Hub Campaign - Part 2 - The Imperium Strikes Back - Round 1

This past weekend we finally got organised and had the second part of my narrative 40k campaign.  Joel from Brush of doom had concocted some interesting scenarios for us to play out, all of which bit him in his green Ork arse!

So the participants on the side of the Imperium were Ryan with Tau, Conan with Blood Angels and myself with Inquisition/Grey Knights before Cody took over. We were flexible with force building for the narrative so instead of Coteaz I took a normal Inquisitor and we counted that they unlocked the Henchmen as troops per Coteaz's rule  The forces of Destruction were Stu with Daemons, Aaron with Tyranids and Joel with Orks.

All the games were 750 points with no flyers, special characters, fortifications and allies.  Only one troop was required from the players codex but like last time a force had to include either a Chaos cultist unit or an Imperial Guard squad.

I will report on games I played in and have some notes from Joel and Ryan to add.

I used a kitted out Ordo Malleus Inquisitor, 3 units of Henchmen - 2 units with plasma in psybacks, 1 with melta in chimera, Eversor Assassin, Psyfleman Dreadnought.

The first round had a suprisingly destructive rule attached.  Due to the forces of Chaos laying booby traps/IEDs or having daemonic forces lurking in the Hub's shadows, whenever any save made by a model in cover was required, the targeted unit had to make a leadership test.  If passed normal armour or cover saves were taken, if failed the cover save was worsened by 1 and the unit took d6 S3 hits in addition to what they were saving from.  

I played Joel, Inquisition vs Orks.  I got the warlord trait which allows the warlord and unit to outflank so after a couple turns of our forces exchanging fire my Inquisitor, his attached unit and their chimera rolled onto Joel's back field and poured fire into his Loota block.  Joel did take out my Imperial Guard squad holding an objective with his Nob bikers but prior and post assualt shooting took them out. The Imperial fire combined with shadowy attacks ruined Joel's boyz.  Joel also failed to notice an Eversor Assassin hiding behind a Razorback which took out his scouting Deffkopta in the first turn.  Joel suffered badly from the scenario rules loosing a lot of Orks to weakened cover saves and the S3 hits.

The other games were in the 'good' guys favour putting the forces of Order way out in the lead.


Joel's perspective - the biker gang found themselves on the wrongside of the tracks getting intercepted by the Hub Inquisition.  Despite putting on a good show a late sneaky back field arrival by the Inquisitor put an end to the fun.

and Ryan's - A patrol was ambushed in the city ruins by Daemonic forces while performing reconnaissance for a potential Tau outpost.  Significant loss of life from the Fire warriors Drone section of the expedition, however the Daemons were held back and the objectives secured.

I believe the Blood Angels and Tyranids performed mutual destruction on each other either getting a draw or minor victory to the Blood Angels.

Next, Game 2 involves a bit of espionage...

Pointy Eared Bastards

Last weekend like a lot of my knife eared kin I got the new High Elf book and no matter what the Druchii in Asur clothing are saying on Ulthuan.net I really am very happy with the book. I also picked up the Spell cards and the new Loremaster model.

Now in the round based game (40K) I usually grumble like an unupdated Dwarf at the writings of Matt Ward but this time I think he has put out some good work. The variety in the new army book opens up a lot of options for themed lists that can be usuable in friendly and tournament games. New Core and Rare choices opens it up nicely.

In 30 minutes of sitting down with the book with Joel from Brush of Doom and Ryan, we worked out a nice themed Lothern Sea Guard list using the new Skycutters, cheaper RBT's and a couple new character options. For the hobbyist, viable forces can be built for all off the ten realms I'm sure. I'm still looking at building an army of Saphery/Hoeth, with the new Loremaster Lord choice and IoB Swordmasters I have painted it would look great.

The variety in the book has lead me to make about half a dozen lists, some fluffy and some more balanced but for now I will take stock of my High Elf collection, see what still needs freeing from sprues and with impending Eldar coming see what I can afford. I will post some lists as I refine and get a chance to have a couple games.

However Warhammer Fantasy is not the only place my elven inclinations are coming through. In our Monday night Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords game which I am actually getting to play - thank you Aaron. I am playing an Elven Wizard named Thyll(short for some name long and elven). Im encompassing the Elven arrogance and treating the other party members, especially the human Paladin like simple hirelings. It hasn't been hard to prove my Elven superiority though as I have managed to be the last one standing in a couple important encounters and managed to drop or crowd control our opponents with some well timed spells - whats wrong with spamming level 0 acid splash. As of last mondays game we have reached the lofty heights of 3rd level, so with level 2 spells and augment summoning added to my feats its time for those Thistletop Goblins to get whats coming to them!

So having finally painted the Mage from IoB I can put aside the prepainted D&D wizard and put this guy on the table for the Pathfinder campaign and what will be numerous uses as an Archmage or scroll caddy in Warhammer.

In the third Elven incarnation I have my beloved Eldar which if you believe the word of the internet will be the next to get a new book. This makes me a very happy gamer. Sure I expect Runes of Warding to get nerfed, tanks to be not that points effecient and to end up spending way too much money on new models but they are my favourite army which I have played through multiple editions of the game. Plastic Wraithguard and a giant Wraithknight thing will probably be the first purchases I make to my trusty Wraith forces and if the new Eldar flyer kit is like the Dark Eldar one I'll get a couple of those as well.

Within the next couple of weeks I should get the Elves on the table and with some proxying see what works and what I can get in order for the next event, Horned Rat/Gobbo.

Post Runefang VI

So another enjoyable Fantasy event has been and gone. I ended up slap bang in the middle of the field which is actually where I expected to be with the list I took.

Game 1 Hugh Dixon Daemons – Big Khorne force, We exchanged chaff early in the game. His Skullcannon and a Terrorgheist exchanging fire over multiple turns. In the last couple turns the Ghoul King and skeleton block plowed through 2 blocks of Bloodletters with a flank charge and overrun! Random Daemon magic events seemed to hurt me a lot more than him including taking 5 wounds off a Terrorgheist. – Draw

Game 2 – David Appleby Skaven – Hoorah Skaven… I always enjoy playing David and this was no different including the novelty of seeing Rat Ogres on the table. I was actually doing fairly well in this game clearing up what points I could from him until some accurate template fire wrecked half my skeleton block and then the ghoul king failed 1 regen save and crumbled – last dice roll of the game too! If he had of survived it would have been a draw at least. LOSS

Game 3 – John Murrie Dwarves – It’s Watchtower, John puts Quarellers in the tower, I charge with skeleton bus and take tower. Add all my characters to the tower and let the rest of the army cause trouble. Look for an indepth battle report on this at John's blog. WIN

Game 4 – Locky Reid Beastmen – Locky had a well made Beast list. 5 casters and herdstone means he out magicked me every turn easily. It turned out 1800 points of his army was in 2 massive blocks of kitted out Gorrs and Beastigors. Early on I knew that sitting on my side of the table and exchanging magic and chaff would have been a better option but we decided it was more fun to smash our toys together. Some entertaining dice rolls and stubborn Ungors filled the game and Locky got a good win. LOSS

Game 5 – Josh Kennedy Wood Elves – I have played many games against the Woodies and know where to conserve my points. His list was a bit more varied than I had seen and included two 6 strong units of Treekin. Getting a turn 2 charge through the centre of his lines with my Crypt Horrors at his Level 4 Mage and bunker was a massive bonus to me, then game was then in my favour. Massive scream rolls from the Terrorgheists destroyed all his big hitters and over the full 6 turns I tabled him completely, sorry Josh. – WIN

So with that split mid field was spot on. Very frustrated with the Ghoul King dying in Game 2 and so much of the army crumbling. When I play the VC in the future I will look at giving the BK bus a go or at least using a general with more protection. Happy to see David gain 3rd overall with his unorthodox Skaven list. Congratulations to Pete Dunn for steam rolling all opposition. Thank you to John Murrie for the lift home.

With the new High Elf book released this coming saturday I will be dusting off the Red and Gold armour and getting my elves back into fighting shape. Liking the idea of a Hoeth force with a Loremaster and/or a themed Seaguard list. Will have to test a few things and see. Must be a knife eared year for me as I'm currently playing an Elven Wizard in our monday night Pathfinder campaign, new High Elves saturday and rumours of Eldar very very soon.

The northern wastes stir

So after a brutal yet entertaining weekend at Runefang, I've finally cracked open some models for my second fantasy army that have been sitting around. I'm planning on running WoC, with mostly Slaanesh in the force though I am not averse to mixing the marks to make the army sharper. Armies are pretty honed around here so I'm not going to pull punches though I want to try a few different things from the standard internet builds.

Put together my 5 hellstriders firstly (have to have the signature unit!)

 

Then using some parts from hellstrider kit made a test warrior with halberd

Runefang Prep

So Runefang is next weekend and I want to avoid the usual night before painting rush. Thankfully most my stuff is painted, bar the vargheists, fell bats, and wraiths. Started on the former two last night.

Start with the fell bats, ready to fufill their roll in (un)life by being thrown under the bus

Then the beginning of the vargheists, who hopefully will do me proud

In the trend of late here is my list for the event:

Vampire Lord, lvl4 vampires, barded nightmare, heavy armour, shield, ogre blade, other tricksters shard, talisman of preservation, red fury, quick blood

Vampire, lvl2 death, barded nightmare, heavy armour, sword of anti heroes, enchanted shield, quick blood

Necromancer, lvl 1 vampires, dispel scroll

3 Wraiths

39 Skeletons, champion, musician, standard bearer, banner of swiftness

20 Zombies

20 Zombies

20 Zombies

20 Zombies

5 Dire wolves 

5 Dire wolves

5 Dire wolves

10 Black knights, barding, lances, hell knight, musician, standard bearer

3 Vargheists, vargoyle

3 Vargheists, vargoyle

3 Vargheists, vargoyle 

2 Fell Bats 

Painting - WoC Tzeentch Daemon Prince

Last night before allowing myself to finish Bioshock Infinite - awesome ending btw! I finished Cody's Daemon Prince for his first Warhammer Fantasy army.

The colour palette contains all the colours which will be used in the army. You can see by the turquoise armour plates what the Chaos Warriors will look like eventually - I have done a test one and it looks good. May do a little more work on the sword though.

The plan is to magentise the Daemon Prince's feet so when Cody decides on a set of bases the DP can be swapped between Fantasy and 40k easily.

Must say I did enjoy painting this model. The colours are nice and bright and a change to what I normally use. The new/current GW paint range really has some superb shades throughout the greens and blues and I want to incorporate them more into some future projects.

This chap will be making his event debut at Runefang next weekend so watch out - I'm not looking forward to dealing with the build it has.

Now time to load up the new Tomb Raider.

Runefang VC List

Here is the list I submitted for Runefang which is in a couple weeks.

As previously posted its a variation of the list I played with in the Dark Valley campaign.

Without the BK bus this is a list I am very comfortable playing with. Having used variations of the infantry list since the current VC book was out this is what it boils down too for me.

Ghoul King, Red Fury, Ogre Blade, Other Trickster's Shard, Dragon Bane Gem
Master Necromancer, Level 4 Death

Necromancer, Level 1 Vampires, Dispel Scroll, Ruby Ring of Ruin
Cairn Wraith
Cairn Wraith
Cairn Wraith

5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
20 Zombies with standard
20 Zombies with standard
20 Zombies with standard
40 Skeletons with Full command and banner of swiftness

3 Vargheists with champ
8 Crypt Horrors
2 Fell Bats

Terrorgheist
Terrorgheist

I think I have learnt to use the chaff well through many many games and the advice of others. Good application of the Dire wolves and Fell bats keep making it a more effective force.

I am very happy to have the 8 Crypt Horrors back. They give the skeleton block which my Ghoul King leads a massive amount of support and the potential to tarpit some hard units is fantastic - right Wil ;)

The skeletons are a better investment than the ghouls for my build. Having the simple ability to swift reform and a simple banner does make a big difference.

Still have to be in the zone to win big with this but as usual it does depend on the opponent - put me up against Warriors of Chaos anyday

Looking forward to seeing all the usual suspects down in Wellington in 2 weeks