Tuesday 31 May 2011

To Battle Once More!!

I've just got back from Triple Helix Wargames which is only down the road from me, they're open till 10 on tuesdays and thursdays, perfect for some wargaming after work.

I actually hadn't seen the guys for a few months, so it was great to catch up and make some wargaming related plans, and chat shizzle about all the new (and controversial) goings on at GW, and our other planned game systems (dystopian wars being one... we got our hands on some of the new dreadnoughts and the new FSA land ships due to one of the sculpters hanging around)

So onto the game!

We decided on a 4 v 4 game which the others had played at a shindig at TripleHelix before.

Essentially "Capture the Flag"

500 points per player

Each player deployed in a 12" square from the table corner.

A wheely bin objective was placed in the centre. This objective would join the first infantry unit which came into contact with it. and would move with the unit (including being loaded onto transports for no space taken up - it could be towed/stowed on the roof) before moving the unit must test for initiative (1D6) if failed, the wheely bin would sip from their grip, scattering 2D6 and stopping when it came into contact with any scenery/other units.

You score a victory point for moving the carrying unit off of your deployment table edge (12" from your corner) once this happens, your unit is then placed in reserve (available next turn) and the wheely bin appears suddenly at the centre of the board.



So this is the force I assembled, Its pretty much exactly what I took to calneage two years ago. I knew that it was going to be a 500 point game and figured, it was funny then so should be a laugh this time round.


Platoon Command: Power Sword, Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher

Infantry Squad 1: Autocannon, Grenade Launcher

Infantry Squad 2: Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher

Conscripts: 20 men

Heavy Bolter Weapons Team

Autocannon Weapons Team


Armoured Sentinel: Plasma Cannon


500 points Exactly



Deployment As you can see, a crowded start for my infantry heavy force, . I had Dark Eldar to my right, hence the heavy bolters placement, and many many many Attack bikes to my right, hence the plasma cannon.


I scored First deployment/turn, So elected to charge forwards without a single shot. the basic plan, stay in the trees and get the long range weapons in position, and of course....


CHARGE OF THE CONSCRIPTS!!!!!!


Heres the table in full, a defensive line between two forests, with a temple at the centre, housing the "Holy Wheely Bin"


Lees Three glass towers, or Dark Eldar vehicles if you will.



A Detachment of Khorn set up in the opposing forest



And the Many (Many) Attack bikes arrive from the open to my left.


Here it is, THE HOLY WHEELY BIN who knows what wonders are inside it.


Obviously the Dark Eldar have an advantage with insane movement capabilities. Though sitting a Raider on the objective does mean it will have to endure all the following firing.


With my right flank in tatters after a few Dark eldar strafing runs, my left flank advances at a rapid rate.


The Platoon Command made it into a busted bunker, ordering the conscripts to make the dash for the objective, and eyeing up targets for their missile launcher.


You can see the missile launcher team eyeing up lees raider, which had already claimed my heavy bolter team

The wheely bin however was making a dash for the board edge under the other raider which had escaped from the board centre untouched



The conscripts charge after the wheely bin




The marine bikers make it to the centre of the temple, pursuing the Dark eldar



The missile launcher Infantry squad hold base in my deployment zone, ready to give cover/aid to any returning units with the wheely bin




Lee's Dark Eldar manage to get the Wheely bin off of his table edge.



The Bin is reset, And now the slower armies are all over the centre

The bikes make contact,


The attack bike had obviously been a tad too enthusiastic when it reached the centre and dropped the wheely bin almost immediately


Originally the objective scattered 8" over the top of the chaos rhino, which is when we ammended the rules to stop the scatter when it comes into contact with objects/units


the wheely bin nearly coasted into the hands of some newly disembarked Khorn Berserkers, but was snatched away and back to the marine deployment zone. but the bikes were organised and had a second unit ready to pounce when the bin was reset a second time.


The bikers make second contact, under the conscripts' noses


The first successful hit by my sentinel paid off, if it had scattered anywhere my poor conscripts would have been badly injured... Luckily a Hit scored me 3 Berserker kills



You can see how close that shot was


My autocannon Infantry Squad make a daring move once the biker was dispatched, using the conscripts as a shield between them and the berserkers, they grab the objective



The conscripts "bravely" take on the berserkers




And unsurprisingly FLEE!!


The remaining 2 berserkers are dispatched by plasma cannon fire, and the champion is humiliated by a laspistol wound which kills him.


The wheely bin looks to be in guard control on turn 5


Although casualties are mounting






Turn 6, and my second infantry squad run out to help bring back the objective (which has mysteriously turned into a purple rock...)


The sentinel leaps out to hold off the chasing bike


With that being the 6th turn, and Lee needing to head off (hence the wheely bin dissapearing) the guys suggested i tested to see if i could get my guys off of the table in turn 7. (i had held up every enemy unit which could have impeded my movement)


With 11" to cover, I needed to roll a 5+ for my run...














2





Dark Eldar and Marines win with a point each. Proving that when it comes to capture the flag, bikes and tranports get it done quicker than marching your men like the grand old duke of york!


But which is more fun?


Cheers All!!


TSINI

Wednesday 13 April 2011

New Models!!

Yes I had a bit of a Wallet explosion at Forgeworld Open Day this year, but then, I've never walked anywhere near a Forgeworld stand without my bank account screaming in pain as a large part of it is ripped out in one go! Of course I pre reserved it for collection, which is ALWAYS the smarty thing to do at FW open day, the queue is always immense. (it wraps around the entire hall of warhammer world, and takes an age to get to the front) A second Vulture... I've got some Rapid Response force thing in mind for apocalypse games :D
A new command squad, the new Hostile Environment cadians just rock! I'm using them to represent any veterans in my force, making it easier to remember which squads have a higher ballistic skill (which I often forget in the heat of battle)


So the Regimental Command Squads and Veteran Squads will get these funky models. I've actually bought enough to make two 10 man veteran squads, a command squad with 2 plasmas, vox, medic, Master of Ordnance, and a bodyguard, with 4 spare guys for special weapon replacement options.


the plasma gun guys look great, even on the running legs which arent my favourite, the pose just looks cool.
I'm going to have to think how to make this guy into a medic, though he has plenty of kit pouches on his helmet which will be very "mediccy"
I think the scanner will make a good Master of Ordnance upgrade for the command squad, I don't have the imperial armour detailing the scanner rules, and I can't imagine they would fit the lucky 88th fluff.


the hostile environment command squad came with this powerfist wielding commander, who i think will make a great Lord Commissar to wander the battlefield with my other Lord Commissar, keeping a close watch on the lucky88th.


And a second Cyclops!! I love these so much, they really do fit the Urban fighting style of this army, and in games of cityfight will be fantastic as either mobile demo charges, or in strictly "no forgeworld" games could represent some cities of death strategems (though my regular opponents wouldn't deny me the opportunity to play forgeworld gear)


So my painting progress is at a 'limping snail' pace, I'm going to concentrate on building stuff for a while, then once I've got a load of models lined up on my desk, I can concentrate on factory batching a load of vehicles and troops out. after that I have my various projects, such as "Battery 401" an Ordnance Detachment of the Lucky 88th, which I can't wait to get into, but I'm going to make it my personal mission to get the blasted army into a state of completeness.


this basically involves painting up the ragged ends of my infantry, as the general troops are mostly done. (this doesnt include the new squads I want to add in the future.)


Adding tracks to my vehicles, (I'm so lazy...) then getting them finished


building a valkyrie/vendetta, and painting the 2 vultures and 2 vendettas


Once I've hit this point I can start on the Battery 401, finish my Nids, and then plan the next army.... oh yes, I'm thinking that far ahead, i have a rough idea of what to do next, but need an excuse not to buy any for a few months (read: as long as possible) hence the ambitious goal of getting "everything finished first"



Anyways, Cheers for dropping by guys.


Oh, I almost forgot, I've started a Youtube Channel!!




It's going to host all my battle reports and gaming videos, and possibly some other stuff, but I'm new to all this stuff so it may take a while before anything good appears, I'm currently browsing youtube for inspiration (was watching some amazing sculpting tutorials which have sparked some ideas in my head) so hopefully I'll think up some interesting uses for this medium - suggestions welcome!


Cheers again


TSINI

Sunday 10 April 2011

Lucky88th vs Brightwing Adaptive Tactics. Battle Report from Forgeworld Open Day

I've finally got my laptop back from the shop. a new Hard drive, fingers crossed this one won't go belly up.


Time for some Battle reports


I apologise in advance for the "messyness" of these reports, in particular the video is patchy, shaky and without commentary.





I'm still getting used to my video camera, and these games were, as always, rushed through with little time to think about taking pictures and filming the particular events.


As fellow wargamers I'm sure you can appreciate the visuals of these games, Warhammer world really does take wargaming to another level with their gaming tables.


Game 1: 1 objective each, Spearhead Deployment (Table Quarters) Fought over a scrapyard full of tank hulls and ruined buildings.


I won deployment, and so set up around a building, placing all my heavy weapon teams in elevated positions, with the heavier leman russ tanks in front, surrounded by conscripts. I planned to flank the shifty TAU with a small reconnaissance force of a salamander and a plasma cannon toting armoured sentinel on the left, and a hard hitting Medusa, backed up by troops, a cyclops, and Winters' command squad to the right.

The Command Squad ended up bounding over a large scrap pile, heading for a couple of tau transports. The Medusa lost its main cannon before it had a chance to obliterate any xenos, so the cavalry appeared to lend a hand on the right flank. The Valkyrie entered the board, and was immobilised, bailing out the penal legionnaires
The salamander was immobilised immediately, leaving the sentinel to amble around on its own. the vulture sped overhead to replace it, and some plucky infantry were able to leg it to the left flank and set up a firing position in a ruined building
This building housed my objective, and would have taken a lot of TAU to clear it.
These heavy gun drones dropped in to work through the infantry holding my objective, but even if they were able to wipe out a unit a turn, they would have required 3 turns of shooting to clear them all.

Eventually the game was called a DRAW, due to neither side being able to get any troops to each others objectives within the remaing couple of turns. A particular moment I remember was a junior officer taking a direct hit from a rail cannon and surviving when it failed to wound. he required new commissar trousers afterwards, and a new cap badge.


Game 2: Capture The Bastion

After out lunch, Paul and i decided to squeeze in a VERY quick game in the last 30 mins of Warhammer world being open. we devised a simple scenario.


Get the most points onto the bastion.


if nothing esle we would get some nice shots of our models on another great board.
as you can see from the video, we both set up in straight lines on opposite table edges, the TAU lept onto the bastion by turn 2, and the lucky 88th. I decided that we had no time for me to finish my turn 2, but i could see that none of my infantry would make it, and with the TAU on the high ground already, the game was a bust. The massive building left only narrow firing alleys either side, which allowed units to creep out of the sides



These games were a great opportunity to see Warhammer world in action, we've definately learnt some lessons for the future.


  1. Book tables in advance, some of the nicer tables were booked up with no shows all day, which was a bit of an eye opener

  2. go for a weekend, 1 day isnt enough, and if we stayed nearby, we could have a few drinks the first day.

If you have any suggestions for my future videos, please do leave a comment. anything at all will be much apreciated.



Cheers for dropping by



TSINI

slideshow

The Lucky 88th History

The Lucky 88th

The Royal planet of Borlina is just off the Cadian gate, once a thriving hive planet with a high percentage of royal and rich descendants from Terra itself. Now a diseased, war torn hell hole, home to a twisted secret the Inquisition would rather not recount.

The Curse of Borlina

During a Chaos incursion (Blood & Bile of the Rich Invasion 960.M41) Inquisitor Payne ordered the Orbital Bombardment of the entire planet, choosing Viral Bombing as the means of execution of the foul beasts and corrupted Governors.
Unfortunately the Borlina PDFs were also sentenced to death, whilst deeply in conflict with the Chaos forces.
Under pressure from Inquisitor Rayvenn (of the Black Storm), Inquisitor Payne mercifully ordered areas with high concentrations of loyal forces to be bombed with a weaker strain of the virus. Whilst the planet was bombed with Virus 1, a highly corrosive airborne agent which subsides after 1 day. Virus 13 (a Plague like virus with no corrosive element) was deemed legal for use over loyalist troops, who were forewarned, advised to find cover and don gas equipment. Low on supplies, deep in conflict and without gas equipment the lucky 88th miraculously fought off Virus 13 as if it was a bad case of flu.

Affirmation

A nearby Commissariat fleet jumped at the opportunity to put together their own personal force and made planet fall to gather together the pockets of loyal troops into a fighting regiment. This proved quite difficult, requiring the aid of the nearby Space Marine chapters (“Dragon Marines” and “Black Storm”) to seek out loyal forces.

The largest surviving regiment had barricaded themselves in the Master Palace, which impressed the commissariat no end, for it was a disease ridden nightmare, the very palace itself was a Nurgle infested monstrocity.
Having already adopted the name “Lucky 88th” due to the large amount of survivors from the 88th regiment the troops added a Lucky Ace symbol to their armour and vehicles, much to the annoyance of the commissariat who view it as graffiti and unofficial. In return the more senior commissars keep their gas-masks on when in combat to stir anger into the men, making them fight harder for the injustice caused to them. Lower Commissars tend not to test such practises, wary of the men turning on them when cut off from high command.

Recruitment: The Virus Run

Any outsider coming into contact with any surviving member of the Borlina virus attacks must first be inoculated from the infectious version of the virus which can be fatal to weaker immune systems. New Recruits however are not so lucky. Firstly they are put through a year of heavy training wearing gas masks. Graduation into the Lucky 88th is only complete after a gruelling month fighting through the Virus Run, a heavily infected area of the former Borlingrav Palace, now a Bastion of pestilence and disease. The survivors of this infamous death zone gain the respect of the rest of the regiment, except for the veterans who hate all outsiders including the commissariat.