It was another 'Mini Meet' with friends from Twitter: Nathan @NinjaNathUK, Stuart @CaptainHelvetos and Luke @lukanwhitehouse, as well as the regular faces: @Petehumpage, @NigelSBartlett, @79Sponge, @Wilsongrahams, @deathbyblowpipe, @slaaneshfiend and Ade (who doesn't have a twitter account...boo!)
A really packed gaming venue with a lot of games going on at the same time!
Now, whenever Nathan comes up we try and fit a few games in, so I managed to play him at 5.00 and then he went on to play Stuart after!
Before I begin my spiel about the mission and things, I seriously recommend looking at Nathan's Blog: http://freddielong87.wordpress.com/. 2 reasons: 1. It has the list and build up to our game on there and will soon have his view of the battle! 2. He has a figure dedicated to his mother who sadly passed away a year ago. It is a fantastic mini! Well worth a look!
Those of you who can't get across right now here's a taster of that model...
Now, on to my crap about this game... You may recall I published my list earlier in the week which included a brief overview of what I was going to do and what I was looking for in the game. This is the first time I've played Chaos, in case I haven't told you before, so I was hopeful that they would provide a different challenge to Grey Knights/Sisters. They didn't disappoint!
Over the course of my time playing 40k, I have come up against lists which are weak, tough and unusual. Nath's list most definitely falls in to the tough category. He has learnt from the games we've played together that if you play the mission you will win! Simple! I've learnt that a Raptor is a nasty piece of powergaming bullshit which should be struck off the table... Sooooo I bring 2 Heldrakes!
A fresh reminder:
Nathan's List:
HQ
Librarian
Termie armour, Mastery lvl 2, melta bombs 125pts
Elites
Termie assualt sqd x 5 TH/SS 225pts
Mortis Contemptor Dread
Twin Khaeres Assualt Cannons 200pts
Troops
Scouts 4x sniper 1 ML w/flakk Tele homer camo cloaks 104pts
Tact Sqd x10 Sarg:Stormbolter chainsaw. Droppod w/Locator Beacon. H.Bolter Grav Gun 215pts
Tact Sqd x10 Rhino. ML and Melta gun 200pts
Fast Attack
Land Speeder w/Typhoon and H.bolter 75pts
Heavy Support
Raptor (no surprise there!) 225pts
Centurions: Land Raider:C w/multimelta 1x grav cannon 2xh.bolter 1xchest missiles 480pts
Total = 1849
My List:
Primary Detachment:
Chaos Space Marines
HQ
Chaos Sorcerer [65] Mark of Nurgle [15] Burning Brand of
Skalathrax [30] Power Weapon [15] Sigil of Corruption [25] 150
Troops
Cultists [50] +9 Cultists [36] 86
Chaos Space Marines [75] +4 CSM [52] Rhino [35] Dirge Caster
[5]167
Chaos Space Marines [75] +6 CSM [78] Rhino [35] Dirge Caster
[5] 193
Fast Attack
Heldrake [170] Baleflamer [0] 170
Heldrake [170] Baleflamer [0] 170
Heavy Support
Maulerfiend [125] Lashertendrils [20] 145
Maulerfiend [125] Lashertendrils [20] 145
2 Obliterators [140] Mark of Nurgle [12] 152
Allied Detachment:
Chaos Daemons
HQ:
Herald of Nurgle [45] Exalted Reward [30] Great Locus [25]
100
Troops
Plaguebearers [90] 90
Plaguebearers [90] 90
Heavy Support
Soulgrinder [135] Phlegm Bombardment [30] Warp Sword [25]
190
Total: 1848
Mission: Purge the Alien (Kill Points)
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil
1st Turn: Chaos Space Marines
Warlord Traits: CSM: Hatred for Warlord and his unit. SM: Legion's Sword (other something to that effect).
Psychic powers: SM Librarian: Puppet Master and Warp Speed
Night Fight: 1st Turn.
So, I win the roll off and take first turn. I set up aggressively, putting a unit of cultists in reserve as well as two units of plaguebearers. I deploy the rhino behind a building and a maulerfiend each side. My plan is to steam these forward and get right into his face. Luckily, he deploys his solitary rhino on the same side as the maulerfiends. On the other side; 2 oblits and the soulgrinder. Facing off against these; the Land Raider! Problems!
The scouts have deployed slightly forward in the stone ruins.
Since the game is kill points I thought it could have an easy first target against the scouts, possibly pop the rhino and gain 3 points in the first turn! Perhaps even 4 if I could get into the troops with the maulerfiends! By no means would this be an easy game but I definitely needed to get first blood and a few other points in the first turn before the big stuff comes down and I have to deal with that as well as the small gribblies!
That was the plan and as we all well know... things don't ever go to plan! Nath stole first turn which left me in the shit, or so I thought!
I felt I had set up fairly aggressive with a backfield unit of CSM which would deter or make it hard for the drop pod to land. Nath dropped the pod right behind this unit in the centre of the board about six inches away from the board edge... A brave strategy! If it fails and lands off the table that's 2 kill points and first blood... Well, it didn't fail! It hit, smack bang in the middle of the board and out came 10 marines... in rapid fire range...right next to a line of 11 CSM! What I maybe should look at is giving them Mark of Nurgle to boost to T5 but in this situation, a tight points cost it didn't materialize.
The pod and the unit kicked out 8 wounds and 1 grav wound. Only 2 of those were saved! Passing my ld check, I maintain coherency and carried on with my day!
The rhino and land raider moved forward 6" which I found slightly unusual. I must say, it wouldn't be a tactic I'd use unless I wanted to get out and shoot. Now, I don't know if Nath was aware or not, but getting out of the LR with a 2+ save and now a 30" threat range would prove fatal. Yes, it's first turn but actually, it wouldn't really matter if the Centurions got out and unloaded! Even with a cover save, nothing much is sticking around there! What I did wonder is if the Librarian went with the Cents and gave them precognition, etc. Nath put them in the Termie squad which was deep striking in later.
So, my first turn EVERYTHING turns around! My plans of surging forward have been brought to an abrupt end so it is now clear that the first turn will be testing how well my firepower can cope with a 3+. Well, it turns out it copes fairly well. The 2 maulerfiends, coupled with the Lord's flamer, the Soulgrinder and remaining marines turned on the SMs who dropped down!
In truth, it took most of my army to shift them out of the hole they dug themselves in to! I managed to shift them by shooting and assault which gave me first blood and a kill point. This did push my army massively out of position and gave Nath a real advantage now to take the upper hand and try to smash his way through my beasties!
That was the plan and as we all well know... things don't ever go to plan! Nath stole first turn which left me in the shit, or so I thought!
I felt I had set up fairly aggressive with a backfield unit of CSM which would deter or make it hard for the drop pod to land. Nath dropped the pod right behind this unit in the centre of the board about six inches away from the board edge... A brave strategy! If it fails and lands off the table that's 2 kill points and first blood... Well, it didn't fail! It hit, smack bang in the middle of the board and out came 10 marines... in rapid fire range...right next to a line of 11 CSM! What I maybe should look at is giving them Mark of Nurgle to boost to T5 but in this situation, a tight points cost it didn't materialize.
The pod and the unit kicked out 8 wounds and 1 grav wound. Only 2 of those were saved! Passing my ld check, I maintain coherency and carried on with my day!
The rhino and land raider moved forward 6" which I found slightly unusual. I must say, it wouldn't be a tactic I'd use unless I wanted to get out and shoot. Now, I don't know if Nath was aware or not, but getting out of the LR with a 2+ save and now a 30" threat range would prove fatal. Yes, it's first turn but actually, it wouldn't really matter if the Centurions got out and unloaded! Even with a cover save, nothing much is sticking around there! What I did wonder is if the Librarian went with the Cents and gave them precognition, etc. Nath put them in the Termie squad which was deep striking in later.
So, my first turn EVERYTHING turns around! My plans of surging forward have been brought to an abrupt end so it is now clear that the first turn will be testing how well my firepower can cope with a 3+. Well, it turns out it copes fairly well. The 2 maulerfiends, coupled with the Lord's flamer, the Soulgrinder and remaining marines turned on the SMs who dropped down!
On to turn 2 and the landspeeder, termies and libby come down but the Raptor doesn't! So, I'm saved for a turn from the flying tank! The error I made was not smashing the fuck out of the drop pod! The drop pod (for those of you who didn't read the list or forgot because you have the memory of a goldfish...you should see a Doctor about that by the way!) has the locator beacon! Shit! I'm for it now! The Land Speeder dropped right next to the maulerfiend and the Termies w/ Lib dropped in next to the Soulgrinder.
Another lot of firepower lashed onto the CSMs: the Landspeeder put out a pen onto the maulerfiend taking off a powerfist! The sniper squad brought down an obilterator and the Librarian who thought he was the dog's bollocks tried to Puppet Master the Soulgrinder but failed on an 11!
In my turn all units which were in reserve came on with the exception of a unit of plaguebearers. The two heldrakes zip on and cause 1 glancing hit on the landspeeder and 1 wound on the termie squad in which the libby has chosen to take the wound! Not really successful but we plod on! My cultists ambled on from the back, close enough to shoot at the Terminators still in a huddle and at the back of the board. Well who'd have thought it... With 6 saves to make the CHAOS CULTISTS... a 90 POINT unit... kill 3! Now, I don't know if the dice were on the side of the dark gods or if they were weighted but there was a stupid amount of 1s rolled the entire game! But 3 were dead and this left just 2 termies and a libby standing in an enemy deployment zone with big beasts bearing down on them!
Turn 3. A real turning point in the game! Nath brings on the Raptor, kills the last obliterator and the Land Raider pops the Soulgrinder. Both the Raptor and speeder pump everything they have in to the drake but for all the big guns, it didn't fire like it should! To be fair, the drake did make some unbelievable saves! I will settle for the glancing hit on it! In the combat, some extremely good fortune/poor dice rolling meant that another terminator died! Ld check passed and these pussies are sticking around for another turn.
The exchange gave me a chance to get both drakes over the raptor, one couldn't make it but the other managed to land 3 glances on it...only for Nath to jink 3 times...douche! The one I didn't managed to get over the raptor zipped off the board ready for next turn.
In other news, the cultists charged in to the solitary librarian because I really wanted the kudos of having cultists smashing a libby to death... well... just like Disney (but without the racial slurs) dreams really do come true! Except, disney isn't fucking real! Grow up! (Yes, I know, says the person who plays My Little Pony!) The cultists did try to bludgeon him to death but the 12 hits, 5 wounds that were caused on him... all of them were saved! Now, I think the libby would have been fairly exhausted from the smashyness of the cultists that they maulerfiend would be far from his mind... Unfortunately, the maulerfiend was far from far! It was so close that all he needed to do was flick the libby and he fell quicker than Ronaldo! So, Warlord and Termie unit wiped out!
Turn 4. I've got myself in to a bit of a hole now because all of my units are still in the backfield, this is with the exception of a unit of plaguebearers (I didn't mention these earlier because they did absolutely fuck all during them, purely for the fact, I didn't want to get them killed! They did however manage Linebreaker!). The contempter dread...remember him? No? That might be because he did sod all until now! He laid skyfiring shots on the heldrake with 2 HP left, 3 glances went through bringing it crashing down!
This turn, the Centurions disembarked and unleashed their payload, late some may say, upon the now disengaged Maulerfiend. Along with the Land Raider it smashed the fiend up! In truth, there isn't a lot left and the turns fell quickly...for me anyway!
I did manage to bring the drake back on and vector the Raptor. Also in this turn, 4 scouts scummed to a flamer, leaving 1! BLAST! Now, on the far side of the board a rhino with a unit of marines who last turn got out and didn't really do anything. Well they can do something this turn... get charged by a unit of plaguebearers! The combat ended with me winning by 1 but as all good marines do... they stuck around!
Another quick turn for 5 with the raptor flying off the board and the Centurions and Land Raiders killing some cultists with an unbelievable amount of fire power and the rest, well, I don't think they were really chaosy, just wanting a change! Well, they ran off! DAMN YOU CULTISTS! This put the game massively in the balance, more so than it had been over the previous 4 turns. I had to get something out of this turn and hope the game ends! With no raptor on the board I would get the kill point for that and if I can knock off the remaining scout, landspeeder and Drop Pod I would be in a good position had the reached a climax. I did manage to get rid of the scout, landspeeder and even pop a HP on the dreadnought! With the firepower, I bring the drop pod down too! But as I've said, it should have been smashed in the 1st turn and I wouldn't be in this shit as much as I am!
Does the game end?! Fuzzy Duck...
We carry on! Turn 6 and 7 were very much a mop up for Nath. The raptor made sure the last few CSMs which were not in the rhino/Lord's squad got killed. The Land Raider killed the Plaugebearers and Herald of Nurgle, when they should have been ducking for cover! The plaguebearers in combat got rid of the marines and the rhino became glanced to death by the unit of marines with a lord.
The dreadnaught managed to cause 7 wounds on the Heldrake and as much as I like to roll dice to piss people off, I couldn't keep him on the board! My 7th turn ended with me not really doing a lot! I couldn't kill anything, so the game ended.
Totaling up the points it came out as a 12-11 win to Nath!
It was an extremely good game. I would venture to say it's one of my top 3 games of all time! Every turn, the game hung in the balance with the lead almost always changing! Looking back, I would put a unit of spawn in and pop the lord on a bike! I'm working on another list at the moment which includes a different allied detachment and a slight change of the list dynamic to involve a full surge across the board!
I think if the game was anything other than Purge, I might have nicked a win with Herald's ability to use the portagliph to spawn troops. As it was, it proved an exciting game to play and a great introduction of my Chaos to our regular scene! I want to be able to create a list which will compete and be able to deal with everything but still have a punch about it! Nearly there I'd imagine, just a few more tweaks to make! As for Nath's list, well it's got everything! Like I said earlier, I'd look to put the Rhino and Land Raider up earlier and boost both in the first turn or get the cents out and deal damage early. I would also put the LR in the centre of the board instead of the flank but that's something to learn from! Would I have played in differently? Not really. I think I could have ignored the 10 marines in the drop pod with a few units and moved forward taking board control but as it happened, it worked out quite well with everything dropping piecemeal at the back! I'm sure that next time we're going to have another close affair, with both lists being tweaked after this! He has mentioned getting on the Throne of Skulls tournament in October which will be a good experience! I actually think his list would be good in an independent tournament like DoG or BB!
So that was that... A terrific game which provided a lot to think about! Meanwhile, other games were taking place and Nige faced Luke with a Corsair vs. Daemon thing going on! Now, there are some really nasty lists and combos going on for both! It was Luke's 2nd game of 40k and to be fair by the looks of it, it was a really good game. There have been some things to think about for Luke...like not put his mini screamer council out in the open when he doesn't have 1st turn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But that's a learning curve and something which will come in time!
Nathan picked up his 2nd win! Again, both lists used are good solid starts to lists and Stuart, with practice, will have a great list which will provide a threat to everything!
I have missed someone out...Well, I've missed 4 people out actually! 1. @Slaaneshfiend, Ade and @Petehumpage who didn't participate in the games this evening and just watched. 2. Rich @deathbyblowpipe who had his intro game of 40k!
I'm proud to say I had the honor of playing him in his first game! Now, Pete said - pick 750 points, use the force org chart but pick something you like the look of. What did he like the look of? Lysander... shit! So, I've got my CSM and I've picked a fairly straightforward list: Lord on a bike, 5 spawn, mauler, 2x8 marines with 2 rhinos. Something nice and easy! He on the other hand... Lysander, 5 termies w/ TH/SS, Scouts, dreadnaught! Nice... :-/
No mission, just kick the shit out of anything that moved! Believe me... he kicked the shit out of EVERYTHING that moved!!! Maluerfiend - gone! Rhinos - gone! Lord - gone! Spawn - gone! Can you see how this is going!!!
He did beat me but I was really happy to give him a game and introduce him to the wonderful fluffy world of 40k!
I did get to play on my Bendy Board (@bendyboards) though! So that was a bonus! Just the right size for 750pts!
You might not realize it, but this blog has taken me around 3 hours to write. In that time, Nath has put up pics on his Flickr account of the battle last night: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sonofdorn87/13009960814/
Thank you very much for reading. Hope you've enjoyed it!
I'll see you soon!
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