Warhammer Battles!!!!

The battle had'nt started well and the grey seer knew it. Lord Scummaw's plague monks had pushed their rotting plague wagon into the pink skinned man-things and had been destroyed utterly. The terrified squeaks and the hint of the musk of fear on the breeze had amused the rat mage. It had however annoyed the towering vermin lord, who brooded - chittering with itself in it's infernal tongue. It stared at Skitt'r and pointed at the heavily armoured man things. "Yes yes, bless the man-things with the horned one's favour. They are chosen of their infernal god and are terrible foes" The grey seer's blood ran cold, such power was dangerous as it required vast amounts of raw energy to cast. He began the invocation, the winds of magic swirling about the seer's paws. The rat deamon's nose twitched and sniffed, smelling the scent of the spell as i formed. It began to excitedly chitter until without warning, the spell disipated having failed. The vermin lord drew itself to its full height and growled "Again!......."

Chieftan Grizzit dueled with the sorcerer. The man thing had looked an easy target. Mages being puny warriors and all, though this one was definitely cheating. Yes cheating, for there was no other explanation as to why he wouldnt die. The man thing expertly dodged and parried the blows before landing the flat of his blade across Grizzit's face. The rat hissed with rage but then heard the quiet chittering of disent from his own ranks. The clan rats could sense his weakness and injury and were ready to pounce. Without thinking he squeaked as loud as he could "Great-great vermin lord. Save your most humble....and valued servant!" The vermin lord in a mock bow replied "Of course mighty one, i will save you. You are destined for greatness in the eyes of the horned rat. Yes yes, kill their general you will" and with a contemptuous gesture sent the squealing standard bearer hurtling toward the chaos demon prince. Without a second thought the cowardly rat threw his banner at the enemy general and dived into the under brush. With a shrug of his mighty shoulders the ancient demon laughed then took to the skies to confront the demonic rat. A frenzied flickering of his tail belied the anger of the vermin lord.

Grey Seer Skitt'r looked around nervously. He was in trouble and therefore needed a hasty exit. The vermin lord had stalked off toward the Stormvermin who were feasting upon the the dying bodies of the chaos warriors. This was the perfect opportunity to cut and run. His near victory would be reported to the council of thirteen and it would definitely poor scorn on the useless Scummaw. He had lost them the battle, most definitely.

The Vermin lord silently stalked closer to the gorging stormvermin. With boom it brought it's mighty weapon to strike the ground. The unit looked up and began chittering with terror. Chieftan Vorsk pressed his muzzle to the dirt. "Mighty emmisary of the most beloved Horned Rat, we...er...i gift-give you the fang leader of the man man things" Three burly storm vermin dragged the flailing chaos champion toward the demon, it's eyes glittering with unabated hunger. With a flash of it's yellowed fangs it tore the throat of the screaming northman before descending upon the stormvermin that held him. Within seconds it had consumed the man thing and the three rats. Suddenly it turned it's baleful gaze toward Vorsk "You have pleased me Vorsk. Yes-yes, pleased me, but i hunger for more flesh..." Without a hint of remorse, Vorsk shoved forward two of his own men and jumped clear "I gift-give you my own men. Feast-feast well mighty one" But the vermin lord had already began in earnest on the terrorised stormvermin. As he scrambled away as fast as his legs could carry him he heard the dying screams of his men imploring him for aid. He grinned to himself and began plotting the demise of the fool grey seer Skitt'r. He had earned the praise of a vermin lord - an avatar of the Horned One. Surely this would assure his ascension to Warlord in the eys of the council of thirteen if he could remove the cowardly, yet remarkably lucky Grizzit.

- Simon

Supply Depot

I made some buildings to represent a Supply Depot. We played a game recently where there were house rules for being near the Vehicle Repair Shop, Ammo Store, and Barracks. They don't look great, but building a terrain collection is a slow and steady marathon..

Garage, Barracks (x2), and Fencing

I achieved my hobby goals for August. I'm keeping cool in September..doing whatever I feel like. Having targets certainly gets things done but as soon as it feels like work it's time to chill out.

I will be making a Slaanesh addition to my Chaos 40K army in the coming weeks, they are in the post.

In October, I will likely be engaging in all things Dark Ages, as I'm leaning towards Saxons for Hail Caesar, which will double up as a nice warband for Saga which is looking good.

October 1st I am playing in a big multiplayer, all-day, American Civil War game, so I'll be learning the Fire and Fury rules. I've recently played some 20mm Napoleonics multiplayer battles which were a lot of fun and very very different to what I am used to. So, I am getting out there and seeing what else is around.

-scott

Kthulu 2011 Photos

Here are some photos of Kthulu 2011, taken by some of the other guys:

40K Tournament Report - Kthulu 2011 - Huntingdon (HDWS)

I took part in a 40K tournament for the first time this weekend. I was nervous about the competitive element before I arrived but thankfully almost everybody I met on the day was friendly and fun to play against.

We played four games with a short break for lunch, 9am 'til 6pm, 1750pts. That's quite a pace, it's more games in less time than a day at Throne of Skulls, so it was a good warm-up for that!

Here are my results, seeing as we're talking about a tourney:

Tyranids - Capture and Control, Pitched Battle, Loss (tabled in fact!)
Orks - Seize Ground, Spearhead, Draw
Lunch - Seize Battered Sausage and Chips, Guiness, Win! (whadda'ya mean it don't count!? :-))
Imperial Guard - Annihilation, Dawn of War (!), Win (very tough setup for the IG)
Blood Angels - Kthulu Special Mission, Pitched Battle, Loss

After the first round the Swiss sort kicked in and it was Grey Knights and Space Wolves on the top tables for the rest of the day.

HWDS hosted the event, they have a nice scenery and board collection, so credit to them for that. I think we could do with a terrain weekend or two at Bury having seen what these guys get to play over.

I saw some nice armies and fought against a good variety of players. Overall, lots of fun indeed. I do think my game has improved since getting games in more regular, and my usual list is actually quite competitive at the club, but at a tourney, even a local one like this, you do see how much further you can take things - if you're playing to win. I've got some tweaks in mind for the next competitive event I go to, which is Throne of Skulls at the end of October, but I won't be ditching the more 'friendly' parts of my army altogether, because I enjoy using them.

It's fun to pit our wits and armies against another for the sheer thrill of playing to win - but it's all friends having fun at the end of the day.

Enjoy your gaming. ;-)

-scott

p.s. I will post some photos once they start doing the rounds..

Molendinum VI - Campaign Report - Game 2

After the Space Wolves secured the bastion, their Blood Angels allies arrived planetside to take over garrison of the compound while the Wolves went out to strike deeper into enemy territory. We decided that the forces of Chaos would return under cover of darkness to raid the nearby ammo stores, barracks and vehicle repair shops.

We 'scrolled' the board 3' one way, making use of the modular board sections to make it easy. The bastion now sat on the western end of the table, as it was when captured by the allies, and we put together a compound of buildings and wire fencing to the east. This was to be the target of the Chaos raiding party. We also decided to place two communications towers in the woods bordering one of the lateral lava channels. If captured, these would aid the player in the next game by allowing a small points advantage. The towers' comms. equipment could be used to effectively coordinate an accurate and timely call for reserves. Finally, we decided to use Night Fighting rules for the entire game, as the Chaos were sneaking back at night time!

This was a tough job for the Blood Angels to win, made especially difficult by their general forgetting to deploy an entire assault squad! No comment.. The Chaos krak'd their way into the ammo stores reasonably fast and secured it against the attacking assault squads and terminator raiding party. In the woods, some Plague Marines destroyed a Baal Predator that had been sent to hunt them and then secured the control towers.

The raid was a success. Fully equipped and tooled up to continue the war, the forces of Chaos set off to re-escalate the conflict. This war ain't over!!

Molendinum VI - Campaign Report - Game 1

At long last, we have kicked off some campaign action between us and in an effort to keep it going, I am going to write up a brief report of the first two games here. This is more for our benefit than anybody else's, which is just as well, as nobody ever reads this!

Game 1

We played the standard Planetstrike mission first, with the Space Wolves attacking a reinforced Bastion under the control of esteemed Chaos Sorcerer, Joca the Rusty, and his foul minions of Nurgle. We used some fencing sections I'd recently put together to form a partial perimeter around the bastion, filling the gaps with a bunker, one or two storage buildings, some aegis defence lines, and the lava channels that run here and there on my modular board.

The Space Wolves attacked with speed and cunning from the west, having identified the weakest section of the Chaos defences. Concentrated fire from a team of Obliterators coupled with an assault by my Daemon Prince saw the Thunderwolf Cavalry cut down to a man - the General!. A team of Grey Hunters in their transport were ignited and plasma cannoned by a Predator and Obliterator salvo, and then it was time for the Imperials to breach the line. We ruled the fences could be breached by a tank shock or close assault, with penetrating hits at Arm-10 to smash them down. A Rhino failed to do the job, but half a dozen Krak grenades made short work of the task and the wolves were in!

I put up a fight at the base of the bastion with the remains of my terminators, but having lost my general to Jaws of the Wild Wolf, they were leaderless, and no doubt too busy worrying about whether they could take control of the others or not to pay attention to the battle! A team of Power Fist wielding Obliterators emerged from an escape hatch to finish the Space Wolf general with a flurry of heavy-handed blows. Then, a Space Wolf Rhino stormed forward and touched the bastion with its dozer blade to win the day. The Chaos left in an orderly fashion, knowing full well when they were beaten!

Chaos Afterword

I enjoyed the game. It was close fought and fun, despite losing my Daemon Prince and General to some bad dice rolls - that stuff happens in war! To date I've had the attitude that the Defender in Planetstrike is in for a tough deal and can only hope to bloody the Attacker's nose. To some extent this is true, and the designer's notes from the PS sourcebook agree with the notion. Adding the fences and barricades that I've put together recently though added more of a hurdle for the Space Wolves to get past which balanced the game and offered some reward for making the terrain in the first place. It made me realise how I miss the scenery on a gaming table having a real effect on the gameplay, and the atmosphere. I think we've lost some of that with 5th Edition, which basically says, if it's not impassable, roll a dice, and there's a 5/6 chance you can just walk/drive over it. Walls aren't walls anymore, fences aren't fences, and buildings aren't even buildings.

I don't think I made any mistakes, other than the usual error of taking on the Space Wolves! I targeted the biggest threat from early on, throwing my Daemon Prince into a fight I knew it wouldn't win at the expense of the greater plan - something I'm trying to do more of lately as I think it's the single change I can make to 'improve my game'. Having said that, we both had a good time, so it was successful all round!

Space Wolf Afterword

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Chaos Chosen Rhino

The Chosen are hardened veterans. Their Rhino is equipped with a long distance lo-comms aerial and camo-netting for infiltration work, and a stout tow rope for the inevitable breakdown (of others!).

It's the first time I've tried to make camo netting. In future I'm going to press it down on the vehicle soaked only in water and let it dry into shape before gluing it on, that way it will hug the contours of the vehicle better and lay more realistically. Never mind, we learn by doing!

-scott