Seemed friendly and got a 2000pt game with a tyranid player, the old enemy ;)

He had two hive tyrants with a guard and venom cannon each, 3 groups of 15 genestealers, 2 groups of 30 basic hormagaunts, 30 termagants, 2 zoans in a pod and the doom in a pod. My list was a bit different from the one at the tourny, I took two dreads (one fire support, 1 ven with ass can and hf)and a second landspeeder instead of the chaplain and one ravenwing squad. I also replaced the 5th DW squad with a tac squad with flamer in a rhino. (this is the list I went with, not knowing who I was going to face).

Basically he deployed all in a big line across the table (mission was 5 objectives) and charged. I refused a flank and wasted one of his hive tyrants with missile fire on my turn 1 (he went first). The dreads were good, one was lucky not to die from the zoans and charged 30 hormagaunts while the bikes and the other dread charged the other 30 hormagaunts. So I tie dup almost half his troops with dreads that they couldn't hurt. Think he was a bit frustrated by that...

He called the game on turn 4 after my noble Deathwing defeated two genestealer units in combat and he was left with all his horms tied up and a hive tyrant about to be shot down by both landspeeders and an attack bike, after failing to reach combat or do anything all game. Belial died again though :( he was wounded and on his own after fighting off some genestealers and got shot by 3 termagants with fleshborers!

Liked how the dreads did and he didn't have much anti-tank, not a great list I thought (no Hive Guard or toxin sacs on his horms) and he kept bunching his models up too much for my frags. Anyway, enjoyed the game although not sure he was too pleased about losing... Might get a few more games in than I have been now, hurrah! They also seem to be quite into Warmachine at the club and a game called Cutlass which I'd never heard of. Has anyone ever played these?

Happy new year guys!