A Few Games

Yep, been a bit remiss on getting to the blog.  The Thanksgiving holiday will do that to you.

I wanted to throw a few quick pics of a couple of 1850 games Anthony came up to my place a  couple Saturdays ago.  We wanted to get some painting done, but we also tossed down to relatively quick games.

Anthony wanted to try his BA out and I figured I give two different 'style' opponents by breaking out my Tau and my Orks.

Anthony used his similar list from the previous week with heavy borrowing from my Templar.

Meph

7 Termies th/ss

Libby Dread Shield and Lance

2 Priests with Combi Meltas and PWs

10 Assault w/ JP, 2 Melta

10 Assault w/ JP, 2 Melta

10 Assault w/ JP, 2 Melta
Storm Raven

First I brought out my Tau.

Shas'El MP/Plasma, MT

3x Crisis MP/Plasma, MT

3x Crisis MP/Plasma, MT

10 Kroot, 7 Hounds
10 Kroot, 7 Hounds
6 Firewarriors
8 Pathfinders, Devilfish, SMS, MT, TA, DP
2x Piranha, 2x Fusion, 2x TA, 1x DP, 1x TL, 1 Seeker
2x Piranha, 2x Fusion, 2x TA, 1x DP, 1x TL, 1 Seeker
Hammerhead, Railgun, SMS, DP, TL MT

Hammerhead, Railgun, SMS, DP, TL MT

2 Broadsides w/ A.S.S., 1 Team Leader with Target Lock, HWMT, 2x Shield Drones

 

We played on Anthony's game board with jsut a few extra bits of terrain.

We rolled multiple objectives and they were put about.  I think I got to chose to go second.  He put everything to DoA, Deep Strike, or reserve themselves on the table.

I set up trying to bubble wrap as much as possible. 

In retrospect it may have been better to just take a corner, but I don't know it would have mattered much.

His turn 2 and I think he got 2 combat squads and 2 combat squads with the priests and his Stormraven which had Meph and the Libby Dread.  One squad with a priest landed on my guys but were just put in reserve.

I think he ended up killing both pirahna and maybe a kroot or two.

My turn I try to lay down some firepower.  Even with pathfinder hits I think all I manage is a immobilize on his storm raven.  I think I kill his one far combat squad with focus fire that was out of range of the priest.

The next turn I think he gets about everything but his termies.  I think again one squad landed off and went back into reserve.

This turn is just ugly for me.  He pops my hammerhead, routes one crisis team, and is mowing through my kroot even though they stick in combat.

I think we play a turn 3.  I just see if I can do anything, and I think it is unimpressive.  Maybe I shoot down his one squad with the priest but I don't think I even manage that much. 

His turn and he gets that last combat squad and they stick.  He does some shooting kiling more.  Meph is on my lines.  We call it a game.

I knew that would be an uphill battle but man I didn't know how uphill.  I don't know if I had just turtled if it would have been better.  Or maybe given the choice go second but stay in reserve, but then risk coming in piecmeal.  Unlike my drop pods the BA jumper list is pretty mobile, so they are able to catch a lot of armies out there.

Next up we pulled out my orks.  I ran my normal 1850 list.  We rolled corner deployment and single objective.  We both placed our objectives deep and I was up first.

Here is my deployment.

The only thing Anthony did different this time is only combat squad one Assault squad.

This is after two turns of movement.

This time he landed 2 combat squads, 1 10 man squad with priest, and his termies.  One combat squad shoots at the Kans and one explodes.  His other two Assault units route the lootas.  His termies deviate deep into my corner.

On my turn the Lootas keep running.

Run away!

His one 5 man squad is creamed and I try to lay down some fire on his termies.  I may have killed one.

I don't really have a fantastic recollection of the next turn or so.  I know I immobilized my own BW in terrain which sucked and I had to hussle boyz in and out to get going back to my rear objective.
Turn 4 his Storm Raven finally comes in and deploy Meph and the Dread.

If I recall the ard boyz were stuck in with his assault squad for my turn 5, and then his termies charged and killed a lot but we were all stuck in there.  Or maybe Ghaz came out and killed some I don't recall.  I just know the Manz were cowering in the wagon.

On the other side of the field my large boy squad was being whittled down by his dread on his objeictve.

The game ended on 5 with a draw since we were contesting on both objectives.  Shocking I know as it seems the two objecrtive game ends in draws more often than not.

I found my self really out of position with Ghaz since I wanted to leave him open for Meph.  I should have probably just gone all out for his objective and hoped things could 'hang' on mine but oh well.

Fun games, and more good practice for the both of us.

I Have Been 'Hobbying' Also

So a lot of battle reports have gone up which is all well and good.  However that's not to say I haven't been working on the 'hobby' side with painting and assembly.

Before the tournament I had contemplated running my pods for 1850.  I've kind of reworked the list a bit and I had planned on using my 7th pod which needed painting.

New Pod on the left.  Yay, they match!

This last week was time to work on Chaos.  I haven't been much motivated to paint, but I did want to get some modeling done.

So the bulk of this week was assembling the CSM squad I picked up this last weekend.

I'm not entirely sure how I want to run this squad so I made sure to magnet the Champ (I'm not sold on his usefulness) and the Icon.  I'm going to glue the meltas down as I think they are just the way to go on the squad, but they and the bolters are not glued until I can get to paint on these guys some day.

I've mentioned this earlier that I wanted to swap my oblits for 'Terminator Sorcerer' type Oblits.  So actually two weeks ago I got 3 Lord models and worked on them.

The only tricky part was I wanted them to have Power Fists and the staff, and those are both the left hand.  So I decided to use the fists as they were and cut up thunder hammers and the staff and put them together.  A little pinning and I was good to go.

I already had two thunder hammers I had bought for old crappy metal termies I was never going to use so I pulled those off.  As I needed a 3rd I just went on ebay and bought a whole regular space marine terminator with TH/SS.

Now with the extra bits from that purchase as well as extra combi meltas from the Lords I could flush out my terminators from a unit of 5 to 2 units of 3.

Of course everything is using magnets so I've got all kinds of flexibility.

I'm hoping this weekend I can bust out the air compressor and get a base coat on all of that.  I'm a bit behind on my paint schedule I had laid out for myself several weeks ago.

Of course that's about to be made much worse...

"WHAT THE HELL" I hear you saying.  "Another army?  Are you daft man?"

So slow down, turbo, and let me explain.  What you are looking at is all 'not purchased' stuff.

The 10 guys on the right in crappy black paint (on the white plastic card as it turns out) are Templar Jump Assault guys and such that I've never used or repainted that I got in an ebay lot years ago.

All the rest is my brother-in-laws BA army that has been sitting in a box more or less doing nothing.

What you've basically got there is the making of a 1850-2000 point Descent of Angels Army.

What it needs is Bits.  And love.  And painting (maybe that falls under love).

Of course I know I wont stop there either, but that plenty enough excuse for me to get going.  It's also my way around telling my wife that I have yet another army because, well, its not mine.  I'm just borrowing it. :)

I figure this will be a good chance to try out the Army Painter colored primers and quick shade.  So I'll be doing some testing with that, as well as stripping paint off of these models.  I'll start with the ones my bro hasn't painted just to make sure he's cool with the new paint job.

So ya, 1ksons might be waiting for more paint for some time... DOH!

11/13 Bonus Game!

Ah, and you thought I was done with battle reports from last Sat but, no, there is more.

As the clock wound down about 6:10 there was a gent named David who had hung out all day who had drove down from Benicia who wasn't able to play because of space.  Since my wife was out with the girls and the kiddo was staying at the grandparents why not squeeze in just one more game.  :)

David had his Eldar and was thankful for a game.  I think he was just happy to play, even if he was kind of 'trying out' some things in his list and was going to play an ork army that just won 3 games.  But games are games and practice is practice.

David's list looked something like this:

Farseer

Fire Dragons in Wave Serp

Dire Avengers in Wave Serp

Jetbike Gaurdians with Aultrach

2 Vyper squad

Swooping Hawks

Shining Spears

3 War Walkers

Fire Prism

Now as things would have worked out Fantasy took over for the night and had claimed the other tables, so I once again got the same city table which is kind of a shame.  We did move around the terrain a bit now and also (now that we've been informed how the store normally plays) called 'just the buildings' the 4+ cover/difficult terrain.

We rolled multiple objectives (ended up with 3) and corner deployment.

I won set up and chose to go first.  I once again put my 30 sluggas in reserve.

He put his force to walk in on turn 1.

My turn 1 and I advance everything forward.  Shocking I know.

His turn one and everything comes in and tucks behind the building.  If there was any shooting it wasn't anything to right home about.

My turn 2 and the boys come in and I move them and eventually run so that 1/2 the squad is in the ruin on the right flank.  My walkers, buggies, and kans advance under the KFF.  In shooting I think I manage stun on one or both Wave serpants.

His turn 2 and his Wave serpants blast up the left side and his DA and Farseer deploy.  The sentinals move up as does his Fire Prism.  On the top left flank his shining spears are moving up to try to get the BWs and his jetbikes form a wall in front of his Vypers.  His shooting from the guided DA and the Walkers kills about a dozen orks in cover.  Otherwise his shooting is pretty ineffective once again to KFF saves.

Oh and I forgot that his Swooping Hawks came down, dropped gernades and flew away.  That helped kill a few of those boys too.  I didn't think Hawks could leave the same turn, but didn't want to slow the game down either.

My turn 3 and I call the waagh.  This puts my up with his DA and farseer,  and that goes badly for him as I wipe the DA to a man, and farseer runs and gets away.  Sadly my consolidate is a 1, so no moving back into the safety of cover for me!

On the other side of the table my wagons again advance.  I think I death or gloried his shinging spears, or maybe I looted them but several died.  I decide to keep the Manz and the KFF mek in their respective  wagons and just go after his bikes with Ghaz and the Ard Boyz.  I can't quite get to the Vypers but such is life.  He kills a few Ard Boyz, the Ard boyz kill a few bikes and as it turns out they lose the guys that Ghaz was in base to base with so he doesn't get to swing and Krump.  Drat!

Now it's his turn 3.  I think his shooting is again pretty dismal.  I think he shakes the BWs.  He also deploys his Fire Dragon out to shoot at my Kans.  I think they end up killing one.  The good news is his shooting from the Guided walkers and I think his Swooping Hawks blast kills off the last of my 30 boys.  In combat Ghaz and co kill more getbikes.

My turn 4.  My lootas can't seem to but shake his fire prisms.  So I send over my BW to try to deathrolla the wave serpant and it makes its dodge.  I think the other one I might have immobilized.  The top buggie I think kills a shining spear.  Ghaz and co kill down to the last gaurdian (maybe the sarg) and he still sticks around.  The 2 kans assault the fire dragons and manage to survive the gernades and are able to actually wipe them out (I might have actually run them down!) and they advance forward a bit.

Its very hard to see but you can just see the base of the second Kan behind the Serp.

His turn 4 and his Swooping Hawks come down and blast my lootas but they stick around.  During his turn I look online and think I see a 'they can't leave the same turn' and mention it and he says oops I'll leave em down as I need them here anyway now.  No prob on my end.  His stunned wave serpant blast northward.  His Fireprism also shoots, think it whiffed.  His guided walkers shake/stun a bunch on my Kans but do manage to kill one.  I'm not sure what happened to his shining spears.  Either they were around or dead, dunno.  His last bike does die.

My turn 5 and I move my wagon with the Manz over to the top left objective.  I deffrolla the wave serpant, it manages to not dodge but is only stunned.  My buggie isn't able to help either, but one squad of lootas finally bring it down in a wreck.  The other lootas manage a stun on the Fire prism.  My shootas take some pot shots at his Swooping Hawks and I think kill 2 but they stick around.  Ghaz and the last ard boyz cream the vypers, and the explosion kills more boyz.  The las Kan is able to assault the immobilized serp and brings it explodes.

His turn 5 and he's got not much left to do.  The stunned FP blasts up to hope to get into contesting range at best next turn.  His Swooping Hawks move up and are contesting with my Wagon of Manz but there gernades can't get the fast moved Wagon.  His sentinals destroy my Kan.

At the bottom of 5 here's what it looks like.

There are Swooping Hawks contesting my wagon, they're just hidden behind it.

He roll and there's a turn 6.  Ghaz and co try to close in with his walkers and farseers.  I shoot his Swooping Hawks dead, and blow up his fireprism.

All he's got left his walkers and the farseer and the war walkers so the game is mine.  But for the sake of argument his war walkers blast the hell out of the last of the ard boyz.  Then his farseer charges Ghaz for epic confrontation.

He mind wars ghaz and manages to wound him.  Ghaz only lands two wounds and he makes 2 4+ saves.

I do a bit of shooting at he Walker quickly and only kill 1.  He mind wars again and this time 3 wounds, but I make 1 Invul.  Angered Ghaz then pops the farseer.

We roll to see if there was a turn 7 but nope, game ends.

David was thankful for the game, but the speed at which I was able to get to him with the wagons, opened topped, Ghaz's Waagh caught him off guard.  He thought his bikes were safe, and once they and his DA got into combat on turn 3 he knew winning was over since he only had two troops.  At that point it became about going for the tie, but with the two lootas squads I just still have a good amount of firepower.  Especially when you really want lots of str 7 shots on those Serps to try to put them down for good.

A fun game to close the night out for sure.  Of course when I got home I looked up the whole Swooping Hawks thing and DOH yes it is in the Faq that they can come down and leave every turn.  So my bad David, good thing we did it ok the first two turns! :)

11/13 Game 3

So on to Game 3.  It was a great game and very tough, so I didn't get nearly as many pictures as I wish I had.  That also means I'm not going to have as detailed a report sadly.

I was up against pretty much the typical 'leafblower' build that's creamed his last two opponents.  I can't remember his name now (sorry) but the list was built as followed more or less.

Inquisitor w/ Mystics
Vets in Chim
Vets in Chim
Vets in Chim
Vets in Chim
Vets
Vets
Vendetta
Vendetta
Vendetta
2 Medusa in Squad
Manticore
Manticore

What I had going for me was this was Dow with mulitple objectives.  That meant avoiding the vendettas taking side shots after their scout move forward.  We also (for better or worse) were on the same table I had just played.

Bonus for me was I went first also!  I chose to put out my 30 sluggas and 20 shootas up in front.  I figured this would push him back and help me speed up closing with him.

He chose to put everything in to walk turn 1 and outflanks with his Vendettas.

I moved forward with the shootas and the boyz just kind of kept their conga line.  My BWs advance down the narrow paths with the kans nearby.  The buggies are on my right flanks.  I move the Lootas into cover in each corner.

His turn 1 everything comes in and turtles in the corner opposite my wagons.  I dont' remember if there was much shooting but I think not, or if it was it was ineffective.

My turn 2 I advance some more.  I think the right most lootas may have popped a chim or maybe just immoblilized it.  The Shotas are able to assualt also and I think the wreck one chim and immobilize another.

On his turn two his inquis in a vendetta comes out and he gets his choice.  He goes for side shots on Ghaz's wagon, but I make my saves.

He's also now dropping his miss Medusa's and Storm Eagles around but not much happens with my cover saves being hot also.

My turn 3 the wagons and Kans advance.  I think my lootas manage a shake on his Vendetta.  On the right the shoota boyz tangle with a squad in the open I think and wipe them.  My other lootas maybe stun a chim (or maybe that was the buggies).

His turn 3 and his other Vendetta comes in and must come in on the right flank.

I think he shot a buggie and immobilized it.  I think he laid a ton of shots into my shootas and they now break but don't go too far at all.  I also think one of his chims immobilized in the back field this turn.

My turn 4 the wagons are still doing the best they can to advance.  The Lootas on my right fail to do anything to his vendetta.  The lootas on my right shake and destroy all the lascannons on the vendetta behind them.  My shootas continue to flee but go not far again (I think they've gone a total of about 5 inches).  I think my buggies do wreck the chim in front of them.  I don't feel like I'm killing a lot but I feel in good position.

His turn 4 and his last Vendetta comes in my right flank.  He tucks right in the corner and shoots my ard boyz wagon and it explodes.  His other vendetta on the right flank  is also able to now shoot Ghaz's wagon and it wrecks.  More blasts whittle away at the ard boyz but cover saves are still doing well for me.  I think he's got another chim immobilized on the right but some guys from the top shoot out and destroy the rokkit on my immobilized buggie.  His vets on the right corner deploy and shoot horribly at the lootas, while his weaponless bird moves a bit.  He also takes his vets out of the chim I popped and puts a screen between Ghaz and the heavy support.

Turn 5 and things are tight now.  We've got about 20 mintues left.  I know I have to use the waagh and send ghaz into his Vet screen and cream them.  The Ard boyz continue to move and are sitting on an objective.  My shootas flee a very small amount again.  My remaining buggie tries to shoot at his stunned/weaponless bird but fails to do anything.

That's the first picture you can really see the full castle/turtle of his vehicles.

On my left  I turn the Kans around to shoot at his Vendetta behind my Lootas and they manage to immobilize it.  The lootas stun his other vendetta and it is simply shaken.  I've got a conga line with my 30 sluggas that is enough to claim 3 objectives. 

His turn 5.  His stunned vendetta moves up but is out of reach of contesting one objective.  His bird behind the lootas shootas at the lootas as does his squad, and I think he kills two.  His weaponless Vendetta blasts up to contest the central objective.

Now about this point the tourny organizer comes up and says (more or less) 'well its about 6 (the time to stop), but since you're play for first just keep going.'  Hrm... ok.  That's kind of not normal but... eh ok.  I'm just playing for fun.  But wow that means I have to start thinking about PAST this turn.  Well crap.  I start to panic.

His guys that got out of their chim on the right moved horribly through cover but shot at my weaponless buggie and kill it.  His other squad behind my lines and route it off.  He lays the last of his firepower between the manz/Ghaz and the ard boyz.  They take a pounding and I lose all my Manz and all but 4 ard boyz.  The ard boyz route and Ghaz is left standing.

Now if you take notice I've totally ballsed it up.  One of two things has happened and I just don't remember.
1) Either I had to call the waagh in his turn 4 for fear of being pinned with Ghaz.
2) I've totally forgotten my guys were fearless in the bottom of 5 and two very important squads shouldn't have routed.

I have a feeling it is the first one.  I'm pretty sure me forgetting about being fearless would have been totally rookie.  Of course looking back being afraid of Ghaz being pinned over what COULD have made my orks stick for this turn seems a risk worth taking.

EITHER WAY the 'ard boyz route a bit.  Its the end of 5.  I've got the 30 boys spread between the two objectives closest to my zone, and middle is being contested.

 

I roll for turn 6 even though its now 5 mintues past 'dice down' and ... the game ends!

Now had the game gone on what would have happened.  I would have done my damndest to down those two bids that moved flat out.  I've got 7 Lootas, Kans (that might possibly make assault), 3 rokkits and a rokkit buggie.  Could I down them both?  Maybe, but probably not.  Maybe one.

I'd probably have to give up on the right most objective.  I'd hope my ard boyz and shootas were 'routing' to basically contest.  I don't know if he could kill both squads and my two routing units with his vets on the ground.  Ghaz would have made mince meat out of his Medusa squad.  His Manticores should now be out of missiles.  His other squad of vets would have to move through cover and run nearly 11-12 to take the north right objective.  His guys behind my lootas would need to charge my lootas in cover with a big roll, and then wipe them, and get a huge roll to move up to contest the left objective.

So what am I saying?  Well it could have been anyones game on turn 6.  Turn 7 I might have been able to clear things up, or he might be able to assault me off objectives, but we'll never know.  All I know was in this game more than any other did I really miss Snikrot.  He would have sucked all the rest of my games, but I still wonder if I should find a place for him in my 1850 list (maybe instead of kans?).

We talked briefly as we packed.  He mentioned I made a ton of cover saves which I indeed did (again).  I do wonder if he had managed to pop the wagons earlier if that would have just made me hunker down on that that top left objective more, and how much the game results would have really differed.

Either way definitely one of the toughest games I've ever played and come out on top.  For my victory I get a $50 game card which I didn't really have something pressing to get so I figured...

... why not?  Having a squad of CSMs gives me some options, and I seem to always need more Boltgun metal and Chaos black.  I think they put something in there to dry them out super fast. :)

It was a fun group of guys and nice tables.  It took the sting out of the weekends before and with two to Game shop 1st places I feel like my orks can still hold there own.

11/13 Game 2

On to Game 2 from Saturday's event.

Here I got to play Cameron (boy I think his name was Cameron) and his Black Templar!
It looked something like this:
Emp Champ, AACNMTO
5 Terminators, 3 Claw, 2 Th/SS in LRC
10 Troops in Rhino
10 Troops in Rhino
5 Assault Marines with various weapons and shileds
Speeder MM/HF (those are the dragons in the pics)
Vindi w/ Potms
Vindi w/ Potms

The mission was single objective each and corner deployement.

He won the roll off and set up as such.

I then set up as such, leaving my 30 man squad in reserve.

Turn 1 he advanced up.  One rhino was tucking around a building, but everything else smoked.

My turn 1 I wedged around a bit.  We had called the WHOLE base of those building terrain.  I much later found out the store plays 'jut the building' as terrain.  So that made things awfully tight for me.  My lootas just shoot the close rhino and pop it and the marines sill out.  I think my buggies also stun his right most vindi.

On his turn 2 he moves up with his left rhino, his squad advances, as does his central vindi, speeders and LR.  I think his Vindi kill a bit of Lootas but not enough for a route check.  My vehicles survive a ton of fire power thanks to KFF.  However his assault lads have Melta Bombs and they are able to down the Meks wagon and the explosion kills 5 Ard boyz.

My mek left the ard boyz and jumped in Ghaz's wagon which moved up a bit.  We're basically both not wanting to send out the Ard stuff from the transport.  In my turn the left most lootas pop his rhino.  The other lootas shoot the marins and kill 1 or 2.  The Kans try to shoot at the the speeder on the building and stunned it.  My buggies were able to weapon destroy and immobilize his right most vindi.  His marines I had shot managed to fail a LD check for righteous zeal and fell back just a bit.  My 'Ard boyz assault and cream his jump pack lads.

On his turn 3 he inches his LR and Vindi up.  Both squad advance as much as they can, but they are well out of assault range.  His other speeder moves up to try to kill the wagon but fails.  His vindi scatter, his LRC doesn't do much.  In all the turn is really uneventful.

My turn 3 is much better.  My 30 boyz come in and they start up the right flank to move to the objective.  My ard boyz start moving to the left just in case they need to shore up the shoota boyz on my objective.  I tank shock the LRC and wreck it and his mob of death gets out to the right (less one TH that dies in the .  Ghaz gets out on the right hand side, the Manz to the left.  The buggies move up the right to deal with his useless Vindi.

On my shooting the Lootas on the left shoot his advancing sqaud and kill a few, the zeal up a few inches.  The lootas on the right immobilize his Vindi.  The Kans down the speeder that is in between Ghaz and the Termies/Champ and he manages to lose one TH/SS in the explosion.  The buggies fail to hit the near dead Vindi.  I call the Waagh.  The Manz are on top of the 2nd crusader squad, and Ghaz is all over his termies.  The ard boyz use the waagh to continue moving toward my shootas.  The 30 boyz are able to move up more.  The Manz assault the crusaders and cream a ton and lose one, the remaining marines die to fearless saves.   Ghaz wades into the termies and champ...

And nothing wounds him and he kills all the termies.  The champ takes one fearless wound.

His turn 4 and things are looking way uphill for him.  His last crusader squad is able to move up and assault my lootas and route them.  His Vindicator also pops my BW which makes the KFF mek hop out.  His last speeder flies down behind my big ole mob of boys and flames like 8 of them down.  In combat the EC again fails to wound Ghaz and Ghaz takes him down.

   

At this point he is ready to call it a game.  On the left hes got 6 or so crusaders that only have the option to go after my shootas, but I've got around of shooting at him with the shootas and the lootas.  Plus I've got ard boyz that will also be moving to be very close to the objective on my turn.  My Manz can probably advance on his Vindi, ghaz may be out of reach.  The kanz will turn around to try to shoot the speeder and my boyz will advance to his objective and try to kill his vindi with glances.  It would really be a rough turn.

Plus there's plenty of time for turn 5 or more.

So the game is called and we chat about tactics for BT and the like and lament how uber SW and BA are and it's off to game 3!

1850 Tournament 11/13 Game 1

So as it turns out my wife had plans Sat my inlaws wanted to watch the kiddo so I was free to go up to a LGS in Concord for an 1850 event.  I'd never been up that way but my last opponent from the previous weekend had said 'its fun, come up' and since things on the home front almost miraculously worked out I figured why not. 

I got to the store about 20 minutes early and found out they only have 6 tables so only 12 spaces and I was number 8.  I think 2 people had to be turned away which kind of sucks.  The store looks to have the terrain and the fold out tables, just not the 6x4 boards.  I think they could squeeze another table or two in the game space, but it would certainly be tight.

The guys playing that I met (and re-met from the week before) were also nice and easy going guys.  I'd say it is a bit younger than Game Kastle as I would guess most of the guys are in their early 20s, but who knows and it isn't important to me.

I want to say there were 3 Gaurd players, 1 BA, 1 BT, 1 SW, 1 Tau, 1 DE, 2 CSM, and one other marine I didn't identify along with my orks.

The missions were all 'by the book' but had 2 'bonus' points that I was told were simply for tie breakers.
-Did 1/2 your troop choices survive.
-Did you make it to turn 5.

I guess with a smaller group they run into ties and these just become a way to discourage slow play and make simple delineations for ties.

The boards they had all looked good with a good amount of terrain with nice variety between tables.

Game 1: Michael's BA List
Meph
Honor Gaurd with Stuff :)
Furioso Dread
4x 10 man Assault Squad, 2 Melta, Fist in Rhinos
Storm Raven

The game was killpoints and long table edge deployment.  He set up to go first with his Dread and HG in the Stormraven and Meph tucked behind a LR.

He blasted up on turn 1.

On my turn 1 the Lootas Destroyed the Stormraven, and my BWs wrecked two rhinos.

On his turn 2 Meph and one squad shoot  my BW with Ghaz.  They only manage a weapon destroyed and a shaken or two.  I believe his Dread assaulted and wiffed, and another squad shot my Meks BW and managed and immobilized.  On the other side his 3 assault squad shot my kans and killed one, then charged them.

He actually proceeded to wreck Ghaz's wagon in CC, the  Meks BW explodes (killing 5 Ard Boyz) and killed one Kan.

My turn 2 I split Ghaz off and move him through the wreck just fine, and the Manz pull left to assault his squad.  The buggies move around left to shoot at his rear rhinos.  I think my Lootas and buggies tried to lighten up his assault squad a bit.  My shootas moved left to assault his squad that had my Kan tied up, and my sluggas moved up to try to waagh up to his rhino on the top right and assist the shootas.

The Manz cleared out his Troops and I think lost one guy.  Ghaz and Meph I think traded one wound each.  The Ard boyz cleared out his other assault squad, and my other assault on the righ cleared out his guys and popped his rhino holding his last Assault squad.

On his turn 3 his Honor Gaurd moved up to my Manz and cleared them easily.  His Dread was able to route my Ard boyz, and his last Assault squad charge my big boyz squad (he put them up on the ledge there in the right for ease, but they are all in base to base) and wounds are traded.

On my turn 3 I shot a few honor Gaurd dead but they stuck, I had killed his 4th rhino, and my routing Ard boyz had not gone far.  My Kans managed to immobilize his dread and the lootas I think killed the melta off it.  In combat with his last assault squad more wounds are traded.  At this point I think Ghaz and Meph are still drawn at like 2 Ws each.

At top of four  Michael is ready to call it.  His Dread is near useless and soon to be very dead to lootas + Kan fire over the next few turns.  His Assault with his last squad is not likely to overcome my large squad of boyz, and I have Shootas that are going to charge in on my turn.  His Sang gaurd could indeed manage to kill the lootas, but then they too will be open to be shot.  We decide the only thing worth rolling is the battle with Meph/Ghaz and indeed he manages to kill Ghaz.

Still I had killed his 4 troops and 4 rhinos and Storm Raven.  He had killed Ghaz, Ardboyz, 2 BW and Manz.  Like I said he probably would have killed my Lootas with the HG (or he could go for the buggies but why), and Meph running around could have netted more, but his Dread and assault squad were as good as dead, the honor gaurd was likely going to die also, and Meph w/ 2 wounds was the only questionable thing left on the table.

We had about 20 minutes left but were told we would only have a 20 or so minute lunch.  I offered to play it out as it would have gone fast at that point.  However Michael conceded that his chances were slim and lunch was good so we called it a win for orks.

Next up: Black Templar!

Friday 11/12 Games

So another Friday with a few practice games.  This time I brought my 1ksons out for some 2k battles.

DP, Wings, Warptime
3 Termies, 3 Combi Melta, 1 Fist
3 Termies, 3 Combi Melta, 1 Fist
9 Thousand Sons, Icon, Warptime, MB, Rhino
9 Thousand Sons, Icon, Warptime, MB, Rhino
10 CSM, 2x Plasma, Champ w/CombiPlasma, Icon Glory, Rhino
3 Oblits
Auto/Las Pred
Auto/Las Pred

Anthony decided to try another BA list.  It looked something like:
Termie Libby
5 TH/SS Termies
Furioso Dread
2 Jump Pack Sang Priest w/ PW
10 Jump Pack Assault, 2 Melta, Fist
10 Jump Pack Assault, 2 Melta, Fist
10 Jump Pack Assault, 2 Melta, Fist
5 Vanguard Vets w/ Different Weapons (Claws, SS, etc)
Storm Raven

We decided to take a wild crack at the missions book which we never use.  The mission we pulled just happen to be for Marines so we decided Anthony would fittingly get the Marine role.  It was a surpise attack where I could set up anywhere 12" away from the edge, and he could come in anywhere.  Marines always go first.  So ok at this point I'm going "ok interesting, let's see how this goes."  The mission is basically modified kill points (3 for HQ, 1 Troops/Trans, 2 everything else), which I have way more than Anthony.

BUT WAIT now we get our special rules for the mission.
I get Stubborn and Move Through cover.  Hrm, not so great for me.  First my 4 of my troops are fearless so Stubborn is near useless, and 3 of my units are slow and purposeful.  So ya a few benefits but more or less trash.
Anthony gets the ability to DS on turn 1 (lovely with all those JPs).

I do my best to play defensively but there's not a lot I can do other than bunker down.  I can't get shit for saves on my vehicles and I don't even have a chance to steal turn 1 in this mission so it's just a grin and bear it situation.

Anthony Deepstikes with one squad, walks 2 on the table, flanks with the Storm Raven and deploys termie deaht and Dread.  He keeps is Vangaurd in reserve.

The net result of that first onslaught was every rhino popped and both preds stunned/immobilized/can't shoot type results.

I'm missing a lot of pictures between the last and the next one but here's kinda what happened.  My oblits obliterated his deep strike sqaud.  Between bolters and horrors I was eventually able to kill all his troops, but not before lososing my oblits.  His termies killed my CSM but lost 1 to Plasma and the Libby died also.  My preds died.  His Vangaurd scattered and couldn't attack out of the stike, so my Prince assaulted into cover and with warptime up he just creamed them.

That just about brings us to this picture.

I've lost 3 rhinos, 1 CM squad, 2 Preds and Oblits to give up 10 kill points.
Anthony's lost his libby, 2 Sang Priests, 3 Assault Squads and his VV.  Since there is no BA faq its unknown how the Sang Priests work for KP so it was either 10 or 12.

I had one CSM squad that is tucked behind his Storm Raven and thanks to the 'MeltaLolz' rule they were unable to do anything to the Strom Raven so that sucked.  I probably should have just gone for the smoked dread.  His Storm Raven finally smoked my prince and his dread killed my termies.

His Termies had loaded up and moved away and I again DS termies to try to shoot.  Why not the dread I don't know.  More 'MeltaLolz' for fail, and I tried to assault with Daemons just to try to gain ground.

That's basically turn 5 end I think.  He's picked up 5 more KP so I've lost another 5 KP and am never going to kill his Storm Raven or dread at this point.  So 10/12- 15 depending on the ruling for Priests.  I think generaly concesses is they are each a KP since they are ICs, unlike Wolf Gaurd, who are just ultra bad ass dudes that are seargant-like in units.

It was uphill all the way for me, but I thought I gave it a good go.

Next up was Liam's mech sisters.  I couldn't really tell you his list other than to say I think vehicle wise I'm looking at 4 Rhinos, 4 Immolaters, and 3 Exorcists.  That's a lot of mech for my 'not great at killing mech' army.

We decided to burn the mission book, and rolled normal Spearhead and single objective.

He won roll off and set up first.  I set up with my DP behind rhinos as well as the oblits behind a rhino but next to area terrain.  I left my Preds in reserve figuring better to have them come for flanking action.

His turn one he advanced up, popped a ton of smoke on a wall of steel, immobilized one rhino and immobilitzed/stunned another with Exorcist fire.

On my turn my DP advanced, my one mobile rhino blasted forward, my oblits took cover and Lascannoned one exorcist.

His turn 2 he swung around my left flank with vehicles and brought a forth rhino around the right of the building.  He unloaded everything he had into my DP, and it took it all to bring him down. 

On my turn 2 I got one squad of horrors, 1 Termicide squad, and one Pred.  The pred cam in on the far corner and fired one lascanon to side shot kill his exorcist.  My termies came down and popped one ecorcist.  My thousand sons got out and shot up some girls but failed the 3 inches needed for assault.  My horrors were able to assault two smaller girl squads and did pretty well.

On his turn 3 he turned his last exorcist to deal with my pred and killed one Lascannon.  His left most squad of girls got in the rhino and there was lots of vehicle jockying around.  He shot the crap out of my forward 1ksons group but two lived.  He also popped my two rear rhinos.

On my turn 3 the Plasma CSMs unloaded on his rhino of girls and popped it and charged the girls.  My other terminators cam down to try to work on vehiclesand killed one rhino.  My last daemon squad stayed out.  My small sons squad got in my last rhino and my other 1ksons shot more girls.  I also had a pred come out but it failed to pop his white immolater, while my remaining pred failed to kill his last exorcist.

His turn 4 he shuttle more troops hulls around.  His exorcist popped my one pred, and his white immolater popped the other.  I think my plasma troops finally killed his girls, but a few girls were still keeping the daemons tied up in CC.  He killed my last rhino and shot a few 1ksons.

On my turn 4 my plasma squad immobilized and shook his white immolater.  I think my 1ksons charged a nd killed a girl squad.  Lesser daemons still tied up by one girl.

His turn 5 he shoots what little he has at my forward squad and is just enough to kill them.  He then poors fire into my remaining 1ksons squad and a few (including the icon) live.  He jockies one last immolater over to contest my objective.  The lesser daemons still fail to kill the last girl.

My last daemons come down and charge his rhinos to at least contest the objective but they cause a few glances.  My small sons squad warptime melta bombs a rhino and it explodes leaving only the sorcerer (doh).

Where I kind of screwed up was shot my plasmas at his contesting immolater and they immobilized it.  However that left me out of place as I totally balled up that no assaulting after rapid fire (too used to my slow and purposeful sons).  The lesser daemons finally killed the girl but only got a 1" cosnolidation so they failed my also.  The terminators did come in and thanks to the immobilization were able to pound the immolater to death.

We rolled for turn 6 and came up with an end of game roll.  Had it gone on it would have still been close.  I think I would have held my objective fine, but the longer it went on the more likely he'd clear my 9 lesser daemons and last sorcerer.   Still awfully close and a fun game!