1500pt battle report - Dark Angels v Orks, Game 3

The low down:

• Vanguard strike
• Emperor's Relice - 3 Objectives, your own [worth 5pts], centre [worth 10], opponents [worth 15]
• No night fighting, lost deployment, deployed second, failed to steal the initiative.
• Warlord Trait - Ezekiel - Fearless to all units within 12"
• Psychic powers:

1. Psychic Shriek
2. Terrify
3. Hallucination
4. Shrouding

I know, I see it too, the absolute lack of cover on my side of the table, which is why I bring my own bastion! To be fair though I'd been on Ferron Proxima for the first two games and I had offered more terrain for this table [even though they had some] but everyone else had played on it and I really didn't think terrain would affect the outcome.

Ben had tonnes of Orks and I was pretty certain I was never going to be able to kill enough to pull a win out of this so I was resigned to sending the First legion out to their doom. I did however get to sneak my scouts behind the Ork enemy lines.

But as Ben took his first turn it would appear the Orks new exactly where they were, backed their trukk up to the edge of the building and jumped out, managing to shoot two of the squad with a third covering himself in his camo cloak to evade the incoming fire.

But by then it was too late, the Boyz had seen the scouts and charged in with a 12" charge, Hammer of Wrath killing the scout taking cover in his cloak as they rolled over him and the Ork boss butchering the remainder on his own.

With whoops of glee they promptly left the corpses before they'd even hit ground, turned back and got back to the trukk ready to drive off next turn to find more victims [oh we laughed!]. Ben scored First Strike for this.

With the other trukks holding the centre objective I used the opportunity to pour fire into their flanks.

Ghazghkull's trukk got wrecked and the other trukk lost it's gunner, so I made my First Strike but the impending shock of Orks on the WAAAAAGH! was less comforting.

I think one of the Tactical squads Bolters were responsible for the penetrating shot that killed the gunner. The Dark Angels really are blessed with some quality ammo - first Typhus, now an Ork Trukk!

Ben's Kommandos arrived behind me, Ghazghkull and his mob headed towards the Tactical squad in the lava crater and the other Nobz leapt from the trukk and went for the Tactical Squad in the centre of the board.

The Kommandos were kitted out with Burners and a Power Klaw. It was almost as if they'd known from the start they'd have to deal guys in cover and a Bastion. Suddenly the only thing I had some confidence in their durability was lost.

Ghazghkull's mob were keen to get to grips with my Dark Angels.

Which they managed to do.

Leaving only one Marine alive to hold the line.

Ghazghkull himself wanted to take on the biggest thing on the board, even if it wasn't moving...

and charged the Bastion.

With so many Power Klaw attacks the Bastion just couldn't stand and was destroyed

To make matters worse I then had to roll to try and save the five Devastators atop the battlements, the explosive debris was just sufficient to kill every last one of them.

 Ghazghkull was left hoping that Gork or Mork were pleased he'd destoyed the biggest Green thing on the board because it wasn't 'Orky'!

A Pain Boy and War Boss managed to charge the Plasma Cannon Combat Squad and would ultimately wipe them out.

The remaining Nobz multi-assaulted one Combat Squad of Tacticals and my Land Raider.

The Pain Boy was nigh unstoppable, partly because of his FnP and partly because my Marines were pretty ineffective.

I'm not sure this situation lasted for long, I think the Dark Angels were squashed eventually.

The Deathwing arrived, technically they mishapped and all died [they deviated within 1" of  Ghazghkull] but Ben was feeling generous [or just wanted more 'ummies to kill] and allowed them to teleport in anyways.

The other Terminators appeared in his Deployment Zone but that was not good news as due to the dodgy way artillery rules work all those Gretchin are technically T7, so I was never going to shift them off his objective, instead I had the boyz back up their trukk and surge forth.

Ezekiel and the Techmarine entered the fray. I've found Ezekiel to be quite handy in a fight, definitely a better choice than Asmodai but I really need to find a better way to work with him as the Land Raider doesn't allow him to cast any powers until he gets out. I also need to get the Techmarine's rules down so I can play him correctly.

The Mob in the crater finished off the last of the Tctical Squad and headed for the newly appeared Terminators.

Ghazghkull got there first though with the Kommandos a close second, so the mob stood and watched jeering on support from the sidelines.

All the Orks bundled in

Despite being the Dark Angels finest there was only one inevitable outcome

 

The same would hold true for the other Deathwing, but as it would have taken too long to play out the inevitable we decided to call it.

Ezekiel and the Techmarine wouldn't have broken their deadlock either.

The final score was something ridiculous like 22-2 although I'm pretty sure it would have been 33-2 because despite Ezekiel contesting that centre objective, he would not have survived losing me Slay the Warlord and the objective.

So, what have I learned? The Bastion didn't survived in only 1 game, the Land Raider was equally unlucky. Whether adding in a Knight will take pressure off those units I don't know but as I've already observed it only take one penetrating hit to be unlucky and lose a pivotal part of my army. I'm pretty sure a Knight will take a lot of fire, perhaps leaving the Land Raider, and more likely the Bastion unmolested. 

I was impressed with Ezekiel, he's a much better choice, even without an invul save, but the 2+ armour is quite good and it matches up nicely with the Techmarine and other Terminators. How I better utilise his prodigious psychig ability is the greater mystery. I also went solely Telepathy which gave me a lot of options, sadly most of the powers I rolled were pretty dire. Psychic Scream is awesome as a Primaris, it's just of little use when he's locked in a box for a turn or two!

Ultimately I was just as torn between taking these to Blog Wars or nids as I was before. I still have to paint my Knight, still have to finish the Tactical Squad. The Bastion and Land Raider 'will do' but I'll have to find a way to fit the Terminators in and currently that looks pretty tough without removing yet more upgrades from my units. I may have enjoyed the games more than I expected and managed to win one but I don't imagine my BW opponents will be as kind. That's not to say their uber competitive, but it's a tournament afterall, even if it's supposed to be fun first and foremost. Bottom line is given my army choices and the sacrifices I'll have to make - paring down units etc. It wouldn't take a beardy cheese list to do me over, any old opponent is going to make my day difficult. So the question is - am I comfortable with that or do I at least want fighting chance with a fully painted army I'm happy with?

We'll have to see...

3000 - Arbitrary milestone of the week

Here it is! My most recent arbitrary milestone is 3,000 and as promised it's all about you, well mostly you, a bit of me and probably a few spammers - it's comments! Yes this little blog has generated 3,000 comments, from compliments to critique, rules debate to penis enlargers we've had it all.

I've always tried to answer comments, even if it's just to acknowledge receipt of a compliment [hence why I probably have so many comments]. I know recently it's taken a while to respond but that's access issues to the blog front end but I do get round to answering them all as soon as I can. My mate Ben mentioned how he no longer comments on blogs he doesn't get a response from so I appreciate your patience in waiting and I'll endeavour to still deliver comprehensive replies should your comment require it. Having a dialog with the readers helps to make this blog better and it reaffirms the value in continuing to publish posts.

I still get chance to comment on others blogs, sometimes it's easier than my own, I may not be as prolific as Greggles but I'm keen to practice what I preach and it's important to highlight credit where it's due. I think we're seing a little resurgence in quality blogging in the community at the moment so I'm glad we're making the hobby a better place. All the best.

1500pt battle report - Dark Angels v Craftworld Eldar, Game 2

Game 2 PeteB and his footdar

The low down:

• Dawn of War
• Kill points Blog Wars Maelstrom Rules
• No night fighting, lost deployment, deployed second and stole the initiative :). Amusingly both games 1 and 2 for both tables resulted in stolen initiatives!
• Warlord Trait - Ezekiel - Fearless to all units within 12"
• Psychic powers:

1. Psychic Shriek
2. Dominate
3. Invisibility
4. Hallucination

As per most Maelstrom games I tried to cover as many objectives as possible in my Deployment. Being able to snatch a quick couple of points without having to slog all the way there first is handy. Anyway you should just be able to make out the 6 objectives - the numbered MDF discs.

Having stolen the initiative I drew Secure Objective 5 [2VP], destroy a unit in the assault phase and secure objective 2. I already had objective 5, it was in front of the Basiton but I also secured the centre objective, in case I drew that next time, and moved the Scouts on top of the man-made hill.

Which was an ill-thought out decision as they were promptly shot to pieces by the Warp Spiders, Camo Cloak and all! First Strike for PeteB

Pete drew - kill a character, secure objective 5 and secure objective 3. As I had all the odd numbered objectives he was going to have to dislodge me off them first. Karandras and his boys sprinted across the battlefield.

The Warp Spiders followed up their Scout slaughter with a little Warp jump, having killed the Sergeant in the Tactical squad Pete had also gained a VP for killing a character. The Fire Prism then turned it's sights on the Deathwing Land Raider.

And was able to pen and Explode it with only the Techmarine suffering a wound in the blast.

I had discarded objective 2, it was in Pete's deployment zone and picked up secure objective 4 and 3. Swift was my retribution as the second squad of Terminators arrived and I was able to kill some of  the Warp Spiders. I also moved one member of the Tactical squad out of the watchtower to secure objective 3 in front of it.

Given their exposed position Ezekiel cast Invisibility on the Terminators, as they advanced to secure objective 4. I came away with 4VPs for both objectives.

Pete now had 3 objectives, rolling objective 4, as the new one and still had 5 and 3 to claim. The Swooping Hawks landed right behind the marine holding objective 3 and conveniently out of sight from my Quad Gun.

The ensuing firefight allowed them to secure the objective 3 and cinematically shoot and kill all the Marines standing above them on the grated floor, with only one surviving thanks to the intervening cover of the tower lift shaft.

Over on the far left I've managed to whittle all the Striking Scorpions down to Karandras and even he had not gone unscathed.

Undaunted my troops assaulted but he killed them with ease

consolidating out of sight behind the future container boxes. Now after the game we remembered that Karandras was ObSec [as per Blog Wars rules] so he could have claimed objective 5 at this point but we'll discuss the whys and wherefores at the end.

I now had secure objective 1, 2VPs if I hold any three objectives and still had destroy a unit in assault. The newly advanced War Walkers were just in range of my Storm Bolters and I was able to kill one. They still held objective 4, my remaining Tactical squad member held the centre objective 1 scoring me 2 VP and the Bastion had objective 5 so that was three objectives secured for another 2 VP

The other terminators and Ezekiel managed to wipe out the Fire Dragons in assault, I think they'd suffered in the previous turn due to the remaining numbers. This cleared me of all my Maelstrom missions and won 5 VPs in total.

Pete still had to secure objective 4, but those Invisible Terminators were proving difficult to remove from the board [I see Invisibility is no longer legal at Blog Wars so again that would have been different] He also still had to secure objective 5 and 1VP if he killed Ezekiel. Karandras launched himself at the surviving members of the Plasma Cannon combat squad, killing the remaining marines while spinning up and off the future container crate.

Karandras ended up just out of fire arc of the Bastion and it's occupants with the Swooping Hawk Exarch also supporting. Once again he'd have stolen this objective off me if we'd remembered the rules correctly but it's a bit difficult to work out what we would have done if that objective had already been scored.

My new set of objectives were - kill 1 enemy character, have 3 scoring units in your own DZ and none of your enemy's, and 2VPs if I hold2 objectives and at least twice as many as my opponent. Well I had the two objectives, Pete only controlled objective 6 in the ruins. But I was going to struggle to clear out my Deployemnt Zone as Karandras and the Exarch just wouldn't die. Meanwhile I think the Reapers and War Walker had done the business on my Terminators now that Ezekiel failed to be make them Invisible.

Karandras managed to punch apart the Bastion but my sole surviving Marine held the objective to contest. Once again this was incorrect as he's a Devastator Marine so if we'd remembered Karandras was ObSec objective 5 would have been Pete's.

My turn didn't amount to much, I rolled objective 6, which was under the War Walker and just didn't have enough models left to kill Karandras and the Exarch or have 3 scoring units to survive in my DZ. I think all I had left was Ezekiel, the Devastator Sergeant and possibly one Deathwing.

Pete's turn 5 and he was also able to kill the last of the Deathwing and finally secure objective 4. He also won objective 6 and Karandras killed the Dev Sergeant to secure objective 5 - 6 VPs

To cap it all Ezekiel stood exposed on the man-made hill.

And was picked off by the last two Warp Spiders giving Pete Slay the Warlord.

So the final score was 13 VPs to me and 11 to Pete. Of course if we'd played ObSec on Karandras we'd have had a different result potentially. We can see what Objectives Pete subsequently rolled, and when we tried to figure it out it still looked like 13-12, but we can't predict whether his actions on the board would have remained the same. Ultimately neither of us played our heroes with ObSec so that was consistent, the only real issue being I was contesting an objective when it would have been lost earlier in the game. Anyways, I was tabled so although I technically won it feels like I lost so I think we called it a draw in the end. It did show me this list was slightly more viable and mobile than I thought but I was really helped by the mission choices.

And on to Game 3

1500pt battle report - Dark Angels v Nurgle Chaos Space Marines, Game 1

Ben suggested we have a mini tournament the other week, using Blog Wars rules. I managed to get it down to 1500pts for convenience and Ben, Liam, PeteB and myself rocked up to see what we could do.We randomly rolled starting match ups and I got Liam

The low down:

• Hammer and Anvil
• Kill points
• No night fighting, won deployment, elected to deploy second and stole the initiative.
• Warlord Trait - Ezekiel - Fearless to all units within 12"
• Psychic powers:

1. Psychic Shriek
2. Terrify
3. Hallucination
4. Dominate

I set up diagonally opposite Liam, using plenty of cover for my Bastion. This was the first time he'd played the Nurgle marines since our pairing at Throne of Skulls but I wasn't about to lose my Bastion turn one like last time! I did cruise the Land Raider forward, with Ezekiel, Techmarine and Deathwing squad inside.

I wasn't able to score First Strike [kill a unit in your first turn] but I did kill 1 Chaos Spawn.

I also killed a zombie cultist.

But forgot to move my Scouts who were too well hidden in Liam's back field that I didn't see them at all!

Not much happened in Liam's turn. I think he managed to kill a marine, but that was pretty much it.

My turn 2 and my second unit of Terminators teleported in. Unfortunately they deviated back towards my own lines instead of within cover of the trees, still, at least they didn't mishap on the cultists who had somehow become aware of the well camouflaged Scouts in the wood - maybe they could smell BRAINS! The Deathwing were pretty rubbish shooting, even with twin-linked 'to hit' on Deep Strike. I must have kille donly one or two, it was pitiful.

Tactical squad in the tower managed to Kill and wound another couple of spawn.

Hell-flies both turned up which would result in a classic display of Liam's 'bad luck'. I intercepted this Hell-fly with my Quad Gun, hit twice, got one penetrating hit of a 6, then rolled and got another 6 for damage! He is cursed, and then I suggested it might have some daemonic save but if it did it failed and then the only thing that would keep it in the sky was a 3+ roll on the imobilised flyer table which he failed, of course! The only silver lining was the fly was punched out of the air backwards and landed on top of my Deathwing and killed one of them.

The other Hell-fly took revenge by burning out the Tactical squad in the tower.

Meanwhile Typhus and his retinue disembarked from the corrupt Land Raider and would set their sights on the Land Raider. The Terminators who'd just lost one of their number were targeted by the Obliterators and promptly obliterated, even sheathed in Tactical Dreadnought Armour.

Armed with melta weaponry the chaos Terminators made short work of Deathwing Land Raider, reducing it to molten slag.

Luckily all the occupants were too well protected to suffer any harm from the explosion.

With Dark Vengeance™ in their eyes they faced their traitorous foes.

 

What followed was an epic confrontation with Chaos terminators doing little to no damage on the Deathwing, who responded with killing most of them, the Techmarine finishing them off while Typhus and Ezekiel faced each other. As his traitorous bretheren fell one by one to the Dark Angel powerfists he fueled all his hatred into a might attack, killing Ezekiel, the Techmarine and all the remaining Terminators ro become last man standing but not without taking two wounds from Ezekiel as he crushed him underfoot.

The Chaos Spawn attempted to eat the tower but the remainign combat squad of Tactical marines had properly barricaded themselves in, preparing to seek flaming retribution from the firing ports int he door.

Tyrphus stood over the gore-soaked remains of his guard and the might of the First Legion.

But failed to notice the nearby Tactical Squad who managed to find a chink in his corrupt armour with a sanctified and blessed holy bolt shell. He succumbed to this one wound and fell where he stood, his traitorous endeavours forever to be expunged from Imperial records.

The zombies finally managed to catch the Scouts, killing the sergeant as he tried in vain to defend the corpses of his squad from the cannibalistic hunger of the appproaching horde.

 

The game came to a close. I'd lost 1,030 points and only managed 300-500 in return. Liam also got Slay the Warlord and Line Breaker so it was a pretty comprehensive win. However, I had to love those defining moment in the game: 

• stealing the initiative - always makes Liam sad
• one penetrating hit, one immobilised vehicle, one failed crash test on the Hell-fly
• Tyhpus losing his last wound to a bolter round

 So, on to game 2...

Tyre Safety Month

This may explain why I've published 1,000+ posts in under 5 years but it would be remiss of me not to use this platform to share something I felt was important [especially when I did the animation below ;) ]. It's Tyre Safety Month in the UK [but you can 'play' along in other countries too] and the main headline is that there were 80,000+ tyre related incidents on England's motorways over the last two years and many of those could have been prevented by a very simple '20p tyre check'.

I know this isn't hobby related, or even a particularly exciting and 'sexy' topic but if you're interested please look at tyresafes website, share the message with your friends, or at the least check your own tyres before the Winter weather hits.

Actually saying tyres aren't exciting, I bet this guy wished he'd checked his tyres...