The Grim Invasion Continues - Ork Crusade Updates

Hello!

Last time the Orks were out and about doing some krumpin in the Grim Dice Crusade league, Da Vipers got stuck in with limited success, but Boss Redtoof himself was proving to be a very tough cookie! Once again, here's a quick summary of the next three games...

Game four was against the sneaky Aeldari from the Ulthwe craftworld. They brought a selection of infantry units, plus a grav tank and a Wraithlord, led by a Farseer, who was attempting to complete a ritual...

Redtoof got seperated from the rest of the force and once again got stuck in, while most of the Boyz got caught in a crossfire between Guardians and Dire Avengers. The Squighog Boyz were once again able to hunt out the enemy warlord, but it wasn't quick enough to stop the ritual from being completed, earning the Aeldari a close win, with much blood shed on both sides.

Heading to game five it was time to escalate once again to 75 power. In part because I'm already going into 10th ed mode and I didn't really want to think too hard, and in part because I wanted to see 9th out with a bang, I decided to add Nipper the Gargantuan Squiggoth!

So with that decision made, of course I had my next game against an Imperial Guard gunline...

The Guard got turn one and took out both Squiggoths with relative ease. Ouch! Redtoof and his lads did get stuck in with the tanks, krumpin a few of them with the Tankbusta Bombz stratagem, but it was really decided on the first turn roll. Nipper did look splendid during deployment next to his son though!

Game six was a real krump-fest though, as the Vipers were taking on the World Eaters! Lots of choppa marine boyz with some Helbrutes for support. Mission involved taking each other's home objectives and burning them, so there was nothing for it but for both forces to go forward and meet in the middle!

In this game Nipper played a big part, smashing through a Rhino, goring one of the Helbrutes to death, nearly killing the other in melee (but for blood tithe points giving it a 6+ feel no pain) and between shooting and falling over, wiped out a unit of Eightbound! Elsewhere the Orks and World Eaters were trading units, but Redtoof had his sights set on the similarly buffed up Lord on Juggernaut. They went several rounds in a duel, shrugging off blows, before finally Redtoof fell (though in part due to an assist from a couple of Berzerkers, chaos cheating there clearly!) and the game was lost.

So three more games continuing the theme of smashing stuff up but lack of mission success, leaving me sitting at 1-5. Not that winning was ever the goal - though Redtoof has now died three times in this, in spite of how tough he got! Still, a lot of silly fun to round out the edition.

With tenth edition around the corner, I'm not sure if I'll be continuing with the league, so this very well might have been my last games of 9th. With that in mind I have had a lot of fun with this admittedly flawed edition, and at some point I'll do a bit of a retrospective/looking forward post, but suffice to say I am very excited to start playing 10th! In any case, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, and stay safe out there!

Learning Age of Sigmar Part Three - Seraphon vs Khorne

Hello!

Here we are at part three of my little series of mini-battle reports for my attempts to learn how this game works. So far I've pretty much learnt the basic rules, remembered most of my army rules and started to work out how to play around the double turn - I think! As with the first and second game, this was 2000 points matched player against Dargiris and his chaos forces - this time pure Khorne!

My Seraphon force was basically the same as last time, I just swapped a spell on the Slann. Coalesced, Coatl's Claw, Oldblood on Carnosaur, Oracle on Troglodon, Slann, Bastiladon, 2x10 Saurus Guard, 3x5 Saurus Cavalry, 2x10 Skinks.

The Khorne army consisted of a whole host of mortal infantry units of various flavours of blood and skull related names, 30 Bloodletters, three Bloodcrushers, assorted characters and a big old (and by that I mean metal) Bloodthirster. As before I wasn't super worried about remembering all the rules or names of my opponent's units, just general broad strokes for now.

We played the Marking Territory mission from the General's Handbook, the first one, featuring four objectives in a square with two in each deployment zone. If you control all four from round three onwards, you just win. Otherwise it goes to secondary scores.

Deployment - dinos in the middle, some Guard and faster units on the flanks and a cav unit providing the counter charge. The Slann was on the left next to some arcane ruins (we decided to use the random mysterious terrain and got three pieces of +1 to cast and dispell, and one +1 bravery which never came up)

For the first time I won the priority on turn one, and decided since he had basically no ranged weapons or magic, to let Dargiris have first turn. This feels like it was the right move.

Khorne forces ran up towards the centre, a line of chaff units in front, and making sure the big Bloodletter block was outside of 24 of the Slann for it's 'everyone gets mortal wounds on a 5+' spell.

I took my turn and moved up somewhat cautiously on the flanks, but pressing forward in the middle. I choose a battle tactic to kill a specific battle line unit - in this case the smallest unit of the chaff infantry. The dinosaurs all got some decent damage with shooting, then made their charges in, cutting through the chaff and getting me a point. I'm not entirely sure if I was a bit hasty here - perhaps I should have held back for them to come at me a bit more, but with the Bloodthirster on the flank I thought they might have a chance of doing some damage before an immediate counter attack.

We rolled priority, and I won again, so time for the double turn!

Having moved the Slann up a little, I tried to nuke the Bloodletters, but it was denied by the Bloodthirster with an 8 - Khorne's number dealing out mortal wounds to the poor frog! Elsewhere my Dinosaurs got blasting, clearing the rest of the chaff and freeing up the Oldblood for a charge. Cavalry made it into the Bloodcrushers, killing two of them, but looking a bit exposed after that.

Fighting in the middle was a mixed bag - I whiffed on most of my attacks leaving the nasty Khorne units behind the chaff screen fairly strong, but they also rolled poorly, or my saves were good, and the big dinos stuck around for another go.

In Khorne turn two the weight of attacks and mortal wounds started to show, and my big hitters began falling. The Bloodthirster was still out of combat though and I managed to stick around with the remnants of my cavalry on the left flank.

Turn three, I sent the Guard in to try and clear the larger remaining units and control the far right flank objective. It went pretty well going in on the charge, especially after the Slann got his spell off and did nine mortal wounds to the Bloodletters. However both units became bogged down and weren't able to finish the job.

At this stage the game looked like the Seraphon might be ahead - most of the Khorne units were either dead or heavily depleted, and hadn't made much forward progress. It almost looked like I could have auto-won on turn three if the Slann made the cavalry fly onto an objective - except that the Bloodthirster guarding it counts as five models so they'd not outnumber him. However, I had also lost most of my most killy units. And the Khorne force had another twist...

With all the carnage they had accrued enough blood points to summon in a bonus Bloodthirster! It immediately turned the tide on the right flank, while it's brother finally got stuck in on the left.

While their melee attacks were a little underwhelming (in part thanks the the Coalesced ability to reduce damage by one) they still did the business, and with nothing left that could really threaten either of them, I conceded that I would not be able to score any more points - though I'd probably cling on with a couple of skink units so it'd be a narrow victory for the Khorne forces at best.

And that was that - once again I feel like I remembered most of the rules (though we did both forget out monster actions at the start of the fight phase) but I'm not entirely sure if I made the right tactical decisions. I'm finding it hard to judge thanks to both not being able to predict the priority rolls, and not really knowing what the armies are supposed to do (my army is mostly melee but the Khorne forces definitely outclassed them there - should I have held back a bit, or would I have just been overrun like in the first game?) I'm also a little confused as to how the game seems to take so long to play, even though compared to 40k it doesn't seem like that much is actually happening - just two lines meeting in the middle on a basic level. Perhaps this is just due to my army choice though.

On that note, I am thinking next time I might venture into running Starborne to have access to teleportation movement and summoning shenanigans, that seems fun and potentially very strong with the objective based game we have here. I did initially think that the -1 damage ability was too strong to ignore, but actually it doesn't come up very much, and I can replicate the +1 to hit ability of the Coatl's Claw with command points. 

Anyway, hope you enjoyed, and thanks for reading. If you've got any thoughts or suggestions feel free to comment below. Stay safe out there!

Narrative Battle Report - Adeptus Mechanicus vs Chaos

Hello!

In this narrative game against Sharpy the forces of Forge World Ryza descend upon a world corrupted by the forces of Chaos, attempting the stop the summoning of an enormous Daemon army that would lead to untold deaths in Imperial space - and the loss of invaluable data! On the twisted, broken surface of this unnamed world, the Adeptus Mechanicus locate a portal directly to the warp, and a host of vile Chaos Space Marines using arcane powers to activate it. They absolutely must be stopped!

So I was told to bring 2000 points for a narrative game, and put my fate in the hands of my host! He rewarded me with a beautiful daemon world board, a 1250 point army of Chaos Marines (Alpha Legion rules) and a large selection of Daemons. In the centre of the board was a portal, through which daemons would be deployed at the start of every turn, based on a random summoning roll. The Chaos forces had four summoning units - a Daemon Prince, a Dark Apostle, and two units of Cultists containing a cult psyker each. There were also two unholy altars in the mid table. For each of these four units still on the board and two objectives not held by Imperial forces, Sharpy rolled one D6, then summoned the combined power level total. Those summoned daemons would deploy within 6 inches of the portal, then act normally for the turn. Victory would be determined based on how active, or not, the portal was at the end of the game.

Supporting the Prince, Apostle and Cultists were a couple of units of Chaos Space Marines, a squad of Terminators, Havocs with lascannon, missile launcher and two chain cannons (and the mark of Slaanesh), an Exalted Champion, a Maulerfiend and a Heldrake. 

My list featured Tech Priests Manipulus and Dominus, 3 Kataphron Breachers, 6 Kataphron Destroyers, two units of 10 each of Rangers and Vanguard (with assorted special weapons and upgrades), 4 Kastelan Robots (gun, gun, fist on all of them), Cybernetica Datasmith (with the Logi holy order) 6 Serberys Sulphurhounds, two units of 5 Pteraxii Sterylizors, and the Archeopter Fusilave.

I had an assortment of relics and Warlord traits on my characters, but mostly ones to improve themselves without too much to buff the rest and confuse me! I have been playing Orks recently so I decided to go light on the command phase buffs.

Deployment. Pteraxii are off the board initially, my forces set up to press forward and the Chaos Marines set up to protect themselves for the most part. We decided that the Chaos forces would get the first turn, so with that they promptly summoned in 20 power level of Daemons!

The Daemons pressed forward, supported by the daemon engines, to give me something to think about, as well as getting into position to contest the altars.

Not much in the way of shooting, but the Havocs did sneak off into the shadows to re-appear next turn somewhere.

In my turn one the AdMech forces trundled forward and unleashed some heavy firepower to clear off almost all the daemons and the Heldrake - though I did lose two of my Destroyers to mortal wounds from overcharging plasma! Still, all of the summoning points were still in play, as the bomber couldn't remove a full cultist unit with it's heavy stubbers.

A fairly meagre force arrived on turn two, but with the AdMech army closer they would have a much bigger effect this time.

The Havocs popped in, as the Terminators popped out with the same stratagem, and split fire between the flyer and the Serberys horse-doggies, shredding them both down to one wound. Flamers of Tzeentch burned a few Vanguard before the Daemons charged in, holding up the front rank of Skitarii and slaying several more - it could have been much worse if the Bloodletters had not rolled a poor charge, a three rerolled from a two!

The last remaining Plague Drone had a go at taking out the Fusilave, but it passed the save it was called on to make, leaving it smoking but functional.

My turn, and the Pteraxii flew into position. One unit was forced to deploy outside of 12 from Alpha Legion units so dropped in by the Plaguebearers, while the other was able to get into a corner and closer to the Dark Apostle than the Chaos Marines. Phosphor torches went phwoosh and the Apostle was burned to death! The lone Sulphurhound also ran up to hold one of the altars and further reduce the next turn's summoning.

Elsewhere shooting and melee cleared the nearer daemons. I tried to get some long range shots at the Havocs from the Rangers but they sneakily concealed themselves. The Kastelans then got their protocols changed to Conqueror and went charging in to dispatch the Maulerfiend with ease. A good turn for the AdMech, but there were still threats on the board, and there would be more Daemons!

This time more Bloodletters and some Flesh Hounds to harass my lines, and a unit of Horrors to try and hold me off the altar.

The Terminators also popped in from the warp, but the Skitarii were ready for this trick, thanks to an infoslave skull, the unit of Rangers that had been enhanced by the Manipulus fired in them and killed two.

Mission accomplished for the Sterylizors who killed the Apostle, but with a Daemon Prince, and Plague Drone, an Exalted Champion and a squad of Chaos Marines staring them down, they were not going home for medals. The other squad got much luckier, the Havoc's chain cannons had a major failure and only managed to kill one of the unit.

Bloodletters got in to the robots and tore one of them down, while the Beast of Nurgle got in their way a bit as well. They suffered casualties in return but stayed locked in to hold the AdMech forces off the altar for another turn.

The plane returned to add some firepower as once more we cleared most of the Daemons (and Terminators) from our lines. The Destroyers whiffed shooting the Havocs, only killing one, but they did redeem themselves by charging the last daemon on the left flank altar, killing it in melee to claim it and reduce the summoning once more. The Pteraxii melted a few marines before thruster boosting up into the sky for next turn. The Kastelans shot and punched their way through the Bloodletters, freeing them up to continue marching toward the altar next turn.

Reduced summoning gave 12 power level, all of which was used for a Soul Grinder!

The big Daemon engine thing, fuelled by Khorne, decided the robots were the most worthy challenge, and charged into them, destroying another. Elsewhere the Chaos forces tried to hide their cultists from my longer range guns that were now in position - especially after the Havocs failed again to do any serious damage to the Kataphrons.

Operation kill cultists! The Sterylizors dropped into a corner while the Fusilave had it's machine spirit boosted to act on it's top profile to fly over and add it's firepower - nuking the Havocs as it flew over them. Between the flamers and the stubbers that unit of Cultists was wiped out.

The Destroyers burned the unholy altar to ensure it would not be used again, while my slowly advancing forced took out the last of the Havocs and removed the Soul Grinder. With the sneaky Pteraxii move the Chaos forces were definitely on the back foot, but they still had three of the six summoning points to use in the last turn.

A little unit of Nurglings popped out of the portal to harass my Breachers.

And a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch arrived to protect the altar and cause some mayhem. It killed several Skitarii and put a body in the way of the robots, while the Chaos Marine Prince and his remaining cultists hid behind a big rock.

However that rock wasn't big enough as the Pteraxii got a 6 inch advance, getting one of the flamers in to torch some cultists, with the assistance of some shooting from the Kastelans. The robots then charged in and punched down the Tzeentch prince to control the altar. At the end of turn five the AdMech had destroyed or controlled five of the summoning points, leaving just the warlord of the Chaos Marines remaining to flee and plan his revenge!

Adeptus Mechanicus Victory!

Well that was an awesome game! It looked amazing to start with, and I really enjoyed the whole random summoning element (it reminded me of a SorcererDave battle report we did a while back). I also think, in spite of the AdMech's overwhelming firepower, it was quite close and a pretty well balanced scenario - without the mobility of the Pteraxii and flyer I'd have really struggled to get at the cultists. The flappy boys were definitely the key units for me in this game!

In hindsight we thought that since it was narrative perhaps we should have given the Chaos Marines their extra wounds, I'm not sure it would have made that much difference in the result but it would have felt better and more impactful - most noticably the Terminators arriving, failing a charge, then getting taken off the board with small arms fire for the most part.

Still, it was a fun experience, and as mentioned, the Daemon Prince got away - that means there's scope for a rematch once the Chaos Marines get a new ancient grimoire of forbidden knowledge (Codex). Next time though the Mechanicus may call upon the holy Ordos of the Inquisition for assistance! I hope you enjoyed reading, and stay safe.