Future Britz Reinforcements

After agreeing to the acquisition of some toxic assets and derivatives by the U.K. from King Barack III of the reconstituted United States, the Future Britz can now manufacture the new (old) Space Patton under license. The vehicle was soon upgraded with a 200 pounder gun.



A slightly more difficult initiative by the Future Gordon Brown government was that of recruitment. A recent chin wag in New New Berlin in which servicemen were denied access to their APC's so that anti-rubble mechanisms could be installed, resulted in a unnecessary loss of life and has become quite the scandal in an already scandal plagued government. Luckily, Chelsea once again smashed Manchesters backside in a recent match. The ensuing riot and drunkeness provided an opportunity for the new Community Service Branch of the Ministry of Defence to expand into enlistment services.

"Eldar on Eldar. Pull out the Rubber Shurikens!"

Eldar Field Training Exercise

On Wednesday, May 13, Thurston and I brought out our respective Eldar armies for some hot, Eldar on Eldar action at Thurston and Alex's place.

Considering the fluff and background of our respective forces, we agreed that this was a training exercise, where the units were using the Eldar equivalent of rubber shuriken and rattan swords. Broken bones, maybe, but no needless deaths for the dying race...

***

I brought out a very lean Swordwind force. Light on the squad and vehicle upgrades, heavy on Aspect Warrior bodies and boats:

Swordwind

HQ
Sword-of-the-Lord - Farseer, Doom, Eldar Jetbike, Runes of Warding, Singing Spear
Warrior of Surprise - Autarch, Eldar Jetbike, Fusion Gun, Laser Lance

TROOPS
Companions - Dire Avengers x 10
- Far-Darter - Exarch upgrade, Bladestorm, 2nd Avenger Shuriken Catapult
- Ancient Whispers - Wave Serpent, TL Shuriken Cannon, Shuriken Cannon Upgrade

Blood Redeemers - Dire Avengers x 10
- Pious - Exarch upgrade, Bladestorm, Diresword and Shuriken Pistol
- Peacemaker - Wave Serpent, TL Bright Lances

ELITES
Blade Dancers - Howling Banshees x 10
- Angelic Rhapsody - Exarch upgrade, Executioner
- Fencing Master - Wave Serpent, TL Shuriken Cannon

Fate’s Tears - Fire Dragons x 5
- The Kid - Wave Serpent, TL Shuriken Cannon

FAST ATTACK
Dreamweavers - Warp Spiders x 5

HEAVY SUPPORT
War Prayer – Fire Prism

Total: 1499 points

***

Thurston used his Saim-Hann jetbike army; IIRC:

Saim-Hann

Farseer w/ Spirit Stones, Guide and Doom, riding with
10 Dire Avengers
- including Exarch w/ Bladestorm, Power Weapon and Shimmershield
- Wave Serpent w/ TL Bright Lances and Stones

6 Fire Dragons (riding in the Falcon)
- Exarch w/ Dragon's Breath Flamer and Tank Hunter

7 Guardian Jetbikes, w/ 2 Shuriken Cannons
- plus Warlock w/ Enhance and Singing Spear (8 bikes total)

7 Guardian Jetbikes, w/ 2 Shuriken Cannons
- plus Warlock w/ Enhance and Singing Spear (8 bikes total)

Vyper Jetbike w/ Missile Launcher and Spirit Stones

5 Dark Reapers - Exarch w/ Fast Shot and Missile Launcher

Falcon Grav Tank w/ Holofield, Spirit Stones, and Scatter Laser

As we conversed before the game, I thought to myself, "Fighting Thurston's army is going to be like trying to fight smoke."

***

We played a scenario straight out of the main rulebook, Seize Ground, with Pitched Battle (long table edge) deployment. Thurston rolled up 3 objectives, so we took turns placing my three objective counters. I set up a Ghostwarrior on the middle west of the table, Thurston put a Ranger in a foxhole in a clearing to the east, and I responded with the final counter, an ex-slave Sister of Battle, just over 12" north of the first counter. The player controlling the most objectives would win...

Fun With Objectives
I was trying to be creative with the placement of objectives. With the first two counters so widely separated, the game could really divide my forces. By placing the last counter so close to the first, I would hopefully force Thurston to concentrate the bulk of his forces on the western half of the table, to prevent an easy victory on my part. Due to the sizes of the grav tanks and the on-table footprint of a squad of Dire Avengers or Guardian Jetbikes, a single scoring unit could easily control both western objectives. Thus, the Swordwind might be able to ensure their control of the eastern objective.

Rolling for first turn, Thurston won and decided that the Saim-Hann would go first. He set up the Falcon and Dark Reapers in the far northwest corner, overlooking the two western objectives, which sat in a natural fire lane. The two units set up were long-ranged units (48" range guns), but there was a lot of terrain blocking their LOS to the eastern objective.

I declined to set up anything, holding the Swordwind in reserve, with the Warp Spiders set to deep strike, the Farseer and the Autarch off-table together as an ersatz unit, and everyone else mounted in their respective Wave Serpent transports.

For the second turn, Thurston held pat with Saim-Hann's two heavy support units, and brought on their Farseer/Dire Avenger combo in the middle of the northern board edge, flanked to the east by a Guardian Jetbike squad, and to the west by the Vyper.

The Swordwind's Farseer/Autarch bike combo, Fire Dragons, Howling Banshees and Fire Prism showed up. The two Avenger squads stayed in reserve, which was OK. This prevented the Swordwind's only two scoring units from receiving fire. The Fire Prism came on to the west to challenge the Reapers, and everything else moved on to the far east, hiding as best they could behind rocky terrain.



The Fire Prism managed to stick a pie plate blast marker over the Reapers, dropping a couple of them and breaking them, forcing them to fall back.

As the game progressed, it continued its chess-like exercise in movement and counter-movement. There were almost no casualties for a couple of turns as both sides jockeyed for position. Thurston's Saim-Hann bikes hovered at range, firing pot shots with their shuriken cannons and fading back 6" to be just out of reach of most of the Swordwind's guns - trying to taunt the Swordwind into Saim-Hann's combined killing zones. The Saim-Hann Farseer in his Serpent moved to the west and hovered in that general vicinity, to guide the Falcon and help control the action. The Vyper, after being shaken, moved flat out west to hind behind rocks.

Conversely, the Swordwind stayed at range to prevent the bikes from turbo-boosting in behind the Wave Serpents, where the bikes could surround the Serpents and block their escape hatches, setting up possible squad kills if the boats went down to other units' fire. As reinforcements arrived, one Avenger Serpent moved to the Eastern objective, and the other moved on near the Fire Prism. The second Avenger Serpent was stunned by a couple of missiles from the Dark Reaper Exarch, but its pilot recovered in time for the action noted below.

Around the fourth turn, things started to really happen. In the middle of the table, Saim-Hann's Fire Dragons disembarked from their Falcon and brought down the Swordwind Dragons' Wave Serpent. The Swordwind Dragons fortunately took no casualties and passed their Pin test as they climbed out of the "wreck." That Serpent's pilot then took time out for some tea.



In response, the Banshees in their ride moved slightly north in between a couple of pieces of rocky terrain, to forestall Saim-Hann movement towards the centre, leaving just enough room behind to disembark.

The Fire Prism had been Shaken last turn, so it skimmed flat out north to contest both western objectives.

The Spiders finally deigned to show up. In a risky move, they teleported behind the Saim-Hann Farseer's Wave Serpent. However, all their S6 shots only managed to stun the thing.

The Swordwind bike Farseer separated off and disabled the Falcon's pulse laser with her thrown Singing Spear. The Swordwind's Dragons dropped 5 from the Saim-Hann Dragon squad. Their Exarch was left on his feet, with his heavy flamer. He had to go, so the Autarch charged him and beat him bloody with his blunted lance. For his consolidation move, the Autarch advanced forward towards a Guardian Bike squad, to draw their fire and to shield the Dragons.

For their second (Assault Phase) moves the Swordwind tried to hide their Farseer behind some rocks, and teleported the Spiders next to the surviving Saim-Hann Dark Reapers (to force a response against them by the enemy Avengers, instead of those Avengers converging on the western objectives).

As the Saim-Hann Dragon Exarch limped off the field to the sidelines for a drink of the Eldar equivalent of Gatorade, their Farseer Doomed the Warp Spiders. The Avengers disembarked and Bladestormed the Spiders, leaving a couple standing. A subsequent Avenger charge left those two Spiders covered with bruises, as they were pummeled down by the Avenger Exarch's blunted glaive.

Meanwhile, the Falcon slid south and overwhelmed the Swordwind Farseer's mystic defenses with an attenuated Scatter Laser burst. She broke a fingernail as she landed ass-first in the dust.



An entire Guardian Bike squad let loose on the Autarch, who gamely leaned into the hail of blunt shuriken until his armour's sensors also registered him as "killed."

"Whaddaya know, it's beer-o'clock already!"

The other bike squad's cannons immobilized the Banshee skimmer and disabled its turret. The bikes then faded back north, seemingly out of range of any response.

Bottom of the fifth turn, and the game might end due to the random game length rule. I decided that the Swordwind would "go all in", to try and seize control of two objectives, and knock out the Saim-Hann ability to control objectives in response.

The Fire Prism spun in place to make room for the Avenger squad. The Avenger's Serpent backed up by the southwest objective, disembarking the Avengers in a skirmish line around the back of the boat, within shuriken range of the western Guardian Bike squad. The Dragons also advanced on those bikers, hoping to be in range with their fusion rifles. To the east, the other Avenger Serpent moved 6" north out from behind cover, allowing its turret and chin shuriken cannons to bear on the northern bike squad. The Banshees disembarked and moved north from their immobilized skimmer.

The Prism landed a big blast marker on some bikers and a couple of Avengers, dropping the latter.

The Fire Dragons were just in range of the bikers' Warlock, nailing a couple of the Wild Riders. The dismounted Swordwind Avengers unleashed a Bladestorm on the remaining bikers, reducing their number to two and downing the Warlock. The last of them broke and, unable to rally now due to losses, fled north to avoid more bruising.

The Banshees launched themselves into a run. If they rolled a "1" they would never reach the Guardian bikers.

As Brian would say, "Never tell me the odds!"

The Banshee Exarch must have been a fitness guru, since they rolled a "6" for their run move, to put them just within charge reach of the remaining Guardian Bike squad.

I rolled for the Banshee's run first, so I could decide later what to do with the remaining Avenger Serpent. If it now fired and killed one or two bikes, canny casualty removal by Thurston might leave the Banshees high and dry, subject to a hail of shuriken themselves. I held off, leaving the Avengers content to control the eastern objective.

In the ensuing Assault Phase, the Banshees' 30 attacks overwhelmed the Guardian bike squad with much beating about their heads and shoulders, wiping them out.

The photo below show the results of the close quarters battles. All the 60mm bases and biker models on the right hand table edge are Guardian Bike casualties. (Note: Click on the photo for a larger version.)



As the fifth turn ended, the Swordwind controlled two objectives and contested the third. Destroying two of the Saim-Hann scoring units really reduced their chance of winning the field exercise. However, the Saim-Hann forces still had two mobile skimmer tanks and a Vyper, allowing possible tank shocks and gunfire to maybe drive off the dismounted Swordwind Avengers, and contest a couple of objectives. The Saim-Hann Avengers were out of ammo, but with a good series of run and difficult terrain rolls they might be able to reach some of the Swordwind Avengers in assault. With identical initiatives and both sides' Exarchs skilled in swordplay, both squads might break each other.

Thurston rolled for game end and rolled a three. The game would continue! However, it was already midnight on a work night...

Meanwhile, back on the Craftworld:
The Saim-Hann Farseer looked at the position of the various units, and looked at a gem that passed for a chronometer. He got on the comm-link and offered the Swordwind a draw. The Banshee Exarch, the ranking "survivor" due to her centuries of service, didn't need her dear Farseer's runes to see that this scrum might continue into a purplish-bruised stalemate. She readily accepted the offer of a draw. As both sides powered down their weapon systems, she looked forward to an evening of gamboling in the Temple bath house with her warrior women.

The Forge of Vaul is hot

Finished a project that's been sitting on my painting table for months - a turret to convert my Falcon into a Fire Prism Grav Tank.

The big gem-like Prism Cannon and its activating laser are rough pewter castings that together weigh more than the rest of the tank. The prism took a long time to prepare, requiring lots of putty, filing and sanding. The turret's resulting mass makes the tank top heavy, so I mounted it on a very low magnetized base. I added a resin Forge World crystal targeting matrix to represent the tank's enhanced Ballistic Skill 4. The usual stuff for the rest - pilot with two-stage highlighting finished with oil glazes, the canopy dipped in Future Floor Polish to get rid of scratches, etc.

Dr. Faust has a good tutorial on an alternate method of preparing this kit:
http://www.paintingclinic.com/operations/eldarproject/fireprism.htm

GW should make a plastic weapon fit, since this is the main battle tank of the Eldar.

This vehicle made its combat debut Wednesday night against Thurston's Saim-Hann army. Surprisingly, it weathered hits from multiple heavy weapons to survive the battle unscathed.

Colonial conflict in Regina

Over the weekend I was fortunate to have the opportunity to zip down to Regina for a visit with "Fawcett Founding Father" Curt C. In addition to putting up with me spongeing his Coke Zero supply and playing Rainbow Six on his TV until three in the morning, we ran a colonial game using my 28mm Perry Twins collection. Here is a quick report, and some photos from the game.


The scenario was set in noth-east Sudan, in the earlier period of the conflict, in which the British were building up a force to protect the port of Suakin. It featured a heliograph team, holed up in an abandoned village, which had been merrily transmitting signals, much to the chagrin of local Mahdist warriors, concered at what the Frankish invaders were doing with the sun. A detachment of naval troops, backed by a Gatling and a Gardner Gun, set up a defence in the village, while a relief force of Yorks and Lancs and Gordon Highlanders tried to arrive before the tribal warriors overran the outpost.

The Mahdists;' objective was to kill all members of the heliograph team in 15 turns. The British objective was to prevent this.

The Mahdists had approximately 100 warrior, armed with a mix of swords, spears and captured rifles, and a group of six camel riders. They also had the Imam, which other Fawcett gamers will recall has the creepy effect of ensuring the warriors keep fighting through wounds that might otherwise have been fatal. Also, there was a provision that the Mahdists could "regenerate" in the sense that if one group of warriors broke, another similar one would re-appear at the board edge.

The British in the village had approx. 14 naval ratings, a gatling gun, and a gardner gun. Heavy firepower, but the village was pretty large and there were a lot of walls to defend so it was a challenge to cover them all. The relief column had a group of 14 Yorks and Lancs, a group of 12 Cameron Highlanders, and a 7-pound screw gun for artillery support, together with associated officers, pipers etc.

Curt and Dean took command of the Mahdist horde. Dan and Stacey split the British command, with Stacey attempting to hold the village, and Dan marching to the rescue.

The game was a hoot - Stacey was alarmed to see the Mahdists, rather than charge into the mouth of the repeating guns, make an attack that swept around the flanks of the village. Ultimately, the Mahdists would congregate in an area where the British had poor visibility, and then swarm the wall. Natually, the gatling jammed at a critical moment, while the Gardner failed to hit anything! Poor Stacey had an off night for rolling overall, while the tribesman were rolling vegas. The only exception was a Naval Lieutenant, who was gunnig for a Victoria Cross holding off several warriors, and even a mounted Khalifa, single-handedly for several turns. As the game developed, this award would be received posthumously...

Eventually, the village was overrun, with Curt's Khalifa surivivng two grisly rifle wounds, fighting his way over the wall, killing the Gardner Gun crew, dismounting, and fighting his way upstairs into a house, killing off the naval ratings, and finally beginning to "take care" of the heliograph team. He was helped along the way by some rock-hard Imam saving throws (see below). God is great!

Meanwhile, Dan was doing his best to march across the sands to help. The royal artillery put round after round into the cloud of tribesmen who were attempting to block the relief force, but the warriors kept coming. The dreaded camel warriors hit the Highlanders pretty hard, and it looked like curtains for them as the kilted gentlemen started to fall beneath the hooves of the smelly beats, but Dan pulled it out int the end, rolling hot to push them back, slaughter the remaining infantry, and continue the advance after blowing away the surviving camels with a couple of volleys from Martini-Henry rifles. One plucky Highland NCO even defeated the last camel in single combat!

As Dan rolled across the seemingly endless table (eight feet, to be exact!), Curt's rifle-armed warriors sniped away. In a bold move, Dan sent his mounted officer in a race ahead to try and get into the village early and help the hapless sailors with the close fighting. The Mahdists are terrrible shots, but Curt's shooters hurt the British captain badly, so even though he made it to the village, all he got for his trouble was a spear in the gut. This was the "TSN turning point" of the game. Even though the Sudanese riflemen ultimately got killed by a combination of rifle fire and further attention from the Royal Artillery, by weakening the mounted captain, they effectively sealed the fate of the British defences in the village.

All around, a tremendously fun game. It came once again to the final turn - in the end, only three members of the heliograph team had been killed, while the Yorks and Lancs were preparing to vault into the village in the face of a storm of spears. Technically, the British "won", but certainly the Gav Thorpe moral victory goes to the Mahdists! Thanks to Curt for hosting, and for the Regina crew for coming out and playing a great game.

Pictures below, courtesy of Curt!

Mahdist warriors sweep across the desert to drive out the foreigners!

The Highlanders confront the Mahdist "camelry".


Heliograph team contemplates next message - HELP!


A film crew captures the action at the wall. Long-time Fawcett gamers will catch the reference!


The naval ratings prepare to defend the village.


The young naval Lieutenant earning his Victoria Cross. It would be awarded posthumously.

The relief force crashes into the wall of the village. Note the building in the corner, where the Mahdists have started to finish off the heliograph team.


Curt captured a photo of the vegas rolling by the Mahdist side. Rolls like this had the Mahdist warriors ignoring wounds from rifles, repeating guns, high-explosive and other modern arms.

New Eureka Bundeswehr!

Eureka just released models of a milan ATGW and 40mm grenade launcher. Both models come with or without gas masks. Since the U.S. store doesn't have them in stock yet , I ordered the gas mask models from Eureka Australia and took the shipping hit. I know I should have just waited, but with all the wedding spending, I can misappropriate a small amount.

Euro-trip

Well, I'm off tomorrow across the pond for the first time ever... Spain and the UK.

Luckily I got special dispensation from the Tour Director to attend Partizan - another first for me, as I've never been to a big wargames show before.

Lack of Internet access may mean that my blog updates will be sporadic, but I'm confident that the other Conscripts will pick up any slack while I'm away.

See you in three weeks!

Greg's weekend visit to the GW store

For some reason, despite the ample recent exposure to the current excremental state of the 40k rules, I thought I would visit the GW store to pick up a copy of the new Imperial Guard codex. Like many poor decisions, it seemed like a good idea at the time, as we were in the neighbourhood running a few errands at St. Vital Centre. How bad could this be?

Artist rendering of GW drone in action...."Be sure to come back on Wednesday!"

Drone: “What are you looking for?”
GB: “Do you have the new Guard codex?”
Drone: “Yes!”
GB: “Where is it?”
Drone: “Well, unfortunately we’re sold out.”
GB: “So, you actually don’t have it then.”
Drone: “We have a store copy that you can read!”
GB: “…………………….”
Drone: “We should have some more soon, check on Wednesday.”
GB – sound of leaving, car starting…

As Dallas told me, I should have pre-ordered! When will I learn....

AstroTO Game 6 - Xenotech Raid

My sixth and final game of the tournament was on one of those great 8' x 4' dioramas that were once featured in the pages of the late Canadian White Dwarf.

Opponent: Dave's Chaos:
Khârn the Betrayer
A big Demon
Several Chaos Marines in a Land Raider
A large squad of deep-striking Chaos Terminators w' an autocannon and a lot of plasma
A squad of other Chaos marines
A pack of little demons
A pair of Obliterators

The whole point of the game was to see who could control either of two Tau research centres, which were located near each other on the top of a very large hill. IIRC, forces had to be within 3" to score or contest.

The table was mostly jungle terrain, with a range and LOS within the jungle of only 6 inches. The ONLY clear terrain was the moat-like river running around the entire hill. It was shallow enough to not count as difficult terrain.

I did not think that there was any way I could shift such hard Chaos troops off those objectives once they parked themselves on them. Eldar firepower was mostly nullified by the heavy jungle overgrowth. So, I decided to play for the draw.

Eldar was to go first, so I declined to set up. The Chaos forces set up everything except their deep strikers and the big demon (more later). One squad ran toward the western building, and a pack of demons ran towards the eastern building. Khârn and his boys in the Land Raider drove up the hill.

The first Eldar forces to show up were the Farseer, the Fire Dragons and the Howling Banshees. I sent them flat out eastward following the river, risking difficult terrain tests to get the Farseer to help cover the Serpents' flanks and rear.

The Chaos Land Raider parked in between the two facilities, and Khârn and his marines hung out. Each building got a squad of troops or demons to guard it. One of Khârn's men turned into a Demon, who came into being by the pack of Demons at the eastern Tau building.

The remainder of the Eldar forces showed up. I sent them westward down the river, to split up the attention of the Chaos forces.

The Terminators and the Obliterators dropped in. The former killed four of the five Warp Spiders, but the exarch's morale held. The Oblits killed the Banshees' Serpent:



The mounted Eldar forces moved around the large hill, trusting to their speed to keep them alive. The Banshees picked themselves up as best they could and splashed towards a path up the hill.

The Spider Exarch hung around and shot up the Terminators, wounding a few and killing at least one. The Termies took the bait and stayed in the river to gun down the Exarch. This was one less turn of them running towards an objective.

The game proceeded in such desultory fashion for awhile, with no real action as the Eldar skimmed around the periphery of the hill.

At the start of the fifth turn, I risked everything on one bold stroke.

The Farseer cast Doom on the big Demon. Then, passing difficult and dangerous terrain tests everywhere, the three surviving Wave Serpents and both jetbike HQ's crashed into the jungle, moving to within 3" of both Tau facilities.

The Dragons and Farseer were by the eastern building, closely followed by the Banshees in the event another turn was required:



Both Avenger squads and the Autarch ended up by the western building.

I could see my opponent's quandary. With everyone buttoned up, and the limited range of both fire and movement, he was at first unsure what to do. In the end, the Demon retreated away from its potential demise at the hands of a Fire Dragon firing squad, and the other demon pack snuggled in around that eastern building. The Land Raider tried to ram an Avenger Serpent, but failed.

Shooting damaged one Avenger boat, but Khârn and his evil marines then failed their assault contact move through the jungle, and stood staring at the Dire Avengers.

The Terminators managed to get some troops into contact with the other Serpent, but failed to do anything of note:



For random game length, my opponent rolled the die, getting a "2."

The game was over, with both Tau buildings heavily contested.

Result: Eldar/Chaos Draw


RE: Astronomi-con Toronto:

Six fun games over two days, playing interesting scenarios on pretty terrain. Plus, I was able to closely examine some really well-painted and -modeled armies.

I recommend Astro (either in Toronto, Vancouver or Winnipeg) unreservedly.

In the end, I came in 7th place out of 50, and won the prize for the Best Army List - a very cool, lit-up Imperial "computer" as a plaque.

Full results are posted here:
http://www.mts.net/~xian/astronomi-con/websiteV2/2009/yyz/results.htm

AstroTO Game 5 - Lost Patrol

Opponent: Mike's Ork Horde:
Boss Ork leading Nobs in a Trukk
Another big Ork leading Ork 15 jump troops (or is that "doze jump troopz")
Two big 30-strong mobs of ShootaBoyz
Another big mob of greenskins
A tin can Ork walker with some guns on it

VP game. Each side had a unit that was its "Lost Patrol." It started basically in the opponent's setup area (deeper if it was vehicle-mounted). You got extra VPs for getting your Lost patrol to within 6" of your own board edge.

Mike set up 30 Boyz in the middle of the Eldar deployment zone. I put the Dragons in their Serpent in the far northwest table corner.

This was gonna be a tough slog. The Lost Boyz (there's a joke there somewhere) moved towards the cover of a nearby forest. The Dragons went flat out south, hiding behind a Tau building.



Yet again the Autarch muffed the deployment from reserves, and only the Autarch, an Avenger squad and the Banshees appeared. The Avengers jumped out and I tried a multiple unit shoot on the nearby Boyz, but only killed a few.

The rest of the Orks showed up for the party. A bunch of jump pack Boyz dropped out of the sky, their rocket packs smoking and sputtering, landing right in front of the Dragon's boat:



They brought down the Dragon's Serpent, whereupon the Dragon's failed their Pin check and they decided to hang out behind their wrecked vehicle. Meanwhile, the Orks called a Waaugh! and manged to contact and cut down most of the Avengers.

The other Avenger squad, the Spiders and the Farseer showed up. Massed Eldar shooting managed to kill off all the jump pack Boyz and their leader. Sadly, that was the apex of the Eldar fortunes for the game.

With no Farseer to cast Doom at the start of the turn, Banshee Exarch Angelic Rhapsody led out her women in a fruitless attempt to stem the Ork tide. The killed a bunch, then both they and the original Avenger squad were defeated and routed off the table.

The Spiders tried to block a movement by the speeding Trukk carrying the Boss and Nobz, as the Autarch, remaining Avengers and the Farseer tried to sell their lives dearly.

As the game wound down, at least you could say that the Aspect Templars took their wounds on the fronts of their bodies, facing their enemies:



Mike was an awesome opponent. However, there were just too many Orks to kill. In retrospect, I probably should have played the range game better, moving around the table edges and limiting the number of Orks who could get into contact.

Result: Ork Victory

Click here for Game Six.

Future Gordon Brown is done ****ing around!

Brown will be adding two new squads of infantry (this will cause Greg's flak tank to run out of ammo), 2 heavy weapon teams and an upgraded lend-lease M60A1 (to be known as the Space Patton). If west wind and bobby from Hong Kong get my orders to me in good time, they may be ready for the bachelor game.

(Virus) Bombs Away!

Admiral Orias Maccabeus of the Imperial Navy smoothed his uniform reflexively. An in-system warp jump always gave him the jitters and it would not do for his crew to detect any discomfiture. One slight miscalculation by the Navs and the ship could end up in the heart of a star, or worse, lost in the Warp. It didn't bear thinking about, so Maccabeus closed off those thoughts in a corner of his mind and locked that mental door, for the thousandth time in his career.

Maccabeus stood on the command deck of the battlecruiser Titan's Hammer. Outside the reinforced plexisteel windows, a blue and yellow planet dominated the view. Alta Mexicosa, once an Imperial resort planet. The admiral thought back many years to a visit he'd enjoyed there. The sulfur beaches were smooth, the water warm, and the cold synthihol drinks copious.

But now, even from orbit, it was obvious that all was not well on Alta Mexicosa. From his vantage on the bridge of the battlecruiser, Maccabeus could see dark streaks of smoke ribboning across the lower atmosphere, here and there punctuated with the blooms of megaton-strength fusion bomb explosions. What a shame, he thought.

The vox broke the silence with a squeal of static. "Communication for you, Admiral - secure channel," said a deck officer. "In my quarters," Maccabeus replied, and strode off the bridge as the deck officer transferred the signal.

In ten minutes a whistle sounded to announce the return of Admiral Maccabeus on the bridge. His hands smoothed the front of his tunic. "Ensign Zacharias, activate the virus bomb protocol, authorization omega gamma seven. May the Emperor have mercy on our souls."

Last night's game was a large Warhammer 40K contest, pitting my Nurgle plague army against Greg's Imperial Guard, 2500 pts per side. The scenario was taken from this month's White Dwarf. In our game the Nurgle force was attacking one of the last Planetary Health Organization labs working on a cure to the porcine fever virus. The Imperial Guard were defending their deployment zone on one short table edge (24" in). The Nurgle force had to have at least one scoring unit in the Imperial zone at the end of the game - random game length of course.

Some of Greg's sweeet Perry Twins Guardsmen and their armoured support

Writing the list beforehand, I wondered how we could possibly lose. Three squads of 10 Plaguemarines (two in Rhinos), two squads of 10 summoned daemons, 15 traitor Guardsmen, a horde of 17 mutants (and these are ALL scoring units), a Dreadnought, a Predator, and to top it off, Typhus and a retinue of 10 Nurgle Terminators!

Then I watched Greg deploy his army... Leman Russes galore (including a Vanquisher) Chimeras, Sentinels, and tons of troops liberally festooned with lascannons. (S9 AP2 really hurts even if you're T5 like my Marines). Greg, Frederick and Mike F. ran the Guard while Dave V. and Cam helped me run the Plague Host.

Nurglers doing what they do best

I basically picked a point on the flank and ran everybody towards it. The Predator was blown up in Greg's first shooting phase and the traitor guard and mutants really suffered from pieplates being dropped on them. The Rhinos made it into assault range before being immobilized and/or blown up and that's when the hurt began for the Guard... Daemons arrived from reserve in the nick of time and as the Nurgle boys got stuck in one question remained... "where the #%^$ is Typhus?"

Typhus and the lads, ready to party

Well, he took his sweet time appearing but it was worth the wait. The deep-striking Herald of Nurgle and his hard-as-nails terminator retinue picked a point in the middle of the Imperial line and stuck the landing. As they fanned out to wreck some sh!t the rest of the lads redoubled their efforts. The Imperial shooting really was quite subpar as the Guardsmen seemed to need more time on the butts... the happy Nurglers were making saves and Feel No Pain rolls for once, too, so it was good times for the followers of the Father of Decay.

The wind really went out of the Imperial sails when a lone Plague Sergeant (I called him Stinkfist), having survived a round of shooting that wiped out the entire rest of his squad, dashed around the back of an adjacent Leman Russ and went ripsh!t on it with his powerfist, blowing the tank to Kingdom Come and killing several of his own comrades in an adjacent close combat with some Ogryns. The Ogryns lost the fight and after several more vehicles were blown by the Terminators, the Imperials threw in the towel.

Sergeant Stinkfist's squad about to get lit up - he is second from right

I enjoyed the game on several levels. The scenario was simple enough, I was making some die rolls, Greg's stuff was awesomely painted and great to see en masse, and my Nurgle lads broke their duck with their first win, bringing their record to 1-2.

Good times!