The Road to the Apocalypse, Part 8.

 

Vox-casters burbled in the command tent as officers relayed orders and deployment instructions. The Cadian Seventeen had been deployed to Infernus hive and moved towards the Stygies River in an attempt to prevent the Greenskins laying siege to the citadel.

Corporal Schon had been honoured when Commissar Yarrick hinself had selected the youngster for his personal command staff.

Now that he was here, Schon was deflated by the reality of the situation.

The Hero of Hades Hive was an old, hunched man, tired beyond his years. Wearing a battered old stormcoat, the empty sleeve seemed to make things worse as even heroes could be mortalled wounded.

Yarrick gestured with his hand, "Schon, why do the Greenskins not attack? Surely you would think that they're beastial nature would not hold them in check".

"Perhaps they are waiting for something Commissar?" Schon warily relied back 

"Excellent observation Corporal, if only we had a few more with your insight amongst the armour corps we might have a better chance of making it through this" Yarrick said, slumping slightly.

"Sir, the Cadian tankers are some of the finest in the Imperium, they will..." Schon began, until Yarrick held up a hand to quieten him.

"Yes they are, however they will have to rev their engines a little while longer, I will not commit out forces until I know for sure" Yarrick said as he turned from the viewing gantry and stalked back towards his quarters.

-----

Half an hour later Yarrick returned and grabbed a magnocular glass an aide passed him. A savage grin split his features as he recognised the glyphs of Ghazhkull Mag Uruk Thraka arriving atop his own Battlewagon.

"Schon, attend me" Yarrick ordered as at a signal from him, his aides began to move forwards with equipment boxes and began unloading.

A gilded Stormbolter was loaded and placed upon his desk, Yarrick stripped off his battered weather worn coat and allowed a fresh one to be buttoned around him, the pervading smell of new leather filled the room. Schon stepped up in time to help lift the revered Power Klaw into place and watched as the tech priest present connected all the power couplings, at the same time a red dot appeared on the wall of the command tent and flashed as Yarrick tested his bionic eye.

Turning as he slung his Stormbolter over his good shoulder and placed a shining Commissariat cap upon his head, Schon found himself stood agape. In seconds the stooped old man had been transformed into a vision of war, an Imperial Hero and he knew all the stories of his youth were true.

" Now we will take the fight to Ghazghkull, Schon, I'd like all the brave Cadians in the field with me. Get your vox-caster and we'll move towards the bridge, I'll have further orders to issue as we move so be ready boy, come on now" Yarrick curtly said as he swung round and marh 3d towards his waiting Chimera.

They had to stop the Orks here, if they let the Greenskins gain a foothold on this side of the bridge, the defence of Infernus hive would become a siege, something Yarrick wanted to avoid at all costs.

*****

Yesterday saw the sixty-odd mile trek down the motorway to Warhammer World in Nottingham, confounded by an exceptional load of building site prefab offices being moved which blocked the entire first half of my journey (sorry Dave).

As I'd previously mentioned I'd arranged a game with Dave and this took some effort to sort out. Seeing as we both have rather hectic busy jobs, families and responsibilities, playing with out toy soldiers is very far down on the list of priorities.

Nevertheless, the effort was made and a good day was had. We both commented that it had been quite a while since we had seen each other, about six years as we reckoned it against his youngest child's age, who had just been born when we last met up.

He started to deploy his Guard (beautifully painted and made me feel awful for having models in primer only as I was pushed for time to get then ready) and made the comment that they hadn't been on a tabletop for over a decade, they were even dusty from the boxes where he'd stored them.

I'm not going to do a turn by turn of the battle as it was nice just to meet a friend, throw dice and chat about life in general for the day, there are a few captions under the photos to go with them.

All packed and ready to go, I was pleased with how I'd managed to get everything easily packed to travel.

Dave's Imperial Guard about 2/3 through deployment, as he was still pulling guardsmen squads from boxes...

With deployment completed we were ready for battle, playing 5th edition Dave got to roll to "seize the initiative" and promptly rolled a 6 so went first, dammit...

That sodding Baneblade in the distance, removing several of my Killakanz and "Da Big Dread One" on turn one, leaving my Dreadmob (an Apocalypse formation) with no kustom forcefield save.

I liked everything forwards as fast as possible, it was at this point that we realised we may have started too far apart on the board edges of the bridge board, rather we should have started on the river banks instead...

Some turbo-boosting, and moving flat out with my red paint job toting transports got me into firings and potential lethal range to start dealing some damage after weathering the incoming fire for two turns, fortunately a lot scattered off into nowhere. In 5th edition a red paint job was an option for 5 points which let you move further then normal because "Red Wunz Go Fasta"...

This is the start of my turn three as the Orks are about to launch a massive assault on the far flank. The Trukkboyz are ready to go in up the riverbank into the guard infantry. Ghazhkull and his retinue are out and looming large on the bridge as Dave threw a couple of units forwards. Just off the photo on the closest flank, my Bikers led by Wazdakka Gutsmek and Deffkoptaz were piling into guard units on this side...

Wazdakka (a placeholder model), took out Dave's Exterminator (his tank of the match) in melee combat, even exploding the tank couldn't take his last wound. The bikers tore through the veterans and the Koptaz traded fire with the Hydra (just out of shot) but couldn't score a hit...

Imperial Guard Ogryns counter charged the Evil Sunz Warboss and retinue after they wiped out an autocannon squad in the ruins. This went as well as could have been expected, given that Orks are a very focused close combat army in this edition...

Finally the two big men meet on the bridge. Ghazhkull has mulches through the two Guard infantry squads which were placed Infront of him and given time for Yarrick to get to the front...

Oh dear...

An explosive display (I rolled sixes for ALL Ghazhkull's attacks) saw the entire command squad cut down, Yarrick almost dead even with his forcefield forcing me to reroll successful wound rolls, and then the old man got back up on one wound due to his Stubborn Indomitable Will rule. But poor Corporal Schon...

With time marching on, rush hour approaching and unlike Dave, myself having a sixty-odd mile trek home, we called the game at the end of turn five. As you can see there is a fair bit of Imperial Armour left, but most of the Guard infantry has been destroyed, several tanks and Chimera have been totalled, and I've got another wave of Orks hoofing it over the dry riverbed on their way to the battle, so it could have gone either way.

I just decided that since I'd taken a foothold on the far bank, my objective was essentially complete background wise from my perspective.

The giant plushie Nurgling which is in the lobby at Warhammer World, not sure why people have been drawing Ultramarines symbols on the material though. As they sell all the merchandise at Warhammer World, I did go looking to see if they had the plushies of Archibald the Gryph-Hound in the store, but no such luck...

Purchases are somewhat mandatory at Warhammer World I feel. I had been checking on the GW website only the night before to check wether they still produced the Ork Nob with Waaagh! Banner so was going to pick him up, the Catachan Devil novel was a roll of the dice as some Black Library novels are great, and some recently have been awful. I'll do a post about on which goes into my "Did Not Finish" pile at some point.

Another nice thing about the day was another of our friend, also named Dave just to keep things confusing, turned up for an hour or so in the afternoon to chat about stuff.

Years ago we all met through an online forum - The Ammobunker, and a core of us stayed in touch with each other over the years.

Second Dave greeted us, again said it had been a long time since we'd seen each other, then pointed to my head and said "yeah but you've got a little less hair now" to which I pointed at his stomach and replied "and you have a lot more belly mate".

It was nice to just have a day with toy soldiers and friends, but things were learnt (as usual):

• Start the armies closer together.
• Make sure to have a proper read of the rules, especially if like us you hadn't played them in years.
• Try to organise things so that models are painted and it's not such a rush to get things built and primed beforehand (this depends upon work schedules).

Well that was a great day, I'll post once I've gotten some more of the Orks painted up as I have a fair few vehicles in primer.

Until next time, have nice day.

The Road to the Apocalypse, Part 7.

Lord-General Rhauss Celeniar raised his eyes from the tactical occulous as his tactica advisor passed him a fresh mug of steaming recaf. He took a moment to smell the caffeinated beverage and forget the chaotic and confused fighting against the Ork hordes which had invaded Stygrad IV. It was exhausting organising a comprehensive defence across the continent he admitted, even with the aid of the large high command tactical staff aiding him he admitted to himself.

After a moment he directed his attention out through the viewing port of his tacticae-office, high above the command deck of the Leviathan transport.

Stretching away were legions of Imperial Guardsmen, the men and women who had given their lives over to defending the Emperor's Imperium. He had regiments of Cadians, Tallarns, Catachans and others scattered under his command in various warzones, the guardsmen here were forming for an attack on the Greenskin lines, a pre-emptive assault to prevent the Orks reaching the walls of the hivecity of Aster Prime.

Supporting them were the armoured columns, massed ranks of Battle tanks, the pride of the Imperial Guard, he had been voxed several times by Major-General Kendrick to be allowed to push his squadrons forwards, each time he had personally given the order to hold position.

Ancient Super-Heavy tanks had been roused to war by their crews and kicked up dust behind their heavy treads as they rolled forwards to their deployment zones to support the armoured formations.

On the tactical overview, icons blinked as units reported in as combat ready. A massed force of Elysian Drop Troops reported that they were mounting up and that their Valkyrie Transports were air worthy, as were their accompanying flights of Vulture Gunships.

The Imperial Navy squadrons registered as being in the airspace ready to attack or provide cover as needed, with three more squadrons of Thunderbolt Fighters en-route for reinforcement.

"I think we're about ready to begin the operation, what say you Cassar?" Celeniar asked as he looked towards his advisor. Pale skinned and dark haired, Cassar wore the deep maroon dress uniform of Tacticae-Command well, but the look on his face troubled the Lord-General.

When Cassar handed him a pair of magnoculars and directed him to look down the highway he understood.

A sea of Greenskin warriors greeted his magnified sight, banner poles swaying as the mobs advanced. Trophies and helmets clanged as they proclaimed the deeds of their owners in whatever barbaric language the Orks used. A vast dust cloud was kicked up by Ork armour, many of the vehicles being repurposed from other Imperial armies which had suffered defeat. Dreadnaughts, both of the large and small varieties bobbed and swayed as they marched within the horde and silhouetted at the rear was the unmistakable bulk of a Super-Heavy walker, giant guns protruding from its hull.

Even higher still, the jarring shapes of Ork fighter planes scudded through the upper atmosphere, diving and weaving as they appeared to be racing each other.

Rhauss Celeniar directed his attention to his own forces again, 'Emperor help me, I pray I have enough troops to face that'!

*****

Greetings readers, do you have a moment to talk about one of the best versions of 40k?

Well strap in folks because here we go...

A while ago, two or more years to be exact, I made a post about the latest edition of Apocalypse. I will still admit that I was really excited by the prospects of this game and everything that came with it, especially as I've been in the hobby long enough to remember Epic 40k (GW's 6mm scale game).

The problem is that GW in their infinite wisdom seemed to drop the game as quickly as they released it, moving onto 9th edition (which sucks) and not adding data sheets to the game for the newer released miniatures which came after. 

For all of it's promise, GW let the game whither away without so much as a thank you, so much so that I think I haven't even pulled the box out from the shelf, since my last game which was with Fraser in January 2020...

Oh well, onwards we march (for Macragge?), but the Apocalyptic bug is still gnawing away somewhere in my hobby soul.

Talking with Dave about his Imperial Guard army, which is fantastic btw, we reminisced about how much we spent playing 5th edition, and apart from 8th at the start for me, no other edition of 40k have we enjoyed or played as much.

Idly I suggested that we should make the effort and get together for a game with my Orks against his Guard at Warhammer World (there was discussion about Element Games, but we decided against that in the end).

As often happens, something gets said and the game gets elevated, and before we knew it we had agreed to play an Apocalypse game with the 5th edition rules and Codexes and the first edition Apocalypse rules.

My own copies of the rulebook, Ork codex, Apocalypse and expansion books.

This was a time before Super-Heavy Vehicles were a standard part of an army, they were a special thing for the biggest of games.

These were the days before a Knight was a "miniature" let alone a standard part of an army, or even an army of Super-Heavies.

Before the modern crisp, almost comic book artwork of the current codexes, where you got inspirational, moody pieces like this:

As Dave hasn't played 40k in a long time, I said that we should backdate and use the old rules.

I'm not going to make my friend go out and have to buy £100+ worth of books for a game which might only be played a handful of times a year, depending on how often we can meet up, family lives and demanding shift work in our respective careers dictates this.

Another of those atmosphere enducing images cropped from the book.

With that laid out, I figure I had better get adding to my WAAAGH! after all, I am aiming to have the full army painted to field at Warhammer World.

You may remember these Boyz from Orktober and JanuWaaaghry:

I dragged out the big box o'stuff and like many an Ork Mekaniak before, started bashing stuff together:

I started with a Battlewagon, having a Trukk ready to go in primer. That Blackstone Fortress box is filled with Deffkoptaz by the way.

Ditching the traditional turret with the Kannon, I picked up a Zzapgun mount I had bashed together many, many moons ago for a Looted Wagon. The fit was really good ontop of the cab of the Battlewagon, so it was decided to repurpose it.

There is a fair bit of other work to do on this wagon, but the start is there.

I've got a bunch of Kanz to repaint to my new level of painting (said Kanz were painted about ten years ago...). Then there are always more Stormboyz to build up, the smoke plumes are the time consumer there. 

I bought some Warbikers to add to my Speed Freekz and I want to FINALLY get the Stompa built and on the field, rather then in bits collecting dust.

So, I've got a couple of posts for the followers of Dark God's from stuff I have finished recently, but then it's going to become very, VERY Green around here for a while!

Not artwork this time, but one of the double page spread of the apocalypse forces with all the classic terrain GW used to use.

Until next time...

Chaos Warhound Scout Titan.

 

"Again, charge in again!" Roared the orders of the Astartes. This marked the fourth charge towards the enemy lines and along the line units began to march forwards, slowly extending into a run and then finally sprinting as rounds spat at them from the defenders guns.

Hezdynn looked to her left as she leapt over a blasted corpse in her headlong rush. Banners spooled out in the air, chainswords' growled as they were revved, knives and cleavers were hefted, bullets were fired by the units with rifles, most had pistols which were useless. 

Troops nearby were bowled over by an explosion, one or two of the knot getting back up, another being trampled by the headlong charge. Khar and Balta ran next to her, drooling in anticipation of reaching the enemy and fighting, but they were loosing momentum. Too much incoming fire was slowing their charge as casualties increased yet again. Urkradas hit the floor heavily as his distended jaw was ripped off in a welter of blood. Bhutan lost an arm, then a leg, he spasmed and had his spine blown out by the incoming fire, dead before he hit the ground.

Hezdynn could see the enemy hunkered down in their trench Infront of them. The green flak armour and helmet, the lasrifles, the hated eagle on their flak jackets.

One aimed his rifle her way...

A voice filled with rage and malice screamed it's name across the battlefield.

"CANIS MORTUUM"

The guardsman aiming his rifle disintegrated into bloody mist along with several others as the trench erupted under punishing Bolter fire. Deafening roars sounded behind her and she glanced backwards.

Silhouetted against the dirty sky was a god made manifest. Twenty meters tall on backwards jointed legs.and surrounded by a haze a soul smoke, red predatory eyes scanned forwards from underneath a canine brow. Squat shoulders leading to arms ending in a corrupted Vulcan Mega-Bolter each, both of which were lit with the backwash of flame from the near constant firing.

Hezdynn threw herself into the trench landing ontop of Balta. The mutant threw her off angrily and charged off, tentacles whipping with the thought of killing. She followed, her spiked back banner acting as a beacon for her fellow cultists. Blood slicked the trench and dismembered body parts littered the floor, she stopped and wiped the fresh blood across her face. Then she heard screaming from up ahead.

"Nulla commodo. Ego mori dont volo. Imperator eleison" the petrified Imperial soldier was screaming as Balta had hold of him in his tentacles.

A deep basso horn reverberated through their bodies and the ground shook. The air became charged with static, arcing off of their equipment and the corrugated iron holding the trench up. The ground shook again and a massive mechanical foot swept over them, showering them with dirt and blood as it impacted the ground on the other side.

Hezdynn could see the Imperials mouth moving but couldn't hear the words, as a whine built steadily and burst with a sonic boom.

She saw the flare of laser energy as some titanic weapon fired and they involuntary fell to their knees, forced down by overpressure.

As her sight and hearing returned she realised that god's were now dueling above them.

Canis Mortuum, still screaming it's name leapt forwards snapping off bursts from its bolters, the shells sparking from the newcomers armour. 

Whilst definitely a Warhound of the same pattern, the newcomer was as different from Canis Mortuum as night was to day. Where the beautiful Canis Mortuum was fire blackened and trimmed with gold, like their Astartes masters, it's opponent wore a gaudy bright yellow and blue heraldry. Heat haze distorting the air around it as the Turbo-Lasers it carries cooled.

Smoothly the newcomer stepped backwards as Canis Mortuum flung itself forwards, hunting as a rabid dog would. Streams of soul fueled smoke trailed behind it, flames licked from its fists again and again as it fires upon the interloper. The whine began to build again as the Imperial Titan charged it's lasers, but the momentum of Mortuum barreled into it and three its aim off, the laser blasts violently exploding a building a kilometer away. The ground thundered and heaved under Hezdynn as the two god's fought above her, slamming their armoured bulks into one another as one sought to retreat and the other to rend.

A wet scream drew her attention back towards Balta as he messily pulled the Imperial apart, revelling in the bloodshed he caused, holding the dismembered body parts upwards as an offering, fluids dripping down his body as he screamed insane prayers skywards.

Hezdynn moved away as her cultist unit came over the trench parapet, Cheshirr motioning for her to rejoin them. Behind her the trench, Balta and his offering all disappeared as one of Canis Mortuum's huge clawed feet came crashing down, mulching everything underfoot.

"Death to the false Emperor!" They cried out as one and charged forwards again.

*****

A while ago, we're talking over a year when the first UK lockdown ended, Duncan invited me over to his to finish off detailing the base of his Reaver Battle Titan.

He sent me these photos of his newly updated Chaos Warhound Scout Titan.

He's had this model since it was first released by Forgeworld I think and it's been painted but stored for ages through house moves.

His own painting has improved exponentially from what it was, with proper use of shading and washes. I think it also helps that we now have those things available as rote and don't have to always use more advanced hobby techniques to mix our own and such.

So he dug this "Miniature" out of storage and got it repainted up to his current improved standard over this summer just gone.

It now matches with his newer Reaver Titan and Forgeworld Daemon Engines (I'll have to get a photo of those together) and is ready to crush the loyalist troops of the Emperor, if we can ever get together for a game in the future...

I'll let the photos do the talking now:

One thing to note about the left Vulcan Mega-Bolter is that it is painted up in Legio-Gryphonicus colours with the yellow and blue split heraldry.

This has been weathered and there is some corrosion creeping on it if you look closely.

The story goes that it has been salvaged from a downed loyal Titan and attached to this traitors one instead, doubling the firepower of the warmachine.

Tech-Heresy if you ask me...

Until next time...

Chaos Reaver Battle Titan

 Kharakhos, lord of the Iron Gorgon's renegades cast a practiced eye over the battle unfolding before him whilst ignoring the pitiful escape attempts of the man gripped in his fist.

He noticed the battle had swung from their blistering attack into a stalemate, the Astra Militarum line buckling but holding against the pressure of his cultist horde's battering them hundreds of combatants died every minute but still they held. Only where his heretic Astartes brothers assaulted were gains being made.

'Give me ten thousand souls, and I shall give you victory here', he remembered the words of Ephilim, his sorceress from the day before, looking around he realised that she would soon be held to account.

He glanced at the raised hill where Ephilim and her coven were stationed. Arcs of orange lightning blasting any loyalists who came too close into clouds of ash. A miasma of power circled them, the very soul stuff of the slain ripped from their bodies to power whatever fell ritual was reaching it's climax. 

With a scream, Ephilim slashed her ritual dagger at the nearest cultist, nearly sawing his head off with the stroke. The bruised sky seemed to swell in that moment, turning black as pitch as lightning tore from the clouds of souls. Lightning which didn't ground itself but formed together into a ball of electricity floating thirty feet off the floor.

All this happened in the span of three beats of each of Kharakhos' twinned hearts, he had reflexively lashed out and smashed a guardsman from his feet as he watched. The commissar still struggled, held firm in his iron grip, forgotten for the moment.

The ball of lightning exploded with a supersonic blast wave throwing the nearest warriors to the floor and frying heretic and loyalist alike in its efforts to ground. As the blinding light died down, Kharakhos' realised with a start that a growling titanic thing had been summoned.

Darkness engulfed it in sheets of roiling black cloud, but a leering daemonic face peered about, the source of the growling. The unmistakable sight of a powerfist the size of a battle tank hung at one side and poking through the clouds on the other were six elongated battle cannon barrels, already whining and spinning like an assault cannon. Above the head was a huge missile launcher, Kharakhos could see rows of deadly ordnance ready to fire and he smiled to himself as he realised that Eliphim had summoned a daemonic Reaver titan to the field. The victory she had spoken about...

The Titan roared, first with it's warhorns' sounded like an enraged beast and the screams of tortured souls forcing the imperials to cease their advance. Next it roared with it's substantial firepower. Shells tore from the cannon as it span ripping into the imperials flank. Missiles stabbed from the launcher seeking armoured targets to blow to smithereens.

A muffled scream was cut off by a wet sucking noise as Kharakhos realised he had crushed the unfortunate commissar, unconsciously flexing his powerfist at the sight of such wanton destruction.

He screamed praise to the dark gods and resumed the advance of his Iron Gorgon's.

****

I was asked recently to detail up the base and of a ChaosRChaos Titan by a friend. Just some drybrushing I thought, which turned into adding a few gloss bits on the joins to represent oil leaks, and then weather the feet, the list goes on, but I'll let the images do the talking for me now:

He has a method of painting all his chaos equipment using black and then drybrushing with Incubi Darkness and Thunderhawk Blue giving this dark greenish hue to the armour which personally I really like. The base is an old piece of terrain which GW used to make which has a wrecked rhino (painted in his own Emperor's Herald's chapter colours) and craters and trees built on. The trees were made as if blasted in the warzone rather then with the moulded leaves GW provides with the kit.

Lastly, my favourite photo I took of the thing, probably the last thing an unfortunate loyalist would see.

Until next time...

 - Lewis

The Road to the Apocalypse, part 6.

Greetings guys,

Well no Workbench Wednesday post this past week as I was busy and forgot.
Before that though I had the chance to go over to Element Games in Stockport and get in an apocalypse game.

After a furious weekend of both work and preparation for the game, I had a lot of Orks ready, most of them in primer.
Unfortunately I ran out of time, so some of my vehicles were proxies and the Stompa was just it's hull...but I managed to field the thing (it's only been sitting in its box for the past seven years or so when I got it in a job lot off eBay).

So, we played 190PL of Orks Vs Imperials.
I had a fast moving Kult of Speed Battalion, a Goff Warboss and Nobz in a Battlewagon Vanguard, a Goff foot Battalion, a Deathskullz looted spearhead and the Stompa.

My opponent fielded an Ad-Mech Skitarii battalion, an Ad-Mech Dunecrawler spearhead, a Knight and Armiger Lord of War and a White Scars Outrider with some Ad-Hoc Terminators as support.

Deployment:

 (I realized after the game that his Skitarii were deployed incorrectly, each model in a unit had to be within an inch of Two models from the same unit, hence the cloud movement bases GW puts out).

The Goff foot Battalion is behind those buildings.

We played "Race to Destruction" and he won the initiative roll.

Skitarii creeped forwards to make some room, where as my Kult of Speed threw caution to the wind and made a triple move all the way to the center of the board. (I used an asset card to do this).

There they were promptly counter charged by the White Scars bikes whilst the Dunecrawlers and Looted Wagons traded fire.

My Stompa cycled it's weapons through the front rank of Skitarii and his knights fired at the Stompa.

A few things had wounds given and a unit of Skitarii were killed, but fighting started in earnest in the next turn, as his bikes wrapped around the trukks.

Only to have them be in a perfect position to be charged by the Goff warboss and Nobz piling out of their Battlewagon into the fight.

In response his White Scars Terminators deep strikes and charged into the nobz busy fighting the jetbikes.

And playing a "size the initiative" asset card to make a second action, his knights had a turn, the armigers charging into the developing melee in the center, and the others firing at the Stompa again.

By the end of the turn, things looked like this in the center:

Nearly all the White Scars are gone, half the Skitarii, half of the Kult of Speed, a Nobz mob and the Battlewagon.

Brutal.

We were going to play on, but it was getting busier and later and I still had an hour and as half drive home, so we called it.

2-0 to the Orks victory points wise, but apart from his knights, he was running out of viable units in the game anyway.


So, apocalypse is still a fun enjoyable system.

Lessons learnt this time:

Orks in melee are brutal, X3 and X4 attacks on most stuff will kills things dead when you get stuck in.

The Stompa is as useless as it normally is in 40k, fun though.

White Scars bikers should not enter melee.


Pros of playing at a gaming center:
Lots of tables.
Lots of room.
Lots of terrain.

Negatives of playing at a gaming center:
People like to stop by the table and talk, distracting from the game.
The gaming store is next door so it's easy to get distracted looking at new toys.

A fun time was had and plans are afoot to have another game soon.

This post has to end on a sad and annoying notes however, two days after the game, some scrotes tried to break into Element Games causing damage to the doors and closing it for a while whilst they get repaired...

Le sigh.


Until next time...


- Lewis

40k - The Road to the Apocalypse, part 5.

Well, a week late, but never say I don't get stuff done...eventually.

This Monday just gone, before the heatwave of hell here in the UK, we met up to have a test game of Apocalypse.

250 Power Level a side and the basic "Race to Destruction" mission, with 5 objective markers and cumulative victory points.

With five of us present, the army lists were as follows:

Imperial forces:
Black Templars Supreme HQ -30
Terminator Commander
Terminator Chaplain
Terminator Commander/Chaplain
5 Assault Terminators
Black Templars Battalion -48
Emperor's Champion
Apothecary
2x 20man Crusader Squads
10man Shotgun Scouts
Black Templars Outrider -31
JP Commander/Chaplain
3x 10 man Assault Squads with JP.
Black Templars Vanguard -35
Venerable Chaplain Dread
3x Venerable Dread
Sororiatas Vanguard -31
Canoness
Hospitalier
Imagnifier
10 Celestians (1 heavy weapon)
5 Celestians
2 Rhinos.
Super Heavy Auxiliary -25
Sororiatas Knight.
Custodes Battalion -27
Vexilus Praetor
3x 3 man Custodian Guard squads
Blood Angels Patrol -27
Blood Angels Lieutenant
10 Blood Angels Intercessors
5 Blood Angels Hellblasters

Chaos Forces:
Black Legion Supreme HQ -28
Terminator Lord
Terminator Sorceror
Terminator Sorceror
5 Terminators
Black Legion Battalion-32
Lord Mallus
Master of Possession
10 CSM (Sargent, 8 Bolters, Heavy Bolter)
10 CSM (Sargent, 8 Bolters, Heavy Bolter).
16 Cultists (Traitor Guard, Commissar, Ogryn).
Black legion Vanguard -37
Lord Discordant
Hellbrute
Hellbrute
Decimator
Black Legion Vanguard -47
Chaos Lord
Master of Executions
Maulerfiend
10 Chosen (CCW)
10 Berserkers
10 Berserkers
Black Legion Spearhead-39
Chaos Lord
Exalted Champion
Havoc Squad (1 of each heavy weapon)
Havoc Squad (1 of each heavy weapon)
2 Obliterators
Traitor Knight Detachment -66
Knight
Knight
2 Armiger

So a lot of gear on the table.
Speaking of, we arranged the table as if it was the outskirts of a ruined city with lots of buildings, etc.

With the roll for initiative, the Imperial players won and elected us to deploy and take the first activation (as I was the only one who has a copy of the rules, I was elected to show them how the turn worked).

Deployment:

We set up a strong center with the Traitor Knights, and I took the flanks with my large detachments, the left to rush forwards and chop stuff with the Berserkers and the right was to be a more sedate advance, focusing on firepower.

The Imperials placed their large crusader squads in the center for an advance that way with the sisters for finite support. Over on their left flank, Chaos right flank, the Custodes deployed supported by the Blood Angels.

And so did the battle begin:
On the left flank, the Berserkers and close combat chosen slammed into the Templar assault formation and began a huge melee.

This went on for. The duration of the game, with the Berserkers outclassing the Templars, but they refused to give up due to asset cards keeping them in the fight.

Behind them, the chaos knights RETREATED...so much for our "strong center".

So I had to pull my Dreadnaught brigade back to cover the objective. That the Templar terminators who teleported in were threatening to take.

If they had gone into the assault squads like planned, then we could have rolled up that flank I think.

The Sororitas Knight (in the center) had charged forwards and was dueling with the chaos knight warlord (purple one).

Again, having to pull the chaos dreads back buggered up the plans of rolling into the knight with the close combat specialists and any surviving dreads...

Anyway, On the left flank, Chaos Marines, Cultists and Traitor Guard charged into the Thin Gold Line of 10 Custodes...

There are nearly 50 heretics  here facing down 10 custodian guard...Paltry odds for the Custodes!
Incidentally, the Black Legion heavy support detachment (Obliterators, havoc's, shooty chaos marines) were meant to support me by shooting up this flank, but he placed them too far back because he wanted "cover"...
These units of mine were meant to range duel with the enemy, but when. The Custodes came forwards,I  obliged and counter charged him,, helped by use of the "Warptime" psychic power to shove everyone an extra move forwards.
Essentially giving my units a triple move and assault this turn!

Lastly, this is where we lost the game:

See that number 1 token?
That was the objective abandoned early on in the game.
Thanks to the Templars terminators contesting it, they were constantly one point In front of us the entire game, due to a strategic asset card being played earlier on.

We had to call the game at the end of turn three as Element Games were closing earlier then their website said.

Overall, I enjoyed this a lot more then regular 40k and can see myself playing it a lot more, even if my chaotic partner for the day didn't really have his heart in the game...I mean retreating like that on turn one...

Things we liked:

• Less faff per unit, weapons are abstracted together in groupings.
• Less dice rolling, no longer handfuls of dice going everywhere.
• Easy to understand rulebook, not flipping through for a rule mid game was a godsend.
• Huge game (by my standards) which flowed easily and quickly once we got into the swing of it.

Things we didn't like:

• Wildly different stats for the same weapons. We found three different stat lines for various Dreadnaught power fists...
• Some damage rolls seem too high, characters on average need an 8+ on a D12 to wound the enemy...

Not much to complain about then. A solid set of rules which are very enjoyable and will see a more regular outing from me at least, compared to normal 40k.

I hope you enjoyed reading this, things will be back to more normal proceedings soon with another update on the Orks and my new Test of Honour has turned up, so something to do with that will be soon.

Until next time...

 - Lewis