Showing posts with label Realm of Battle Board. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Realm of Battle Board. Show all posts

Friday 14 October 2016

Armies on Parade board 2016

I have in my 18 draft blog posts one article about Armies on Parade that has been completed for nearly a year and I still can't decide if I want to post it. But I have decided that I may feel differently about the situation after tomorrow, so instead I thought I'd share my test layout for my board.


As you can see it's pretty much all my completed Dark Angels and their Knightly allies, I even included the crashed Aquila Lander.


The two bastions are a bit OTT, it perhaps might look better as a scene with just the one and the two knights in each corner but I can't bring myself to drop them now.


I'll be popping along tonight to set up as tomorrow I can only go later on in the day, presumably when all the voting has taken place.


I did see a post on GW Bolton's Facebook page that showed their winners trophies, AND entrant pin-badges! Which I think is a really nice touch for those that are taking part. Fingers crossed they're happening everywhere.


Part of me is really excited, I hope it can be a good day and exorcise the event for me and it to be an enjoyable experience. Any aspiration other than that is just the elusive bronze medal but I know I've done a grand job this time.


Everything on the board is new to AoP, the only hangover from previous years is the backdrop, the board itself is one of my Realm of Battle tiles [though I doubt folk would notice the difference].


I even included the old skool assault marines I rebased for Battle Brothers, why not?







Round about here I remembered to add the Techmarine!


So there we go, if you're parading tomorrow I hope you have a good one, all the best.

Wednesday 11 March 2015

Dave's 40k @ 40 Bash - 1500pts Tyranids Vs Riptides, erm I mean Tau

I'll be honest here my army list is codenamed 'Ripped Tights', it's been adjusted but way back when Liam started running Riptides in droves I wondered what I would do should I ever face them. Shortly thereafter I had some success with the Genestealer and I realised that as Riptides are Monstrous creatures then Toxin Stealers might be the answer. Well, we shall see.

Psychic Powers
Winged Tyrant Tervigon Plain Tr

Psychic ScreamOnslaught

Warp BlastDominion

Dominion



The low down:
  • Spoils of War - Dawn of War
  • Warlord Trait - Warlord and three units have Infiltrate!
  • Unsure on night fighting , I think it was first turn and who won deployment etc. 
First of all setup as Liam came to the board he was slightly concerned that one side had more objectives closer to the DZ so as I won setup I let him have that side as it had the ruins in anyway which I could infiltrate Stealers into. I'm 2:0 up, but I'm under strict instructions from the wife that I can’t win the prize, so I really don’t care and then I roll my warlord trait! How much fun is infiltrating 3 units and Warlord going to be!

What originally seemed like a simple plan becomes complex, which units do I Infiltrate? Then I make the mistake of discussing it with PeteB who’s decided to watch our game after the Eldar one. Now I’ve been on the other side of this sort of casual tactical debate and I didn’t like it, it feels like you're being ganged up on, so I can only apologise to Liam for not thinking how it would come across. Eventually I decide to put Stealers in the ruins, the central tower and the tower on the far right and the last unit behind the Bastion, for back field. Meanwhile the Tervigon is in the Tyrannocyte, y'know for giggles!


And I decide on the 30 Termagants, a Dakkafex and the Flyrant, that sit in the top left behind the futuristic containers. I realise now this is only two units and the Warlord Infiltrating! Doh! I’d been umming and ahhing so much I didn’t put the second Dakkafex or the Venomthrope with them.


With the Stealers in the Towers we debate just how tough these building are. I've been playing these as AV14 all day and it's not been an issue but Liam believes this is OTT. Which is fair comment but all I'm concerned about is if I agree to AV12 then that's a bit unfair on Ben and Otty who've faced AV14 all day. Eventually we reach a compromise and dice roll, 1-2 it's AV12, 3-4 AV13 and 5-6 AV14 and we end up with AV13 buildings.


With most of the Tau on the right flank most of Liam's first turn will be spent repositioning but they're mobile enough to do just that. He does however manage to secure first Blood by roasting most of the Genestealers in the ruins


The [now broken, it got dropped] Tau XV109 Y'Vahra Battlesuit switches on it's stealth cloak but the exposed flamer is sufficent enough to allow the Dakka Fex and Flyrant to draw a bead on, taking off two wounds. The Fire Warriors in the ruins suffered devastating losses but they stayed their ground.


The Carnifex had to bash it's way through the containers to get into range, barely! Once again I tried to use Psychic Scream but was denied. Seriously! There isn't even a Psychic entity on the board and it's stopping me from getting a power off [yes I know the Tau are psychically null but it's just wrong!]


The Termagants were not so forthcoming as theire bigger brothers moved off, only moving 2" from their initial Infiltration. By the end of turn one I've somehow managed to score 2VPs to Liam's First Blood and 1 objective VP.


In my Turn 2 the Tyrannocyte arrives and disgorges the Tervigon who also spawns giving me plenty to hold onto the objective should it become active, which it might have, as I recorded another 2VPs scored this turn. Current score is 4:2 to me


The flyrant moved the minimum to still be in range of the three Riptides and hopefully get Psychic Scream off, not! But I did manage to wound one of them at least. I must point out that during the game Liam moved the wounded Riptide. In return it took a wound.


Here it is on top of the Tower, although he moved it down eventually and in the process misplaced the 'wound dice' he'd allocated to it. When we realised I laughingly, railed against him because that very days blog post had referenced such an event. Of course I knew full well that he makes his own wound markers and as this army is still 'in progress' they hadn't yet been created. However, it was a reminder that even the best of us make that mistake, so think on kids!


Riptides blasted the Tervigon to pieces taking many Termagants with it. This got Liam a VP for killing a Psyker. I was still in the lead, but in this tun Liam scores 2 VPs drawing us even on 4:4.


The Fire Warriors in the Skyshield rained fire on the Flyrant managing to get two wounds on it, time was running out, I'd got a Maelstrom objective that if I could kill a Flyer or Flying Monstrous Creature, which the Tau XV109 Y'Vahra Battlesuit is I'd get a VP. Also another Riptide had landed next to one of the towers filled with Toxin Stealers. It was contesting an objective that Liam needed to win but equally in this mission I can 'steal' his VP if I can get to the objective first. So I moved the Stealers out and swooped the Flyrant between the other two to shoot and hopefully pull of the Scream...


Oh, yeah, I forgot I had to do a grounding test on the Flyrant because of his wounds from the Fire Warriors, he failed and on a 2 was smeared across the iron rich Ferron Proxima wasteland! This gained Liam Slay the Warlord and another Maelstrom objective VP taking him to 6. However I somehow manage to gain a VP, presumably from holding and objective as I wasn't killing anything, and that puts us on 6:5


The Genestealers burst from the building but the Riptide was overwatching on 5+ and twinlinked, ultimately only one Genestealer made it into combat.


and was stomped flat by the Riptide after it managed to cause one rend on it's battlesuit. This allowed Liam to secure the objective and win and with another one his end VPs were 8. I managed another objective VP bringing me up to 6 although I probably had Line Breaker too, so the final score was most likely 8:7


Which means Liam won the 40k addict 40k @ 40 Bash - look at his little face with the coveted trophy, not to mention the £40 worth of GW vouchers my wife included in the prize! And to think he went from the Blog Wars 8 loser spot to this in a matter of a few months! ;)


I can't convey just how much I needed this. Aside from it being fun to be with your mates and for us to finally play a game this year but that 40 number can be a big deal and particularly the events surround this day in previous years. I'd been first thing to the car park where my Dad was knocked down and put some flowers there to remember him by. It was quite emotional but then the simple camaraderie of playing toy soldiers for the day helped get me through, so thanks guys, and als a big thanks to Jo, Ben's wife for letting me hold it at their house and another big thanks to my wife for suggesting/supporting it  and my own kids for letting me out for the day when they may have wanted me to celebrate with them.


UPDATE: Liam reminded me that Psychic Scream did in fact get manifested, it took wounds off all three Riptides and was instrumental, alongside the Brainleech worms in destroying the Fire Warriors. funnily enough when I mentioned it I suddenly had this vivid memory of one of his Leadership dice rolls that stripped a lot of wounds off something. Understandably this suddenly became the biggest threat to him, hence why he was so scared when the Flyrant swooped next to them again late in the game only to be relieved when I remembered I'd not done the grounding check so we moved it back, rolled, failed, died and won Liam the game!

Monday 9 March 2015

Dave's 40k @ 40 Bash - 1500pts Tyranids Vs Orks

MMM! Lunch, a breakfast barm as big as my head! Bacon, sausages, fried egg with some ketchup thrown on after. I couldn't finish this thing it was so filling!


Psychic Powers
Winged Tyrant Tervigon Plain Tr

OnslaughtThe Horror

Catalyst [yay!]Dominion

Dominion



The low down:
  • Contact Lost - Dawn of War
  • Warlord Trait - Move thru coer and Stealth in ruins
  • Unsure on night fighting , I think it was first turn and who won deployment etc. 
I think I made Ben set up first, but got to go first. We kept Otty's objectives in place and as the Stompa was over on the right I deployed the Bastion as a fake. It's sole purpose was to be big in that corner, hide the Genestealers and the Flyrant. The Flyrant would then move off and then as the rest of the army was deployed to the left I imagined it would draw the Stompa away from that flank and the Bastion could generate VPs if and when that objective came up. If the Bastion was targetted by the Stompa then the Stealer were there to secure the objective.

Meanwhile the rest of my army drew up on the left flank but I would move further left to avoid the Stompa leaving it out of position, although a 12" move isn't going to save me for too long. Anyway, I had that Trukk to deal with two. Oh, Stealers are in the three towers, behind the Bastion and... not sure where the last Brood is [outflanking I think] ...


I believe they call this the 'refused flank'/'oblique order' I actually prefer the second name. Anyway, the flyrant swooped over to the left to join up with the main body while Gaunts and Tervigon headed towards the lonely Trukk.


This may well have been a tactical blunder to think this was a vulnerable target as the Nobz and their Warboss leaped forwards...


and promptly chopped the Tervigon to pieces. As soon as I saw them get out I realised it wasn't going to end well, and instantly regretted forgetting to spawn in my turn. I did wound one model but with 2 wounds each it was not enough to do anything at all really! Except lose First Blood I imagine.


But the Carnifex was nearby, the Flyrant was in range to swoop over and add his Brainleech Devourers into the mix and the Brood of Stealers in the tower could mop up any stragglers.


resulting in a pretty clean clear up, which included Slay the Warlord as Ben's Warboss was fulfilling that role.


The Tyrannocyte landed, I sent forth the Genestealers and think I managed to immobilise so next turn it would be dead.


The Bastion proved to be too much of an enticement for the Stompa. Clearly the Orks assumed it was the biggest thing on the table and therefore the only thing worth stomping. The Quad Gun had managed to get a Hull Point on the Stompa [which had been repaired] so I gathered they were pretty grumpy with the alien structure.


Which resulted in alien goop everywhere. With nowhere to hide the Genestealer get set to high tail it out of there, would an 8" head start be enough to escape the Stompa?


The Trukk succumbed to the rending attacks of the Stealers, blowing up and taking two of the Brood with it.


The Venomthrope abandoned it's objectives to cover the Carnifex but the tower Stealers replaced him in the woods just out of shot on the right. Flyrant swoops into the woods, he must have been hit by something as he's taken a wound. Luckily the Stompa ran out of ammo on one of it's guns very early on so the Flyrant had a much better chance of surviving. My last brood of Stealers must have outflanked and just about reached my objective. By this stage we had been quite unlucky with our Maelstrom cards. You generated one for every objective you held at the beginning of your turn and I'd been lucky to have roughly three to choose from each turn. With more units and a wider spread I'd manage to have more choice, so although the cards weren't great there was 1 or 2 I could get, where as Ben had less objectives, therefore less choice and his cards were extra VPs to Slay the Warlord, which was possible with 1 Wound already but also difficult as shooting down a flyer who is on the other side of the board is quite tough.


However, I got a card to secure the Plasma Generator objective so swooped over, thankfully Dominion - the only psychic power I seemed able to manifest [OK that's a lie I clearly got Catalyst off in the pic!] kept most of my Synapse in check. 


Meanwhile the rest of the Hive moved up to the centre of the board, with the Venomthrope once again securing an objective.



With the Stompa about to run amok in the middle of the board, the Stealers in the centre tower joined forces with the Stealer who had been running from the wrecked Bastion. Together they managed to hold back the Stompa for a turn!


The Flyrant reached the objective, I think we were at the end of the game so I may have landed but I'm not sure if I scored the objective as there's still an Ork there


As the game came to an end the Genestealer were squished, which was a shame as the two Carnifex were all lined up to charge and crush this mechanical Behemoth. I'd manage to secure a 6:3 win.

We later played out what would have happened, only one Carnifex made it into the charge, but we ignored that and imagined both did. They may have done 2 hull points of damage and then they were both squished through Stomp and Destroyer weapons attacks! So my advice to Liam still stands, just ignore these things! Obviously it helps if it's out of position and goes off killing 100pts of building instead of the army. To be fair though the building could have scored points too. But just try and ignore it, unless you actually have something that can damage it that is.


Over on the other table things started off all smiles. Liam and Otty insisted I record this for posterity because it was bound to end in acrimony, name calling and Chinese burns later on in the game ;)


Things got a bit tense part way through, Wraith Knights and Wave Serpents are beasts so although the Riptides can be equally mobile and powerful this was two top-tier armies going head to toe. PeteB turned up part way through and given his fondness for Space Pixies spent a lot of time cheering on the Eldar.


Liam went on to win but even when he was about 8:2 up on VPs the pressure the Eldar brought to bear on the Tau made it feel like the Greater Good where on the road to a good hiding!


But they looked good while doing it and won out in the end.


Unfortunately the Tau XV109 Y'Vahra Battlesuit [not in shot] got dropped at one point snapping the main body off the gun. It wasn't 100% complete so Liam is confident of it's repair but it was a sharp intake of breath moment for all of us.


WAVE SERPENT SPAM!


So I was 2 wins so far, y'know I might actually win this thing yet! How embarrassing would that be :P