Apocalypse at Warhammer World!

An hours drive up the M1 took the three of us to Warhammer World in Nottingham.  It had been decided that we should have an apocalyptic mega battle to help decide the outcome of the Holbronx campaign, with Perhow and TJ teaming up against my Imperial forces at 8000 points a side.  At such a high points value we needed a huge table, and we were lucky enough to get a place on the excellent J'migan Bridge themed table that measures a whopping 12 x 6 feet!  Warhammer World is undergoing some works at the moment but the staff are no less welcoming and the themed gaming tables are totally awesome.  A visit is most recommended!

Tracked happiness awaits the interpid adventurer

We played end to end, focussing on the bridge as the main objective with each end of the table having a 'home' objective in their own territory, giving six objectives in all with standard secondary objectives.  It took over an hour just to set up over 16000 points of 40k troops, but by lunch time we were in full swing.

The belligerents are poised, ready to seize J'migan bridge

Turn 1

The loyalists rolled to take the first turn and the xenos/chaos pact failed to seize the initiative.  At this point I remember thinking that the first turn advantage might be weak with 48" of no mans land to cover, my misgivings would later turn out to be true as I lost control of many objectives on the last turn... the benefit of hindsight!  The Imperials opened up with a massive artillery bombardment, stunning the traitor tanks that were poised to roll on to the bridge, while on the left flank the Crimson Fist scouts infiltrated across the river bed supported by a drop podding dreadnought they quickly saw off a large mob of cultists.  A second dreadnought scattered off the table to go into ongoing reserves.

In my back lines I spottted a squad of eldar infiltrators, and a space marine assault squad moved forward to interdict them supported by a 'rifleman' dreadnought.  The assault marines ended up successfully holding off the striking scorpions for the entire game, but their exarch managed to kill off the dreadnought by the third turn.  The problems presented by the sheer size of the table started to present themselves, because infantry without transports are very slow!  This really started to hit home later on when my transports started to dwindle thanks to xenos energy beams :(

On the right flank a large contingent of tactical marines mounted in rhinos surged forward with the intention of crossing the river bed.  Supported by devastators, PDF heavy weapons squads and several Leman Russ battle tanks I had high hopes of this flanking force crossing the river bed and securing the enemy side of the bridge head.  However as we shall see the chaos/xenos pact had other ideas!

Elements of the Atrean Star Knights along with the Crimson Fists defend the PDF artillery

The pact appeared to be having trouble on the left after the early successes of the scouts, on the right a large contingent of bikers, both Nurgle plague marines lead by their warlord and Dark Eldar jetbikers rushed forward to try and refuse my massed attack on the right, it soon started looking like a blood bath would ensue on the river bed.  Unbeknownst to me an eldar grav tank that joined the force was carrying a squad of Wraith Knights.  I hadn't encountered these alien constructs before but I can attest to their combat prowess after seeing them in action, and I advise that you do not let them anywhere near your space marines!  The rest of the pact's first turn was uneventful, with their movement on the road blocked by the Landraider that had been stunned by my long range artillery fire I allowed myself to believe that things were going okay.

Turn 2

My first act of the second turn was to use my Officer of the Fleet to use his logistical nous to get me a 2+ reserve roll.  Thanks to his skills, two of my Valkyries, an assault squad, a 10 man terninator squad with a captain and two dreadnoughts all showed up on time.  At this point I decided to concentrate a large force on the enemy home objective, with 11 terminators and two dreads landing nearby I was aiming to silence the enemy macro cannon and butcher the cowardly xenos within.  By turn 4 I would realise the hubris of investing nearly a 1000 points of my elites in such a venture... as they are not actually 'objective secured' the objective was eventually snatched by an eldar skimmer on the last turn and all was for nothing.  Well at least they looked pretty while they were achieving nothing!  The assault squad was tasked with deep striking behind the nurgle bikers and flaming them, but they scattered widely onto the opponents river bank and lobbed a grenade at an enemy tank, which missed.  Aside from the artillery crippling more of the traitor space marine tanks and thinning out the nurgle bikers, it was a desultory turn for the loyalists.

The xenos started to deep strike their skimmers into my rear lines, supporting the eldar striking scorpions already present.  This attack was to shift my attention away from the assault on the bridge which aided the pact hugely.  My devastators and PDF weapons teams who were meant to be covering the advance across the river bed were quickly cut down by deep striking warp spiders accompanied by the xenos warlord, a rather cocky autarch who would meet his comeuppance on the end a my captain's relic blade.  This would be scant compensation however for a series of events that resulted in three squads of tactical marines perishing over the following turns and me losing control of the right flank.

Deep striking xenos and traitor units wreck the imperial ambitions on the right flank.

To make matters worse, three squads of terminators materialised on the dried up river bed, they would be the anvil against which my marines would be smashed by the xenos hammer.

Turn 3

Recognising the threat from the deep striking xenos in the rear, Pedro Kantor signalled his honour guard forward along with 20 sternguard.  Low difficult terrain rolls for the sternguard left Kantor and his honour guard badly exposed, but I hoped to get Pedro into combat where he would be safer, only for him to take wounds from overwatch fire then fail his charge roll.  Things were getting a little frustrating now and I could feel victory slipping between my fingers.  I later found out that I had been making my difficult terrain rolls on 1 dice when it should be two and pick the highest! That's a real 'rules 101' mistake that may have helped my game quite a bit, oh well.

The terminators and dreadnoughts attacking the enemy macro cannon, a full 6 feet behind enemy lines, finally managed to silence the weapon and kill the eldar wracks hiding inside.  They moved onto the objective and took cover in the ruins.  Back in the imperial sector the valkyries strafed the dark eldar raiders with their twin linked lascannons but didn't manage to actually destroy anything.

The PDF armour, now somewhat beaten and battered, continued to advance onto the bridge.  The second remaining squad of Crimson Fist terminators teleported onto the mid section of the bridge, hoping to protect the PDF armour from assaults.  My only consolation from this turn was that I finally managed to kill the nurgle warlord on his bike with artillery fire, but the tide had already turned to a point where the traitor's combat prowess wasn't really needed.

The traitors, sensing victory, pushed forward onto the imperial river bank and the Heldrake washed the river bank with warp flame, killing more power armoured space marines.  Their xenos comrades continued to catch the space marines in a withering cross fire from behind, using their monofilament weapons, shurikens and d-weapons the river bank was reduced to a steaming abbatoir.  Pretty much the only warrior left standing was the enraged company captain, who accepted the challenge of the eldar autarch, the autarch flounced into combat muttering arrogant alien insults, while the captain remained taciturn and waited for his opening the eldar did some showboating with his blade.  When the captain had seen enough he hewed downward with a single brutal strike from his relic clade, a strike that even the agile eldar couldn't avoid.  Cut in two the alien flopped to the ground, the captain had avenged his murdered brothers, but he knew the battle was already lost.

Kantor is surrounded without the support of his brothers.

 A further two Leman Russ battle tanks went up in flames then to make matters worse an eldar Wraithknight appeared and efficiently vaporised the terminators on the bridge.  The spelled disaster for the imperial armour as they were unsupported by infantry and open to assault by the traitor terminators.

In the imperial sector the cackling xenos opened up on Pedro and his honour guard and they were cut down to a man, his sternguard moved forward to protect their chapter master's stricken form and teleport him to the medicae bays on the battle barge.

Things looked grimmer than ever for the Imperials!

Turn 4

We had just about enough time to play a 4th turn and from my point of view this turn would be about damage limitation.  I still had several thousand points worth of forces on the board but nothing that was within striking distance of the objectives.  I desperately shelled the enemy bridge head with everything I had, killing dozens of traitor space marines, but to no avail.  The survivors trudged on through the carnage to secure the bridge.  To add insult to injury a xenos fast skimmer moved back to secure the pact's home objective, making the efforts of the first company completely futile!  After some discussion we decided to end it there, a full 6 hours of gaming managed to get us four turns, but we had to stop there as warhammer world wanted to close.  A further turn may have seen me recover some of the bridge, but it would have required no small amount of luck on my part to prize those objectives back.  A solid win for the xenos and traitors.

Result:

Traitor/ xenos pact   18vp

PDF/Space marines   6vp

A win for the pact!  They get 3 vp's toward the campaign total, though how they are shared out remains to be seen, it was an uneasy alliance at best!  

Conclusion

Playing such a huge game was great fun and a memorable experience, though it made me realise that there is a limit to how much one can remember when responsible for moving and shooting 8000 points worth of miniatures.  I think next time at this amount of points I might recruit a leuitenant or two to get on with the minor stuff while I take the command throne and concentrate on the big picture.  It was really challenging coming up against two experienced 40k players in TJ and Howard and unlike in smaller games where you can feel unlucky over a dice roll or two, in a game this size everything averages out and I can say that I was definitely outplayed through the superior sneaky tactics of my opponents. Well done to Perhow and TJ, top game lads.

We had a '3 colours' painted rule for this game and everything looked spot on when set up on the table, I even got to dig out some of my old rogue trader beakies, (who incidentally showed Pedro's lads how it was done) it was really cool to see all that painted 40k stuff on the table together, it isn't often we get to use all our toys at once is it?

Holbronx Turn 6: Armour on the Plains

In an attempt to break the stalemate on the River Schutze, the Imperials amassed companies of armour for a decisive thrust along the South coast of Pangea.  The Blood Angels were caught napping and despite throwing their own armour into the gap, it was too late to turn back the tide.  The Blood Angels suffered grievous losses and the Loyalist forces have successfully established a foothold to the West of the Schutze.

The Imperials mass their armour in the cover of some ancient ruins

The open plains give the advantage to the armoured column, where the loyalists punished the Blood Angels with ordnance and lascannon

It remains to be seen whether the Blood Angels can halt the armoured advance, they have a bitter struggle on their hands to stop the juggernaut before it gets to their back lines!

Hydra Flak Tank

It's been a busy few months with work but I've managed to shoe-horn in a few games of X-Wing and spend some hours getting a bunch of Imperial Guard tanks up to tabletop standard.  I was going to leave them at that but the acquisition of the Forgeworld Model Masterclass books got me doing crazy experiments with white spirit, bandagaes, artists pastels and florists wire.... don't ask!  I do highly recommend these books, they've helped me raise my game and even won me a GW voucher for a 'best painted' army at a local tournament, so this hobby can pay, well kind of.

The Model Masterclass books are full of inspiring projects and lots of solid advice on techniques, materials and equipment so they are money well spent, in fact they are a bargain when you consider the cost of wargaming models and the ease with which one can wreck them with poorly executed  model making and painting, I've definitely been there.

The Hydra is 95% finished, just a few details to do and a coat of matt varnish and she's good to go, although I'm already thing I need another two thanks to the preponderance of Necron flyers at my local gaming club.  The camo paint scheme was airbrushed over a black base coat letting the black show through in the recesses, I then applied a wash of burnt umber oil paint diluted in white spirit.  This gave me the tabletop scheme as originally intended, but then I weathered further with sponged on paint chips, powdered pastels and selective line highlights to bring the model up and help it 'pop' a bit.  That said I always seem to be a bit conservative when it comes to highlights so i might apply another level.

The transfers came off Games Workshop transfer sheets, when dry I distressed them with the end of a needle file so they look worn just like the rest of the tank.

Painting the Manticore

I've manged to get some paint on the Manticore this weekend. I decided to go for a camouflage scheme in colours that tie in with my infantry, so after applying a matt black base coat i airbrushed on desert yellow then after it dried i masked off a camo pattern with normal masking tape. I then sprayed on caliban green for the camo pattern.
Removing the masking tape did remove some of the paint underneath so in future i'll use a coat of matt varnish between layers if i'm using a mask.  After some touching up it looks fine but it's worth taking the time to varnish if you're going to use a mask.
The next stage is to detail and use transfers before sealing it and applying weathering.  More pictures soon.

Magnetising the Manticore

I've been looking for a heavy support choice to complete my 875 point Imperial Guard list for the upcoming tournament, and today an assembled, unpainted Manticore landed on my workbench. The prospect of landing D3 strength 10 pie plates per turn makes this vehicle an attractive prospect.  To avoid burdening my memory during games i decided to magnetise the missiles so i could remove them during play.
You'll need 8 small neodymium magnets (i used 3mm but 2mm might be better), an appropiate sized drill, a scalpel and superglue.
For the missiles, pare away the reinforcing strip halfway between the slots and drill a hole partially into the missile body. Don't go all the way in you just want a countersunk hole for the magnet to sit in.
For the launcher rails you just need to trim away enough plastic halfway  between the tabs to house the opposite magnet.
Before gluing in the magnets make sure you have the poles matched up so they actually attract each other.  Let the glue set and enjoy your magnetised tank... check no one is looking then make 'vwoooosh' sound effects as you fly your missiles across the room and explode them amongst an imaginary xenos horde.  Everyone does this right?
I'm planning an airbrushed camo pattern for this tank, i'll post that up soon.

Munitorum transporter

I little while back I was musing over the type of vehicles in use by the Department Munitorum for getting troops and supplies around. Forgeworld have a grand line up of vehicles availible for non-combatant roles and it was while browsing these I noticed a gap in the vehicle pool. A soft skinned multi- purpose transporter a bit like the ww2 Opel Blitz or the United States Mack truck would fill this gap, while the Imperial Guard would save their precious Chimeras and super heavy transports for the front line. Such a vehicle would be very basic, dependable and get stuff from A to B without fuss.

After looking around on thee internet I came up with this rough sketch and went down to the local model shop to procure some styrene section and sheet....

The transporter (I'm yet to think of a name for it) will be unarmed but will have the option to mount a heavy stubber in the turret above the cab. I thought a transport capacity of 20 with armour values of 10/9/9 would do the trick. I need to have a play with the Vehicle Design Rules soonish. With a transport capacity of 20, three vehicles should be able to manage a (maxed) IG platoon with a support squad which seems a fairly realistic. Imagine three of these in convoy taking urgently needed reinforcements to the front.

I have so far fabricated three chassis, so now for the hard part of doing the cabs and body work. I was stumped over what to do about wheels for a while until it struck me that LEGO makes nice chunky 40kesque truck wheels, twelve of which I procured from these friendly people for a few quid.

Well here's the work in progress, I'll hopefully have something looking truck like soon.