The mega-update: Four months worth of hobby and gaming.....

I'm back!!!

Hi all, its been way too long, almost four months by my count- my apologies. I’ve been off work for about that long, which would normally mean a lot more activity and posting on here, but unfortunately real life gets in the way- have been on holidays away from home, been really sick on and off and have had some family related interstate trips as well, so there’s been little time for blog updates. Oh, and my pc screen recently did a very uncooperative ‘blank out, pop, and produce smoke’, meaning that I now have this machine hooked up to a 42’ TV screen- trust me its not as great as it sounds- glaringly bright, everything is annoyingly large… first world problems, right? Hahaha! 

So without further ado, here is what’s been going on since my late January pre-Cancon post…

Cancon

All in all I got to play seven of the eight games on offer, having to head home midway through the third day due to our house having received some damage in a huge storm the night before (had to meet up with people to have it assessed), however this didn't have a huge impact overall, as I was struggling to get a draw most of the time.  I know that my list is one that is very situational and can be blown off the table with enough firepower, and that's what happened- I had a fair few games where the cover was inadequate, which was compounded by my lack of long range firepower. Aggressively taking objectives is the easy part for Assault Marines, but holding it can be hard with a lack of ranged firepower or backline support. My army units were almost all designed to hit hard in close combat/short range firefights, at which they excelled time and again, but at range they got mangled. I was tabled in three of my games (one was a very close run thing- my opponent had only one unit left), however I had a really great time! My opponents were all generally good fun to play against, with a mix of experienced and newer generals, and I was able to use my battles against them to try out new things with my list- tactics and unit combos mainly.

The last lot of shots pre- Cancon:

Went with helmeted heads in the end for my priests, as I was going to keep the white to a minimum I'd need them as a focal point. Turned out looking great IMHO.

Librarians. Both force weapons are very basic for now, but work! Custom jump pack turned out cool as well :)

Here’s a few pics from the battles at Cancon, with some details (where I can actually remember what happened!)

Bring the pain!! Army set up for best painted (or players choice?? i don't remember...)

First game, Vs Iron Warriors. Bikes take cover..

The Iron Warriors and their cultists minions.

Warpsmith Vs Sergeant surrounded by flaming Furioso and Drop Pod (my flickering flame markers). Sergeant almost killed him before eating power-axe! Karma got the chaos scum though- for his efforts the Warpsmith was turned into a Spawn!

Vs. White Scars, second game. Ran rampant in CC, and the Furioso carved his way through the backline.

Libby Vs Korsorro Khan in an epic Warlords duel. Force Axe eventually got the Khan with Instant Death after three turns of back and forth combat!

Str5 on the charge (with a Priest) vs rear armour 10 = boom! Barely used a meltagun all tourney...

Only pic I took of game three, Vs. Eldar. Most enjoyable game of the tourney. A bloody hard fought draw this one, loads of tactical manouvering, close range firefights and vicious hand to hand.

Game four, vs Necrons. Beat down a Destroyer Lord and a C'tan Shard (Nightbringer), but got tabled eventually... exploding C'tan took out my last Terminator funnily enough.

Ugh... game five, or 'how to suck the fun out of a game. Tau in a corner behind an all-covering Aegis line. Shitty and broken. Game five was not fun, and not because I lost (badly) but because it didnt feel like playing 40K, more like 'here's what the Internet says is 'teh awesomez'. Lame.

Game six, vs Grey Knights with IG allies. My opponent didnt like when I threw a Furioso at his backline and blended 10 GKs and two IG command squads. Minor loss to me, but was happy when my Termy Librarian and Inquisitor Coteaz both died simultaneously in their challenge. I laughed so hard at that, my opponent not so much :P

I missed game seven  so this is game eight- i'm in a table corner, my opponent in the other, we both have to get to the circle marked up at the top to evacuate units... all jump/fast/mounted in SRaven/Drop pod? I got a near flawless 'win' for this, but it wasn't really a fun game... just weird.

So, Cancon was good fun- some of the missions were a bit hard for me, and I think my future lists need some long range firepower and backline campers- sniper scouts, drop-pod Tactical Squads or the like. I'm going to keep playing with this at this points level and see what I feel is best before any new purchases.


 The Big Game III- Goodgames Canberra, March 2013

I heard about the Big Game III through a mate, and was intrigued in the possibility of being part of a game that contributed globally towards the end result for either Imperial + Allies or 'the forces of Disorder'. So with this is mind I pulled all the stops out and completed the basic structure of my Warlord Battle Titan!! Even in flat grey undercoat it was a sight to behold, and certainly drew some *seriously unprintable* comments when I first brought it in the door of the LGS. There was a few issues on the day though- one being that the tables were only 4ft wide, meaning I was easily assaultable and the carapace weapons were limited in their use/minimum range. The other issue was that my car had been giving me huge dramas on the way to the event, and I chose to try getting it home at the lunch break- it gave up halfway home and I waited an hour for a towtruck. Once I got home I wasn't then able to return in time for the end of the game and could only get there afterwards to retrieve all my stuff. From what I could tell it acquitted itself well, I erased a jetbike-mounted Seer council with a single Volcano Cannon blast, and stomped some terminators into paste, but a FW Daemon Prince thingy (Agrath??) eventually pierced the Deathwing/BA Terminator screen at its feet and wrecked it. Still, I love building things that people reckon are too hard/impossible to build etc.

On my completed 6x4 urban road boards- dominate!!!!!!!

Deployed for the Big Game. 

 

Long table deployment shot

Belial and Chaplain with 10-strong Deathwing charge forwards. Note- Agrath is incoming!

Thats a big titan...

Necromunda- welcome to the Underhive!!

About four weeks ago me and the boys started up a Necromunda campaign, with six gangs in total- My Orlocks, and some Van Saar, Delaque, Goliaths, Spyrers and Enforcers- a very diverse range of original gangs and later 'Outlanders' gangs.

So far we've all managed to get a few games in, and I've been lucky to not have much in the way of injuries. Several of the other gangs have had multiple deaths or even roster changes (Alan's Enforcers notably- they keep rolling up Ld increases, and the leaders all leave!). After a couple more games, my guys- the Tunnel Stalkers- should be getting in another Heavy- maybe another Heavy Stubber, but i'd really like a Heavy Bolter if the creds are there.

The Tunnel Stalkers, led by 'Hitman' Harlon (Dan Abnett fans may get the reference...)

Harlon started out as a Catachan Sgt. Added greenstuff t-shirt, shoulderpads, hair and tabard, its passable... in-game he's got D3 extra attacks on the charge, hits at Str 5 with his chainsword and has carapace armour, so a bit of a badass!

Some of my purpose-built Necromunda terrain- will be useful for 40k as well.

The majority of this new stuff is made from foamcore board- lightweight, strong and versatile.

+

WIP cargo containers- I'd like to make a whole bunch of these (at least a dozen) for use in 40K as well- fighting in a cargo depot or starport for example.

So far our campaign has been very enjoyable, although I'm somewhat sad now with the recent news that GW has decided to can the Specialist Games line. But that's how it goes- as long as 40k continues I'm never really going to bemoan GW that much (I dont really anyhow!).



Dark Angels rebuild/ how to be totally crazy....

So I was lucky enough to get a terrain prize at Cancon, giving me a $50 voucher for a gaming company, and decided to finally lay my hands on the Dark Angels Codex. Once in my possession I had a really quick look and just put it on the shelf, as I had a load of other things being done at the time. Only recently have I had the time and inclination to sit down and read it from front to back, after which I have come to the conclusion that my army needs resurrecting, both tactically and aesthetically.

My original Dark Angels (power armour anyhow) were not dissimilar to the current GW Eavy Metal scheme, being a fairly dark green with mild highlights, however along the way I somehow decided that snot green bright highlights on all raised surfaces was the go. Why, I am not sure, but for a while I was happy with it. They were a bit too bright for 'typical' Dark Angels but looked okay to me. However with the change to the GW paint line I realised that any new power armour or vehicle units wouldnt match, as Dark Angel Green is a totally different colour to the new Caliban Green. Caliban is a darker shade that I think actually suits the First Legion really well, so I resolved a while ago to redo my army once I had the Codex (and the inclination..). So, I tried my hand at repainting over the green armour of my tactical and assault marines, with an Abbadon Black basecoat (thinned) to bring it back to a dark base. Got 5 marines done, all resplendant in their new smooth Caliban Green, but retaining their nice robes and boltguns, and I was fairly happy...

However, when going back for a quick check of something, i picked one up and where my finger lightly touched the dark green it just wiped off like it wasnt even there, showing the Snot Green underneath . So, what I came to realise was that a repaint was not going to work, meaning a complete dissassembly, paint strip and rebuild. 

Wish this had worked- repainted in new Caliban Green on the left. Just didnt stick though :(

Whilst a large undertaking, this isnt a bad thing- I'd long been thinking about re-basing the army, which I now realise wouldn't have happened unless I disassembled them all- some of the bases were that solidly glued to the feet that they tore holes out of the bases instead of the bases just snapping off from the minis. I even had to cut and sand some of the feet until the plastic of the old bases were no longer there- a horrible job to do! So for now my Dark Angels are sitting in a large container filled with Simple Green concentrate, awaiting a stripback. All 30 Tactical Marines and 10 Assault Marines went in- they'll all be rebirthed as Tactical Squads, as I have more than enough assault units in my Deathwing and Ravenwing- the former being finally completed with some paintjob updates (thankfully the paint does stick to them!) and the latter, my Ravenwing bike squad, having been filed, smoothed and rebuilt with new eBay sourced handlebars, boltguns and RW fairings.

Sigh... at least i can start fresh again. Got ten scrubbed back bare, another 30 to go- then arms, weapons etc....

Looking a lot better than last time I had them up here! Glad I didnt convert them all into Blood Angel bikes (as per my original plan). Ive actually now completed the rebuild of all the riders, minus a few missing RW shoulderpads. New rounded-end bases are miles better than the previous fantasy cavalry ones I was using.

I've also purchased some new goodies for the Dark Angels- the Deathwing Command Squad box, the Ravenwing Command Squad and the Dark Talon/Nephilim flyer box. The DW command box is truly inspiring- I'll be using the components to build a squad of 5 DW Knights, however there is more than enough remaining torsos, heads, and weapons to build another squad of either 'regular' (albeit ornate) Deathwing OR a DW Command Squad- i just need five sets of Termy legs (got three already). Not too sure which of these two I want first, suffice to say that I will be using the Plasma Cannon and Cyclone Missile Launcher options included in the box somewhere in my force. The RW command box will be turned into a squad of three Ravenwing Black Knights, who will in essence spearhead my main RW force, and I'm still tossing up whether to run a Nephilim (mild duties fighter craft) or a Dark Talon (dedicated support flyer to supplement ground forces). Both are cool looking vehicles, so im most likely going to buy and build another later on in the alternating setup to whatever I choose for this one.               

Conclusion!

So that's how it stands at the moment- I've got a bucket-load of 40K, Necromunda and terrain things going on, and when I can find the time I'm getting a lot done. Im hoping to get back into more regular post updates, especially with my Dark Angels progress, as I'll be taking them along to Wintercon in mid July (7 weeks from now).

Until next time, thanks for looking!
Tempest 

Pulling back from the brink, and flaming wreckage markers!!

Its been a while now, a very long while so my sincerest apologies to anyone who has been waiting for a blog update. I've been relatively MIA of late for two reasons, one positive and one negative, and i thought i'd share them here to show the kind of interruptions that can befall us gamers and ruin the best laid hobby plans.

Absence reasons...

My 'positive' reason is the landscaping of my house, chiefly a set of stairs running from the top of our driveway to the bottom through a previously unused section of garden. I can say proudly that all measurements were done with my trusty GW measuring tape, which now (unfortunately) refuses to spool up closed without persuasion, has some missing measurement lines and generally looks really beat up. Might be time for a new one soon, or i'll just pull it apart and have a tinker as I seem do with everything else that needs fixing!! At the time of posting this i have only to secure the pavers on top of the steps and i'm done. I have it on good authority that its equivalent to a $5000+ job if I hired landscapers to do it, and we've only spent around $500.  Worth it seeing how its hard enough for me to walk up our steep driveway, let alone my 6 month pregnant wife!

And onto the negative... about three weeks ago I sort of cracked it, like really bad, regarding the hobby. I think I was having an off day/week, and decided that I would sell everything. My Dark Angels, Deathskulls, Ultramarines, Blood Angels, Imperial Guardsmen, my work-in-progress scratchbuilt Warlord Titan and Marauder bomber, all my codexes, rulebooks, templates, dice, terrain, gameboards and storage cases. For some reason that now escapes me I thought that selling it all would be good for me. I had it all up on eBay, had loads of offers (not for the whole lot mind you) but I eventually pulled it back down. So why did I do it? In the time since then I've had a chance to take a step back and look at the reasons why- and here they are.

1. Lack of time / availability for the hobby: The average age of my gaming mates would be around 28, and hence we are all relatively busy people with family, relationships, careers and other pursuits to keep us busy. We dont have the luxury of just getting home from school like the younger guys and being able to get a game in, likewise our weekends are filled with family, sports, social and work commitments. This is most definately a good thing, as it means we arent all introverted hobby weirdos but it means that getting a game, painting session or get together that much harder. My reasoning was that i didnt have time for the game anymore, especially seeing how we're expecting a baby in the next 13 weeks.  
2. My level of interest in the game varies to other people: Now I stress that this is not a negative, but its definately a factor as to why I (temporarily) wanted out. Around 90% of my gaming buddies play other gaming systems, such as DnD and Dark Heresy as well as online games like BF3. I dont have anything of the like- not for lack of funds or interest, but time (as per the above point). So where I mainly put my creative time and energies into 40K, my mates are involved across numerous other games, campaigns, online matches or tournaments. I can tell you from first hand experience that its easy to bounce from one point of interest to the other from week-to-week (or even day-to-day!), being that building and modifying cars are my other main interest in life... so sometimes people are engrossed in something else and wont be keen for game. Again, I stress that this is in no way a negative, its just how it his.
3. The immensity of what I still have left to complete: Right at this time I have 35 'new' Dark Angels in either black undercoat or with base colours applied and in several assembly pieces each to help with painting. Thats also in addition to the average 90 percent completion of all the painted units that im gaming with that still need doing. Same again with my Deathskull Orks- all 80 infantry/ footslogging models have had their skin base colours applied and blue clan markings, but thats it. To just put down all that green skin colour (in a fast application but great coverage thinned Foundation "Gnarloc Green" no less) took me 8 hours. The remaining armour, weapons, helmets and details for these guys will easily consume another 40+ hours, even when using more time-saving Foundation Paints and Citadel Washes. And there's also the 40K scale Warlord Titan, who is about 60% complete and has racked up around 110 hours in planning and assembly time. I still dont think he'll be done by the end of this year, although I reckon I could happily finish him off given a week off work! (Which wont happen).
4. Stagnation regarding my current armies: While the Orks have a relatively recent Codex, the Brother-Marines of the first Legion are still stuck with a codex from early 2007 that is now massively overshadowed by the more recent power-armour tomes. Yes, there has been FAQs to even stuff out- we now get 3+ Storm Shield saves and two shots from a Cyclone Missile Launcher, but not much else to even out the playing field. The points values and squad size and wargear restrictions are the hardest to work with, as most power armoured forces can now bring more to the table for less, although, I can happily say that my breadth of experience with the Dark Angels codex and forces means that I can usually drag out at least a draw against the more competitive list builds out there. I suppose my final gripe on the subject is that the newer codexes have a lot more toys to fill your lists with- I want Thunderfire Cannons, specialised Veteran Squads and more Dreadnought variants but its just a waiting game. And so for now my current DA squad buildups have been limited to the core elements that will not change- tactical and devastator squads.

So thats the main bunch of reasons for my little meltdown and near-miss regarding full hobby sellout/meltdown. In hindsight I can see that I just jumped in making a snap decision to burn all my bridges and move on and that I would have regretted this move immensely had it all sold. Much better that my minis spend their time between games locked up safely in a display cupboard/case than end up in someone else's posession at a massive loss to what i've put in.

So yeah, i was going to sell all this... and more!

Anyhow, moving on to some positive things :)

Flaming Wreckage Markers
For those of you who saw the writeup regarding the 50,000pt Apocalypse that was held late November last year you might remember seeing and hearing about the "flickering LED candle" flaming wreckage markers I built for the event. I was sick of just putting a dice on the roof to show the tank/dread/unit as wrecked, and had recently viewed a couple of forum threads and youtube videos telling you how to make these up, so in a flurry of post-Apoc creativity I gathered all the items up and got building. The results are fantastic to be honest! I'll have a proper tutorial up soon with step-by-step details and pics, but for now here's a few showcasing the flaming markers, as well as a video showing their flickering effect as well.

Burning a Baneblade, looks convincing doesnt it!

An Ork Battlewagon has taken a direct hit- the boyz are now toast!

Everything is on fire! this kind of grouping is great to represent bombing runs.

Apoc: Killa Kan vs Drop-pod = flames and wreckage

A lot of things are on fire in this shot, deep into the third turn of the 50K Apoc battle

And here's a video, showing how they look in all their flickery glory! (And here's a direct link if the video below doesnt work for you: http://s11.photobucket.com/albums/a186/LC-006/?action=view&current=IMG_1049-1.mp4)

So thats all for now, as always i appreciate your thoughts and feedback.

Cheers,

Tempest :)

40,000 points of devastation! Apoc Battle Report

Well, it finally happened- on the 26th of last month we finally ran the Apocalypse I’ve been talking about for a while now with seven players in total and a thrown together Ork army being run by Adam and I to even things up. The players and their respective armies were as follows:

Colin- Daemons

Ash- Necrons/Chaos/Renegade Marines

Ross- Hawk Marines

Alan- Imperial Guard/ Space Wolves

And on the other side of the table-

Adam- Imperial Guard (Armoured Company)

Brendan- Grey Knights and Eldar

Me- Dark Angels

Shared Army- Goff and Deathskull Orks

The game was run without any objectives to capture, as we were using straight up Victory Points which proved to be relatively painless as everyone was required to provide two half-point costs listed against each and every unit on their list (including vehicles and transports) so that points could be given to the player that earned them for taking a squad to less than half starting models/ immobilised for vehicles, and also for wiping out/destroying the unit.

Terrain was laid out in a relatively open manner, with Adam’s landing pad being the centrepiece for the game right in between both forces. The table deployment line was set with standard Apoc rules using the scatter dice and a line to the diagonal opposite table edge, with the ping-pong table side having a very large deployment area and the grey table side a much smaller and more compact area- my team bid 30 minutes for deployment vs 4 minutes for the other boys. They decided to take the larger deployment zone and they put down what they could in four very frantic minutes, with the exception of Ash who was on his way and would deploy in the second turn. On his behalf though, his allies had placed his (made by me!) Doomsday Device up on the deployment line where it could cause havoc. Never let it be said that a flickering LED candle inserted into a ping-pong ball, inserted into a plastic screw container is not threatening...

Our team put down everything except for my Dark Angels (sniper scouts did deploy though), all our flyers and Brendan’s Eldar grav-tanks. The main battleline was comprised of two Stompas- each with a Kustom Force Field Big Mek- being placed 2 feet apart, with a full 111- strong Ork “Green Tide” Apocalypse Formation in between them- being infantry they were covered by the KFF bubble giving them a 5+ cover save from ranged attacks! In front of each Stompa was a mob of Kanz, Nob-filled Battlewagons beside them, and a Deff Dread in front of the left Stompa. Behind this front line was row upon row of Leman Russ Battletanks and Demolishers, Chimeras, Heavy Weapons Squads and two Shokk Attack Meks- one in the bamboo trees, the other on the extreme right in the stone fortress with a bunch of Burna boys, and backing all these units up was two Baneblades on the right and a formation of Basilisks on the very back table edge.

Our opposition had a full complement of Daemons on the left side of their deployment line, in a “Tetragon of Darkness” Apoc Formation, Daemon meaning that whilst the key Greater still lived, all units in this Formation were extremely hard to see/hit, as all our shooting at them would be using the Night- Fighting rules. Ross’s Hawk Marines anchored the middle and the right flank with Tactical-Squad- filled Rhinos, and several Land Raiders, with a small Assortment of Space Wolves, Leman Russ’s and a Baneblade, with a scary back-line made of Basilisks and a single Deathstrike Vortex Missile Formation (Alan plays for keeps in Apoc!)

And so without further ado, here is the turn by turn rundown of the incredible destruction, heroics and sacrifice that made this such a phenomenal battle!

Turn 1:

•With all launch protocols satisfied and with the Lord Commisar’s approval the mighty Vortex Missile flies skywards on a trail of fire. Arcing downwards it explodes next to an Ork Stompa, destroys an IG Command Squad in their Chimera as well as vacuuming up a Battlewagon with its full complement of “Deathstar” Nobs and their Warboss! The resulting Vortex template that remains spends the rest of the game wandering around randomly eating Leman Russ tanks, scaring famed Chaos Warlords and blocking unit movement.

•A squad of screamers breaches the disruption field and destroys 3 artillery vehicles on their next turn.

•The Dark Angel Sniper Scouts joined up with the Ratlings when infiltrating deep in the enemy backline to harass the Deathstrike and Basilik artillery guns and the squads guarding them, with an unofficial contest starting up to see who would make the most kills.

•The Goff stompa poured out more than 70 shots from the psycho-dakka blasta, killing Ku’gath Plaguefather and nullifying the tetragon of darkness. The Deathskull Stompa followed suit with 60 plus shots into the tactical squads in front of it, wiping out two of the three and sending the surviving Sgt fleeing in his Rhino in the next turn.

•Seeing the main landing pad in front of them as a hindrance, the Linebreaker Formation of Vindicators annihilate the installation, leaving only a smoking flaming set of craters, opening up lines of fire and setting the stage for the most brutal of close combats.

•Commissar Yarrick and an entire platoon hid away inside their tanks for an entire game! What a Hero...

•A unit of Deathwing teleports deep behind enemy lines to shoot up the basilisks, blowing up one.

•Due to limitations on deployment space, the Marine Hawk Landraiders (particularly the Terminus Ultra) and the Razorback were all out of range in the first turn – a tactical disadvantage as the first turn was theirs to fire away. This meant that five twin-linked lascannons and three single lascannons missed a turn of firing with a large mechanised Ork horde closing in.

Turn 2:

•The Marauder Bomber lines up its run but is forced to disengage due to the heavy screen of AA fire streaming up in its sector.

•The Deathknell Orbital Strikforce lands to the right of the Goff Stompa, a full complement of 50 Terminators and a Dreadnought.  They were initially targeting the middle of hte Green Tide, but were sent off course by the Disruptor Beacon just behind the Ork lines.

•The Last member of the Platoon Command squad guarding the artillery up the back takes a Rending shot through each eye from the Ratlings.

•Sly Marbo appears to deliver some C4 pizza to the Deathwing, killing four of them. He is then shot into pieces of dogmeat by the Stormbolter of a vengeful DA Terminator Chaplain.

•An IG Veteran squad wander out of their Valkyrie, fail to hit anything except TKing half their own squad with a demo charge, but finally manage to destroy a Leman Russ in assault before being virtually wiped out.

•A lone Dark Angel Predator Annihilator rolls up on the right side table edge to engage Abbadon’s Land Raider but fails to penetrate with its main lascannon turret. It was then swiftly destroyed by a swarm of scarabs that ate through its armour and reduced it to a smoking hole-riddled hulk.

•The DOOMSDAY DEVICE (must be capitalised!) becomes “active” but doesn’t bring any effect out just yet. Unreasonable demands are made that our team hands over all our Blue Cheese or the Chaos Lord will visit ruin upon our world. We resolve to just destroy the DD and hang onto our delicious dairy products... 

•The Orks start laughing and pointing to the sky, where several massive flaming shapes can be seen- giant asteroids pulled into orbit by tracktor beams. However the massive Roks miss the battlefield by a wide margin, denying the greenskins the devastating strike they were hoping for.

•The Ravenwing Landspeeder deepstrikes next to a Baneblade and opens up with its Multi-Melta, destroying the super-heavy’s main gun before being destroyed by retaliatory Leman Russ fire.

•Azrael, Belial, the Terminator Chaplain and a Squad of Deathwing engage the Bloodcrushers, supported by a mob of Stormboyz and a Dark Angel Assault Squad led by a Company Master. The  Bloodcrushers are wiped out with only a few casualties from the Assault Marine squad

•The 100+ strong Green Tide Ork mob smashes into the daemons in the cratered ruins of the landing pad, dealing out over 350 attacks on the charge to the three units they engage, as all of them are in range to get their attacks and only a few boyz are lost in to the Daemons first strikes! The Daemons are severely depleted but there are more queuing up behind them for a go... the ladz care not- WAAAGH!!!

•Another swarm of scarabs eat through the armour of one of the Baneblades, reducing it to 0 AV and the tank is destroyed.

•The Dark Angel Assault Marines are caught in a blast from the nearby Baneblade’s Demolisher cannon, wiping them all out except for the Jump-pack Company Master who survives thanks to his Iron Halo. Realising that the warmachine is out of his league he goes hunting infantry instead.

•The Daemon Prince and Greater Daemon assault one of the Shokk attack Meks and his burna boyz, turning the mek into a Chaos Spawn in the process. They are only destroyed later on by the timely intervention of two Grey Knight Dreadknights. 

Turn 3:

•The Dark Angel Company Master leaps into the central bunker to assault and wipeout a squad of Long Fangs, but only just survives with one wound remaining.

•The techpriest enginseer charges in against the scarabs to save the second baneblade, but gets eaten. Its all those delicious augmetics... nom nom nom. Thats 1000VPs earnt by the one small swarm alone!

•The DOOMSDAY DEVICE sends out two giant beams of death, striking both Stompas like hammer-blows- the Deathskull machine is immobilised and has its Deathcannon destroyed, and the Goff Stompa is reduced to two structure points. In the Ork’s turn the Deathskull Mek waltzes out onto the arm and beats it with his wrench until it powers up again.

•The Dark Angel Devastators and Whirlwind were deployed in a position behind the main Ork battleline waiting for the expected Daemon breakthrough, but never had any chance to hit enemy units as the swirling combat in the centre continued on for three full turns as the Orks refused to break and just continued crushing everything thrown at them.

•The Goff Stompa charges in and carves a Chaos Fellblade in half, the explosion taking out several nearby renegades and Necron warriors. It is finally destroyed by a squad of Terminators, its own explosion taking one of them out.

•The three armoured sentinels behind the Deathskull Stompa open fire on the Linebreaker Vindicator squadron, destroying one and stunning the others with one round of shooting, achieving a result where the rest of their comrades had failed previously.

Turn 4 (Last Turn- time constraints):

• The demon princes that got scattered on deepstrike arrival end up killing the chapter master of the Grey Knights and destroying a Stormraven.

• Azrael, Belial and the remaining Deathwing engaged Logan Grimnar and his Wolfguard, with both sides fighting to a draw as the game ended.

•A Squad of Veterans jump from their valkyrie, shooting the baneblade with three meltas and destroying it, stealing the VPs from the Fire Dragons who were too busy reloading their guns!

•The Dark Angel jump-pack Chapter Master attacks a nearby Landraider, strapping a meltabomb onto its hull and immobilising it in the explosion.

•Massed Leman Russ, Demolisher, Conqueror and Chimera firepower finally wipes out the last of the Deathknell-Formation Terminators

•Abaddon and his squad deigned to grace the pitiful mortals with his presence, leaving his Landraider finally! However, a Shokk Attack gun and some IG heavy weapons teams culled his entire squad and knocked him down to just one wound. He also spent a nervous turn watching the Vortex template disappear and then reappear beside him.

•Changeling saving Ku’ros Fateweaver from being charged by some nobs by making them shoot a Killa Kan instead.

•The deff dread in the centre loses a combat arm and its skorcha, then advancing between two burning vehicles to destroy a necron squad in close combat.

•The Marauder finally makes an appearance, having previously turned back due to long-range Ack Ack fire, it drops its full complement of bombs on a squad of Necrons Warriors and some Daemons, blowing them into small pieces.

•One lone Tzeentch Flamer survives two rounds of combat with the grey knights squad that killed the rest of its squad, beating all the odds!

The Result:

So, the final result was a win for my team, with 11,220 VPs, and the opposing team ran up 8271 VPs, a very decisive victory no matter how you look at it! 

Photos!

Here’s an assortment of pictures from the day, showing the insane scale and destruction that a 40,000pt battle entails:



Our team's deployment line

110 Boyz and a Warboss- Greentide!

The Linebreaker Formation annihilates the landing pad!

Deathknell Orbital Strikeforce teleports and drops in after a massive lance strike to clear the ground.

Da Ladz suss out the competition, but ultimately decide to go Daemon bashing! 

Necrons and Chaos deploy after being initially delayed.

Abbadon declares his intentions to all and sundry, presses the big red button and the Doomsday Device powers up! The Bloodthirster appears impressed!

New-codex scarabs vs Baneblade- 600VPs to the small metal swarm after eating the superheavy to pieces.

The Greentide about to crash into the Daemons, with the two Stompas hosing everything with their Supa Gatlers

Flyers strike deep behind our lines

the Kan decides to destroy a Drop pod as a last act of defiance before the Terminator's crush it to bits! (My flaming wreckage markers worked so good- flickering LED candle hot-glued inside pillow stuffing, with black spray on the outside!) 

The stompa scythes the Chaos Baneblade "Storm Of Chaos" into ruin! 

The Bloodcrushers are assaulted by the Dark Angels and a small unit of Stormboyz, whilst the Wraithlords and Deff Dread advance on the Doomsday Device.

The Assault Marines, Dark Angel Lords and Deathwing plan their next move.

The Marauder finally appears, weaving through the smoke-filled skies to deliver a huge payload to the Necrons and Daemons below. The very left flaming wreckage is the remains of the Linebreaker squadron.

The raw numbers...

And a couple of graphs showing the end VP results- the battle for MVP on the other team went down to the wire and was only won by Alan by a margin of 39 points!! And its obvious to see why my team won this battle- the Orks came storming out of the gate from the start and kept pouring on the death, culminating in a massive 1700+ VPs haul on the third turn alone (which is more than my Dark Angels scored all day!)

So what next?

Well, seeing how a lot of people are going to be tied up over the next 4-6 weeks with Christmas, New Years and things like Cancon its looking unlikely that there will be another Apoc until at least mid- to - late February. This in itself isnt a bad thing, as a few more people should be available to participate in the next game, and the returning players should have that extra time to complete new units or paint up what they have. It also gives me some time to build a nice shiny centrepiece terrain structure for the next game, i'm thinking of a large Manufactorum or Ork Fortress.