Highland Commanded Shot

As I finished up the Highland Clansmen I finished up earlier this week, I pulled out these hoping to get them done before my game with Bob on Tuesday. I didn't end up finishing them in time, but as it turns out I didn't need them as I had only 1 point left over to fill and that was filled in with Clubmen.



Highland Commanded Shot. Figures are from Essex Miniatures, Warlord Games, Dixon Miniatures and Eureka Miniatures!

In The Pikeman's Lament, a standard company is 24 points. Most regular units are 4 points each (Pike, Shot, Horse). They can be upgraded or downgraded some (for +2 or -1 points), but at four points 6 standard units makes a nice, neat force... When adding in a Forlorn Hope (such as Robert MacRame and his band of thugs), that kind of messes things up a bit. Instead of having to downgrade a couple units (or upgrade one) to make the points work out, I thought it would be handy to have a 2 point unit of Commanded Shot.  I've just realized however, if he's leading a band made up entirely of clansmen, he'll have no need of the Commanded shot...

Here are a couple ways I was thinking I could field the Scots Royalists..

1x Forlorn Hope (MacRame and his Thugs) @6points
1x Irish Shot @ 4 points
1x Irish Pike @ 4 points
3x Highland Clansmen @ 3 points each
1x Clubmen (local villagers) @ 1 point 

(A mix of Irish and Highland Clansmen - This is the force I fielded in my game with Bob on Tuesday)

1x Forlorn Hope (MacRame and his Thugs) @6points
2x Irish Shot @ 4 points each
2x Irish Pike @ 4 points each

1x Commanded Shot @ 2 points

(mostly Irish - at some point I should pick up another unit of Irish Pike and maybe a unit of dragoons to field as an entirely Irish force - with a NEW Officer! 

1x Forlorn Hope (MacRame and his Thugs) @6points
6x Highland Clansmen @ 3 points each

(All Clansmen, all the time... this would suck against a company largely comprised of Horse!) 

I'm kind of tempted to finish up the rest of the stuff I have earmarked for this force - about two dozen more Clansmen, and a unit each of Irish Pike and Shot... Well that is until I decide to do something daft like rebase all the ECW figures I have on multi-figure bases for DBA and the like... (I've been thinking about it!!) 

Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Probably a round up of May's games, then some Seven Years War British... I started painting them back in February and almost completed them and they've been loitering on the fringes of the painting table ever since - they were so close to being finished I just couldn't put them away in a storage box! The figures are done, I just have to finish a couple of flags. 

Beating Up Quarters

My friend Bob from Edmonton was in town last night so I set up a little game of The Pikeman's Lament for us to play...

June 1644, Glenn Dunny

When first we met our hero Robert MacRame, he was living in his families ancestral lands in Glenn Dunny. He made a stand against some Government troops who were out foraging and attempted to make off with some of this livestock. This battle was documented elsewhere on this blog:

Pork on the Trotters

He (more or less) successfully defended his lands and recovered (most of) his livestock, but gained the eternal enmity of Evan “Holy” MacErrol, and found himself a wanted man. Unlike most Highlanders who tend to head to the hills to hide when sought by Government forces, MacRame decided to spend the balance of the year in Edinburgh under an assumed identity. This didn’t last long, however, as Evan MacErrol is a relentless adversary and eventually discovered his whereabouts and Robert was forced to flee overseas. MacErrol wasn’t able to pursue his quarry further as he was called upon to march south with Alexander Leslie, Earl of Leven, to intervene in the civil war in England.

Some of the other actions “Holy” MacErrol were involved in at Yorkshire are also documented elsewhere:

The River Crossing 

Somewhere Else To Be

Robert MacRame spent the remainder of winter and spring of 1644 abroad, “raising funds” for the catholic cause back home. He found he could make a pretty good living “raising funds” and had hoped he could continue to do so until the bad business back home ended. Eventually some of his patrons cottoned on to his reluctance and MacRame was forced to flee again (with the remaining funds he has raised) – this time back to Scotland. And so it was in the summer of 1644 that he arrived back in Glenn Dunny with a handful of Irish Mercenaries – just a month before the Irish under Mac Colla landed at Ardnamurchan.

Hearing a rumour that MacRame had returned to Scotland, Ensign MacErrol marched his company back north to hunt him down. He was still languishing in Glenn Dunny meeting out revenge on all that had wronged his family in the year since he had fled…


SCENARIO

I thought it would be fun to try out the Beating up Quarters scenario with one of our antagonists raiding the others quarters in a dawn raid. This is straight out of the Pikeman's Lament rulebook (pages 54-55). Basically the Attacker gets points for setting fire to tents buildings the defender is sleeping in. Most of the defender's forces start in the buildings and tents and have to be awakened by passing an ordered move action at -1. The Defenders get points for each building or tent not burned by the end of the scenario. The game ends when all the buildings/tents are on fire or when the Attacker has lost half of his force.

Who would get the the drop on whom?


FORCES

Scottish Government forces under Ensign Evan "Holy" MacErrol (19 Honour, Strong)
2x Gallopers
2x Pike
2x Shot


Scotts Royalist forces under Robert MacRame (12 Honour, Sly)
1x Forlorn Hope
1x Shot
1x Pike
3x Clansmen
1x Clubmen

THE GAME

I didn't take a lot of notes (as I often do) so there won't be a turn-by-turn breakdown as I'm going from my (not always clear) memory here...

Bob decided to take the Scots Government forces as they seemed the most straightforward to play. He also decided to be the attacker - as having troops burn in their billets or tents didn't sound fun...?



Initial Dispositions.

In the darkness of night the forces of "Holy" MacErrol approached the roadside inn where MacRame's men has camped for the night. There had been much carousing through the night, but as dawn approached all was quiet...



At a predetermined signal that was both silent and visible only to governement forces in the darkness so as not to alert the sentries in the camp (not sure what that would have been...?) MacErrol's forces close on the camp.

At the end of Bob's first turn I was already thinking things looked pretty dire... I had gotten used to playing against John - by this point he would have rolled a command blunder and lost one of his units!



On my first turn, my dice were determined to outdo Bob's, however. I rolled the first of at least a half dozen double sixes I rolled throughout the game. As this was on an ordered activation I got to roll on the command bonus table and rolled a five - allowing the unit I just tried to active to gain a agitator, Priest or Hero... I chose a Priest - as I had a handy figure I could add to the unit! He would give me +1 to all morale rolls, but if he was killed give the enemy +1 Honour...



Every Single Unit deployed out of their quarters on the first turn - even the clubmen (local villagers armed with rakes and scythes and the occasional blunderbuss...). It was starting to look as though the ambushers were being ambushed (That MacRame is a sly devil!).



And then it was Bob's turn again and Ensign MacErrol charged a group of Highland Clansmen emerging from their tents... Cavalry, unfortunately, are the Clansmen's nemesis... Clansmen are great on the offence - hit on 3+ - and they can countercharge against Infantry - so they are almost always on the offence versus infantry... on the defence (as they are when cavalry charges) they only hit on sixes... This first contact carried away 2-3 clansmen... I rolled one six, not enough to wound the Gallopers!



So the clansmen fell back, the horse followed up and we did it again!



The Clansmen lost a few more, fabulously failed morale and were routed! One unit gone...



Then the second cavalry charged another unit of clansmen! It went equally badly - even with the Preacher present! Two units down, not a single casualty caused. Things were back to looking dire for the Highlanders...

Luckily Bob failed to activate his next unit so I had a chance to do some damage!



The remaining unit of clansmen charged out of the Inn and attacked a unit of Shot!

 

and saw them off at a loss of only one or two of their own!

I failed to activate my own shot so it was back to Bob. Bob then failed to set fire to the house that his cavalry was adjacent to and it was back to me.



As a unit of pike was within range of the Highland clansmen, they charged! Pike are not quite so slightly as shot, however and they did some damage to the clansmen. This time both parties failed morale and broke away from each other.



I think my shot fired on the other unit of pike next, causing a single wound, which caused them to fail morale as well and retire back towards the hill they had just came down from (perhaps they were already rattled by the sounds of their comrades in arms being savaged by the clansmen off to their right... in the dark... although I think the sun has come up on this turn...?)

My Irish Pike had previously formed up and so tried to charge Ensign MacErrol's unit of Horse. The Horse countercharged.



The pike took out two of the horsemen and lost one of their own, so the horse had to retire from the fight. But apparently losing one of their own was enough for the cowardly Irish mercenaries morale to waver...



On Bob's next turn, his cavalry wheeled around and charged the wavering pikemen... It was a disaster. The unit was nearly rode down to a man. The few survivors fled the field of battle, the county, and probably all the way back to Ireland! (or perhaps they met up with Mac Colla's forces who were landing on the west coast of Scotland shortly after this engagement?)



On my previous turn I'd rolled another double six to activate one of my units, which had allowed my wavering Highlanders to automatically rally. So at the beginning of my next turn they once more charged the government pike - and saw them off!

Clansmen - great against infantry, but keep them away from enemy cavalry!



So this put the attackers down two units. I only needed to force one more off the field to end the game. So it was time for MacRame to do his bit...

MacRame's unit had taken shots at one of the units of Horse earlier (and might have taken one out...?) but otherwise has just sat in the middle of the encampment where they had started the game. Where they were was close enough to charge MacErrol's Horse - who had just ridden down his Irish Mercenaries. MacRame led the charge out of the encampment. MacErrol, hearing the wild cries of charging clansmen wheeled around and countercharged meeting the clansmen at the edge of the camp (I should point out these "clansmen" were actually a "Forlorn Hope" in the game, not "clansmen" like the ones that were swept aside in the first turns). Both lost two in the initial clash, neither failed morale, so the attacker (the Highlanders) were obliged to retire.



The Horse followed up and we did it all again... I think MacRame had intact lured them into some sort of cunning trap because both the remaining Horse were taken down (including MacErrol himself!) and with three of the attackers units gone, that was the end of the game!

So as the attackers had failed to set fire to any of the buildings the defending highlanders scored 8 Honour (2 for each building/tent not burning at the end of the game) plus two more for the "Show No Mercy" special order I had selected. ("Show No Mercy" requires that half of the enemies total number of units be routed or destroyed - I figured that was the only way I could possibly win the game anyway, so I selected it to get some bonus points if I did). This brought Robert MacRame's Honour to 22 - thus catapulting him to Lieutenant. Rolling for his new trait, I got "Favoured"... which had no in game effect, it just gave him +5 Honour - so he is now at 27...

The government troops failed to set fire to any buildings and failed in their own special order (Which, I think, was "Beat the Butchers Bill" - rout/destroy more enemy units than your own) which would have netted Evan MacErrol -1 Honour, but his other horse had ridden down that annoying preacher for +1 honour which netted him zero honour... still one shy of being promoted to Lieutenant!

As MacErrol was injured (AGAIN! Seriously, has there been a battle where he DIDN'T end up a casualty!?) we had to roll for his survival - He was just wounded - carried off by loyal soldiers and will recover in time for the next battle... He'll get that dastardly MacRame!

I think we ended up being done in just under and hour and a half...? I love this game and Bob is always a totally enjoyable person to play games with so, despite the cold, I had a pretty fabulous evening! Thanks Bob!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Amanda and The Girl got home just as bob was leaving and wanted to watch a DVD, so instead of writing up the battle report last night, I went downstairs and did some painting while they watched TV. As I'd had so much fun playing this game I worked on some more Scotsmen - a unit of "Commanded Shot" - I had a few spare guys with muskets and bows so I thought I'd throw together one of these units. They are only 2 points and depending on how I arranged the Scots Royalists I figured would sometimes end up with 2 points to spare and these could fill in that spot nicely. I just have some finishing touches to do on those and then I'll be posting pics of them in the next day or so.

After that...? April Games Round up..? Actually that might come before the pics of the highlanders...

Then we're into June... What to do...

I was reading about the new Imperial Knights: Renegade which will be released on 9 June. It is rumoured to be retailing for $235CAD... it includes two Knights (one Imperial, one Renegade) that normally retail for $180 each, and a bit of terrain (Sector Mechanicus Galvanic Magnavent) that can be picked up separately for $90... So... $450 worth of stuff... in a boxed game set for $235... I've been resisting the urge to pick up a knight for a while now - I have loads of stuff to paint... I don't really NEED one... but DAMN... at half price!? I am a sucker for a "good deal"... 

More Scots for the English Civil War

Taking a brief break from all the 40K stuff, I decided to finish up a few more Highlanders for a game of Pikeman's Lament I am hosting this evening - so I could bring back Robert MacRame! This small lot means I can now field THREE units of Highland Clansmen. I have enough minis to do another two!



These are the newly painted fellows. Most are from Old Glory, but there's one over on the right that isn't... but I'm not entirely sure where he came from...?



Here is Robert MacRame and all his clansmen (so far!). As I mentioned I have minis for (at least) two more units of clansmen... Ideally I'd like to have six at some point - then I could field an entire company of them (technically I could have eight - if all the units in the force were considered clansmen - but currently MacRame and his personal bodyguard are fielded as a "Forlorn Hope" which is worth twice as many points as a unit of Clansmen)



MacRame and his clansmen backed by a few Irish mercenaries - this is the force I'll be using this evening... Not quite a full 24 points. Perhaps I'll have to upgrade the Irish...

Stay tuned for the after action report of this evenings shenanigans.


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

First will be a report of this evenings game... then perhaps a round up of all the games played in April... then back to painting updates....?

I have a LOT of stuff on the workbench... Terminators for Space Hulk, a Mouse war band for Burrows & Badgers (The Girl picked it up with some of her birthday money, so I though I'd put together a war band of my own to play with her...), some Napoleonic Rifles and Seven Years War British infantry (planning ahead for Rebels and Patriots), other assorted sci-fi bits and bobs for Rogue Trader, a few Tallarn and Drukhari for 40K, a couple of Shadspire war bands for John, and I'm sure a bunch of other stuff I'm forgetting about... I probably need to clear it off and get focused again.

Adeptus Arbites

The Adeptus Arbites are sort of a galactic police force in the 40K universe, charged by the High Lords of Terra with enforcing the law throughout the Imperium. I thought it would be handy to have a few for role-playing or certain tabletop scenarios in the setting. GW made a few Adeptus Arbites figures about 15 years ago for the original Necromunda, but they've been long out of print and pretty expensive to pick up on eBay or elsewhere. Conveniently I had these figures I though would work as reasonable proxies...



The figures are actually Void miniatures made by I-Kore games. I picked these and a few dozen other packs of them after the company went out of business and people locally stopped playing and my FLGS decided to blow out their remaining stock for $1/pack!? I've used others for Generic Sci-fi mercenaries. One think I really like about the old I-Kore miniatures is that there were actually a few  female figures in most of their lines...

The Void figures are currently available from Scotia Grendel. I-Kore's old fantasy line (Celtos) are available from Brigade Models.



The Chief Inspector (in the trench coat with the power truncheon), her Lieutenant and a couple of sergeants.



Arbites Tactical Team with Sniper.



A second Arbites tactical team.

I know, I know... the Adeptus Arbites are supposed to be in black... I decided to go with blue... I briefly considered doing their knee and elbow pads in green - like the Judges from 2000AD/Judge Dredd comics, as I feel the Arbites took much inspiration from them... but then couldn't decide on what colour to do the shoulder pads. Gold/yellow - like the judges - seemed a little silly so I went with all blue.


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

My friend Bob from Edmonton is rolling through town on Tuesday and we were planning to play a game. I thought I'd set up a game of The Pikeman's Lament. Hopefully I'll have a game report of that action. I just hope I'm over this cold by then!

If I can prop myself up at the painting desk, perhaps I'll crank out a few more Highlanders and bring back Robert MacRame! Rumour has it he's been overseas raising funds for the cause... and living quite well on those funds he's raised all the while hoping this bad business will all be over soon - preferably before he actually returns to Scotland...

Robots, Servitors, Arvis Lighter, and other Bits and Bobs

An assortment of odd and sundry items finally made their way off my workbench this week. Most of them have been hovering around the edges for some time. I think this is because I am avoiding working on the Space Hulk Terminators or the Shadespire minis I feel like I "SHOULD" be working on... Also I though they'd be handy in this evenings Rogue Trader game.



First up are a few Bits and Bobs from Lead Adventure Miniatures. The "tech crate" (which I think looks like a small plasma generator) is from the Astropolis II Kickstarter, and the other two were from the Dwarf Gold Fever Kickstarter.



Next, a couple of robots also from Lead Adventure Miniatures  Astropolis II Kickstarter. I was kind of torn about how to paint them. I was originally thinking kind of retro/steampunk-y with browns and brass... but then went with bright colours... just... because. The one in the centre I'm going to use as a universal translator on legs this evening. Well... if they actually get to TALKING to the people on the planet and not just exterminating them outright... It's 40K... It happens..



A couple of gen-u-ine Games Workshop Servitors.



Lastly, I finally finished up my Arvis Lighter. The model is from Forge World.



Originally I'd thought of doing this in tans, like most of the other Imperial vehicles I've been doing lately, but since this wasn't really supposed to be for the Tallarn - it's see use as a imperial naval vessel or for a Rogue Trader. As I was MOSTLY thinking of using it for a Rogue trader, I had though to do this up all flash, but couldn't decide on a colour scheme and eventually said "Eff it!" and just painted the whole damned think French Mirage Blue just to get it done. I picked that colour because it wasn't quite grey and  I don't have many bluish vehicles.



I was a little disappointed with how the canopy turned out. When I glued the clear plastic bits into the frame they got all cloudy... and when I tried to clear some of it off it only made it worse... If anyone remembers back when I first posted about this I had done a lot of detail work in the cockpit... none of which can be seen at all...



Boring, but serviceable... and done.



The door/ramp at the back does open and close. I painted a bunch of details on the inside...



But when it's sitting on the tabletop it just looks dark inside...



If you pick it up and hold it just so... at an angle that Leith can actually get in there... you can ALMOST make out SOME of the details



The Lighter also came with a flight base so it can fly around the table.

According to the rules, I think a multilaser or autocannon could have been mounted on it -  none were included with the model, but I had spares left over from Sentinels I had considered mounting on it. But I figures since it was a Rogue Traders craft, maybe it'd be best NOT to fly down to planets where you plan on making negoations, in an armed vessel...? If they wanted to put on a show of FORCE they could be escorted by something with much bigger guns... I'm not sure what that would be just yet... but at some point I will probably need a flyer with much bigger guns...

 

One of my biggest gaming regrets was selling off my original copy of Rogue Trader - like, the original one... For years I've been looking for one that wasn't CrAzY expensive to buy - or that wasn't falling apart - and I finally tracked one down. I've been rereading it lately and one thing that's struck me was how the game assumes that it will be played with a games master - who designs a scenario. the point system seems like a last ditch option... Nice trip down memory lane and lots of ideas to incorporate into the current Rogue Trader campaign.



A few weeks before I picked up the Rogue Trader book, I picked up this little gem at Dragon's Den Games. It's full of stuff from "back in the day". I though at first it was mostly from old White Dwarfs - most of which I had and recycled about a decade ago thinking I'd never look at them again (so stupid... everytime I do this it makes it harder to let go of anything - I always end up thinking: "But in ten years am I suddenly going to be interested in this again and wish I hadn't gotten rid of it...!?"). As it turns out about half of it is just reprinted from the Rogue Trader Core Rule book... so... wasn't all that necessary. There is another one for Space Marines and Chaos. I might have a look at the chaos one at some point - probably a lot of it is reprinted out of Realms of Chaos...



Oh, and Amanda got herself a t-shirt to wear when she's playing her Sisters...


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Maybe a game report of tonight's game. If I remember to take pictures... I'm feeling a little burned out with the painting. Actually I'm feeling a little burned out, period. I feel like I could just sleep for a week. I think I've picked up this cough that Amanda's had for the last week... Ugh...

The Battle for Brind's World Rages On!

It's the Victoria Day long weekend in Canada and we got in a few games of 40K yesterday afternoon. We invited The Boyz over to play with us as well.

Astra Militarum vs. Necrons

383.018.M41

North of the tropical zone, Brind's World was a desiccated wasteland. An endless expanse of sand and rock, punctuated by the occasional ancient ruin, left by a long dead civilization that disappeared millennia ago. Jumana Erakat felt right at home. 

The 451st Tallarn Tank Regiment and the 17th Tallarn Super Heavy Tank Regiment had deployed to the planet in support of operations currently underway by other regiments of the Astra Militarum. The 451st found it would soon be in direct support of fellow brothers and sisters of Tallarn - 382nd Tallarn (Desert Raider) Regiment. Having just made planetfall, however, the regiment was still shaking down their equipment after such a long warp passage and only just beginning to patrol their new area of operations. 

Sergeant Erakat found herself acting commander of #2 ("Arkan") Troop, 2 Squadron 451st Tallarn Tank Regiment. The regular troop commander's Leman Russ was being serviced by the techpriests. The machine spirits needed supplication. She would be leading two other tanks from the platoon on a short patrol to the east of their Base of Operations. To get the lay of the land. No hostiles were expected to be in the vicinity, but then, they never are... 

Attached to her Troop was a Demolisher from the Support Squadron.

Scenario

We played the Patrol Scenario, right out of the core rulebook - with the exception that I had no "Troop" elements. 

Victory points were scored solely for enemy units destroyed. 

Forces

When we had invited the Boyz over I had indicated that I'd be rolling out with a tank force (I even sent them the picture of all my armoured forces from the previous post so it would be absolutely clear they'd be facing armour!). I had told them to bring up to 50 Power Level of stuff. I fully expected to be facing the Necron's Doom Scythe, Monolith, Annihilation Barge, and/or Tesseract Vault - all the heavy hitters which I knew they had (as my Guaiacan Commandoes had faced them before!)... but the lad, for some reason, brought infantry to a tank fight!? Oh, they're still Infantry that still keeps getting up again after you shoot them down (unless you can wipe out the whole damned unit in one turn), but infantry none the less... 

Elements of 451st Tallarn Tank Regiment

Tank Commander with Leman Russ Punisher (Power Level 12)

3x Leman Russ Tanks (2x Battle Tanks, 1x Demolisher) (@ Power Level 10) 

Spearhead Detachment, Power Level 42, 4 Command Points

Elements of Necron Task Force: Space Herpe 

Overlord (Power Level 7)

2x Warriors (10)(@ Power Level 6 = 12)

1x Lychguard (5)(Power Level 8)

1x Scarabs (3)(Power Level 2)

1x Deathmarks (5)(Power Level 5)

1x Annihilation Barge (Power Level 7)

Patrol Detachment, Power Level 41, 3 Command Points

The Game

For hours the tanks had rolled over the desert. The heat and the long days, dulled their level of awareness. It was all Sergeant Erakat could do to stay awake. She was sure at least one of her sponson gunners had fallen asleep - she could hear his snores from down below. She sat high in the turret, scanning the endless horizon with her magnoculars. Nothing. Kilometre after kilometre, there was nothing. And then there was. 

At first she thought it was a mirage. Then adrenaline shot through her body, wrenching her into full awareness, as it dawned on her what she was actually looking at. She quickly voxed back to the squadron commander to confirm that there was no friendly infantry in the area and to the other tanks under her command to make sure they were awake and aware of the infantry on the ridge beyond another ancient ruin. Before she got her response from command, she got her answer from the enemy! Green tinged energy rounds started arcing across the desert and bouncing off the skin of her tanks. 

Jumana dropped into the turret and started shouting commands. "Gunners! Enemy infantry on the ridge at 11 o'clock" 

A chorus of "Identified!" responded - except Billah in the right sponson who shouted "I don't have a target!" 

"Driver veer left 10 degrees, give Billah a target! Gunners FIRE!"

There was an angry roar as the punisher cannon unleashed it's mighty fury! The gunners of sponson and hull heavy boaters joined in as well, but were drowned out by the thousand round per minute torrent of the rotary cannon next to her. The view of the ridge through her visual scope was reduced to a cloud of dust and flying metal parts....

Orders were issued to the other tanks to scan for and engage any enemy on the flanks. 

I took pictures of the initial deployment and stuff and then realized at the end of round one that I didn't have a memory card in my camera! DOH! (It's good to know I'm not the only one that does this!). So this first pic is at the end of the first round - I've already blown one of his units of Necron Warriors into wee little metallic fragments that "Reanimation Protocols" can't even bring back! BOOM! So THAT's how you deal with those annoying Necrons!

One Victory Point for me. 

ROUND TWO

Puffs of black smoke dotted the ridge as the other tanks of the troop engaged. Where was that Demolisher from the support company? Jumana called for a cease fire as the enemy fire had stopped for the moment. Then out of the clouds of dust and smoke MORE enemy infantry emerged firing their guess weapons at the tanks. Hits were taken.... they really only scratched the paint a bit - but it was alarming enough to get everyones full attention on the task at hand! 

All but the Overlord showed up as reinforcements for the Necrons on Round Two. The Annihilation barge seemed like it could potentially do some damage... If he could stop rolling ones and twos to hit!? 

The volume of fire from the enemy was large, but, for the most part, ineffectual. Jumana had to keep repositioning her tanks to get an angle on the enemy that tried to make use of every bit of cover they could amongst the ruins or rocky outcrops.  

One round two I blasted one of the stands of scarabs and finished off the Deathmarks - another Victory Point! I forgot to roll for reserves. 

ROUND THREE

Jumana's tank took a solid hits. Lights flickered and there was cursing from down below as the hull gunner was hit in the face and shoulder with some spalling. More targets fickered into view beyond the ruins and the Punisher Cannon reduced them to many small spare parts. 

No reserves for the Necrons. The Anihilation Barge actually scored TWO wounds on the Tank Commanders tank. I think a few of the Lychguard were blowed up, but they all came back the next turn... 

The Demolisher finally decided to join the fight. 

ROUND FOUR

The Necron Overlord finally showed up. the Annihilation barge scored two more wounds on the Tank Commander's Punisher. The Scarabs were squashed (another Victory Point), 5 necron Warriors were destroyed and the Annihilation Barge took 4 wounds. 

The battle raged on. The Xenos constructs just kept coming and the tanks of #2 Troop just kept smashing them to bits. There was no sense in it. Did they not have any sense of self-preservation in their programming? While Jumana had no complaints about the ease at which they were able to wreck these robotic clods, their relentlessness gave her a sense of unease, and she shuddered at the thought of facing more heavily armed and armoured troops with the same inability to retreat... 

ROUND FIVE

Eventually the enemy guess fire slackened and then stopped altogether. Jumana called for a ceasefire and they sat, ready for more to appear out of the smoke and dust, but none came....

The Punisher and Demolisher finished off the Lychguard and the two Battle Tanks destroyed the Annihilation barge. The writing was kind of on the wall at that point - I had five victory points. There was no way the Overlord and half a unit of Necron warriors was going to destroy all four tanks in their next two turns (assuming there WAS two more turns, as we were to roll at the end of the next two rounds to see if the game continued). 

ELSWHERE ON BRIND'S WORLD

Orks vs. Chaos Space Marines 

While I was playing the Necrons, Finnegan and his Orks fought some Chaos Space Marines. 

The followers of Khorne came to Brind's world in search of a great weapon believed to be hidden there. As they tromped through the jungle, a small detachment of Chaos Space Marines under a Sorcerer wandered into the territory of Warboss Blitzagg....

They played an Ambush Scenario with the Orks being the Ambushing attackers. 

 

While the Hellbrute, cultists, and Sorcerer came to blows with one of the Ork Mobs, the Raptors and Biker zipped around (or OVER) the orks and were off the table on by Round Two or Three - effectively ending the game as that accounted for nearly half the forces Power Level and they only needed one third of the force to escape to secure a victory.

After our first games were done, we switched up and Finnegan's Orks fought the Necrons in the Jungle and The Girls' Harlequins faced the forces of Chaos out own the desert....


Necrons vs. Orks



For this battle, the boys tried an Eternal War scenario: The Scourging. The scenario had a random length and points were awarded at the end for whoever controlled objective markers. There was one marker worth four points, two worth two points and one worth only one.



By all accounts it was a pretty epic battle (I was busy helping the others play their game and only popped by to take the occasional picture).



The orks started with the two objectives worth six points within their grasp. Not content to rest upon their laurels, Warboss Blitzagg lead the charge with his mega nobs to wrest the other objectives from the "clankies".



The warboss and his meganobs went toe-to-toe with the Overlord and his Lychguard - and took them OUT!

Elsewhere the Mobs and Lootas holding their objectives were savaged by Necron fire... had the game lasted another turn or two it might have swung in completely the opposite direction. but as it was, the game ended after Round Five with he Orks scoring ELEVEN victory points (eight for objective markers, and one each for First Blood, Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker) and the Necrons only two!

Chaos Space Marines vs. Aeldari

 Meanwhile the Chaos space marines had evacuated the Jungle and started searching the ruins in the desert, they must have been getting close because our of nowhere the Aeldari appeared and savagely attacked their search party...



They too decided to try and Eternal War Scenario. They rolled "Big Guns Never Tire", but as neither has any Heavy Support, they would only score points for Objective markers (three each) and the standard one for First Blood, Slay the Warlord, and Linebreaker...



Chaos went first and delivered some serious Alpha Smite. Due to some poor positioning of troops, The Girl nearly lost Jain Zar in the first round (all but ONE WOUND lost!) and the Howling Banshees were nearly wiped out (loosing 3 of 5 - and the other two surviving by rolling some incredible saves!)



But after that it was all downhill for Chaos...



The grievously wounded Jain Zar and the remaining Banshees advanced on the Bikers and wiped them out with fire and then charged the Hellbrute.

The Hellbrute took two turns to take down, but didn't manage to do much damage to the Eldar.



the Raptors dropped in behind the Eldar lines. The Eldar lost one of their Warlocks - I can't remember if it was to the Raptors or the Sorcerer (I THINK it was the Sorcerer...?) The other Warlock took out two of the Reports.



Somehow I didn't get any pictures of it, but he Eldar dropped some Swooping Hawks behind the Chaos troops and they wiped out the Cultists.

The Farseer laid some smack down on the sorcerer and then the remaining Chaos forces decided to call it a day....

Fun was had. I got to blow shit up. The Eldar got to lay some serious smack down (which was important because I think The Girl was starting to feel like they "weren't very good" after a few set backs in previous games).


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I've been working on assorted bits and bobs for 40K/Rouge Trader and slowly making some progress on the Arvis Lighter...