Tuesday, May 27, 2008

+ Chaos Tagteam vs Sisters +

A break from the fantasy painting, and it would be a team up with my CSM's old friends, the Death Guard, against those damn Witch Hunters. Crashed shuttle in the center of the board, objective was to have a scoring unit (or the highest VP if no scorers nearby) on it at 9:30 when it was time to head home.

Undivided & Death Guard vs Witch Hunters [3000] - My army was standard 1500 but with terminators instead of a dread. Death Guard brought Typhus, 4x 7 plague marines (melta, plasma, fist) in rhinos, possessed vindicator. WH were a load of sisters, jump cannoness, big squad of repentia, 3 penitent engines, 2 exorcists, 2 seraphim squads, marine las squad, sniper / ml scout squad, 2 death cult assassins, callidus, combat INQ with big retinue in a land raider, terminator librarian with 5 terminator retinue (2 AC).

In an effort to speed the game up, we played with 5th edition set up / first turn. This meant both sides rolled 1 die, the winner got to choose side / set up everything / go first. The With Hunters won the roll and took it. Chaos set up as usual, with no vehicles really that needed tucking behind terrain. And anyway, we played with 5th edition true LoS, no area terrain height nonsense.

WH 0
My havoks, who had deployed in a perch at the 12" DZ line, were pulled 6" forward by the callidus. Guh.

WH 1
Land raider powered forward 12", dumped out it's INQ team 2" and they got ready to assault my anti-tank marines who had stumbled into range. Penitents also flew foward, just ending up short of the havoks, as did the DCA who just fell short trying to zip through some woods and get in on the action. Seraphim hoped about, and repentia moved toward the assault to come. When the shooting began it fantastically may have accounted for just 1 of my marines, with my ancient power armor standing up to the beating for once. 0-1 plague marine may have died in the opening volley, though 2 rhinos were blasted apart and their squads entangled.

Assault resulted in a couple dead havoks and maybe 1 dead henchman. I'll note here how confusing it is to fight a unit with 7 6+ saves, 2 4+ saves and 1 3+ save (with 3 wounds), took a good amount of time to puzzle through just how trickily he could allocate the wounds.

Chaos 1
The plague marines with mobile transports gunned it forward for maximum carnage, hoping out plaguers right in front of the penitent engines on the right flank and terminators on the left flank. My fisty CSM squad pushed forward to help the havoks out and the obliterator shuffled to tag the land raider, which it managed to only stun with a lascannon. The vindicator let rip on the repentia, but after scatter only nicked a sister or two in another squad. My shooty CSM + deathscreamer + 1k Sons hosed the repentia down to 3 chainsaw girls + mistress + priest, and the blastmaster vapped a seraphim in the squad dangerously close to the big assault in front of my deployment zone. The chicks passed their pin but failed their break, which sent them close to 18" back to their table edge! The plague marines right flank cooked 2 penitent engines, but the left plaguers I don't think had the same luck, as many terminators were still over there.

Time for fighting, and the melee got bigger with the inclusion of my fisty CSM. Another havok died and possibly a CSM, but I think all that happened on my part was possibly a wound on the INQ, or nothing at all. Very confusing, and I guess embarassing result for all my CSM attaks. My fist did nothing.

WH 2
Callidus appears near my shooty CSM squad, claiming 1 marine with her shredder. Broken seraphim rally and the other squad moves in on the plague marines far left by the terminators, who themselves stomp foward to deal with the smelly marines. The repentia hit turbo and go 12" towards the big melee, easily into assault range. Shooting accounted for possibly 1 1k Son, and then a lot of frustration on the Imperium's part as plague marines stubbornly refused to die. A small handful of the stinkers died to most all of the enemy's bolters, assault cannons, exorcists, etc.

Assault saw the penitent engine into the right plague marines (5 left), which ended with a dead marine and a fluffed fist. The seraphim and the terminators hit the left plague marines, splattering the plaguers and knocking off maybe 1/2 of the seraphim squad. The termies massacred half into 4+ cover. The callidus maybe killed 1 marine, but the rest pilled in to kill her next turn. The repentia and both DCA charged into the big beatfest, complicating things further! The priest and a DCA were killed, along with a bunch of henchmen (not the powerfist servitor though), for the loss of several marines.

Chaos 2
Typhus deep struck off a plague squad's homer, who moved around him to be his retinue. My terminator trio struck too, off another homer within rapid fire range of the loyalist terminators, and 12 demons summoned off the fist AC's icon, getting ready to jump on the repentia. But first the oblit pushed forward and multi-melta'd the land raider, which naturally went nuclear, catching all of the demons in it's explosion. Many died, I think 9 of them ... Other shooting was less fantastic after that big show. My plasma termies overheated 3 times (all saved), and accounted for 1 dead loyalist terminator. The 1k Sons maybe killed a couple sisters, and the blastmaster missed the tactical marines. Fire from the death guard messed up the marine scouts, breaking the surviving few out of their 4+ bunker. The vindi scattered off some sisters, and it was time to kill again.

Plague marines pattered off the penitent engine, losing another 1-2 plaguers, as the fist PC couldn't find the on switch to his loveglove. The callidus was indeed beaten to a pulp, leaving 6 CSM in the squad + the screamer. The remaining demons hit the repentia and killed them, the CSM pummeled the last DCA into submission and brutalized the INQ's team. The INQ on her part finished the havoks off, and then chose to pass her break test, sticking all that chaos in place.

WH 3
Seraphim flew around to closer to the action, but otherwise just the terminators moved up to engaged the plague marines + terminators bothering them. Shooting claimed the obliterator to an exocist launcher volley, 2 chaos terminators to divine guidanced bolters and a plague marine or two to assault cannons and bad luck.

At long last, the plague marine champ trashed the last penitent, losing his squad in the process. The CSM fist splattered the INQ finally, leaving 3 members of the fisty CSM (fist, lascannon, flamer) and 3 demons after all that. The librarian and retinue charged the plague marines, but general fluffing meant few losses for either side.

Chaos 3
Deathscreamer joins with the 1k Sons and they inch towards the objective right near them, demons move to threaten either some sisters in a ruins or the rallied seraphim (4 of 6 left). Fisty CSM do likewise, unsure where to commit. The lone plague champ runs for the building sheltering both the tactical marines on the top floors and the exorcist at the bottom. Typhus and friends move and open up on the scouts, finishing them off. The blastmaster explodes a couple tactical marines, but they pass both tests. Combined fire from the shooty CSM and the 1k Sons / deathscreamer cleans out the sisters in the ruins, leaving the fisty CSM to double-flame the seraphim, which results in 1 casualty.

Assault sees the demons into the seraphim, but both sides whiff and the seraphim hit-and-run over towards the 1k Sons. The chainfister chaos terminator charges the loyalist termies, but a lot of nothing happens, leaving the librarian + 2-3 terminators vs chainfist terminator + fist plague champ + a plague marine or so.

WH 4
Both seraphim squads (both at 3) hop over to the center, surrounding the 1k Sons and with the help of the exorcists killing them all off and leaving the deathscreamer all on his own with 2 wounds left. Tactical marines take some pot shots at the lone plague champ but can't get the lascannon into LoS from the top of the building.

The deathscreamer is killed in assault, as the seraphim all popped inv saves to negate the demon weapon. The plague marines are splattered by the terminators, but the chainfister lives on (and bounces off the inv saves of the loyalists).

Chaos 4
Both the shooty and fisty CSM squads converge on the center to hurt the seraphim squads, Typhus and friends push over to pound on the terminators, demons start walking around the back of the exorcist for the hell of it and the lone plague champ enters the building to the side of the exorcist. He levels his plasma pistol and trashes the vehicle! Totally pumped at this, the blastmaster explodes more tactical marines and breaks the squad down from their building. Other fire downs just 1 seraphim of the 6 remaining ...

... but they all die in assault, though the shooty CSM squad is reduced to just a few marines who can't quite make the 5+ cover of the center. The fisty CSM squad however massacre onto the objective. Typhus and crew slam into the terminators, and generally bad rolling all over the place leaves Typhus force weaponed back to hell, some plague marines dead and the librarian with just 1 buddy left, with the chainfister continuing to hack at him.

WH 5
Last turn is called, and there isn't much left for the Inquisition. Tactical marines can't rally with enemy so close, so run off the table. The exorcist starts moving for the middle, detonating the shooty CSM squad into small bits with some help with the last sister squad, over in a 4+ building to the left.

The librarian finally buys it to the chainfist terminator, whom himself sucks powerfist and dies, leaving the plague champ to clean out that last loyaist terminator. The cannoness with jump pack also makes an appearance at last, and charges the fisty CSM squad. Unfortunately she gets a powerfist to the face for her troubles and is removed.

Chaos 5
With nearly everything dead, the noise marines and plaguers take pot shots at the bunkered sister squad but with no luck. The fisty CSM squad on the objective, while no longer scoring, is the only unit within 6" at 9:30 so ...

Chaos Win

This game was mostly marked by those two big battles - one involving the INQ team + 2 DCA + repentia vs havoks + CSM squad + demons and the other with librarian + terminators vs plague marines + plague marines + terminator + typhus - and then a load of short range fire. Of note, this has to be the most turns that both exorcists have been able to fire without interruption, and also the longest string of horrible powerfist rolls I've seen in a long time.

Painting: Jezzails
Building: Khorne Heralds

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

+ Bregan & The Apostates of Khorne +

Apologies for the 40k down time, still revamping my nurgle skaven army for fantasy. I hope to get a game of 40k in soon, so should have more exploits of my CSM to post up. I suppose army pics would be in order at some point ...

Bigger news though is getting the old Khorne Demon Legion out of storage and back onto the table soon. Have a handful of models to build (currently in the mail) and then I'm aching to see what the hell these naked bloodletters can do. List is currently:

HQ
Herald of Khorne - juggernought, unholy might, fury of khorne, blessing of the blood god = 135
Herald of Khorne - juggernought, unholy might, fury of khorne = 130
Herald of Khorne - juggernought, unholy might, fury of khorne = 130
Herald of Khorne - juggernought, unholy might, fury of khorne = 130

Troops
8 Bloodletters - icon = 153
8 Bloodletters - icon = 153
8 Bloodletters - fury of khorne = 138
8 Bloodletters - fury of khorne = 138
8 Bloodletters - instrument of chaos = 133
8 Bloodletters - instrument of chaos = 133

Fast Attak
6 Flesh Hounds - Keranak = 125

Total
1498 points
58 models

The old demonbomb version was only defeated once, will the record continue? Or will nearly 0 anti-tank capability shoot the army in the foot? Stay tuned for carnage either way!

Presents from The War Store arrived on Saturday! Stuffed in that box is Bregen himself, Fourth Apostate of Khorne.


Painting: BSB, gutter runner, more nurglings
Building: Keranak

Thursday, May 01, 2008

+ This is My Scheming Face +

Here's an update on what I've been busy with, as it hasn't been too much related to my CSM sadly. I'm really burning to get another game in with them soonish, but in the mean time I've been assembling a rebuild of my 2000 point Eshin Skaven fantasy army, which will hit the painting block in a big way over the next month. I'm also working on the second half of my 2000 point Ogre fantasy army, so that's more painting that isn't black & brown & evil.

However I do intend to get back to my spiky boys after all this fantasy nonsense.
Unpainted I currently have:
- Demon Prince / Greater Demon (carnosaur conversion)
- 8 Possessed w/ MoS
- Land Raider (FW chaos arrow tracks, AL doors)
- 8 Kharn the Betrayer conversions
- Rhino
- Terminator Lord
- Sorcerer w/ jump pack

And these two I'm just waiting on one piece each:
- "Silver Tower" (GW rules here, but I've tweaked them a bit to make it Undivided and cheaper)
- Dreadnought #3

Very excited about the superheavy, but will hold off more commentary until I can blog it's build here ;)

Painting: Nurglings
Building: Balthirster