Kuragi Crisis Battle 1

Hello all.  I wanted to post my first battle report for the Kuragi Crisis Campaign.  It was a very rough game to say the least.  I decided to go the narrative route rather than do a blow by blow account of the battle.  I played George, AKA Spellduckwrong, and his U.S. Ariadna.  I was using my NeoTerrans.  We played in the Pan-OC Multibase, specifically the HAS area.  This was a modified version of the Decapitation mission.

The Liberation of Omicron Theta And Other News.

SeerK here to start July off.  As you may or may not have noticed we have added a couple of new writers to
the staff.  Oninotaki Joins us.  Oni is a GW ex pat and rabid war gamer and miniature collector.  He is going to be talking about a bunch of different topics including his own game which is currently in the works.  Everybody should be familiar with the up and coming Melcon VP of Acquisitions SMD_Vogrin.  He is joining us full time to share his wisdom in navigating the ways of the directorate.  He was also a Press Ganger for Privateer press.  So welcome the new additions and I look forward to posts in the future.  I also look forward to some posts from our less heard from authors...wink wink.


In celebration of the 4th this year we are doing something a little different.  Instead of the usual fireworks and adult beverages we are going to throw down this Friday at the FLGS, Evolution Games.  The Omicron Theta system is on the edge of the storm zone and is in need of liberation from the hands of the Terran oppressors.  what better way to celebrate Independence day than to send in a massive battle fleet to liberate the good peoples of Omicron Theta and bring them into the protection of the Federation.

6 players will be deciding the fate of the system this Friday.  Myself, Spellduckwrong and SMD_Vogrin will be bringing our Dindrenzi, Rense System Navy and Directorate forces, respectivley, to battle the Forces of Dreadbeard, Bigmek SkrapKlaw, and AAron, I apoligize I forget his forum handle.  Terrans, Sorylians and Kurak Alliance vessels shall be making an attempt to repel a heaping dose of freedom.

Each Player will be bringing 1600 point grand fleets.  Every player has an admiral with one being the overall force commander and worth extra battle log.  We will be playing on a rather large board as well in a neat configuration that Dreadbeard came up with as we were planning this shindig this past week.  Its going to be an "L" shaped with some special rules that we will talk more about this weekend when the battle report hits the blog.  So stay tuned.

Before Friday I will also be continuing my "Ships Of the Rense" series and starting into the Tier one vessels.  Next up is the bridge between tier two and tier one.  The Cerberus Heavy Cruiser.


Until then crush the Alliance and




REMEMBER DRAMOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Battle Report: "The List" vs Mech Guard

This past Wednesday I got a chance to test “The List” against one of our FLGS's regulars. Deus is usually known for his very nicely painted Dark Angels force. I have tangled with the hunters of the fallen on a couple different occasions. Both times they gave me a run for my money. This time I squared off against his Imperial Guard army which has not been in the shop as of yet. This Mech Guard army was a sight to behold. Nice lines of Chimeras with a Devil Dog and 2 Leman Russ battle tanks. Supported by a Hydra flak battery. I brought “The List” . This incarnation dropped the Avatar and a Fire Prism in favor of a squadron of Vyper bikes and a support battery of Vibrocannons.

We played a traditional pitched battle for objectives.

I placed my two objectives with in reach of my two guardian squads. The Vibrocannons set up next near the objective I placed in the corner. The Fire Prism set up in the middle of my deployment zone while the Vypers set up to have a go at flank of the army. Deus Set up a nice gun line of chimeras supported by the Leman Russ's. The Devil Dog was going to come up the flank to take my corner objective supported by the company command squad. The Hydras set up in the opposite corner of my Vibrocannons. Deus Seized the Initiative so I redeployed using Eldrads ability to do so. I repositioned he and his squad so I could rush the solid line of Chimeras and mortar team set up near them in cover. I also repositioned the Vypers to hit the Hydra Batteries as long as they survived. If not I still had a Bike squad and War Walker squadron in reserve.

Turn 1

The first turn saw me take a hellish amount of fire, most of which was concentrated on Eldrads Wave Serpent. It only resulted in a shaken result though thanks to Spirit Stones (spirit stones reduce stunned results to shaken for those of you not familiar with the Eldar codex) I lost a couple of Guardians and the Fire Prism. The Vypers took fire but only one took any damage. Thank the maker it was only a stunned result. I advanced my army in my turn one. Eldrad and his Warlocks moved flat out in their wave serpent towards the gun line. The Vibrocannons and Guardian squad did not move while Guardian squad 2 moved towards some area terrain stretching out their numbers to stay within 3 inches of the objective they were holding. The Vypers and Vibrocannons opened fire. The Vibrocannons stunned the Devil Dog and the Company Command's Chimera.

Turn 2

The Guard Advanced trying to encircle Eldrad. They opened fire pouring tons of fire into Eldrads Wave Serpent, this time doing nothing. The mortars caused one of the guardian units to break and some of their number went down in a hail of shells. The Vyper Squadron was also cut down to one Vyper armed only with its under slung shuriken cannon. In my turn two the War Walkers came strolling in on the board edge closest to the Hydra Flak tanks. The Vyper Retreated while the second Guardian squad advanced. Eldrad and his coterie of Warlocks disembarked. The Vibrocannons opened up stunning a Chimera and a Leman Russ. The War Walkers laid to waste the Hydras with concentrated missile and scatter laser fire. In the assault phase Eldrad and his boys destroyed 3 chimeras and most of the Guardsman they contained. The Wave Serpent opened fire killing some mortars but their resolve held.

Turn 3

Turn 3 saw some very bloody combat. The Guard commanders opened up with everything they had on Eldrad heedless of the safety of their own men. Warlocks were lost. Guardians were also lost as the mortars continued their relentless barrage. The amount of fire was reduced due to damage sustained form the previous turn. In my turn the Guardians rallied and marched forward. The War walkers continued their march across the flank laying into some guard squads now freed of their transports. The Vibrocannons stunned the same Chimera and Leman Russ this time removing a weapon from the Chimera. Eldrad and his warlocks shot up two squads of guard than ks to a well placed Destructor. They then multi assaulted the Guardsman and a Leman Russ wiping out both squads and destroying the tank. The Devil dog has suffered a weapon destroyed result on the melta cannon early on. It was close enough for the Guardian squad next to the vibro cannons to glace it to an immobilized and a second weapon destroyed result.

Turn 4

The Guards resolve was still holding. The advanced despite losses. The mortars continued to pound the Guardians. The lone Leman Russ backed as it was only stunned. The Master of Ordnance who finally was able to fire last turn continued the barrage which claimed the lives of several Warlocks. The Guard began to draw in and consolidate. They held one objective very tenaciously. The Bike Squad came in on my turn and rushed towards the lone objective held by the guard. Eldrad separated from the lone remaining warlock to help the embattled Guardian unit that had been charged by a sentinel. The Warlock took out the remaining mortar team closest to him and advanced on the remaining Leman Russ. Eldrad charged a Chimera between him and the Embattled Guardian unit. He only manged to make it unable to move and shoot. This was good as it was moving towards one of my objectives. The remaining Vyper had moved to support the Bike squad. The war walkers popped the Chimera that had moved to support the 3 Guardsman holding on to their lone objective.

Turn 5

The Guard now redoubled their efforts. The Vibrocannon battery took major fire and retreated from the board The bikes also took 2 casualties as they were lit up by las cannon and mortar fire. The Leman Russ moved back away from the warlock and in support of the last mortar team. The bikes moved in to finish off the Guard Unit holding the objective. The war walkers moved into engage the Leman Russ. After that killed off the occupants of the Chimera they had destroyed in the previous turn. Eldrad and The guardian squad moved towards the now unstunned Chimera that had plans to tank shock due to its inability to fire. In the assault phase the Guard Squad was forcibly removed for their transport.

Turn 6&7

The Guard was now on the ropes The Leman Russ attempted to tank shock the Warlock after an assault from the war walkers failed to kill it. The Guardsman pinned form their vehicle being destroyed were told to get back in the fight by the company commander and they opened fire and then assaulted the Guardians on my corner objective. The Guardians broke in the face of the assault and were cut down. The Bike squad had claimed the Imperial objective and the War Walkers destroyed the remaining Leman Russ as the Warlock was finishing off the last Mortar team. The last Guardian unit moved to the second objective they had moved off from to claim it once more. Eldrad moved to kill the Guard unit holding my previously held objective. He failed to make the distance in a charge.

The game ended with me holding two objectives to his one. He had 2 Guardsman and the Company Command Squad in their Chimera left in the end. I am very happy with how “The List” did in this version. The Vibrocannons proved to be very valuable since they auto glace vehicles and only one of them has to hit for them to be effective. I am not pleased with the Vyper and Fire Prism though and these elements may be changed. I may actually add a squad of Aspect Warriors. Some Dark Reapers would have been very helpful. A Night Spinner would have been nice as well. So we will see what I decide on. Next time I will cover my 1850 “Freak Show” List and also my new Combined force of Duke Sliscus and Baron Sathonyx.

Until then

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Research Continues: Battle Vs Imperial Guard With The New DE

Well I managed to get a game in this past Saturday with Lord Solar Steve of Dark Future Games. I wanted to test my prototype 1850 Dark Eldar list against Imperial Guard and of course continue to learn the nuances of the new codex. The list actually fared better than I thought it would against the massed guns of the Guard. Considering Lord Solar brought Hydra's and with the exception of the ratlings a completely mechanized force very heavy on the Leman Russ's. Knight Commander Pask on a vanquisher , I think it was anyways, was not a picnic.

As I have never been a fan of Wyches I opted to go for a Kabalite warrior force. The list was Headed by my new favorite character in the codex. Duke Sliscus. I also included some Haemonculi. Three Raider riding warrior squads each lead by one of the haemonculi, one group also included the Duke, were my troops choices. I also took 3 units of Kabalite Trueborns riding Venoms. Three Ravagers rounded out the list.

The basic theme and method to my madness with this list is to kill armor. Kill it hard and then gun down any passengers. In theory it has lots of anti tank power while the warrior squads have the anti infantry power. All the raiders and the Ravagers have their dark lances to take out any pesky tanks. The Raiders were equipped with Splinter Racks, which make all splinter rifles, cannons and pistols twin linked for anybody shooting from the raider. Very nice for killing troops. The real punch though comes from the Kabalite Trueborns. These guys can take a lot of special and heavy weapons. I took three 5 man squads. I also gave 4 of the 5 blasters. Then I mounted them on Venom armed with 2 splinter cannons. The codex states that vehicle mounted splinter cannons fire in the heavy 6 mode. Anybody get where I am going. This allows you to deep strike and dismount blast a transport and then hose the occupants with 12 poison 4 shots. Kind of brutal, in theory anyways. In this case not so much. Maybe it was my lack luster rolling or the fact Lord solar was making smoke saves like a boss.

Basically Lord Solar was all packed into one corner. It was a dawn of war deployment so I had the advantage despite going second. My night vision never came into play as Lord Solar was wise and kept everything off the board. It was an objective based game as well. We had 4 objectives.

I knew it was going to be a bloody and rough affair, as most of my games with Lord Solar have been, when it took the combined fire of 2 ravagers and 2 Trueborn squads to pop just one chimera. I started loosing raiders , which were thankfully within splinter rifle range by this point, in turn 2 and 3 as the guns of the Guard lite me up. The Duke and his warriors laid to waste a squad of storm troopers trying to contest the objective they held. This gave his unit 3 pain tokens. He already had one form combat drugs and the haemonculis gave the unit one as well. Sadly the Duke and his unit were relegated to holding objectives since the rest of the army got caught in the meat grinder that was Lord Solar's front line.

I could go into details turn by turn, but I won't. It was a carnal house of slaughter. The only thing living by the end of the game was Lord Solar's tanks and my super HQ unit on their raider. I had racked up 8 kill points and held one objective. Lord Solar had 14 kill points and no objectives. So I won technically. Granted it was at a very high cost.

The real issue with the list was the amount of kill points it contained. I never really thought about it until it was too late. A very derp moment for me. The vehicles are a major source of the KP. They are just so fragile especially versus Imperial tanks. I should have also given all the Trueborn units haywire grenades as they were kind of one trick ponies after the fired their blasters and just stood there.  I could have assualted the tanks at least. I had one warrior unit caught in close combat for 3 turns with a sentinel squadron I really wish they could take haywire grenades.

So I have some adjustments to do. I am going to remove some wargear to fit haywire grenades in where I can and I am replacing one or two of the Kabalite Trueborns with Reavers. I may loose a little bit of tank killing but I think the heat lances will be more effective and I can just run over exposed enemy troops on my way to the armor. I may try and get a game in tonight with the new list.

More on that later though. I am also trying to develop an Eldar list still as I have not quite decided what to run at Adepticon in the GT. I really am starting to think I will not have the codex down in time to really use it effectively in the GT. Next time will be the next Installment of the Phoenix Court of Khaine. I will be covering Karandras my favorite Phoenix lord.

Until then......

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dark Eldar Test Drive

Well I Squared off against The Judge in a pre apocalypse game this past Monday. I really wanted to try a list or two and The Judge as well as Old School Terminator were happy to oblige. I was very giddy and although I was going to field the army as I have in the past I knew it would be a sharp learning curve for the new rules. The new rules are about as forgiving as the Dark Eldar themselves. The margin for error, well there isn't one. This was very obvious in my second game versus O.S.T.

I took a nicely loaded out Archon, 2 warrior squads, a squad of Incubi with a klaviex, a squad of Kabalite Trueborns with 4 blasters and a ravager. All my units had raiders equipped with night shields, flicker fields and torment grenade launchers. The Judge brought his usual Imperial Fist Shenanigans.

This meant venerable brother overkill, Chaplin Stonewall with his thunder hammer wielding terminators, captain lysander and some sternguard in a drop pod and 2 scout squads one infiltrating with sniper rifles and the other outflanking in a land speeder storm.

The Judge took the first turn. Lysander and his boys came in hot and popped the Archons Raider. He and 9 very angry Incubi came out. He kept another Raider from moving. My turn one saw the Archon and Incubi moving to engage Lysander and the Warrior squad on the Raider that could not move disembarked and poured Splinter fire into the Sternguard with Lysander. This thinned the herd very nicely. The Archon and the Incubi he was with charged and eliminated lysander with brutal quickness. The Head of Lysander now adorns the front of the Archons Raider. The Kabalite Trueborns charged forward. Chaplin Stonewall Saw their intentions and stopped his Land Raider short to intercept. The Land Raider Crusader he was embarked on destroyed the Trueborns Raider and then the Terminator squad inside along with Chaplin Stonewall Brutally and efficiently beat the squad to death with thunder hammer with only one of their number falling to Trueborn blades. The Archon seeing his Trueborns die in such an exquisite fashion salutes Chaplin Stonewall and finishes off the sniper scouts. He then moves towards the Chaplin with the Incubi. Brother Overkill and the Whirlwind stayed held up in the ruins raining fire down upon the Archons forces. A squad of warriors glutted with the death of the Sternguard moved forward and Fired on Stonewall. They eliminated on Terminator. Stonewall and his First company brothers charged forward and hit the Raider with their thunder hammers laying waste to it. The warriors inside then died to the hail of fire from brother Overkill and the Whirlwind. The remaining 4 were cut down by thunder hammers. It was at about this time the Archon reached the Chaplin. He and his Incubi charged in cutting down all but one Terminator. The Chaplin was wounded but still able to fight. Although he somehow escaped death last time he was cut down in the second round of combat dying in agony on the end of the Archons Agonizer. The Land raider then sent a rather deadly barrage into the remaining warriors and the Archon The loan surviving Sybarite and warrior with a blaster destroyed the Land Raider. All that remained on the field at the end was Brother Overkill the Whirlwind, The Archon and some Incubi and the 2 loan Kabalite warriors. So I won by one KP. I have to admit I played like crap. This showed in the second game. I lost that one big time. the Tyranids of Old School Terminator making a nice neat sandwich of my army. I kind of got excited and rushed forward. It was a very bad choice on my part. I think the talk of Dr. Roxo the Rock and Roll clown and cocaine, a tangent from talk about Reaver bike combat drugs caused a derp moment. So as of now OST is not crying like a baby because of poison weapons. Granted his Tervigon almost died due to splinter fire in one turn. So yeah you must be focused and stay on plan and target. No real margin for error. Do I still like the codex? Hell yes! This is an army for the skilled and should not be used by the inexperienced. If you are starting out you will loose.... a lot.

So I am now preparing a 1000 point force to lead the Apocalypse game. I realized that if you want to use any Arcane Wargear you must take a Haemonculus. None of the HQ choices can take pieces of Arcane Wargear except them. The only thing the Archon can take is the Soul Trap.

Well next time a battle report of the Apocalypse game and I will be covering Fuegan in the next part of the Phoenix Court of Khaine.

Until then..........

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its a Bug Hunt: Eldar Vs Tyranids Battle Report

This past Wednesday I got a great game in. I squared off against Dark Future Games own Old School Terminator and his swarm of slavering Tyranids. I was using my still in development 1850 list. It turns out its pretty well suited to killing bugs. It was an objective game with 4 objectives placed in a kind of diamond on the table. Our deployment was a pitched battle.

I had first turn which was seized by old school. He was deep striking most of his army so there was a brood of termagants and some Hive Guard on the table turn one. They milled about for their turn taking some pot shots at my 2 wave serpents. When my turn one came around I concentrated fire on the hive guard with my 2 units of pathfinders which I had positioned in very nice overlapping fields of fire. I eliminated 2 out of 4 of the Guard. The Termagants tasted the web of the Night Spinner and became stuck in the terrain they were occupying.

Turn two saw one Trygon Prime come in and some Ravernors. They opted to hold back a bit as I had Wraithguard on the table and the Trygon did not want to get close. Not having the Eternal Warrior Rule really has taken the teeth out of the Tyranids.

The remaining Hive Guard took out the second Wraithguard units Wave Serpent. The unit on foot moved into one of the objectives. One of my Pathfinder units held one objective from their cover in a building. The pathfinders managed to do 4 wounds to the Trygon Prime on the table.

Turn 3 saw the Arrival of the Tervigon, second Trygon, both Genestealer broods and the Doom of Malen'tai. They moved to engage. The Doom Inflicted no wounds despite being in range of 3 of my units. The trygons unleashed a torrent of spines into Eldrad as the Ravenors moved into position to assault Eldrad and his coterie of Warlocks.

Basically this is the point the battle becomes epically fuzzy as all hell broke loose. The Ravenors were cut down to two out of six by massive amounts of fire from Eldrads unit. The night spinner had also hit them. The doom lasted a couple turns until the immobilized Wave Serpent, caused by the Hive Guard, blasted it out of existence by a krak missile. The trygons were brought down by massed fire and then the Wraithguard as their dying act. Massed scatter laser fire brought down the Tervigon. The pathfinders holding my loan objective were swarmed by Termagants and the second wiped out by Genestealers. Eldrads warlocks were picked off one by one until he alone was left in a pile of Tyranid bodies. I tank shocked a unit of Hive Guard and Termagants off the table. The Night Spinner was the real MVP as ti was shredding units and really helped the other units. When the Hive Tyrant finally came in on turn 3 and misshaped so he ended up in the opposite corner. When he finally came into the game he was blasted away by the remaining unit of Wraithguard.

In the end after 6 turns it was a tie. Turn 7 could have turned into total destruction for the Tyranids. It was back and fourth though. I had one Wave Serpent still mobile, the other Immobilized, Eldrad, one unit of Wraithguard and the Night Spinner left on the table.

All in all it was a very challenging and close game. If not for some well coordinated fire and dumb luck I could have lost. Old Schools reserve rolls were not being kind to him. The trickle of troops onto the board was a big advantage in the early stages of the game. It allowed me to concentrate my fire.

So good battle over all. Well next time we will delve into some more tactics and possibly even my initial plans for the 1850 point tournament at Adepticon.

Until then....

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!

Run Archon Run: Campaign Game 4

Well The Judge and I squared off in game 4 of our bi-weekly campaign on Wednesday.  This mission was 1500 points and basically all I had to do was run the hell off the board.  The Judge came loaded for bear with lots of attack bikes and land speeders.  Brother Overkill, Chaplin Stonewall and Sgt Badass and his sushine kids were all present to try and stop my Archon from doing what he does best.  Run Away.
Setup had be in the center 3rd of the table.  Exactly 24 inches from the edge I had to escape from.  If I had had first turn I would have had all my forces, except my two ravagers as heavies had to be kept in reserve, off the table turn two.  The Judge had first turn though and scored a kill on a Raider and forced another to stay put.  My turn one sees warriors form the downed Raider covering the escape of the three that did make it to the board edge and the Raider that could not move tried to down a land speeder.  The Judge dished out some melta love on the Raider That could not move in the previous turn and it exploded taking 3 warriors with it.  The Attack bikes finished them off in close combat.  My turn two saw the Archon and his retinue along with two Raider Squads escape, which gave me 4 "Kill Points".  The Raiders turned to fire after the squads disembarked as they dedicated transports did not count as kill points for the Judge.  The onslaught continued as Brother overkill and Chaplin Stonewall, with 5 terminators in a land raider, came in and squished the rear guard warrior squad left.  The Ravagers came out one at a time in turn 3 and 4 and were promptly downed by lascannon fire.  So with the two squads and two Ravagers down for The Judge we had a tie game.
I should have taken Reaver bikes instead of the Ravagers.  I could have had them on the table and escaped very quickly.  Plus if I had them in back the loss of one or two would be ok as long as the squad itself made it off the board.  Lesson Learned.

I was also disappointed by a blurb on BOLS about when we are going to see the Phantom Titan.  Apparently we are getting the Badab War in Imperial Armor 9 and 10 then Some Space Wolves and Imp Guard Versus Eldar in Imperial Armor 11.  Needless to say I want a bigger Titan.  Oh well Guess that means I can buy a second Revenant Titan, this time with Sonic Lances.  Maybe some Fighters.
Well next time perhaps some more tactics.  I know I need to do the next session of Rogue Trader as well.  So many topics so little time for me to write.

  Until Next time.......

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!

You win some and you loose some

Well I got in a couple battles Wednesday.  The first was a massive 6000 points per side Apocalypse battle Against my arch nemesis the Daemons.  I fielded the Seer Council of Ulthwe formation as well as my Revenant Titan armed with Pulsars and Cobra 2 super heavy tank.  This time I had to face 2 daemon lords and a tower of skulls.  I actually did not do to bad at first.  I was killing the daemon units decently, but things went bad as the titan fell to Ang Groth and the Daemon army did all it could to run away from the Seer Council.  Granted after I checked something I cried Shenanigans on the fact Ang groth should have been charging the closest unit every turn.  He was not and was by passing several.  I am not going to go into great detail as I lost and I am done playing against Daemon armies.  I have some issues with the codex and how it works and I also have issue with the Forge World Named Daemon lords and their rules.  I will just leave it at that.

I played a second game after taking a break.  This time I broke out the Dark Eldar for an 1850 point game against a Necron Horde.  I used the 1850 list I detailed in the last blog entry.  My opponent had 2 monoliths, 20 immortals, 20 warriors, 2 tomb spiders, 3 destroyers and  a lord.  It was an Annihilation mission with a Dawn of War Deployment.
This games went much better than the first as I phased him on turn 3.  Turbo boosting the whole army, except the Ravagers, so I was in his face when he cam on the board and then laying into the units with dark lance, blaster, and Dizzy fire pretty much did most of the job by turn 2.  The only unit to disembark was the Archon and his retinue.  They slayed the remaining warrior squad, all three in it, and the Ravagers cleaned up enough of the Immortals with Dizzy fire to get him below his Phase number, 11, by the time he was to start his portion of turn three.  I had one Ravager mobilized and 2 dead Reaver Jet Bikes.
I was amazed to say the least.  The army hit so fast and so hard.   It was a night and day difference between the Dark Eldar and my Craftworlders.
Me thinks I am going to get my nose to the grindstone and get the Dark Kin painted up to snuff to use at the GW tournament.  Sadly I keep forgetting to bring my camera with me to get pictures of all these games.  I just have to much stuff to load up into the car now and I keep forgetting to just put the camera in my backpack.  Thats going to be priority one when I get home.
So next time we will continue our march down the dark path and look at the different elements of the current Dark Eldar codex.  I am crossing my fingers  the rumors about the new codex coming out in October are true.



So until then.......................






Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its been a Necron kind of week

So I have gotten a few games in this week in preparation for the GW Store Tourney series round 3 on the 24th of this month.  So far the only takers have been Raven Wing and Necrons.  Wednesday night saw me square up against the Necron horde of "Meat Ban" Evolutions games computer guru and follower of this site.  He also started a rather colorful, lots of foul language, Nercron blog called March of The Machines.
This game was pretty brutal.  the list consisted of

Eldrad with 6 warlocks 2 with spears, embolden, enhance and a wave serpent with scatter lasers
2x 7 man squads of pathfinders
1x 6 man squad of guardian jebikes with 2 shuriken cannons
1x Farseer on jetbike with runes of witnessing, spirit stones, guide and fortune
2x Fire Prisms with holo fields and spirit stones
1x 5 man squad of dark reapers with Exarch armed with missile launcher, crack shot and fast shot.

I cheated though.  I was so distracted I forgot the Striking scorpions I got out of my case were not in the list and they got placed.  Granted they spent the game moving across the board and did not really contribute at all but still,  It was late and I was tired, I feel bad.
  Granted this did not stop the fire prisms from killing all his immortals on the first turn and the pathfinders from killing all his destroyers also in turn one.
The game went six turns but he was on the ropes from the begining.  He did get some revenge though.  His Monolith immobilised Eldrad's wave serpent in close combat. He did it from the rear and basically stood there unmoving so Eldrad and his Warlocks could not get out..........for three turns.  He just would not stay down.  needless to say frustrating.

Today I phased a 71 warrior strong force on turn 6 with the loss of a few jetbikes and warlocks.  This list removed the fire prisms dark reapers and second Farseer in favor of a 5 man unit of wraithguard with warlock in a wave serpent, a wraithlord and 10 warlocks as opposed to 6 and the Avatar.  This Game was 1850 points as opposed to the 1750  point game with Meat Ban.  No accidental scorpions this time though.
Once I closed the distance it was a slaughter house as the Avatar and Eldrad cut a bloody, or is it oily, path thru the warriors and 4 destroyers.  The two lords took longer to get as they started to retreat to the other side of the table with the surviving warriors.  I eventually caught him and got him below his phase number as we went into turn 6.
I felt bad though as I also played him in a small 500 point game with his raven wing and killed them to the man loosing only 2 shining spears and loosing none of the jetbikes.
So the list has been doing ok so far but i need to test it against a space marine force and without cheating this time.
We will see what Saturday Holds

Until then

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!

Combat Patrol Tournament at Evolution Games: The Aftermath

This past Saturday I participated in the Combat Patrol Tournament at Evolution games here in good old Lansing. Sadly I forgot my camera so no pictures this time around. It was a 4 round tournament with 2 objective based games and 2 based on kill points. For those of you not familiar with Combat patrol it is a tournament style that is pretty popular at Adepticon. You have a 400 point list. You must take one troop choice. No saves of 2+ are allowed nor are models with more than 2 wounds. Monstrous creatures were also not allowed in this particular tournament.

For my list I took

6x Guardian Bikers w/1 shuriken cannon and Warlock with singing spear and embolden

1x squadron of 3 War Walkers. 2 with missile launcher, 1 with bright lance all with scatter lasers.

I am pretty happy with how the list did. Round one I met with a Necron force of 10 warriors, 3 destroyers and one heavy destroyer. He got first turn which saw the destruction of two war walkers. I took out the heavy destroyer and then eventually made my way into hand to hand. The Warlock and bikes were destroyed by ironically enough the destroyers. My lone War Walker held out and got me a tie 1 KP to 1 KP.

Round 2 Saw me square up with Old School Terminator from Dark Future Games. He brought his Tyranids. 3 broods of Genestealers and 2 hive guard. We made it two turns before he conceded victory to me. This is mostly because I was actually in a good position in the dead center of the 4x4 table. When his first 2 units of Genestealers out flank from either side of me they could not get into range to assault. This left them wide open for fire form both of my units and given the amount of fire I could bring to bear with an AP value of 5 or greater the Genestealers stood no chance.. I had already offed one Hive Guard. So Victory was mine 5KP to 0KP.

Round three did not go so good. Papa Nurgle brought the pain, without any minions of Nurgle strangely enough, with 3 flamers, 5 pink horrors with a herald and 2 blood crushers. I did not realize how shooty pink horrors can be. Needless to say the bike squad was wiped out on turn 2 and the War Walkers went a turn later. This only strengthens my dislike of the Daemon Codex. I am still under the firm belief that the models are under priced and over powered.

Round 4 I squared up against our local War Machine guru Dave and His Imperial Guard. This was a fun battle as he brought lots of sentinels. We had a Gentleman's agreement that his vet squad would stay out of the war walkers way so they could duke it out with the sentinels. So the bike squad engaged the vets while my 3 War Walkers took on his 4 scout sentinels and his 2 armored ones. It was a dawn of war set up so there was not a whole lot of shooting. I have to admit I was kind of dumb. I did not assault the vets soon enough. I pad for it with heavy losses from the bikes. They held their own though and the Warlock survived long enough to kill a few vets and contest his objective. My War Walkers proved their worth by destroying 3 sentinels in close combat. Sadly the last scout sentinel held out long enough for his armored brothers to reach the assault. I was hoping to kill the scouts and then be able to shoot the armored ones as The War Walkers strength of 5 is not enough to hurt an armored sentinel. Regardless it was a Draw.

The winner was one of our resident Warboss's. Congrats to Matt and his killer Mob of Nobs in their truck who laid waste all those that stood before them. They even went toe to toe with a 6 strong squad of blood crushers and won.

So all in all a good tournament. Next time we will have part 5 of the Aspects of Khaine. Shining Spears.

Until then...................................

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Battle Report: Apocalypse Eldar vs Daemons

After testing my combat patrol list in a couple games I was roped into playing a 5000 point per side apocalypse battle. I threw together a list and was going to be squaring up against our local worshiper of Khorne and his new minion the bestial and huge An'ggrath. The demon lord is a big as my Revenant Titan and is a gargantuan creature. It was Painted by Dark Future Games own Csvinton.

So I decided to run the Phoenix Court of Khaine. Mostly because I did not have all my Fire prisms and I did not have any of my super heavies with me, mistake number one.

The game started out ok I took out a couple Daemon princes and a blood thirster as well as a lord of change. An'ggrath was the big problem literally. All my bright lances and the two squads of fire dragons only wounded on a 4+ and his invulnerably save was decent and he was making a lot of saves. The Phoenix Court of Khaine, for those of you not familiar, is an apocalyptic formation that includes the Avatar and all 6 Phoenix lords It gives the Avatar 1 additional close combat attack per Phoenix lord in six inches. It doubles the range of his ranged attack and makes his fearless aura double in range as well. It also makes him immune to Plasma weapons as well as melta and flame weapons.. Jain Zar, Karandras, Maugan ra, and feugan were the only ones besides the Avatar that could hurt An'ggrath. Despite the Avatar getting 6 additional attacks, one for each Phoenix lord, he and the Phoenix lords only wounded the huge daemon on 6's.

The mass of Bloodletter closed in and more Princes came in on turn 3. Flamers wiped out my Fire Dragons and a clever use of Daemonic gifts kind of made me cry shenanigans in its level of cheese. I won't repeat the combo as I don't want to spread the cheese to more people. So I killed a bunch of monstrous creatures but a bulk of my fire had to go to An'ggrath as I could not just ignore him or really keep him at bay. Granted he would have raped my Titan but at least I have range with the pulsars to punish him a turn or two along with the cobra and the scorpion. I think they need to rethink the points cost on this guy because its not enough as is.

I really think the Daemon codex needs an overhaul of epic proportions. All the troopers having Invulnerable saves is excessive and upsets me that certain choices in my army list that should have them but don't.

I will never play a battle like this without super heavies again. The formations are nice vs the infantry and such but I needed weapons that just wounded with no rolling. Between my Titan, cobra 2 and scorpion I would have taken the beasty down, instead of only getting him down to 3 wounds, out of 8, which granted is ok but not when I have the rest of the army to deal with as well. I actually ended up scooping in turn 4 due to the fact the Baharoth was the lone survivor of the formation and the rest of his army was withing striking distance of my tanks, the only ones besides Eldrad and his warlocks that could injure An'ggrath.

In retrospect I should have used all my pathfinders. They could have offed the Daemon lord with much better efficiency. More distortion cannons and my titan would have helped too.

So lesson learned. Don't bring an army to a Titan fight.

I think we have a rematch next week and I must plan something devious and brillant to survive and take down the minions of Khorne once and for all.

Until then.................

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GW Store Tourney Round 2: The Wrath of Ulthwe

The smoke has cleared and the Guns have fallen silent. Above the carnage on a hill overlooking the battlefield Eldrad Ulthran surveys the destruction his army has wrought upon the Mon-keigh and their so called Imperial Army. Victory tastes sweet.

Round 2 of the Games Workshop National Store tournament was this past weekend and yours truly played at the store at Great Lakes Crossing in Auburn Hills. I faced an Imperial Guard army that was actually all infantry. I came in expecting space marines or a chaos army or even a guard army that was a mechanized wall of death. I was a little surprised and feeling a little nostalgic when I faced a Cadian Guard army that was all infantry and only had 2 Leman Russ's and a Vendetta.

My list consisted of

HQ: Eldrad Ulthran with 8 warlocks. 2 destructor, 1 Enhance, 1 Embolden. All in a Wave Serpent armed with Eldar missile launchers, vectored engines and spirit stones

Troops: 1x 10 man squad of dire Avengers with Exarch armed with Dire Sword and Blade storm in a Wave Serpent armed with bright lances, vectored engines and spirit stones.

Troops: 1x 6 man squad of Guardian Jet bikes with Warlock w/Conceal and 2 shuriken cannons

Elites: 1x 6 man squad of Fire Dragons w/Exarch armed with Fire pike, tank hunters and crack shot

Fast: 1x 6 man squad of Swooping Hawks with Exarch armed with sun rifle and intercept

Heavy: 1x Falcon with scatter laser, holo fields and spirit stones

Heavy: 1x Wraithlord armed with bright lances and wraith sword

The guard player had his force divided in two parts which made my job kind of easy. He had a squadron of scout sentinels and a squadron of armored sentinels with 2 heavy weapons teams and his command HQ on one side of the board in the corner and the bulk of his force in the other corner. This did not make much sense to me since this was a pitched battle with the annihilation mission.

So after a redeployment, I got first turn, thanks to Eldrad I sent the Dire Avengers in their Wave Serpent and the Guardian Jet bike squad to deal with the Command HQ and the heavy weapons. I sent Eldrad and the Wraith lord against the right flank of the guard while the Fire Dragons hitched a ride in the Falcon to hit the left flank and the 2 tanks he had perched on a hill. Turn one saw the death of all the heavy weapon teams and one sentinel on the right side and the death of a few guardsmen and a Leman Russ being unable to move or shoot. I lost one Jet Bike and 2 Fire dragons and the falcon could not shoot in his return fire salvo. He ran 3 squads to cover and that was about it.

Turn two I advanced further with Eldrad and the Wraithlord. The fire dragons Got into lethal range and blew up the disabled Leman Russ taking several Guardsmen with it. The Bikes continued the assault on the sentinel destroying the armored squadron in close combat, thanks to 3 penetrating hits by a singing spear one in shooting and 2 in close combat, and the command HQ was obliterated say for the head dude and master of ordnance thanks to a Blade Storm. They were destroyed in the ensuing close combat by the Dire Avenger Exarchs Dire Sword. Eldrad and his coterie of Warlocks laid waste to 2 squads of Guardsmen and a Heavy Bolter squad with the Wraithlord. I lost a couple warlocks and several bikes in combat this turn as well as my Fire Dragon squad being cut down to the Exarch.

The Leman Russ left destroyed Eldrad's Wave serpent and began to move towards the Farseer. My Falcon was forced to retreat and turbo boosted from harm as the Vendetta came on the table and fired upon it.

Turn 3 I mopped up the sentinels and stared bringing the Warlock and last Guardian over to help the rest of the army. The Dire Avengers loaded up in their Wave Serpent and turbo boosted over to the other side as well. The Fire Dragon Exarch refused to run and got within bonus die range with his fire pike of the vendetta and shot it down in a fiery explosion which claimed 75% of the veteran squad within. Eldrad mopped up some remaining guard with in range and the wraithlord destroyed the 2^nd tank in close combat. The Swooping Hawks finally decided to come in and did it with a bang killing an entire squad with their grenade packs and heavy fire from las blasters and the Exarchs sun rifle. I Finally lost the Fire Dragon Exarch and another warlock. Turn 4 was quick I killed some guard and my opponent did not kill anything except 4 swooping hawks.

That's when time was called and I came out on top 11 kill points to his 2. I scored roughly 1350 victory points and he scored 740. The game was a massacre if it had gone to turn 5 I would have tabled him. I have no doubt on that fact. I was closing in and he had 2 squads of veterans left and an infantry squad. It was a good game and I am glad my list did so well. I think I may change it a bit for the last round as I am expecting to face space marines.

So a very decisive Victory for Ulthwe. Next time we will be covering or next Aspect warrior in the Aspects of Khaine series. Fire Dragons

Until then......................................

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Battle Report: Eldar vs Daemons and Orcs

Old School Terminator of Dark Future Games and I teamed up for a team battle Vs Papa Nurgle's Daemons and the Ork Horde of Evolution Games Computer Guru Shane. This battle was a capture and control mission with everybody's favorite deployment dawn of war. Each of us had 1750 points for a massive 3500 points per side battle. Old School was using his newly acquired army of Dark Eldar. That right you heard right Craftworld Ulthwe led by none other than Eldrad Ulthran was allied with the Dark kin of Cormaragh. In retro spec I should have brought my super heavies. A titan would have been nice for the battle given the amount of Orks on the table. I guess I was not fully aware how many boys you could cram into 1750 points. Add the fact it was led by the mighty Ork warlord Ghazghul Thraka and we have quite the horde. The forces of Nurgle were noting to scoff at as well. 4 units of Plague Bearers made up the core with a unit of 7 beasts of Nurgle. Yeah I said 7. I think it was 7 anyways. The mass was just to scary to look at for to long. A Great Unclean one lead the way with a Blood Thirster drafted from the legions of Khorne.

The list I was running is the prototype for my GW Store tourney list for the second round. Old School was running an Archon with Incubi and two warriors as well as Drazaar. He also had a squad of wyches led by a witch dracite. There were 3 ravagers and a hoard of warriors all on raiders. I think he had 4 warrior squads. There was a lot on the board and my memory is a bit fuzzy after such a long game. I had Eldrad and 8 warlocks leading the way with the Avatar. 2 squads of 15 guardians with warlocks , a squad of Dire Avengers, one wave serpent with bright lances, 2 Wraithlords and a squad of Striking Scorpions.

Our first turn was lack luster as we advanced. We only managed to kill 5 orcs in the initial shooting phase out of the mob of 30 that was on the board. Once the rest of the hoard hit the table on turn 2 Ghazghul initiated a waagh and all the boys advanced, except the really big mob of lootas , 15 to be exact. The first mob in had a big mech with them and they managed to wipe out a gaurdian squad but the Dark Eldar warriors guarding the objective managed to hold back the tide until one of my Wraithlords managed to make it there. The big mech actually did not die until turn 4 though. He was a tenacious git. The Minions of Papa Nurgle landed with the Great unclean one almost having a little accident. They began the slow advance towards the objective. The beasts, 3 units of plague bearers, the Great Unclean one and the blood thirster all landed in the same corner which was a very scary sight.

The orcs advanced and my Striking Scorpions came in on turn 2 outflanking on the right. This brought them into a huge unit of boys and although they took heavy casualties my unit Scorpions out numbered 3 to 1 came out on top after 2 turns of combat. Eldrad and the Avatar took out the boys brought in by the looted vehicles while The second wraithlord supported the Archon and wyches as they engaged the minions of Nurgle.

The Avatar Fought one turn of combat with Ghazghul Thraka and added him the the tally of hero's brought down by the wailing doom. The Avatar was not so lucky as he engaged the Blood thirster. Despite his wounds he brought the Blood thirster down to a single wound and then fell beneath his mighty axe.

By this point the battle was pretty bloody. The Minions of Papa Nurgle were engaged in a huge melee with the Archon and his retinue, the wyches and the wraithlord who finally succumbed to sheer weight of attacks by the plague bearers poison weapons.

The Orcs were pretty much wiped out with the 2 looted vehicles and truck immobilized and the lootas taking fire from 2 ravagers and two squads of warriors and one raider.

The unit of plague bearers who engaged the warriors guarding our objective finally defeated them. My Dire Avengers cut their number down a bit with a blade storm them moved to hand to hand. Mean while a gimped out raider made a break to contest their objective.

The Archon and his minions along with the wyches defeated 3 units of plague bearers along with the beasts of Nurgle and a Great Unclean one. A melee that lasted 4 turns. Alas my Dire Avengers could not hold out in the end and were routed. Eldrad and the Archon moved in but the Wych Dracite finished off the Bearers on our objective.

So with no Troops to hold it and A raider and some warriors contesting theirs we had a draw. We totaled kill points and again we came to a draw. Since it was 1:30 a.m. We just called it a draw

So this epic game that was a swirling melee of death and destruction was all for naught. I guess that's how it goes.

Old School Terminator will have a video report of this battle up soon on Dark Future Games so check it out when he gets around to it.

Next time we will have part 4 of our series on Aspect warriors. The ladies of death. The Howling Banshees.

Also next week will will have a look at the Chapter House Studios Warlocks and Farseer On jet bikes conversion kits.

Next Sunday I will have the aftermath of the GW Store Tournament 2^nd round as well. OS lots of stuff

Until then...........

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Battle Report: Eldar vs Orks

This past Wednesday I got a game in at good old Evolution Games.  It was also our first bits trading night.  I got a lot of good bits and have given into my temptation to start another army.  I will post some picks in the coming weeks of my new Blood Angels projects.  I know, why mon keigh? I like to paint and Blood Angles is a classic.  Plus gives me time to study the enemy and his ways.  Despite the bits frenzy I got to face one of the regular greenskin players in a Capture and Control spear hear set up game.
I used the round two revision of my GW Store Tourney series list that I was going to be using at said tournament on June 19th.  I found out I will be facing the Imperial Guard so I may change the list to adapt to this new found knowledge. The current incarnation of the list consists of;

Eldrad Ulthran
4x Warlocks.  Two with Singing spears.  Embolden, Enhance, destructor x2
The Avatar
1x Squad of 10 scouts upgraded to pathfinders
1x Squad of 10 Dire Avengers with Exarch.  Exarch has bladestorm Dire Sword and shuriken pistol
1x Squad of 5 Dark Reapers with Exarch.  Exarch has Crack Shot and a Tempest Launcher.
1x Squad of 5 Shining Spears with Exarch.  Exarch has Hit and run skilled rider armed with Star Lance
1x Squad of 10 Striking Scorpions with Exarch.  Exarch has Shawdow Strike, Stalker and biting blade
1x Fire Prism with Holo Fields and Spirit Stones.

The ork horde had one big mob of lootas, two huge mobs of boys in battle wagons, a warboss with a nice big mob of nobs in a truck, a def dread and 2 small flights of death coptas, One and two.

We had lots of terrain and to my dismay I did not get first turn.  After setting up and infiltrating my pathfinders the death coptas used their scout moves to get into firing position of the Fire Prism and the Pathfinders.  Turn one saw the destruction of the Fire prism despite the Holo Feilds, rolled a 5 and a 6 on the dice , and the pathfinders taking fire and then loosing the assault they were forced into by the death coptas.  They ran off the table.  The dire Avengers were holding my objective and stayed put while Eldrad and his Warlocks moved up with the Avatar.  The shining spear advanced as well in support on the flank.  The Striking Scorpions were in reserve doing an out flank.  The Dark reapers punished the loota  mob which despite loosing more than half its number did not run.  The battle wagons advanced on the objective while the warboss and his nobs cut off  Eldrad and the Avatar.  Once they got in range they put the truck between themselves and the big boys and assaulted the shining spears instead of Eldrad and the Avatar.  The Shining Spears were slaughtered.  The Avatar only manged to immobilize the truck. 
Things got bloody quick.  I was not rolling well at all.  The warboss and his nobs killed Eldrad and his warlocks after 2 rounds and then finally managed to off the Avatar ofter 3 rounds of combat.  The death coptas were a thorn in my side.  I did dispatch the lootas and two coptas but the remaining copta and the large mob in one of the battle wagons finished off the Dark Reapers.  I was down to one squad.

As i have said Dire Avengers can hold objective like no other.  When faced with the green tide in turn 6 they braced and blade stormed the nearest mob and cut it down to about 25% of its full size.  This took enough out to make sure they did not have range to assault me.  The game then Ended with me as the victor.  I held my objective and he did nto have anybody claiming his.

A victory for Craftworld Ulthwe but at what a cost.  If the game had gone to turn 7 I would have been done for.  The Dire Avengers Held off the tide despite heavy losses and managed to pull thru.
This list is going to be drastically changed for facing Imperial Guard at the GW Store Tourney.  I did nto do bad.  I had massive losses and still won.  I managed to keep the Orcs focused on what they like.  Shootin stuff and assualting.  Once I lost the Ability to effectively disable the battle wagons I had to change tactics to keeping the orcs at bay and slow them down so they could not reach the objective.  That means sacrificing troops and going all or nothing into that strategy.  It paid off but it was a major gamble.  If it had gone into turn 7 it would have been a very different outcome.

It was a good learning experience.  I have not fought Orcs in a long time and it was good to get a taste of something not wearing power armor.  So guess we will see what Saturday holds as I try a new list and see what I can do against some Imperial Guard.  Unitl Then........

Blood runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!