Warhammer World GT3 - Game 3 Tyranids v Slaanesh daemons

Game 3 of GT3 and I'm facing Dan Moody and his awesome 'Pleasure of Slaanesh' Chaos Deamons.

The low down:

• Not sure which mission [Chapter Approved mission]
• Spearhead Assault - Table ends pointy deployment
• Not sure who chose, think it was Dan, 
• I went first, again unsure on whehter I won it or stole it, sorry

He had so many Seekers, which I had heard were good and fast: 14" move , plus D6+1" advance, plus 2D6+1" charge. They were going to be in my face and yet I still pushed forward in my first turn with my reserve deep strike. Objectives were scoring each turn and I had to hold as many as I could because I could see Dan had a much more difficult army to overcome.

Thanks to all the shooting I managed to wipe out one unit of Seekers for First Blood. Dan later confessed he thought the game was over at this point! Meanwhile my Trygon failed to reach one of the Chariots but the Genestealers made it and thanks to Metabolic Overdrive on the Broodlord were in range of his aura to rend the chariot unto mince meat. Somewhow I'd managed to secure four objectives that turn with the Stealers holding one in the ruin, the Flyrant holding another.

The other side of the board had my Termagants holding the third while one the second Flyrant faced the opposition.

My Tervigon supported the gaunts on their objective and the Skyshiled held the fourth.

Seekers swarmed my Devgaunts and it looks like they all got dead.

Chariots and Daemonettes surrounded the Genestealers,

ready to pounce.

With the Devgaunts dead, the Trygon on 11 wounds and the Flyrant on 8 the two Daemon Princes swooped over with the Keeper of Secrets. They had auras making it difficult to hot so the Broodlord failed to lay a claw on the Keeper.

While she slaughtered him with impunity, his invul save worth nought against her vicious attacks.

Genestealers were all but removed from the board, just one surviving but no doubt died in the morale phase.

Everything else consolidated in among the Tyrgon and Flyrant. Dan scored 3VPs in his first turn.

My turn 2 and I still had complete control on this objective.

My second Flyrant swooped into Dan's backfield to secure this objective, but there were Daemonettes to kill to capture it. I may have needed Metabolic Overdrive to make the distance. Rippers snatched the objective in the wood.

My Warlord Flyrant 'fell back' to the ruins in the centre, hoping to challenge the Daemonettes holding the objective with the Trygon. He may well have destroyed one of the Chariots in the shooting phase though. Meanwhile the other Trygon failed to do very much because Slaanesh strike first!

All the Seekers, Daemon Princes and Keeperbrought it down but it might have lashed out and wounded some of them as it died.

Daemonettes swarmed the Trygon but I couldn't kill enough.

The second Flyrant failed wipe out the Daemonettes but somehow I still scored 3 VPs in turn 2.

The Seekers now released, they swept across the board towards my Termagants and Tervigon.

I think that 6 is another Death Throes roll for the Trygon.

It was only on 2 wounds and the Keeper of Secrets goes from 5 wounds.

Down to 2. Not sure of that Chariot got wiped out in the process but my Flyrant did, sadly not setting another Death Throes off.

The centre was completely lost and Dan had slay the Warlord. The second Daemon Prince headed for my Flyrant.

I don't think he survived the combat as I got Slay the Warlord and he may well have been it, but the Flyrant was down to 4 wounds and the Daemonettes secured the objective [plus the one in the ruin] for 2 VPs this turn.

When we went into turn 3 I still had the objective in the woods and the Tervigon held the other giving me 2 VPs. The second Prince swooped over and killed the Rippers.

Seekers wiped out everything on the far side of the board which gave Dan 5VPs this turn which put him into the lead with 9VPs to 10VPs [not including secondaries].

Our last turn and I was able secure just one objective with the Skyshield, remember that? The Flyrant still could not kill the last remaining Daemonettes but he did secure Linebreaker. Dan also followed suit but scored another 5VPs for objectives which brought game 3 and day 1 to a close.

I scored 10VPs for objectives, plus the 3 secondaries, for 13 VPs. Dan scored 15VPs for objectives and 2 secondaries, for 17VPs. I beleive we also had to add kill points, I scored 8, while Dan scored 11 giving a final score of 21 to 28 to Dan. I actually killed 1,193pts worth of figures this game!

This was such a good game, I was rightly afraid of the Seekers but Daemonettes with so many attacks at -4AP! The inability to strike first also meant I was losing models in combat before they should have done some damage at least. I may well have been beaten [again] but I had a brilliant game and Dan was such good fun. Bring on day 2!

Hobby Season 2017/18 half way point

When I arbitrarily chose 28th August as the beginning/end of the Hobby Season I never realised that the half way point lands on my birthday. In truth I was going to recognise this coincidence last year but promptly forgot to write anything. So I just thought a little reminder a might reinvigorate everyone's efforts. Suffice to say I'm pretty happy with my current progress. In fact here's a sneak peak at the recently  completed Dark Angel Predator that I need to reveal when I get a gap in my schedule.

And my most recent completion (just last night in fact) , the 1984 Citadel Samurai for the Eavier Metal 20 year competition.

Unfortunately I haven't had time to create any freebie to gift on my birthday as I would  normally try to do. However, this Hobby Season reminder comes just as the weather might turn and hobby mojo might flourish as the Spring fecundity will bear fruit for us all. So get you paintbrushes out and your hobby on as those Great Big Gamboge Stamps of Approval aren't going to award themselves!

Warhammer World GT3 - Game 2 Tyranids v Orks

Game 2 of GT3 and Morgan Cole and I have been asked to play live on Warhammer TV! I obviously had to concentrate a lot on the game so pictures were taken only sparingly and I'm a bit shaky on what happened but I'll be going back over the Twitch feed to try and recollect but I'm only part way through so far. Either way if you have a Twitch subscription you can watch the game here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/229954502

The low down:

• Roving Patrol [Chapter Approved mission]
• Dawn of War
• Morgan chose deployment zone, 
• I either won first turn, or seized - I went first that's for sure.

Aside from the honour of being on Warhammer TV and the achievement of my dream I was almost totally unprepared for the enormity of the game. I had tried to split my army into three on the drive down to Nottingham so I had a start but I just could make neither head nor tail of the mission. I was allowed to deploy the Skyshield regardless [no one could reconcile how Fortifications fit into the deployment so they just made a decision there and then] and luckily I rolled to start with my first third - which I think was

• Warriors
• Hive Guard
• Tervigon
• Termagants

I deployed the Hive Guard in the ruins to shoot at anything heading towards the centre objective. The Skyshield sat on the other objective. I was lucky that both Trygon's arrived as reserves, with their tunnel buddies. On top of that my Warlord Flyrant.

Tervigon and Termagants swarmed to secure the centre objective and then in the midst of everything I totally messed up shooting the mob of boys with my Devgaunts. 

When I came to the Genestealers and their charge I suddenly realised Morgan had deftly removed all the nearest model and a 9" charge was now 11" at least! I failed charges by all on both flanks.

I was feeling totally out of my depth and then Morgan brought on his reserves, a second truck and mobs of boyz.

The Boyz swarmed the Genestealers and at least I had the sense to kick off with Caustic Blood, knowing just how many hits these guys have. 

And they stayed true to form and managed to butcher the lot of them and the Trygon too!

Morgan then unleashed a second stroke of tactical genius. Alongside his second mob of Boyz he brought on a Painboy [or Weirdboy, not sure] behind storage tank No.31. He was out of sight of the Devgaunts and so charged. In 8th you can charge without Line of Sight and ironically you cannot overwatch without it! Which I think is the opposite to 7th. So he made the 7" charge on the Devgaunts - tying up all 25 Termagants and was safely able to bundle the remaining Mob of Boyz in without fear of overwatch! 

A genius move I couldn't help but admire, even after all the Termagants were butchered. The Termagants in the centre also took a pummeling, losing 11 of their number but I replenished 10 of them in my turn thanks to the Tervigon.

I think the Warlord Flyrant was down to around four wounds so I retreated to use his Devourer shots on the big Mob. Meanwhile the Trygon charged one of the Trukks.

Which looks like it got smashed only to leave the Trygon surrounded by disembarked grumpy Orks, angry at the loss of their boat.

Moar Mek Guns arrived with the last of Morgan's army and the mob on the right flank decided to solve the issue in the centre of the board.

Morgan then cast Da Jump - Perilling in the process as his Weirdboy dumped 20 Orks in my deployment zone.

Boyz start butchering Termagants, I think I employed Caustic Blood again, I'd brought my Rippers on too to throw in and add to the numbers holding the objective.

Da Jump Boyz manage to make a phenomenal charge against the Hive Guard. Unsurprisingly they are cleaved up like kebab skewers

In response I bring the last Flyrant in and the Broodlord to whittle down their numbers. My dice rolling is appaling at this stage though. I can't get anything to do what I want, even Morgan begins to feel for my lack of success. It's reasonable that there are specific Warhammer TV dice - it helps them show up on TV and it means we're both using supplied dice, not our own [which is fair] but they are really big dice, something I was not prepared for and with relatively small hand not equipped for either, ha, ha! Ceri said the same thing afterwards.

The Flyrant gets killed by the Tank Bustas and then a series of shots at the Warriors on the Skyshield manages to completely bypass the invulnerrable save and all three die! The battle rages on in the middle of the board with the Termagants being crushed between the Boyz they were in combat with and the Orks that had killed the Hive Guard and cleverly removed sufficient models from the attack of the Broodlord and Flyrant to be out of combat.

With the Termagants gone there was nothing I could do and we called the game. It was afterwards I found out I'd only scored 82pts worth of damage, and we'd only completed two turns. However, I realised my dream and despite the result on paper it was an amazing game, Morgan's tactics in particular raised the bar, hopefully something I will look into how I can apply also - charging from out of LoS for instance.

Anyway, a fab game and Nick and Ceri were super-appreciative of our efforts, so I can't ask for more. On to game 3!

Warhammer World GT3 - Game 1 Tyranids v Orks

First game of GT3 and I'm facing the spectacularly bearded Ben Briscoe and his filthy looking Orks made up of excellent Battle Wagon - Taurox Conversions and some of the artillery guns kitbashed from spare [looted!] Tau weaponry. As mentioned my recollection of the battles are really sketchy so I will do my best

The low down:

• Re-supply Drop [Chapter Approved mission]
• Hammer and Anvil - Table Ends deployment
• I chose deployment zone, but I deployed last unit [giving Ben +1 to win first turn], 
• Ben won first turn, I failed to seize

Skyshield and most of my none reserve deplyment on the board. I did not use Alien Cunning to remove the Warlord Flyrant, instead opting for Tenacious Survivor as my Warlord Trait.

Orks tried to shoot me down but couldn't manage to get First Blood.

Ork War Boss channeling the WAAARRGH! - handy LED lights powered by a battery in the base.

The other 'raving' Weird Boy with his glow sticks.

My turn and I used Metabolic Overdrive on the Tervigon to sprint up the board, followed by Termagants to hold the objective. Flyrant swooped on top of the foundry towers.

My Trygon arrived with the Devgaunts and my plan actually worked in that the Tervigon was now in range to buff them [re-roll 1's to hit]. The other Trygon and Genestealers arrived at the back of the board and the second Flyrant was inbetween them.

My Trygon made the charge on one of the Trukks

 

The Trygon struck...

... and ended the Trukk for first blood. I don't think the Tankbusters inside took any wounds and disembarked to the top of the towers.

I swooped the Flyrant down to take out the Battlewagon

The Flyrants ill-conceived charge on the Battle Wagon resulted in taking 5 wounds for not much damage inflicted.

Genestealers made the charge on the Grots with the Mek-guns [?]. I wiped out a unit of grots so one gun was decommissioned, sort of. Second Trygon made the charge on another Trukk. Smashed the trukk killing a couple of Tankbuster inside this time.

I don't know the name of the Ork biker Warlord but he led the counter offensive on the Trygon with a mob of Boyz backing him up.

Weirdboy powers up the Orks with plus one attacks.

20 Orks get in doing 100 attacks! The Trygon could not stand against so many Choppas!

With only 5 wounds left the second Trygon also fell to the Biker Warlord.

One of the Mobs charged the Genestealers

And managed to chop 16 of the 17 Genestealers into little pieces. Probably would have been handy to choose the Caustic Blood stratagem in this instance...

My remaining Stealer killed two in return but would die from battle shock.

Boyz tried to chop up the Flyrant.

Which I think they must have succeeded as I don;t see him elsewhere.

As time was running out we had got to turn three and Ben rolled to remove the two redundant Alpha Objectives, choosing one nearest his grots, one behind the Aquila strongpoint and one by my Felshborer Termagants. The Fleshborer Gaunt objective was the Alpha supply drop. With the mob of Orks having a party after killing the Trygon, they were unaware of the Tervigon and Gaunts about to spoil the fun.

They bundled the lot of them.

And killed all but the War Boss.

Fleshborer Gaunts finished off most of the Boyz who'd killed my Warlord in the shooting phase.

Then killed the remainder, while holding the Alpha objective.

Weird Boy had headed for an objective but my Rippers had already cheekily been there before it was revealed it was not an Alpha. Battle Wagon headed for Line Breaker.

My Flyrant had secured the other Beta objective. But a squad of Kommandos came on in a last ditch attempt to steal it out from under the Hive. They would make the charge but Overwatch and my Monstrous Rending Claws would see them finished.

I'd somehow secured a victory holding both Alpha and Beta objectives. The fact I had been on all but one of them before the Alpha and Beta were revealed gave me the advantage in holding on to them. Ben was a great sport, patiently waiting while I confirmed the scoring nature of the Skyshield ahead of the tournament. I managed to to do only 609pts of damage though and lost a significant amount in return.

I think the Flyrant assaulting the Battle Wagon was a mistake but it stopped the momentum of the Orks at least. I'd imagine a completely different result if they'd driven unopposed around the board dropping the big mobs off on the objectives I was so tenuously holding. Hive Guard were shockingly poor though.

Anyway, on to game 2

March 2nd is Old Stuff Day

Just a heads up March 2nd is Old Stuff Day A few years ago now warhammer39999 wanted to join a movement to rediscover lost gems from the world of hobby blogs and it's still going strong today. To choose one or more of your own blogposts that you're most proud of, or may not have got the attention it deserved or any thing that may warrant some necromantic blogpost bothering. On top of that you are to share blogposts from other bloggers which you think deserves the same spotlight of attention before they're returned to their dark nightmare infested slumbers.

So if you have a blog don't forget to root through your old posts and rediscover those hidden gems. Feel free to use the Old Stuff Day poster by Firstkeeper from DeviantArt.