WGC Vs. KMNB- The Dust Showdown

Well, here it is- my report on the super showdown of super showdowns.

Terrain was chosen by another gamer at the store. I am awful with names, so if you're reading this I apologize. There was a mix if all kinds of terrain, leading to a varied table. No advantage there.

First we exchanged army lists. This was my army:

Faction: Allies ( 299 / 300 )

--- Combat Platoon (142)
Upgrade: Additional Resources (10)
Command Section: "The Boss" Ranger Command Squad (25)
1st Section: "Grim Reapers" Heavy Ranger Attack Squad (30)
3rd Section: "Death Dealers" Ranger Weapon Squad (20)
+ M9-D Bazookas (1)
4th Section: "Death Dealers" Ranger Weapon Squad (20)
+ M9-D Bazookas (1)
Support: MCW M3-D "Cobra" (35)

--- Assault Platoon (157)
Upgrade: Air Drop (5)
Command Section: "Hell Boys" Ranger Attack Squad (25)
1st Section: "BBQ Squad" Assault Ranger Squad (21)
3rd Section: "The Gunners" Combat Ranger Squad [Upgrade] (20)
+ M9-D Bazookas (1)
Support: HAW M6-B "Fireball" (85)
Demitra's army was as follows:

Faction: Axis ( 300 / 300 )

---  Sturmgrenadiere Platoon (189)
Command Section: Kommandotrupp (25)
1st Section: Battle Grenadiers [Upgrade] (20)
2nd Section: Battle Grenadiers [Upgrade] (20)
3rd Section: Recon Grenadiers (17)
Support: MPW III-A "Wotan" [Upgrade] (55)
Support: MPW II-D "Lothar" (40)
Support: Sniper Grenadier Team (12)

---  Schwer Platoon (111)
Command Section: Heavy Kommandotrupp (35)
1st Section: Heavy Flak Grenadiers (26)
2nd Section: Heavy Flak Grenadiers (26)
Support: Beobachter Team (8)
    + Pinpoint Observation (4)
Support: Sniper Grenadier Team (12)

Lots of Grenadiers and my old nemesis the Wotan. It's a supreme tank killer, and I was fielding a supreme tank. This would be interesting. Due to the fits Fireballs had been giving Demitra, The perceived advantage went to the Allies. There really was very little advantage there.

Demitra and I rolled a die to determine which scenario table we would use. On a 1-3 we would use the tournament table, on a 4-6 we would use the standard mission table. with the cube of destiny coming up a 5, the standard table was chosen. We alternated placing scenario points, ending up with the following mission:

Key Positions, Advancing Lines, Off Target Shelling.

This meant the increased number of Axis units could shrug off my return fire, and my squads could easily be pinned down. The objective meant the Axis forces could sit tight in their deployment zone, while my shorter ranged fire would have to move into the teeth of his army where he could react en masse. In retrospect I should have spent both of my points on deployment, forcing Demitra to choose weather he wanted to advance his army or switch to a more advantageous objective. He would also have to decide weather defense or suppression would be a bigger boon to his forces. I'll learn the nuances of scenario generation in practice one day, for now however the advantage lay firmly in the Axis force's hands.

Terrain layout

Terrain was laid out in the usual manner, alternating placing pieces until we had this board. For some reason I thought we were playing a Force Collision mission, and therefore I set up the buildings I laid out at an angle. They should have been with their wide sides facing the long edges of the table in order to screen my advance, knowing the enemy firepower could easily tear me to shreds.

It should be noted that there was a LOT of terrain, to the point that we had trouble maintaining the required 4" gap between items. This should have been a massive advantage to the Allies, but my oopsie in placing the buildings opened up lots of fire lanes to the enemy forces, leading to a big advantage for the Axis. (See where this is going?)

Deployment

Deployment led to Demitra's forces setting up on my right flank. I deployed more or less in the center, with my Grim Reapers left stranded to the right. Again, I don't know what I was thinking when I did this, only that I did, and it would return to haunt me later. I set up the Cobra in a manner that hopefully would allow it to outflank the Axis line, I planned to apply pressure to the left end of the Axis line and hopefully roll it up with the Fireball once I neutralized the Wotan with my five M9-D bazookas, more that capable of tearing the walker to shreds. I figured that with the off-target shelling I could at least suppress, if not destroy, the Axis forces with my Long Tom. The pounding my command section could rain down should have made the Axis forces hunker down in their DZ.

Forces ready, I chose the house my Cobra is deployed next to as my first objective, and the house directly forward it as my second. It turned out that Demitra (unsurprisingly for an Axis gunline) chose the rocky hill as well as the ruined building the artillery walker had deployed in in his deployment area. Honestly, I should have chosen the houses in my deployment zone as my objectives, sitting there aiming for a tie and breaking it by taking out some snipers with Long Tom strikes.

Turn one

Turn one saw me rolling one command, while Demitra generated two. Using my order I moved my BBQ squad up behind the forward objective house, ready to rush any Axis squad that got too close. The other was (unsurprisingly) used to call in a Long Tom strike targeting the Lothar. I wanted artillery superiority. Unsurprisingly I failed to ding the artillery walker, but the follow-up attack managed to kill a single sniper.

Demitra's response was to fire off a sniper shot into my Gunners, killing one and suppressing them, and snapping off a second sniper shot at my Grim Reapers, felling one and handing out more suppression.

During my unit phase I used the Medic skill on the Gunners, failing to return the fallen soldier, but removing the lone suppression on them and allowing them to advance.

Turn one Axis response.

The Axis line tiptoed forward and opened up into my troops. With them going second this allowed them to come just into range and start firing on my troops. The right hand sniper's spotter was returned to play through a use of the Medic skill.



3 died in my Death Dealers squad on my left, two more Gunners went down. I lost another Grim Reaper. At this point my entire right flank had suppression on it, and with Off Target Shelling in place, none of it would go away.



Turn two

The next turn I forgot to record how many orders were generated, but I was unable to radio in a Long Tom strike. The Cobra phased a single Flak Grenadier who had wandered out of cover and just a bit too close to my walker.

Both Flak Grenadiers opened up into my Death Dealers on the right flank, dropping one.

In came the Fireball on the left flank in Demitra's DZ. This was what I had meant to do on turn one, but I totally forgot. The Cobra fired its phaser into the Flak Grenadiers, killing one.

Demitra's Wotan pivoted in place to open fire on my Fireball. It missed with both lasers.His command section used its Medic ability twice on the Flak Grenadiers I had offed, and twice he succeeded in returning his troops to play.

It was at this point I was on tilt.



The final stare-down

It came down to the next turn The Axis line surged forward confident in victory, destroying the center of my line. the Wotan sustained attacked my Fireball, inflicting seven points of damage (three hits, two saves). The shot resulted in a hull breach. As Demitra began reading off the effects of the damage I stopped him after "it may not make any armor rolls" and called the game.

 

I had inflicted no casualties on the Axis line.

 

I had inflicted no damage on the Axis walkers.

 

I had done nothing.

 

It was a total rout, and honestly the most boring game of Dust I have ever played.

 

Oh, well. There's always the tournament, right?

Wait, What? A Battle Report?

Well, my usual long period of silence has been broken again. This time I'm trying something that both Demitra and I have been slacking on, chronicling our weekly game of... well it's mostly been 40k. This report pits our arch nemesis, the Blood Angels and Plague Marines against one another. You may notice that our lists are a bit... sub-optimal. This is because we've been getting tired of running the same armies headlong into one another (or simply having my Dark Eldar kite the Blood Angels around the table) so we broke things up a bit by running some random stuff we like but never really try out. In my case Typhus and mt Terminator Chaos Lord, in Demitra's case, well, just about everything.

I'm not going to post our army lists here as that doesn't really make for good reading. What I will say is that upon review (I was making up a reference sheet so Demitra doesn't have to run to his Codex every 30 seconds to check something) Army Builder said that Demitra's army only came to 1,910 points, while mine was 2,000 points. Whoopsie! Of course Army Builder could be wrong (it wouldn't be the first time), but since I don't have the Blood Angels' book, I just don't know for sure.

Note: We're still playing 5th ed. 40k, as neither of us really wants to plunk down $75 for a rulebook when that's the cost of most of a Dust Warfare army.

The first thing I did was assemble the board, then I pulled out an assortment of terrain. You may notice that a lot of this terrain has appeared in recent articles here. That's mainly because I've spent a good amount of time and effort on the stuff, and I want to use it.

That's right, 25% terrain just like the book says.

Once Demitra arrived we set about placing the features on the board. I had made sure to place an even number of terrain items to choose from since I really like the idea after reading it in the Dust rulebook. It helps to make sure neither player really gets the advantage of placing more items on the board.

From there we generated the scenario. I forget what it's called, and I'm too lazy to go get my rulebook right now, but the scenario was the one with two objectives, and the deployment was everybody's favorite- Dawn of War! Thus, the above picture not only serves to demonstrate the terrain layout, it also shows our deployment.

Turn one saw my forces rolling onto the board. Not too much to say here, my plan was to drive an armored wedge up the center with my Land Raiders screening my Rhinos, but as they say (and you will see) no plan ever survives contact with the enemy.

Demitra's response war to use his Predator to screen his Land Raider (?!?) and to send an outflanking force of... every thing else around to my right.

My bright idea was to send Typhus' Land Raider unsupported up the middle toward Mephiston and into the teeth of the Blood Angel army. My Rhinos cut around left to deliver their Meltaguns into a position where they could attack the Predator and the Land Raider. I hoped they would be screened by the Land Raider and then the woods as they approached.

See that little red thingy on top of the Land Raider in the next picture? That's a little flame marker I use to denote destroyed vehicles. That's what happens when a Demolisher Cannon lands bang on target. Typhus' squad got shot up, and they were relegated to standing out in the open and waiting for their impending demise. Great move, EV.

Trying to make lemonade out of the lemons I had so cleverly created, I sent Typhus rushing up the center toward the only redeeming thing he could do- rushing the exposed Assault Squad. The plan now shifted (great idea to change plans mid-stream, I know) to eliminating the two scoring units in Demitra's army, forcing him to fight for a draw. Typhus did not disappoint, as he rushed the squad and scythed down several Blood Angels. My Power Fist armed Plague Champion also did his share of lifting, leaving the Plague Marines winning combat by a hefty margin. The Assault Squad miraculously did not run, and Typhus remained safe from shooting.

...But not safe from Mephiston. The vampire came rushing toward Typhus, increased his Strength to 10, and caused my mighty Plague Lord to go splat. The Attack Bike ran around behind my Rhino that was squatting on my objective, fired off its Multi Melta, and missed. The Assault Squad on my right was now getting uncomfortably close to the Rhino as well, and had to be dealt with. Aside from that, the Blood Angel turn was largely uneventful.

The Great Unclean One decided that this was the turn to make his entry, and erupted from the rear Rhino. My remaining Chaos Lord rushed back around to kill off the Assault Squad that threatened to kill of my objective squatters. The Unclean One and one Rhino moved into the woods.I was preparing for the inevitable Death Company charge, and an amassed counter attack was all that could really save me. The Death Company weren't scoring though, and so every ranged weapon I had fired on the left hand Assault Squad. The first of my two targets was eliminated. The second Assault Squad was ploughed into by the Chaos Lord's unit. The Blood Angels were again defeated in melee, and this time they fled. My Chaos Lord and his squad were now exposed, and there was a Demolisher Cannon parked right around the corner. Also, note the little red arrow in the image below. This is Mephiston's heroic hiding spot.

Of course, Mephiston wouldn't hide forever. He leapt from cover and headed toward my Great Unclean One. Since Summoned Greater Daemons aren't Eternal Warriors Mephy was intent on using his Force Sword to banish Fatty back to the Warp. Everything on the right opened fire on the Chaos Lord and his bodyguard. Everything on the left opened up on the Rhino in the forest. Both were destroyed. The Chaos Lord stood heroically against the forthcoming charge of the Blood Angels while the Plague Marines (now in a crater rather than an APC) cowered in the face of the Death Company. The crazed Marines in black armor utterly destroyed their opponents in close combat and advanced. The Chaos Lord however, he fought on like a champ. Managing to scythe down four of the six charging Assault Marines, he prepared to eliminate the last scoring Blood Angel squad.

Oh, and Mephiston. He upped his strength to 10, rushed toward the imposing bulk of the Greater Daemon, and...

Wait for it...

Missed with every single attack! Seizing the opportunity, the massive daemon slammed his sword into the Blood Angel hero. The vampire stood his ground and passed all of his No Retreat wound saves. This was surely an unexpected turn of events!

See that arrow? That's important.

My Meltagun armed Plague Marine squad disembarked. My Land Raider returned to the top of the hill. Then the Rhino decided to Tank Shock the Death Company in order to keep them away from the Great Unclean One. In the frenzy endowed by his genetic defect the Powerfist armed Death Company marine chose Death or Glory! His mighty swing connected, and the Rhino was destroyed. The Plague Marines opened fire on the Godhammer Land Raider and only managed to shake it, My Land Raider fared much better, immobilizing the Lascannon Predator. A salvo of Plasmagun fire destroyed the Blood Angel Attack Bike. The Terminator armored Chaos Lord finished off the final Assault Marine on the table, and was wounded by the Sanguinary High Priest for his troubles.

The titanic battle between Mephiston and the Great Unclean One continued to rage. This time the Lord of Death lashed out with his sword, and inflicted four wounds on the hulking monstrosity. I picked up my dice and prayed to Papa Nurgle. I tossed the "cubes of fate" onto the table.

FOUR SAVES!!! Mephiston had met his match in this behemoth and was promptly torn apart by the gleeful daemon.

A sudden complete lack of vampires.

 The titanic ball of filth's elation would be short lived, however. The Death Company surged forward and rushed fearlessly into combat with the monster. The Baal Predator roared forward and fired all of its guns into the Rhino, achieving nothing. The Vindicator "climbed" the Land Raider wreckage in front of it and attempted to shell the remaining Land Raider, missing completely. The Sanguinary High Priest was easily offed by the Chaos Lord's Lightning Claws. The Death Company however? That's a different story. Before he even knew what hit him the avatar of Nurgle was banished back to the aether. The Death Company swung back around and turned their sights on the Plague Marines harassing their transport.

Turns were getting short at this point, and thus these paragraphs are as well. My Rhino ridin' Plague Marines assailed the Baal Predator with their Plasmaguns, doing nothing. The Plague Marines near the Land Raider rapid fired their Bolters into the Death Company. The Land Raider joined in the fun detonating the ammo stores of the Vindicator with its twin-linked Lascannons. The berserk marines were not thinned out as much as I had hoped, but one thing had come of this turn- The Death Company were distracted by the Plague Marines and would remain stranded on the far side of the battlefield for the remainder of the game.

This would prove to be the final turn of the game. The Baal Predator swung around behind the Rhino that was securing my objective. It unloaded all of its guns into the machine's rear armor, and the APC exploded into a thousand pieces. After the smoke cleared, however, the entire squad emerged from the wreckage intact. With a hateful roar the Death Company surged toward the remaining Plague Marines. The foot soldiers of the Plague God were torn asunder under the hateful blows of the now completely insane Marines. This would prove to be the final act of violence in a bloody game.

The final tally of the game left me in possession of my objective. A totally undeserved win for the forces of Chaos.

I learned a lot from this game- mostly basic things I should already know like "don't send your stuff in unsupported". Hopefully next game I'll perform better than this one. Demitra has promised me a new look to his Angels tomorrow, and he's going to see a new look to a hated foe as well. I promised myself I'd use these models when I bought them, and use them I will!

Ogres Vs. Orcs: Mini Battle Report

Battle lines are drawn

After a total drubbing at the hands of my regular fantasy opponents' Orc & Goblin army, I challenged him to a rematch- this time using my Ogres!

Early in the day I went to my less than local Games Workshop location for a warm-up match. My opponent, much to my surprise, was also using Ogres. Instead of the more balanced approach I had opted for, he went for the total Gut-Star, deployed in Horde formation (6 wide, 4 deep if I recall correctly). I forgot to strip the unit of its buff spells during my magic phase, so the Gut-Star was impossible for me to deal with. I lost in a total massacre.

Needless to say, this dampened my spirits immensely going into my rematch.

We started by discussing what models were where in our armies (who was my Battle Standard Bearer, who was his, etc.) and then began deploying terrain.  I rolled a 6 when determining the number of terrain items, resulting in us to needing ten pieces of terrain for the battle.

Now, contrary to people's belief at my not-so-local G. W., randomly generating terrain is an OPTIONAL rule, so instead we opted to just choose from whatever terrain was available. This led to the usual jungle-themed board we're used to. Also, as usual, we agreed that random types of forests is a stupid rule, so all forests would be "normal" forests. Random forests just tends to clutter up the game, and adds an unnecessary level of complexity to an already complex game, so might as well just remove that hiccup altogether.

We then rolled for scenario, and got "Battleline". Cool, a simple scenario. Just bash your opponents' skulls in. Perfect for Orcs & Goblins vs. Ogre Kingdoms.

Yes, we set up terrain and rolled for scenario in reverse order, but it tends to lead to a more interesting battlefield, so as far as I'm concerned it's okay. Also, we have a standing agreement that "The Watchtower" is a stupid scenario, so we would re-roll it if it came up.

My opponent won the roll to deploy first, and we set about forming our battle lines. I opted to have my Ironguts hold the center of the line, flanked by my Bulls. The Leadbelchers would attempt to get a few potshots in at the Black Orcs, and then, after thinning out their numbers, would attempt to off anything that stayed in the Orc & Goblin backfield (in particular that stone thrower).

Having deployed fewer units and finishing setup before my opponent, I easily won the roll to go first with the +1 modifier. My army advanced toward the center confidently. In my magic phase I began throwing up buffs on my units, preparing for the coming onslaught of choppas. My Slaughtermaster took a pair of wounds from casting spells, but I was confident that with his Bloodcleaver he'd be back in fighting shape in no time.

The Orc & Goblin line advanced in kind, releasing the three fanatics from the mass of Night Goblins in which his Battle Standard Bearer had bunkered up. One impacted my rightmost Bulls, inflicting a single wound before dying in the forest behind them. The other two sat in front of the Night Goblins, ruining my hopes at getting a charge in against the weedy little things. The Trolls ambled forward daring me to charge them.

Uh-oh. This could be very bad indeed.

During The Orc & Goblin Magic Phase I managed to fend off the Foot of Gork (or whatever it's called, I don't own the book) managing to keep the greenskin deity from flattening my Ironguts. It took all my Dispel dice to do this though, so The Hand of Gork easily went through, moving the Warboss' unit behind my lines. Behind my Tyrant's Irongut unit, to be precise. This coming charge could be a game-ender if I didn't quickly reform to face the coming threat.

The Orc & Goblin shooting managed to put a pair of wounds on the Leadbelchers, and killed an Irongut.


Over to my turn, and my Tyrant failed his re-rollable Leadership 9 Stupidity test (he's a Mawseeker, you see). He and his Ironguts wandered forward six inches, setting up a perfect Orc charge. Oh, no. My left flank Bulls charged the Trolls, hoping to blow through into the Common Goblin unit sheltering the Great Shaman behind them.

The rest of my battleline held position. My Slaughtermaster continued to throw up buffs, taking another wound which he negated with the Bloodgruel spell.

Shooting led to both Leadbelcher units unloading into the Black Orcs, felling three of the brutes. That did not go as well as I had planned...

In the ensuing combat between the Trolls and the Bull Ogres, my opponent swung with two trolls at my Slaughtermaster failing to wound him even a single time. So much for that assassination attempt! The Bulls handily defeated the Trolls, and they fled sending my Bull Ogres into the Common Goblins behind.

It was now over to the Orc & Goblin turn, during which the inevitable happened. The mass of orcs with two Choppas each rushed the rear of my Irongut unit. This was very bad news. The Black Orcs charged my Leadbelchers, who fled, and the charge was redirected into my Bull Ogres, only managing to get a few into combat due to a bad charge roll.

The Magic Phase for the Orcs & Goblins was very short due to a lack of valid targets for spells, as was the Shooting Phase, so on to close combat.

My Tyrant used his Make Way! movement to get into the fighting rank, while the battle standard toting Bruiser stayed away from the ruckus. Shouting out a challenge to any who would dare face him in close combat, he was shocked to be paired up against the Orc Warboss. Hmmmm... He must have something up his sleeve. After a flurry of blows from the Warboss, modified by a -1 to-hit modifier from the Tyrant's Glittering Scales, and failure to wound due to the Tyrant's Toughness of 6, the Warboss stood dumbfounded. Now it was the Tyrant's turn. With his 5 attacks at a whopping Strength of 7 the Tyrant inflicted three wounds. Two of those wounds were save by the 4+ Ward save. Unfortunately for the Warboss, the Tyrant had brought The Other Trickster's Shard, which forces a re-roll of all successful Ward saves. A second wound was let through the Warboss' magical protection, and once multiblied into D3 wounds each, the Warboss fell with 5 wounds inflicted on him. Combined with the Ironguts' ability to slaughter Orcs, the Overkill bonus was enough to win the combat for the Ogres. The Orcs held. and the Ironguts reformed to face the now Strength 3 Orcs.

The Black Orcs killed a Bull Ogre in their combat, but between the Tyrant's Leadership of 9 and the battle standard's re-roll, they held their ground.

From here the battle is a blur, as I forgot to take pictures from this point on. My Ogres continued to throw up buffs, and the Bloodcleaver continued to restore wounds lost to Gut Magic spells on my Slaughtermaster.

The Bulls on the right flank finally broke from the Black Orcs' onslaught, and they fled the battlefield.

The Common Goblins were broken by the now Strength 5 Bulls, who elected not to pursue, as they were getting out of my Slaughtermaster's range to buff up my army, and were about to get charged by a Giant. The Giant did indeed rush the Bulls, but after a failed "Thump With Club" attempt the Ogres were able to shred the Giant handily. Luckily the Giant died falling away from combat, and failed to squish any Ogres.

The Ironguts annhilated the Night Goblins, taking both their standard and the battle standard.

The now Strenght 7 Bull Ogres crashed into the rear of the Black Orcs, and the game was called.

Endgame

 

This battle went a lot better than my last two games. I was able to get up, and keep up, my Gut Magic spells, and this helped me deal with the Orcs' immense hitting power on the first round of every combat. The hero as well as the zero of the match is definitely the Tyrant. He almost lost me the game, but with his immense close combat prowess he managed to avert disaster.

This was a much closer game than it appeared, as had some vital Orc spells gone off, of had they gone off with more effect, I would have lost the game immediately. I was incredibly lucky on two occasions when Gork's Warpath failed to kill my Ironguts, despite going off with Irresistible Force.

In the end it was a hard-fought battle for both sides, and an enjoyable game. Thanks to my opponent for a most enjoyable evening!

Battle Report: Ogres vs Lizardmen- The Watchtower

Well, here it is, my second Warhammer battle report. This time I forgot the actual camera, so I had to make do with the camera in my phone, so please excuse the picture quality.

We had agreed on a 2,000 point battle earlier in the week, so I used the army list I had published previously in this post.

Once again facing the Lizardmen, I wound up rolling "The Watchtower" as the scenario for this game. Anyone who's played me in this scenario knows that this is my least favorite game of all six (though, to be fair, I haven't played "Battle for the Pass" yet). If the Lizardmen ended up garrisoning the Watchtower first, I was pretty sure I was borked. As it turned out, I was the one to start out in the watchtower. My only unit small enough to fill this role, however, was my Leadbelchers.

Look, Leadbelchers are a roaming harassment unit. They are not objective squatters. When the large block of Sarus lined up ready to charge the tower, I was once again uncertain about the outcome of the forthcoming assault.

The rest of my army formed up in an unusual formation (for my ogres). The Ironguts took the left flank, ready to go through the forest and eliminate the Sarus block. The unit of Bulls with the Slaughtermaster took the center. Their mission would be to relieve the Leadbelchers once they (hopefully) held the tower for a short while. The last eight Bulls would be the other half of the claw closing around the heart of the army. Of course, having fewer units to deploy than almost any other army in existance (I have just over the minimum three units), my plan was easily disrupted by the Lizardmen's continued deployment.

There was no slann, nor were there Temple Guard this time (hooray!) but there was a Sarus Oldblood riding a Carnosaur (boo!). This beastie does D3 damage with every unsaved wound, and is purpose-built to take out large models like my ogres. Also, I would be staring down a unit of Kroxigor, but with their great weapons, I figured the avalanche of attacks the Ogres create would bee enough to finish them off before they got to swing at me.

Once deployment was done, our battle plans seemed pretty clear- I would try to roll the left flank, and the Lizardmen would overwhelm my right.

My armies seem to have this knack for being hopelessly outnumbered...

After three attempts at breaking tied roll-offs, the Lizardmen won the roll for first turn. As I predicted, the Sarus charged the tower and the noose began to close around my right flank. The combined efforts of the Carnosaur and the Stegadon would easily obliterate the bulls stationed there.

The Chameleon Skinks exited the ruins they had scouted into and unleashed a volley at my Bulls. One ogre fell, riddled with poisoned darts. A volley of Skink javelins pattered harmlessly off the heavy armor of the Ironguts, leaving one slightly wounded, but the unit no worse for the wear.

Inside the watchtower itself, the Saurus took a casualty or two from the Leadbelchers before inflicting five wounds on the unfortunate ogres. Lickily, the general was nearby, and the Steadfast unit held its ground.

During my turn, the now mangled Leadbelcher exited the watchtower to unleash a final defiant salvo against the onrushing Lizardman horde, as the Slaughtermaster's Bulls entered the tower to replace him. The Ironguts and second Bull regiment advanced more cautiously- not wanting to get charged / shot off the board by the combined efforts of the Lizardman army.

In the next turn, the horrifyingly inevitable happened. The Carnosaur and Stegadon declared a charge against the rightmost Bull unit. The regiment gripped their weapons tightly, stared at their onrushing foes, gritted their teeth and boldly...

...Fled. This led to much cursing from the Lizardman side of the table. The Stegadon and Carnosaur were stranded away from the fight moving only a few inches each due to their failed charges.

Not shockingly, the Saurus again assaulted the tower, this time finding a more capable foe. Several wounds were inflicted on both sides, but this time the Bull ogres emerged the victors due to having Gut Magic cast on them.

Another salvo of javelins, this time accompanied by Salamander fire felled an Irongut (at the cost of one Salamander devouring all of its crew and becoming Frenzied, and the Chameleon Skinks offed another Bull ogre as the regiment fled past them.

The Ogres then rallied easily, and turned to face the dinosaurs, this time protected by a screen of Chameleon Skinks. The Ironguts declared a charge against the Skinks with Javelins hiding in the forest, who elected to stand and shoot at the onrushing Ogres- inflicting a wound. The Skinks were gleefully slaughtered by the combined efforts of the Ironguts, Bruiser Battle Standar Bearer, and the Tyrant. Victorious, the regiment elected to hold its ground where it could see the Suarus assaulting the tower.

Turn three saw the charge of the Kroxigor against the tower, as the Stegadon and Carnosaur maneuvered into more advantageous positions. The Sarus reformed to accept the forthcoming Irongut charge.

The Chameleons continued to rain fire into the Bull Ogres, felling two of the monsters.

During close combat the Bull Ogres killed a Kroxigor with their higher Initiative, losing an Ogre in return. Having inflicted one more wound than their foes, the Ogres again emerged victorious. The Kroxigor unsurprisingly held their ground.

In response, the Ironguts did indeed charge the Sarus, and the Bulls charged the Chameleon Skinks.

The Bulls massacred the Chameleons, and the Ironguts won their combat against, and broke, the Saurus warriors. As the Lizardman Battle Standard Bearer fell defending the army's standard to the last, the Skinks who had advanced behind the Saurus to attempt some pot-shots at the Ironguts panicked and began to flee the battlefield.

Unsurprisingly the Saurus rallied as the Skinks continued to flee The Oldblood riding the Carnosaur goaded his mount toward the Watchtower, intent on slaughtering the ogres inside.The Kroxigor turned about to prepare for the Ironguts' implacable advance around the tower. The Stegadon turned about to face the Bull Ogres who had decimated the Chameleon Skinks.

More Salamander fire continued to thin the Ironguts' numbers. The Bulls stationed inside the tower inflicted a wound on the Carnosaur, and the Carnosaur devoured three ogres.

The Ogres responded by charging the freshly rallied Saurus, as the Bull ogres on the right reformed to face the Stegadon. This time there would be no escape for them.

The Saurus were again broken by the Irongut charge, and this time (with only two remaining) would only rally on a double 1.The Ironguts reformed after their victory to face the two remaining Kroxigor.

In the Lizardmen's next turn the Kroxigor charged, along with the Frenzied Salamander, into the Ironguts. The Carnosaur again assaulted the tower. The Stegadon charged the Bulls, who boldly held their ground against the onrushing beast.

Combats were short and bloody for both sides. Unsurprisingly the Bulls were broken by the charge of the Stegadon, who turned about to face the Ironguts. Two further Bulls were devoured, but they managed to continue wearing down the Carnosaur, inflicting another wound. The Salamander wounded the Bruiser Battle Standard Bearer twice, who in return inflicted a pair of wounds on the fire-spitting reptile. The Kroxigor managed to fell an Irongut, but the Tyrant made short work of them with his Tenderizer. The Salamander turned an fled the carnage, again to rally only on a double 1.

The Ironguts continued their orbit around the watchtower, and the Slaughtermaster prepared for his demise at the jaws of the Carnosaur.

Realizing it could only end in the complete slaughter of the dinosaur, the Stegadon held its position. The Salamander Hunting Pack drew closer to the tower, and the Carnosaur commenced its final assault against the Slaughtermaster holding the watchtower.

The Slaughtermaster was messily devoured by the Carnosaur.

In response, the Ironguts charged the Carnosaur-mounted Oldblood. This would be the deciding move of the game.

The now depleted Irongut unit (if you can call a single model that) rushed forward, and the Bruiser Battle Standard Bearer delivered the killing blow to the ravening Carnosaur. The Oldblood failed to kill anything in his Initiative step, and the Tyrant, now unable to attack due to the Oldblood's now diminished base size, could only watch as the last remaining Irongut failed to fell the enemy General.

In the end the Bruiser was closest to the Watchtower, so the scenario ended in a victory for the Ogre Kingdoms.

This was a really close game. Magic played a very small part in this one due to my throwing up buffs on units preparing to receive charges, and the Lizardmen dispelling them in their own turn.

I was pleased at the performance of the Tyrant, even though he never really got to swing his weapon to full effect, his Toughness of 6 and the -1 modifier to hit him really saved his bacon against the Saurus and Kroxigor blocks.

Another fun game goes down in the history books. I hope that even my losses will be this much fun, as this was my second win with this army that day.

Plague Marines VS Blood Angels- The Rematch

I'm about a week or so late posting this battle report. Sorry...

This would be the second meeting of my Plague Marines and Demitra's Blood Angels- the first meeting can be found here.

I decided to go with a more "powerful" build for my Plague Marines after getting my Deathwing butchered at the hands of Demitra's jump pack / missile launcher army. I cut down on the size of my Plague Marine squads and dropped the Vindicators in favor of three squads of two Obliterators each. The final build looked like this:

2 Daemon Princes with wings, the mark of Nurgle, and Warptime
2 squads of 6 Plague Marines with 2 Meltaguns, a Personal Icon, and a Plague Champion with a Power Fist mounted in a Rhino
6 Plague Marines with 2 Flamers, a Personal Icon, and a Plague Champion with a Power Fist mounted in a Rhino
6  Plague Marines with 2 Plasma Guns and a Personal Icon mounted in a Rhino
3 squads of 2 Obliterators

Demitra took the following:

Librarian with Jump Pack, Blood Lance, and Shield of Sanguinius
5 Sanguinary Guard with 2 Power Fists, Infernus Pistol, Plasma Pistol, and Chapter Banner
3 Sanguinary Priests, 2 with Jump Pack and Power Weapon
3 squads of 10 Assault Marines with 2 Melta Guns and a Power Fist
2 squads of 10 Devastators w/ 4 Missile Launchers

This build has four of the toughest squads in the game ready to bunker up inside their APCs and grab objectives, plus the Obliterators firepower combined with the Daemon Princes' assault punch are capable of thinning out just about any squad and breaking up hand-to-hand combats.

Note the handy-dandy cookie sheet for easy transport!

We rolled up "Capture and Control" for our mission, and Spearhead for our setup The board looked like this:

Look! I even marked off deployment zones!

Demitra won the roll off to be the first player, and decided to take the top-right corner of the map. This left me with the fairly open bottom-left corner. I set up my objective marker in the swamp, and Demitra dropped his in the ruined building. We then commenced setup. Demitra piled all of his Assault Marines into the gap between the forest and the swamp in his quarter, and then dumped every last Devastator Squad into the house.

My deployment saw me hiding most of my Rhinos behind the large hill accompanied by the Daemon Princes, and my last Rhino (the one with the Plasma Guns) was set up in the swamp over the objective. My Obliterators were placed in a position between my Plasma Gun squad and the Assault Marines. I was hoping to at least thin out and pin down the squads long enough to allow my other squads to take the objective away from the Devastators, and hopefully long enough to give my Plasma Gun squads a chance in hand-to-hand, thus contesting one objective and claiming the other. Realistically I thought I was looking at a draw.

Setup

I managed to seize the initiative and set about sending my Rhinos in a sweep around the forest. One was left exposed and it popped its Smoke Launchers. The shooting saw all six Obliterators firing Plasma Cannons into the bunched up Assault Marines, killing ten of them- five each from two squads.

The top of turn one.

The Blood Angels surprised me by going after the Rhinos instead of rushing my objective. This would buy me some time, so I was just fine with that. Shooting went pretty much as I expected it to, with amassed Missile Launcher fire taking out the Flamer squad's Rhino, but luckily leaving a wreck for the other vehicles to hide behind.

Why is this sideways? The mysteries of Blogspot are many.

During my second turn I continued to push forward with my Rhino convoy as my Flamer Marines pushed forward into the forest. The Daemon Princes high-tailed it behind the Rhinos, terrified of the eight Missile Launchers. With a bit more distance between me and the Assault Marines, the Obliterators began to advance so as to keep their Plasma Cannons in range. Firing into the amassed Blood Angels slew a few more, but with their cover saves I didn't take out nearly as many as I'd have liked to.

As my next photo is of the bottom of turn two, I'll describe that here as well. The Blood Angels continued to run around the back of the board, and a small squad (three) of Assault Marines broke off to come after the Flamer squad in the woods. The Missile Launchers began to pound on my Obliterators, but after some abysmal rolling on Demitra's part, and not a single failed armor save on mine, the squads remained unfazed.

Two turns in one!

Now was the time to strike. After the brown one took a wound from Perils of the Warp, in a rather risky move, I hurled my Daemon Princes at the full ten-man squad of Assault Marines. The Rhinos hung back in cover waiting to see what would happen in close combat, and my Flamer squad pushed through the woods. My shooting phase consisted of my Obliterators returning fire at the Devastators with one overheating and wounding itself, and I managed to thin them out a bit. Hand-to-hand combat saw the Assault squad reduced to only the sergeant (he passed all of his No Retreat wound saves).

Go Princes, go!

In Demitra's turn he launched his assault. The Sanguinary Guard rushed my Daemon Princes, and his remaining Assault Squad went after the lead Rhino. Another salvo of missiles saw off the wounded Obliterator. The Assault Squads Meltaguns caused a Rhino to explode, taking a Plague Marine with it. The remaining Plague Marines hid from any forthcoming assault. In melee the Sanguinary Guard inflicted a wound on my green Daemon Prince, and two on my brown one. The four remaining Sanguinary guard then evaporated under the attention of the green Daemon Prince, and the Power Fist armed sergeant was torn apart by the brown one.

That brown Daemon Prince ain't lookin' so hot...

As the Flamer Marines continued on their way after finishing the Assault squad the previous assault phase, the now Rhino-less Plague Marines began to advance on the Assault squad responsible for them now having to finish their trek on foot.  The Obliterators continued to push toward the Devastator Squads. Shooting saw the end of a couple Assault Marines and a few more Devastators. In hand-to-hand combat the Daemon Princes finished the Librarian and Sanguinary Priest. In a slugfest the Plague Marines and Assault Marines mangled each other, but the Plague Marines came out ahead.

Only one scoring Blood Angel left...

In the bottom of turn four the Blood Angels turned their attention toward the closing Daemon Princes. The brown one took a salvo of missiles and succumbed to his wounds. Other missiles took out several of the Flamer Marines. In the following hand-to-hand combat the sergeant of the last remaining Assault Squad fell to the combined efforts of the Plague Marines, and the game was called.

The end of the game.

I won this game, but to a certain degree I have to thank Demitra's dice. Those Devastators missed far more times than they should have.

That's the end of my first complete battle report. Hope you enjoyed it.

A Kind-Of Battle Report

I intended to do a turn-by-turn battle report, but in ended up with us paying more attention to the game than to taking pictures. Due to this shortcoming, I'm just posting the pics of the most intense action.

My Skaven Army

While a bit small for a Skaven army, this one packs one hell of a punch. Included are:

Lord:
-A Grey Seer with a Power Scroll (of course!), the Talisman of Preservation, and the Ironcurse Icon
Heroes:
-A Warlock Engineer (level 1 wizard) with a Warp-Energy Condenser
-A Warlock Engineer with a Warplock Pistol and the Doomrocket
-A chieftain Battle Standard Bearer with a shield and the Armour of Destiny
Core Units:
-2x units of 40 Clanrats with shields, full command, and Poisoned Wind Mortars
-2x units of 40 Skavenslaves
Special Units:
-6 Rat Ogres with 4 Packmasters
-7 Gutter Runners with slings and poisoned attacks
Rare Units:
-Warp Lightning Cannon
-Hell Pit Abomination

A.K.'s Lizardmen

When I looked across the table at the Slann, my first question was, "Does he have the Cupped Hands (transfers miscasts to enemy wizards)?" The answer, of course, was "Yes."
Craptacular. My Grey Seer is doomed.

As far as I can tell, his army consisted of:
Lord:
-Slann with Cupped Hands of the Old Ones
Heroes:
-Skink Shaman with Dispel Magic Scroll
-Sarus Oldblood Battle Standard Bearer
Core Units:
-2x units of 12 skinks with javelins
-12 skinks with blowpipes
-23 Saurus Warriors
Special Units:
-2x Salamander Hunting Packs
-10 Chameleon Skinks with a Stalker
Rare Units:
-Stegadon with Giant Bow
I'm sure there were other Magic Items, but they either never came into play, or I just don't remember them.

I was also not too fond of the fact that his Slann had chosen the Lore of Fire, as this would nuke my Hell Pit Abomination's ability to Regenerate.

Having generated spells (the slann knew the whole bloody Lore of Fire) and the token swapping of Howling Warpgale to Curse of the Horned Rat, the battle lines were drawn.

Ready to Throw Down!

I meant to place the Abomination between the two Clanrat units at the center of my army, but once again he would be expected to roll the right flank along with the Rat Ogres.
Let me tell you- it was a gigantic hassle lining up that Warp Lightning Cannon to get a clean shot on that Stegadon!

I, of course, forget who went first, but the Cannon failed to hit the Stegadon- misfiring on the bounce twice before blowing itself sky-high on the third shot.
On my second turn I had my Hell Pit Abomination rush the Salamander rather than going after the Temple guard (who would have slaughtered the thing. The Rat Ogres charged the flanking Skinks, ignoring the Chameleons who were attempting to get in my backfield. I decided that 10 blowpipers harassing my Poisoned Wind Mortars and Skavenslaves was just fine with me.

That Abomination's flank looks awfully exposed, but he'll off that Salamander with no problems, right?

Then came my Magic Phase. Now, my last two castings of the Dreaded Thirteenth Spell have been less than stellar, causing less than twenty casualties between the two of them. This casting redeemed my dice thoroughly. 24 Temple Guard were converted into Clanrats. Best burning of a Power Scroll so far. Of course, the resulting miscast caused my Warlock Engineer to go *pop* after having shocked himself with his own Warp Lightning spell earlier in the phase. Somehow the Hell Pit Abomination failed to kill the Salamander and its handlers.

The Abomination refocuses its attention after finally offing those Salamander handlers...

So, the Abomination finally freed itself of its combat with the Salamander handlers, and turned to charge the Slann. This should have been a short combat, but I kept rolling a "1" for the abomination's action in combat, and the Slann either passed its initiative test(!) or I failed to wound it, or it made its 4+ save. I was beginning to get a bit annoyed at the thing, especially after the Slann cast Cascading Fire-Cloak and managed to knock the Abomination down to its last wound. The Rat Ogres were too far out of the combat now that there were no longer any Temple Guard to chase after, and the Battle Standard bearer's unit was in deep trouble after getting charged by the Stegadon. Luckily, they were Steadfast to the end and managed to keep the army's standard alive to the end.

With one wound left the HPA finally offs the Slann!

The end of the game

In the end, this was a hard-fought game with both sides taking major blows (the Abomination finally got poisoned to death by the unpainted Skinks)but the Skaven pulled out a minor win. All in all a good game, that was a blast to play!