Sunday 14 December 2014

Alliances of Haste - 5000pts of fighting!

A few nights ago, to my pleasure, the XVI Company once again took to the battlefield en masse - this time against an ugly alliance of World Eaters and a race called 'Tau' (who dressed in horrible mechanical suits!). Alongside some wondrous men of the Imperial Army (Played as Death Korps) 5000 points of  beautiful took on 5000 of derange lunatics. Unfotunately we only got to turn 3 as the Tau player had to leave and catch a bus - but it was still entertaining.

Pre Game:
The Full army on the table ready to deploy.
My full force includes:
Sebastian (as Fulgrim) with Command Squad
Ventrix (Champion) and the 5 Palatines
Iosef (Primus) and 10 Terminators
20 Assault Marines
The 'Lancer' (Predator)
3 Outriders
Tac Support Squad Tokko (volkites)
Caesar (Contemptor)

Company Commander (with Master of Ordnance and Bodyguards), Commissar General and Quartermaster Cadre.
Over 100 Guardsmen split over 2 platoons.
9 Heavy Weapons Squads (autocannons, Lascannons and mortars)
A Basilisk and Medusa Emplacement (proxied)
3 Heavy Mortars and 3 Rapier batteries (laser destroyers)
Leman Russ Demolisher
1 Squad of 10 Grenadiers and 1 Squad of 5.

For the course of this battle, Sebastian was to become Fulgrim (minus the Laer Blade)
With the increasing madness of Lord Captain Sebastian drawing the attention of higher powers, it did not take long before Slaanesh decided to play around with the deranged commander's mind. Now not only did Sebastian believe himself to be Fulgrim, he suddenly gained the same super human strength, toughness and agility (Running Sebastian as Fulgrim I felt was a reasonable Proxy considering his fluff/look). Unfortunately Sebastian would never see the field this battle, whilst held in reserve I forgot that Fulgrim allows for rerolls to all reserve rolls ><.
To the field of battle we go!
My enraged foe deploying against me!
The World Eaters and Tau included 20 Rampagers, 10 Red Butchers, Kharn, a pair of contemptors, a Typhon, a Spartan, 20 Tactials in Rhinos, 10 assault marines, Longstrike in hammerhead, stealth suits, 3 Devilfish, a riptide, Crisis commander, Pathfinders, 24 Firewarriors and lord knows how many drones!

Turn 1:

Turn one for the enemy began with a blistering shot from the Typhon, damaging the rapiers, killing a heavy bolter team and half a dozen Guardsmen. The enemy Spartan rolled forward and Longstrike's hammerhead glanced the Lancer with its Railgun. The riptide also opened up at the outriders - killing all 3. Aside from that they were content to wait for my advance.

++Casualties are sustainable...advance along the line if you please++
 In Return, the XVI charged forwards, jump packs screaming as they vied to reach the enemy first, aiming for the contemptors on the enemy's right flank. Behind them the grenadiers led my left wing in a grand advance across the table. Shells swiftly began to sail over their head, the combined weight of fire from army artillery destroying the Spartan and forcing Kharn and his Butchers to go on foot. The Lancer cracked off shots left right and centre, unfortunately to no avail, the autocannon teams also failing to do much.
++Confirmed, target destroyed sir!++
++One tank down, 5 more to go men!++
Turn 2:

The enemy's turn two began with World Eaters rhino's appearing on my flank, 10 assault marines deepstriking on my right and 20 rampagers deepstriking in the middle of the field, meanwhile Kroot and stealthsuits were denied atmospheric entry by the cunning work of my Officer of the Fleet. The Tacticals made themselves known immediately, individually unleashing fury of the legion on unsuspecting Kriegers nearby - Killing a Platoon Command and 3 Autocannon teams between the two squads. Again the Typhon opened fire with its main gun, instantly evaporating the Medusa emplacement and its crew in a ball of fire and death, collaterally killing another couple of guardsmen too! Tau firepower damaged the Lancer again, only glancing the predator as it rumbled along. The cowardly butchers didn't bother to move from their wrecked Spartan, contenting themselves to stare wildly at the assault marines of the XVI. The World Eater Contemptors opened up with their graviton guns against the Demolisher, managing to do one glancing hit against it's front armour. Tau Remora's also entered the field, killing a number of Guardsmen in a hail of shots.

The opening of my Turn two was the appearance of the terminators, teleporting to the very rear of Tau positions. Enraged by the sudden assault on their flank, guardsmen rushed towards the WE rhinos, krak grenades in hand and a Commissar General right behind them. The Assault Marines and Palatines on my left leapt towards the enemy contemptors, melta bombs ready for combat whilst behind them again came the steady advance of Krieg forces. Unfortunately for the 20 Rampagers, their power armour was no match for the Demolisher cannon, which claimed no less than 18 World Eaters in its fiery blast! The final two were finished off by the Master of Ordnance (just for good measure) and the basilisk crews put a glancing hit on the Typhon. After discovering the objective behind the Lancer allowed for Skyfire the tank reversed and opened up on a the Remoras - managing to kill one! Caesar and the Kriegers next to him opened up on the 10 assault marines, killing all 10 under weight of las and plasma shot.
++Terminators in position - lets purge these aliens!++
Combat this turn saw the XVI Assault marines get stuck in to the contemptors, damaging one in return for the loss of 3 men from squad Raphael. On my right, the Commissar General's melta bomb destroys the first Rhino - the blast from its explosion killing 5 Guardsmen and 4 marines. The second Rhino is also swiftly destroyed by the combined power of Krak Grenades thrown at it (the open top causing it to explode), killing 3 Guardsmen and 1 Marine in its blast.

++Hold them off the Flank boys!++
++Lord Captain, one of those flying plates has been destroyed.++
Turn 3:
Turn 3 saw the retort of enemy forces to XVI advances, beginning with the Typhon opening up at the Palatines! The explosion saw the death of all 5 Palatines, but luckily the fates intervened to prevent Ventrix's death. The remaining Remora opted to stay hovering and gave wounds to two of the mortar teams with it's burst cannons whilst the remaining Tau opted to fire at the terminators, killing six and accidently wounding the riptide (the alien's nova charge damaged its systems through overloading). Combat saw the two tactical squads charge their opposing Guardsmen, killing all remaining 12 Kriegers in a brutal display of combat. Across the field the Contemptors killed another 4 Assault Marines, this time from Squad Caligula, for the loss of one Contemptor.

In my turn the remaining XVI troops piled in towards the last contemptor, whilst across the field the Krieg on my right formed up a firing line and unleased a barrage of shots into the Tactical squad in front of them, killing one, the mortars behind them failing to do anything. 3 of the Red Butchers were promptly killed between the Basilisk and the Master of Ordnance. The Heavy Mortars did manage to glance one of the devilfish, however swiftly after this the Tau made a hurried retreat from the Battlefield. Wrapping up the game the Commissar General threw herself at the Tactical Squad in front of her, killing one and being completely butchered in return (a glorious death!) Whilst across the field the second contemptor was brought low by Ventrix and Squad Raphael.

++Hold then off men, we've almost won!++

++Cowards! The Alien flees our might!++
With the prompt disappearance of their allies, the remaining World Eaters fled the field in disarray, hounded  by the relentless XVI - victory to the glorious company! (Well a kind of Victory).

Notes: Considering the size of the battle I was surprised by my low casualty level (I'm used to losing about 50% of my force by turn 2) although this was partially to the reluctance of the Tau Commander to leave his table edge - content to hold his objectives and wait for me to enter range. The Typhon also wasn't as evil as I expected at this size of battle, killing less than my Leman Russ in total casualties.
Total casualties/people who didn't appear from reserve.

So yes - an entertaining battle all in all, but needs a rematch I think for the full game!
++Ben Out++


Sunday 30 March 2014

FW Open Day Pics

In lieu of having my models next to me to take pictures of - I'll show you guys the few  pics I got of the FW open day, and any Juicy tidbits along with them!

Titans of the Legio Fureans and Gryphonicus clash in a participation game!



The New Krios Venator

Both Krios Tanks together - looking very swish :3


I presume these are either prototypes or concept arts - Im not sure! :O

The Knight Lancer Model :3



Diorama of the Glorious EC facing devious Mechanicus Loyalists.




Lancers stride across the map - supporting the Thallax and Castellax in their advance.

A second Lancer to the front of the board works in a pincer movement.

A column of EC marines advance up the centre - aiming to halt the advance of the Mechanicum's HQ

Castellax face off against plasma specialists

Lancer up close! ^^

The Mechanicus leaders plough straight towards EC troops.

More Castellax face off against terminators at the top of the map.

Those lovely EC specialists (I can't help but love taking pictures)

New Falchion Super Heavy!



Conversion kits for Iron Warriors, Alphas and Nightlords were all on show.


Terror squads!

More Night Lords!


These beauties are the new Gorgon Terminators. They look amazeballs!

Speaking with their designer, he pointed out that Iron Hands often developed new armours, hence why the gorgons look like they're wearing Indomitus Terminator Armour rather than normal legion gear.
 The Gorgons will hopefully be out in 2/3 months at most!
Thallax special weapons!

Razorback turrets - may actually buy one idk.

This was quite a gorgeous Salamanders force ^^

HAIL THE WARMASTER!

Seriously though - this model is amazing.


The New Siege Automata

Combi bolters!

All the close combat wepaons they have designed so far!

This is the Personal army of FW resident painter...




They had this diorama - Im so glad I got to see it in the flesh/resin.


Stoic EC defending their posts against the ugly Iron Hands.

Filthy Loyalists! Although rather pretty in a cool, metallic way...

So there we are - I'll have some more models to show when I return to my flat later in the week. Hope you all enjoyed some of these and I insist you check out some of the others who went (who have much better cameras).

++Ben Out++