Deathwatch 40K rpg - Game 2 - Final Sanction continues

Following the killteams introduction with the Imperial Assassin Syndalla the marines headed back out, into the rain soaked sprawl of Lordsholm.

The trio briefly discussed heading further into the Portica District to support in the defense of the primary PDF base, but Brother Varin asserted his Ultramarine command and the trio set off for one of their primary objectives, the Astropathic message and Lord Governor..

Trekking through the city, the marines made few contacts with the enemy.  Those they did encounter scattered into shattered stores or fled down alleyways, now little more than garbage clogged streams under the heavy rainfall.  The killteam made it to the border of the Magistria District where a large white washed wall separated the nobility from the common classes of Lordsholm.  Brother Angus activated his Jump Pack and perched upon the high wall surveying the district.  Clean cobble stoned roads crisscrossed between fenced multi storied town houses. Street lamps illuminated park benches, hedges and flower beds where the cities fortunate dwelt. Magistria was certainly separate to the rest of Lordsholm.  In the distance another set of walls partitioned the Governor's palace and within its confines the Astropath's Tower of Echoes jutted into the dark sky like an alabaster needle.

With Varin and Rafen keeping pace on the ground and Angus scouting from atop the district wall, the marines circumvented it's length finding a heavily barricaded gate.  With joint effort they hauled the debris aside and made their way into Magistria. 

As the three marines stalked through the streets they saw little evidence of the rebellion.  Isolated pockets of graffiti or vandalism marked some properties but nothing else stirred amongst the darkened homes. 

Arriving at the palace gate they finally found signs of life.  Guardsmen in heavy coats sheltered within the shadow of the palace walls.  As the towering marines stalked out of the darkness the guards broke into panic but shifted to nervous compliance when the killteam identified themselves.  With little coercion required the guards informed the marines that the Governor had sheltered all the nobility within the Palace and currently they are enjoying a party to distract themselves from the cities plight.  This was not well received by the Astartes who swept past the guards and headed across the graveled driveway to the opulent buildings which formed the Governor's residence.

The house guards had been informed and failed miserably to hide from the Astartes by hiding behind large plants flanking the main doors.  Nervously they revealed themselves and did their best to compose themselves when confronted by the super humans.  Varin and Angus demanded to know the Governor's whereabouts while Rafen loomed at the edge of the entrances illumination.  One of the Guardsmen found his mettle and invited the marines to follow him, throwing open the Palace doors and striding in.  The trio followed the guard through the sprawling residence, staff and menials concealing themselves in doorways or making themselves scarce in a hurried manner.  As the sound of orchestral music and varied conversation bled down a grand hall the marines knew they had found their 'host'.

The marines strode through the doors finding themselves in a massive conservatory filled with dozens of Lordsholm's rich .  An ornate lattice work of rafters made up the ceiling flowing down to a semi circle of 5 meter tall glass panels, these looked out across the lawns and gardens of the palace grounds to the Tower of Echoes which sat atop the highest point of what made up a clifftop border of the property.  As the party guests looked on the new arrivals with wide eyes and gaping mouths all conversation halted, the string quartet abruptly stopping their melody.  Through the transfixed throng pushed a middle aged man.  A bald head topped his solid form where years of fine living had given to a widened mid section, clad in a royal blue coat, barely fastened with gold Aquila clasps."What is the meaning of this?" barked Lord-Governor Perian Thorsholt through a grey flecked moustache and goatee.  As Brother Angus began a tirade against the Governor, Varin tried to interrupt when dark alien forms dropped from the rafters into the crowd. 

Screams erupted from the nobility along with fountains of blood as the xenos began tearing them apart.  Varin hoisted his boltgun up trying to sight a xenos amongst the throng while Angus thumbed the activation stud on his chainsword and Rafen harnessed warp energy, violet lightning playing over his gauntlets.  Thorsholt grabbed a startled bodyguard and shoved them towards a servants entrance, making an escape as the first Genestealer burst from the crowd at the Astartes.  Varin fired a burst of mass reactive shells into the alien beast, gravely wounded it before it landed where Angus hauled the razor teeth of his chainsword across its form finishing it.  As more Genestealers charged, Varin saw a beast tear through the doorway where Thorsholt had fled.  Urging Angus and Rafen to hold the attackers Varin went after the Governor.  Glass shattered and some of the crowd fled the atrium out into the storm with aliens in pursuit.  With psychic lightning and blade the Stormwarden and Blood Angel engaged the remaining Genestealers.  The Xenos proved a more dangerous foe than the hordes of rebels they had been able to wade through. Claws, diamond sharp rent and pierced power armour while weaving away from chainsword and force sword strikes.  Angus shifted stance and made initial attacks with his combat knife then following with his lethal chainsword when the aggressors were mid dodge.  Rafen used his ornate force sword to parry aside rending claws while lashing the genestealers with his psychic might.

Varin crashed through the doorway, its frame not made to accommodate his power armour.  As wood splintered he saw the genestealer launch from the carpeted floor to the wood panelled wall, springing off that to tear down an outclassed guardsmen.  Thorsholt spared a glance at the guards demise and cursed profusely almost crashing into a transfixed member of the kitchen staff who had obliviously wandered into the passage.  Varin kept moving, his shoulder pads scraping furrows into each wall.  Drawing his boltgun up he stitched bolt rounds at his target clipping it.  The Genestealer shifted its bulk swiftly, spinning around and rasping through its opened maw in challenge.  As Varin made to fire again the beast charged, smashing Varin into the wooden wall.  The Ultramarine spat his hate at the race which had scoured Macragge and smashed his boltgun across its inhuman face.  Massive alien claws found purchase on black power armour while Varin sought to put some distance between his target.  A las shot scored a mark in the wall near the genestealers head and it whipped its head about to screech at Thorsholt who held an ornate laspistol defiantly at it.  This distraction allowed Varin to step back, pumping four bolts at close range straight into the creature.  The carapace buckled and exploded as the round detonated, painting the hallway in alien ichor.  As Thorsholt warily approached Varin through the alien remains Angus peered into the narrow corridor, gore still falling from his chainblade.  "You alright Brother Varin?" he inquired in a cheery manner.
Varin answered positively and with Thorsholt in tow returned to the conservatory to survey the nobility's casualties and make for the Astropath's tower.

In this second session the players made use of squad mode when the genestealers revealed themselves in the Atrium.  Cody benefited with Varin getting to take overwatch shots but Womble and Stu failed their command checks and as the Governor was fleeing they opted to stay in solo mode.  Combat shifted nicely to one on one fights with a dangerous foe, really emphasising the difference between the masses breaking over a power armoured legio and a real individual challenge.  Stu still opted to use his psychic powers in a restrained manner, not willing to 'push' them yet...

Deathwatch 40K rpg - Final Sanction

So after our 'evil' Pathfinder game came to a messy bleeding end at the hands of a Paladin and Mystic Theurge, it was high time I sat back in the GM chair after taking a long break - thank you Womble.

So what did the boys want to play?  We had burned out on Pathfinder/D&D which was fair enough after not really progressing that well through the last couple of campaign attempts.  After looking over the rpg book laden shelves, Deathwatch was suggested and quickly agreed upon.

We were already familiar with the system as we have played Rogue Trader a bit so I only had the Horde and Solo/Squad modes rules to go over.  That weekend we got together and made the Battle Brothers up in preparation for the following regular Tuesday night game time.

Stu made Rafen, a Blood Angel Librarian.  Cody had Varin an Ultramarine Tactical specialist and Womble had Angus, yes Angus!  the Stormwarden Assault Marine.  Now in regards to the Stormwarden's name, Womble and I read up on the Stormwardens and they seem to have a Celtic theme.  After the other two had selected their names from the samples found on their chapter lists, Womble asked if their was any name similar to Angus, low and behold yes there was in the middle of the samples, Angus in fact... so that is why we have Battle Brother Angus complete with an accent to rival that of Fat Bastards.

'

By the time we were ready to play I had nabbed the sample adventure from Fantasy Flight found here.  I always find it helpful to run a pregenerated adventure to start with.  The Fantasy Flight ones in particular ease the GM and players into the extra rules of the game and provide a great example to structure original missions on.  The adventure Final Sanction is set in the sprawling canal choked industrial city of Lordsholm on the Agri-world of Avalos which I am transplanting from the original locale to the Quintas Maelstrom so I can connect the future narrative to the 40k campaign.

The Deathwatch killteam are searching for Inquisitor Kalistradi with whom the Ordo Xenos has lost contact with.  The players enjoyed a very cool introduction which was provided where their transport frigate was assaulted by Tyranid vanguard bio-ships, the Killteam launching their drop pod at the city below.  The drop pod crashed through the roof of a large Imperial chapel and on egress discovered a PDF platoon under siege by rebel forces.

Straight away the players got to experience dealing with Hordes in the game where damage the players cause reduce the magnitude of the enemy horde until they cause the enemy to break from combat or disband.  This is where explosive weapons and flamers excel as they reduce the Hordes effectiveness rapidly. 

So striding out of the chapel into the midst of awe struck guardsmen the Killteam engaged the enemy.  With rain pounding down on their ceramite Varin took position alongside the humans sheltering behind fallen statuary with his bolt gun, Rafen drew forth psychic energy and gathered lightning in his gauntlets while Brother Angus primed his jump pack and launched into the dark sky to enter the killing ground about the defenders.  The rebel forces engaged in waves with numerous crazed wretches surging about Angus and making for the chapel.  Varin unleashed fully automatic bolter fire, the mass reactive shells detonating in the soft tissue of his targets.  Rafen released his psychic power, the lightning dancing amongst the rain soaked attackers.  Angus burst upwards from the surrounding horde dropping a frag grenade which exploded in a fiery ball throwing corpses about like rag dolls, all the while PDF las shots peppered the oncoming forces while stub rifles barked back.

A bellow sounded from a gene enhanced goliath, some labourer nearing the height of the Astartes.  A cheer roared from the rebel forces and the brute triggered a stolen chainsword and charged at Angus.  Brother Angus met the weapon with his own chainblade and made short and bloody work of  his opponent to the dismay of the rebels who broke and scattered back to their fellows in the ruined buildings about the chapel.

As the next horde surged forwards heavy stubber fire raked the PDF soldiers.  Brother Varin called the defenders to hold their position and surveyed the dark structures for the weapon teams.  Angus plowed into the new wave breaking rebels with combat blade and whirring chain teeth.  Librarian Rafan vaulted over the defenses and ran to join Angus, summoning psychic flame.  As Angus lobbed another frag grenade into the ravenous horde and Rafan ignited them with sheets of psychic flame, Varin spotted the enemy stubber teams atop a ruined tower 80 metres across the corpse strewn grounds from the chapel.  Voxing his squad mates Varin fired suppressing shots at the stubbers.  Angus acknowledged the enemy location and burst skywards again descending with crushing force into the enemies about the base of the tower while Rafan held back the rebel advance with Avenging fire.

Varin felled rebels with expert bolt fire allowing Angus to prime a krak grenade at the towers base and as he jump packed to safety the explosion compromised the already unstable structure.  Debris crashed down on the remaining rebels, burying them under tons of wood and steel.  The few surviving rebels fled the chapel grounds disappearing into the ruined Lordsholm streets.

The Battle brothers rejoined at the chapel and were addressed by the PDF officer Captain Ascote who urged them to join him in the chapels interior.  Once inside with rain falling through the hole made by the drop pods entry, the Captain's form shifted and morphed before the marines eyes into a slender female form, that of a Callidus Assasin.  Syndalla introduced herself as an ally of Inquisitor Kalistradi and told the marines she had not seen the Inquisitor since fighting broke out weeks ago.  The Inquisitor's agents had been here in Lordsholm investigating a Genestealer cult when the uprising erupted in violent fury.  Kalistradi had gone off in search of the terrible xenos Broodlord who was exerting it's alien will over the corrupted rebel forces.  Syndalla urged the marines seek out and exterminate the Broodlord, send an Astropathic message from the Tower of Echoes before the greater Hive forces arrived in system and ascertain the location and well being of the Planetary Governor Perian Thorsholt.

That was all the first night and the three players really seemed to enjoy it - you could tell as Cody hardly played with his phone ;)  I must say for a game system, it is one I really enjoyed running and should continue to do so.  The abstract horde mode works really well if you convey the setting and enemy well.  I found myself imagining rebel bodies being flung about as torrential rain poured down, fires burning in ruined buildings providing a backdrop.  The fact that we all play 40k and most of us have read multiple Horus Heresy books didn't hurt either as the boys took to their Astartes roles extremely well.  A lot of reference to the Space Marine video game was made too. Talking to Cody a couple days after the first game, I said that I had pictured Lordsholm looking like Dunwall from the Dishonoured video game and he said that's what he had imagined as well. nice the description I gave worked out then. 

The system lets the players play the marines as they should be, warriors able to plow through normal human forces like the juggernauts they should be.  They did find out in our next session what a real enemy can do if it gets it's claws on them though.

40K Campaign - The Quintas Maelstrom - round 4

Last Friday Womble and I snuck in an after work game so that his Tau forces could clear the resident Orks from a barren frontier world on his fringes.

The Ork Warboss gathered 2 large units of boyz, a pair of loota mobz and a small squadron of deffkopterz while the Tau landed with a Commander and bodyguards, a trio of Missilesides, Riptide, trio of Crisis suits, Kroot and a Piranha squadron.

The game was for 1 objective each so had the potential to be interesting.

The Tau were initially intimidated by the large number of Orks in opposition and an initial barrage of fire from the fast deffkopterz saw a crisis team take casualties then flee from the battle zone, scoring the Orks a cheeky first blood.

The Tau retaliated, Smart Missile systems really shone as the Tau forces unleashed a furious barrage of fire into the Ork hordes over the next few game turns.  Ignoring cover and LoS the Orks could do little to close the distance and the Tau position meant the greenskins could do little to get out of range.  The Orks heal out as long as they could causing minor damage to the braver Tau units which closed the distance but in the end the sands were coated in green blood and the Tau had another world.

On Tuesday Cody and I decided to have a campaign game.  We as a group have decided that each player may issue a challenge once per round.  These challenge games if won can gain the victor a permanent 50 point addition to their army total.  Womble has also worked out a system for buying back units from a total army economy, where worlds controlled give resources to replace destroyed units.  In a challenge game the challenger has to be able to replace lost units as normal where the defending player ignores any losses - this will mitigate any ganging up over subsequent rounds on a single player.  When we actually come to fighting over controlled worlds all losses on both sides will need to be managed.

Cody and I decided to roll for challenger as we had not formally declared any.  My Eldar forces ended up as aggressor and Womble set up the table as a ruin strewn jungle.

Ultramarine forces

Chapter Master, bike, artificer armour, shield eternal, thunder hammer
2x 5 man tac squads with plasma in las/plas razorbacks
Stormtalon, assault cannons and skyhammers
Centurion Devastators with grav cannons
Thunderfire cannon

Eldar forces

Autarch, Mantle of the Laughing God, Jetbike, Shard, Fusion gun, banshee mask
5 Dire Avengers in Wave Serpent, scatter, cannon, holo
3 jetbikes
5 Warp Spiders
Hornet with Pulse lasers
Wraithknight
2 War Walkers with bright lances

As we want to make use of some units that we don't normally play with I for the first time used the Solitarch.  It would help with reserve rolls for the outflanking Hornet and Warwalkers and be able to do some decent solo damage.  With all the multiple dice I would be throwing for shooting I didn't want to rely on the normally compulsory Farseer.

We rolled a 4 objective game with diagonal deployment and night fighting first turn.

Cody was going first and deployed his force centrally and aggressively to make use of the limited range, he put his thunderfire in a reinforced ruin on his right flank.  I set back as far as I could to maximize the night fighting rules.  The Hornet and Warwalkers were outflanking and the jetbikes reserved.

The marines had range to the wraithknight with the razback lascannons but little else.  The Centurions struggled through the central jungle choked ruins - something that would occur throughout the game.  I think Cody may have removed 1 wound from the WK while his Chapter master sped towards him.

In my opening turn I moved into range of a razback with my serpent while the warp spiders and wraithknight swung out to my left.  The autarch stayed back in cover waiting for the marines to close.  The wave serpent smashed open the razback with the cover ignoring serpent shield and first blood was mine.  Other shooting saw the Chapter Master lose a wound.

As the sun filtered through the jungle canopy the Chapter Master went straight for the Wraithknight.  Seeking to tarpit it with his EW shield.  The Centurions struggle again through the ruins and the Eldar had kept out of range of other forces.  The Stormtalon flew onto the board and unleashed its weapons at the Wave Serpent causing it to explode.  Only one of the passengers perished and they took cover in their transports wreckage.  The Thunderfire pummeled the Warp Spiders but only one had succumbed to the bombardment.  The Chapter Master charged the Wraithknight and lost a wound to the Wraithcannon fire!  The following combat saw both sides lose a wound and the melee continued.

The Eldar Hornet and Walkers both entered from the marine's right flank using the reinforced tower ruin where the techmarine and TFcannon were perched as LoS blocking terrain.   They took long ranged shots at the other razback and centurions managing to wreck the tank and wound the heavily armoured marines.  The spiders jump generators brought them within range of a disembarked marine squad and alongside the Autarch whittled down their numbers with monofilament shots.  The struggle between the Wraithknight and Marine hero continued with both sides failing to cause a wound.

The Stormtalon through a hard turn and went straight for the outflanking Eldar forces managing to destroy a walker.  The TF again fired at the spiders but caused little damage to their heavy aspent armour.  The Centurions fired at the only target in range, the Mantled cloaked Autarch.  With Grav cannons firing they scored 11 wounds but the fey luck of the Eldar Warlord saw him unscathed.  More blows were traded in assault but the Marine Lord failed to bring his shield to bare in time and was crushed by the Wraithknight's strength.

The Hornet fired at the Stormtalon failing to strike it, the jetbikes entered the fray and took position behind a massive ancient tree.  The remaining warwalker clambered into the ruined tower closing on the techmarine and artillery, assaulting after firing its lances with little effect.  The Wraithknight freed from combat reinforced the flank while the spiders and Autarch finished off another tactical squad. 

The Stormtalon scored a hit on the Hornet, stunning it while the Centurions fired with little damage caused at the Eldar Warlord.  The Warwalker beat down the Techmarine and took firing position in the tower.

The game ended with combined fire dropping the Centurions to a single wounded man before the Autarch flew into combat finishing it off.  The surviving pair of Dire Avengers took control of a rear objective while the jetbikes had already sped across the table to take another.  The Stormtalon took a hit and left the combat zone as sole survivor to report back to Marine command on the xenos forces.

This was unfortunately one of those games where Cody did very little if anything tactically wrong, but as I'm sure we can all sympathise with, had the dice abandon him.  I measured all the ranges of his weapons and did my best to keep out of them, Eldar mobility played a huge part in this game with my forces able to dance around his picking off the long ranged targets with little retribution.  It was fun to play with the Autarch and as that game sees him tick up some experience I shall field him again, I will have to build an actual model up for him.  I'm thinking of mounting him on a Hellion skyboard Green Goblin style.  That victory nets me 50 points bumping me up to 1050 per game and having more than enough resources to replace the lost wave serpent.

Stu and Womble have yet to play their Necron vs Tau game but I'm sure it will happen over the next couple days.

40K Campaign - The Quintas Maelstrom - rounds 1-3

Over the holiday period I enjoyed playing a several games of Killteam using the expanded rules found here at The Heralds of Ruin.  As my gaming group enjoys wargaming and roleplaying and has come off a stint playing Mordheim again these are great.

We also had a few 'fun' games of 40K, pairing up for team games, using Escalation rules - The Revenant got pushed around the table - generally trying to mix it up from the usual 1500 - 1850 point games we have played for the last few years.

This in combination with the Carthis Prime game day I hosted has lead us too the Quintas Maelstrom.  We came up with the idea of this campaign after a full day of gaming with fairly competitive lists.  We as a group found it no where as much fun as our recent more varied games had been.  We bounced some ideas around and I had a rummage through the volumes of gaming material in the games room and found the old GW Eldritch Storm campaign map that came out years ago.  Womble then over the following week made up a great set of rules.  These include discovered worlds being random according to a table, a chance of inhabitants being allies or hostiles and army attrition and rebuild costs depending on how you do in the actual games.

We established initial force restrictions.  1000 point lists, 1 HQ, 2 Troops, 1 Elite, 1 Fast Attack and 1 Heavy Support.  Worlds you conquer can add more FoC slots including being able to exceed the normal FoC slots by 1.  Certain worlds can also grant you more points to spend on your force giving a player a strong advantage.  Allies will only be accessible if you discover inhabited systems and then conquer/befriend them.  Killteams using the Herald's rules also need to be made for espionage missions against each other.

With this established we rolled some random starting positions.  Alex with Dark Angels is in the North West, Womble with Tau in the South West, Stu's Necrons East of the Centre, Cody's Ultramarines in the South East and myself with Eldar North of the Centre.

We each set 3 neighbouring systems to our starting worlds as a Hive World which automatically grants an Elite slot, a frontier world for Fast Attack and a Forge World for Heavy Support.  Other systems are all random.  After initial moves I think we all went for our neighbouring Forge Worlds with only my Eldar encountering a hostile force present.  I rolled an Imperial force and Alex opted to play the planetary defenders.  He chose Dark Angels as is familiar to him and Womble set the board.  Defending inhabitants are not restricted and have access to a normal FoC chart where I had to be quite selective.

Our table was set with a large series of central fortifications including towering bastions and a skyshield bridging them.  My objective was to take control of the central bastion with any infantry unit where the defenders had to keep me at bay.  Alex set up his Dark Angels defensively but did little to stop the Eldar invaders.  D-Scythe toting Wraithguard weakened the Deathwing inside the Bastion, while mass fire from paired Wave Serpents, Warp Spiders and a Wraithknight dramatically thinned the rest of the Unforgiven force taking control of the Forgeworld.

Since then we have made a couple more rapid campaign moves resulting in Cody's Ultramarines encountering a Khorne cult on a Hive World he was bringing to compliance.  After seizing the Initiative his newly purchased Devastator Centurions destroyed the traitor forces en mass while supporting tactical squads in Razorbacks finished what remained of the lunatic cultists.

In our last move made Womble's Tau have encountered an hostile Ork force on a frontier world, that is yet to be resolved.

As a side effect of the random encounters it has encouraged us as a group to look at finishing off the many random collections of models we own and forming them into usable 1000 point armies.  This will make it a project with quite a lot of variety which will be nice.

Painting - Evil Greeblies

I have been having a lot of fun kitbashing a handful of evil minions, cultists and general greeblie fellows.  After seeing some fantastic cultists here I was inspired to make my own.  With all the role playing and wargames I play and host they certainly won't gather dust on the shelf.

So I bought a box of Plague Monks from STP and when they arrived rummaged through the left over bits from Cody's Plaguebearers.  Here are the first two completed(minus basing) results.

I was really impressed by all the parchments and tattered robes of the Skaven plague monks.  The first chap has a plaguebearer head, severed heads attached to the plague monk staff and then one of the multiple gleeful Nurglings sitting on the staves top.  The second has the removed tail reattached to the cut off face of a plaguemonk.  I left the bottom jaw in place and I think it works well.  I cut down the clawed feet slightly to give the impression of rag swaddled feet instead.

I have a parchment toting cultist almost finished and Joel, a regular gaming buddy from thebrushofdoom, has said I can have access to his many many Empire bits and pieces to craft more miscreants.

40k - Carthis Prime - Invasion

Last weekend I hosted a 40k get together with the local lads and some of the regular visitors.

It was a narrative team event where all victory points were added to a players team total.  This is the brief I sent out to the participating players.

Carthis Prime is a forgotten world on the fringe of the Ultima Segementum.  Carthis was once a populous world until disaster fell upon it's people. Overnight the cities of the world were torn apart, it's people vanished and the air itself was ruined with a toxic concoction causing it to be uninhabitable for centuries. 

Explorator teams from the Adeptus Mechanicus studied the world trying to divine what had caused this blight but if it was an attack or global disaster was never determined.  So Carthis was left abandoned for a very long time.  Eventually the Mechanicus installed massive atmosphere regulators on the surface.  Towering pieces of machinery which processed the trace toxins and finally brought Carthis back from its blighted torpor.

The Imperium has since deployed defence forces from the 'Hub' and installed minor fortifications on the surface and a Starport was built in orbit to sustain ships and troops moving through the region.

Now something on Carthis has attracted the attention of outside forces, be they xenos or human is unknown...

As we wanted to mix it up from the usual 1750 point games we play, each round was using different points and scenarios.

Some of the players were only available for certain rounds so I was to act as GM and fill in player where required.

So the Invading forces were

Ryan L - Tau

Aaron - Tau

Dan - Chaos Marines

Stu - Necrons

We figured the Chaos forces posing as Imperials would provoke the Tau into launching an attack on Carthis Prime.  Stu was available for the larger later game, so the Necrons reasons could be left up to the players.

The Defenders were

Ryan S - Space Marines

Alex - Space Marines

Cody - Grey Knights

All Imperial so a pretty straight forward alliance

KILL TEAM
Each player picks a force worth 200 points using the following FOC
0-1 Elite
0-2 Troops
0-1 Fast Attack

No unique units

SPECIALIST TROOPERS
Each player is allowed to pick 3 different models as being specialists.  Each player picks these models before the battle and assigns them a USR in the 40k rulebook.  For example Tank Hunter, Feel No Pain, Fearless, It Will Not Die etc  You may not duplicate special rules.

The 2 Tau forces commanded by Ryan and Aaron had very convincing wins against Alex's Marines and Dan's Chaos marines posing as Imperials.  That put the attacking forces well in the lead on campaign points.

GAME 2

SCOUR THE STARPORT
Its on page 350 of the hardcover rulebook if people have it, otherwise
Standard FOC 1000 points

 

Cody and Ryan S had then arrived for the Starfort Assault.  Both joined Alex on the defending team while Dan revealed his true allegiance and sided with the Tau.

All 3 starforts had areas of open space where only flyers or skimmers could move.  All to wound rolls of 6 were AP2 to represent explosive decompression.  All forts had a laser battery which a controlling unit could shoot instead of their own weapons, hitting either the planet or enemy fleet to score additional VP.

I allowed the teams to have a good look at the Starfort tables before hand and they independently decided who would play on which table.  I thought this was more interesting  than random table assignment as they could attempt to put their forces on suitable terrain and predict who they may end up playing.

Ryan L played Cody.  Ryan has kindly sent me a full report of his games including a couple quick snaps of the action.  I will share these soon.

 
Alex played Dan's CSM.  Dan's Helldrake was invaluable as it swept across the starport, purging the strongpoints and bastions of the defending marines.  Dan also took control of objective areas early and managed to hold onto them for a convincing win.  Alex had the laser battery and managed to score a hit on the enemy fleet.

Aaron played Ryan S.

Aaron deployed a lot of crisis suits and Broadsides in a central tower.  He did alright early on but the defending marines soon took control of the outlying asteroid objectives.  Ryan's bike star got stuck into the crisis suits and in the end the marines had a big win.

Ryan L had to head home after that and Stu soon arrived for the big Planetstrike game.  

GAME 3

PLANETSTRIKE - 1750 points per player
uses the basic planetstrike rules on page 8 in the PLANETSTRIKE book

Attackers FOC

Compulsory 1HQ... that is all
Optional - 2 HQ, 6 Troops, 6 Elites, 6 Fast Attack, 3 Heavy Support

Defenders FOC

Compulsory 1 HQ, 2 Troops

Optional - 2 HQ, 6 Troops, 3 Elites, 3 Fast Attack, 6 Heavy Support

They played over a 12'x 4' table with 5 bastions and fortifications set centrally by the defenders.  So each side had 5250 points in total.

The Defenders opted to leave a lot of stuff in reserve and crammed as much as they could under a central Skyshield and in the bastions.  After the fairly ineffectual firestorm the attackers came on in mass.  They took advantage of the central deployment and were able to concentrate fire on the entrenched defenders.  The defenders had bad luck and 3 of the 4 Land Raiders carrying some elite forces came on the most isolated board edge.  This allowed the attackers to easily take control of the fortress then hinder any reinforcements.  By turn 3/4 I think the attackers had destroyed every defending unit so a massive win to the Invasion force.

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and look forward to continuing Carthis' plight.  I didn't end up playing at all, but that proved handy as I was able to remind and clarify the odd scenario rules during the rounds for the players.  It also kept the massive Planetstrike game running along in some sense of order.

So Carthis Prime has been lost to Xenos invaders, how will the Imperium react?  Did the late revelation of a Necron presence have something to do with its initial downfall?  Will the invaders maintain their uneasy alliance?

Painting - Finished Dark Angel Deathwing Land Raider Crusader

This afternoon I put the final touches on the Deathwing Land Raider Crusader. 

The recipient of the tank is very happy with the final product and there has already been talk of a second one to join it, though that can wait until after I get a couple things done for myself.  For now this gets packed up safely along with a techmarine and some L&P chocolate for swift transit across the Tasman to Sydney.

The next project on the painting station is a kitbashed Mortis Engine for my Vampire Counts army to join the official one I already have.