Battle Report!

My Planetstrike game this Tuesday got postponed, so Paul (The Tao of Tau) and I played a 500 point skirmish. The battle turned out to be a Annihilation, with Spearhead deployment.

I set up first, and deployed my Scouts forward into the woods. Paul deployed his Pathfinders to my flank. He rolled to sieze the initiative and failed, so I took my first turn.

 

And took out his Pathfinders with my Assault Squad.

Tau turn 1 has the transport and drones move forward and take out the majority of my Assault Squad. I responded my Assaulting and Shaking it, as my Rhino moved forward and blew smoke.

 

Still protected in the Rhino, the Tau start picking off Scouts. They don't have Camo Cloaks, but they are protected in normal cover.

The next Tau turn, the Sergeant and Captain are left and blow the transport. In my following turn, the Captain leaves the Assault Squad (what is left of it) to attack the squad while the Sergeant goes after the drones.

And they leave no Tau left.

The sergeant is gunned down while the Captain remains in cover behind the wreck. The Rhino moves forward but is immobilized and stunned. The Scouts are almost destroyed, but they go to ground and their sergeant survives. Next turn the Tactical Squad disembarks, going after the Tau Commander, and the Rhino repairs.

The Tactical is able to take out the Commander, while my Captain jumps to the other side of the woods preparing to assault. He doesn't get to, because I tank shock into the woods to drive out the Tau, and they break and run off the board. With no Tau left, the game ends.

Assault Squad

These guys have been sitting in my case unpainted for a while, and I finally sat down and busted out the unit. I also just picked up a bottle of Micro-Sol and a bottle of Micro-Set, so I'm hoping to start putting decals on my units soon.

New additions, nothing finished

I know why I can't seem to get anything new finished lately... I keep getting more projects started without finishing old ones! I did finish my Planetstrike bastions and defense lines in time for week 1, and I started basing and priming the GW blastscape and some craters that I used successfully in my last setup for period 1.

I also got in an order of magnets! 100 rare earth magnets for $16 shipped. These should last me for a while. I've already started getting to work magnetizing my new attack bikes that served me well in period 1 game 2 of Planetstrike, sneaking a win by charging through dangerous terrain to capture the second objective.

I also have a couple WIP pics of the scouts I have been working on here and there. Not finished yet, but more than just the base coat I have been applying to most everything else. I'd rather be playing with a plain blue army than plain gray plastic, or black primer!

Planetstrike Begins!

Here are some pictures of our table setups in week 1 of the Planetstrike League. All the games were playing simultaneously!


My Ultramarines (defender) vs Daemons (attacker)



Orks (defender) vs Tau (attacker)



Space Marines (defender) vs Necrons (attacker)



Tau (defender) vs Eldar (attacker)



Space Marines (attacker) vs Necrons (defender)



Chaos Space Marines vs Chaos Space Marines

Ordo Fraternitas Chapter Tournament

Today was the OF game club chapter tournament. A good turn out gave us 16 players. As people started to show up, the first 8 players or so were all Space Marines! We ended up with a few more Chaos scum and Xenos by the end of registration.

Huge thanks to Brian for running a great tournament. Everyone was in good spirits, and I couldn't think of a moment that was not friendly. Thanks to my opponents Nick (Necrons), Lee (Ultramarines), and Charles (Plague Marines).


I played my Ultramarine list from my previous blog post:

Librarian
10 man Tactical Squad in a Rhino
10 man Tactical Squad in a Rhino
5 man Scout Squad
Ironclad Dreadnought
Dreadnought
Vindicator
Whirlwind
Landspeeder Squadron


Game 1 was Necrons. I had JUST played my first game ever against Necrons this previous Tuesday, so I knew what to expect when my opponent dropped that Monolith on the table.

Necrons:

Necron Lord
4x 10 Necron Warriors
3 Necron Destroyers
Necron Monolith

Our mission was Capture and Control, with Spearhead Deployment.


In the opening round I focused my Landspeeder multi meltas on the Monolith and shook it. I used my other ordinance to destroy Necron Warriors.

I wanted to focus on flanking with my Rhinos and breaking for his objective (behind the large rocks). My objective was heavily guarded with a Combat Squad and my Sniper Scouts.



I kept the Monolith Shaken or Stunned the first 3 turns, and were killing enough Necrons that my opponent was teleporting them every turn to get his bonus We Will Be Back rolls to save his troops.


Finally on the 4th turn, I was able to charge the Monolith with my 2 Dreadnoughts and they destroyed it. With no way to assist his WWBB rolls, my heavy fire was able to take down enough Necrons as my flanking attackers baced by Landspeeders captured the second objective.

With time winding down, I was able to force the Necrons to phase out.



Game 2 vs Ultramarines! Bad blood between the 3rd and 4th companies...

3rd Company:

Cassius
Sternguard x9 + Rhino
Scout Squad x5 + Telion
Scout Squad x5
Tactical Squad x10 + Rhino
Landspeeder Storm
Assault Squad x10
Dreadnought

Our mission was Seize Ground (5 obj.) and Dawn of War deployment.


The fourth company surged forward and was able to destroy the enemy Dreadnought early and cripple the Scouts with my Whirlwind.


Landspeeder down, Dreadnought down, and assaults coming towards my Vindicator.


The Vindicator survived to fire another round after escaping 2 different assaults.


My speeders were down 1 and had 1 model without any weapons, but the remaining speeder was harassing enough.

Lee had the objecives in his favor at the end of turn 5, but we rolled and the game went on!

My combat squad's fortification was destroyed, so they were fighting in a battle on the ground with a scout squad from the Storm that contested an objective. In the center the Landspeeder remained to contest.

Lee sped across the battle field in turn 6 to contest my rear objective.

But the Combat Squad pulled it out in combat, and captured the lone controlled objective. All others were contested or not captured at all.


Game 3 - Plague Marines in a Pitched Battle Annihilation Game:

Demon Prince
Plague Marines x9 + Rhino
Plague Marines x9 + Rhino
Plague Marines x9 + Rhino
2x Obliterators

Very small, low kill points, and very tough to kill... uh oh.



I was feeling very confident after my first 2 victories, and the Ultramarines surged forward to face the Chaos scum! I was able to pop the right side Rhino.

On the Chaos turn, things started to go bad when my Ironclad was blown up. The Demon Prince was lashing my Scouts and Marines into the open and shooting at them with his Havock missile Launchers and wiped them out with the DP in CC.



I was able to blow up all 3 Rhinos, but even with concentrated fire I couldn't pull off serious Plague Marine casualties.



The Plague Marines moved around the battlefield and was able to use their melta guns (2 per squad) to tear into my armor. In addition, his Oblits came in late and devasated my rear artillery line.

Finlly my lone remaining Landspeeder was taken out by the oblits and my game was over.... TABLED!








All in all a good experience. I placed 3rd overall even after the harsh 3rd game beating, because of my high victory point totals from games 1 and 2. I thought I was in the lead for the tourney going into round 3 (two others were also 2-0, and I think I had them beat on points), and I got cocky! I think I should have stayed back more vs the Plague Marines and used the cover and hit and running with the speeders from max range before moving my army into meltagun range.

Super fun tournament, great learning experience, and I even won a gift certificate in the random draw at the end of the night. Big congrats to Jeff on his tournament victory.

Planetstrike starts on Tuesday!

Planetstrike!

Also starting next Tuesday is the Ordo Fraternitas Planetstrike League! The Planetstrike League will be 4 play periods, 2 games per play period with 1 game as each attacker and defender. 2500 points, and each player must provide at least 1 painted Bastion and Defense line in their games. I'll update the blog soon with the pictures of my Planetstrike terrain that I have been trying to paint and finish in time for the league. So far I have 1 Bastion and 1 Defense line fully painted, 3 more Defense Lines primed, and 1 Bastion yet to be assembled. Here is the league breakdown:

Play Periods

1. The Rising Swarm- Tyranids make planet fall onto Anorox prime and her two moons.
• Play the “Planet Fall” Mission from page 14

2. Tomb Raid- During the 3rd war of Anorox the Ordo Xenos and Imperial allies make planetfall onto a Necron tomb world to rescue Inquisitor Lord Veslyn.
• Play the “Desperate Assault” Mission from page 47

3. Karmichael’s Pass- During the 2nd stage of the Galus Crusade, Captain Karmichael, of the Armageddon Sons leads the drop onto a Daemon infested world and reclaims it in the name of the Emperor.
• Play the “Seize and Destroy” Mission from page 48

4. Karamos Chapter- The Tau Empire seeks to expand its hold and take the desert world of Karamos
• Play the “Forlorn Hope” Mission from page 50

List finalized, tournament bound.

I've play tested for 3 weeks now and have done well with similar variations at higher points in the past, so I feel that I am ready for my first tournament in about 10 years! Last night I played against Necrons for the first time and won a victory after a 7 turn game that was a roller coaster. If the game ended on 5 it would have been a draw because of objectives and his fast moving troops being able to contest. If it had ended on turn 6 he would have won because of scarabs pulling my troops off of my controlling objective. But I lucked out and outlasted my opponent, and used a Rhino to contest an objective and seal my victory on turn 7. Here is the basic list that I will be running Saturday in the Chapter Tournament:

Librarian
10 man Tactical Squad in a Rhino
10 man Tactical Squad in a Rhino
5 man Scout Squad
Ironclad Dreadnought
Dreadnought
Vindicator
Whirlwind
Landspeeder Squadron

Working on a new draft

I picked up a set of sniper Scouts and a Librarian, and added them to the new army I have been play testing for the upcoming O.F. Chapter Tournament.

At this point, I have the entire army either fully painted (most of the infantry) or base coated (most of the tanks). The only things that are just primed still are the Landspeeders.

Here is the army. I've played it once, and tabled a Blood Angels army. This version is slightly changed from that game, to take a Whirlwind instead of a Vindicator.

Librarian
Ironclad Dreadnought: 2 hkm's
Dreadnought
Tactical Squad: lascannon, flamer, rhino
Tactical Squad: missile launcher, flamer, rhino
Scout Squad: sniper rilfes, camo cloaks
Landspeeder Squadron: 3 speeders, multi meltas, heavy flamers
Predator: autocannon, heavy bolters
Whirlwind