War in Sector 135: Victory, Injury, and a Missed Opportunity

Farseer Elros Mithrandir walked swiftly through the primitive, but admittedly sturdy, corridors of the former Death Korps of Krieg outpost. He was trailed by his battle commanders, senior scouts and most trusted Bonesingers. All reports indicated that the offensive mounted by the cursed forces of Nurgle Daemons the night before had been completely routed with minimal casualties incurred to the defenders. Thankfully, the mechanized wing that was deployed to hunt down the remaining Krieg forces was within range to be called back to bolster the contingent of this mostly barren world.

Mithrandir was not bothered by Nurgle's attack, nor elated by its defeat. This had been foreseen and had played out near exactly as it had been read upon the Skeins. Pulses of annoyance and concern fluctuated through him because of Delbaeth's recent misadventures with the Orks. Mithrandir offered a plan of attack to the Autarch which entailed a powerful strike at the heart of Nurgle's power base whilst most of its forces were occupied with the Krieg world. If he had accepted the mission, Delbaeth could have purged the remaining taint of Nurgle from this quadrant of Sector 135 with minimal Eldar casualties. Unfortunately, Delbaeth was not interested, as he could only see vengeance and Mithrandir did not have time to convince him otherwise since a massive horde of Daemonic energy was moving quickly towards the former-Krieg outpost. Tragically, Delbaeth's tunnel vision had caused many Eldar deaths, allowed Nurgle to regroup, and probably only emboldened the greenskin leader. Perhaps Delbaeth's blind blood lust will be diminished once he's out of the infirmary.

One of Mithrandir's battle staff approached quickly and handed him a report from Tiarna Cruinne. His fist clenched when he finished the short field summary and Mithrandir's eyes narrowed as he spoke to his commanders. "So be it. I had hoped that they would have taken this opportunity to escape rather than attempt to engage our forces. Ready my strike team, I want this over quickly. We do not have the time to let them suffer for their ignorance."

Heading to the vehicle bay, the Farseer stopped and spoke quietly to his personal aide, "If and when Delbaeth awakens from surgery, please extend my condolences for Ti'Fani and give him priority access to my direct communication channel. Ensure he uses it."

***********************************************************************************

This was my attempt at narrative fiction for our campaign. I was jealous of SeerK's entries, so I decided to add my own. Also, that pic at the beginning is my first try at digital coloring. I found a black and white image of a Farseer and colored it to look like my actual tabletop model. I have put the two pictures at the end. I didn't realize how beat up my Farseer model was until I saw the close up photo of it. I guess it needs some TLC at the painting table.

I have no idea who the original artist is, so I can't give credit. If anyone knows, I'm all ears.

Ah, pewter. So durable.

So Many Projects So Little Time

Image by Florian Stitz www.florianstitz.de

I will be posting an update for the campaign Wednesday. Lets just say the continuing battles against BigMek

SkrapKlaw did not go so well this past week. I wanted to give a little update about some non 40K stuff.

As you know we recently added an author to the blog to write about Warmachine. I have picked up about 40 points worth of Cygnar. This is mostly thanks to the swag bag at Adepticon this past year. Then thanks to eBay I picked up a unit of Long Gunners and 2 units of Stormguard. I also got a deal bits trading at Adepticon for a unit of Arcane Tempest Gun Mages. I also snagged a Kara Sloan Warcaster from the shop as they had one sans cards in the used case for $5 bucks.

So I have a nice shooty Cygnar force. I guess I really just need to pick up a couple different Jacks to really get the most out of Kara. Shooty ones. I have my eye on some Precursor Knights and Ol'Rowdy as I also have a Captain Coleman Stryker. I was warned that if I wanted to play friendly games at the shop I was not allowed to use Victoria Halley as a Warcaster. Tournaments is fine, but no friendly games. Which after reading her card I agree. She is kind of broken, especially when I plan on doing a shooting force.

I figure painting bright blues and such will be a good break for me in between painting the horde of Guardians I currently have on the table. So far the block of 40 I have on the table is all base coated and just needs the final layer and a little detail work. This brings the total up to 80 Guardian Defenders. I am going to run the Guardian wall at the Michigan GT in September I just have to figure out the Anti tank portion of the list.

I have several tanks on the table as well. I am building a StuG battery out of the Bridge to Bridge supplement for Flames Of War. I have about 9 StuG tanks and 3 StuH tanks as well as a King Tiger. I need to build a Pioneer Platoon, but I don’t think the infantry I have will be able to do a legal platoon. I may need to pick up a Pioneer platoon box.

I have my Rense System Navy Fleet almost done. One more blister of Frigates, a cruiser squadron, 2 blisters of Phoenix destroyers a dreadnought and a carrier will round out the fleet. I wanted to have it ready for UCON this year as I plan on running an event. I will need more ships though to run the event. Its a good thing the game is pretty inexpensive and most of the guys at the shop have ships.

So I am in full swing for hobby stuff. Its all on stand by at least for this week though as I am finally finishing school. This is my last week of class. Also wish me luck. As I write this I am waiting for a call back for an interview Wednesday. I had a good phone interview with Mahle Industries this morning and I am waiting for a call back for an interview time Wednesday.

Well More updates on the campaign later in the week.

Until then.........

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

War In Sector 135: SkrapKlaws Revenge

“How is he?” Tanith Asked as he dismounted the Wave Serpent.

Farlin shrugged and tilted his head slightly. “As well as can be expected I suppose.” The Dire Avenger Exarch gestured to the Spirit Seer to follow and lead him into the small fortress the Warhost was using as a base of operations. They entered and walked down a short hallway before turning. Tanith could feel the energy flowing through the wraithbone of the bases structure.

“We lost Ti'Fani in the battle. The blood lust of Khaine overtook her upon Delbaeth falling to the greenskins.”

“Did you recover her stone?” queried Tanith.

“Yes Seer we did, and Delbaeth was not dead.” The Exarch lead Tanith into a dark room. He stopped and gestured for Tanith to stay in the hall for a moment. Tanith stood, feeling the raw emotion flowing out of the room in waves. Farlin came out and spoke softly. “He is calm for now, I hope you can reach him.”

“I will do my best, but the scaring runs deep. I can feel it from here.”

I will be coordinating our forces if you need me. The room down the hall on the left is the CNC.”

“ I thank you Exarch.” Tanith paused and spoke again before entering the room. “ If you could see to the cargo I brought with me.”

“ Of course Seer.” Farlin began to walk away but turned to face the Spirit Seer. “What are you planning that you require so much ? Also was that a Wraithlord in the stasis pod? Delbaeth isn’t dead as I stated earlier”

“I am fulfilling a promise. That is all. Worry not Exarch the Wraith construct is not for the Autarch”

The Spirit Seer turned and walked into the room. Delbaeth sat at a table motionless and silent. “Autarch let us talk. Ti'Fani spoke well of you” Tanith sat across from the Autarch. “You have doubts I know, but with my help we shall overcome them together.” “My sisters vengeance cannot be carried out alone.......”

Well we had a battle royal this past campaign night. BigMek SkrapKlaw hit the webway gate to try and reclaim it. The remainder of my Warhost rallied to defend it. It would seem that revenge was the BigMeks intention though as he ram rodded his whole army strait towards my Autarch. In a genius move on my part I broke him off of the unit he was attached to to fusion gun the BigMechs battle wagon. I also Broke Ti'Fani off from the same unit of Dire Avengers and cast Death Mission. My ditzy farseer went super saiyen and began to pummel the other battle wagon at the front of the army. Now my intention was to bust open the wagon containing the big mech and then hose down the mob inside with shuriken fire. Sadly I missed with the fusion gun and rolled a 4 for my jet pack move. So I did get to poor a ton of fire into the mob to get it down to a manageable size, but it was after they charged and killed Delbaeth.

Two and a half units of guardians and my Dire Avengers killed most of the boys with the BigMek and then The Exarch, Farlin, wounded the BigMek in close combat. The orcs broke at combat resolution and the Avengers lived up to their name and cut down the BigMek and his remaining boyz in a hail of shuriken fire as they ran. Sadly as the orcs departed they lit up Ti'Fani and killed her. Her story is not over though. She is too entertaining.

Now with the orcs pulling out and in full retreat, the host of Nurgle Daemons that was also in this 4 way battle had to be dealt with. The gate was infested with Nurglings as the larger daemons advanced. Luckily I had an unspoken and undeclared non aggression pack with The Judge.....and his Grey Knights.

Needless to say Papa Nurgle retreated faced with my remaining Eldar and a Full 2250 point force of Grey Knight Terminators. The gate was held. I sadly had to abandon it. I had to leave and destroy the gate to prevent the forces of chaos from taking it or using it. This was the price of the Grey Knights help in the battle.

Small price to pay though. I now have my Warhost at its new hub. Spellduckwrong donated one for the cause. I am bringing in re-enforcements in the form of wraith units and a Spirit Seer. I am also bringing in Ti'Fani 2.0. Ti'Fani the Wraithseer.

We will see how things go. I am building a fortress of redemption on my hub so it is well defended. Combine it with the 500 point garrison we are allowed at the hub, for hub defense only, It should be able to repel some fair sized forces. Now that the Combined Craftworld force is consolidated a bit and regrouped we plan on really bringing the pain on our neighbors. Tune in next week for the update.

Until then....

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

Ti'Fani

Ah, the hilarity of Ti'Fani so consumed me that I decided to post up a psyker card for her. I have another post inbound for these cards, but this will work for now.

War In Sector 135: Store Campaign Update

“Autarch you are hurt!” Exclaimed Ti'Fani. The Seer gestured sharply to the attendants at the door to the airlock of the ship. They quickly moved to assist the Autarch as he moved into the room.

“Away with you” Delbaeth snapped “I am better off than that BigMek.” “Your predictions were flawed Seer, The ork force was larger than expected”.

“ The path is very unclear Autarch, the presence of Chaos is clouding things. There is also.... a presence creeping towards us”

“ I care not for your excuses. You send word to the other Craftworlds Warhost. Tell them to expect us” Dalbaeth began to disarm himself and allow the healers to begin their ministrations.

“What is your plan Autarch...if I may ask?” Ti'Fani was taken aback by the seething anger coming off of the Autarch in waves.

“We will regroup and establish a new beachhead. Then call for reinforcements”

“What about the Portal?” Ti'Fani asked

“ We close it, I have reached an accord with the Monkeigh from The Inquisition..... Grand Master MacCumhail I think its name is.”

Ti'Fani's shock was plain for all in the room to see. She stood, mouth agape, at the pronouncement.

“You can't be serious?!.....Grey Knights?!”

“Deadly Serious” Delbaeth said as he removed his helm, a sly grin emerging from his sweat and blood covered face

Well the Campaign continues. The Warhost of Delbaeth Windsword withdrew from the main hub. I was had 3 different armies hit me at the same time. Farseer Re-Rolls Space Marines, Inquisitor Vogrins Guard and Austins Black Legion hit me all at once. Rather than fight all three I withdrew all my forces through the unmolested space port and self destructed my hub. I had a smaller scout force moving towards Spellduckwrongs holdings, which is three planets now. Our alliance is now formal. I am establishing a new base in the Eldar corner of the map.

During the last phase BigMek SkrapKlaw discovered an active webway portal in an asteroid field. It would allow the deployment of forces anywhere on the map with only one hex of movement. Obviously the Orks could not be allowed to hold the portal. So I took my remaining 1750 points and hit the force holding the portal hard. My fighting retreat from my destroyed hub, main base, paid off. I wiped the Orks from the portal and the Asteroid field. Granted it was at a cost. Delbaeth took 2 wounds when he and his Warp Spider entourage were charged by a mob of 20 shoota boyz. It could have been worse. He did survive. 2 wounds means two rolls on the injury table. As luck would have it I shrugged off the first wound with no effect, but the second means I cant wield any weapons that increase your strength. My initiative was also reduced by 2. I lost a unit of Dire Avengers, A unit of Warp Spiders, a few Guardians, A Jetbike Squad and a Wave Serpent.

The Judge is now throwing his hat into the ring as well, bringing his Gray Knights into the mix. It seems appropriate as we now have 2 chaos marine players and 1 daemon player in the mix as well. The swell of chaos and traitors, as well as the appearance of the 13^th company has brought the Sons Of Titan.

So with BigMek SkrapKlaw swearing Vengeance, Chaos pressing in on all sides, a wounded Autarch and a shadow in the Warp Falling on the system. I have my work cut out for me this week.

Its campaign night so look for what happens tonight next Wednesday.

Until then.....

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

Path of the Autarch: Decision

Spellduckwrong here. Something that I have actively noticed in several games now, both ones I have played in and those I have observed is that sometimes a player will lose a unit because they didn't force the opponent to make a decision. It sounds almost counter-intuitive that you would actually want to give an opponent options, but please hear me out.

To elaborate on this lack of choice thing, I mean, that the player will position a unit (usually a scary one, though not always) in such a way that it is a no-brainer for the opponent to pour their offensive resources into blowing it off the table. The reason it is a no-brainer is because the opponent didn't have to decide how to prioritize targets because in this situation there was only one. An example of this would be, say, a flying monstrous creature burns straight at the opponent's line on Turn 1 far ahead of the rest of its army. And therefore, in the resulting opponent turn, they really don't have anything better to shoot at because nothing is really in range. Especially, for their short range massed infantry fire. Their only choice here is to fire or not fire. Unless they are trying to throw the match, they will choose to fire.

My main point here is that when we don't present choices to an opponent, we will generally fail to gain any benefit from the opponent laying into one of our units.  An easy solution to this is to approach the enemy with two "attack groups".  Essentially, two small forces that present equivalent tactical utility for us. Both groups need to be strong enough that we are still going to have a good chance of accomplishing our missions as long as either survives. What these groups will be will composed of will really depend on your list and what you intend to accomplish. You mainly just want to avoid having the opponent kill off enough of your forward units that when the remnants of those forces hit, they fail their mission and are easily wiped out in a following turn.

Timing is also very important for attacking your enemy and not removing choice from their battle plan. If you have Big Nasty Unit A (B.N.U.) hitting the opponent's line on turn 1, Big Nasty Unit B hitting on Turn 2, and Big Nasty Unit C hitting on Turn 3, then you have given the opponent an easy choice or no choice but to shoot B.N.U. A the first turn. In subsequent turns, if the opponent has enough firepower to handle your B.N.U.'s one at a time, your tactical situation hasn't really improved and you have merely let the opponent grind up your units piecemeal pitting many of their points versus relatively fewer of your points. How could we improve this? Either make it so at least wo of these units arrive at the same time. Either two pull up turn 1 in the same spot, which cuts the opponent's available firepower in half because they have to split between two targets or ignore one of them. The other option would be to make two units hit on turn 2. Even if this means having one of the units move slower than it would need to. By waiting, we are taking away the opportunity for the opponent to utilize much of its close angled mass fire because we didn't feed a unit into its range in the previous turn.

Overall, don't send a lone unit off to soak up an entire army's worth attacks. Time your advance so that multiple EQUAL threats hit the opponent's lines in tandem. A Rhino with 5 Marines and a Plasma Gun is not an equivalent threat to 10 man Terminator squad.  The Rhino can be ignored fairly safely compared to the Terminators but maybe five Rhinos with 25 Marines are just as scary. I guess a good rule of thumb would be to make two groups where you would be happy if either of them was still standing when the next turn's carnage switch is going to get flipped to "ON".

Another aspect of making the opponent choose is whether to move to shoot you or do nothing with a unit. For a basic example, say there are five Bolter Marines sitting on some terrain who, because of range, can only shoot your nearby unit of five squishy troops. Well, if you leave your troops in range of the Marines, they will sit there and fire on them because the opponent doesn't have to make a choice. It is shoot with the Marines at their only possible target or do nothing. If you move your troops either out of range, out of line of sight, or move in a second unit of infantry, now the opponent must make a choice. Move the Marines to go after your troops, pick one of the two targets it has now to shoot, or possibly fall back because now they are outnumbered. You see, once you introduced a scenario where the opponent had to make a decision, there are so many opportunities for them to make the wrong one either by miscalculation or poor rolling for a random element. Either way, the situation is better than just letting the Marines pump Bolters into your troops without a downside.

Always remember to make your opponent choose, don't make things easy for them.






So what units have you witnessed getting blown off the table because they ran ahead and took the brunt of the opponent's attack or just got otherwise isolated?

Lets Talk Tournaments And Conventions.

SeerK here.  Although I am not a competitive player persay, I do enjoy a good tournament.  That said I
wanted to plug a couple events I will be attending and running.  First let talk about Michigans first ever GT.


The Michigan GT will take place September 28th and 29th here in good old Lansing.  Its a 2 day 1850 event.  Spots are filling up pretty fast.  details can be found at the Michigan GT website.  I plan on bringing the Eldar to play as long as I can get a spot in the tournament.  They have some nice sponsers lined up and the terrain is looking pretty choice.


The second event I will be at is UCON.  Once again I will be running events at UCON.  I will be doing the Craftworld Open once agian, but this year we are having a much more inclusive experience.  Stuff it still tentative as I get it hammered  out, but we will have more games and more events for War Games in general.

UCON will be taking place November 22-24 at the Marrriott Ann Arbor Ypslanti at Eagle Crest.  This is the 2nd year at this hotel and its a great venue.  Warmachine and Flames Of War are joining 40K in the line up this year.  I am attempting to add some other games as well.  PG_Hick is working hard to bring you a big Warmachine event.  More on that as it develops though.

The Craftworld Lansing Staff will be there in force.  I am pretty excited about this year and the good relationship building with the Staff behind UCON.  Its my hope that we can make a good local convention even better.  There are already a ton of cool events there.  Board games, Role Playing games, Card games and now War games.

Stay updated by visiting the UCON website.  I will have more information here as it develops as well.




Thats all for now.



Until next time.........




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