Guaiacan Commandoes Arrive on Xoxigar

4.812.018.M41
Xoxigar Tertium
Agravian subcontinent
Sector 43 - The Area of Operations for the 222nd Guaiacan Commando Regiment. 

After such a long transit through the warp and painfully slow movements to orbit their destination world and the woefully disorganized planetfall, Sergeant Hammer knew his troopers were NOT in their best form. Despite all the sim-training throughout the voyage and the constant physical training, their heads were not "in the game". They lacked a sense of urgency. The usual razor sharp edge of their bodies and minds had been dulled. Sergeant Hammer decided the best thing he could do for them was to get them out patrolling in the jungle - pushing hard - looking to make contact with the enemy... The rest of the squadron could finish setting up their forward operation base.

Sergeant hammer mustered his section, grabbed "Doc" Sanders, and a couple of the gunners from the troop's special weapons section and headed out for a long range patrol. After a day it was evident this jungle was much more like the dangerous jungles of Brind's World, where they had previously been deployed, than the forests of Guaiancan. The unfamiliar was itself as dangerous as it was lush and beautiful, never mind the vicious and aggressive xenos fauna! Within six hours he'd already had to call in two medevacs just from tangles with the local vegetation. But the scheme was working - without even contacting the enemy his troopers were on point again - sharper as a finely honed Guaiacan blade...

The second day passed without incident.

On the third day Corporal Hunt, The patrol's scout, reported back that there was a patrol of Xenos headed their way - and they WEREN'T the Orks they were expecting to run into out here! Sergeant Hammer spread out his section and prepared a hasty ambush...



Corporal Hunt and Private Broad, the Sniper from the Special Weapons Section, set up on the left flank with a good view of the xenos' vector of approach.



He set the other two gunners from the special weapons section; Pte. "Blazer" Johnson with his flamer and Pte. Farnsworth with his meltagun, along with Pte. Quincy from his own section.



In the middle Sergeant Hammer set up the rest of his section - directly in the xenos path of advance.



The fearsome xenos warriors advancing through the deadly jungle towards Sergeant Hammer's daring ambush.



The xenos were lightning quick, before he was even able to give the signal, one of them zipped right past Hammer's position with the deftness of a Harboran Tree Rat!

Hammer gave his signal and the jungle lit up with the flash of lasers and explosions from grenades.  Whether it was that they were too long aboard a ship without active targets to shoot at, or the dense cover of the jungle, or the incredible speed with which the xenos could react and move, or the thickness of the armoured plates the bug-like xenos were covered it, the commando's fire seemed entirely ineffective!

The Xenos reacted with terrifying speed and violence. Some of them even began to shoot back - though it was with no sort of bullet or energy weapon Sergeant hammer had ever encountered. Corporal Loiselle was hit with something that looked like large maggots that were covered in some sort of viscous fluid that melted part of her armour and her flesh! the maggots then tried burrowing into her arm, but she quickly carved them out with her knife and returned to firing her grenade launcher! Then Peachy Mcgoo was hit with a similar volley of maggots, before he could dig the first out he was hit by a second volley from another direction - but McGoo fought on! "Shoota" Danes flak vest was splattered with an entirely different bio-weapon - writhing, shiny black-headed worm-like creatures! He quickly brushed them off and crushed them underfoot!

In the middle of this a lizard-like-creature darted out of the booth and took a chunk out of "Blazer" Johnson's leg!

The Xenos pushed right through the section's position! The section kept the fire up, and though a few hits were definitely scored, wounding the vile xenos, none were wounded enough to be slowed down much!

"Gimme some STIM!" Sergeant hammer thundered at Doc Sanders. Doc's stem injector, alway kept in a handy holster, was meant to keep dying soldiers alive long enough to make it back to a regimental aid post, but some had found it also gave the living the boost they needed to give them an edge in close combat. Doc dutifully shot a dose into Sergeant Hammer's bulging biceps, then Hammer was off. bounding out of cover to chase down one of the Xeno with his bolt pistol and chainsword!

Pte. Quincy saw the Sergeant charge and moved to flank his opponent and stab it in the back with his bayonet while the Sarge had it distracted... but the beast was too fast - it turned and brushed off the Sergeant's attacks and then counterattacked brutally savaging Sergeant hammer. Pte. Quincy's attacks were useless as the creature simply moved to fast. After the sergeant was down the creature smiley darted off into the jungle.



As the bulk of the Xenos Swarm rushed past, a gargantuan beast turned and sprayed the squad with more of the wriggling worms from a giant giant conceal appendage. "Shoota" Dane and Bobby Taylor saw the creature and ducked for cover, but Doc Sanders had been watching the sergeant and seen him go down and was preparing to rush to his aid when he was splattered with a mess of writhing worms. His midsection melted away and the worms quickly burrowed into his chest cavity and started making their way to his brain! Doc Sanders died in agony, screaming to the last moment.

Then the Xenos were gone - vanishing into the jungle as quickly as they had appeared. Luckily, for Hammer's section, their tireless, single-minded instinct compelled them onward to some other unknowable purpose....

Hammer's hand transceiver had been destroyed in the assault so they were unable to call in a medieval and the wounded had to limp back towards their forward operations base before they bumped into a patrol with a working vox-caster who were able to call in a valkyrie for them. Doc's body had been immolated in the jungle where he had fallen, they figured they couldn't risk letting whatever had burrowed into him to gestate and potentially infect the entire base. As it was Hammer, Loiselle, Peachy, and Johnson were all shipped back to the regiment's field hospital where they could be put into a proper quarantine, scanned and kept under observation for a period to ensure they were not hosting any hostile organisms...



Bruce (with half his head cut off!?) with his Tyranid Kill Team ready to be ambushed by my Astra Militarum.

This past Friday Bruce came over and we played out a few more actions for out Kill Team Campaign for Xoxigar. Bruce painted a few new minis for his tyranid Kill Team - a pair of Tyranid Warriors and a few Termagants.

Bruce and I played in the Deathworld Forest Kill Zone. We picked the "Daring Ambush" scenario card - which had come with the Kill Zone set. The Guaiacans were the attackers and the Tyranids the defenders. The defenders won if they got more than half of their original number off the opposite edge of the table before the end of the game. Bruce was able to do this by the end of the movement phase on Round Three.

Though I cause a couple flesh wounds on a Termagaunt and a Genestealer, and knocked ONE wound off one of the Tyranid Warriors, the Tyranids, effectively, took no casualties in the game. The Tyranid Warrior Heavy Specialist gained two experience points (for using his specialist tactic) and all the others gained one experience. I don't think any of them levelled up...? The Tyranids and Termagants were new recruits and I don't think either of the genestealers fielded had two experience...

The Sergeant, who had been taken out of action by a genestealer, and peachy, whose two flesh wounds went bad and ended up with him counting as out-of-action at the end of the game, both survived. "Doc" Sanders died. The other two with flesh wounds were okay as well. The Sniper and Scout both gained +2 experience points - I HAD meant to save a command point for the Sergeant to make use of his tactic when he and Quincy were fighting the genestealer, but forgot and ended up using it for a command re-roll in the shooting phase! Everyone else gained +1 experience point. The loss of the action struck fear into the hearts of the Guaiacans, and made them more cautious about how far they would patrol out into the jungle - they lost 1 Territory.


Elsewhere on Xoxigar Tertium...

After their raid on the vast Munitorum facility at the Haldivar Starport, the Darukk Jawbusta's decided to take up residence in the facility - since there was so much eats and bullets on hand. Despite the landing of an entire Imperial Guard Regiment, the starport and the Munitorum compound were so vast it was easy enough for them to camp out and not be found... for a while...

The Harlequins of the The Blood Orange Ballet, in their quest to root out all the taint of chaos on Xoxigar led them to the Munitorum facility at the Haldivar Starport... The taint of chaos ran deep through the population of Xoxigar Tertium and cultists also used the vastness of the Munitorum facility at the starport to hide-in-plain sight their fetishes and relics.

Unfortunately for all involved.. those artifacts were being held in the area now occupied by Darukk Jawbusta's Orks... and when the Harlequins of the The Blood Orange Ballet came to destroy them, Darukk Jawbusta figured they were after HIS loot!!!



The kids played in the Sector Munitorum Kill Zone. They played the "Extreme Measures" scenario. The Harlequin attackers had to set charges on objective markers and have more markers with charges set on them by the end of the game than not to win.



All set up and ready to go! The Orks had picked set traps in the Scout Phase. The Harlequins had picked disarm traps...



The Orks in their deployment zone - ready to defend their loot!!



The Harlequins of the Blood Orange Ballet, descend out of the webways into the munitorum facility to strike quickly and fade away...



They did not expect to find ORKS at their target location... Humans - either munitorum guards or chaos cultists, sure... but what in the name of the Cegorach were Orks doing here!



As they began to plant their charges the Orks swarmed out of the crates and all the nooks and crannies between them.



They would have to work fast!



But the Orks infestation was deep and they came from everywhere.



The Harlequins were quickly overwhelmed.



Soon their focus shifted from the mission to a fight for survival.



The Orks were relentless and it was soon apparent that they would not be able to carry out their mission in the middle of a melee with a hoard of orcs.



The mission was abandoned and the Harlequins retreated into the Webway...

The Orks suffered three out of action, Smashface (the veteran), Gargnal (a regular Boy), and Da Bomb Speshulist. Smashface and Gargnal recovered from their wounds, but the Da Bomb Speshulist died of his wounds. The Leader, Veteran and Combat Specialists all gained +2 experience - bringing all of them to Level 2. The Boyz also gained +2 experience which brought them to level 2 as well. The Boyz gained the Die Hard ability (-1 from all injury rolls for them!)

The Harlequins suffered four our of faction, all eventually recovered from their wounds. The Combat and Medic Specialists made level 2, as did the regular Players fireteam. The Players also gained the Die Hard ability. The loss was a blow to The Blood Orange Ballet (-1 Morale)


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Hopefully some more Kill Team! I'm hoping I might be able to talk Amanda into playing a game sometime this weekend. She wasn't able to play Friday night as she'd been out leading a Karma Class at the Yoga studio she works part time at (karma classes are pay-what-you -want affairs and all the money is donated to a charity - as it is Diabetes Awareness month, Amanda is raising money for the JDRF). As everyone but me and Amanda have played two games in the campaign, I figured if we could get an extra game in, we'd be caught up to everyone else.

On the painting front... I've been kind of all over the place... can't seem to get motivated to get painting things that I feel like I SHOULD be doing.. mostly I've been working on a bunker that goes along with the Wall of Martyrs line. I'll probably have pics of that up shortly.

This week I'm starting work on the Hobby Bunker/basement games room in earnest. Partly to have a place to play a few larger games of 40K in the coming weeks, but also so I can get on with the renovations over the next month.

The games of 40K are to test out forces for an Apocalypse event I'm going to be playing in in February or March. It's a team event and I'm pairing up with a fellow that has Knights and Adeptus Mechainicus stuff. Each team had 300 Power Level (150 PL each) - that's, like, 3000 points each, 6000 points on a side, 12000 points on a 8x6 table... should be pretty awesome. I'm probably going to field Pardis Purpura (my Warhound Titan), the Shadowsword, and the something similar to the Brigade I  took to the Battleforce Recon Tournament in March of this year.

(Earlier this week, I'd been bidding on a second Armorcast Warhound Titan on Ebay - thinking I could bring TWO warhounds to the apocalypse event - they're 75 power level each!  I'd meant to just pick it up for the Buy-It-Now price, but while I waited to confirm with Amanda that she wouldn't execute me for doing so, someone else put in a bid. I went to snipe it on Friday morning, but there was a last minute bidding war and it went for $40USD MORE than the original buy-it-now price... DOH!! Today I was offered a "second chance" on it, which has happened a few times and started to make me wonder if it isn't the sellers bidding it up auctions with a shill accounts and then went they happen to outbid the highest bidder, they offer it as a "second chance" - at a much higher price that it would have been if the "winning bidder" simply hadn't been involved in the auction at all... I'll just wait and see if they relist it back at the original buy-it-now price).