Quick update

Been a while since I posted anything, so I'm just gonna leave an update on what's been going on.

First off, I've been involved in a big game of Apocalypse. 10,000 pts and 3 players a side, with an Armageddon theme, i.e. Orks vs the Imperium. As elected Warmaster for the Imperials I spent a hell of a lot of time planning and plotting how to annihilate my Orky foes, and to fit the event, I had kitbashed Tycho here.

Ooh, what's that, Tycho? Got a new trophy for yourself, I see! That pretty much says everything about how that Apocalypse game went... :-)

For the game I had also assembled a couple of gunslinger sergeants. Those of you who have looked at the Blood Angel codex a little more closely will note that Blood Angel Assault sergeants can wield 2 pistol weapons at once. So, for 240 pts, I can deep strike 4 melta weapons with the Blood Angels' signature accuracy. Sounded good to me, and especially lethal in games of Apocalypse, where the Precision Coordinates Strategic Asset pretty much guarantees these guys will be a position to seriously hurt something. Honestly, though, paired pistols are just too cool not to take. I just wish models were allowed to use them in close combat in the same way as Cypher.

While scouring my collection for stuff to field in the big Apoc game, I noticed poor old Sgt Gideon from Space Hulk. Dug him out and am currently working on finishing him off.

I've been a bit naughty with Gideon. He really hasn't seen all that much combat, let alone against Tyranids, to warrant the placing of that lovely trophy at his feet. Still, at some point he'll make a lovely Terminator Captain. Just a couple of final little touches to go. And when he's done, I've lots of Tactical Marines that still need my attention. And when *they're* done...

In case there's any doubt at all on what's in the box...

Oh, yes... It'll be quite some time before I get this guy operational, though. That's what I've been working on, and now I've gotta get back to work, so, I'm-a sign off here.

Ok, so I played Apocalypse....

... and I loved it. It was a most pleasant surprise, and I was proven very, very wrong about it. That having been said, there were quite a few things about this game that were drastically different from the previous time I'd played an Apocalypse scale game, most notably:

1) Scale - The last time I played, it was 6 players putting whatever the hell they could on the board. Frankly, it was a right, mess, and while it looked pretty cool to see such a ludicrous number of models in one place, it took an insane amount of time to set up and play a turn. Hell, that game didn't even really get very far past Turn 3. And despite the huge area we had available, the table was crowded as hell. It really didn't look like 2 skillfully wielded armies as much as 2 colourful mobs mashing together in a riot.

In this game, it was a 3 vs 3 battle, Chaos Marines vs Regular Marines + 2 Blood Angels (I was on the Chaos side), with each player fielding ~2,000pts, for a neat total of 6,000 pts a side. Big enough to be significantly bigger than a regular game, and small enough not to eat up an entire day. In fact, due to a cunning strategy from my team and a little luck, the game took about 5 hours, including lunch.

2) Organization - This event was planned flawlessly. Hats off to Wong for the insane amount of effort he'd put in to a game he wasn't even playing in. Over the course of a month, the players were briefed, army lists compiled, checked, strategies discussed, army lists checked again, minor battles affecting the main event were organized, strategies rethought, debated again, all contributing to an excellent buildup to an excellent event.

There was Photoshop and characterful trash talk, too. How awesome is that? 

When the day actually came, my team reviewed a plan that took several days in the making, deployed with military efficiency, and executed the plan magnificently. The result? By the end of Turn 4, the enemy was left with 3 models on the board, huddling in the crater where their Stormraven had crashed and burned, whereas the Chaos side had lost 4 units.

APOCALYPSE!!!111!! Part 1 of 2

Played my first game of Apocalypse on Sunday. I've never seen all my painted Angels in one place before, let alone in battle, so I figured I'd give it a whirl.

I've no idea how many points we put on the board in total, but if I had to guess, I'd say:

Wong's Blood Angels: ~8,000pts

Not pictured: The horde of power armoured marines on the other table.

Yee How's Imperial Guard: ~5,000pts (nice pic unavailable)

Syaz's Ultramarines: ~6,000pts

Not pictured: A shit-tonne more Smurfs on the other table and in carry cases.

My Blood Angels: ~4,800pts

Yeah, that's all ~4,800pts in that picture. Ones to watch:
- the Stormraven with a Reclusiarch, 5 Death Company marines and a DC Dreadnought; and
- the Land Raider Redeemer with Librarian, Sanguinary Priest and 5 Assault Terminators.

Now, I'm pretty sure there was some kind of backstory to this game, but hell, at that table were gathered the kind of player who gives not a toss about fluff and is just out to bring forth their armies and kick ass.

Attackers: Blood Angels
Attackers' Objectives:
- Primary - Blow up the big statue on the hill. AV14, 2 structure points, 2 void shields.
- Secondary - Kill all the Ultramarine HQ choices: Marneus Calgar in power armour, 2 Chaplains, Chaplain Cassius, and 1 Librarian.
Strategic Assets: Flank March, Careful Planning.

Defenders: The Imperium (Ultramarines + Imperial Guard).
Defenders' Objectives:
- Primary - Don't let the defenders achieve their primary objective.
- Secondary - At least 1 Baal Predator or Furioso Dreadnought must survive to the end of the battle.
Strategic Assets: Disruptor Beacon, Shield Generator

The board


Pretty much anything on the board which isn't an AV14 bastion/bunker or a ruin is an AV12 building. The big golden statue is the primary objective, and here we see the Ultramarines forces in mid-deployment...

The Setup:


Here we can see the Imperial forces have deployed to fend off a frontal assault. Guardsmen in the bastions, huge guns poised to blast apart anything that gets past the bastions, and horrifying amounts of demolisher and plasma cannons placed to cover any open areas within the compound. And just for extra safety, the disruption beacon was placed in the middle of it all, covering the bastions and most of the central compound. Clearly, the Imperials rightly feared the brutal precision of the Blood Angel's deep strike tactics. What they didn't realize, however, was exactly what strategic assets we had chosen...


Uhuh. You read that right. Half the Blood Angels would be coming in from BEHIND the Imperial lines. And the Imperials were so worried about Stormravens dropping from the sky, they'd placed the disruption beacon too far forward. The first turn would be a very nasty surprise indeed...

By the way, for the purpose of the Careful Planning card, we counted one transport and its contents as a single unit. So, a Stormraven, carrying a chaplain, 5 Death Company marines and a Death Company Dreadnought = 1 unit.

Rolling off, the Blood Angels took the first turn.

Turn 1

Summary: Against the Imperials expectations, the Blood Angels turned up from behind, unleashing the might of multiple Stormravens and Land Raiders and their lethal cargoes!

End of Blood Angel's movement phase. This is going to get messy...

Blood Angels:
Luckily for the Imperials, some abyssmally bad luck meant the Angels didn't quite do as much damage as anticipated. All the Stormravens released their payloads of Bloodstrike missiles, knocking down the statue's void shields and shredding a Tactical squad that happened to be between my Assault Terminators and Marneus Calgar. Meanwhile, squads of black-clad Terminators piled out of Landraider Crusaders and Redeemers and tore into the vulnerable rear armour of whatever hapless vehicle happened to be in range. In addition to all this carnage, a pair of krak missile streaked out to strike down the Disruption Beacon in preparation for a drop pod assault in Turn 2.

Imperials:
The Imperial response was swift but lacklustre. Most of the Imperial Guard elements were manning the walls, far from the surprise onslaught. Quite importantly, 3 Vindicators were out of position and swung round to meet the threat, chugging away at top speed so those demolisher cannons don't go to waste. That having been said, the firepower they could bring to bear was still quite formidable, since a lot of the Blood Angel's shooting went into the statue, to minimal effect. As a result, the Imperials had quite a bit of gunishment to wield, damaging several vehicles, notably immobilizing my Stormraven carrying the Sternguard Veterans, which could have quite easily caused quite a lot of damage if I put a volley from their combi-weapons in the right place.

Highlights

None shall stay my wrath!!! I let loose the Death Company Dreadnought from my Stormraven and it didn't disappoint, quickly shredding a nearby 5-man assault squad and killing the attached Chaplain with combat resolution.


3 Chimeras, a Tactical combat squad and 2 multimelta attack bikes all converged on my Death Company Dreadnought, but in an uncharacteristic string of truly remarkable luck, a total of 6 melta weapons (all in melta range, mind you), 3 plasmaguns and 2 multilasers blazed away at the deranged dreadnought, causing 3 penetrating hits, all of which got either a crew shaken or stunned result, which, of course, a Death Company Dreadnought, simply DOES NOT CARE ABOUT. As a side note, one plasmagunner even roasted himself trying to fire his gun, which was probably a mercy, given what happened next...

Kill Calgar! My Assault Terminators comprise 4 Terminators with Lightning Claws and 1 with a Thunder Hammer, accompanied by a Librarian and Sanguinary Priest. Assuming a good psychic check, that means 16 S5 I5 power weapon attacks, with rerolls to hit and wound. That's quite enough to put the hurt on damn near anything it charges, and plain vanilla Terminators without Storm Shields should have been a walk in the park... Alas, it wasn't to be...

I rolled fairly below average with my claws, and he made an absurd number of 5+ invulnerable saves. What started with this...

GRAAAAAARRGGGHHH!!!

... ended with this...

But it wasn't all bad news. During the Imperial turn, the dice gods smiled on me. Chaplain Cassius joined the combat and failed to do anything. I made a few lucky invulnerable saves, and by the end of the Imperial turn, Calgar found himself surrounded by 2 Terminators with Lightning Claws, a Librarian and a Sanguinary Priest. Meanwhile, thanks to horrible failures of combat resolution, Chaplain Cassius went down! How sad is that? The one guy in the vaunted Ultramarines chapter who gets to address Marneus Calgar as 'young Calgar' rushes to his aid, only to achieve buggerall and get himself killed, right in front of Calgar's face!

Anyway, that's it for now. Stay tuned for Turns 2 and 3...