The kids friends had the day off school so they joined us for the day to hang out and play games and stuff. We got in a game of 40K in the morning. I had hoped to try out my tournament force against the older of the two brothers - as he's the only one who actually has 1000 point painted, but his younger brother ended up coming and he's been... "bored"... when we played 40K in the past. So I decided to keep things quick, simple and fun and suggested everyone come with a patrol detachment of no more than 10 Power Level and we'd work out some sides and play a quick game...
One showed up with Power Level 11 worth of Tyranids with no HQ... so... not a Patrol Detachment... The other had and assortment of things... a Hellbrute, some Raptors, a handful of Cultists, three bikers, and a Chaos Scorcerer in Terminator armour (in the end he decided to play with the bikers and Cultists - so at least it was Power Level 10... but no HQ...), and then Finnegan decided he wanted to play with 13 Power Level of Orks... I figured the Tyranids were from Hivefleet Haemorrhoid - still plaguing Brind's World and the Orks and Chaos were just taking advantage of the chaos caused by the Tyranids to create MORE chaos and carnage. The Girl and I faced them - she with her Harlequins, myself with my Tallarn Desert Raiders.
SCENARIO
We just decided to play a kill 'em all type, last critter standing type scenario... As I had no idea what they were bringing I didn't really have time to come up with something more interesting...
FORCES
Forces of Nastiness and Smelliness
Elements of Hivefleet Haemaroid
Tyranid Warriors (3) - PL 5 - Including Warlord Kzchtshtz
Termagaunts (10) - PL 3
Hormagaunts (10) - PL 3
Chaos Space Marines
Chaos Bikers (Champion & 2 Bikers) - PL 7 (Including Warlord Skullbutt Crusher)
Chaos Cultists (5) - PL 3
Orks
Weirdboy (Werzap Rotmaw) - PL 4 - Warlord with Might is Right
-Psykic Powers - Smite, 'Ed Banger
Boyz (20) - PL 7
Patrol Detachment - 3 Command Points
Forces of the Imperium and their Occasional Allies of Opportunity
Harlequins
Shadowseer (Phantom) - PL 7 - Warlord with Luck of the Laughing God and the Mask of Secrets
- Psychic Abilities - Smite, Twilight Pathways, Mirror of Minds
Harlequin Troupe (5) - PL 7
Patrol Detachment - 3 Command Points
Astra Militarum
Company Commander (Captain Abdul Alahazred) - PL 2 - Warlord with Bellowing Voice and Claw of the Desert Tigers
2x Infantry Squad (10) - PL 6
Command Squad (4) - PL 2
Heavy Weapons Squad (3 teams) - PL 3
Scout Sentinel (1) - PL 2
Roughriders (10) - PL 5
Patrol Detachment - 3 Command Points
THE GAME
I set up some terrain while the other were getting ready and figuring out their forces so I let the three-headed troll decide which side they wanted to set up on.
Minions of Chaos took up the centre.
WAAAAAAAGGGH!! Orks deployed on their right flank.
and a horde of Tyrannid-bug-like-things from Hivefleet Haemorrhoid swarmed in from their left.
The Girl and I set up opposite.
Sergeant Ramzi leaned into Captain Alhazred and softly spoke; "Don't look now, Captain, but I think some Xenos just appeared in the trees next to us..."
"Do they look like they're going to attack US...?" Alhazred hoarsely whispered back.
"I don't think so, Captain. It looks as though they are looking out to our front, towards the enemy advancing upon us?"
"Okay, keep an eye on them, but don't make eye contact..."
ROUND ONE - Baddies Turn
The Forces of Nastiness and Smelliness surged forward! Most advanced, driven by their bloodlust and desire to make a mess all over the place with our entrails...
The Tyranid warriors took a long-range pot-shot one of my infantry squads and took out one lowly infantryman... Private Slahi was his name, not that they cared. He had seven children back home. SEVEN! Fear naught, however, for the Emperor takes care of His own! They will be raised good and proper by the School Progenium. One day they will all be Commissars and Storm Troopers... We shall see who has the last laugh...
ROUND ONE - Goodies Turn
I had deployed the Tallarn Roughriders in "Flanking Maneuvers" and they came charging on to the enemies rear on our first turn - causing them some panic!
Others moved and advanced. The Scout Sentinel took a pot shot at the Chaos Bikers with its Lascannon and sliced one in clean in half. There was some discussion amongst the boys as to which Tyranids could properly devour chaos flesh without getting a tummy ache... or something like that...? I had no idea so many people had an intolerance of Chaos flesh...!? It's like the Gluten of the 41st Millennium!? The things I learn hanging out with kids!
I forgot that you no longer have to ROLL to issue orders, so only one of the squads got orders... Both squads took shots at the Tyranid Warriors and, between the two of them, caused a total of two wounds. The Boys had been a bit concerned about the vast number of troops I was able to field the same power level they'd brought to the table... after this bit of shooting, they were slightly less concerned.
Then my mortars blew up 2 Termagaunts from clear across the table and that caused them some anxiety. The Roughriders also shot down one of the Chaos Cultists with a laspistol. How embarrassing is that... being shot by a guardsman with a laspistol... it was just a cultist, I guess. My Roughridered failed to charge the Cultists...
The Harlequins danced around the table and tried to kill things with their brains and failed...
ROUND TWO - Baddies Turn
Again the hordes of Heratics and Xenos surged forward.
The Chaos Bikers roared up, blazing away at the Sentinel with their Bolters... failing to do anything. The Orks unleashed a torrent of Dakka and put some mighty big holes in the small can on legs (3 Wounds!). Guardsman Saleh was a little unnerved by all this fire and had more than a few narrow misses!
The Chaos cultists fled from eh Roughriders into the woods. There they spotted Harlequins in the open and lit them up with their autoguns! Two of the Harlequins fell!
The Termagaunts and Tyranid Warriors fired on Sergeant Hasnawi's Squad. The Tyranids totally missed, but those nasty little guns the Termagaunts had (Assault 3?) took down three!
The Chaos Bikers decided to charge the Scout Sentinel. Actually they'd decided the Orks should go first, as I'd only get Overwatch fire one ONE unit and it didn't matter if I actually managed to hit and kill an Ork, right...? But then the Orks failed to charge - even with their re-roll. So they decided to charge with the Chaos Bikers, I mean, what were the odds I'd take one out with Overwatch fire - I only got ONE SHOT with the lascannon, and I need six to hit. THEN, if I did hit, I'd need a 3 to wound... So, yeah, I did that... LUCKILY the Chaos bikers rolled a 6 to save - which was exactly what they needed to no be totally taken out. The actual Melee was rather... inconclusive...
Despite the grievous losses, Sergeant Hasnawi's Squad passed morale!
ROUND TWO - Goodies Turn
And then it kind of all went to crap for the baddies because I suddenly could not stop rolling fives and sixes!?
Well, first the Shadowseer smiled the Chaos Cultists and took one of them out. Then she manifested Mirror of Minds and killed an Ork - but rolled a 12 doing so and took a wound due to Perils of the Warp. Then the Shadowseer took out another Chaos Cultist with a grenade and then the Harlequins charged in and wiped out the remaining Cultists...
This time I managed to issue orders to both Squads - Front Rank Fire, Second Rank Fire gave me LOADS of shots against the Tyranids - especially now that some of them were within 12" of one of the squads. AS I mentioned I could not stop rolling fives and sixes. Just as one example, I fired a grenade launcher at the Tyranid Warriors. A Grenade Launcher firing Frag is Grenade d6 - so I roll d6 to determine how many attacks I get - I rolled a six. I roll six dice to see how many of those attacks actually HIT the Tyranids, I have a 4+ Ballistic Skill, so half of them should - I roll 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6... so all of those hit... The Grenade is only Strength 3 and the Tyranids are Toughness 4 so I only wound on 5+, I roll 5, 5, 6, 6, 6.... Okay.... so the Tyranids have a 4+ save, the Grenade has no armour piecing... He saves one... One dead Tyranid Warrior and another takes an additional wound... And that was just ONE Grenade Launcher...
My fire took out all three Tyranid Warriors, and half the Termagaunts. Another Four Hormagaunts were take out by the Mortars.
Then the Roughriders charged! Originally they were going to charge the Tyranid Warriors, but they'd been wiped out so I charged the Termagaunts. They did get a PILE of Overwatch fire and even scored four hits, but only one of those actually caused a wound (and the Roughriders had two each...). The Termagaunts were wiped out.
The Hormagaunts lost another 3 to morale.
The boys decided they'd had enough and called it a day.
Wow...
Totally didn't expect that to go quite like that! I had some CrAzY dice rolls though... Despite the thorough thrashing I think everyone had a pretty good time.
Still some good practice to remind me of some of the rules before playing in the tournament tomorrow.
Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:
A Report of the Battleforce Recon 40K Tournament taking place at the Mana Bar in Saskatoon tomorrow (Saturday, 24 March 2018).
Then... maybe some more painting...?
Sounds like fun, hopefully you haven't used up all your luck! Best of luck at the tournament!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
I used up most of my luck... but I still had fun. Hopefully I'll get a few pictures of the tournament up tomorrow.
Delete