I Failed the 400 Point Challenge, But I Had So Much Fun Doing It

So, my buddy Steve had a painting party over the weekend.  For those who haven't tried this, it is a great way to get motivated to paint.  You paint, you hang out with friends and talk 40K, and if you'r lucky you can even play some 40K too.

So with Steve's painting party, myself and Chris were there and so the 400 point challenge was to be completed.  And well, it wasn't.  For those who have been following Steve, Chris and I set up a 400 point challenge where we tried to paint a 400 point army to be used in a 400 point squad skirmish.  Chris was close, Steve was closer, and I wasn't anywhere near where I needed to be.  My Boyz and Boss Zagstruk are done, my Stormboyz have their rokkit packs, pants and boots done, and the Nobz and my Warboss aren't anywhere near done.  Since the first 400 point challenge is over, we are moving on to a second 400 point challenge (putting me that much farther behind).  The goal is after three 400 point challenges we'll be able to field a fully painted fully functional army with no proxies and no empty bases.

After spending several hours painting we broke to play our 400 point squad skirmish.  The battle report is after the break.



For those who aren't totally familiar with the background, this blog is a journal of my entry into the world of 40K.  So far it has chronicled my slow army building and occasional news posts, but Saturday October 3, 2009 I rolled dice in my first game of Warhammer 40K.  If there was ever any thought of the needle being pulled out and me moving on to something else, after Saturday

that

will

never

happen.

The motley crew around the table was myself with my Orks, Steve and his Blood Ravens, Chris and his Space Wolves, and Jason who we're trying to convince to play Chaos Space Marines helping Chris with his Space Wolf army.  Since Chris is the most experienced 40K player we let him boost his army and Jason joined him against Steve and myself.  We set up a 4' x 4' board with terrain pieces either by Jason or from the Battle of Macragge box set.  Steve and I placed our units first in one corner, with Jason and Chris placing second in the opposite corner.  The way we laid out the board (and I didn't get a good picture of the whole layout) we had a large garage built by Jason set in the middle of the board so line of site was an issue.  The only unit kept in reserve was Da Vulcha Boyz with Zagstruk.

Army lists:  I didn't really document army lists, and I'm not totally familiar with some of the Space Marine units, or any of the special units for Blood Ravens or Space Wolves, so forgive the vagueries of some of my descriptions.  I had a Warboss, a squad of 3 Nobz, and Da Boyz with a Big Shoota and a Nob.  Steve had a tactical squad and an assault squad, along with his chaplain.  Jason and Chris fielded a bike heavy Space Wolf army.  He had 1 infantry unit and 2 biker units.

A Caveat, of sorts:  Chris is the most experienced 40K player, but he is still used to 4th edition rules.  Steve has played a couple small games but he's still learning the game.  I've read the rules a couple times, but this was my first game, and Jason hadn't even read the rules.  So mistakes were made.  And if we didn't play every rule right, we were learning as we went along.

Steve and I moved forward but we weren't able to make any attacks or assault any units.  Chris and Jason moved forward with Jason's bike unit assaulting Steve's assault squad.  The dice gods are fickle beasts and this was one of the first areas we saw that this night.  Jason lost no units but was able to take out 4 of 6 assault squad members.  With the loss, Steve rolled and failed a morale check and was overrun by Jason's squad.

Turn 1 was horrible mess for us, but turn 2 started out much better when I was able bring Zagstruk directly in between Jason's bike squad and the infantry squad.  Zags and his boyz assaulted the infantry units causing heavy damage.  My Nobz and Warboss were able to take out 2 of Jason's 3 bikes, and Steve fired his missile launcher from his tactical unit, but missed.

Chris' infantry retaliated with some very potent counter assaults taking out Zagstruk and all but 1 Stormboy.

Turn 3 saw the last of Jason's bike units taken out (so he could go back to painting his first Chaos Space Marine).  I pushed forward but wasn't able charge anybody.  Steve wheeled around to get a better line of site to fire on Chris, but my dice rolls were horrible and Da Boyz and Da Warboss were cut down in thier prime.

Turn 4 finally got Steve to help me *snicker* when he hit the bikes with a krak missile and then hit with bolters taking out 3 bikes.  I then charged in with my squad of Nobz and saw them all killed thus eliminating my army from the battle.

Turn 5 brought the last of the Space Wolves against the last of the Blood Ravens.  At this point it was a battle of attrition with Chris getting the better dice rolls and eventually outlasting Steve and taking the field with one unit left.

We started setting up the game about 10:00 pm and we finished the game at 4:00 am.  We had a blast, and I wish I could have had a completed army to field, rather than proxy pieces and empty bases to fill out my ranks.  However I have no complaints for the actual game other than losing.

We learned some stuff along the way, Chris got a better feeling of 5th edition vs. 4th edition.  I was completely lost at first, but even with the increasing fatigue I got a better handle on how the game is played.  I also learned that I will never overlook something like Furious Charge ever again (had I seen that special rule for Da Vulcha Boyz and Zagstruk then that attack of mine would have been devestatingly bad for Chris rather than annoyingly bad).  We got a better handle on krak versus frag missiles (a rule we messed up early on) and got a better understanding of independent character rules.  I think we also messed up And They Shall Know No Fear, but I'm not positive since that's a Space Marine rule and I hate Space Marines and their power armor.  Well, I was increasingly annoyed by their power armor at least.  Jason got to see how cool the game is.  And Steve got to use his templates and markers he bought...and finally inflict damage and get some retribution in for a tank shock from months ago he still mumbles angrily about to this day.

God I love this game.