+ Battlefield: Albany +

Last Thursday I moved to Albany, NY to attend grad school for the next five years. I can't say I'm too happy to be here yet, but now that classes are starting and I'll be cripplingly busy soon enough I'm sure I'll forget about the distance from here to my fiancee and gaming buds back in PA ... Anyway, killing definitely went down in the run up to my big move:

Anarchonquistadores & Khorney Chaos vs Tau & Tau [3000] - A friend of mine just finished painting most of the table in his Battle Basement and hosted a game between the four of us to break it in. By that I mean the Tau's fishy faces as well as the new table. Batrep (with pics!) is here on Dakka, definitely worth checking out. And no, I won't spoil it.

CHAOS ???

Violators vs Ork Fleet [1500] - Back to spaceship fighting, my Violators fleet (the one in the pics back when) took on a new and insane ork fleet. Big named battleship, 2 terror ships and an amazing number of brute ram ships (30). Judicious use of brace for impact and then carefully staying out of ramming lines kept the impact damage down, but I did end up losing a carnage and having the other crippled by the dozen brutes chasing it and just blazing away at it. In a decisive two turns the ork battleship was crippled and hulked, and likewise the terrors ended up crippled and about 20 brutes were dead by the time the greenskin fleet disengaged.

CHAOS WIN

Note on BFG, I have since painted a second Acheron to tentatively replace the Styx, as well as more Infidels to swell the escort ranks with the points saved. And I've also lost anybody to play against. Poop.

Anarchonquistadores vs Space Wolves [1500] - In what would be my final game in PA (for now!), the boys in black & brown took on some all infantry, fistageddon Space Pups. His list was something like Wolf Chappy, Wolf Librarian (5+ cover save power), 3x 15 blood claws (maximum fists, including fisty wolf guard leaders), 1x 15 blood claws w/ bolters (maximum fists, and the wolf guard fister too). The packs may have been bigger, but 15 seems pretty huge to me already.

His game plan was pretty attuned to 5th edition, or at least the way screening works - packs deploy in long lines across the board, stormcaller (5+ cover power) is cast on the front pack, and all the lines run across into your face. Front squad gets 5+ cover, ones behind get 4+ cover for being screened.

For our part, the spiky marines locked, loaded and prepared to shoot the hell out of those fist-spammin' dogs. Even with excellent run rolls - and those long chains were being pulled through difficult terrain for the most part too - I'd get solid rounds of blasting as they came in for the crumping.

This would be Kill Points, Pitched Battle. Delicious.

Wolves 1
Everything ran for me, with the Wolf Chappy in the front pack and the Wolf Libby somewhere around the second and third lines. The bolter squad started climbing into an elevated position in his deployment zone. Stormcaller went off on the front squad.

Chaos 1
Deathscreamer & 1k Sons shuffled around a bit, but otherwise it was right to killing. Really not too many died from the front pack considering, but the blastmaster scored two wounds and the Wolves failed the pin test @ -2. I was pretty surprised that the Wolf Chappy doesn't make his boys fearless ...

Wolves 2
Wolf Scouts appear behind the 1k Sons, downing one with a pistol, missing with their meltagun and then hoping into combat. The rest of the Wolves charged forward, but became a bit bunched up where the front squad had been pinned in place. Also, the bolter squad properly attained their perch and realized they had nothing remotely in range. Stormcaller I think failed to cast this turn ...

In combat the deathscreamer either rolled a 6 and fluffed 9 attaks down to 1 wound, or rolled a 1 and took a wound (both happened at some point). Anyway, the 1k Sons lost 2 robots and amazingly beat down 2 scouts by themselves (no need for lords or sorcerers).

Chaos 2
Unforunately the girls wanted to play already, so summoned in front of his pinned Chappy squad and prepared to be mauled. But first, shooting accounted for a bunch of the second line and knocked the chappy's squad down to the Chappy and a couple fists.

Which wasn't enough to save the chicks, who were mangled by the Chappy (3 dead), dragged down 1 fister, lost some more to the wolf guard fist and then popped a couple from the No Retreat! bunk. The last 4-5 girls made sad eyes as all those big viking marines licked their lips ... The deathscreamer either fluffed or hurt himself, but again the robots clubbed another scout to death leaving just 1 locking them up.

Wolves 3
Charging time?! A nice full strength pack lept to the front line (probably #3) and was stormcalled, and then pack #2 (old Wolf Sorcerer too) piled in with the remnants of #1 to beat up some chicks. Which they did.

Chaos 3
Annnd now the termies wanted to play, so they dropped to the rightmost end of the front, 5+ cover pack, with the intention of blitzing off a couple Pups and then punishing him for extending the line so far out - by charging the last man next turn he would only get 6" of counter-charge, only enough to bring 2 of 4 fists into play. Nobody else felt like moving, so unloaded into that front squad for a bit, opening a gap into the second squad which the blastmaster tapped and pinned! And the powerfist that was hanging out wiht the Chappy was knocked away, thothe big man having previously joined the now pinned squad.

Wolves 4
With the rear pack pinned (including Wolf Libby & Chappy), the front squad barreled into the terminators, though as predicted couldn't get all 4 fists swinging. For which they were punished, killing 0 terminators and losing a few more of their own, breaking and running for it. The terminators could only consolidate in response, making sure to move within 6" of the fleeing squad.

Chaos 4
The enemy had been reduced to the 15 bolter pups in the backfield, 2 running fister pups (so that broken squad was WAY shot up before, apparently), and about 10 pups with Chappy & Not-Libby. The obliterator and deathscreamer / sons moved to hammer the bolter hounds, though the oblit missed the plasma cannon shot and the S4 AP3 guns from the other squad went into the pinned unit. Eevil firepower ultimately knocked that one unit down to the characters + 2 powerfists, due to cover saves and more average rolling from me. Despite having seen the buffs that counter-attak + wolf pelt gives Wolf characters, my terminators charged in and were diced up, given the pups a heart consolidation towards my noise marines ...

Wolves 5
Which they clearly took advantage of, charging those 2 characters + 2 fists into the noise marines in difficult terrain. This actually resulted in the Faux-Libby not quite making it this round, which was unfortunate as the Chappy managed only 2 dead noisy boys with his 6 attaks, and in return the deaf marines hacked down the powerfisters before they could swing.

Chaos 5
The oblit and deathscreamer / sons advanced on the bolter marines, ripping them down to half strength or so. The fisty 10 CSM squad mobilized and jumped into the fight with the noise marines, and the elements of the chaos army that still felt like shooting riddled the rallied 2 marines from that broken pack with bullets and missiles.

The Wolf Chappy felt the wrath of S4 combat weapons, giving up the two wounds he had to give and finally going down. The Wolf Shaman beat upon the noise marines but with limited success.

Wolves 6
The bolters missed and the Shaman-dude fought, dropping a noise marine or so for a wound in return.

Chaos 6
The oblit + deathscreamer + sons smacked the bolter pack off the table, and the CSM fist bite down and crumped the old Wolf Wizard properly. Wolves, tabled.

CHAOS WIN

So a long, drawn out way to say: he ran, I shot, there was some fighting but evil triumphed in the end (because good is stupid and dumb). But I don't have class or work today so long and drawn out it is!

Painting: Ogres
Building: N/A

+ First 5E Throwdown +

Saturday night had my first foray into 5th edition, and gotta say the 5E part was overshadowed by the bad dice part ...

Anarchonquistadores vs Blood Angels [2000] - Game was annihilation (kill points) & table quarters, with chaos winning the One Roll and deciding to deploy and go first. The table was quite symmetrical, tall ruined building in each corner, craters between each building, woods in the center. The spiky boys created the trademark firebase in one of the ruins, as the 1k Sons, shooty CSM + deathscreamer and biker prepared to push into a large crater to create a mini-bunker of sorts. Dreads went far left and far right to do their thing. The blood angels brought -

Termi chappy + 5 assault termies (2 hammers, 3 claws) in crusader
Jump chappy + 10 death company with jump packs
2x 10 Assault marines w/ powerfist
2x 5 Tactical marines w/ meltagun + powerfist, in rhinos
Venerable Furioso

- and deployed largely shielded by the woods in the center but ready to rip my face off. The dread hid behind the land raider.

Chaos 1

Dreads kept their cool, with #2 stomping over to get LOS on a rhino and #1 scooting to smash some assault marines. Which he did fantastically, the plasma cannon vaporizing 4-5 and sending them running (though they stayed on the board, they were effectively out of the game, with 5' to get to me. Dread2 shook the rhino, and all my other fire managed to stun the other one as well ... Between the defiler and sundry other fire a couple assault marines fell and possibly 1 death company member, many saved by the 5+ cover the woods were providing in the center. My two lascannons did nothing to the crusader.

Kill Points: Chaos (0) vs Blood Angels (0)

Blood Angels 1

Crusader cruised forward, dread ran up and kept behind it, the mobile rhino overcharged and zipped towards the traitor marines and sundry assault marines hopped forward. The robot firing the crusader gun did nothing that mattered (assault cannon on Dread1) and the rhinos popped smoke.

Kill Points: Chaos (0) vs Blood Angels (0)

Chaos 2

No reserves wanted to play, though both dreads kept it in their pants for a second turn. Dread1 backed up to get away from the crusader but Dread2 mobilized to go beat up on the assault marines that had leapt perilously close. The bike lord also saw an opening and powered through the central woods, prepared to slam into the death company and take 4-5 of the killers down with him. Fire saw nothing done to the crusader, the rhinos' smoke save all the hits on them and the deathscreamer pop one of the assault marines Dread2 was staring at. Speaking of which, Dread2's heavy flamer and frag missile did nothing to the assault marines, their saves being impressively effective.

Tired of this shooting nonsense Dread2 charged the marines and beat two into submission, for no damage in return (the fist flopped), though the marines held. The biker lord charged up the demogauntlet and ... rolled that 1 you were all expecting. He didn't take a wound and the chappy couldn't make it past T5, but the death company did 3 wounds + 1 rend on the main man. Naturally he made the 5+ inv but failed the 3 3+ armor saves, giving the death company a hearty massacre move into the woods and towards my line.

Kill Points: Chaos (0) vs Blood Angels (1)

Blood Angels 2

Crusader tanked forward with the furioso sprinting behind, death company hopped out of the forest (1 hit a tree, but felt no pain) and onto the crater my shooty CSM + deathscreamer were in (1 broke his ankle, but felt no pain), and the marines in the rhino near Dread2's combat got out and readied their powerfist for some can opening. Shooting again did nothing (I don't think he shot his bolt pistols all game, now that I think about it).

Dread2 chainfisted a couple more assault marines, was immobilized by a very lucky krak grenade (6-6-6) and then detonated by the two powerfists. The explosion gleefully took the assault marines down to just the powerfist vet! In a less happy turn of events the death company slammed into the shooty CSM + deathscreamer, furious charge + frags gutting all 10 CSM before they could strike. The deathscreamer accounted for 1 death company marine (with a max 9 attaks!) and then was forced to take 9 No Retreat! saves. Of course he failed 3 exactly.

Kill Points: Chaos (0) vs Blood Angels (4)

Chaos 3

The demons became available, and unfortunately had no available charge target except for the death company, so they summoned and got psyched up for tarpit duty. The defiler saw the chappy's enticing T4 and mobilized for the charge and the 1k Sons scooted forward, having reread the SnP rules and thrilled at getting a charge bonus and not being I1 any longer. The firebase meanwhile braced for the terminator assault to come, as yet again both lascannons bounced off of the crusader. Dread1 was a little more on the ball, firing his plasma cannon across the board at the tactical marines that had crumped his brother. In 5E you no longer consolidate after killing any vehicle, WS value or not, which left the 5 marines in a tight ball ... of which 4 died to plasma, leaving 2 powerfist vets by their lonesome over in that quarter. Other fire did very little, with the death company having 5+ cover and their FNP after that.

Everybody that could pounced on the death company, girls into crazy marines and the chappy, defiler into the chappy and 1k Sons into some more crazy marines. The 1k Sons missed with everything, only 1 robot landing a hit which was saved, and lost two automatons for their troubles. The demons went last (no frags) and lost a couple, only to do nothing in return. The defiler slapped at the chappy but he never rolled less than 5 for his rosarius. No Retreat! wounds meant two more Sons died (3+ ha) but both girls saved (5+ ha).

Kill Points: Chaos (0) vs Blood Angels (4)

Blood Angels 3

The pain train arrived, the crusader vomiting forth the terminators right into the fisty CSM's face. The furioso scampered behind the crusader again, but the game was looking like it would end before he could become an issue. The crusader's robotic multi-melta killed Dread1, detonating him as well but not enough to tag the obliterator.

The fisty CSM disappeared under the rerolling onslaught, all 10 dying (and then some) and so taking the fist before he could strike. The termies consolidated a little and looked up at a four story ruin full of AP5 & 3 guns ... Over in the death company mosh the 1k Sons were wiped out, the demons taken down to 2 and all 3 wounds the defiler put on the chappy were saved 5-5-6.

Kill Points: Chaos (0) vs Blood Angels (6)

Chaos 4

At last the plasma termies became available, striking off the last icon (havoks) and pointing their guns at the enemy termies. The oblit plasma cannon led the charge, cooking the thunderhammers and a claw termi, the plasma trio managed a single dead blood angel and then a mountain of krak and bolt shells descended upon the chappy and his buddy. Which were all saved. It took the noise marines hitting with 11 S4 shots and wounding with all 11 to take the terminators done. Well done noisy boys.

Back against the death company the girls finally put some attaks on the non-FNP-ing chappy, causing 1 wound, but the defiler's attaks were yet again easily saved. The girls were cut down at last, leaving the defiler against a bunch of rending.

Kill Points: Chaos (2) vs Blood Angels (7)

Blood Angels 4

Nothing really happened. Crusader knocked down a havok or two, the melta didn't claim the oblit and the defiler's cuddling of the chappy continued with no result. The death company managed a rend against the spider tank but didn't roll high enough on the D3.

Kill Points: Chaos (2) vs Blood Angels (7)

And we called it game at that, we both had places to be and women to appease for the late-running game. Far behind on kill points, this was a solid ...

BLOOD ANGELS WIN

This felt much more like his hot dice (those armor saves!) vs my cold dice (those armor saves!) than anything else, though I did make a couple mistakes. I really should have devoted all the S8+ AP2- fire into the death company at all costs, 5+ cover saves be damned, and ignored the crusader. I wasted 6 lascannons shots and many bolters firing at the crusader, in addition to a salvo of havok kraks, when I only had a so-so chance of stopping it in the first place. Letting the termies eat a squad and then retaliating (as happened anyway) would have been a better way to go, and let my guns kill those FNP maniacs instead. Also the demons should have pilled as many attaks into the chaplain as possible and not trusted so much in the defiler. If the walker had been killing death co there would have been 6+ of them dead instead of 0 dead chaplains with the 5+ magic rosarius.

The biker lord doomcharge was reckless but not that stupid I think, had a good chance of depleting the squad and holding them for a turn. But the dice, they are bitches sometimes.

Not too much to say about 5E yet. I love no partial on blasts but hate the unlimited No Retreat! wounds, which makes no sense and is also really really painful for fearless characters.

Painting: Ogre Irongut
Building: N/A

+ Violators Fleet Action +

The full 1500 Violators fleet hit the board last night, teamed up with a 1500 plaguefleet (PLANETKILLER & friends) against an incredibly escort-heavy Imperial fleet led by an APOCALYPSE. Generic cruiser clash, with a whopping foud planets on the table for terrain :P

Violators & Plaguefleet vs Unknown Imperial Fleet [3000]

Chaos seized the initiative and began closing with the massive Imperial fleet, though due to the extreme ranges involved the majority of the Chaos fire was directed into the mines that the Imperials had deployed around the planets near the traitor fleet. Gaze of the Unclean, the nurgle planetkiller, however slammed its armageddon gun through two Imperial escorts, obliterating one and setting off the shield on the other. First blood!

The Imperial response was likewise minimal, as the fleet split to engage the two traitor fleets and the apocalypse steamed forward to take the planetkiller head on. Despite the small star blocking much of the Violators fleet from the Imperial guns Bass God took two direct hits from nova cannons! Judicious bracing resulted in only two hits being caused after shields, praise be to Slaanesh. Two squadrons of four cobras lined up the Gaze of the Unclean and launched torpedoes, as did the apocalypse and several other ships, filling that crowded area of space even more, though none made contact as of yet.

Now able to draw their guns into range the Chaos fleets prepared to turn the heat up. The Violators fleet consolidated to the port side of the cruisers jockeying around the star, but extreme range resulted in the weapon batteries of Cacophonic and Distortion putting just three hits onto the closest tyrant. The plaguefleet proved more ferocious, dropping all four shields on the apocalypse and accounting for four of its twelve hits. Both Chaos fleets dispatched fighters to take out the remaining mines and two of the torpedo salvos in coming on the planetkiller.

With the traitor vessels drawing close the Imperial fleet had to react. Against the Violators that arm of the fleet continued moving around the star, with the ships nearest the Chaos fleet firing broadsides into Cacophonic. The tainted ship braced for impact ... and needn't have, as shields absorbed the two hits that landed. Pleasure Throes, bringing up the tail of the Violators and visible around the other side of the star, took a couple shield hits but no cause for concern. The rest of the Imperials descended upon the plaguefleet, but all the fire, torpedoes and bombers resulted in a single hit on the planetkiller and several dropped shields.

Time to kill. The Violators swooped upon the squadron of tyrants, with Bass God going on lock on orders for supreme vengeance. Fire from throughout the fleet resulted in a hulked tyrant, three hits and a destroyed gun battery on another, and a massive bomber flight from Blistering Excess saw a third crippled. Bass God tagged a hit on the apocalypse as well, but the Nurgle warmaster protested loudly as he had moved his fleet in to deliver the killing blow to the battleship. Which they did with an impressive show of force, dropping all four shields and doing the seven hits (and three more!) needed to hulk the enormous flagship. As a parting shot plague bombers gutted two cobras and the nurgle acheron dropped a few shields.

Deeply demoralized but shouldering on, the Imperial fleet mobilized its masses of escorts against key Chaos targets, but it would prove for not. Eleven sword frigates fired upon the Blistering Excess but once again bracing resulted in just two hits getting past the shields. Likewise the Gaze of the Unclean absorbed the other firepower of the other half of the Imperial fleet, bracing and shields resulting in a solitary hit being caused. With that the heroes of the Imperium disengaged.

CHAOS WIN

That brutal third turn really did the lapdogs in, with Slaanesh ships up in his junks going crazy and the Nurgle fleet decapitating his force. There was still a lot of game to go - Chaos was still outnumbered 2:1 in pure ships on the table - but it was likely a foregone conclusion.

Closing Thought -> Wow, BFG is cool. Neat to see in action and a blast to play.

Painting: Ogre Irongut
Buidling: N/A

+ Violators Fleet 1500 +

Finished up the 500 point jump to 1500 today, pretty proud of the fleet. BFG is simple and fun to paint, this is probably the quickest 'army' I've gotten together for any game, ever. Fluff-wise it's a fleet under the command of the Violators traitor marines, Slaanesh-flavored CSM who seal their baby-blue armor and end up oozing, uh, gunk out of the seals (see the novel Daemon World for the source). Tried to carry it over to the ships, but admittedly my last ship, the Acheron, turned out waaay bright as I kept cleaning up the ink and not letting it pool or get oozy looking :P






Styx "Blistering Excess" - Lord Devour w/ MoS + reroll, CSM crew
Acheron "Bass God" - Lord Pharron w/ MoS + reroll, CSM crew
Carnage "Cacophonic"
Carnage "Distortion"
Devastation "Pleasure Throes"
Slaughter "Masochist"
2x Iconoclast + 1x Infidel "Slaves to Torment"
-----
1500

I suppose that when I do a battleship it'll be 100% icy blue ...

Painting: Demosaurus
Building: N/A