Apocalypse Now

Today at the Club, we had our Apocalypse game, well, it was more of a large 40K but without Force Org rules. Anyhoo I was allied with some Eldar, Vs Ultra Marines, Chaos and Sisters of Battle....I always knew that lot were suspect!. Mike had worked out a scenario with a line of Webway Portals that we could use to teleport between, not that anyone did, and some objectives, and special mission rules for each faction.

My Blood Angels and our Eldar allies began proceedings with a turbo charged race for the river in the middle, where the portals lay. Then an almighty barrage of fire to take out as much as we could.

My classic Whirlwind.. laying down a barrage amongst the Ultramarines

the BA and Eldar speed towards the centre, note the squad of Scouts in the long reeds near the ford.

the other flank saw my Scout bikes, marine atack bikes and speeder squadron rush forward.
the oposition made some maneuvres, taking out one of my predators, and a few other shooting moves, but most significantly launched a drop pod right on my Devastator Squad position, near one of the objectives

this put the cat amongst the pidgeons as you might imagine. My Eldar ally assured me he could deal with the problem, so I took my reserve rolls, both arrived, and both on target.

the Storm Raven, complete with Dreadnought and squad of Sternguard. This unloaded it's weapons on the hapless Defiler to it's front, yes all the Bloodstrikes too!

Drop 2 the deepstriking landrader...hoo yah! thanks to the machine spirit, I launched a salvo of Lasgun shots at the Ultramarines landraider before me, 6 to hit. 6 to pen...6 result..BOOM...hoo yah!  Unfortunately, the Terminators AND the plague marines decided to exact revenge and blew it up in turn!

Mike had a few more GM move plays to pep up the action, a liberal scattering of LICTORS around the board...we had one pop up right in the squad where the Drop Pod landed....nice! This left our gallant Captain to single handedly deal with the disgorging Ultramarine Sternguard squad, plus ...oh joy, they brought a librarian! this combat ended with the death of both Heros and the reduction of the squad to 1 marine...the Devestators dealt with thier bug problem with far fewer casualties.
 It was now getting quite late, so we all decided to call it a day. But a great game, enthusing us to try another in coming months.

Close up on Ultramarines position, with Sisters Rhino, and Assasin. Eldar jet bikes advance in the distance.

Roman Vs Celts

More battle reports...you lucky people!
 Last night at the club my old Chum Brian and I set to with Early Imperial Romans Vs Celts using Warhammer Ancient Battles. Brian commanded the Celts, and formed up his two 40 miniature warbands in the centre, with a 24 fig warband of Fanatics to thier left, and skirmishers to the front. on the right flank were 2 squadrons of three light charriots each, and on the right flank a band of 5 Noble Cavalry.

 I as Roman commander elected to take the High ground with 3 cohorts each of 20 minis, to the left a contubernium of  10 Sagitarii (western Archers to you!) and to the right a Scorpion,with my general in the centre rear of the line.
 Brian proceeded with advancing his Noble Cav into a wood on his left table edge, and advancing the Charriots, and Skirmishers forward. He had taken his Warband test, passing all.

We even have spectators for the game, another pal, Barry looks on from the side lines!
In my turn I loosed the Scorpion ( you can hardly "fire" a catapult!) but missed, and loosed some archery at the skirmishers, being as that was the only target presented to me, and missed, predictably. But you have to have a go!. Brian then advanced the Charriots and skirmishers further, throwing javelins, which bounced of my Heavy Armour, I threw some javelins back, and also skewered a few Fanatics with the Scorpion. The Celtic advance continued, and the Noble Cav decided to emerge from the trees, and charge the Scorpion, the crew fled, leaving the Nobles in javelin range of the third Cohort, that thanks to it's Drilled ability promptly moved to face in my turn. On the other Flank, the Chariotry charged the Sagitarii, and as this is WAB 2 they cause fear in infantry, so the Archers promptly fled.

My turn saw more javelin exchanges, and the Noble cavalry being cit to 3 figs from the original 5. The Charriots persued the Archers from the table and chased after them, leaving the table just to the rear of my hill. They faild both turns Ld tests to return, too!
 Brians Warbands were now getting ominusly close, so my Roman General decided taking refuge in the second cohort would be wise. At this point both the Fanatics and the right flank warband threw 1's on the WB test, and promptly charged the Roman line,"at last" I thought. Despite the Fanatics fearsome reputation, Brians dice were abismal, but mine were not, such are the fortunes of war, and the naked Celts showed a not too clean pare of heels, amongst other parts of thier anatomy! The other warband fared not much better, but thanks to thier overwelming numbers could give ground rather than flee. This is one of the new mechanisms in WAB 2 that i like.

Unfortunately it was at this point that we ran out of time, but a good fun game.  I felt I had Brian on the ropes, he of course was of a contrary opinion. I think this calls for a re match.

Host of Angels

Well, as promised my Stormraven has been completed, and I thought it would be nice to show the whole army!

Yes I know some are painted green! This was the first 40K army I painted, and coming from an Historical background as I do, I felt that they would Camo thier vehicles.... yes Herecy...since then I have painted red! I also did a test paint on one of my Predators that was green, and the red paint job wasn't too bad, so I will try to rectify the greenness in future weeks! I also wondered how big this force was so did a little force work out on Army Builder , the fantastic army organisation software from lone Wolf Developement, and this little lot come to over 4000 pts.

In this shot you see my Sanguinor, with the two predators, the one on the right, with autocannon is the one I re painted. Now although I have mostly original marines from Rogue Trader, as things have evolved it has been either not possable to have early minis, or I have simply taken a fancy to a model, or as in the case of the Sanguinor, he just wasn't out then! It is great that my favourite Marine Chapter is being given all this attention from GW though...and I can even field both of my Dreadnoughts if I so wish...note to self must get new dreadnought kit for use as Death Company Dreadnought....

Ah thar she goes! my new Stormraven, tooled up with Typhoon Missile launcher,the 2 shots and either a blast or anti armour capability make it usefull for multiple situations, plus the Huricane Bolters on the side will take care of most infantry squads, A twin linked Assault cannon in the turret, and of course the four Bloodstrike missles under the wings. This loadout will hopefully cover most eventualities,and with my Sternguard and one of my Dreadnoughts on board it is all kitted out to strike deeply into enemy territory and take objectives....nice!

In this shot you will see I even painted the pilot and gunner . This is done by not fixing the canopy to the model but spraying up the model, painting the twu crew, then gluing the clear plastic to the canopies and affixing them to the hull. A word of warning,when I painted the turret, I left it off the main hull but then found that the guns meant you couldn't turn the turret such that the lugs engaged with the slots in the turret ring. I had to carefully remove one of the guns to enable me to get the turret into place.
Still we are all set for the big game this coming Sunday!
 You may be wondering on the Spartans I purchased at the same time as the Stormraven. well they are constructed and undercoated, I will report on them when they are done, but in the mean time there is nothing like an upcoming game to get the figures pumped out!

4 Way 40K

A great club night at the Gladiators last night. And a few of my Orks got thier combat debut's.
 The game was between myself, Orks, Mike- Chaos Beasts, Lee- Marines, and Steve-Marines.
 We each had an objective marker, and another objective in the centre. All HQ's started in the centre, and then we rolled for first turn. I came on first, and made a bee line for the nearest two objectives. There were three in close proximity, so it was obviously going to get hot very quickly.

Lee (green shirt) and Steve (blue Shirt) settle thier differences on one corner of the table . Lee's are the Ultra marines, Steve's the Welsh themed Chapter of his own creation in green white and red.

My Orks come thundering on, lead by the battlewagon, of course. I actualy managed to get the Death Roller in action, as various shots from the imperials bounced off the 14 front armour Yes those Terminators you can see in the distance were the target of rolling orky death!, only managed to get one trapped in the mechanism though, and they then tried to assault it in thier turn. Sorry boy's going too fast, and they missed the to hit roll. Waagh!

Mikes Chaos beasts, and a Demon Prince decide to deep strike in the middle of all this, and the Demon Prince has a go against no less a personage than Marneus Calgar and his retinue. This battle royale slugged out for the rest of the game, meaning my sneaky orks could concentrate on the real business of grabbin' objectives.

My Nobs Wagh charge the nearest Ultramarine Tac squad, but thanks to thier chapter masters presence, the stalwart boys in blue refuse to yield.

The Ultramarines try to tame the Chaos Prince with a Venerable Dreadnought..nah that didn't work!

One good swat and he is for the scrap bin..."for Macragge ...And we shall know no fear!!"

The game ended as we ran out of time. Steves Welsh marines, Mikes Chaos, and my Orks each had an objective firmly in our grasp. Lee managed to contest an objective with my green horde, so a three way draw. Great game!
 We are planning a big Apocalypse game on the all day meet in a couple of weeks time, so look out for another battle report.

Civil War Games

My old Chum Brian came round for a game of Warhammer English Civil War. I had sorted out the two armies into 2700 pt forces, and  as Brian was the guest, asked him to choose his force. He Chose Parliament, which obviously left me with the King!

Parliament's forces, with the London Trained Band in the Red, Greencoat Regiment in the Distance, and Rainbrows Regiment in the Foreground. Near the small hill are a unit of Curassier. Parliament also has a unit of Gallopers, a unit of Trotters, unit of Dragoons, 2 falconnetes, a Saker, and a unit of clubmen with Agitator, and a Master Gunner. Lead by the Earl of Essex, and with Oliver Cromwell as Lord Generall of Horse.

The King's forces, with gerards Regiment to the fore, with The Kings Lifeguard of Foote next to them, and Ruperts Regiment to the rear. In the Distance we see his Majesty with The Royal Standard and the Gentlemen Pensioners. The Royalists also have A Saker, one Falconnete, a Galloper unit, A trotter unit with Carbines, and a trotter unit with Heavy Armour, as well as a unit of Firelocks.
 The Game commences with an artillery fusilade from both sides.

and advances on both flanks. here we see the Carbine armed Trotter Cavalry supporting the Firelock companies advance. Opposing them are the Clubmen, misdirected by the Agitator, who after dithering for a move decides that it is best to move them off the Parliament base line!

Just in time Brian moves an officer to aprehend the seditious fool, and set the club men to better use!
 On the other flank Parliament's cavalry, supported by the Dragoons, blast the Royalist horse from the field, and move rapidly to the flank.

There are frantic maneuverings from Gerards, and Ruperts Regiments to bolster the flank, but Ruperts men falter, and a company of matchlocks flee the field, together with the Saker crew.

Gerrard's regiment are decimated by accurate Parliamentary gunnery. and, out of powder, the Kings troops begin to fall apart and flee.

Brian surveys the final act. Pleased with this days work! The King is Routed and Parliament carries the day.
 A great fun game. We will have to have more of these!

AT 43 giving it large

One of the Systems I enjoy playing is AT 43, from the now defunked Rackham. It was a sad day when Rackham announced it was to call it a day, especially as I have lots of thier minis from 3 factions, Cogs, Therians, and UNA.
 Last Sunday myself and maurice arranged a big game with a few rule ammendments to try for the bigger format. Usually the game is played with one force, and one command, but this game involved over 5000 pts and was split into 3 companies per side. Each army needed to have a rank 5 leader as theforce commander, and other subordinate commanders to lead each company. The force commander would bid for initiative as usual, then would allocate Leadership points between the 3 commands. Each command would then organise the unit order of play activation as usual. Each side would activate a unit from each company, and then the other side would have thier turn.

maurice considers his move for the Red Blok. We had VP for 3 objectives on the table, scoring 2 VP per objective, 1 VP per enemy unit eliminated, and 1VP for eliminating the force commander.

My Cog Commander , G Nocrat G09, accompanied by a squad of Stalkers, race to capture the central objective, flanked by a Warmonger Jammer team.

Warmonger team take position on the left flank

Massed Cog armour on the other flank lead by a Vandal, and 3 squads of 2 Marauders

Red Blok Dotch Yaga and supporting walkers,and RPG Soldaty, take a dominant position in the Redblock line. The game whent well and I think benefit from not using standard Force organisations, and maybe having a player commanding each company, We will see if another game can be played to this scale again soon.

Go Tell The Spartans

Work has me away all week at the moment ,so little if any time for my hobby..boo hoo!
 Still a couple of purchases, firstly the new Stormraven from GW. As I said in the last post, a good transport for my new Sternguard squad.

GW are making a few flyers now, and good to see them as it gives another dimention to the game. I also purchased some Ork nobs in Mega Armour

so plenty to be getting on with there...when I have some time.
 I also picked up a box of Spartan Hopolites from Immortal Miniatures. This company is fairly new on the scene, and came out with thier Hopolite plastic box set last year. I have been interested in having a go and seeing what the minis are like, so as the new Spartan box was recently added I purchased one. At only £12 for a box of 24 this is good value indeed. As you open the box, you see some slide transfers for the shields, the famous inverted V. A full colour flyer telling you a bit of the history and the sprues themselves. Very good quality, on a par with Warlord or the Perry's the other main protagonists in the plastic revolution.

Only a quick post this time, as time is short. But I hope to post on the progress made with these model projects soon.