Redefining "Pyrrhic Victory".

So that scenario I mentioned yesterday? Well, I won. Just. I achieved my Primary and Tertiary Objectives (12VP) and S achieved his Secondary and Tertiary Objectives (9VP). However, the slaughter was exceptionally great, and I think my losses were so catastrophic as to basically redefine the concept of a Pyrrhic Victory. I shall let the photos tell the story:

My extreme left flank, held by a platoon of renegade militia and home to what I naively thought would be a 'fast strike force' of daemons, a daemon prince, and some Chaos Marine bikers.

My centre-left flank; heavy hitting war machines, a throwaway unit of beastmen, and some angry close combat troops. Plus my Chaos Space Marine reserve.

 The Fortress of Chaos; home to Abbadon, his Terminator Chosen bodyguard, my Chaos Lord and his Terminator Chosen bodyguard, with extra protection from 8 Plague Marines and a fearsome mob of Bezerkers. There was a Strategic Asset that gave every Chaos Space Marine (and Chaos Daemon) unit within 12" of the building a +1 to their INV save, which was quite nice, so I took that. (Chaos Altar).

Centre-right flank; Daemons galore! Note the Rhinos ready to be used as 'gates' to close off the streets after the tide of daemons and cultists pour through.

Extreme right flank; a mix of Slaanesh-identifying Marines, some daemonettes, and a shedload of cultists, plus a Leman Russ. You can see the Rhino-doors better here.

 The Arch-Fiend Himself, S, deploying his reinforced company of Angels Sanguine (Blood Angels). Each squad is named after a ship present at Jutland, and the characters are all named after Royal Navy officers from the battle. So 'Dante' is Jellicoe, etc.

 Angels Sanguine right flank...

 ...and again, with lots of units in Rhinos and Razorbacks.

 The Reserve. Oh good gods these bloody Jump Troops... about 70 figures, not to mention the normal chaps embarked in various APC/AIFVs!

 Start of Turn 2 - The Jump Troops Arrive. All at once. Thanks to a re-rollable 3+ reserve roll (courtesy of the Damocles command rhino).

 So I did have some war engines. They all died. Eventually. The Blood Slaughterers at least managed to destroy a Predator before being blown up, and the walking death robot thing just beyond the destroyed Defiler killed a couple of Marines before dying to Dreadnought and multi-melta fire.

End of my Turn Two I believe. See those cultists and Noise Marines and Plaguebearers?  Most of them will die next turn thanks to orbit-to-surface weaponry.

The Death Company Dreadnought had in the Marine Turn Two Assault Phase spectacularly failed to kill any cultists at all in close combat after charging them, forcing the Terminators of Squad Colossus to get stuck in. My sorceror killed two of them with a sorcerous beam power slightly later (and he survived the game, possibly MVP for me).

Turn two. The Exterminator didn't survive the Sanguine shooting phase...

After the Marine Assault Phase, Turn Two. Turn Two. I did have a left flank. Now I have an endless plain of dead.

The valiant renegade militia command unit, which was the only unit on my left flank to inflict any casualties on the Jump Troop Company after it landed - two to meltas, one to the officer's plasma pistol, and one to a laspistol shot, plus one in close combat. Platoon strength: 50. Casualties caused: 5. Casualties taken: 50. Hey, that's about right! Space Marines are meant to be worth ten ordinary men, after all! 

The Jump Troop Company (which is basically what it is) having consolidated, ready for a drive (too late as it turned out) on Abbadon.

 My right flank at the start of my Turn 3 Assault Phase. The Daemonettes turned out to be useless in close combat (what happened to their rending claws!?) and were all killed for no loss. Note lack of Cultists. They were peasants and worthless anyway! What I mean is, I chose the Turn 3 Shooting Phase to use several Orbital Bombardment Strategic Assets. I dropped three (three!) orbital strikes on the Death Company, killing all bar five (including 'Lemartes' and 'Astorath')... and also my Bloodcrusher Juggernaught cavalry, who died in a scatter. Oh, and then the Marines got an orbital strike which (of course) hit perfectly and obliterated lots and lots of stuff from this bit of my army. Bye bye Noise Marines, for example...

The Final Push during Marine Turn 4...

...and the 'Counter-Attack' - the Chosen were shot to death and butchered before doing anything, the Bezerkers hacked down without being able to respond, and the Chaos Marines on the walkway at least managed to last two rounds of combat and kill a Space Marine.

Pictures pictures pictures words words words. End result, I won, it was a bloody slaughter, I came off much worse than the Angels Sanguine, having at the end about 6 or 7 units and a handful of characters still alive. Other interesting moments included:

The Vindicare Assassin that missed two of four shots and only inflicted one wound,
Both my Defilers and a Blood Slaughterer being immobilised in Turn One before they'd even moved,
Abbadon hiding for the entire game (mwahahahaha),
Chaos Havocs failing to damage anything at all all game (12 shots over the course of the game - they either missed or failed to glance their targets),
the usual healthy interest from children younger than most of S's models,
and my personal favourite;
Chaos Sorceror stands 1" away from a Land Raider and rolls 13 on 8+2d6 for armour penetration.13!! ARRRGH! On the last turn of the game as well! Bah humbug. Oh well.

Sorry about the pics being all wonky, they shouldn't be. Blogspot is weird sometimes.

Apocalypse: Spiral Prime

Tonight, my friend S is coming up from Kent to prepare for a trip to Nottingham and Warhammer World tomorrow. Why? Well, we're going to have our annual(ish) Apocalypse game. This time, his Angels Sanguine and some of his Chaos Space Marines will be there, along with my Iron Warriors.

I get Scenario Writing Duty for these things, so here, then, is the scenario we will be playing tomorrow:

Hive Spyral Prime - ASSASSINATION!

Imperial Forces Briefing:

Abbadon the Despoiler has been positively identified as being present in the ruined hive of Spiral Prime. A small task force of Astartes has a chance to strike against him, removing a major threat to the continued existence and stability of the Imperium. This objective must be achieved at all costs.

Primary Objective:
Eliminate Abbadon.
Abbadon must be reduced to 0 wounds and removed from play before the end of Turn 4. This can be achieved by any means. (9VP)

Secondary Objective:
Destroy at least 50% of the enemy force.
Completely destroy at least half of the enemy’s total number of units. (6VP)

Tertiary Objective:
Ensure your commander remains alive.
At the end of Turn 4, your commander must have at least 1 wound remaining. (3VP)

Chaos Forces Briefing:

Abbadon, Chosen of the Gods, has arranged a meeting with a force of Iron Warriors in order to negotiate their support during the next phase of his Black Crusade. It is imperative that you ensure that Abbadon’s security is maintained.

Primary Objective:
Ensure that Abbadon remains alive throughout the negotiations.
At the end of Turn 4, Abbadon must have at least 1 wound remaining. (9VP)

Secondary Objective:
Ensure that any attacking force is destroyed to allow Abbadon and the other dignitaries to escape.
Completely destroy at least half of the enemy’s total number of units. (6VP)

Tertiary Objective:
Make sure that the Iron Warriors are still in a position to aid Abbadon afterwards.
At the end of Turn 4, the Iron Warrior commander must have at least 1 wound remaining OR at least half the Iron Warrior units must be at or above half strength. (3VP)

This is the battleground. I'm looking forwards to the battle - expect photos!

Tanks! ACTION ON!

Sorry I've been quiet. Struggling with life a little (OK, a lot). Anyway, enough of the doom 'n' gloom.

First of all, I've 'found' an awesome forum for players of Necromunda, Inquisitor/Inquisimunda, Mordheim, and Gorkamorka - Yaktribe! Go and set up an account if you haven't already got one (I suspect I'm late to the party).

 First of all, I finished that conversion. She looks really rather badass if you ask me, what with her Voodoo-inspired facepaint and her hazard-striped improvised shoulder armour. I see her as being a mentor to the younger members of the HellBitches, looking after them and trying to make sure they don't get slotted too early. Painting see-through clothing is haarrrrrd.

 And then a couple of days ago I thought "sod it, my Space Marine vehicles have been sat in the cupboard unloved for too long", dragged them out, and here's the result. The first one to get finished was the Razorback transport for my Techmarine and his servitors. Now as far as I can remember, the last edition in which they were 'officially' allowed to ride around in one of these was the 4th Edition Codex. But happily that's my favoured edition, so woo!

Then I had a crack at the old style 2nd Edition Predator Destructor, which came out rather nicely thank you very much. 

 And then I finished off the Whirlwind which I started working on... oooh... two years ago? Looks pretty nifty actually, although this probably isn't the best angle (but it is the business end of it).

And this is what's on my workbench. Rhino transports galore (oh, and Iron Warrior Khorne Bezerkers, and Tzeentchian cultists, and some - out of shot - Molgravians for my Molgravian project)! I do have a fourth one, but I got it (and all these other vehicles) second hand, and it had, er, rather a lot of battle damage. So if anyone happens to have any Rhino mk1 exhausts spare (two would do, four would be PERFECT), ideally with their curvy exhaust pipes intact... let me know. Please? Otherwise I'm going to have to source a whole new Rhino mk1!

Speaking of new vehicles, all that remains for my Righteous Fists to be complete are:

A Vindicator mk 1 with bulldozer blade.
A Land Speeder Storm for my second scout squad.
A standard Dreadnought to accompany my Venerable and Ironclad dreads.
A Land Raider mk2B from Forgeworld for my Terminators to ride in.
A squad of Scout Bikers, because they're cool, OK?
A squad of five Sternguard with a Razorback mk1 (with twin-linked lascannon ideally) to accompany my Librarian.

The list has grown a wee bit but there we are. It's not as much as it could be!

Necromunda Lunacy Continues (and some 40K stuff too)

I've been a busy chap of late:

This conversion has been waiting completion for about seven years. Maybe longer. I finally snapped last night and clipped away the remains of the grenadier's upper legs, filed both halves flat (ish) and applied green stuff and spare parts to create - ta-da - an Escher with grenade launcher!

 Ordo Xenos Inquisitor. His tabard thing reads "Death to the alien, abhor the alien" and then "The Emperor is God - The Voice of the Emperor - Victorious Wrath of the Emperor" (at least, it does in pidgin latin). He's a radical, really, his retinue has aliens and gene-altered humans in it.

 Parvassian Dragoon corporal seconded to the Inquisition. I kept this model when I sold the rest of my Steel Legion collection because I thought he was cool and would come in handy. So he has!

 Necromundan Hired Gun: underhive scum with two bolt pistols. I like the camo trousers and the way his trenchcoat came out.

And finally, a figure from the Rogue Trader days. I estimate this thing at about 28 years old; I think it was released in about 1987? Painted up to lead my next squad of Iron Warriors.

The Last Escher... and more Iron Warriors

Well, I've really caught the Necromunda bug again. I've finally finished painting all the Escher figures I own (well, apart from the half-finished conversion of a Heavy with Grenade Launcher, but I need something like a dremel rotary tool to cut away some irritating metal parts before I can really think about finishing it), and have the last of my Goliaths on the painting table as I type.

In addition to that, I've finished (for the moment) all bar one of my Iron Warriors, giving me a pretty sizable army really. So I'm quite pleased with that. Anyway - pictures!

 Sister Silent in her new incarnation. She has given her plasma gun to Julie Romain (a recently promoted Juve who got the Specialist skill) and now totes a newly-purchased heavy stubber. This looks a lot like an MG-34 with a few extra bits...!

As-yet-unnamed models. The one on the left is probably going to be a Leader; in which case I may well call her Kat Wylde. The one on the right will end up being a promoted Juve, I expect.

Iron Warriors! These fellows bulk up the Techmarine's squad to its maximum size of 10 figures, giving me a squad dedicated to Slaanesh and another dedicated to Chaos Undivided. In the long run there'll be two more, one dedicated to Khorne (with flamers) and another dedicated to Nurgle (with meltas). Painting gold trim is tedious, but once it's done they are very quick to finish. The eagle-eyed among you may notice that none of them have the hazard striping that most Iron Warrior armies sport. This is because I think it looks silly and it is ridiculously hard to paint properly.