Back into it after the holidays, we had our follow up Slow Grow! This time around players got 750 points to spend and we had quite a few games going at once!
Last report I gave I went over the only set of battles taking place. This time around we had too many to keep up with just one as I bounced from table to table. In fact, at the end I was the spare army for an odd number of players and got to participate myself! More into that later.
Today we had several fine commanders. Charles brought his Orks, Travis his Khorne, Brent his Tau, Alex bounced between his Custodes and Eldar, Max brought his Death Korp of Krieg, and I brough my Cadian Shock in to be used as needed.
Our first set of games consisted of the Custodes brining three models verses the Orks. In A4R, the Custodes are truly the elite agents of the Emperor and can easily run around 200 points per model. They began by playing The VIP, needing to kill each others Warlords.
This is an introduction session and will later be introducing full objectives.
While this was going on, our Tau player prepared to take on the World Eaters.
The World Eaters held Kharn safely inside his Rhino, which began engaging things in Melee. Unable to shred it, the Hammerhead Gunship was forced to get into Melee and ram it repeatedly to force him out of safety.
Eventually, the entire thing lead to an all out brawl, with terrible Chaos rolls helping Tau to win! Kharn the Betrayer claimed more Berzerker kills than the Tau did, which helped immensely.
He did, however, survive! Melting his own face with a Plasma Pistol did not do him any favors though.
The Ork vs Custode game went very fast with the few models to move around. As such, a second game happened while the Tau vs Khorne was resolved.
Afterwards, we shook up player matches. Eldar took on Tau with a game of The Hill. Needing to claim a central objective, this was going to be a short range shootout.
The Tau made a series of brutal presses with pule fire, but the Eldar player quietly scored 3 points without his opponent realizing it, winning the game! Using proper Eldar distractions and decoys, he pulled an excellent victory despite getting nearly wiped off the table.
On the other table, we had Orks vs Khorne. Lots of melee units got into the thick of it. The Orks did a powerful sweep, clearing the forces of Chaos out!
After those two games were done, we played The Doom. In this scenario, a wall of lethal force (such as intense radiation) is sweeping over the battlefield. Only problem is, you don’t know which one until after all deployment steps are done! It moves in at 12″ at the end of each Round.
Orks went against Tau! By now, the Tau player was realizing how much fire power his Stealth Suits could bring to bare. He Infiltrated behing the Orks and began mowing down Greenskins with pulse fire. They were quickly caught by the death field. The game ended in a draw with a handful of models crammed on the opposite end of the field.
Meanwhile, Khorne and Eldar raced from their own death fields. A unit of Jackhals found themselves to far to the side and were completely caught! This battle resulted in a draw as well with barely any models left at point blank range.
The game started with some brutal fire from the Reapers, leaving the Chaos Rhino with 1 Wound left! It made a miracle Recovery roll and managed to get forward, only to die by a shuriken round later.
While the last two games mentioned were wrapping up, Max arrived! Quickly we took to the field doing some Imperial Guard vs Imperial Guard action. His Death Korp of Krieg brough their potent Mars Alpha Stygies Pattern Leman Russ Vanquisher!
I got to play this game instead of bouncing around constantly, so I have more inside scoop on this fight.
I deployed my Cadian Shock in a block of infantry thanks to their Platoon rules. Backing them up was a special weapon squad loaded with Flamers and the Platoon Command Squad. A Chimera with the Lord Commissar and a squad of Veterans rolled on their immediate flank.
The mission: The Hill. Secure it at all costs!
The Krieg spread out a bit on their Deployment, ready to catch any sudden moves by the Chimera. However, role playing Assault Company Alpha Platoon, I went straight up the middle with the intent to crush him using weight of numbers.
The first volley by the Krieg took a hefty toll. It was however early enough into the game that not everything was in range. First Rank Fire, Second Rank Fire on their Lucius Pattern Lasguns against light infantry is very effective! The Vanquisher put its titan killing shell straight through the Chimera, passing clean through the other side and Disabled a Lasgun.
Moving up, The Cadian Shock maintained formation and went to the next hurdle of cover, firing into the Infantry Squad on their right flank. Two survived. The Chimera joined fire on them and prepared to outmaneuver the Russ.
Blows were traded, and the Chimera then suffered a shell passing through the driver’s compartment. He survived, mostly, but the Chimera was moving rather slow. Quite annoyingly, his two guardsmen stubbornly refused to die from an awful lot of shots and prevented his push through the bamboo shoots.
After having took a Plasma Pistol through the front, the Chimera was forced to decided where to put its front armor. I ultimately decided to put the front towards the Leman Russ to prevent Heavy Bolters tearing through the side with volume of fire. Afterall, the Sergeant’s pistol would eventually overheat, right?
I fired Krak and Hunter Killer Missiles, getting a penetration. Minor damage ensued. The Krieg Veterans were cut down by point blank lasgun fire, leaving the Lord Commissar with just one Wound!
The Krieg responded by firing a potent volley of fire supported by orders, and absolutely hammered my combined squad. Heavy Bolters, Heavy Flamer, and the command squad reduced it to a mere 1 Sergeant and 3 Flamers!
The Chimera was blown to bits after taking out the pesky two guys. Flamers moved up and swept the left flank squad clean as well as the Command Squad. Everyone else piled in and swatted at the Leman Russ, but I botched what few weapons could hurt it except for my Lord Commissar’s Meltabomb.
The match ended at that point, being the end of Turn 5. Overall, a very good session with new faces and new strategies learned! Next match will be 1000 points and will take place in the Monett Missouri area around the end of February.
Highlights from the games include Kharn murdering tons of his own Berzerkers. Jakhals taking out a Custode with no support, and then annihilating themselves a moment later. The Hammerhead Gunship ramming a Rhino, Berzerkers, Cultists, and Eldar because it just couldn’t shoot things sometimes and needed to force units. The pair of nigh indestructible Kriegsman. The Krieg Lord Commissar surviving multiple Flamers on Overwatch before getting butt stroked. The Krieg Sergeant that put three holes in my Chimera with his Plasma Pistol (one from the front!).
Overall an excellent experience. The Scoreboard stands as follows:
Charles Gentry – Orks. League Points 8 (Previous Points. Showed up, supported brick and mortar store, took the time to help explain the mechanics and strategies to a new player and let him bounce ideas off of him). Wins 2 (used for tie breaking only).
Brent Auzat – Tau. League Points 7 (Previous Points. Showed up, supported brick and mortar, was willing to work with players as they tried new stuff out, tied longest drive). Wins 3.
Alex Bernau – Eldar and Custodes. League Points 5 (tied Longest Drive, Army Painted, Allowed himself to be a punching bag to help players learn, Showed up, Supported Brick and Mortar Store). Wins 5.
Max – Death Korp of Krieg. League Points 4 (army painted, showed up, supported brick and mortar store, was completely cool with the learning curve of jumping straight into a match. His prior experience of older editions A4R is based on proved to be quite useful.
Travis Weston – Khorne. League Points 4 (Showed up, supported brick and mortar store, despite having almost every die roll go wrong all day long didn’t complain once and gladly helped new players learn the game. Awarding double points for that because he went above and beyond.).
Ryan – Secret. League Points 2 (showed up, was the brick and mortar store).
Ty – Secret. League Points 1 (Previous Points).
Alternate 40k Rules 