Blog Wars 8 Armies

Alex already put up his photographs from the painting competition but I didn't want to steal his thunder[wolves] so here are my own shaky cam shots of those armies who mustered for the painting competition. I'll let the pics do most of the talking so just enjoy.

First up Space Wolves:

Secondly, Space Wolves.

And thirdly, erm Space Wolves - PeteB's very own.

Typically PeteB has put the Imperial Knight on ebay already!

Finally, something different, Space Pixies!

Evil Space Pixies.

More Space Pixies, Evil and the Poet kind.

Gareth's Ta on a trampoline.

Howling Griffons [?] and the Rebel Alliance.

Brazen Claws [although I thought they were the Brown Claws, which conjured a completely different fluff image for me].

Crimson Fists

Ben's Necrons, I still think these are really good, certainly the best painted of his armies, even if I've still to smash their little metal minds apart.

And the overall winner with Evil Space Pixies, my mate Liam. Of course he cheated by adding in his Tantalus which wasn't in his army list but I'll forgive him, it was his birthday afterall, although he kept it very quiet.

Sorry, just trying to get a decent shot of this...

And here was my own effort, that came second but you've seen all this stuff before.

Incidentally Alex mentioned he didn't get a pic of my 'Deathleaper', that's no surprise as I was still proxying my Lictor but if you want to see him in all his glory all the pics are here: http://40kaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/nids-part-144-to-done-four-horsemen-of.html

Blog Wars 8 1850pt battle report game 3 - nids vs Tau

Gareth Newton Williams was my last game with his Tau on a Skyshield. By this stage I'm relegated to one of the lower tables, with PeteB on the next to bottom and Liam on the last with Blog Wars very own founder Alex. We all started to have a great laugh with PeteB opposite another PeteB and his Necrons who proudly exclaimed he didn't run the usual suspects, no Annihilation Barges, Flyers or all the other usual cheesy nonsense, y'know the stuff my mate Ben takes. But with perfect comedic timing Gareth interjected with the line 'and that would explain you playing on the bottom tables'! We just fell about laughing and that set the tone for the game. Even with a highly time-sensitive mission where every palyer turn after game turn 1 allows you to score points Gareth and I chatted amd discussed things like my not taking the Skyshield, which would have been fun opposite his

Psychic Powers Winged Tyrant  Tervigon Plain Tr Tervigon Miasma The Horror Warp Blast Paroxysm Warp Blast Dominion Dominion Dominion

The low down:

• I won deployment, elected to go first but typically lost the initiatve, go Tau shooters
• Warlord Trait - Deathleaper has Mindeater - +2VP for every IC slain in a challeneg
• Night fighting not turn 1 [also typical against a Tau gunline].

The last thing I needed was to lose the initiative and night fighting. With my Hive Tyrant on top of the Bastion and Venomthrope outside he was just in cover range but some of my other units were outside, which if he'd been in the Bastion they'd be safer.

As it was all these guys on the Skyshield, together with the Markerlights from the Pathfinders in the woods dropped a couple of wounds on the Flyrant, who at least couldn't be grounded.

Mmm, some Pirannahs...

Further fire from the Skyshield took out two Hive Guard and put a wound on the Carnifex. Even a couple of Stealers got killed despite their excellent cover. It's all for nught when the Tau can ignore it with their Smart Missiles - like Impaler Cannons but fired by creatures with a Ballistic Skill and can see more than 24" [no I'm not bitter! they're probably half the points n'all! ruddy fish 'eads]

With my turn I swooped forwards hoping to end the Pathfinders, maybe causing them to rout, but to no avail. Genestealers headed to distract, they can't assault after Infiltrate anyway.

Lost of gaunts spawned, double figures for both and I rushed to swamp the objectives so that I would still be holding them all at the end of Gareth's turn 2 and get me my first VPs [note Deathleaper is not on the board there he's waiting to Deep Strike]

The Flyrant gets killed, it helps when you can just add Skyfire to your units. The lead brood of Stealers, First Blood is gone at least.

Second unit of Genestealers gets wiped out too losing the objective, perhaps if they'd just been in range of the Shrouded Bastion they may have survived. I get 2 VPs from the other two objectives.

Deathleaper arrives in my turn. I manage to position him so the Riptides can't Intercept. There's no angle for the one on the Skyshield and hes'd hidden fromt he one that jumped off. It's Flesh Hooks rake the back of the Tau [whatever it is] but do nothing. I also moved the unit of Gaunts with the Carnifex up to my unsecured objective but within range of the Bastion which gets me another 3VPs [5:1]

Having lost one of the Pirannahs to the charging Stealers the remaining three adopted a protective formation to hide their weaker rear armour and promptly removed the larger brood of Stealers from play. I still held all thre objectives so this takes me to 8:1

In a bold move Deathleaper clambers onto the Skyshield declaring he wants to challenge the Ethereal. Gareth is astounded by the temerity of such a challenge and agrees that if he can get passed all the overwatch he'll accept.

The fact is even just the supporting Overwatch from the Riptide is enough to wipe the Galaxy's ultimate assassin from the face of the planet! Bye, bye Deathleaper, you suck. I may go for Old One Eye or the Swarmlord in a Tyrannocyte next time. So Gareth gets Slay the Warlord but I collect another 3 VPs from objectives making it 11:2

I continued to spawn double figure Termagants [for time throwing down genestealers instead of rooting around my myriad takeaway tubs], but obviously you can see there's a triple 1 in that dice roll. Well those five dice are my Tervigon's saving throws from the Pirannahs...

and here's what's left the termagants when their brood mother goes POP. Gareth seemed to be unaware of this unexpected bonus so with renewd vigour tried to pop the other Tervigon taking it to just 1 wound left. Despite this and some gaunts routing and some resorting to Instinctive behaviour I still hold all the objectives taking the score to 14:2.

Gareth continues to pour fire into my dwindling bugs and I make numerous cover saves in the trees as the Tau enact deforestation on levels similar to those seen in the Amazon. The last Tervigon hides behind the Bastion but Longsight moves off the Skyshield and manages to target it with Smart Missiles. The Missiles swoop round the Bastion and score a wound...

So much for it's armour save, the Tervigon pops, taking another slew of its babies with them but I still manage to stay on the objectives.

With the final turn in play [well I mean, as time runs out] I score another 3 VPs taking the final score to 17:2. The Tau managed to perform a great display of precision shooting but failed to grasp the tactic of holding an objective.

Having a chat with Gareth I think he felt the same way Ben did when we played, by advancing on the objectives he would have been exposed to some teeth and claws, although I doubt I'd have got too many kills on the armoured or high toughness models. I think the Skyshield influences you to stay put too. Of course Tau can do that with their long range firepower but when you pay for this defensive stronghold it creates a mindset to stay on it for as long as possible. Ultimately he left it too late to capture the objectives but I think that was also because I'd spawned particularly well and had surrounded each point with so many bodies [something I didn't have the opportunity with when I played Ben].

 

It was a great game, which sadly didn't reflect the damage Gareth had wrought but as I always say you have to play the mission. But we had a whole lot of fun and I managed to come away with a win so at least 'nids are better than Dark Eldar ;)

One other point of note is how Gareth achievd his digital camo. This was revealed in another lengthy chat mid-game when we should have been attempting to score objectives. He sprayed the models with a Dark Green and then applied the sponge sticky pads used in decoupage to mask areas off then sprayed the lighter colour on top. He still has to add some shading but I thought it was a really clever and effective trick, so thought I'd share.

Blog Wars 8 1850pt battle report game 2 - nids vs Grey Knights/White Scars

Sam Georgiou was up next, Josh's gaming buddy. He had Grey Knights, with White Scar Allies. I haven't really played against Grey Knights since PeteB got rid of his. If you recall PeteB often ran two Dreadknights so I should have been a little more prepared but I've probably forgotten much of my tactics.

Psychic Powers Winged Tyrant  Tervigon Plain Tr Tervigon Miasma Warp Blast The Horror Onslaught Catalyst Dominion Dominion Dominion

The low down:

• Game 2 - The Emperor's Relic with Vanguard deployment
• I won deployment and went first
• Warlord Trait - Deathleaper has Mindeater - +2VP for every IC slain in a challenge
• Night fighting turn 1.

Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures until after turn 1 so you'll have to make do with the following description of the action. I was lucky in that our board had plenty of ruins so I had plenty of options to deploy the Genestealers successfully.  However Sam set up a unit of bikes in the right hand ruins, denying me access to the far right one but seemed to miss the fact the one further into his DZ had a first floor, so I deployed a unit there. 2 Broods were in the centre ruin and Deathleaper was to Deep Strike. In my turn 1 the Flyrant swooped towards the bikes that are shown driving off to the left. Brainleech worms did some significant wounds and Sam tanked them on the Space Marine captain who promptly failed his saves, died and gifted me First Blood!

 

My objective was in the Cathedral, surrounded by a brood of Stealers. I moved the Tervigons forwards hoping to push towards Sam's objective and reinforce the middle one I already owned. I foolishly forgot to spawn more gaunts. in fact thanks to trying to cast Warp Blast I forgot a number of things as because it's a Witchfire you automatically think you're in the Shooting Phase and carry on shooting and miss elements from a previous phase. I spread out my gaunts hoping to cut off the bikers that were trying to flank me and sneak for my objective.

I also deployed a brood in the cathedral in the centre of the board, with the centre objective [I only put one Stealer down as it was difficult to get my hand in].

Sam's objective was behind this hill.

Sam then decamped from the ruins and headed for his own objectives, moving the Dreadknight backwards to deal with the Stealers in his DZ...

which he promptly did by roasting them alive.

Bye, bye Linebreaker.

The Carnifex managed to do some damage to the dreadknight.

But was clearly punished for it's temerity, even with Catalyst and it's Feel No Pain. Honestly, all the hops you have to jump through to get the power and then it doesn't flippin' work!

Deathleaper arrives turn 2 and smashes open the Cathedral doors.

Shooting at Draigo and his Grey Knights but doing little. He then closes the doors and waits.

I charge the Genestealers into the Dreadknight, but can't bring myself to throw in the Tervigon too as I'm convinced it'll just get pummelled taking the Termagants with it. As a troop I need to keep him safe but this may have been a tactical error as the Stealer fail to capitalise on their weight of attacks on the charge.

With the Tervigon and some spawned gaunts holding the centre objective the Stealer brood  sally forth and assault the Terminators, one Grey Knight falls to the ultimate assault creature

3 Genestealers fall to the chopping Halberds and Hammers [sounds like an RPG]!

The second unit of Knights drop in behind my line, Sam went bold and only deviated a couple of inches, sadly no mishap and Interceptor on my Quad Gun does nothing

Unfortunately they can't really see anything to shoot so I get a healthy cover save meaning my Stealer remain intact while the second blob of gaunts head behind the Bastion to reinforce my objective and bubble wrap against the Paladins.

The other gaunts spread wide but that dreadknight can jump so they won't stop it, then again I probably should have charged and locked it in combat but I was trying to make a wide screen offering options to all three objectives.

Bikers and Assault Bikes multi-assault my termagants locking them in combat.

I do a couple of wounds but suffer a few dead and remain locked.

Dreadknight and stealer continue to play patty-cake, then the brood of three Hit & Run towards the locked Terminators leaving space for the Tervigon to move in next turn.

Deathleaper eventually joins this assault, challenges, Draigo accepts takes all six S6 rending attacks on his armour and then smears Deathleaper across the Cathedral walls [ultimate assassin creature my a$$]

The last Stealer is chopped to pieces too and the unit consolidates.

Th Stealer Brood from my objective charge the Paladins, losing 2 Stealers to 1 Paladin :(

Hive Guard join the 2 remaining stealers who are splatted, but the added bulk of the Hive Guard prevails

And the Dreadknight finally falls while the other brood attacks Draigo's unit who are more than happy to take them on thanks to their psychic powers and Apothecary.

I'd debated long and hard where to send this Tervigon, with time running out we didn't have enough turns from to reach Sam's objective with spawning gaunts so I sent the tervigon to shore up my own objective and spawn more gaunts round it and landed the Flyrant to capture Sam's but although he survived some Multimelta fire, lost full control of the objective by the contesting bikes. Draigo [as a uber-scoring unit in BW8] contested the centre objective so my objective was where the final showdown would take place. The Dreadknight wisely disregarded the Tervigon and managed to roast all but two Termagants holding my objective. The Dreadknight charges and out of it's 5 monstrous attacks manages to kill just one of the valiant defenders. Unbelievably I've won 7:2 ... except I haven't yet, we forgot Hammer of Wrath so Sam rolls and unsurprisingly wounds. If I make my Armour Save I've won... that would a 6 I need then... doh!

So the final score was 17:2, 15 + Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker for Sam and First Blood and Linebreaker for me. This was a great game, Sam was very Tactical throughout, which given the limited units he had to secure/contest/defend three objectives he did amazingly. I was utterly let down by the psychic phase and Deathleaper in particular. Seriosusly, Deathleaper only had to take one wound off Draigo with six attempts and couldn't do it, pathetic! Once again the Stealers were the most pivotal units. even if they did very little it was them holding units at bay or being the first turn targets in Sam's DZ which meant he wasn't advancing and picking on my bigger more valuable scoring