Hump Day Heroes: 40K Kill Team League

This battle report was from my first game for the 40k Kill Team league that I am running at the Wandering Dragon.  My opponent for the game was Doug and his very cool space marine team.  The mission for the game was Forward Push from the Kill Team supplement.  For this mission, I had modified the objective rules so that each player placed one and the third was at the center of the board.

As you can see from the pictures, we set-up the board using a large number of LOS blocking terrain pieces.  I am a firm believer that Kill Teams is best when there is a lot of terrain on the board as it encourages movement and prevents static gunlines.  When it came to deployment, I won the roll, so deployed my forces across the board with a few models held back to infiltrate.

Genestealer Brood

10 Genestealers – 140 points

1 Broodlord – 60 points

Doug’s Space Marines

10 Tactical Squad w/ Heavy Bolter & Flamer

1 Attack Bike w/ multi-melta

I was not expecting Doug to seize, so when he did, I knew I was in trouble.  His attack bike and heavy bolter made quick work of my broodlord and one of his companion stealers.  In response, I tried to assault the bike with the remaining stealers nearby, but failed to wound it and in return got a stealer killed for the attempt.

In the second round, I moved the other larger group of stealers towards the center objective.  My hope was I could break off one or two models from the pack to deal with marines as needed.  Doug had range with his outflanking marines, so bolter fire quickly diminished the pack down to a couple of models. 

In the late turns, I tried to hide what I had remaining near two of the objectives, but the marines closed ranks.  In short order the last of my brood was killed at range with the exception of one stealer who got past a marine with a flamer before being brought down by a shot to the head. 

Overall it was a fun game that taught me a couple of good lessons about how to deploy my team going forward.  I should have kept all of them close together and just chained my assaults.  By spreading out, Doug was able to easily pick-off individual models before they could make it to assault.  I do debate whether or not I should include some type of shooting element to the list, but figure that would break from the narrative I am forging.

Episode 45 - Khorne Daemonkin

The End Times may have come to a conclusion, but the rage of Khorne continues to spread across the mutliverse.  In this episode, Andrew and John share their first impressions of the new Khorne Daemonkin codex.  We discuss the new formations, the Blood Tithe and a few army ideas John has using the codex.  Before we get into the main topic, the guys talk about the End Times tournament at Adepticon, Andrew talks about his game with Andy Chambers, John plays with his nids, and we talk about our sponsors.  This episode also contains a bonus segment with John Ontto at Adepticon.

 

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Episode Timeline
00:00:15 - Sponsors
00:05:30 - End Times @ Adepticon 2015
00:32:00 - Marshaling the Host
01:03:30 - Khorne Daemonkin
01:39:30 - Plugs (Waste Wars XV, 40K Kill Teams)
01:43:00 - Bonus Content (John Ontto at Adepticon 2015)

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Episode 39 - Aftermath Michigan GT

This episode kicks off with two Johns talking about the latest Tyranid release from Games Workshop.  We review each of the options for the new Tyranid kit and discuss the impact they will have on the 40K meta.

Next, we have a special Marshaling the Host where we discuss our experience at the Michigan GT.  We talk about the missions, discuss our games, and review our experience at the tournament.

Lastly, we introduce a new segment, Waaagh Ontto.  In this episode, John O talks about the Morkanaut and Gorkanaut.  He reviews how he uses them, their role on the battlefield, and what to watch out for when playing them.

Episode Timeline
00:01:45 - New Tyranid Models
00:30:00 - Marshaling the Host (Aftermath: Michigan GT 2014)
01:36:30 - Waaagh Ontto (Morkanaut/Gorkanaut)

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Hump Day Heroes - Adepticon XII Battlefleet Gothic Championships - Part 3 (of 3)

Time for the third and final installment of my BFG experience at Adepticon. 2-0 so far...

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.

(they're turned so he remembers they're dead)

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!

Hump Day Heroes - Adepticon XII Battlefleet Gothic Championships - Part 2 (of 3)

Almost forgot it was Wednesday! I'm bad.

Game 2 vs Tau Protection Fleet (Ernesto Salas)

Now, he was a bad boy and didn't bring a printed list (tsk tsk :P ), so it's off memory. I guess it was a mishmash of Armada and FW ships, didn't realize that was doable because I never got around to reading the Tau Protection fleet rules. And then of course Eldar allies, because no matter what game you play, you just can't escape the Taudar!  

Tau Protection list
Custodian BB - Ld10 upgrade?
Hero
Emmissary
2 Protectors
4 Castellans
4 Wardens

Eldar allies
Aurora
3 Hemlocks

Scenario 2: Salvage. There were seven wrecks orbiting a planet. If you get a ship in base contact, roll a D6; on a 2+ you salvage it, on a 1 you muck it up and have to roll on the Catastrophic chart for the wreck! You got bonus points for having your allied fleet claim a wreck, and points for each wreck (up to 3).

Deployment and Turn 1

Sunny side is left side short edge. Once again, my opponent went first. Since we deployed 20cm off the board edge, he wasn't in range. However, the forward lances on my Hades were...but not locked on, because once again I failed my first Ld test (twice!). Still, I crippled the Protector that was closest. His Ordnance was ineffective, and he failed nearly all his resilient rolls.  :'(

By this point I claimed two wrecks already. 

Turn 3

As the bulk of his fleet closed on the planet, I swung my Slaughter squad out around the left side for rear shots, while the Hades just stayed the course and locked on. The rest of the fleet moved right, to crush all opposition! Escorts were shot down, a wreck had a plasma drive overload, and the Kroot boarded the Orks! That ended with me orks somewhat fending them off, losing the action by three.

Turn 4
The Eldar were content to dart in and out of the asteroids (space jungle?), scoring hits here and there. Unfortunately, the cruiser didn't pass one of its Ld checks, suffering four hits and a critical. Yay points!  The rest of my fleet caught the Tau in a pincer, crippling or hulking nearly all other ships.

Each hulk salvaged gave you an extra 200 VP; that pushed my total up to 1450ish (with 3 claims) and him to 400ish (1 claim). Another 1000 VP difference gave me more big points. Round 2 victory! Stay tuned for round 3!

Hump Day Heroes - Adepticon XII Battlefleet Gothic Championships - Part 1 (of 3)

Last weekend was Adepticon (as so many of you listeners should probably know), and I played in the Battlefleet Gothic tournament, among other events. BFG is my jam; my favoritest game evarzzz. I usually don't get to play more than three games a year (at Adepticon! ha), but I do have a couple clubmates who play, and we get in a game from time to time.

This year the terrain was gorgeous; Ernesto Salas, one of the main men who will be taking the reins on running the event from henceforth, spent his time making some kick-ass looking, and more important, completely functional, terrain. Asteroid fields, gas clouds, planets with rings (even one with a spinning moon!), all on airbrushed mats. Honestly, it was a dream, playing on those boards, and I can't wait for next year to see them again.

My Ultramarines fleet from the past two years has done me proud, going 6-0 and earning two Best Overall plaques, so it was time for them to rest as I introduced something new to the playing field. This year I brought Chaos. The Word Bearers fleet has been languishing in stasis, so I gave them all a new paint job...the day before the event, heh. The rules are:

- 1500 points for the primary fleet
- +250 points for an allied fleet, and you can use some of your primary fleet points if you want

There were additional rules for allies, including who can take what, which you can view here.

So this my list:

Chaos Gothic sector list
Hades-class Heavy Cruiser - Warmaster Ld 8
Hades-class Heavy Cruiser
Devastation-class Cruiser
Devastation-class Cruiser
Slaughter-class Cruiser
Slaughter-class Cruiser
Slaughter-class Cruiser
Slaughter-class Cruiser

Ork Clanz list (allies)
Terror Ship - boarding torpedoes
2 Savage Attack Ships

I made use of Brigade Models' Eurofed line for the escorts, which I originally bought two years ago to match the larger ship, which is from the Star Wars Titanium Diecast line (though I bought it when it came out, for like $6, not that nonsensical price). Caught some flack by other players for them "not being proper ships", but hey, when the game is no longer supported and models are no longer available, I'm going with theme (Republic pirates or something :P )


Game 1 vs Chaos (Andrew Raatz)

Chaos Gothic sector list
Desolator-class Battleship - Warmaster Ld 9, Mark of Nurgle
Repulsive-class Grand Cruiser - Chaos Lord Ld 8, Mark of Nurgle
Devastation-class Cruiser
Devastation-class Cruiser
Murder-class Cruiser
Murder-class Cruiser

Chaos allies
6 Infidel-class Raiders

Scenario 1: Brace for Impact! There's an interesting twist: D3 Asteroids enter the battlefield from a designated short table edge at the start of every game turn, flinging 30cm across the table. If they strike an asteroid field, an additional D3 asteroids are generated...this could result in a nasty chain reaction that fills the table. Luckily, that didn't really happen to us. Still, it directed us to deploy on the other half, to stay as far away as possible.

Deployment

He took the first turn and advanced. For my part, I failed my first Ld test and merely drifted foward into range, loosing a few shots.

Turn 2 was where it really went down. Ships lock on and crossed the T...the squadron of Slaughters combined their Firepower into an absolutely brutal 56, numbering 39+ dice. On top of that, 8 lances piled on the hurt. Combined with the guns of the Hades, I hulked (i.e. destroyed) the Desolator and a Murder. Not a bad turn 2!

Then it really devolved into a close-range slug-fest. Every year Andrew and I play, and every year our games turn into a cluster@#$% in the middle, and it's awesome every time. To be fair, he always also manages to have bad dice occur (fail to brace, or only make 25% of brace saves), and this year was no exception. His damage control teams just didn't have the right stuff. I'll let the rest of the pictures tell the story.

Tight quarters. Aooooooga! Aooooooga!

The final VP total had me ahead by almost 1000, so that was a hefty victory for the Word Bearers!

I learned (as not only was this my first game since last year, it was also my first games with the fleet) that I will likely both outgun and have more tonnage than any of my opponents. Going second will give me the advantage of being in range first, and with the insane amount of gun batteries at my command, means I get the alpha strike that they'll never recover from. Stay tuned for game two, where I take on the Tau Protection Fleet!

Episode 29 - Filthy Before Adepticon

Episode 29 - Filthy Before Adepticon
Sponsored by Heroes Haven Comics and Games & A Gathering of Might

Episode 29 is now available.  Join the crew as they discuss filthy lists, Adepticon prep, and John's AGoM XII battle report. 
 
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Episode Timeline
00:00:17 Sponsors (Heroes Haven Comics & Games)
00:01:00 White Dwarf Weekly 
00:19:48 AGoM Battle Report (MoH Part 1) 
01:27:25 Super Fan Ross 
01:37:15 Void Shield Generator Model Discussion 
01:43:30 Adepticon Preparations (MoH Part 2)

Emails
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A Gathering of Might XII

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Hump Day Heroes - Waste Wars XI - Part 1

Recently I participated in the latest Waste Wars tournament hosted by the Waaaghcast.  Joe and company usually run 3 or 4 tournaments a year down in Bloomington, Illinois (~100 miles south of Chicago).  This one was a 1000 point primer for the Adepticon version of the tournament being held in early April.  This was also my first outing using my Ogre Kingdoms army.

As much as I want to pretend to be interested in competitive play, the reality is that I always build my armies based around what I am interested in painting.  Sometimes this results in me building an army the swings to one extreme or the other when it comes to playability and tabletop efficiency.  When it came to my ogre kingdom army, I was focused on bringing stuff that I liked and playing with models that I have been interested in for a long time.

Firebelly: Gold Sigil Sword; Talisman of Endurance; Ironcurse Icon; Level 2 Wizard. 205
7 Ironguts: Gutlord; Bellower; standard bearer; Look-out Gnoblar; Dragonhide Banner. 386
4 Ogres: Bellower; ironfists. 138
3 Maneaters: standard bearer; 3× additional hand weapon; heavy armour; Immune to Psychology; Scouts. 178
Gorger 90

997 points

For the first round of the tournament, I was paired up against Ryan G and his lizardmen army.  Lizardmen list have always been a bane of mine as skinks with poison tend to ruin elite armies if not dealt with quickly.  The scenario for this game involved rolling off for each unit, including characters, to determine if they started in reserve or on the table.  The scenario also involved capturing an objective in the middle of the board that basically would freeze a unit in place if they touched it. 

When it came to deployment, I ended up not getting to place my firebelly because of the special rule.  I also had to start the gorger in reserve because its ambusher rule.  This meant that I only had two units place during standard deployment.  The ogres were put directly across from Ryan’s saurus block, while the ironguts were positioned to come in from the right side of my deployment zone.  Ryan focused his salamanders and chameleon skinks deployment on the ironguts while I placed my scouting maneaters to flank the saurus block.

Early Turns

The early part of the game was focused on trying to get the ironguts towards the saurus warriors while getting away from the skinks and salamanders.  At the same time, I jockeyed for position with the maneaters and bulls in an effort to get a double charge off with them.  Ryan pushed his block forward to close in on the objective while his skinks proceeded to kill a couple of ironguts.

The second turn saw my firebelly arrive on the table and wipe out one unit of skinks with magic and the other with its flaming breath.  The gorger on the other hand remained off the board due to a roll of a 2.  The skinks had done what they needed to and had delayed the ironguts long enough to allow the salamanders a chance to get into range with their shooting attacks.

Middle Turns

The middle of the game became focused on close combat as the bulls and maneaters charged the block of saurus.  The maneaters were effective at dropping basic saurus warriors, but Ryan’s characters were equally effective at dropping the bulls at the front of the regiment.  Across the table, the firebelly bought the ironguts time by becoming the focus of the salamanders’ shooting.

Late Turns

The late turns saw the remaining ironguts hit the saurus warrior block and pound on them, only to be grinded away as the special rules for the objective ensured that the saurus warriors would not break from combat.  At the same time, the salamanders and firebelly continued to exchange flaming attacks until the firebelly was dropped.  The game ended with the gorger making it into close combat and killing the saurus BSB with a lucky killing blow.

Overall

Overall, the game was really fun.  Ryan is a great opponent and knows how to play his army very well.  I made a number of mistakes looking back on the game and really wish the gorger would have come on sooner.

 

Next Week – Part 2