Forthcoming Homecoming.

After a brief encounter with Warmachine/Hordes, I will be coming back to my first love (can you call paying through the nose for a rollercoaster of emotions depending on how certain units perform?). I have two games lined up for my Necrons in the next few days.

First up is a game against my friend Dan and his Tyranids (or Chaos Marines if he changes his mind). this is going to be a fairly big game of 3000 points per side. This won't be an Apocalypse game as I don't think we'd have much time on Saturday. The last Apocalypse game we had last year took a whole weekend to play. That was a game between my 13000 point Dark Angels and Imperial Guard and Dan's 8000 point Chaos Marine and Tyranid army. I had to scale my force back a bit but still managed to take a full battle company. We had invited two other players to help out with getting the game finished, but sadly one didn't turn up so Dan was controlling all of his models by himself. We only ended up managing three full turns which resulted in a draw.

I have been craving a large game like this as down at my local club we are restricted to smaller games. I have been itching to roll handfuls of dice in anger (with Warmachine you don't need more than four dice). The force that I will be taking, will be led by The Deceiver along with two untested units (a Monolith and some Pariahs (I have used the Pariahs before but they didn't really do anything apart from die)), plus a lot of familiar units. I will make a post the game shortly afterwards. I may even include some pics.

Tuesday night will be a 1750 point game against some Dark Eldar at my local club. I have never played against DE before when I was playing with my Dark Angels, so this should be fun. I will probably use the same force I used against Chris' Deathguard Marines a few weeks ago. hopefully the Dark Eldar will be a little bit more squishy than traitor marines.

That's all I have lined up for the moment. The next game is likely to be on the following Tuesday with my Necrons as I don't really feel like taking my DA (I don't think non-codex armies fared well under the 5th ed rules). Then I have a choice. I could try and play against Edsmasha (who couldn't make it due to Ork Flu), or challenge one of the Eldar players. Alternatively, I could go back to Warmachine as I will now be able to field a 500 point force. Better yet, I could try and get a game of Necromunda. My sorry Van Saar gang will want to make up for things that happened (or didn't happen) in a previous life. Choices, choices, choices...

Charing Cross Crushed!

I am still mentally exhausted from last night's tourney. As much fun as it was, it was slightly painful. I thought that this was a slickly run tourney, with a friendly atmosphere. I think that the other nine players had a good time also. There is talk of having another small tourney like this one quite soon, but I won't be able to make it due to another hobby.

So, down to the action! Each player had three games. I was quite pleased, as I played opponents who were more experienced and were willing to give a few friendly pointers (while being competitive at the same time). I wasn't expecting much from the night as I had only been playing Warmachine for a few weeks. I took the following as my Protectorate list:

High Exemplar Kreoss

Guardian

Repenter

Revenger

Reclaimer

Choir (full strength)

I chose this as I still have not had time to build up my army. There were no scenarios so we just went for caster kills.

Please forgive me if I don't remember exactly models I came up against, as I am late in publishing this post ( I should have finished last week, but something came up).

First up was Marcus and his Khador force. Both of us charged forward in order to get into the action. I think I may have drew first blood, but I took more damage from his warjacks. I managed to bottleneck my 'jacks through the terrain as usual. This resulted in my Repenter being turned into scrap metal and my Revenger being immobilised. My Guardian couldn't do much as he was impeded as messy battlezone, and had been previously slammed into my own Choir despatching half of them. I seem to remember casing some damage to Marcus' Warcaster, nowhere near enough. Marcus then managed to place his 'caster in view of my 'caster (Kreoss) and deal out 17 points of damage! A few people were watching this happen and thought that Marcus had won, but Kreoss survived becausse he has 18 damage boxes. There wasn't much time for me to complete my turn where a gratefully tough Kreoss was going to (hopefully) Immolate the enemy 'caster. So the game ended with a draw, but Marcus scored a few victory points while I scored none.

Next was Conrad (the winner of the most sporting player) with his Circle army. This was a quiet game for both players as neither side took much damage. The game ended in a draw and no VP's were scored at all.

Last up was Nick and his Circle force, albeit with a completly different list. This was a marginally more brutal game than the first. I ended up being teased by Nick's warlock as he kept teleporting in, casting a few spells and then teleporting out to safety. I couldn't get near him. My Guardian was the subject of a pretty impressive slam attack that knocked me into Nick's solo who tried to sneak up behind me. As a result I managed to take him out. I lost my Repenter, Choir and Reclaimer because of a well placed spell. the rest of my force couldn't do much to protect Kreoss who didn't prove to be as tough this time round. So the result was a loss for me.

Overal, two draws and a loss. That isn't such a bad record for a relative noob to the game, especially someone playing in his first tabletop tourney ever (not even a 40k tourney). I ended up finishing 9th out of 10. I had read Marcus' comments after the event, and it turned out he didn't win any of his games and finished 6th. So the bottom five didn't record a win. But the difference between me and Marcus was that he actually scored more VPs than I did. Something that I could have easliy have done if I gave myself that chance.

On the train home, I tried to analyse what had happened. The answer was simple. I still had a 40k mind-set. Where 40k has different phases for you to do things (move all models, Shoot with all models, fight with all models, etc), in Warmachine/Hordes you have to do everything by model (model 1: moves, cast a spell, fight;model 2: move, fight; model: etc). You cannot really take back moves in a competitive game, but thats all I kept hoping for. You also have to try and figure out in which order you want your models to activate, as some actions affect other models. I kept getting both of these wrong. I was just moving all models, therefore givng up performing other actions. When I remembered to perform these actions, I had done it all in the wrong order. I don't want to use the five minute turns as an excuse, but I will admit that I panicked a bit (lot) despite numerous practice games in the previous weeks.

Despite a lowly finish, I had a great time. I will be hopefully be better prepared for the next tourney.

Warm up for Charing Cross Crush!

I'm writing on the eve of Charing Cross Crush. This is a small Warmachine/Hordes tournament (12 entrants) held at the Charing Cross Gaming Club (obviously). Due to time constraints, each player will have three, 350 point games each which will last between 30-40 minutes. And I think I'm ready for it.

The last few weeks has seen a lot of small practice games at the club. Last Tuesday I played two games againt the same force (Trollbloods), used by two different opponents. I lost both games, but they certainly yielded some valuable lessons, some tricks that I WILL use in the tourney. Tricks that I will not mention here in case anyone from my club reads this. I did learn that I have to be clever about the order in which I activate my models. I failed to think about this properly last week which resulted in my loses. I realised later as I sat down on the train home, where I went wrong in both games. I will have to set in my mind, how I want my Activation Phases to go, and also how to adapt them if things go wrong. I also have to be able to do this quickly as there will be five-minute turns. This should be easy as each player won't have many models in his force (I will be taking eleven). I'm still a fairly new Warmachine player, but I will be confident of getting at least one win, despite there being some experienced players.

So last weeks games:

The first was against a guy called Mitch who is also new to Warmachine. I had bottle-necked my force through the terrain features in order to get to my enemy which probably hurt me more than he did. My Guardian (heavy warjack) got engaged by a Troll Impaler. My Repenter and Revenger (light warjacks) got tied up by a Troll Axer. I thought that this was good, as this was shielding Kreoss, my Warcaster. But it allowed Mitch to get the rest of his force to get up close and personal with my 'jacks. By the time Mitch's Trollkin Hero broke through my front line, he was able to target Kreoss. Game Over. Not to take anyhing away from Mitch, we're both still finding our feet and got confused with some of the rules. As a result, we agreed on which course to take at the time. I realised after that one or two things we agreed upon were wrong. this could have went in Mitch's favour or mine. But I know that knowing what I know now, could have done a bit more damage. But fair play to Mitch, he played well and deserved his win.

The next was far more annoying. I played Rich (I thinkthat's hat his name was). He had a much different force to Mitch but probably tougher. Rich happened to take Mulg the Ancient! This is an impressive, impressive model. Without this seeming like an excuse, sometimes I get caught out by seeing an opponents model thats larger than everything else on the table, and then worry about just that! I concentrated too much on trying to get it killed. Then got attacked by everything else that Rich could throw at me. There was one thing that I could have done to give me a better chance of winning the game, but I'll save that for next week. Game Over!

It's always funny when you realise that you should have done something differently or that you should have done SOMETHING! I kicked myself all the way home and then vented my spleen at the wife and cat (one doesn't like the idea of men gathering in a room playing war and the other just licked her private parts)! But my frustration has taught me a big lesson here (or at least I hope it will!) and I will be ready for the CRUSH!!!

Necron vs. Deathguard.

A few weeks ago I took up a challenge to face a guy at my club (Merchant1874). This was a 1750 point game against his Deathguard Chaos Space Marine force. My list was as follows (I remember as I've still got this written down):

The Deciever - 300 pts

7 x Pariahs - 252 pts

14 x Warriors - 252 pts

14 x Warriors - 252 pts

14 x Warriors - 252 pts

4 x Destroyers - 200 pts

4x Scarab Swarms - 48 pts

3 x Heavy Destroyers - 195 pts

Total - 1751 pts. (Phase Out total = 12)

My memory isn't quite complete here, but Merchant took a Daemon Prince, two units of Plague Marines, two squads of Marines with Rhino transport, a Vindicator, a Defiler, a unit of Terminators and unfortunately I'm now drawing a blank. I must make a point of asking if he remembers what he took

We rolled for Capture and Hold Objective. Then we rolled for first turn, I rolled highest and opted to go first

First of all, I rolled for The Deciver's Grand Illusion. The result was a paltry nothing. He didn't get to change the position of any of my units. I was gutted because I felt one of Warrior units and my Destroyers could have been better placed elsewhere in my deployment zone. Apologises for the lack of images, I will describe as best as my memory allows.

Anyway, I thought I should move my Pariahs (currently on my right flank. towards the Daemon prince to test out their lovely Warscythes. All Warrior (left flank, left of centre and centre) units moved towards their closest objectives. My Scarabs (centre) bombed forward as a bit of a smoke screen. Both the Destroyer (left flank) and Heavy Destroyer (centre of dployment zone) units opened fire at range taking out an empty Rhino and a Rhino carrying a unit of Marines (who emerged unscathed). My opponent moved a Plague Marine unit onto an objective (which would prove difficult to shift).The Daemon Prince moved closer to my metallic minions. The other Rhino mounted Plague Marine unit moved extremely close to my Pariahs. Old father Nurgle obviously doesn't like shooting as I think I only lost one Warrior in the first turn.

Turn two, and I remember to actually move The Deciever (centre of board)! Inevitably he moves towards the Daemon Prince. The Pariahs suffer from a bout of indecision and edge forward towards the oncoming Rhino.

The Scarabs charge a Rhino and destroy it and two Marines inside. The Destoyers move around the left flank and aim at an empty rhino (the closest) destroying it. The Heavy Destroyers take out the Defiler. Two of my Warrior units capture objectives. Merchant's Plague marines disembark from thier Rhino fire at and then charge my Pariahs. This will be the last time I mention it, but they were battered. The Plague marines suffered minimal losses. The Daemon Prince loomed ever closer. A unit of Marines (sans Rhino moved forward towards one of my Warrior units holding an objective. They open fire and put a few warriors on their backs.

Turn three sees the mother of all battles. The Deciever vs the Daemon Prince! The Deciever has a weaker WS than the Daemon Prince, but has a far superior S and T. Plus he ingores both armour and Invulnerable saves. My C'Tan charges and does... nothing. The Daemon Prince hits back and does ... nothing! Way to go guys! My scarabs then charge the bewildered Marines who were rudely expelled from their Rhino. They don't cause much damage (A3, WS2 and S3) but they tied the traitors up and soaked up a bit of damage (T3 and W3, giving the unit 12 wounds.) The Destoryers take aim at the marines firing at my Warriors holding one of my objectives, killing a few. The Heavy Destroyers continue with a shooting masterclass and get rid of the Vindicator. The Daemon Prince takes 2 wounds while dishing out none in his turn. The Plague Marins on my right flank move toward my other objective holding Warriors and open fire, dispatching a few more of the Necrontyr. The marines in the centre are still held up by the Scarabs. The Terminators make thier long awaited arrival and land in the centre of the board.

Turn four and I'm now in panic mode as a results of the Terminators. My Destroyes race throught the centre and take aim at the new arrivals. The odds of 12 S6 shots getting through was good as the Termies suffered a few wounds. My central warriors helping out by causing a few more wounds. My Heavy Destroyers kill a couple as well.The Scarabs are still engaed with the marines and soaking a few more wounds themselves. They did kill a couple of marines themselves. I lose the objective on my right after the Warriors were blown to pieces by a combination of short range bolter fire, a Krak missile and a Plasmagun. The gargantuan battle between our HQ choices carries on in a stalemate, both losing a single wound. The Warriors on my left flank defend their objective and open fire at close range dispatching the advancing marines. Merchants Terminators open fire at my Heavy Destroyers killing two. The last of my Scarabs are felled by the marines in the centre of the table. The plague marines in the centre move towards my Destroyer and open fire, sending three to their (second) deaths.

Turn five sees both the Terminators and Daemon Prince depart from the table. The Terminators succumbing to fire from the lone Heavy Destroyer, the now lone Destroyer (I had been unlucky with my We'll Be Back rolls all game) and Warriors. The Deciever cutting through the Daemon Princes and sending it back to where it was spawned. The Warriors on my left duck behind cover while holding onto their objective. The Chaos turn sees the Marines (now free from having their ankles bitten by my Scarabs) cut down the last Destroyer before noticing that some Necrons are now playing Hide and Seek. The Plague Marines on my right claim the Necron-free objective. The second Marine squad (centre) contest my central objective before destroying the remaining Warriors holding it. This now makes it 3-1 to the Deathguard.

Turn six and things are a little deserate for me. The Deciever engages the Plague Marines on my right, killing half the unit. The single Heavy Destroyer contests my central objective. Chaos turn sees my last Heavy Destroyer killed and the last of the Plague Marines succumb to the Deciever.

The game finishes 2-1 to the Deathguard. An enjoyable game against a good player and exceptional painter. things I have learnt from the game was that I have to really think carefully about taking Pariahs. If they had better dice, they might have stopped the Plague Marines leaving The Deciever a free run at other units. At 36 points they are an expensive choice, and you could get two Warriors of Flayed Ones for the same cost.

It was only as we were packing away our models that I realised I should have phased out earlier in the game. It didn't matter as it would have been the same result.

Not the battle I was expecting.

I went to my local gaming club last night to get my weekly fix of dice. I was due to have a 1750 point game with my Necrons facing an Ork horde. Sadly my opponent didn't turn up due to illness so my metal minions had to wait a little longer for blood. I had wanted to try out my new Wraiths which I had bought last month. I could slot these into my small (1500-1750 pt) lists, and just test them out. I would have loved to see them take out some big Ork Nob Warboss. I just hope they are more successful on their debut than my Pariahs. ( I will post later about this).

I tend to buy at least one full strength unit per month which is quickly making my small "side project" into a full blown invasion force. This month will see the arrival of a full unit of Flayed Ones. Next month, another unit of Heavy Destroyers.

But I'm now losing my thread.

I didn't get my 40k fix, but I did manage to get a couple of games of Warmachine. I am still relatively new to Privateer Press games, so am still trying to get a new set of rules into my head. There is a small Warmachine/Hordes tourney at my club in a fortnights time, so two more 'practice games' were very welcome.

The first game of the night for my Menoth force was against a guy called Andre and his Talion crew. We are both beginners in the game, and it was good both discussing the rules as we went along. We both went in headstrong, and were engaged in melee by the 2nd turn. I managed to take out Andre's light warjack (Buccaneer). Then I pretty much disabled the cannon on one of his heavy warjacks (Mariner) by getting my Choir of Menoth to sing the Safe Passage hymn which meant my 'jacks were immune to ranged attacks. Turn 3 came around and my Choir sung a different hymn, (Infuse, giving my 'jacks a +2 bonus to hit rolls and damage rolls. This now meant Andre can fire his cannon, which caused my Repenter and Revenger (light warjacks) quite a bit of damage. I waited until turn 4 before getting Grand Scrutator Severius (my warcaster) to 'pop his Feat'. This stopped Andre's warcaster (Captain Bartolo) casting spells and replenishing his Focus allowance. This gave me a free run into his 'caster who I didn't kill, but was in a good position to do so. At this point Andre conceded the game. We were timing the rounds to see if we were inside the 5 minutes that will be allocated during the upcoming tourney. I'm pleased to say that this happened more often than not. Overall, I was pleased with the way this game went.

Next up, my Menites faced a guy called Ollie and his Everblight. This was a bit more of a casual game as Ollie wasn't looking for a game, but I was grateful when he obliged me with one. We didn't time the rounds, but instead Ollie went through the rules a bit when I wasn't sure. Now Everblight are a Hordes army, which while using most of the same rules, plays slightly different. It was really good to play against this sort of force. I got the first turn again so raced forward and got my Choir to sing their Safe Passage hymn. Ollie opted to run his Carnivean down one flank and his Blighted Swordsmen down the other. I managed to use my Repenter to flame the Carnivean and set him on fire (which nearly killed it early on). My 'jacks kept moving forward, supported by the Choir, Reclaimer and Severius. The Reclaimer decided (as he mostly always does) to sacrifice a memeber of the Choir each turn in order to claim their Soul to use later. Ollie's Carnivean slammed my Repenter, knocking it into my Revenger causing damage to both 'jacks. Ollie then charged my Revenger with his three Shredders dealing a fair bit of damage. I somehow managed to harm the Carnivean a fair bit, but not enough. I used my Crusader to occupy the Blighted Swordsmen. This forced Ollies hand a little, so he moved His 'caster (Lylyth) within enough range to cast a few spells on Severius in order to kill him. Severius stayed alive, and because Lylyth was in range to cast spells this meant Severius could cast some of his own. He casted Immolation a twice, boosting the damage each time. This was more than enough to kill her and win me the game.

Winning twice in one night is always a good thing, but I did take quite a bit of advise from other, more experienced Warmachine/Hordes players like Ollie and others like Sam and Mig. I now have one more night to get a couple more games with my Menoth force before the tourney on the 21st. My Necrons will now have to wait until after the tourney to spill some blood.

Begin Again...

After a long abscence, I have recently come back into tabletop gaming. I got got interested in GW after hearing my best friend (here after referred as to as The Dude) talk about Warhammer during history class when we were about 13 years old. It took a while to actually get really involved in the hobby as my pocket money was limited. I got there in the end and started to play every weekend with The Dude. We ended up choosing 40k, with me starting my Dark Angel army and El Duderino picking Eldar. I will admit here that I didn't win too many games, even when we swapped armies just to check that the Eldar were not indestructable.

We played other systems with pretty much the same results. Space Hulk, Necromunda (I had a Van Saar gang while he took Cawdor), Blood Bowl (despite scoring the first point of the only game we ever played, my Orcs got clattered by those pesky Humans), Warhammer Quest and Gorka Morka.

Inevitably, we started to grow up bit, finding other interests (under-age drinking, the opposite sex, etc). We both kept our models, but I kept looking in on GW every now and then and buying the odd unit here and there. I've got back into the hobby over the last year and now play on a regular basis by going to my local gaming club (Charing Cross). I've tried to get The Dude back into the hobby, but no luck so far.

Going to a gaming club, has given me the idea to leave my 11260 pts Dark Angel army and take on a side project. My Necron army now stands at 4779 pts and will steadily grow each months until I have at least two of every unit that isn't Troop or HQ. I now enjoy using my Necrons and as they are basically Space Marines but also have the chance to get up again. As a result I have gone from mostly bad results, to average results.

It can only get better from here...?