One Week, Three Games: 40K

The purple and pink horde advances once again

 
This week I have played three games away from home: one wee Warhammer 40K  game against Dave's sisters at his flat, and two Dreadball games where I pitted Forge Fathers against teams under Charles' control at his pad. 

Yes, that's right, I do play Dreadball against people that aren't Ailsa.  My win/loss record is better with them.  :-)

First, Warhammer.


Tuesday night, I went round to Dave's after he'd pinged me a few days before itching for a quick game.  We ordered some pizza, nattered about jobs, then got down to a small 1000 point game which only took 90 mins / 2 hours to play.  Compared to our last Apocalypse game, this was substantially more manageable!

Deployment before our wee game kicks off.

It also gave me the chance to play something a bit different - rather than a Noise Marine heavy army, I decided to use all my newfound Bolter marines and play a more mundane CSM list.  So it was two squads rammed with rifle fire each in a Rhino APC, a swarm of Cultists lead by a Dark Apostle (an evil priest type - essentially a Chaos Chaplain) and some backup in the form of a wee Raptor jump-pack squad and a single Obliterator heavy weapon daemon.  (I'm not a huge fan of the model - it was a pain to put together - but I can't deny it's useful in combat.)

Dave's vehicle column at the back of the table.

Our random mission was The Relic - a single objective in the middle of the table which can be picked up and moved, with the army holding it getting at least a draw.  Single-obejctive missions tends to turn into bloody battles around a 4" radius and this got even more crammed because the terrain created a bit of a killing zone around the objective.

Fighting got pretty brutal for the relic.

The Bolter Marines mostly got pinned down by enemy fire and made little real contribution, bar pinging the hull of the enemy Rhinos.  The Raptors leapt straight out and evaporated a troop transport with their Melta Guns.... but then found themselves the target of every enemy unit on turn 2 and were removed before they could focus on the hilarious missile launcher tank Dave had to the rear. 

One bolter squad, forced out their Rhino and hiding behind cover to avoid missile fire.

Similarly, the Obliterator could teleport anywhere on the table but I committed him to the middle to deal with the scary stuff there, meaning the missile launcher tank was completely safe from him.... but the reverse was not true and I took a bombardment that wiped him off the map.

I HAZ THE OBJECTIVE!

My Cultists performed very well - normally they're a cheap and cheerful wave-after-wave-of-my-own-men kind of unit, but with the Dark Apostle leading them they gain a huge boost as his Zealot special rule made them hate-filled fearless sons of bitches - it's a combo I'll definitely use again.  Unfortunately, while they were able to get the objective, the end result was to be standing in the killing zone and they promptly found themselves obliterated, Dave taking the game at the end of his turn 5.

.....I probably no haz the objective for much longer.  That's what being caught out in the killing zone will do to you!"

For Dave, the highlight was probably using his new Sister Repentia unit - as medieval monks wore sack-cloth and swung bells to repent their sins, Sisters of Battle wear bikins and swing chainsaws to repent their sins.  (Or something.)  It took a bit to get them into battle - even on our wee 5' x 3' table they took until turn 5 to really draw blood.  When they did, though, they were amazing - they pack quite a punch.

One surviving Chaos Space Marine legs it away from the Repentia after they pretty much single-handedly wipe a unit off the table.

 
I expect I shall see more of them - and I am reminded that I own a box of this unit at home which could perhaps do with painting up...  The last thing I need is yet another painting project, and yet I've always liked the Order of the Bloody Rose colour scheme...