End Times Battle Report - 5000 points - Undead Legion vs Legion of Chaos

End Times Game: Undead Legions (Glen Burfield) versus Chaos (Ryan)

 
Hello, Ryan here. Glen and I decided to have an End Times game (because why not?). Originally it was going to be the siege of Altdorf (The Defence of Alderfen - how many times do I have to remind you - Editor Glen) from the Nagash book but we simplified it to a big Battleline. Glen had the option of taking Empire and Undead Legions but decided to stick to the former.

 
We both decided to theme our forces rather than take the usual choices. I stuck with Nurgle and Gurgurratlthy (or whatever his name is) from the original mission and Glen decided humans were not worth and went full Undead with Vlad leading the charge as per the original mission in addition.

 
The forces brought to bear were as follows:

 
Chaos Forces (not the ET book – but WoC and DoC in any combination)

 
DoC:

 
GUO, LVL4 Nurgle, Exalted Gift, Lesser Gift    580

 
40 Plaguebearers, FC    550

 
6 Beasts of Nurgle    360
5 Nurgle Furies    70
5 Nurgle Furies    70
2 Nurgling swarms    80

 
4 Plague Drones, Muso, Std, MR1    260

 
WoC:

 
Exalted, BSB, Nurgle, Halberd, Scaled Skin, HoME, Dawnstone     221
Festus    190

 
20 Nurgle Warriors, FC, HW/Shield, Gleaming     375
5 Nurgle Marauder Horse, Flails, Muso    100
5 Nurgle Marauder Horse, Flails, Muso    100
5 Nurgle Marauder Horse, Flails, Muso    100
Nurgle Chariot    120    
Nurgle Chariot    120    
Nurgle Chariot    120    

 
20 Nurgle Chosen, GW, FC, Discipline    505
3 Dragon Ogres, GW    204
Nurgle Warshrine    135

 
Hellcannon     210
Hellcannon    210

 
Tamurkhan:

 
Chaos Seige Giant, Runes of Hatred, Scaling Spikes    310

 
4990pt.

 
Undead Legions:

 
Vlad Von Carstein, Mortarch of Shadow    500
Ghoul King, ogre blade, OTS, DBG, red fury, flying horror    400
Master Necromancer, L4 Death, Cursed Book    235

 
Necromancer, Dispel Scroll    90
Wight King, Shield, Nightshroud, Seed of Rebirth    139

 
30 Zombies, M, St    100
30 Zombies, M, St    100
40 Skeletons, FC, Swiftness    245
35 Ghouls, Ghast    360
5 Dire Wolves    40
5 Dire Wolves    40
5 Dire Wolves    40
5 Horse Archers    70
5 Horse Archers    70
14 Skeleton Archers, M    94
14 Skeleton Archers, M    94

 
8 Crypt Horrors    304
2 Fell Bats    32
3 Vargheists    138
10 Black Knights, FC, banner of eternal flame     300
Warsphinx, Fiery Roar     230
Tomb Scorpion     85
Tomb Scorpion     85

 
Terrorgheist     225
Terrorgheist     225
Mortis Engine     220
Mortis Engine     220
Casket of Souls     135
Screaming Skull Catapult     90
Screaming Skull Catapult     90

 
4496pt.

Alrighty then!

Deployment:
Was pretty tight as we were simply playing on a 6' by 4'. I won't go into too much details but hopefully the next few pictures illustrate the big bunch of stuff in the middle and the flanking forces from both sides. Glen bunkered his death lvl4 in a building and made a big turtle of undead slightly to the centre.(Still need that 12" range from Vlad to march - Glen)

Chaos went first. Chosen rolled and chose (heh heh) +1 S for their upgrade. GUO got +1 dispel dice for greater gift and 2++ ward versus first wound for lesser. Kept both.

Turn One Chaos:
Hellcannons sat still, lots of stuff in the middle moved forwards. 4 charges mostly on the flanks (all failed). Centre moved forward almost as fast as possible. During magic I put two dice into the warshrine bound spell to and rolled a 1 and a 2 effectively ending the magic phase. Hellcannons did nothing with shooting despite all the bunched up undead.

Turn One UL:
Glen made some more successful charges including flying the GK out of his unit into a chariot and putting 10 BK with no characters into the 4 drones. Magic deleted another chariot with the TK casket bouncing 4 times much to Glens delight. On my left his Vargheists failed a charge which brought right up behind some TK horse archers. One terrorgheist moved up to scream into drones.

The scream took off a few wounds (bsb nearby and 5++), however the drones flopped in combat losing by a few points, rolling 10 for break test which was re rolled (thanks Nurgle bsb) and rolled an 11… leaving them in dangerous waters.

While the GK easily cleaned up the Nurgle chariot and breached my lines.

Turn Two Chaos:
Dragon Ogres go through TK horse archers into vargheist, one hellcannon near GK goes berserk but doesn't quite make the charge. Everything else pushes forwards. I again put 2 dice into the warshrine and roll a double 1 this time.

 Meanwhile my chaos giant was beating up some chaff on the right flank and had a nice overrun into the side of the ghoul block, however he wasn't quite angry enough and failed (think I need about 8").
 

Up the centre my last remaining chariot and hit hard into some skele archers while on the right behind the giant the warriors trudged forward looking for some action 

Turn Two UL:
Terrorgheist moves forward to scream hellcannon but wusses out and only does one wound.(Boo Terrorgheist Boo! - Glen)

While the GK avoids all the counter charges by hiding in some ruins.

 Beasts had come into the side of the BK to assist the drones then reformed to face the front, and were now charged in the face by the crypt horrors for an epic tarpit on tarpit fight.

While the second terrorgheist gets behind my lines on the left hand side

Ghouls reform to face the threat of the giant while keeping the plague bearers and GUO in the front arc. Not the best of positions to be in…

 Some weirdos were watching and doing strange things from the sidelines:

 Turn Three Chaos:
 Ghouls get charged successfully by all three GUO, Giant and plaguebearers.

While the chosen make a massive charge across the board into a mortis engine, cleaning through this and into some zombies. In concert with this my chariot up the middle cleaned out the casket and survived the resultant blast.

Again the warshrine rolls a double 1 killing my magic phase due to having less dice (have not even got the scroll yet).
  
Turn Three UL:
GK comes in to help the tarpit fight alongside the mortis engine screams and sphinx nearby.

 While the ghouls get mashed to pulp over two phases, but do two wounds to the GUO from poison (How is a GUO affected by poison really??)

 Glen tries to get a purple sun off but I dispelled it (IIRC with a double 6 boom!)

 
Turn Four Chaos:
Vlad and his buddies get pinned with a chariot in rear and warshrine in side (turns out Vlad doesn't like fighting T5 with 4+ ward I kept making)

While the beasts get crushed but managed to stomp the GK in return before going down. I finally get some sort of semi useful spell off but scroll comes out.

Turn Four UL:
Vlad grinds it out as best as possible (I missed some photos here) while his crypt horrors scramble to help but don't do much to warshrine (didn't get any poisons FAIL horrors). Screams target the chosen but don't take much damage thanks to LD9 and regen 5+ (thanks Festus) then they butcher the zombies and face Vlad.

Turn Five Chaos: 
The trap closes on Vlad with the chosen going in. 

While drunk giant jumps in front of the mortis engine to keep it away from the GUO who had been trying to grind the lvl4 death out of the tower. The GUO took about 3 wounds from zombies doing the tower combat and was on one wound! 

Turn Five UL: 
I missed a few photos here but Vlad ends up getting squashed by chosen, Giant gets nailed by the warshrine.(I'm building my own Vampire Lord next time - Glen)

Turn Six:
Two main things happen here. Firstly on my turn the warriors get into tower and butcher the level 4 (who couldn't jump out the other side without getting into chariots charge arc. You'll also see the tomb scorpions who Glen forgot to deploy and spent most of the game under the sands thanks to failed ambush rolls.

 

In addition despite my best efforts to bravely run the GUO into the corner I was only out of move + scream range not charge range at. Glen declares the charge needing and 11 (IIRC) to get to me and manages to make it crushing the GUO to oblivion.

 Glen only had one mortis engine and two scorpions left, I had lost about 2500-3000pt points so the warriors had eked out a victory. (I'll get you next time Ryan and those pesky Warriors of Chaos too! - Glen)

My first Post & Desolation

Well since I have been added as an author I should probably get a post underway.

Next month I am attending a Warhammer Fantasy teams event tournament named Desolation in Canberra. Despite being a long time regular around the competitive 40k tournament scene (until 7th ed) and an equally long time Warhammer player, I have never delved into Fantasy competitively. I've personally always found more enjoyment in the garage with that one.


Something about the team environment and the team our captain put together however drew me out to give this one a go. So along with my mates Gorgrunt_Ironhide, Angeliz and The Dark Angel (WAU names) we've put our foursome together and I think we've got a pretty good team.

Desolation is a two day, 2400 point, four player teams event and is running the Swedish comp system (13+). Being my first competitive event and first look at Swedish comp I was very skeptical and hesitant. To me I didn't see why I needed even more math equations to work out an army list, the
whole system I found confusing.

Over the past several weeks however we've been playing a lot of practice games and I do really like the lists that have been produced. I have seen people using units that don't often see the light of day and combo's that often get overlooked. I have found that as a whole the system works well and does the job of balancing lists/races/books quite nicely.

Swedish Comp = Confusing at first, faster when you get the hang of it, worth the effort.

A little under four weeks left before we set off on our road trip to Australia's capital.
Our team consists of Gorgrunt the team captain rocking Empire, Angeliz leading a Dark Elf band, Dark Angel at the head of the Warriors of Chaos and myself hiding behind the large bulk of Ogres.

My list:
Having to fit my army above 13 Swedish Comp points, but with the comp playing no further part in the scores I wanted to get it as close as I could to 13. I figured why give up free comp points if it wont have an effect?

I ended up on a comp score of 13.3. I could have spent more points, but in practice I've become happy with how my list works.

LORDS
Slaughter Mater, Level 4 wizard, Law of the Great Maw, Fencers Blades, Glittering Scales

HEROES
Bruiser, BSB, Heavy Armour, Great Weapon, Talisman of Preservation, Iron Curse Icon
Firebelly, Level 2 wizard, Lore of Fire, Great weapon, Dispell Scroll

CORE
8 Ogres, Full command, Ironfists
10 Gnoblars
10 Gnoblars
6 Ironguts, Full command, Look out Gnoblar, Standard of Discipline

SPECIAL
1 Sabretusk
1 Sabretusk
1 Sabretusk
1 Gorger
4 Mournfang Cavalry, Full command, Heavy armour, Ironfists, Banner of swiftness
3 Leadbelchers

RARE
Stonehorn, Harpoon launcher
Ironblaster


Whats really been great is that committing to an event has made me get work done on my Ogres. They have been half painted here, some paint there for a very long time.

The Green Tide

Warning I am terrible at English read at your own risk!!!!!!!!!!!(Now with Punctuation - Editor Glen)

Long time no post, today I felt like I had a chance to post something worth while.

So I came into 40k in the middle of 5th edition and my first choice of army was Tau, unfortunately the book was old and I just didn't get it and so I gave up on them rather quickly.  So I moved over to the safe choice, Space Marines and played them for a while.  The first tournament I went to with them was Fields of Blood way back in 2010.  I didn't do to hot but came away with Living Saint a.k.a top sportsmanship.  At that point I was locked into 40k, definitely enjoying everything about it but Space Marines to me were kind of bland.  Not painted, but just rule wise just uninteresting.

Then came along Dark Eldar.  I was in love from day one and quickly switched over to them, building up a force of 1750 points as that was the standard for most of 5th ed. Soon after, Glen and I found our way to Sydney to play in Lords of Terra and High Lords respectively a.k.a Glen.  Here I came 7th overall and Glen winning High Lords with one of the oldest books at the time, Night Spinner FTW. Soon after was Call to Arms and once again Warhammer raged on but this time I actually came First overall with Dark Eldar FTW!!!

I happily kept playing them for a while then out of the blue came Grey Knights!  To me they were Space Marines with personality and to this day the best looking Terminators around.  I didn't start playing them straight away as Glen was pondering about building a force, but after some time I finally let loose and started building up units.  I was definitely enjoying them a lot, the rest of 5th and start of 6th but they had lost their shine.  I already had 3 armies and had decided not to start another one.  At the start of 7th I decided to return to Space Marines, with their new book in hand started picking up new units including Sternguard, Calgar box set, Drop Pod, Centurions, the new plastic Librarian and some other stuff!  But it was not to last with the new.....

...Grey Knights incoming I quickly switched back but the book to me is disappointing, but I was enjoying them and then all of a sudden Dark Eldar are coming too!! quickly Picking up the new codex it quickly became apparent the book was average at best there were no new builds and Archons got turned into garbage along with Wyches. :(

Leaving me here.  The other night while doing Tuesday night Pathfinder, I was sitting across from a Dakka jet, as I looked at it something clicked and by the end of the night I had decided to play Orks.  Later that week I received the codex and quickly found myself having a lot of fun with it.  After having my first game with them yesterday I definitely have found that love for an army again.  I did lose the game and there was tons of swearing at Glen (How many cover saves can I keep on making? - Glen) and running out of the room when failing an assault change screaming FUCK!!!! All in good fun.  Really have to thank Joel for selling his Ork army to Glen as it gave me the chance to play them.

Also thanks to Joel for Fantasy as I am now able to play High Elves 

Cody Out

Cracks Call 2014 List - Speed and Sound

The last weekend of the month sees a 2000 point Fantasy tournament being held in Masterton, Cracks Call is its name and I'm expecting a fun weekend at the venue.

Now I had a 2k Daemon list nicely provided for me from fellow Stone Falls Massive team mate Joel BUT as we are in the midst of the End Times in the Fantasy world I just had to get the Vampire Counts off the shelf.

Now the points shift to 2000 points from the usual 2400 means there are a few toys you cannot take so maybe it's just better to try and do one or two things well.  So speed and scream attacks seem like a good idea.

Vampire Lord, heavy armour, shield, Level 2(Vampires) Hellstead, Dragonhelm, Skabscrath, Opal Amulet, Aura of Dark Majesty, Curse of the Revenant

Vampire, BSB, Level 1(Vampires) Heavy Armour, Shield, Barded Steed, Book of Arkhan
Necromancer, Level 1(Vampires)
Tomb Banshee

20 Zombies, Standard
20 Zombies, Standard
20 Zombies, Standard
20 Zombies, Standard
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves

8 Black Knights, FC, Barding, Lances

Terrogheist
Terrorgheist

Yeah it'l be fun

Call to Arms 40k - 2014

Here we are nearly through the week but on the weekend just been it was the annual Call to Arms event in Wellington.

For the 4th year in a row I went along and played 40k.  1550 point armies, 7th ed rules, no fortifications, no FW, no Knights, no D Weapons... very restrictive but we all made do with our core books.

I of course used my Eldar, employing the Iyanden supplement.

Spiritseer

5 Dire Avengers
Wave Serpent, scatter lasers, shuriken cannon, holo fields
6 Dire Avengers
Wave Serpent, scatter lasers, shuriken cannon, holo fields
5 Wraithguard, cannons
Wave Serpent, scatter lasers, shuriken cannon, holo fields
3 jetbikes, cannon
3 jetbikes, cannon

2 War Walkers, bright lances
Wraithknight, heavy cannons
Wraithknight, heavy cannons

One of the Wraithknights was always my Warlord as per the Iyanden option.

 Picture taken from the War Incorporated FB page

Game 1 - Tactical Escalation - Tim Adams - Space Wolves
Up against my first Cantabrian(11 players came up from Christchurch to play), Tim had a Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf, 2 Rune Priests, Thunderwolf unit, 2x Grey Hunters in Pods, Blood Claws in a Pod.  Tim and I were pacing each other well using the random tactical objectives, he had dropped down into my deployment zone contesting potential objectives while Biomancy buffed Thunderwolves moved across the table.  I moved around my mobile gunline taking points where I could and inflicting greater damage then I was suffering.  Turn 4 hit and I drew some pretty optimal objectives and it was all uphill for the Eldar ending with 20 VP to the 5 VP the Wolves had.  Tim was a riot to play against and a fantastic player to face in the first round of the event.  Loved his battered inverted Drop Pods as well.

Game 2 - Tactical Objectives - Robert Ransom - Adeptus Sororitas
We got to play on the table where Luke Forrest had provided the awesome Tyranid infestation terrain, see them HERE.  Each turn we had 3 tactical objective cards.  Robert deployed his numerous tanks in a parking lot formation, surprisingly not making use of the LoS blocking buildings in his deployment zone.  My 3 Wave Serpents swung around the massive Tyranid structure in the middle of the table and went into action.  Between the Serpents, War Walkers and Wraithknights 3-4 tanks were wrecked or exploded and Battle Sister units pinned or moving for cover.  Robert had underestimated the Wave Serpents and said he now understood why they are moaned about online.  He did credit me with ONLY bringing 3 in my list =D  For the rest of the game I eliminated the rest of his army including killing Saint Celestine, her returning and Heavy flaming some Dire Avengers then dying again to Bright Lance fire from the War Walkers.  Robert had a rough game but was happy to play through to the end, another good opponent.

Game 3 - Purge the Alien - Karn Snyder Bishop - Eldar
This game was going to be 'interesting' as we were both bringing the Eldar Fu.  Karn from Christchurch only had 1 Wave Serpent but was extremely mobile with Swooping Hawks, Warp Spiders, Crimson Hunter alongside his Wraithknight, War Walkers, Night Spinner and Guardians.  Karn went first and with the first shots of the game instant killed one of my Wraithknights with a 6 to wound on the Wraithcannons - Eep, that's what it feels like - Ryan Lister who was in between Fantasy games laughed after witnessing it, he has suffered such attacks many times from me - I took out Karn's Night Spinner and stripped some wounds off his Knight, no 6s for me.  Karn then scored another 6 to wound on my Warlord Knight!  Scoring a 6 for my cover save I let out a sigh of relief.  Karn had rolled the Warlord trait where his Warlord and 3 units got to outflank so on came a flanking Wave Serpent, jetbikes as well as deep striking Warp Spiders and Swooping Hawks.  What followed was a brutal game, I was running the Victory points throughout the game and they simply moved in pace with each other.  Some key moments were his Crimson Hunter coming on, scoring 4 penetrating hits on the rear of my Wraithguard Wave Serpent only for me to make all my jink saves then follow up by turning around and scoring a lot of 6s to hit the flyer and dropping it in one go.  I also managed to cast Terrify on his Linebreaking Jetbikes and force them back out of my deployment zone to get a last ditch 1 point win.  My god what a tense game, well played Karn.

Game 4 - Crusade - Scott - Orks
So many Orks... 3x30 Ork boyz, characters to prop them up and Zzap guns with as many grots as you can get to stand in front.  I was really trying to work out how the hell I was going to cull the horde before it could engage my forces, especially when Scott was in a far better position to take the 4 objectives we had deployed.  I went first and fired everything I could get in safe range at his massive Zzap gun battery.  Thank the Eldar Pantheon for Serpent Shields and high dice rolls!  With concentrated fire I removed enough grots, then artillery pieces themselves to force a panic check, which they failed but did not quite leave the table.  Seeing as I had no template or blast weapons Scott rolled for his run moves alongside movement and shoved the masses forwards, unfortunately all 3 mobs rolled a 2 to run and his grots failed to regroup and fled from the board.  I focused fired his central mob until they were pinned then whittled away at his HQ filled unit causing what damage I could.  Again Scott's mobs didn't move very far in his turn and I continued my ranged assault.  Scott had moved his Big Mek with Kustom Force Field to the front of his diminishing mob and after Look out Sir'ing a lot of damage he failed to stop the War Walkers Bright Lances as was removed.  Scott politley conceeded at that point.  He was happy to finish there and we talked it through.  A Gentleman to play against.

So a very long Day 1 and 4 wins and almost maximum bonus points for Warlords, First Bloods and Line Breakers.

Day 2
Game 5 - Emperor's Will - Dave Hodgetts - Tau
Dave and I had been fairly certain at the end of day 1 that we would be playing each other and here we were.  Dave had a Buffmander, 2 big Fire Warrior units, outflanking Kroot, 2 Riptides, Missilesides, 2 Hammerheads.  Dave had an amazing first turn, he managed to wreck the Wraithguard's Wave Serpent with long range cover ignoring Broadside shots then kill all the Wraithguard leaving the Sprirtseer heading for cover - bloody Tau ;)  I then employed an amazing tactic - cast Invisibility on a Wraithknight and send that Wraithknight straight at the Tau lines.  I used this tactic for the duration of the game and when the first Wraithknight eventually died to Fire Warrior Overwatching(after taking out the Buffmander and Missilesides in 1 turn and finishing a Riptide) I then cast it on my Warlord Wraithknight and he did the same thing.  Now this was distracting for Dave but we still had a knock down drag out game.  With only 1 objective each every little gain really counts.  His Kroot got the intended focus of my rear field objective holders for a couple turns while his tooled up Riptides and Hammerheads absorbed their own fair share of fire as well.  I played for the 5th turn win, contesting his objective from the battered Fire Warriors and when it went a 6th turn he cleared them out.  Luckily in the 6th turn I had a single Jetbike left to do it again and my Warlord Wraithknight to stomp the last of a Fire Warrior squad while the single remaining War Walker finally finished off a Linebreaking Hammerhead.  Win to me but Dave played like a champ.  Invisible Wraithknights FTW

Game 6 - Relic - Josh Evans - Dark Angels(Deathwing)
Final game and against my third Christchurch opponent.  This was the one scenario where I Josh's army would be harder than normal(ok the Purge the Alien would have been difficult too).  Josh had Belial, Librarian, 2 10 man Deathwing Squads and 5 Deathwing Knights, 27 models.  In this final game the players who had been recording ALL the mysterious objective results from all previous games, could now every turn add them to the Relic and the effects stacked!  The only way to remove the upgrades was to take the Relic from the opponent, resetting it.  Belial's unit teleports down, picks up Relic, puts Scatterfield on it for increased cover save and holds the central ruins.  Trying to stay out of range of the other 2 squads my forces shoot everything at the primary unit, I may have removed 1 model?  Josh stacks another cover save on the Relic and we quickly move through the rest of the game as Belial's unit now is rolling a 2+ armour and 2+ cover save.  Josh had lost his dice by the way and was using my dice, my traitorous dice which seemed to lose the ability to roll a 1 lol.  I lost, but I had as fun a game against a player with very similar comedic tastes as any.  A highlight was after losing a Wave Serpent the disembarked Dire Avengers fired at and killed a Deathwing Knight, this prompted over the next few turns a narrated tale of Jeff da Eldar trying to 'waste' the flash Deathwing Knights and his fellow Dire Avengers claiming he was 'too drunk' to deal with them.  Alas poor Jeff da Eldar did not survive his melee experience with the Deathwing Knights.

All done and dusted and 3 of us had scored 5 out of 6 wins.  It went to the bonus points which I had been focused in claiming and I am happy to announce that I came First!  Karn came second and Josh got third.  Luke Forrest deservingly won Best Painted(see his army in the link above).  Congratulations to all the Winners and thank you to Thomas Max of the Wellington Warlords for running our event.  This may have been one of the best batches of players I have faced at a tournament with great attitudes throughout all the games.  Great to meet the Chrsitshurch players and catch up with the likes of Wes, Blaise and visiting Hagen again too.

Wrythhold update

Well I am long overdue an update.  No excuses, I have been gaming every week, I just haven't posted anything - sorry.

Painting - I finally bought some Model Air paint for my cheap as chips airbrush - I'm a convert!  All I have done so far is do some basic work on my second Wraithknight which will be my Warlord when using the Iyanden supplement.  I am very happy with my early work and look forward to improving as I practice and add to my colour range.  There were a few things I should have done differently but as long as I learn from those mistakes its all positive.  I have not produced a lot of finished models in the meantime though I have found some new enthusiasm so will remedy that.

RPG - So we played through a lot of Deathwatch but myself as GM and the guys playing all wanted a change.  I think the system is great for short bursts.  Run through a single story arc between a longer term campaign.  After 3 months of consistent weekly gaming the player characters were advancing really slowly and for a bunch of guys who have years of D&D type leveling under their belts it feels like very slow progress.

So we went back to Pathfinder.  I did some research and bought the first part of the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path.  It drops the level 1 players right into some serious action and paces encounters, role playing and xp really well.  I think its the most the players have been enthusiastic about a rpg campaign for a long time.  Cody is as usual his go to sword n board human Paladin, Stu is a human Warlock and Aaron has surprisingly hung up his spells for a human Fighter swinging two handed weapons.  They are all good aligned and have their characters working together really well.  As they near the end of the first part of the campaign I asked if they wanted to play a Deathwatch story before going onto the second book.  They declined and want to carry on straight away, can only be a good thing!

Warhammer Fantasy - I haven't played a lot of Fantasy at all as the local lads love the round bases(as do I).  I am looking at a couple of easy additions to my Daemons with advice from Joel.  My VC sit neatly on display in a new cabinet in the gaming room though won't see any table action until we do another Stone Falls narrative game.  I am looking at a lot of Dark Elf stuff though that will be a gradual project, though I have a pretty solid plan of the visual look I would want to achieve.

40K - My go to game!  Since my last post we have had a new edition.  I don't think it has impacted too much on the way I play, but I do play Eldar... the changes to jink have made my Wave Serpents more durable though the balancing snap shots have reduced the firepower a little.  With all the twin linking I can still roll 6s though so not a biggy if it tones them down a bit.

From always taking a Farseer in my army for the last 5-6 years I now don't bother at all.  The changes to psychic powers, the psychic phase and lets be honest - all the twin linking in the Eldar anyway means I have been using an Autarch a lot or if I want my Wraithguard objective securing a token Spiritseer.  I have been playing against Cody's newly reinvigorated Grey Knights a lot so with all their Warp Charge spam whats the point trying to cast your own powers anyway.

Within the last week we have played a handful of 500 point unbound games.  Variations of this could be my new favourite way to play and build armies.  The tactical objective missions are perfect for this style of game over a 4x4 playing area and they don't take too long to get through.  Also very encouraging if you want to paint up a small force without too much commitment.

I am signed up for Call to Arms in Wellington so it will be nice to see how other players are approaching 7th edition.  It is a very 'vanilla' restrictive comp and I am disappointed we cannot use Forge World units - so the Hornets have to stay at home :(  No Knights either even with the nerf to D-Weapons.  Lets see if anyone go Daemon farm crazy - haven't had to deal with that yet.

Random games - I had the chance to play Deadzone from Mantic last week.  It is a very good game with a lot of potential and I hope to play a bit more before committing to any purchases.  I have had a handful of games of X-Wing.  A fantastic game with top of the range quality, like all things Fantasy Flight create.  I only have the starter and have bought Cody a B-Wing and got a Tie Advanced for myself but even with that small collection you can have challenging games.

Comic Books - This is presented as a Wargaming'RPG blog but my other hobby which I am more passionate about is comic books.  With a lot of changes coming up in the Marvel books I read and in my opinion the high quality of storytelling in today's Comic books I would like to share my views so expect to see something soon.

Feel welcome to suggest any content you would like to see here whether it be of a gaming or comic book nature.

Carthis Prime - The Imperium Strikes Back

This Good Friday I play host and umpire for 8 of my regular gaming mates.  This will see the next major event on Quintas Maelstrom's primary world.

Since the Battle for Carthis Prime in December, the Quintas Maelstrom campaign has been progressing at a steady pace.  Tau and Eldar forces continue to take worlds across the western sector hedging in the Dark Angels.  Ultramarines and Necrons move their forces through the eastern sector maintaining an uneasy ceasefire.

Killteams from these Empires have battled in ruined Forge worlds and through the ruins of lost civilisations to gather intel on the enemy and secure better transit for the greater armed forces of their races.

The different armies have met across the Maelstrom and come to blows upon unclaimed worlds, slowing the losers progress while the victors make small additions to their total force.

The Imperium lost control of Carthis Prime in spectacular fashion the last time everyone got together.  Now they return to push the entrenched Xenos forces from the planet.  The Tau have forged a truce with the Necron forces gathering about Carthis Prime and have negotiated the services of a renegade chaos marine force to fight back against the Imperium's loyal sons and daughters.

The Imperium races towards Carthis Prime with a combined force of Ultramarines, Salamanders, Black Templars, Adeptus Sororitas and allies from the Mechanicum's Knight Worlds.

Communications intercepted from both forces also report the presence of Eldar meeting with both sides...

So all players have been instructed to bring an 1850 point army each.  They are allowed to use an allied force, formations and Knights as long as they are approved by myself before the day.  After a morning of 1v1 games all players on a team will unite their armies and add an additional 1850 points for a massive 4v4 pseudo Apocalypse game.  The Additional points can buy Lords of War, further units from parent codex's ignoring FoC, Fortifications and Formations.  These must be checked by me before the day.

Here is how the teams look,

Imperium
Cody(Captain) - Ultramarines
Joel - Salamanders
Ryan S - Black Templars
Wil - Adeptus Sororitas

Xenos
Stu(Captain) - Necrons
Aaron - Tau
Ryan L - Tau
Alex - Chaos Marines

Here are the 1v1 games which the players have already been sent - the teams may choose who on their team plays what scenario.  Hopefully making tactical choices to better ensure victory and rewards for the big game.

Due to the fact that Xenos forces control Carthis Prime, the Xenos players will be the defenders in each scenario.

Table 1
Encounter at Relay Station Carthis 149/X
SPECIAL RULES - SLAY THE WARLORD, Night Fighting turn 1 only, Variable game length
The table will be divided into quarters.  The defending Xenos players quarter will have terrain representing as heavily fortified outpost, including a usable Quad gun and Icarus Lascannon.  The Imperial attacker will have the opposite quarter.
The Xenos defender sets up first then the Imperial attacker.
The Imperial attacker will go first unless the Xenos seizes the initiative.
From the third turn onwards Imperial reserves may enter from ANY table edge.
VICTORY CONDITIONS
At the end of the game the force with the greater number of SCORING units within the defending table quarter is the winner, alternatively once one side has no scoring units left, their opponent wins immediately.

REWARD

The Relay Station also contains control cogitators for a Void Shield Generator in the ruined capital city.  The winning players team gets a Void Shield Generator to use in the team game with a total of 3 projected Armour 12 Void Shields - see page 31 Stronghold Assault

Table 2
Battle across the Tharxian Plains
SPECIAL RULES - SLAY THE WARLORD, Roll for Night Fighting from turn 4 onwards, Variable Game length
The table will be played on length ways but deployment zones will be up to 18" onto the table instead of 24"
Each side must choose half of their number of units to be in reserve at the start of the game rounding up.
Roll to choose sides as normal.  The side which chooses their deployment zone sets up first.
Once setup roll to see who goes first, no seizing the initiative.
VICTORY CONDITIONS
Imperial - The Imperium's goal is to push through the Plains towards the ruins of Carthis Prime's capital.  For every mobile vehicle or scoring unit in the Xenos deployment zone at the end of the game they gain 3 Victory Points.
Xenos - The Xenos objective is to attack and contain the Imperial advance.  Every Imperial unit destroyed is worth 1 Victory Point.
REWARD

The winning players team gains a Comms Relay to use in the team game, Any player with an unengaged model within 2" of a comms relay can re-roll Reserve rolls for their Teams forces.

Table 3
Scour the Starport
SPECIAL RULES - Slay the Warlord, First Blood, Variable Game Length
The table will be setup to represent one of the derelict Starforts orbiting Carthis Prime.  "Empty" portions of the table represent space and can only be moved over by Flyers, Skimmers, Jump Infantry and Jetpack Infantry.  Jump Infantry must begin and end their movement
on solid terrain.
Primary Objective - There will be 4 objective areas on the table, they are worth 3 Victory points each.  A Player controls one of these if he has a non-vehicle model within 6" of it and there are no non-vehicle enemy models within 6" of it.
Secondary Objective - Planetary Defence Lasers, There are 2 Defence Lasers that can be fired at enemy forces on the Planet below.  A controlling unit may fire a laser instead of their own weapons in the shooting phase.  On a 5+ they hit an enemy target and score 1 Victory Point.
Hard Vacuum - The Atmospheric field generators are in poor condition.  Whenever you roll a 6 to wound they count as an AP2 hit.  Daemons, Necrons and Wraithbone units are Immune to these effects.
Reserves may enter from ANY solid starport edge, representing shuttles or other transports dropping them off.
REWARD

The winning players team gains D3+1 one shot Orbital Bombardments as per the Space Marine Chapter Masters rule to use during their shooting phases.  These can be used all at once or spread over multiple shooting phases.

Table 4
The Relic
This will use the standard Relic scenario from the main rulebook and all normal rules involved.  However in addition to the normal Relic rules when the Relic is first taken control of please roll on the Archeotech Artifact table on page 106 of the main rulebook, these effects if any will emanate from the Relic for the rest of the game.
REWARD
Whatever the Relic's Archeotech results in, it also contains a powerful Vortex weapon.  The winning players team gains 1 Vortex Missile!  In any controlling players shooting
 phase they may use the Vortex Missile.  It has Infinite range, Strength D, AP 1, Ordnance, Large Blast, Vortex - see page 13 Stronghold Assault - it can remain in play! ;)

TEAM GAME
There will be 5 Objectives worth 3 VP each spread out across the ruins of Carthis Prime's capital and a lot of Warlords on the table to slay.

I  have most of the lists in and they all look good so far.  I am really looking forward to this.