25,000pt Apocalypse battle [5th Edition] - part 1

Once again due to the unique way of preparing these posts in advance I have stumbled on a new problem. I still have battle reports for 5th Edition while I'm exploring new 6th Edition so I hope you don't mind having to straddle the two rule-sets to enjoy what went down. For one you've no choice and for two I'm not about to dump the content. This was my final 5th Edition battle, a 25,000pt Apocalypse War, before 5th went off and  expired quietly in a corner somewhere.

I hadn't had much intention to go to the Apocalypse battle at my local friendly neighbourhood gaming club but the wife was amenable so I thought why not. I'd also heard another of my old gaming buddies may turn up, he has around 13,000pts of 'nids which would have been fun, but alas didn't come to pass. Anyway when I got there the 'axis of good was in the process of setting up their 25,000pts. As you can see the setup was vanguard strike, although that's it's 6th name, not sure if it was the same in 5th. Just for context those are 2'x4' panels making a 12'x8' battlefield. Also I think some of the pics are a little out of chronology but I don't think it'll be too bad as I'm only really covering what happened to me, too much was going on to cover the entire battle.

I asked if there was room for my 2,000 pts of 'nids and the 'axis of evil' who were still to setup had only brought 23,000pts so how perfect was that to allow my force to balance the sides? I would also get to choose a strategic asset. I had a quick look at the variety of little doodads you can choose to disrupt, enhance or delay your opponents. In the end, having seen the masses of drop pods waiting to come in I chose a 'disruptor beacon' it was cited just to the right of the Honoured Imperium statue in the picture above. This little device means anything that deep strikes within 48" of the beacon can be repositioned by me anywhere else on the battlefield on a 4+ [what's the symbol for evil grin smilie].

This is the evil deployment, Necrons, Orks, some Marines, some Chaos and the bulk of my 'nids in this lower corner, Hive Guard and Warriors skulking behind the Land Raider for cover. Yes, that's a Warlord Titan on the right, sadly he kept falling apart but it did add to the drama when his torso would randomly crash forwards, if only that had been when he was shot. Dan standing in the background from the goodies, he had Dark Angel's.

My deployment in the lower corner - Devgaunts in the building, Hive Tyrant, Hormies, Tervigon and Trygon, the Warriors and Hive Guard behind the two Land Raiders. The remaining two broods of Adrenal stealers and a unit of Ymgarls ready to outflank in the very top left corner, hopefully, where there was an  awful lot of artillery. Lastly the Doom of Malantai in a Mycetic Spore...

The goodies were predominantly Space Marines - Dan and Rob's White Scars and Roy's Imperial Guard. As you can see the board was pretty packed and it soon became apparent that trying to move units to the centre of the board was a challenge - we needed some of those WW2 deployment map sticks you see in the films!

Roy's Heavy Weapons teams prepare to face the oncoming horde.

A unit of White Scar bikers that ended up facing my nids in the lower corner shortly after I'd finished deployment. Roy on the left, Dan next to him and Tom our Necron general on the right.

Another of Roy's heavy weapons teams, and what they'll be aiming at.

My Monstrous Creatures tower over an allied unit of Space Marine bikers.

The combined evil infantry at the bottom pic, Necrons and a lot of 'counts as' Orks face off against the many tanks of both the Space marines and the Imperial Guard.

Necron Wraiths eager to tear apart the metal boxes.

The awesome 'counts as' orks [or so I believe], everyone different

More of our infantry.

And yet more.

KABOOM! Not so much a pie plate as a serving platter. So when I decided to put my Warriors and Hive guard behind the two land Raiders for cover why did I not realise that given their 'alpha mech' status they would be a primary target for the goodies. Rob had three Vindicators that could combine their firepower into on massive blast template - covering the two Land Raiders and my 'nids.

Here's Rob's Vindicators taking aim, not to mention the assorted other vehicles keen to face down the 'deluded' blue marines.

Ouch, the Land Raider was toast, the Vindicator on the right also was down, but luckily for me I came out of with one wound on the Hive Guard a Warrior down and a few wounds on the remaining brood, it could have been so much worse.

First contact for me, a unit of Assault Marines target the Hormagaunts who suffer terrible loses despite holding onto the cover they were in. 

The Assault Marines wipe through the Hormagaunts and consolidate into the building hunting the Devgaunts on the third floor. 

So I'd lost the Hormies and taken wounds on my core units but amongst all of this the disruptor beacon was paying dividends by the score. With tunnel strategic assets around the feet of our Warlord Titan and main objective drop pods, teleporting Terminators and assault units all tried to secure a foothold in out deployment area but over half of them had their co-ordinates disrupted and I got to move them back to their own defensive positions. I actually felt sad about this in the end but they weren't too far from their own objective so there was still some good they could do in the battle.

Anyway, more to come too much for one post alone...

Rumourmungous

I just checked BoLS as I do at stupid o'clock most nights when I should just go to bed instead, which had a rumour repost from Faeit 212, here's the original post.

Exciting news that the Tyranids will get their Harpy and a Mycetic Spore [though it'll need something pretty dramatic to tempt me to buy one]. More interesting is the 'Harrier' model named and new Tyranid Warriors, lets hope that means they'll come with wings to make Shrikes. Additionally repositioning the Pyrovore as anti-aircraft dunno how that's supposed to work but I guess that's about the biggest U-turn you will see GW do without actually admitting they made an awesome figure but saddled it with really bad rules.

I'll gloss over the Dark Angel Codex being pushed back until April 2013, which means it can be pushed back again nearer the time, because if you glanced at GW's Annual Report you will see they are committed to releasing something every month which I feel is exciting for all. However, the other really exciting thing is a summer release for Blood Bowl! Lets hope I've painted those figures by then, although there'll probably be some pretty awesome plastic miniatures in the box so that should be another thing I want to paint. Put me down for a box regardless.

Flufftastic - Ferron Fire Firs

One of the many unique elements of Flora on Ferron Proxima is the Ferron Fire Fir. It's oft remarked that the Universe in the 41st Millenia is a dangerous place and everyday it gets 'dangerouser'. Gone are the times you can stroll out to the ethereal swamps of New Baux City in peace, now you risk disturbing a nest of Razorwings and hope you can return to the city limits before they strip you to the bone. 

The Ferron Fire Fir is unique in that's form of 'Photosynthesis' creates a byproduct of heat. The greater the energy transference the hotter they get. During periods of particularly strong solar activity and reduced sulphur cloud coverage it is common for the Fire Firs to spontaneously combust. Strangely the trees themselves are not combustible, the flames from one tree do not spread to the next and so on to cause raging forest fires, however there is some belief there is a limited sentience between the trees and it is theorised that some trees will often 'choose to combust in sympathy'.

The greatest study of this phenomena has been made by Prof. Egon Seuss - eminent xeno-botanist, Delta Level Bio-Magi of the Frau Mara Institute of Floramancy and part-time children's author. It is his research into the mysteries of the Ferron Fire Fir and many other local flora that has saved countless lives of children, picnickers and couples who thought to enjoy nature without realising they were standing in the middle of a powder keg. One of his simple tongue twisters:

Four flaming Fronds on a Ferron Fire Fir.

is cited as reducing forest fatalities by 46%. There are still many examples of people caught unawares, but predominantly most Ferron Fire Firs are avoided, except for military exercises and suppression campaigns.

This area of avoidance does allow criminal elements to site their activities within the relative security of fir stands. Although the merits of keeping your illegal alcostem distillery within a potentially flammable environment has left many a crimelord ruing that decision.

Warhammer World - the work of Eddie Eccles

One of the outstanding examples of 'miniature porn' on display at Warhammer World was in one of the glass cases in the main gaming hall. At the time I just took pictures because the figures were awesome but when I got back home, an a few days later the GW blog posted an article about the display and it just so happens that all the miniatures were the efforts of one guy, Eddie Eccles is his name. Of course I was a bit dismayed I'd not get the scoop on these but I'm doing my best to fit everything in at the moment so I'll not lose sleep.

Most exciting were Eddie's Tau - a hybrid mix of Samurai and Gundam by the looks of it. Creative use of gloss varnish also adds to the richness on display. I particularly love the 'rising sun' motif on the Tau shoulders.

I don't know too much about Tau [and what I've seen of their Codex I'm glad, I couldn't make head nor tail of it] so that big walker in the background looks mighty impressive. Excuse the 'photobombing' by me and my son ;)

Another element was the hot rod flames on all the skimmers, not to mention the additional battle damage. Eddie has to have a whole lot of balls to do these awesome paint jobs and then 'scuff 'em up' with damage.

Another awesome walker with a fantastic pose. Also of note are the comedy drones, these have all had their flying bases swapped for Necron legs. Can't help thinking that they're like the Droid army in Phantom Menace and somebody just plonked the dron on top of the lower limbs, ha, ha!

Another fantastic pose.

Inverse flame pattern for this skimmer sibling.

But it wasn't just Tau, these Orks were also amazing. A completely different pallete, more vibrant and saturated, at the time I had no idea they were all the work of one guy. Pleanty of creative 'counts as conversions' using giants to represent trukks or some other Orky weapons platform?

Ork 'bikers' on their hogs ;)

Another Ork 'vehicle using an Ogre Thundertusk as it's 'chassis'.

And last of all an awesome Thousand Sons battleforce. This Dreadnought in particular was impressive.

As well as these scouts and their Land Speeder Storm. Again some truly creative conversion or choice of models to make these units unique and exciting.

Warhammer World - Big displays

Some of the larger displays at Warhammer World - Forgeworld models in particular. First up the Emperor Chaos Dragon. I'd never even seen this beast, then again I don't pay too much attention to the Warhammer Forge stuff but it was mighty impressive nontheless.

A Reaver Titan.

Lucius Pattern Warhound. Not overly keen on this pattern, I much prefer the Mars pattern and the Chaos version is even better still.

Ork Stompa.

Nurgle Plague Hulk.

Giant Squig Hoppers.

Tombkings Khemrian Warsphinx.

Nurgle Blight Drone. Love this and I had seen an awesome step-by-step guide to scratchbuilding one but I can't find it anymore, for shame.

'The Rock'. Built and modelled by Mike McVey one of the 'superstars' of my GW history. His was one of the 'names' you could roll off instantly as being someone you recognised in the GW world.

Still painting and modelling with his own line of miniatures at Studio McVey.