Warhammer 40k Space Wolves v Orks

So several days ago I decided to take the plunge and actually PLAY my first game of 40k. It is a bit early for several reasons. There is a new edition I do not have the rules for, I do not have certain key models painted up (heavy weapons), etc. But I wanted to play and had the time, so I asked on a local game board for someone wanting to play a 500 point game.

My theory was at 500 I would not run into super heavies, land raiders, stuff I flat out could not handle and plus I just wanted a really basic move/shoot/save get to know the rules type game.I could throw in a couple units of Grey Hunters, a basic Wolf Leader, maybe a dreadnought which are supposed to not be overly good right now and learn the basics.

Instead I got an answer from a guy wanting to play 1000 points. Whoops. I know already that at most I can muster 2 Lascannons  and at 1000 points I might see something like an Imperial Knight, or Land Raider or other stuff like that I flat-out could not handle. So I know going in it will not be a game I have a chance of winning but I don't really care, I want to play so I agreed.

I furiously painted up Njal Stormcaller on the theory Jaws of the World Wolf could give me a 3rd weapon against stuff I could not otherwise handle. Unfortunately, he sucked up a third of my points right there. I also threw in a Vindicator to give myself a Lascannon, though that meant I needed a 6-man unit of Grey Hunters. A dreadnought gave me a 2nd Lascannon and a unit of 10 Grey Hunters rounded out my selections. They did have Melta guns...but with a 12" range.

I rounded it out with a unit of Terminators; 3 with Storm Shield and Thunder Hammer, 1 with Assault cannon and 1 with Storm Bolter. They could tear open just about anything...IF they could get in close.

So I had a slow-moving army with only very little that was hard to crack.

He showed up with a list full of Forgeworld, allies and armor...he had 3 assorted Rhinos (Lascanonns, Las-Plas, another tough one), a Mortise Dreadnought, although not the one I can find rules for as his had cannons spewing out 12 shots apiece in addition to the missile launchers...when the game started all he had on the table was armor I would struggle to crack open. Oh, and a unit of Devastators...the long fangs I did not have.

In other words...the very thing I had not wanted to play against. Also, what with portions from Inquisition, Space Marines and some third faction, I am not sure how it was battle-forged...here is where not having the rules handy hurts a bit. Had I really cared I would have asked to see his list, but I did not and do not...I just wanted to experience the basics rather than reading about them.

He was playing a "siege army" which meant in addition to the regular three objectives he had another one he had to control at the end of the game to win. So I planted my terminators right next to it, my lascannon vindicator behind a hill close by, the other rhino and 10 grey hunters and dreadnought off to the right.

It has been a few days since the game so some of the details are a bit hazy now.

My first turn my lascannons both hit, one glanced, the other failed to wound. I bounced the far right rhino forward 6", not realizing I could go 12" since I completely forgot the Storm Bolter on it and never fired it once, nor used either firing point. so that was a mistake.

Then I found out Njal could not take Jaws, he had to use rulebook powers. Then I was told that something with say...warp charge 2, you had to get at least 2 "4s" and every die you rolled had to be a 4. So after the first turn I did not even bother trying Psychic stuff, making my most expensive unit and a quarter of my points wasted.

Meanwhile, he took out one of my Storm Shield terminators. this was bad as they were hiding out waiting for mid game to move out and seize the only objective that mattered when he got close to it, close enough for me to go can-opener him with my thunder hammers. This was the side of the field that would determine the game.

On the far side, I moved the rhino forward and sideways to give my Grey Hunters cover as they seized the objective in the center of the field. He blue up his own Rhino when his Rhino plasma got hot and killed it, giving me first blood.

 I also popped my 6 grey hunters out. The guys on the right were going to wipe out 5 Imperial Guard, then advance to take the linbreaker and his backfield objective while the 6 grey hunters would advance to take out his 3 remaining space marines and take the objective in the center of the field.

My twin-linked lascannons proceeded to immobilize one rhino and spent the rest of the game either missing entirely (3 to hit with a re-roll :-() or failing to wound (2+ on d6).

On the bright side, it forced him to get out. On the dark side he had a Storm Shield Centurion with a 2" save I could not touch that started heading towards the key objective

Meanwhile, he turned his Devastators on my Dreadnought, penetrated, and blew it up on the 2nd or 3rd turn. I now had 1 lascannon and 2 thunder hammers to take out 2 rhinos and the dreadnought.

His 5 Imperial Guard proceeded to destroy my advancing Grey Hunters so bad that when I finally took them out I had 2 guys left. My 6 guys could only take out 1 of his 3 space marines. My Terminators failed 2+ saves at such a frenetic rate that I lost all 3 thunder hammers by turn 4.

I did manage to get a penetrating hit on the dreadnought with my Assault Cannon (?) and rolled a 6 on the damage chart. I was pretty excited thinking I would blow it up...but for some reason I am unsure of it had no appreciable effect.

I ran my 2 remaining marines toward the center objective, my rhino died shortly after tank-shocking his Imperial Guard and ramming his Rhino, and threw everything else toward the siege objective, but the firepower disparity was just too much. He killed my 5 grey hunters on the far left, the terminators, blew up my Lascannon Rhino and when the game ended I had 1 Grey Hunter locked in combat with his 2 marines.

I got crushed, essentially tabled, but as soon as I saw the point levels that we were going to play at. No big deal, I learned the basics, got some stuff done (he ended the game with 2 rhinos immobilized and another with 2 hull points left, I did wipe out 1 5-man unit and almost another) and enjoyed the game.

Looking back I know a couple of things I could...and should...have done different, and with slightly better rolls it is possible I could have dealt with more of his armor, but I simply did not have enough heavy weaponry to do well in the game. I will be back with painted Long Fangs...

40k

I dearly love Warhammer fantasy. That should be obvious by the sheer number of armies I have...I can play pretty good size games with proper, painted models with Dwarfs, High Elfs, Beastmen, Orcs & Goblins, Brettonians, and of course my favorite, the Warriors of Chaos. I even have about 1000 points of Vampire Counts, though have only ever played them maybe once?

Unfortunately, the Starving Crazed Weasels live far enough away that I cannot really get in games with them during the week and, being at different points in our lives, we no longer have the 2nd Saturday of the month reserved for games so we scarcely get in games. Hopefully at some point they will become more frequent again.

Way back in second edition we used to play 40k. I was Space Wolves and Eldar, Fixed Dice was Imperial Guard and Fullur ran Orks. I liked it even though it was a broken game at that point...the Space Marines were unstoppable back then, could not be touched.

Meanwhile, I have been practicing painting with water. First I dialed up some Tau. I tried Krylon primer/paint as a red base coat. I found it difficult to paint over. Worse, I was using quick-shades, washes, and so forth for shading.

On the one hand, I am actually not bad at it...my Orcs turned out pretty well with some very cool definition on their muscles. Same for the Beastmen. And some clothing. However, outside of those select things, I do not like the dirtied up, shadowed look. I like sharp, crisp, bright colors. I really prefer the older style of painting to the modern.

Between those issues I ended up not liking the paint job on the Tau so when I started the Space Wolves (which will be my primary 40k army) I used black primer. First up I painted up some tacticals from Assault on Black Reach.

I went with a pearlized blue and pearlized purple scheme, highlighting it with golds, coppers and bronzes. I love the result as they are a very colorful, bright looking army.

Then I started painting the actual Space Wolves. Not a huge fan of the wolf pelts. Have not really figured out a way to make them look good as they do not fit my color scheme.

Meanwhile, I have been keeping my eye out for sweet deals on figures and picked up pre-painted Ultramarines, Dark Angels, some Tau, and Chaos Space marines and some unpainted Necrons and Orks.

For those doing math, between the various means, I now can play at least 7 different Warhammer 40k armies. Not big games and not competitively as I do not have some of the heavies and super-heavies that are needed, but I can play.

So I have been reading up on the rules, had 6th edition rules and was getting ready to try a game when GW went all GW on me and changed the system to 7th.

There are several things stopping me picking up the rulebook.

1, they always come out with a set like Dark Vengeance that is scarcely more expensive than the rulebook itself but comes with a decent selection of models for 2 armies. Reading between the lines of what I have written above you might guess I pretty much always pick up a couple of them.

2, I think the fluff for both systems is ridiculous. Let me see if I can boil it down; "superhero goes on a rampage, slaying thousands of enemies at a time and stopping noted enemy x (or being stopped by "good guy" hero y".

Anyway, I am not going to pay 3 times the value for horrific writing and rules I can get basically for free by picking up models I want to pick up anyway. So I wait for the rules to come out in a box like Dark Vengeance or the forthcoming Stormclaw box which I hope to get 2-3 boxes of.

So the upshot is I have been wanting to get in a game of 40k for a while, just been waiting to finish painting up an army. I was going to use the Tau, but between the time I started painting them and the time I had them ready they got a new book and became super-powered. So I decided to wait a bit.

Now a new shop has opened just about 5 minutes from me. The Friendly Local Game Store
That is actually their name...

They are playing 7th, which I do not know all the rules for, however, I have gotten in a couple days. A little information about them coming shortly.

I would like to take this moment to welcome myself back to 40k because I love it. When I can't get together with my preferred opponents in the Starving Crazed Weasels, this will be a nice sideline.

wip

3600 Dwarfs v 3600 Ogres

These young whippersnappers have been keeping me busy doing stuff called NOT playing Warhammer, but Kev the ogre and I decided to correct that so off we went. I wanted to try out the new Dwarf book...yes, it has been so long since I played the Dwarf book is still new to me...

 I wanted to try out the new Irondrakes, etc. I figured he would be playing the Skaven so took a couple cannons, a flame cannon and an organ gun...the cannons would go after the H-Pit Abomination which always rips my lips off, if they found a way of getting it early then I would have something to deal with the Screaming bell and Doomwheel.

 Meanwhile, I put strollaz Runes all over the place so I could Vanguard as many units as possible. I had 2 blocks of Longbeards (20 for potential Watchtower scenario, and 30), a 25 strong Hammerer block, 1 10-strong thunderer, a couple gyrocopters, including one with Vanguard.

 My plan was simple. The Hammerers would go dead-center in my battle line, keeping the other blocks within 12" meant they would be stubborn with a re-roll, allowing me to theoretically whittle them down with shooting and then they would have to slay every dwarf to get points.

 That beardy Kev went and foiled my plan, bringing Ogres and rolling up Dawn deployment.

Most of my rolls were really nice...I planted a cannon in the right corner with beautiful fire lanes and protected by a mysterious river with a 20 strong Longbeard Block with thane to protect it. Next to that was the second cannon and my Runelord on Anvil. Just in front of him were the Irondrakes with Stollaz so they pushed well forward pre-game to control the center.

 In the center were my 30 Longbeards in hoard formation controlling a ton of space. Getting towards the left I had a mini-artillery park of steam cannon and Organ Gun. They were protected by a mysterious forest straight ahead but could easily hit either the killing zone in the center of the table or the left flank should he sweep around that one.

I had one vanguarded Gyrocopter and the Irondrakes, but missed that the 30-strong Longbeards had it. This would turn out to be a fortuitous mistake...

The only problem was the Hammerers, who were meant to be dead center, were stuck on the left flank. Oops...

For his part, his rolls were much worse. His 8-strong (!) Leadbelchers were stuck well off to the left (out of sight on the picture above) and his right flank was very crowded with a stonehorn, unit of...bulls? in fron, another unit of ironguts behind them, and maneaters behind them. He managed to only have 10 units to my 11 so got to go first. Or had to, depending on point of view...

Ogre turn 1
The sinister statue in the center of his line (the OOOOOOLLLLLLDDDD school giant) puts a wound on his regular bulls, then hits the general 4 times....and musters 3 "1"s and a "2". It would be my last bad roll until the game was decided...

The ogre lines made a general advance but had no charges. He gets off Flamestar with irresistible force, only to see the only wound saved, roll an 11 on the mis-cast table essentially making his special character a level 0 speedbump for the rest of the game...

His Ironblaster cannon overshoots the Irondrakes and puts a wound on the Anvil of Doom. His Leadbelchers can only muster 3 hits in 20 shots and kill 1 Longbeard. Overall this turn was a huge fluff for the ogres.

Dwarf Turn 1
I move the 20-strong longbeards towards the Leadbelchers. I really have no interest in getting closer to that firestorm, but this march actually opens an enfilade on his unit of Mournfangs.Ialso do slight retrograde with the Hammerers because I am an idiot.

They are a hard as nails combat unit. Oh, sure, they die easily if anything with decent strength hits them...but they dish out a ton of pain. He has a clogged up flank...I need to keep it clogged.

My cannon enfilade works perfectly as the two cannons both hit the Mournfangs in the flank and there is no more Mournfang unit on the board.

Meanwhile, the Trollhammer Torpedo fires out of the Irondrakes, putting 3 wounds on his Ironblaster and the rest of the unit finishes it off.

The thunderers, organ gun and steam gun combine to take out three bulls.


I have not played a shooting army since trading away the Wood Elves for the Beastmen. This is the most effective shooting phase I have ever had; 3 Mournfangs, an Iron Blaster, 3 bulls, the center of his line ripped out, leaving 8 Leadbelchers with a long shot at some longbeards and 3 bulls to take on 10 Irondrakes...his other flank crowded in on itself...I am instantly in control of this game.

Ogre Turn 2
The dice turn in his favor. His Gorgers, for the first time ever, arrive, 4 strong, and come on my back edge behind my 30 Longbeards. He declares charges all over the field, and they are easy to make charges. It hurts I erred in taking my BSB out of the Hammerer unit thinking A) the Rune of Slowness was on their banner and B) they were going to die to the combined charge they were about to receive. So no -d6" to his charge.

Not that it mattered...he moves forward 1" with the Stonehorn and 2" with the Ironguts as they both fail spectacularly. Meanwhile, his Bulls take 4 wounds when the Irondrakes stand and shoot them to ribbons.His level 0 charges my Gyrocopter and his general breaks out of the now 3 strong unit.

The Leadbelchers get a whopping 34 shots and do a handful of wounds.

The gyrocopter and character cannot hurt each other, but I fail my test, flee and get run down. The Irondrakes beat the Bulls, need a 4 to run down the remaining one...and he lives by an inch.

Dwarf turn 2
Well, that double-failed charge was a stroke of luck, but the Hammerers are still grumbling, knowing they will get smacked around next turn. Where is the rest of the army? Just like those young punks to be off gallivanting doing nothing while the mighty Hammerers do all the work.

At least the BSB rejoined to bolster them and potentially inhibit the forthcoming charge.

I need a 9 to reach his leadbelchers but decide to charge anyway rather than let him keep shooting my Longbeards without fear.

In the center I don't want his Gorgers charging the rear of my Longbeards, and then getting smacked in front by his bulls. I make those combo charges, I don't receive them so needing a 10 I declare the charge.

Both make it.

He needs like 3s to make charges and fails. I need 9 and 10 and make it. Bwoohahaha. As Gimli said, Dwarves are "wasted on cross country. We Dwarves are natural sprinters. Very dangerous over short distances." I am going to count 13" as a short distance...

I have his Gorgers lined up for an enfilade. To cannons speak...4 Gorgers leave the table having done nought but occupy cannons that had no other target.

This lets my steam cannon and Organ Gun concentrate on his general who eats their fire and walks off wounded three times.

In close combat we both expect his leadbelchers to win. This is stupid thinking...I charged (S5) with a strong, tough, armored unit. Sure, he is strong and tough too...but I hit on 3, he hits on 4, we both wound on 5, I have a save.

I beat the Belchers, need a 5 to run them down...he lives by an inch.

The 30-strong Longbeards in the center terrorize his bulls, killing them and running down the BSB. wow, could things be going any better?

Ogre Turn 3
There was an outside shot he could get two units into combat the first turn on my left flank. It is now turn 3 and time for the Stonehorns and Ironguts to charge again.The Stonehorn makes it with ease despite my Rune of Slowness. The Ironguts...are you kidding me? They fail. They needed I think a 4 and could not make it happen even without the rune.

His General charges the hapless Organ Gun. It is not long for this world...

Everyone rallies. Uh oh.

When he had most things running, it looked good. I still do not think I can stand up to him face to face in combat...Ogres are fast, tough and strong. With bad WS.

His name character enfilades the Longbeards with a breath weapon and kills 5.

The Stonehorn does 3d3 Impact hits. He gets...9. Max possible. He does fail to kill 1, but before the battle with his most fearsome troop starts I am down essentially a third of my unit, from 25 to 17. He then fluffs most of his attacks and does no further wounds, and the Hammerers kill the Stonehorn outright in one go.

Wow. behold the power of multiple attack S6, high WS guys v low WS.

Dwarf Turn 3
I charge his Leadbelchers again on the right flank with my Longbeards. Not much else they can do...he wins a shooting battle between his 20-30 shots/turn v my 0 shots, but I figure to do okay in cc. I do NOT charge his 1 bull with my Irondrakes. I want to fire that Trollhammer Torpedo again!

Meanwhile, my Longbeards charge his Level 4 wizard...that should end well for me I should think.

I fly the gyrocopter over to look at his single bull.

Shooting is pretty awesome as I take out his level 0 wizard, kill the single bull with the Trollhammer. His level 4 also dies. His Leadbelchers lose but refuse to break.

 Ogre Turn 4
Two turns too late his Ironguts charge the Hammerers. His general and some random unit of Bulls make a combined charge on the Flame cannon, the Bulls in front and General to the side.

Improbably, the Flame cannon survives and stands. Even more improbably the Hammerers take out his Ironguts in one go. I have no explanation for this.

Dwarf turn 4
The game is flying as there is little left to do. With him having no wizards left I am DOMINATING the magic phase...getting off the armor save boost has twice saved multiple Longbeards, the Wrath and Ruin is wounding Maneaters, Bulls, etc left and right...

I have very few targets left with the cannons as all but one of his 5 remaining units are engaged in combat and that one is behind a forest.

I charge my Thunderers into the Flame Cannon battle thinking I have Resolute and a chance...

The Longbeards force the Leadbelchers to flee off the table and are basically out of the game themselves, being in the far right flank across the board while the only remaining ogres are in my left flank deployment zone...

He finishes off the flame cannon, does lots of wounds to the Thunderers but they stick around.

Ogre Turn 5
His 2 Maneaters charge the flank of the 30-strong Longbeards. Why not, they have nothing else to do...

His Great Weapon Ironguts (?) charge the meatgrinding Hammerer unit. They battle fiercely, heavy losses both sides, I am down to 3 guys, he has 2, both wounded. Unfortunately, his unit Champ killed my BSB in a challenge. Fortunately, I passed the break test.

My General takes his champion in a challenge, he needs 6s to save the 2 wounds, gets them both, then adds insult to injury by wounding the general but I win combat anyway and reform to face them.

He wipes out the thunderers but gets stuck in the worst place possible...in front of the cannons.

Dwarf Turn 5
Unopposed, the Anvil Wrath And Ruins his bulls to death. The Cannons take out his general. The Hammerers and ironguts, both having great weapons, strike simultaneously. He does three wounds, wiping out my Hammerers. I do about 5 wounds...killing his last two unit members as well. Simultaneous mutual death. It was awesome.

His Maneaters break and get so far away that next turn would be me charging, him fleeing, then regrouping. Actually, they went through a mysterious forest, so I probably could not have seen them...we called it off since that was all he had left on the table.


What Went Right
Multiple wound-causing cannons getting enfilades on his Mournfangs and Gorgers before they could engage was unbelievable. I think he made a mistake not taking into account his positioning would allow me to shoot down his flank...but I made the right decision on  what to shoot at.

Additionally, when his already-clogged flank failed charges 3 of 4 attempts it allowed my single unit of Hammerers to take them on piece-meal and grind up the entire left flank, thus allowing the rest of my army to overwhelm him.

Finally, hitting those two low-percentage, high-risk, high-reward charges was a game-winning bit of luck. It got me out of precarious situations...if his leadbelchers get to sit back taking 20,30, 35 S4 shots a turn my Longbeards are going to die.

Meanwhile, multiple multi-wound causing weapons is a REALLY bad match for the ogres. If I enfilade a skaven unit, sure, I might do 5 or 6 casualties...who cares? Do 5-6 wounds (or 16...) to a Mournfang unit or Gorgers...well, that is a different story. I actually thought I would see skaven and against them the cannons would be nice but not stupid powerful. As it was, I think I fired the cannons 4 times each, had to reroll thanks to rune of forgning at least 5 of the 8 shots....and ended up never having a misfire, leading to some HUGE damage.

What Went Wrong
I definitely showed some rust in several decisions, but really, very little went wrong. I had a couple fluffed rolls but they were at times and places that did not hurt me overall.

He did a TON of damage. My 25 man Longbeards ended with 6 or 8 guys left...my 30 strong had I think 14 or so guys left...my hammerers, thunderers, gyrocopter, BSB, Steam cannon and Organ Gun all died...but the damage was spread out.

Really, I think it came down to my cannons being able to enfilade his key units and those failed charges. Do less cannonball damage and he can do some things. Get the Hammerers in a tough spot against a Stonehorn and Ironguts turn 2 and suddenly I don't have one unit holding up 3-4 units.

Final Thoughts
Overall, it was a really fun game. I love that I was able to vanguard 2 9and should have been 3 units, though if my Longbeards were further forward it would not have let me kill his Mournfangs, overshooting into his Maneaters...)

I like the Dwarf army has the option to push forward far enough to not have to sit back and gunline. At the same time, I kind of feel like I might have taken too much artillery...it was nearly 20% of my points, I just added it up. Sadly, Dwarfs are so expensive that taking say 2 less pieces would not let me take another combat unit. As is, nearly 50% of my points were in cc units and, including characters designed to make them even more CC oriented, well over 50% of them.I only had one unit of Thunderers so maybe a second one of them, but the nerf-bat they took makes that questionable.

Regardless, Kev said he liked the combat feel of the army and did not feel overwhelmed by the artillery/shooting and, in fact, thought he had more overall shooting. Not sure about that, though the 8 leadbelchers putting out 8d6 shots, his Ironblaster...they were fierce.

Anyhow, great time with great opponent. Looking forward to the next game. At this rate, that will probably be about 2016...

1500 Orcs & Goblins v 1500 Lizardmen

Have I mentioned lately how much I love 8th edition? Never feel like I am beaten before game starts, never feel I have game won before game starts...to read just the game section, skip to after the row of asterisks.

Anyway, tried to get together High Elf list but it came down to choice between Dragon Mage or Prince on Griffon...so I made the obvious choice of O&G.

I love starting with Gorbad. He is okay in close combat but where he really shines is letting me have an army of S4 multiple attack guys...and S5 on the first turn of combat.

Gorbad filled my Lord points, I took a level 2 night goblin with Dispel Scroll, 20 Savage Orc Big 'Uns with extra hand weapon & full command (& Big Stabbas), 10 Savage Orc Boar riders w/extra hand weapon & full command, and 20 Night Goblins w/2 fanatics, Arachnarok Spider and a Mangler Squig. 1500 points on the nose. I would have a commanding, nigh un-overcomable 1 point advantage as Fullur could merely manage 1499 points.

I like putting the 10 boar riders with Gorbad. If they pass animosity they get in combat lightning quick. If they fail animosity they get into combat ever faster with potentially 25 S5 or 6 attacks without taking into account the 6 more Boar attacks. I like my odds of dealing out some damage.

Meanwhile the 20 strong Savage Orcs are a nasty unit in their own right. The Night goblins with short bows were a nuisance unit meant to whittle down the enemy and throw a few fanatics at them while the Mangler would control a flank with his potential for massive damage.

Meanwhile Deathnarok is a fast, potentially very hard hitting unit that will get where I need it when I need it.

The result is a compact, mobile, tough, hard hitting army (sounds a lot like my Warriors of Chaos, except less well armored. Ironically I have a much better save percentage with these guys...)

*******************************************************************
We rolled up Blood and Glory. Strong. With 3 banners and Gorbad I have Fortitude 5. A Khemrian Marsh and mysterious river bifurcated the field right in the middle, a couple mysterious forests further made it a mystical, anti-maneuverable field.

Unless I put the Mangler on the left with a clear shot, the Boar Riders next to him to crest the hill, the Deathnarok where he could cross the river in one turn. The Night Goblin bowmen held the center of the field and the foot Savage Orcs protected the right flank from his Cold One riders.

He centered his army around several swarms with a large block of Skinks/Kroxigor on my left flank, a bastilidon behind the swarms, a big block of saurus behind the forest and his cold ones on my right flank.

O&G Turn 1
I did a general advance. My 20 strong bowmen could not fire, the Deathnarok riders hit just once and he saved it. I got poison on my foot Savage orcs.

Lizardmen Turn 1
His Cold ones don't move. In fact, let me save time: they never move until I charge them in turn 4. Everything else makes a measured advance. He moves his Saurus into the forest and I realize what a huge mistake I made. He forces the Fanatics into the open.

I can't send them after the Saurus...the forest would kill them. I have to launch them towards his Cold Ones on the right...which effectively takes my Savage Orcs out of the battle unless I want to change taking a massive hit.

Anyway, I have to let the Amber Spear hit Deathnarok, but it fails to wound. His shooting is better, wounding the Mangler twice. Ouch.

O&G Turn 2
I declare a double charge on the Skinks/Krox with my Boar Riders and Deathnarok.I am hoping the Mangler hits them and bounces out of my way first. Meanwhile I get my Night Goblins close enough to shoot at the Cold Ones.

Time to save time: I get off 56 shots with them in this game. I get 1 wound, which he saves. For the remainder of the game this unit fires ineffectually while the shaman goes nuts.

My charge hits home with both units but he stand and shoots down 3 of my Savage Orcs. Ouch. 30% gone already?

I get Bad Moon off and ship the vortex through his Saurus and Swarms. I forget it is a template and have him take just 6 tests. He loses 1 Saurus. Oops, my bad.

Meanwhile, Gorbad is in a challenge with a skink unit champ. I am licking my chops at the overkill. Except I only wound him 1 time. Oops. Warpaint is amazing, though, and I save both wounds his skinks put on me. Deathnarok kills 4 skinks, the Night Goblins on top do 5 wounds (hmm...), my Savage Orcs wound the Krox 5 times,kill off 3 more skinks...he flees, I run him down...and run into the Mangler. Between what he did to me and what I do to myself with the Mangler, I am down to Gorbad and the command models. I have lost 6 of that unit already...this is not good because my 20 man block is locked away on the right wing and the Deathnarok clipped the Swarms in his overrun.

Lizardman 2
His Saurus move to flank the Deathnarok next turn. He dispels Bad Moon, uses the shooting thing from the Bastilidon to put a wound or two on Deathnarok, I can only wound his hero once, the Night Goblins only do 1 wound, his SWARMS do 2 to Deathnarok...only a Thunderstomp lets me win. Well, that and the charge. But his anti-squishy ability saves the crumble. And he then adds a Swarm with the special rule...so they are STRONGER than they were before I attacked. This is not good...

O&G Turn 3
I spin the Boar riders to face the bastilidon, one Fanatic caroms into the forest, I fail to restrain and my Savage Orc block fails their charge, moving just 4 or 5". I finish off his hero, do lots of wounds, but so does he...Deathnarok takes 4 more wounds. I am down to just 2 wounds.

Lizardmen Turn 3
His Saurus flank charge the Deathnarok. The Bastilidon does another shooting wound. He adds another Swarm.

 Deathnarok will not go quietly, doing 4 wounds to the swarms and the Night Goblins do another, but his Saurus do 7 wounds to Arachnarok...who only had 1 left. Down goes Deathnarok as usual.

O&G Turn 4
The Savage Orcs fail to meet their charge distance. The Boar Boys charge the Bastilidon. Bad Moon succeeds, I do two wounds to the Swarms and kill a couple Saurus.

Gorbad hits the Bastilidon twice, both wound...and both multiply to 3 wounds, 1-shotting the poor Bastilidon. I clip the swarms on the overrun.

Lizardmen Turn 4
He flips the Saurus to face the nigh inevitable Savage Orc Boar Boy charge.
Gorbad, who remember does multiple wounds, has 4 attacks needing 3 to hit, 2 to wound, does...2 wounds to the swarms.But the Savage Orcs make up for it, doing 6 and the Boars do a couple more. Finally those obnoxious, lethal swarms (who ever thought I would say THAT?) are gone, gone, gone. Yeah! They go to crumble, so no overrun.

O&G Turn 5
I quickly check. He has 2 banners left. I just need to get one more. Unfortunately, I don't think the 3 remaining Savage Orc boar boys and the underwhelming Gorbad can take on 25ish Saurus. If he beats me in that combat I lose because I will only have 1 Fortitude. Oh, well, we are Orcs. The 20 man block charges the Cold One Knights, I charge his Saurus block. Death or Glory, right?

I get the Poison on the 20 man Savage Orc block with irresistible, do a wound to myself and lose rest of my power dice.

First I do the Savage Orcs on foot v Cold Ones. Our unit champs fight a challenge. I whiff all 4 attacks. His champ misses 2 of the 3 and cannot wound with the 4th. His Cold one hits once, cannot wound. That was...unimpressive.

But my rank & file do me proud, doing 11 wounds and he only saves 1, kills back 2 or 3 Savage Orcs and is run down.

Back to the important battle: if he wins it he wins the game, if we draw or I win it, his army will "break".

My Champ and his champ get in a challenge. Gorbad continues to prove outside of the Bastilidon, he just doesn't have a lot of combat power, doing just 1 wound. My unit champ does better, doing 2 wounds and saving the only wound done to him. (Go go gadget Warpaint!)

Gnarla matches Gorbad's output, the standard bearer does a couple more. He cannot wound Gorbad, does kill the standard bearer. I win the combat...and run him down. He was tabled.

What Went Right
The combo charge was a thing of beauty. He never had a chance. I had so many attacks that even a sub-par outcome was still a devastating win. Gorbad one-shotting the Bastilidon was awesome and, words you have never heard before and will probably never hear again, I DOMINATED the magic phase, getting off Gift of the Spider I think 3 times and Bad Moon twice.

Also, I saved like a fiend. Needing 5's and 6's to save I probably saved 30-40% of the wounds he did.

What Went Wrong
Bad setup of the Night goblins meant my Fanatics held up a powerful unit and did NOTHING to him.
My bowfire was...ineffective.
Dominating the magic phase killed 5 Saurus and 1 Swarm wound...not really a big deal.
Mangler did 3 hits to him...and 3 to me. That hurt me worse.


Overall it was a really fun game. Would have preferred a slightly different outcome, like...NOT tabling him, but I really like the new Lizard book and had a great time.

Warhammer 40k Space marine Paint Scheme

For no apparent reason..

I am not much of a painter but I really like this color scheme.

The purple is Pearlized Amethyst by Plain, the Blue is Pearlized Blue Sapphure, same company. The green and orange were because I could not figure out what to do with those ribbons, they needed to stand out.

On the back I tried to make it look like glowing blue power with a white in the center, blended light blue, darker blue thing...not sure how it will look.

For the base I mixed blue and purple sand roughly half and half, then chipped up a blue "filler marble" and through it on the base to add texture.

I later did my first TRUE blend on the plasma gun. Yellow blending into orange into red to represent heat. I like how it turned out. If I get interest will post pics of that, otherwise just throwing these up for no reason other than to have a record of what I was thinking.

I would be interested to know if people concur with my assessment the gold highlights make the models 'pop"

6500 points WoC v 6500 points Skaven

So this has been...saying a slow year for Warhammer would be an understatement. Spent much of the year playing 8-12 hours of racquetball a week along with spring and summer softball, some biking, a little bit of tennis...and somewhere along the line Warhammer fell off the map.

A recent spate of injuries opened some time...between the torn meniscus in the knee, the pulled hamstring, the tennis elbow in both arms and the torn rotator cuff I don't feel much like all the racquet sports or biking...though I did play racquetball Friday. Kind of felt bad...John is left-handed and I was wrecking him so badly right handed I switched off and played left handed the last 4 games...and won all those, too...

Anyway, I have been painting up models to kill time. And wanted to play a bunch of WoC stuff I had never gotten to play such as my juggernauts, 5 units of Chaos Knights, etc...

 So Kev and I decided to get in a big game.

I used all but I think 2 WoC models I had and it came out to 6500ish when I got them kitted out (6422 before I nudged in a couple extra Marauders). I think he said he proxied a unit but I don't recall which one, he got together the same amount in Skaven goodness and off we went.

Scenario
We actually rolled up battle for the Pass...twice. But since the table is a 12'x4' designed to have 2 games going side by each and since we had such massive armies we agreed to re-roll and got Dawn Deployment. Still crowded and it would result in a couple of my units stuck in corners unable to ever get in action but still fun.

It took us between 45 minutes and an hour to set up. That will happen when one side has something like 21 units and 415 models...and the other has about 18 units and 156 models.

On my left flank I had my chariot which I thought would take it out of the battle with its no march rule and the distance, a shaggoth and a unit of chaos knights.

On the right flank I had Marauder horsemen, 2 more units of knights and my great weapon, khorne marked Corn Thresher unit. They were stacked on each other. My H-Cannon being over there did not help.

But the middle was the worst. I had another Marauder Horsemen, a unit of Forsaken and dogs in the front holding back 2 units of knights, a unit of Juggernauts, Dragon Ogres, a horde of Marauders, and a couple units of warriors marked tzeentch with shield.

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Kev was nearly as crowded...oh, not overall. Counterintuitively, despite haing more units and out-model counting me nearly 3-1 he had more space for units without needing to deploy in depth. BUT...his big (Warpfire?) cannon was blocked by a forest and would have very limited targets, and a couple other batteries were locked on the back row and behind a hill so they could not unleash a Napoleonic Artillery Park barrage.

I was fortunate to get the first turn. I have played Skaven a few times and they have a habit that disturbs me. The strength of my WoC is 2-fold:1, they dish out a TON of punishment with a narrow frontage and 2, they have great armor saves so are tough to bring down.

The Skaven seem to have a ton of no armor saving allowing weapons. Warpfire cannons, Plague monks, plague furnace, poison wind globadiers...it feels like every wound is a death with no save allowed. Not sure I have all the names right and not sure it matters...the FEELING overrides reality and I play based on perception when I have not played in a while and can't be bothered to look up all the little rules for an army.

I based my plan over eliminating his armor-save denial guns. I ran my Marauder horsemen up in front of two weapon teams and positioned my level 4 to do some damage to the Globadiers.

I had designs for the magic phase that abruptly changed. I cast a calm 4-dice Firestorm trying to draw out his dispel dice, then was going to Treason them and then hit them with damage from my other wizard. Except he used a Feedback Scroll...and promptly threw 3 wounds on my only Level 4. Fortunately I ward saved one to live but it changed my entire magic plan.

Meanwhile, he lost a couple globadiers and of course gained Regen 6 from my warpflame rule. That would later come into play.

Shooting; for the Warriors of Chaos this is not traditionally a very good phase. Marauders with throwing axes are fun, though...and each unit took out a weapon team. The only weapon teams with shots in his first turn.

Then the H-cannon fired at his doomwheel. A hit and...uh oh, mis-fire. A 6. Oops...cannot fire again this game. BUT...it does the hit. Boom, got the wound through and it is d6 multiple wounds...rolled a 6. His Doomwheel is gone...and worse yet, something like 3 units and a character all panicked off the board.

So magic does its traditional hurt me more than the opponent but shooting was DEVASTATING. Yeah, so the cannon can't fire again...just means I now have a vicious, unbreakable close combat monster to hand.

Oh, and he had scouts on the left flank I was able to charge with my Knights. Their stand and shoot wounds one, I just need a 2 or better...who needs to eliminate my awesome saves when I will fail that anyway?

No worries, they chew up his scouts and spit them out, overrunning them in one turn into his slaves behind.

His turn he runs the plague furnace into my 4 strong unit of Great Weapon wielding Dragon Ogres. I have been pummeled by that thing before. I hope at least one guy hangs on and I can get help there next turn in the form of a Shaggoth and maybe some Juggers...except I foolishly fled with both Marauder units and thus clogged up my lines. That was rust on my game.

Turns out against tough, multi-wound models the Furnace does fewer wounds. Also turns out a bunch of decent weapon skill, S7 attacks are not good for the furnace. It was gone in one turn leaving a very manageable bunch of rats.

His slaves survive my second turn and even kill off a second Knight. Yes, skaven slaves stand up to Chaos Knights and do a wound.

On turn two I go to draw out his dispel dice with an Infernal Gateway...and get irresistible force. The miscast reduces a level 2 to a level 0. My magic is getting weaker. But I do get the globadiers down to just 3. And then I use my level 4's breath weapon to wipe them out...except the regen saves him.

Meanwhile his Abomination has pinwheeled into my Corn Threshers and his Screaming Bell runs into my 6 strong knights.

Over the next two turns his A-bomb will kill 9 Corn Threshers and make about 10 ward saves or regeneration saves before dying and becoming swarms which occupy another turn. The Screaming Bell only kills one knight but it is turn 5 before it dies, and that is only when the last 3 Corn Threshers join in with their mighty S6 and finish it off.

In the center I have far too much power for him. That opening H-Cannon shot lets me pound 2 and 3 units at a time into his individual units.

The best moment comes when he unleashes some banner with his Plague Monks and gets 24 hits and like 8 or 10 wounds onto my Dragon Ogres, shrinking them to just one guy left.

On the left flank my chariot is having a grand time doing 7 impact hits on his big gun (which to be fair one-shotted a Chaos Spawn...who cares...and missed the much juicier Knight unit) and running it off the table, thus getting the chariott out of the way of his nastiest unit.

So at this point it looks really good for me. He has lost all three war machines and the HPA along with miscellaneous weaker units.He does have 2 units of knights down to 1 wound apiece, my Giant down to 3 wounds remaining, the forsaken down to 2 models and the Dragon Ogre down to 1.

He also had killed my Level 4 at some point, leaving him dominant in the magic phase.

Then comes a key turn. I have 2 knights behind his level 4/Rat Ogre pair. he tries cracks call, I need them alive to kill his wizard so spin all my dispel dice at them.

I should point out I had some great rolls...but I also had 5 "1"s in 8 tries and 0 hits in 5 tries needing a mere 3. Well, this roll with 7 dispel dice totaled something like 12. So it went off...I think it killed one of the knights. Then I used Dispel on something else knowing if he got the 13th off it would be irresistible anyway. He uses his last magic die...and 5 warp tokens. Gets the 13th off without irresistible.

My untouched 12 strong tzeentch warriors bolstered by a level 2 and a Chaos Lord tooled up for close combat becomes 14 clan rats.

Ouch. That hurt. On the bright side, it gave the H-Cannon and Marauder unit a target and they dutifully wiped out the new unit.

Meanwhile the bright, shiny new Juggernaut unit got a brief run. Along with the giant, they did a number on his last meaningful unit on the right or center.

 Then it was time to deal with that pesky 13th-casting mad-man. This is French for "overwhelming force".

By this time the outcome was again looking like a fore-gone conclusion. With just 2 turns left I could run away from his last unit.

I did not.

He briefly looked like he might make me regret it. With Queek, his general and some other model he had so many high I, decent strength, often no save-allowing attacks it looked like the Shaggoth was done for, he dispatched my last dragon ogre and I was in trouble as I fluffed a ton of attacks.

Fortunately the stomps and chariot impact hits won the combat.

In the bottom of the 6th I finished off all the little guys and Queek in a challenge. The Skaven had enough and left the field unchallenged.

And here is the traditional "We survived" photo.

What went right:
Turn one shooting. When that huge hole was ripped in the middle of his lines it allowed me to separate his forces and defeat them in detail, often teaming up 3 or even 4 units against suddenly badly outmatched, outnumbered skaven.

That shot was so crucial; even though he had nearly a 3-1 model advantage, I routinely had a numerical advantage in each combat after that.

Second, the impact hits and stomps were awesome. At least 3 times I got the max impact hits and/or stomps, turning lost combats into devastating wins.

Third, by keeping him from ramping up his ratling guns and warpfire cannons by either having them blocked in by troops or else killed on turn one, two or charged before they could fire when they were uncovered removed his hard counter to my armor advantage.

Fourth, he did plenty of damage but it was separated too widely. I totaled it up after the game and if he could have done 1 - 3 more wounds per unit he would have had another 2000 points. As it was, he wiped out several units but missed wiping out just as many more units by 1,1,1,1,2, and 3 wounds I think. That turned it from a close game into a rout.

5th, but turn 3 I had invalidated or outright destroyed all his war machines and the HPA.

What Went Wrong
Having not played in some time, I forgot key stuff and made juvenile tactical errors...such as fleeing marauder horsemen that A) had served their purpose and B) would have brought him right into my happy zone, allowing turn 2 charges by such potent forces as my Juggernauts, Marauder Horde, and Chaos Knights.

I also had some badly fluffed rolls, though those were balanced out by some really nice rolls.

In other words, not much went wrong. Well, except his #$%^& H-bomb making more Regen saves than it failed. That thing does so much damage in a short amount of time...

Says the guy who rudely tabled his opponent. Apparently the WoC dish out a ton of damage as well...

In the end it was a great afternoon of gaming with a great friend. I can now say I have played the new Warriors of Chaos book, I have used every unit I have and the same thing as every model, and I look forward to a lot more Warhammer in 2014.