Game 3 vs Chaos (Kirk Troy of Hangar 18)
This fleet is the third in an impressive line up of well-painted fleets, and I knew it would be a joy to play.
Chaos Black 13th list
Repulsive-class Grand Cruiser - Warmaster, Ld 9, Mark of Slaanesh
Devastation-class Cruiser - Chaos Marines, Thunderhawks, Mark of Slaanesh
Carnage-class Cruiser - Chaos Lord, Mark of Slaanesh, Veil of Lust
Carnage-class Cruiser
Carnage-class Cruiser
5 Infidel-class Raiders
Chaos allies
6 Infidel-class Raiders
Scenario: Neutron Star. In this one, there is a Neutron Star in the center of the table. There's a large wreck that's worth 450 VP if you salvage it (just like last game, 2+ to get it, 1 then oops). The gravity well of the star had a fun effect on the game: at the start of each player turn, after orders are given, then ships/squadrons are pulled toward it a number of CM based on class. BB: 1D6, Cruiser: 2D6, Escort/Ordnance/Defense: 3D6, and AAF orders gained +1D6. Gravity!
Deployment
I pointed everything at the wreck, because it was worth bank. I also did so in a way so that, with average rolls, my ships would get pulled right on target to it. Gotta plan ahead-ahead with rules like this! The Devastations, on the other hand, went to sweep the flank for some reason. Slingshot around the star I guess?
Turn 1
...went to him (of course). The Carnages went to flank me with an AAF, but the cosmic pull made one go through the asteroids, taking four hits. A good start for me! Everything else moved up to unleash torpedoes (holy moly that's a lot of torpedoes for a chaos fleet).
On my turn, I gave the Tiddla-winks (what I named my Tiddla skwadron) a free AAF to get that hulk. One plastered itself on asteroids, but the other made it, and only just! There were three bonus points for the allied fleet to claim the hulk, so I rolled that D6...and it came up a 1. Rats! Oh well, no points for anybody then I guess...at least it didn't catch fire. My fleet made short work of the Infidels that got too close.
Turn 2
The star's pull brought the next set of Infidels much closer than intended; however, this led to him firing a meaty salvo through my ships. Combined with fire from the rest of the fleet, they hammered the Slaughters repeatedly until one of them busted and caught fire.
That flaming hulk then drifted forward and sideways, right past his line...and EXPLODED. The conflagration took out five Infidels and dropped shields on a few ships (including mine, before I moved!). Quite a painful explosion, that was. Then, the rest of the fleet locked on. With all guns blazing fire in every direction, the Repulsive was hulked, along with a Carnage. Naturally, that last Infidel bit the bullet too. The Devastation was crippled and another Carnage took some hits.
After that, he did his best to escape the guns of my fleet. The two carnages went to hide around asteroids, but the Devastation had nowhere to go, and was hulked.
This time, with no bonus objectives giving me freebie points...I still ended with a massive 1000ish VP difference.
So, 3-0 and crowned champion for another year. I'm a monster!
After-action thoughts:
My fleet
Loved it. Played hard and fast, with half standing off, putting out 12 lances, the other half close in, throwing around FP42-56, and 6-8 lances. There's just sooo much firepower when you don't go for the flashy upgrades or big ships. I easily had more tonnage in every game, especially with the Terror ship floating around, for 9 cruisers. I could always wish for more AC, but what I had was fine. As usual, I didn't brace except for once or twice throughout the day, sacrificing a Slaughter to kill a bigger ship. Always worth it!
Opponents' fleets
The Chaos ones played similar, and the cost of upgrades/ships really shows. Kirk's was more interesting/scary because of the sheer number of torpedoes he could muster! The Tau one was a heartstopper at first (I'm always scared of Tau), but once I started crunching ship after ship, I didn't feel so bad. To my joy, they were all painted just so beautifully, and combined with the new scenery, it was a day of three games that were just so pretty it gave me a warm fuzzy feeling.
Scenarios
I liked all three to varying degrees. I never like it when there are limited amounts of precious resources that will go to the fastest fleets though (salvaging hulks). I feel it's a good idea, but needs to be implemented differently somehow.
Still, Scenario 1 with the murderous asteroids was most fun, followed by Scenario 3 with the Neutron star, and lastly 2 with the planet.
Making more use of terrain rules was pretty sweet. Too little do you see all the cool things that have been included in that section; I'd definitely like to see more of it in the future.
Other fleets
For the day, there were a total of 4 Chaos fleets, 3 Tau fleets, and 1 Imperial fleet (soo much variety!). I got pics of all except the Imperials...all I can remember about them is a Retribution and lots of Nova Cannon (oh joy!). I do like that, despite having a fairly homogeneous fleet mix for the day, no two were painted the same.
Chaos/Orks
Andrew Karolus (me!)
Alex Kasper
Chaos/Chaos
Kirk Troy
Andrew Raatz
Tau/Eldar
Andrew ( ... )
Ernesto Salas
Tau/Rogue Trader
Dan Bisplinghoff
Feel free to ask questions/leave comments/claim the Tau fleet I wasn't able to identify!
