Tuesday 25 December 2012

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to one and all from us here at EotS!

Sunday 16 December 2012

I would walk 500 inches: Part III

And it's time for Part III in the footsloggers 'tactica' I have been composing. So far I've talked about the positives and negatives of transports and footslogging and examined a list to see the ideas behind unit choices. Now, I will move on to:
  • General Deployment ideas
  • The Power of the Mind

So without further ado:

Friday 14 December 2012

Army Showcase - Part 3 - The Hellcaris 1st Legion

Finally this week we have my Imperial Guard army that forms part of my Imperial Apocalypse army. Since these pictures were taken a few more models have been added and I am currently working on adding some Adeptus Mechanicus stuff as well soon. In fact now I think about it some of the models have even been repainted since I took these! Never mind, I will just have to add them in a later post.

Originally being only a few units of cheap Inquisitorial Stormtroopers for my Witch Hunters; I began expanding them into allied Guard units before they became a fully fledged army. 

I painted them in a grungy urban camouflage scheme as I envisaged them as ground troops for Inquisitorial operations with my brightly painted Sisters of Battle being specialist purging troops and the Blackwing being similarly dark acting as support troops to the guardsmen and given specific battlefield objectives to fulfil. 


Thursday 13 December 2012

Army Showcase - Part 2 - The Van Fell Dynasty

Continuing from last time we have a few more pictures of my vampire counts and introducing my two necromancers.

Requiring aid the Countess roamed far and wide for a necromancer to help her raise an army. On the streets of Sartosa she found a man sitting in the gutter who claimed to be a master necromancer and all powerful lord of death. His alcohol laced breath did nothing to assure her but the powerful magical aura that surrounded him was enough. Calling himself 'Captain' Ernst von Drakkenhart he claims to have invented necromancy before Nagash was born, that the Purple Sun would have been named after him if his apprentice Xereus hadn't stolen his research and that the consumption of livers granted him tremendous magical powers. How much of his drunken ramblings are true we may never know but the captain does seem to wield noteworthy powers and is quite adept at manipulating the undead. Serving as his apprentice is the Necro-Engineer Skisrick Turncloak who betrayed his clan for promises of necromantic power. His former clan now makes up a significant portion of the growing undead army.



Wednesday 12 December 2012

Army Showcase - Part 1 - The Van Fell Dynasty

Doombringer here. As you have no doubt noticed blog progress has been slow with everyone so busy, to remedy this I dredged up some old pictures of some of my armies to post. Up first we have my modest 1000 points Vampire Counts army: The Van Fell Dynasty.

When the Strigoi capital fell to orc invaders; one of the vampires attempted to escape the destruction with a teleportation spell. The effort was foiled when a nearby goblin shaman miscast causing a disturbance in the winds of magic: sending the vampire hurtling across eight dimensions and landing in the Realm of Souls. Over thousands of years she clawed her way back to reality: fighting off the spirits of the damned, reapers of the death gods and other eldrich abominations. Returning to the world mad and bent on vengeance she saw her kin degenerate beasts ruling as Ghoul Kings, she proclaimed herself the Heir of Ushoran and vowed to feast upon the rest of vampire kind for turning against them. Taking the name Countess Victoria Van Fell she has begun her quest for absolute power.


Monday 26 November 2012

Update-athon

I failed!!

I can't help but wonder if that's actually a success...

Yes I acknowledge it, I failed in my promise to do one post every week/every two weeks. I hereby submit myself to imperial penance (which likely involves being next to a Captain in a Guard squad with the words 'Look Out Sir!' written on my shirt). I would make use of the age old excuse that I let my work get slightly ahead of me and have been playing a game of catch up for two weeks but that was at least in part caused by my own procrastination and I owe you better than that.

So, here is my current list of Gaming 'stuff' that has been done in the past two weeks plus a little sneak into what I'm planning to come, just to throw you a little teaser.

Wednesday 21 November 2012

Doombringer's Harlequinade Part 2

Continuing with my Batman themed harlequins we have my Death Jester - The Penguin. Primarily based off of the Adam West TV series but with some influences from Arkham City and the comics. I wanted to cram as many classic Penguin motifs into it: from the crooked top hat to monocle and cigarette holder. It doesn't show up very well in the photos but his hands have been made into flippers like Danny DeVito's deformed version of the character in Batman Returns. 


Sunday 4 November 2012

I would walk 500 inches: part II

--encoded message incoming, original message delayed--

--transmission begins--

And so begins the second post about the beleaguered yet dogged footsloggers of the 40k universe. In my last post I kind of skimmed over the general benefits of footslogging along with the benefits of transports (know your enemy and such like) so in this article I'm going to go into slightly more detail. To begin with, I've postponed my 'Deployment and Power of the Mind' post so that I can go over a footslogging list. My reasoning is that I want to go over what I'm thinking when I'm writing a footslogging list and why I'm making my decision. Also, I will be using vassal pictures in the coming articles to give examples and this will be the list I will be using there. I felt I couldn't just show units going down in 'tactical' deployment (or as close as I get to tactical) without actually explaining why I'd picked those units. So, enough explanations, onto the list:

Grey Knights 1000pts

HQ -  Brotherhood Champion
Elites - 7x purifiers -halberds, incinerator
Troops - 10x Strike Squad - 2xpsycannon, hammer, psybolts
               5x Termies - 4xhalberds, 1xhammer, psycannon
               5x Strike Squad
Heavy - Dreadnought -TL lascannon

This list is, you may have noticed, not particularly optimised. I still want to try shifting stuff around and trying new things but so far it has fared pretty well. I'll start this article looking at the roles of each of my units in this list and explaining why they're there.

Friday 26 October 2012

I would walk 500 inches: Part I

Ok, as promised I have some actual content this time rather than just generic life updates.

I know, exciting or what?

 
Now, as the title suggests this article series is going to be looking at footsloggers.

I've been marching all day and boy are my legs Thor...
This topic was inspired by a recent Vassal game with ol' Melons. To cut a long story short, I had my rear end presented to me (in one of those fancy silver serving platters). Now, why this is is really a combination of things. First off, Melons is really very good. Really. He knows his stuff and his list and how to apply it right. Now that I've payed off all my simpering flattery I can move on (consider that my due payed Melons). Secondly, I made some poor choices early on and that very much hampered my ability to get in the game. Details will be brought up when relevent later on don't worry.

Tuesday 23 October 2012

The Blackwing Part 2 - Army List

This is the first army list I will be using for my Dark Angels, it isn't competitive or in any way specialised as with most of my armies but is a bit of a Jack-of-all-trades. How effective it is I don't know but plan on finding out soon.

The Blackwing - 1500pts

HQ

Company Master - Power fist, Storm bolter   130
Librarian - Melta bombs   125

Troops

Tactical squad - 10 marines, Plasma pistol, Plasma gun, Plasma cannon   210
Tactical squad - 5 marines, Power weapon, Melta bombs   110

Elites

Deathwing - Chainfist, Autocannon   250
Dreadnought -    125

Fast Attack

Assault Marines - 2 Plasma pistols, Power fist, Melta bombs   185
Ravenwing - Plasma gun   135

Heavy Support

Devastator Squad - Power weapon, Heavy bolter, Multi-melta, Missile launcher, Plasma cannon   180
     -Razorback   50

Librarian deployed in one of the two tactical squads and the Company Master with the Devastators in the Razorback. I have serious doubts about the quality of this list but then again most of the armies I field are those composed of whatever I happen to have lying around and some perform reasonably well.
We shall see.

Thats all from me for now as I will be very busy over the next few weeks. I am hoping to have a game of Dungeons and Dragons soon depending on if The Euphemism is busy or not so I might post on that. I have almost finished some more bits of painting so you may see that as well in the near future but until then Doombringer out.

Sunday 21 October 2012

The Blackwing Part 1 - Background

With the dawn of a new edition I have decided to start a new army to serve as allies for my Imperial Guard. Due to the amount of random Space Marines I have seem to have collected over the years and the release of Dark Vengeance; I have decided to do a Dark Angels themed army. This will probably be the last major project I start work on for a long while (really ought to stop kidding myself) so most of my posts will be on this for the next few months. Barely anything has been painted yet so I will add some background to the blog for now.


The Brotherhood of the Blackwing Angel

  • Founding Chapter: Dark Angels
  • Homeworld: Infernia, Hellcaris System
  • Fortress Monastery: The Black Pinnacle
  • Speciality: Special Operations
  • Strength: 300 Battle Brothers 
  • Battle Cry: The White Dawn Rises

Friday 19 October 2012

The one-eyed halfling

Yeah, my halfling captain lost one of his eyes.

He got mugged by beastmen.

His vengeance will be fearsome.

I'm aiming for this.
So Mordheim's going alright. The rest of my warband did alright. The only problem is bows really aren't that reliable in dropping things. I either need a better back up plan for when the fighty stuff gets to me or I need to invest gold crowns in something to help me there. Maybe an ogre....


On to the interesting stuff. I am now on Vassal also and will likely be using this fairly often now I've figured out how it works (Dear the guy who challenged me yesterday, if we cross paths again you're on). My name is, naturally, The Euphemism. If you see me on at any point give me a shout (or slap me in the face with a glove if you want to go that way) and I'm up for a game.

Just a short post this week, I have some stuff set up for the coming days so hopefully there'll be something more substantial for you next time.

Until then, adieu.

Wednesday 10 October 2012

Returns, promises and hairy feet

missing out the ever important 'Die Hard'

Yes folks, it's me again.

It's been about 3 weeks since I last posted on this blog. How time flies eh? Well as Melons mentioned in his post a while ago we've both headed our ways to Uni and so workload has shifted up somewhat from that beautiful grace period you get after exams (2-3 months sleeping works wonders for...well most things).

Now it's being laboured that 'we'll have no time to post here' so I'm here to pledge to you, the public, that I will post once every fortnight, or every week if I'm good (and on top of my reading, I could rival Everest with the reading I have to do).

That being said, here's how things will stand for the coming weeks (on my end of the stick):

There is a gaming club down here so there is hope! It will however be once a week and then I don't know how many games I'll get in with the warhammer so reports may or may not occur.

They are, however, running a Mordheim campaign which I'm very interested in, being a fantasy man, so I'm going into that. I will be taking (and here's the explanation for the title) halflings! Yep. Gotta love 'em. So the Cockerel Knights will be toddling off to battle (cunningly disguised as Reiklander Mercenaries) and hopefully bringing some pint-sized retribution to those villains. This is likely to be something more regular than my actual battles so for a while this may be my main focus. I'm not playing it competitively (I don't think many people are so we shouldn't have to worry too much about the imbalances coming up).

And that's about it down here. I'll post once a week (and a half-ish) as I promised so keep rolling sixes guys!

Sunday 7 October 2012

Doombringer's Harlequinade Part 1

One of my many side projects going off at the moment, I thought I would share this with you until I have painted more Space Marines. With everyone ever so busy, myself included, I have decided to help keep the blog going by posting some WIP projects and various odds and ends I have floating around.

In this somewhat irregular series I will be showing off my Harlequins which are going to based on various Batman villains and affectionately named: The Arkham Inmates. First up is Scarecrow; my Shadowseer, whose appearance is based mostly from the comics but with some inspiration from the Arkham Asylum video game.

Prepare yourself for some amateur photography....


Sunday 23 September 2012

Vassal Shenanigans

Well as you know from my previous post, we've all gone our different ways and off to university so we have been contemplating attempting to embark on a great crusade of trying to conquer the complexities of Vassal. The journey will be long and arduous but me must prevail! So there may be some battle reports on here soon from the Vassal engine.

For those of you that don't know what Vassal is, it is an engine that allows people to play board, card and tabletop games on your computer (http://www.vassalengine.org/) and I'll be using the Vassal40k module for it (http://vassal40k.wordpress.com/). So far I've managed to create and save 2 Deldar armies on there so it’s going well enough so far! Just need to get some games in now to get the hang of using it. Now Euphemism and Marshy just need to get their act together and get downloading!

Might see you all on there! My name on there is still Assorted Melons so if you see me, holler! 

Wednesday 19 September 2012

Into the Big Wide World

Well me and Mr Euphemism are off to university! Marshy has already been there a year and is now starting his second. Not sure about Doombringer. Unfortunately this does mean I probably won't get many games in although I'm not speaking for everyone. The other two might live next to a games workshop for all I know. The Euphemism is even in Nottingham so he can just nip into Warhammer World! Lucky! 

So anyway, the blog may be slightly barren from time to time unfortunately. 

Anyhow,I'm off to get drunk! (Kids, I am NOT a role model!)

This is Melons! Signing out! (And stumbling back in later)

Sunday 16 September 2012

The Doombringer Rises

Greetings mortals, The Euphemism has summoned me from beyond the veil to contribute my own brand of awesomeness to this blog as the fourth member of Eyes of the Snake.

Everyone else seems to have given a bit of their hobby background so here is mine: I have been in the hobby for many years now and was originally introduced to it back in the good old days when The Euphemism and I first crossed blades. I mostly play Fantasy, hence my 40k failures against Grey Knights as seen in some of the July posts. I play Dark Elves, Tomb Kings and Warriors of Chaos in Fantasy, and for 40k I collect Imperial Guard, Sisters of Battle and Dark Eldar. With Dark Vengeance coming out I have decided to do a Dark Angels army which I will feature on this blog alongside some of my many other projects.

Expect my posts to be irregular as I don't have much time in-between feasting on the blood of virgins and conquering the known universe to do much hobby. Hopefully though there should be some sufficiently interesting content coming from me soon.

Doombringer out.


Saturday 15 September 2012

Ties of Brotherhood

WS 7 gives you that power
Ah....the poor old Brotherhood Champion. The consolation prize in the Grey Knight HQ slot. Often overlooked and left to sit and play Solitaire on the Emperor's tarot while the rest of the Knights do the real fighting (a little laboured as a description but I liked the image) But does he actually deserve this treatment?
 
 
 
 
 
I should start out by saying that although I'm a great fan of this little feller he is probably not the most optimised choice, many better players than I will likely swear by other choices like the bookie's favourites the Libby and Coteaz himself. However, I think this guy actually has within him the ability to be a close contender and I hope I can try and persuade you to at least give him a bit of a try.

Sunday 9 September 2012

Sagas in Sixth: Part II

Here I am again, taking another look at how the Space Wolf Sagas are holding up in 6th edition. In my last post I looked at the first 3 that appear in the Codex and now I'm here to move ever further into the glorious world of Honour and Nobility (capital letters not necessarily required)

Here's a little link to part I in case you want to read it and can't be found elsewhere.
http://eyes-of-the-snake.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/sagas-in-sixth-part-i.html

On with the show.

Friday 7 September 2012

FAQ silliness - who frequently asks these questions?

The shiny new FAQs have hit- this is by no means a comprehensive tactical review (I shall leave that to more rational men), but I have picked out some of the more ridiculous clarifications for your amusement.

Designers Note: Wolf Guard, Nobz, Nobz Warbikers, and Crisis
Shas’vre that lead a unit (for example an Ork Nob leading Ork
Boyz, a Wolf Guard leading Grey Hunters) have the unit type
Infantry (Character).
Units of Nobz have now fallen out with one another and so refuse to politely step in front of enemy bullets for their half-wit mate Zog who forgot to duck. No more wound allocation shenanigans. Ouch.


Q: Does a weapon that hits automatically, still hit automatically when
making a Snap Shot ? (p13)
A: Yes.
But only weapons that are capable of making a snap shot roll are capable of shooting at a flier. So you cannot possibly hit a flier with an auto-hit weapon like a zzap gun. Which is a pity, it would have been fun to have a reason to actually use one for a change.

Q: Do hits by Tau markerlights, or other items of wargear that cause
hits but do not inflict damage, require a  swooping monstrous creature
to take a grounded test? . (p49)
A: Yes
I want to take a minute’s break here for you to imagine what this would actually look like – our intrepid fire warrior fires his markerlight at the monstrous tyranid harpy’s face(the equivalent of bouncing light off your watch into a classmate’s eyes). The harpy then shields its face with its wings, forgetting momentarily that it actually needs to carry on flying, and so plummets to the earth. Surely by this logic the imperial lasgun (also a flashlight) should be the best anti-FMC in the guard codex.


Page 53 – Commander Dante, The Axe Mortalis.
Replace the entry with the “The Axe Mortalis is a power axe
with the Master-crafted special rule.”
I actually can’t believe the amount of confusion I’ve seen about this rule before. The AXE Mortalis is an axe. Moving on...
Page 43 – Master Belial, The Sword of Silence.
Replace the entry with the following: “The Sword of Silence is a
power sword with the Master-crafted special rule.”
See above, replacing ‘axe’ with ‘sword’.

Q: Can a Helliarch’s stun claw be used to ‘snatch’ enemy Independent
Characters who are involved in a challenge? (p28)
A: No.
A pity, that would have been funny- “Hesperax, I challenge you to single comWAAAAAAAAA”

Q: Can an allied Independent Character benefit from Imperial Guard
Orders if they have joined an Imperial Guard Squad that successfully
receives an order? (p29)
A: No.
Space marine commanders don’t have to listen to none of yo shit.


Small correction here:
Page 81 – Necron Wargear, Hyperphase Sword.
Replace the second paragraph with “A hyperphase sword is a
power sword.” WITH A COOL NAME.

Q: Do units hit by lightning as a result of Imotekh’s Lord of the Storm
special rule benefit from the Stealth or Shrouded special rules due to
Night Fighting? (p55).
A: No.
You do realise that this is asking if the clouds protect you from the lightning don’t you?


Q: Can a bomb squig target a Zooming Flyer if it’s the nearest vehicle?
(p42)
A: No.
Would have been a bloody impressive jump.  Or I suppose the nob could have thrown it.

Q: Can a Shield of Faith be removed by a Vindicare Assassin’s
shieldbreaker rounds? (p94)
A: No.
“WHY DO MY BULLETS NOT WORK AGAINST RELIGION?”

Q: Is the Stormtalon Gunship available to any armies other than those
chosen from Codex: Space Marines?
A: No.
“We asked the you Blood Angels nicely to tell us how to make our tanks go faster. You refused. Now we’re taking our toys and going home.”
“We didn’t want your toy anyway. It looks like a toaster and we have a bigger one.”
“You’re being mean. I’m telling Marneus on you.”

Q: If a Space Wolf character is involved in a challenge, can any
Fenrisian Wolves they have strike blows, have Wounds allocated to
them, or offer Moral Support? (p31)
A: No.
They can bark merrily. That’s pretty much it.


And on that note I shall leave you until I next poke my head out from my metaphorical cave. Ta ra.

Tuesday 4 September 2012

Sagas in Sixth: Part I

Sagas. How can you hate them?

I have to say they have always been among my favourite aspects of the Space Wolf codex. I mean for a warrior to be able to chew his way through whole swathes of foes not because of a shiny sword but because he is AWESOME (in block capitals) just clicks somewhere in my head.

Now I'm going to look at the 7 different sagas available to the Wolves of Russ with regards to how well they work in 6th ed. and with special views on how to achieve the Oath that comes with them, because Honour is everything.

There may be Maths in this post and because I'm lazy I'm going to make the Internet do it for me. It should be accurate but do correct me if I'm wrong.

and I'm hungry like the wolf

Saga of the Wolfkin


Effect: Grants all Fenrisian wolves I 5 and LD 7
Oath: At least 1 Fenrisian wolf or Thunderwolf must survive the game

Comment: Well, if you're looking at making a force with a fair number of Fenrisian Wolves in it this is nearly a must have in my opinion. Both bonus' are quite impressive if you look at them. First the LD boost

 A LD 5 check will fail approx. 72% of the time
 A LD 7 will only fail approx. 42% of the time

In simple terms, with the boost you will pass basic LD checks more than half the time. This will keep your large units in the game for longer, it will also increase their chances of successfully 'Counter attack' -ing and gaining the almost invaluable extra attack. FenWolves rely on large amounts of attacks to cause damage as, let's face it, they're quite average in a fight. They could duff up Guardsmen and (if you're lucky) an Ork, but not much more. Yet with an improved Initiative of 5, they will strike before marines, even charging Blood Angels due to the removal of the Furious Charge I boost. The more you can kill before they strike the better.

Now, all this is well and good but as I previously mentioned they are not stellar fighters. They need support. Thunderwolves work very well with them, as they grant re-rolls to Morale (that LD 7 looks even better now), as do Thunderwolf Lords - they can join few other units but the FenWolves give him 'Look out Sir' saves and he gives them a strong body to take incoming firepower. If you're looking at this saga spare a thought for Canis Wolfborn. He comes with it for free and lets FenWolves be troops (wolfwing anyone?). Whilst that's not at all good for objectives it frees up your fast attack for more Thunderwolves. Which is rarely bad.

Fulfilling the Oath is really in the hands of the Dice Gods. I would recommend using Wolf Lords (even Canis as his regular number of attacks is good even without 'Wrath of the Savage') to shield the FenWolves who in turn shield the Thunderwolves. If you can get the Thunderwolves into average - poor assault units, and possibly join them with the Wolf Lord later, you should be able keep some Thunderwolfies going.

Just don't bite off more than you can chew.

Rating: 5/10 (useful, but situational) 


Hell yeah!

Saga of the Bear


Effect: Grants the character Eternal Warrior
Oath: Must slay an enemy character before the game ends

Comment: For me, this is my second all-rounder choice. Second only because of its limited availability and hefty 35pt price tag, which weighs it in at the joint most expensive choice and available only to Wolf Lords. But that's mainly who you were going to buy it for anyway, right?

However, for these 35pts you can grant your Wolf Lord immunity to one hit... 'gimps' shall we say. No need to worry about hurling yourself boldly (no infinitive splitting for this blog, oh no) into an enemy unit only to be clonked once by a Powerfist, or the like, and copping it. This is why I consider it an all rounder. For a foot Lord (anything other than bike or Thunderwolf) I think it would be obvious how useful this is. Naturally, with T 5 (from the afore mentioned bike or Thunderwolf) the amount of weapons able to do this drastically reduces. Now it's Vindicators, Ork Warbosses with power claws...then plain instant death weapons like the Huskblade. You can probably cope against those. Yet, if you need that insurance (if the dice gods hate you as they do me) then I would say you'll often find this pays for itself. It is saving what can be up to 250 points of roaring death after all.

The important changes in 6th are as follows. With the addition of challenges and precision strikes it has now become (slightly) easier to remove the dangerous instant death weapons before they become a problem. Of course this is mainly powerfists/klaws as they strike at I 1, against your 5, Huskblades are still very troublesome (I'm looking at you Melons). I think for peace of mind and a safety net it's still a good choice, precision strikes are nothing to be relied on, but it isn't a 'must have'. Especially with T 5 bike/Thunderwolf Lord.

As for the Oath you'll be glad to hear this just became easier. Whereas in 5th, characters were mainly restricted to HQ's (independent characters) with the inclusion of the 'Character' unit type they are much easier to find: Space marine Sergeants, Ork Nobs, Grey Knight Paladins, Guard Techpriests, Deldar Drachons, Tau Shas'ui etc etc etc. This makes any won challenge a completed Oath. In fact, almost any full unit killed is a dead character so this is one of the easiest Oaths to fulfil.

Rating: 8/10 (very useful, but expensive and limited availability)

I've said it before, but capes are the best

Saga of Majesty

Effect: Rerolls to Morale to units within 6" (including the character and his unit)
Oath: Do not Go To Ground or Fall Back

Comment: I must admit, I have no first hand experience of this saga. For this reason, this may be a more negative than veterans would agree with. On paper, rerollable morale checks sounds fantastic. In Fantasy, very few people will go to battle without their trusty Battle Standard Bearer for this purpose (except that helps ALL LD checks, so is a tad better). The reason I don't really rate this is because of ATSKNF (And They Shall Know No Fear). This allows automatic regrouping, assuming there is no foe within 6". This is great for countering failed morale as you should only be fleeing for a turn if it's from shooting, or perhaps 2 if the enemy are upon you. Also, if you flee from combat and the enemy catches you (in a sweeping advance) you just continue fighting. You don't even have to take armour saves anymore!

Now, of course, there uses. A turn fleeing is still a turn where your guys are going the wrong way. Fleeing is (most of the time) bad, therefore mitigating this is good. I just believe that ATSKNF does this well enough to not need any help.

It would be wrong for me not to point out that most Special Characters come with this in the price. If you have it, great, but I'd consider it a boost to what I'm getting, not a reason to pay the points on its own. Also, Venerable Dreads can have this saga. They can't fail the Oath. Ever. That's a plus.Yet they are rarely seen, I would rather take Wolf Guard, Lone Wolves, or Wolf Scouts in that slot and then take normal Dreads. They could, however, act as a solid pillar to a battle line, assuming you're not in Rhino's and leaving the Dread in the dust (you do only have a 6" Aura so if you planning on using this remember how that is a small bubble).

Finally, the Oath. To not run, you need high LD, which most bearers of this saga have, or be a Dread. To avoid going to ground, well, Dreads can never Go to Ground, so that's not a problem. But, if you are able to Go to Ground, I'd like to be able to choose to do so when it benefits me without the Oath hanging over my head. Personal choice.

Rating  3/10 (useful at times, but overkill in my view) 






Right, well this turned out to be a lot longer than I anticipated so I think two posts are required.

Join me in Part II when we look at Hunters, Warriors and kicking Beasts in the uncomfortable parts.

Monday 3 September 2012

Battle Report: Orks vs Dark Eldar, Grey Knights and Space Wolves

Yet again another battle report!
My Dark Eldar along with the Euphemisms Grey Knights with his Space Wolves as allies against Marshy's Orks. Note: The Orks were allowed two FoC charts to make it fair.

My Dark Eldar List:
5xWarriors w/1xBlaster - Venom w/Dual Splinter Cannons 

5xWytches w/5xHaywire Grenades, 1xShardnet and Impaler - Venom w/Dual Splinter Cannons
5xWytches w/5xHaywire Grenades, 1xShardnet and Impaler - Venom w/Dual Splinter Cannons
3xTrueborn w/2xDark Lance - Venom w/Dual Splinter Cannons
4xTrueborn w/2xSplinter Cannons - Venom w/Dual Splinter Cannons
Haemonculus w/Liquifier gun, Venom Blade (riding in the Venom with the 4 Trueborn)
5xScourges w/2xDark Lance
1xRavager w/ Night Shields 

Euphemisms List:
Grey Knights:
Brotherhood Champion
10 Strike squad - 2x Psycannon, Justicar with Hammer, Psybolts
7 Strike Squad - Psybolts

Space Wolves:
Wolf Lord - Thunderwolf, Runic Armour, Frost Sword, Storm Shield, Wolf Tooth Necklace, Saga of the Warrior born
5 FenWolves
Lone Wolf - Termie Armour, Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield
6 Grey Hunters - Plasma Gun

Marshys Orks List:
Big mek + EA
Warboss+ klaw
6 Nobz
2x 20 boyz + Nob + Big shoota and Klaw

2 x 10 boys, big shoota, nob, klaw, trukk
3 Battlewagons with 2 big shootas
2 Looted Wagons with skorcha
10 Lootas
2 x 5 burna boyz

2x1 Deffcopter with TL Rokkit Launcha
2x Rokkit Buggies with TL Rokkit Launcha

Rolled for mission and deployment and as I havent learnt the names yet we ended up with short table edges, objectives and I think Big Guns Never Tire or whatever it is where you get points for each enemy heavy support you kill. We rolled and as you can see we ended up with 5 objectives. Rolled for first turn and we had it! To the frustration of the orcs.

Deployment:
2 objectives in each deployment (Objectives 1 and 2 in mine and Euphemisms deployment zone and 4 and 5 in Marshys) and one near the middle (number 3)
Here you can see the Dark Eldar and Grey Knights and Space Wolves deployment then the Orcs deployment and after close ups of each objective.

For the orcs the Land Raider on the right and the two longer vehicles in the middle are battlewagons. The Land Raider one has the Nobz and Warboss in it.
We chose the Warboss and the Brotherhood Champion as our Warlords and the Big Mek rolled the one that gives you FNP when within 3 inches of an objective and the BH Champ rolled 2d6 pick highest run moves within 12". We had mysterious objectives so we rolled away. 
Number 1 was sabotaged so possibilty of a large blast marker on it every turn. 
Number 2 was rerolls of 1's to hit when within 3 inches. 
Number 3 was unknown as nobody was there yet. 
Number 4 and 5 were both half assault range when assaulting the unit on the objective.
The orcs try to steal the initiative and . . . Fail! First turn shall be ours!

Turn 1:
Deldar, Knights and Wolves: 
 I got VERY lucky with my Dark Lances this turn and popped 2 of the Orks battlewagons! That almost makes up for the amount of times that they have done nothing all game. 

1 - Land Raider Battlewagon went boom and the explosion combined with some shooting from other things managed to whittle the squad down to just 1 Nob and the Warboss (So close to First Blood).
2 - Second Battlewagon down but not as much damage done to the squad inside this time.
3 - Some Venoms shot at the Lootas but nothing amazing happened due to cover from trees and just my very bad rolls with posion weapons this game but I did manage to kill one of the Deffcopters and get the other to a single wound remaining meaning First Blood was ours!
The rest was just our armies shuffling around for better firing lanes or cover or in the case of the Wolf Lord and Lone Wolf, charging forwards (albeit not very far in the case of the Lone Wolf. Probably staggering from the Space Wolves' uber beer).

Orks:
The greenskins retaliate! Even 2 Battlewagons down the Orks can still put out alot of hurt even without their 2 Dakkajets here yet.

1 - Two Paper Aeroplane Venoms get shot to bits and both explode! The Wytch Venom goes boom and kills 3 Wytches in the process but the other one does kill any of my Trueborn thankfully (these were the 3 with the 2 Dark Lances)
2 - The remaining 1 wound Deffcopter, one of the Buggies and a Looted Wagon move up to hide from my camera behind the ruin with objective 3 on top of it. It was these 3 which shot down one of my precious Venoms! They must pay! (The lootas shot down the other)
3 - A Trukk appears to be hiding from being shot behind the last remaining Battlewagon.
4 - The Boys from the exploded Battlewagon move into the ruins to capture the objective and the last remaining Nob and Warboss move that way too. Also the other Looted Wagon is copying the other one but on the other flank.
5 - The other Trukk with the boys in it is holding the backfield objecive.
End of turn one - Points stand at: 
Deldar, Knights and Wolves - 6 overall. 3 for a single objective (we arent currently holding objective 1 due to sabotage as we dont want to explode), 1 for First Blood and 2 for destroying 2 heavy support choices
Orks - 6 due to two objectives 

Turn 2:
Deldar, Knights and Wolves:
My Dark Lances were on FIRE! The last Battlewagon does down spilling boys everywhere as the Wolves charge in to rip and tear and do what they do best. The rest was just shooting and hoping for the best.

1 - The Looted Wgon goes down leaving 3 disgruntled Burna Boys left in its debris as it explodes around them. The last Deffcopter looses its remaining wound and plumets into the ground and the Buggy gets its weapon destroyed leaving it only able to zoom around and bump into things as it has no other weapons.
2 - The 3rd and final Battlewagon goes down. Only wrecked this time though and not exploded leaving the boys to evacuate its smoking wreck just to be confronted with a rather large man on a rather large wolf.
3 - Shooting from Venoms leaves the Lootas down to only 4 guys.
Forgot to put it on the picture but the other looted wagon at the bottom gets exploded too and the burna boys inside it shot to pieces.

Combat: 
The only combat we have up to now is the wolf lord vs boys. The Nob issues a challenge and the wolf lord accepts and eats him up leaving the wolfish entourage to bite at the boys kneecaps.
Orks:
Marshy rolls for his two Dakkajets to come in from reserve and . . . They both do! Good news for him! Not so good for us. These things are pretty nasty with the amount of shots they can pump out and then you can only hit them on 6.


1 - The first Dakkajet enters and sets up camp facing my Venom. Not going to end well for the paper aeroplane venom.
2 - The second Dakkajet comes in with a number of target displayed in front of it like a black silver and blue buffet.
3 - The number 2 Dakkajet declares his Waaagh! and pumps 18 twin linked strength 6 shots into my Ravager. Even the rare Dark Eldar 11 armour on a Ravager has its limits. Even so I had my 5+ jink save! A small hope is better than no hope! It got down to the very last penetrating hit . . . I had a single hull point remaining . . . one more 5+ save and he could live to fight another day! Alas, it was not meant to be as the Ravager became a heap of dark spiky metal. 
4 - The other Wytch Venom explodes from the other Dakkajet and kills a single Wytch. Better than last time at least!
5 - The last of the wolf retinue die leaving the wolf lord alone to battle it out against the rest of the boys. The boys from the battlewagon stay in the ruin and the Warboss joins the squad giving them all FNP.
6 - The Buggy goes for a little wander across the map as he has nothing much to do anymore apart from play his role as a bumper car.

Combat: 
The wolf lord hacks and slashes at the boys leaving 8 of them left but remaining in combat.

End of turn two - Points stand at: 
Deldar, Knights and Wolves - 7 overall. 3 for a single objective (we still arent holding objective 1 due to sabotage as we would really rather not risk it), 1 for First Blood and 3 for destroying 3 heavy support choices
Orks - 7 overall. 6 due to two objectives and 1 for destroying my heavy support

Turn 3:
Deldar, Knights and Wolves:
Most of this turn was me and Euphemism attempting to shoot down those damned jets but not much seemed to work!


1 - I moved my Scourges! Due to the rules about if you move with heavy weapons you can only snap fire it wouldnt really make a difference if I moved into range of one of the Dakkajets as I would be hitting on 6's anyway so i made sure i was in range and shot! And . . . nothing.
2 - The Lone Wolf valiently went to obliterate the 3 Burna boys! He decided to try softening them up first will a nicely thrown grenade! The problem was his fingers were a bit chunky and got stuck in the firing pin and he managed to blow himself up instead. Ahh well he can always charge in and hit them! But just as he was about to charge he saw a daisy and stopped to pick it up. Needless to say he failed his charge roll. Fortunately his armour barely got scratched as the burna boys still got their overwatch but failed to wound. Also the Lootas were finally wiped out.
3 - The bumper car Buggy got shot and wrecked to put it out of its misery. Also the wolf lord finished off the boys and consolodated back behind the wreck of the battlewagon to protect himself from the boys on the objective.
4 - The Trukk went boom and shot forwards as it started going crazy! And crashed into a wall. Typical orks. The boys all fell out, got shot with my liquifier from my Haemy then assaulted by my Wytches and my Haemy. Needless to say my haemy died as he gave his pain token to the Trueborn in the Venom. But the Wytches still stayed in combat.
5 - You might just be able to make out my remaining 2 Wytches behind the ruin. They proceeded to throw a haywire grenade. Straight up. At the Dakkajet. They missed. Enough said.

Combat:
Something snapped in my haemys mind and he decided he wanted to get up close and personal with the orks . . . for some reason. He got challenged and promptly got squished but the Wytches still managed to tie the ork boys up for a while.

Orks:
For starters I apologise for the quality of this photo. My camera went towards the light. Bad camera! The Dakkajets didn't do as well this turn (no Waaagh!) but they are still pretty nasty although thay didnt have very many targets this turn and therefore did very little unfortunatly.


1 - This would be the rare and slightly bemused looking Marshy.
2 - Not too sure how this Dakkajet got to this angle from where it was last turn but doesnt matter all that much as it was only a friendly.
3 - The other Dakkajet zooms across the battlefield moving over 18 inches so flat out.
4 - The wytches whiff all their attacks at the remaining nob and he kills one in return and they faild their leadership test and leg it!
5 - The Burner boys recover from laughing at the Lone Wolf and burn my remaining 2 wytches from the other squad into oblivion.

Combat: 
The picture was taken before my wytches wet themselves and leg it from the rampaging mass of green flesh before them leaving the Knights to clean up after me.

End of turn three - Points stand at: 
Deldar, Knights and Wolves - 7 overall. 3 for a single objective (you know the deal by now), 1 for First Blood and 3 for destroying 3 heavy support choices
Orks - 7 overall. 6 due to two objectives and 1 for destroying my heavy support

Turn 4:
I'm doing turn 4 in one big lump as there wasnt an awful lot going on and we could see which way the game was heading by now so Marshy gave us the game. Also I forgot to take another picture after Deldar/Knight/Wolves turn (Whoops!) and just took one after the Orks turn.
Here is what happened anyway:

1 - The lone nob was shot down or chopped down in combat. One of the two. (I think overwatched, so kind of both)
2 - The Wold Lord made a name for himself as he moved closer to the boys and Warboss on the objective then assaulted them in our turn after splinter fire from my venoms softened them up a little. He then got challenged by both the Nob in our turn and the Warboss in Marshys turn and crushed them all then finished by eating the rest of the boys as they ran after failing their leadership after the Warboss got ground into the dirt.
3 - The wolves moved back up into capture range of the objective. We finally shot down one of the Dakkajet and the remaining one got hit with a dark lance and was penetrated! I rolled on the damage chart and . . . got a 1. -sigh- The Dakkajet was stunned so couldnt pivot and therefore couldnt do much this turn which was something i guess but an explosion would have been pretty cool. 


End of turn four - Points stand at: 
Deldar, Knights and Wolves - 12 overall. 6 for two objectives, 1 for First Blood, 1 for killing the enemy Warlord and 4 for destroying 4 heavy support choices
Orks - 4 overall. 3 due to one objective (after the wolf lords rampage, turning the boys into red mist) and 1 for destroying my heavy support
Deldar, Gray Knights and Space Wolves win!

Conclusion:
Our orky opponent was very unlucky with 2 of his battlewagons blowing up first turn and his 3rd one blowing up in the second turn. I really hope my dark lances stay this good though! Those Dakkajets can be REALLY scary if they get into the right position. I hope my flyers will be as good but only time will tell. Also our opponent forgot about his Big Mek! We had to say he was in the Trukk holding the backfield objective but im not sure where he was meant to be and not sure if it would have turned the game but you never know! Stranger things have happened.
 
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