+ APOC IV +

Our fourth APOC game has come and gone, and a hot sweaty time was had by all. Nine dudes, one huge L-shaped table, four turns of carnage.

Tyranids & Tyranids & Tyranids & Chaos vs Black Templar & Black Templar & Dark Angels & Blood Angels & Witch Hunters [18000]

I ended up running 6500 points of Chaos - Death Guard, The Fallen, The Anarcho boys - that largely deployed on one 6x4 on the right arm of the L-table and smashed against the majority of both Templar armies. The objective on our side would end up with the last 3 of 42 plague marines standing on it but with BT characters surrounding it, so merely contested.

The left arm of the L-table saw the medium Nid swarm (a mere 3000) obliterated by the combined BA and WH armies, in what was largely due to him deploying too far away from the rest of our armies - if he had faced off across from just the Sisters he wouldn't have had to face the BA player for a turn or two, instead of the turn one assaults and short range rapid fire that he received by spreading in front of the two armies. Despite the appearance of 4 of my 8 Kharns (;D), a land raider and 3 Fallen obliterators (who nuked the WH fire support titan), the left objective was securely in the hands of the Imperium.

From the game's opening the center segment of the L was locked down by the largest of the bug swarms, including the heirophant and her little heirodule buddy. By Turn 4 the big girl had been wounded twice but with underlings swarming the objective at her feet that one easily went to the jaws of the Devourer (also Chaos). Otherwise that blue bug swarm spent much of the game slamming against the DA across from him and the smallest bug swarm to my evil lads' left, as well as sending out flank marchers (2 carnifex detonated the baneblade mere feet in front of the chaos firebase) and lictors (killed exorcists like it was going out of style).

So with 1 objective held per side and the other still contested, it came down to a ...

DRAW

Now a side note on how happy APOC:RELOAD makes me. My interest in APOC games has seriously wanned in the last months, but having gotten confirmed rumors on some of the race specific assets in RELOAD I'm totally back in for big games. There's just some crazy shit in that book that really brings in the highly specialized, oh so characterful, EPIC-scaled mayhem and feats that you can't get in a standard 40k game. For APOC IV we test ran a couple of the Chaos ones, so I ended up with three assets:

Shield Generator - An oldy but new to me. The 4+ save over my two defilers and noise marines insured their survival, over and over. It was quite impressive.

Demon Shell - Allows a chaos model with a bolt weapon to fire a demon shell instead of a normal round. 24" SD AP1 Assault 1 7" blast, if you roll a 1 to hit it causes a single SD hit to the firer! In this game I had a Fallen lord deep strike and shoot the mini-nuke right into a clump of Dark Angels, removing a huge number of the deluded fools. The Fallen lord would go on to fight Azrael in single combat, dying simultaneously with his former brother.

Major Possession - On a 3+ a greater demon possesses an enemy IC instead of a chaos champ (note that I think the enemy gets to pick which IC, but I didn't know this at the time). On Saturday my Great Generic One made the 3+ roll and erupted out of Samael, telefragging the über-jetbiker and then pouncing on a DA librarian and terminator retinue. His rampage was short-lived, as GK terminators waded over and cut him down, but the sheer brutality of possessing an enemy special character is amazing. Easily my favorite new Chaos asset!

For $25 APOC:RELOAD seems like a good buy, even just to check out all the other assets. A couple examples: "Holy Relic" jacks a chaplain's combat prowess through the roof but when he dies the relic drops and becomes another objective. "Rokk 'Em Lads" has the orks bombard the board with fist-shaped asteroids, causing 10" explosions that scatter D6 feet (only hit on a HIT + 1). "Fire on My Coordinates" brings an orbital barrage down upon a surrounded guardsmen with a vox. "Indiscriminate Bombardment" has a chaos player place one barrage template, the enemy a second one, and then the chaos player a third. And so on.

Painting: Dakka Painting Challenge entry
Building: N/A

+ Violators Fleet Action +

At the very end of June I decided to paint up 1000 points of BFG, and so dumped out the chaos fleet that's been manhandled around for the 9 years since I bought the boxed game. 2 days later (I had to go buy some icy blue and some chestnut ink) I had a tiny fleet of eevil ships fresh for some Spaaaaace Combaaaaat! I'll work on getting a shot of them, but suffice to say they're painted up (and slightly converted) to represent a fleet under the command of the Violators Chaos Space Marines - Slaaneshi marines sealed into their baby blue armor, which seeps greenish goo from the joints as it's never removed. Hot.

VIOLATORS FLEET 1000
Warmaster Devour (+2) - Mark of Slaanesh
Blissful Excess [Styx] - CSM Crew
Pleasure Throes [Devastation]
Unrepentant [Carnage]
Masochist [Slaughter]
Slave [Iconoclast]

Not 100% on such a huge warmaster in 1000 points, but Ld 10 on the Styx is very nice to have. Alternate version has just a +1 warmaster but 2 Infidels, but I have yet to paint more escorts up.

Violators vs Unknown Chaos Fleet [1000]
First game was a basic Cruiser Clash vs my friend's likewise newb chaos lads.

4 Murders
2x 3 Idolators

Things swiftly turned to my advantage as his escorts were hunted down and his cruisers hulked. The Violators' ordnance superiority shown, but special commendation goes to the Slave for hounding the enemy ships and keeping those little gun batteries blazing. He took down a couple times his points in enemy escorts and kept the shields down on the big guys.

Violators Win

Violators vs Plaguefleet [1000]
2 weeks later and my buddy was back for another Cruiser Clash, this time with his chaos fleet stripped, puttied and putrified properly.

Warmaster (+1) - Mark of Nurgle
Acheron
Carnage - CSM Crew, Mark of Nurgle
Carnage - CSM Crew, Mark of Nurgle
Slaughter - Demonvessel, Mark of Nurgle

A far sight tougher now! 9 hits for each ship, high Ld, and the fact that he took carnages over murders were all bonuses over his first escort-happy fleet.

The Fleets Engage
Early game saw the Violators move together and to the right to cluster their guns against a single carnage on the Plaguefleet's flank, however with judicious brace for impact use the cruiser survived the onslaught. Due to their proximity to each other all of the Violators' cruisers were affected by the -1 Ld from the lurking demonvessel, which proved deadly as the Plaguefleet focused all fire into the Masochist. Failing its brace check the cruiser was obliterated, resulting in a warpdrive implosion! With the fleet packed together the Unrepentant and Pleasure Throes suffered 8 lance shots each, thankfully escaping with minimal damage. Seeking vengeance, the Excess and Throes both slammed full bomber waves into the nearest carnage, managing to hulk the tainted cruiser.

Playing It Cagey
With some distance between the two fleets the clash moved to long range weaponry and ordnance. Though the demonvessel continued to haunt the Slaanesh marine cruisers, Warmaster Devour's solid command kept the Excess vomiting forth bombers to cross the roiling expanse of space to the plague ships. Continuous lance fire and bombing runs succeeded in crippling the other Plaguefleet carnage, though the last 3 hits proved to tough at this range.

When Demons Attak
The demonvessel finally translated fully into real space, but despite the Violators anticipating the ship's solidification the Unrepentant and Excess put a measly 1 hit onto the beast. In retaliation the demonic slaughter moved right under the nose of the Excess and let loose with a full broadside, doing a massive 7 hits of damage and smashing the command deck off of the Violators flagship with a sweep of its titanic claw. The Unrepentant sought vengeance and locked on, but again with a well-timed brace the demonvessel survived uncrippled. All the same, with one cruiser hulked, another with 3 hits remaining and the demonvessel hurting amidst the Violators fleet (and the flagship across the table behind a planet), the Plaguefleet chose to disengage.

Violators Win

Though definitely a hollow one for me, that warpdrive implosion when my ships were most packed together was potentially brutal, and the less said about the ghostship mauling my flagsip the better! Oh, as a side note the Slave was stupidly placed on the opposite side of the board from the rest of the fleet, with the intention of some rear-hunting action. Stupid because it meant all the starboard weapons of the Plaguefleet had only one target with the rest of my fleet going to their port ... Poor slavey :'(

Painting: Dread #2
Building: BFG Chaos 1500

+ July Happenings +

I like to make schedules for painting and such, to stay organized and hopefully push me to get things done. July is looking like a bit of a slacker month, like the last weeks of June were as well, but at least I know that the few things on the schedule will get done. What's really killing me right now is the humidity makes priming my newly built stuff ... highly undesirable :(

WEEK 6/29
[X] Paint 1000 point BFG chaos fleet
[X] First game of BFG in 9 years
[X] July 4th, etc.

WEEK 7/6
[X] Build 2 gorefiends & dread #2
[X] Prime dread #2
[_] Paint disruption beacon
[X] Fiancee's birthday celebrations

WEEK 7/13
[X] Build BFG fleet to 1500
[X] Prime BFG upgrade
[X] Paint some on dread
[X] Play more BFG
[X] Rampage Richmond

WEEK 7/20
[X] Paint dread
[_] Paint BFG boost
[X] APOC IV

WEEK 7/27
[_] Build, prime, paint Dakka Painting Challenge entry

WEEK ???
[_] Spray Khorne Demons brass

Not too rushed on the hobby side, but a couple personal events make gaming time tight. Then there's our fourth APOC game looming 7/26, need the dread and beacon done by then, and finally the DPC model at the end of the month where I get to see what my painting skills are actually up to.

Building: N/A
Painting: Disruption Beacon

+ Khorne Demons Mangle Marines +

Got in the third battle with the demons, this time against good old marines. My list was the 1500 one below, except with 5 flesh hounds + Keranak instead of the 2 fiends (also 4 less bloodletters). We decided to play pure 4th edition for this one, as pure 5th would have been preferrable but clearly neither of us has the rules yet (and didn't feel like mixing in rules here and there).

Khorne Demons vs Space Marines [1500] - He took:

Terminator librarian + 7 terminators (2 assault cannons, many powerfists)
Jump chaplain (lightning claws, furious charge)
Dread (assault cannon, heavy flamer)
Dread (lascannon, missile launcher)
6 Tactical (lascannon)
5 Scounts (snipers, missile launcher)
10 Assault Marines (furious charge, 2 flamers, fist veteran)
2 Tornados

Demons won the roll for side and gave the marines the side with just one huge ruined building (15" x 30") partially in it, along with a rocky hill to the left and a small wrecked shuttle part to the right. The dreads set up in the building, the tacticals a floor up and the scouts at the top level of the ruin. The terminators and assault marines deployed to the left of the building, and the tornados went down left and right flanks.

Marines won the roll for first and took it.

Marines 1
Speeders moved over 6" ... Everybody else kinda stood around waiting for the carnage.

Demons 1
After much deliberation, I went with the heavy first wave and got it. Skarbrand aimed for the corner of the big building farthest from the termies & assaulters, and scattered off it to the NW. A prince aimed for the same spot and scattered SW, and the other prince aimed for the same spot and again scattered, this time N. 12 bloodletters with icon finished up my drops, and managed to stick on that cursed spot. Skarbrand yelled at the scouts atop the building, killing 2, and the SW prince breathed on the tactical marines and melted 4 of them. Having a shooting phase = totally sweet.

Marines 2
Due to the wonders of area terrain, it looked like retaliation would be minimal this time around. The assault marines hoped the corner of the building and unloaded on the SW prince, getting 0 wounds past his T5. Likewise the dreads and most of the tornado shooting, which managed to put 1 wound on the beast. The lascannon tactical failed his target priority and blasted a bloodletter into atoms instead of hitting the prince, and a scout put a wound on Skarbrand with a krak rocket.

First assault of the game, the chappy and crew slammed into the prince standing in cover (frags meant we'd go simul). The prince slammed 3 wounds on the chappy but only 1 got through his 4+ inv, and in return the chappy gutted the big demon. Massacre moved the assault marines away from the bloodletters glaring at them ...

Demons 2
More demons! 9 bloodletters (render) and 12 bloodletters (icon) made it this time, both summoning off of the icon squad in the marines' general direction. Skarbrand pushed through the area terrain, fleeted a weak 2" and stopped near the dreads - without a 6" assault through difficult terrain he'd miss the terminators on the other side and just jump on a dread instead. The living prince hoped up on the building to play with the 2 tactical marines and the icon bloodletters headed for the chappy's squad. Unfortunately they were 9" away, and 2" out of difficult terrain meant they'd have to charge the land speeder precariously nearby ...

With no yelling this turn it was right to fighting. Skarbrand didn't roll high enough so charged 1" into the fisty dread, detonating it and racking up a few dead assault marines and 4 dead bloodletters in the 6" explosion! He consolidated into the shooty dread right next to him. The prince brutalized the tacticals (4 wounds) and massacred 3" up to stand on the level below the scouts. The icon bloodletters, short 1", charged the land speeder instead. With Skarbrand bellowing encouragement they managed many hits on the speeder, but only ended up trashing the assault cannon (and being nicely packed for the flamering to come).

Marines 3
Mobilize! Libby + terminator friends pushed up into the ruins to take on Skarbrand, and the chappy + assault friends moved over (1" with a flopped difficult terrain roll!) to cook the letters. Which they did, killing some. The wounded tornado flew clear and threw some heavy bolters in as well, killing them down to about 6 demons.

Assault time is the best time! The libby managed 1 wound on Skarry, but it was swatted away with his 4+ inv before he could try force weapon nonsense on him. The big guy responded by gutting 4 terminators, and then by saving all the powerfist wounds that came his way except for 1. The dreadnought kicked about but was largely ignored. Over in the other combat the chappy brutalized three bloodletters, enough to remove those in base contact with his slower assault marine retinue. Another bloodletter popped from No Retreat!, leaving 2 to hold the marines in place ...

Demons 3
The rest of the demons showed up, summoning another 9 bloodletters (render) nearby the terminator-Skarbrand fight and the 6 flesh hounds (Keranak) looking at the gimped speeder on the right. The prince climbed up to the top of the ruin, screamed at the scouts and exploded all of their heads. And 2 squads of bloodletters descended upon the chappy's squad ...

Shooting out of the way, Skarbrand weathered a round of the libby flailing against him (couldn't summon the 6+ to wound the main man) and gutted the rest of his terminator cadre. The libby held. 5 bloodletters (render) slammed into the assault marines accompanying the chaplain, leaving them in bloody bits with their WS5 (rerolled!), S5, I5, A15 charge. The other squad of demons all funneled their attaks into the chaplain, causing 14 wounds and misting the guy with ease. Though he did take down 1 bloodletter with his own I5 attaks, but whatev.

Marines 4
Speeders scooted around a bit, accounting for 1 bloodletter and 1 flesh hound. In the fun phase the librarian again couldn't wound Skarbrand, but summoned the inv saves to stay alive one more turn. Oh, and the dread kicked at the demon but couldn't manage a hit, despite Skarry yelling at him.

Demons 4
The flesh hounds zipped over to pounce on the hurt speeder, which they did, netting a fine number of hits (with no reroll, out of Skarry's ANGER range) and immobilizing the craft, pulling it down like the frisbee it is. Most of the bloodletters bunkered down in the main ruin to hang out until the end of the game, though the fresh render squad flooded into the librarian. Once again the ancient marine couldn't wound Skarbrand, but instead of dealing with the 'hero' Skarbrand smashed that annoying dread and let the bloodletters' 27 attaks obliterate the marine.

Marines 5
The last speeder put wound #3 on Skarbrand! But he called it a game at that, as he'd have a max of 1 turn to finish Skarry if the monster's fleet roll wasn't up to catching the speeder next turn.

DEMONS WIN

A deliciously brutal game for Khorne, marred by poor deployment on the marine player's part. As he noted, he should have deployed everything in his terrainless right corner and hammered my demons as they came in. Though admittedly with his small number of units I wonder if this would have been enough to stop the flood ... And in that event I wouldn't have put Skarbrand down first turn, but likely would have either gone pure bloodletters for the first drop or the big icon squads + the undivided princes.

MVP: Skarbrand!

Building: Dread #2?
Painting: Dread #2?

+ Chaotic Army Lists +

I feel like posting something, but have neither pics to show nor a battle to report on. Hence, you get a few armylists instead! Here we have the 1500 & 2000 point versions of my CSM army that see most of the action, as well as the 1500 Demons I'm burning to try out some more before I get started on painting it ...

UNDIVIDED CSM 1500

HQ
Chaos Lord - MoT, deathscreamer, icon, melta bombs

ELITES
3 Terminators - IoCU, 3 combi-plasmas, 2 powerfists, 1 chainfist

TROOPS
10 CSM - IoCU, lascannon, flamer, AC w/ powerfist, combi-flamer
10 CSM - IoCU, autocannon, plasma gun, AC w/ power weapon
6 1k Sons - AS w/ doombolt
6 Noise Marines - blastmaster, sonic blaster
12 Lesser Demonettes

HEAVY SUPPORT
6 Havoks - IoCU, 3 missile launchers
1 Obliterator

TOTAL
1496 points

---

UNDIVIDED CSM 2000

HQ
Chaos Lord - MoCU, demon weapon, bike, icon
Chaos Lord - MoT, deathscreamer, icon

ELITES
3 Terminators - IoCU, 3 combi-plasmas, 2 powerfists, 1 chainfist
Dreadnought - plasma cannon, heavy flamer, extra armor
Dreadnought - plasma cannon, extra armor

TROOPS
10 CSM - IoCU, lascannon, flamer, AC w/ powerfist, combi-flamer
10 CSM - IoCU, autocannon, plasma gun, AC w/ power weapon
6 1k Sons - AS w/ doombolt
6 Noise Marines - blastmaster, sonic blaster
8 Lesser Demonettes

HEAVY SUPPORT
6 Havoks - IoCU, 3 missile launchers
Defiler
1 Obliterator

TOTAL
1999 points

---

KHORNE DEMONS 1500

HQ
Skarbrand

ELITES
2 Gorefiends of Khorne

TROOPS
12 Bloodletters - icon, instrument
12 Bloodletters - icon, instrument
11 Bloodletters - fury
11 Bloodletters - fury

HEAVY SUPPORT
Demon Prince - iron hide, unholy might, breath of chaos
Demon Prince - iron hide, unholy might, breath of chaos

TOTAL
1496 points

Current Records
---------------
CSM Many:A Few:Not Many
DEMONS 1:1:0

Building: 2 Gorefiends
Painting: Ogre Ironguts?