Allies in 40K - Poll Results

For the record, here are the results of our latest poll. 37 of you voted on the following question:

The new "meta" in 40K tournament play seems to be "allies". What do you think of Allies in 40K?

Here are your responses:

Great- I'll take an ally any day to give me something my codex lacks - 3 (8%)
They're OK for a themed game or special scenario, but not for a tourney - 10 (27%)
Meh - don't care one way or the other. Take 'em if you want - 3 (8%)
No way - too ripe for abuse by power gamers - 11 (29%)
I don't play 40K - 10 (27%)

So, taking out those respondents who don't play 40K, 78% of you thought allies are either unacceptable or only OK in a special or themed game. Only 11% thought that allies are a good fix for codex deficiencies.

My own view is that allies are generally lame. I wouldn't use them except in a themed narrative game on a Thursday. Although I am maybe the wrong person to ask, as I'm not too fussed about winning or losing a game as long as the result is close and it looks really nice :-)

Rattenkrieg auf Middenheim! WHFB Pictures

 

A few weeks back, we decided to dust off a couple of our old Warhammer Fantasy Battles armies and have a go. Conscript Greg brought his Empire panoply and I rolled out with my Skaven. Two thousand points was the engagement level, and I was pretty worried about making the time to get a list together since work has been so mental... however I needn't have worried overly, since in my podcast listening I'd found out about Battlescribe, a free list-building app... both Greg and I used it and it worked pretty well on our iPads.

Greg's guys looked awesome arrayed in a line of battle. I was initially heartened by my superiority in both bodies and magic-users. Greg brought a few scary things though - notably the three artillery pieces and a 15-man knight unit...

Even scarier than they look - and they look plenty scary

I brought some Jezzailists to wield their S6 -4 save weapons against said knights...

Level 4 Grey Seer on his Screaming Bell...

Hell Pit Abomination and a third big block of Clanrats.

Chittering hordes itching to get at the humans...

 

If I recall correctly, this is one of the main things that did me in - Helblaster cannon.



Rats had a simple plan - advance to contact and rip the humans apart. We had superiority in numbers and some big monsters on our side too. What could go wrong?

 



Well, this for one thing... that's the bounce on the Great Cannon shot at the Hellpit Abomination. Yes, he died quickly. No, he did nothing.

Knights ram into the clanrat block with Screaming Bell. I kept forgetting to activate the Bell but it didn't make a great deal of difference as it (and my Grey Seer) died horribly.

Nothing much better on the Plague Monk front - Empire troops took an extra dose of hand sanitizer before the battle and came out refreshed.

Can't remember exactly what this die roll represented but I'm pretty sure it was Not Good for the Skaven :-(

 



All along the line we were getting stuck in but it seemed to no avail. Empire detachments wrapped around and that was it. No coordination = no momentum.



 



Mortar played a part as well dropping templates on the clanrats from afar.

Anyway, this post is kind of an object lesson in posting when the battle is fresh in mind. This one happened some weeks ago and although I'm sure SOME things went my way in the game, all I can remember is abject defeat ;-)  Perhaps that's the Horned Rat's way of saying "must do better next time" :-) Always fun to play WHFB though and the game looked great!

"Target: Red Barun" - 40K Battle Report

Last week we were happy to welcome back "Founding Conscript" Curt, late of the Western Chapter. So what better way to celebrate than with a game of 40K ;-)

I kid, but only a little. We wanted to try the "new 40K" again to see if it would be as much fun as we thought it might be after the last game - plus Greg was looking for some redemption for his Valkyrie bunch.

So instead of using masses of cards and random scenarios, we decided to play a real narrative game. Old Imperial adversary "Da Red Barun" (above) has been raising Hell on Rynn's World, but the Imperial defenders haven't been able to locate his base. A patrol of abhuman veterans happens on the makeshift Ork airbase and calls in Valkyrie-borne reinforcements. The Barun himself is passed out from fungus intoxication, sleeping it off in the cockpit of his plane. The object of the game is seize da Barun, and the side in control of him at the end of the game gets 3 VPs. Victory points are also scored for Kill the Warlord, Linebreaker and First Blood, as usual. This IS 40K, after all ;-)
  

I laid out the terrain as an Imperial installation that's been captured and turned into an Ork airbase.

It was also the first chance I've had to use the cool Quonsets I picked up from the Dust range!

First turn and off we go! Conscripts Mike F., Indo and me ran the Ork horde, which consisted of three mobs of 15 boyz, five assorted warbuggies and Skorcha half-tracks, two Traktor cannons (Skyfire!!), a Trukk with a mounted quad-flakka-dakka gun, two Deff Dreads, a squad of 10 Stormboyz, and lastly another Trukk with five meganobs and Warboss Irongob.

Here's the quad flak on the lookout for Valks... Conscripts Greg, Curt and Byron rolled out the Guard - a veteran squad of very cool Quar models and their Quar-mera (visible at top left), some of the new Tempestus Scions, and three Valkyries full of troops. You can just see the Scions behind the Quonset at top centre.

Here's Byron plotting his next move as a disembodied hand points the way ;-)

Curt all smiles...

 ...as his Quar head for Kenny Rogers' Roaster...

Indo made a beeline for the opposite table edge where the Quar were positioned in a wood. Skorchas are nasty... in little time at all the Orks were up 2VPs to nil with First Blood and Linebreaker.

Over in the centre, though, it wasn't easy being green as the Scions reached the prize first, dragging the semi-conscious Barun out of his aircraft. The boyz squad was angling for a charge...

Our cunning plan was to overwhelm the Scions with a devastating combo from the Meganobz and Warboss. Imperial plasma guns put paid to that plan, however, with the boss being plasma'd... 2-1 Orks as the Imperials score 1VP for Kill the Warlord.

Meanwhile the Traktor Cannon and quad flak were dakka-ing away at the circling Valks. BS2 is a bit of a bitch, but we were heartened when the quad flak scored a 6 to hit and another 6 for penetration! Outstanding! But our joy turned to sorrow when we found that all we did was take off a hull point, as the quad flak didn't have the requisite AP to knock a flyer down outright. Yeah, that's what we thought too.

Deff Dread dealt with the Quar-mera in spectacular fashion.

Those Valks were pesky indeed though, dropping "pie plates" that chewed through boyz squads with ease. Greg and Byron were particularly deadly with the scatter dice :-)

Luckily the Stormboyz were able to stick their landing (not shown) and grab da Barun from the decimated boyz squad... They in turn were wiped out almost to the last boy by Imperial fire.

Guardsmen deploy by poop grav chute (sorry, Ork joke) and light up some boyz, but it was to be too little, too late, as the Skorchas dealt with them. S5 AP4 is a sure-fire Guard killer, especially when you don't need to use BS.

Only a couple of Ork Meganobz left to safeguard the Barun but it was enough. The Imperials were out of troops and Valks can't grab the target.

Losses were heavy on both sides... as it should be in 40K :-) The final tally was Orks 6VPs to Imperials, 2.

I think the lads had fun and it was great to get the quad flakka-dakka and buggies out on the table. I quite like the new 40K and I'm sure we'll play again - we're planning a big Heresy game for later in the year so stay tuned!

All Quiet on the Martian Front - First Club Game

Last week we played out first game (hopefully of many) of All Quiet on the Martian Front. The game was a small(ish) game that was based on the Bunker scenario from the main rule book.  There were three bunkers and trench systems in front of a small town that the Martians were trying to overrun and that the Human forces had to defend.

The Martian force was made up of just 6 models:

• 3 Assault Tripods 
• 1 with a Black Dust Launcher 
• 1 with Green Gas Grenades
• 3 Scout Tripods

The Human force was made up of 36 elements consisting of:

• 1 Command section
• 4 Infantry sections (3 stands in each)
• 1 Machine gun section (3 stands)
• 2 Rough rider sections on motorcycles (3 stands in each)
• 3 sections of Mark II steam tanks (3 tanks in each)
• 2 sections of Mark III steam tanks (3 tanks in each)

In addition to the numbers advantage the Humans had, the also had 3 long trench sections with bunkers in which to hunker down in, and a lot of solid terrain to hide behind.  Would it be enough though?

The Martians had to setup along the table edge, while the human forces were allowed to deploy completely hidden.

Players rolled off and the Humans got the first move.  They responded by revealing their tanks and moving up to fire.  They were able to get several hits from the two units of Mark III's that had deployed in the right hand side of the town.  They scored a critical hit on a scout tripod and took off 5 armour in a single hit, which would make it very vulnerable later on.  They also scored a hit on an assault tripod and took of a single point of armour.

In response to the fire, the Martians moved up, using a command point to double move the assault tripod with the green gas grenades into range.  The injured scout tripod took some shelter in the woods to try and prevent being an easy target.

One of the distant tripods targeted the hidden counter in the trench to reveal a machine gun squad, and then the green gas equipped tripod opened up with his heat ray and gas grenades onto the Mark III tanks behind them, but thanks to AOE also tagged them.  Thanks to so really bad luck on the Martian rolls, the humans only lost one tank.

The Humans did their best to hold the line, but only 1 turn later all 6 Mark III tanks were gone, with only light damage against the advancing tripods.

The Human forces had tried to balance the table, having had to setup first, therefore a good portion of their tanks were on the far left and out of the action for several turns.  Below the left front sees the advance of several squads of Mark II's trying to come to the aid of their allies on the other side of the table.

 

The right half of the table was not going well, as a scout marched down one trench negating the cover that the machine gun team had and wiping them out.  The black dust launcher went to work on the center trench.  The only good news for the Humans was that on turn 3 and 4 they managed to get a whopping 5 immobilized counters on the green gas equipped assault tripod!  These all came from the bikes madly circling it with grappling hooks and effectively hog tying it.

The immobilized tripod made a great target for the 2 units of Mark III's that the humans spent command points to return to the table as reinforcements on turn 3 and 4.  Turn 4 they opened up on it missing on only 1's due to all the immobilized counters and threw a natural 10 on the damage table to blow it sky high!  The explosion also inflicted some more damage on the nearby scout tripod, but not enough to down it.  Unfortunately, the explosion also took out all the brave rough riders that had made the shot possible.

The next few turns involved the Martians and Humans trading shots along the left hand side of the town as they both tried to get the other the the breaking point.  In turn 5 the Martians needed to kill 2 more human units to break them but failed to do so.  In turn 5 and 6 the Humans won the initiative and only needed to drop a third tripod to win, but were obviously shaken from the explosion earlier and could not hit them.  In the bottom of turn 6 the Martians inflicted casualties on a Mark II tank unit and an infantry unit, both of which failed their moral tests and fled from the table, ending the game.

Yet another game of AQotMF that went down to either side being able win in the last turn.  Pretty much every game I have played has come down to 1 kill either way deciding the game, which to me makes for a really exciting game.

While the Martians won the day, only 2 escaped undamaged, and if the humans had been able to roll at least average on any number of occasions they could have won.

The game played out pretty well as the Humans have huge number advantages, as well as the ability to bring back forces, while the Martians see to shrug off huge numbers of hits before cracks finally appearing in their armour.

I hope everyone had a good time with the rules and that we can get more games in soon!  Especially once some of the more specialized vehicles and tripods show up from the wave 2 shipment.

Tempestus Testus - GWs Imperial Guard Storm Troopers

New Tempestus Scions (a.k.a. "Storm Troopers) from GW

Our good friend Curt is coming to visit later this week, and we are preparing to host one of his favourite games - Warhammer 40k! HAH.  Well, yes, it's true! Not that Curt loves 40k, but that in the spirit of flagellation, we will be running a 40k game during his visit this week!  And I am rushing to get some new figures done in time to participate - "Tempestus Scions", the new plastic storm trooper figures for the Imperial Guard.  

Five dudes for $42CDN - OUCH!

Tons of bits and options - but still, only five dudes...f*ck you, GW

In the fluff of the 40k setting, we know that in the event of a real threat Space Marines are dispatched to "deal with" the problem. These Space-Marine-situations generally involve outright, often hopeless, heavy duty fighting which the Marines are literally bred for, and well-equipped to deal with. 

Assembled and waiting to be primed

The Marines are of course very elite troops, but "elite" in the sense that you can send 100 of them to open battle and they will subdue an entire planetary rebellion, not "elite" in the sense that they deploy quietly to operate in a commando-style fashion.  Sure, the Marines will deploy behind the lines, but that's only because they have found the source of the problem, and are sending a bunch of nasty fellows in drop pods to deal with it directly. Who needs a long walk when you can just hop out of the drop pod and smash the Emperor's enemies right away?

The "Tempestor" a.k.a a sergeant

I tossed the vox caster on him...I liked the look of this, but I don't intend to use the vox casters on the table as they are pretty useless...and if you give one to a trooper, he loses his weapon...

The Imperial Guard storm troopers have laboured long in this shadow, a favourite troop type of Imperial Guard players. Elite army soldiers, well-equipped for commando-type jobs and special missions that would occur in the context of an Imperial Guard deployment, like sabotage, long-range recon, demolition of high-priority targets, abduction of prisoners, rescue of prisoners, assassination etc. Cool stuff, but not stuff that a Space Marine Chapter Master would worry about dispatching even one of his payroll servitors for, much less a company of valued Marines.  The storm troopers filled this niche gap, albeit one that existed mostly in the minds of dedicated Imperial Guard fans. 

Hot Shot Volley Gun - this gun looks super cool, but has the incredibly dumb "gets hot" special rule attached to it...sigh

You can see a bit of the back pack here - they sure carry a lot of stuff into the field!

As far as I can tell (and I know a more knowledgeable hobby fan out there will correct me if I'm wrong :) the Storm Troopers first appeared in the second edition of the WH40k game - this would be in mid-late to late 1990s, I think?  They had things that appealed to an Imperial Guard player - a better ballistic skill, and lasguns that could really hurt! How cool!

The original 40k storm troopers...the first plastic versions were faithful to this art work, and are prized parts of many Imperial Guard collections

 
The original storm troopers were plastic monopose figures, with metal officers, metal special weapon troopers and a metal heavy weapon team. They wore berets and stoic expressions. A lot of Guard players I know look fondly on these original figures, and they often fetch a premium on Ebay. I have personally never really liked the originals - the poses were very limited, and the two-man heavy weapon team was silly.  But I loved the overall principle! Elite troops to buck up your regular hapless grunts. As an Imperial Guard fanboy, I was in!

"Tempestor Prime" (or something like that) a.k.a. "Captain" - you have several posing options for him, but they are all pretty melodramatic

Not sure this get-up makes sense for a commando operation, but hey - it's 40k :) There are a depressing number of skulls on this model - too many to remove sensibly, but he certainly looks unique...

As 40k evolved into the 3rd edition (and since then, into what I like to think of as the 34567th edition, as I find them all to be so similar to each other) the Storm Trooper models changed.  I can no longer recall what year they were issued, but metal storm troopers appeared, and these were (and still are) some of the coolest sculpts GW ever issued. These looked like dark future SEALS! Cool guns, lots of optics, heavy armour, but still sort-of-sleek and ominous looking.

A group of Scions

A further evolution came in the form of the "Kasrkin", originally elite Cadian troops.  These were also some of the nicest GW sculpts I have seen, certainly a lot nicer than the plastic Cadians. The Kasrkin, to me, looked more like "heavy infantry" than commandos - some heavier armour and guns, but with the bulk and the heavy cables for the "hot shot" lasguns, I couldn't really see them sneaking around behind the lines. I still loved these models - and I painted 30 of the frigging things about 10 years ago to play a "Grenadier" Imperial Guard detachment - heavy infantry in APCs, backed by tanks etc. So fun.

Another view of the pack - each one is a little different - some have grenades, some have knives etc.

The actual game performance of the storm troopers was very poor - after all, their lasguns were S 3, and in the era of the 34567 edition it is the AP of the weapon that matters (and yes, a lot of 40k players will spew disagreement about this, but I stand by it).  Increasingly, the 40k has become a duel between heavy weapons (that is, until you get into "close combat"), and the "hot shot" lasguns were of dubious value (i.e. none).  Same with the 4+ save - it sounded nice in theory, but never showed its value in practice. You played storm troopers/Kasrkin because you liked the figures, not because you got good results on the table.

A five-man storm trooper squad

In the sixth edition Imperial Guard codex, out of the blue, GW's fickle rules flakes suddenly gave the "hot shot" lasguns an AP 3.  This is sufficient to knock out a Space Marine! And yet...the gun is still S 3...so...whatever you need to do to sell figures, I guess...this post is already too long, but I guess all I will say here is this is what happens with the S/AP system...that's a rant for another time.

Through the ages - a SEAL style metal trooper on the left, a "Kasrkin" in the middle, and a new plastic Scion on the right

Another comparison of the different models

In the era of the 34567th edition, there have been different ways to try and field a force of storm troopers.  For a time you could use "doctrines" and have them as "grenadiers".  You could get "sort of" storm troopers by taking veterans (who could get carapace armour, but not the "hot shot" guns).  And now, we have the "Tempestus Scions".  They have their own pamphlet-codex (which I won't get into here, other than to say don't bother with it unless you are a storm trooper fan boy like me) and a whole new set of plastic figures.

Which direction is Regina?

The set is pretty neat.  You are now able to make command figures and command accessory figures (like the medic, standard etc), something the lead figures of the third-and-later editions never did have beyond a couple of sergeant figures.  The Tempestus design pays homage, in my view, to each "era" of the storm trooper figures. There are beret heads (assuming the Catachans haven't ruined berets for you) as a shout-out to the originals.  The "hot shot" guns look very much like the SEAL version of the storm trooper, as do many of the helmet-variant optics. The armour plates somewhat evoke the heavy-infantry "Kasrkin" look, as do the hulking packs and weapon cables.  But they are still unique, with elaborate, flowery armour accents that suit the setting.  And, sadly, a LOT of skulls...but since they are plastic, you can shave quite a few of them off with minimal effort to leave a slightly-less skull-heavy figure.

The expense of the new models is horrifying ($42 CDN per box of five figures), but if you are like me, and you painted a bunch of the older storm troopers, you will find these can fit in with those older sculpts with a bit of imagination and a similar paint scheme.  That's my plan, and if I can bear down at the painting table (kind of hard, as the weather has been so nice for once), I'm hoping to finish enough of these to see some action this week. Will they suck on the table? Maybe! We'll see!