Battle Report 3/6-3/14

Having fallen off the 40K wagon for a bit, I really needed something to get me going again.  Thankfully featured opponent and good friend Steve changed schedules and is home at lunch.  So we decided to get a good 1500 point game in to prep us for an upcoming game day with our gaming group.

The battle was well contested, and while the dice did not help Steve in most of the game, they abandoned me at the end enough to turn the tables on me.

Hit the jump to see how it all played out.

Battle Report 10/17/00-10/21/11

This.  This is how 40K is supposed to be.  Fun.  Competitive.  Suspenseful.  Intense.  Aggressive.  I've had some good games.  I've had some not so good games.  Never have I had a game that was clearly anyone's to win right up until the end.  This was a game where we each had bad rolls, but the dice were not an issue.  The deciding factors were the strategic and tactical decisions we made, and how we used our forces, not the fickle whims of the dice gods...well except for ONE fickle whim.

My buddy Steve spent the week working the graveyard shift, and was home during the day.  As he lives about 5 minutes from where I work it was another opportunity to get together and game.  These weekly games are quite interesting.  We split the game up into hour long blocks.  Monday is usually setup, with Tuesday - Friday being the actual rolling of dice.  What makes it interesting, is that with the carry over, we spend a lot of time thinking about the game, so we are really prepared for our moves.  Each of us was devising game plans and strategies throughout the week that we would apply with great intent when lunchtime hit.

As is natural for us, Steve played his Blood Ravens, I played my Orks.  We decided to throw a wrinkle into the game by trying out some home-brew Blood Raven rules.  Blood Ravens like their Librarians, but rather than allow them to field a bunch of Librarians, we allowed Steve to upgrade his Tactical Marine Sergeants to be Sgt. Librarians.  They each had access to one Librarian skill, but not the biggies (Gates of Infinity and Vortex of Doom).  Each Sgt. Librarian cost an additional 50 points.  I'm not sure this really played out in this game, but the thinking is that by giving the Sergeants limited Librarian skills it reflects the progression of Space Marines through the ranks of the Librarian heavy Blood Ravens without causing substantial game balance issues.

Another note on our lists.  We went 1500 points, and surprisingly both of us didn't bring any type of Walkers.  Normally Steve has some sort of Dreadnought in his army, and I rarely run without either the Deff Dread and/or Killa Kans.  This was not something that we planned ahead of time, it's just an interesting coincidence.

Hit the jump for the turn by turn recount of the action.

A Recap of a Fun Gaming Weekend

Okay, so here's the thing, we had a lot of stuff going on this weekend:  Two tables, I was broadcasting live, and my rebuild of my Trukk and Deff Dread after they broke in transit, so I did a really bad job taking notes and pictures.  Which is fine, because I lost all my games, and don't mind not reliving the brutality in detail.  I had fun, though, but I pretty much got tabled in all of my games.  I had tried some different builds with my lists, and ran some units I had never run before.  In the end it was fun, I learned a lot, and I didn't walk away from the weekend in a funk like I did last time.

Oh sure, I hate losing to James, but the build he brought against me just kicked my ass, and yes the dice continued to not be my friend, but the dice are not the reason I lost my games.  I'm the reason I lost my games.

Hit the jump and I'll summarize each game, plus discuss some of the ancillary stuff that I enjoyed so much.

Battle Report Week of 8/1/11 - 8/5/11

In an attempt to get more playtime in, my buddy Steve and I decided to take full advantage of him working from home for a week to try to get a game in.  It took on a bigger life when his son Connor decided he wanted to play too.  We decided to use a variation on the Cleanse battle scenario from 4th edition, but rather than split the board into 4 quarters, we created an imaginary Y section for the battle.

Hit the jump for Army Lists, pictures, and a breakdown of the awesomeness that was our game.

My first Non-Loss

I've mentioned before about the desolate arid isle of emptiness that is my won/loss record.  It's been a bother, but I know some of the issues that have helped exacerbate it (long gaps between playing, poor list design), and have been working to correct those.

So I'm trying to get more gaming in.  It's hard since our gaming group is spread out of southeast Michigan, and Northwest Ohio.  However, I recently took a new job that has me working 5 minutes down the street from my buddy Steve's house.  A couple weeks ago we tried to get a 400 point game in at lunch when he was home for the day.  We actually only got 1 1/2 turns in before I had to get back to work.  Last Friday Steve gets a hold of me and says our buddy Chris is coming over to play 40K with him that weekend and we need to finish up our 400 point game to clear the table.  Now, I had thought we were done and that it had been taken down to protect his board and miniatures (I was using his AoBR Orks) from his cat.  So last Friday I went over to his place and we finished up the game.

I don't have pictures or a turn by turn break down like normal.  The nature of the game (trying to get a quick game in) and the layoff between starting and finishing all killed that.  But I can tell you played a 400 point annihilation game to a draw, and can map out what happened.

The lists were kind of as follows:  Steve had his Librarian with a Scout Unit, tactical marines in a Rhino, and a Sargent.  I had My Big Mek w/KFF, 20 Ork Boyz, Deff Dread (as a troop), and Looted Wagon w/Boomgun.

The game started with my Boomgun destroying Steve's Scouts.  Steve tried to use a psychic power on my Ork Boyz, but thanks to my use of the full 2" unit cohesion he was only able to take out 2 Orks, and then another when he pinned me with his Sargent who was a sniper.  My Boomgun rained death and despair down on his tactical marines, and then my Deff Dread finished up the job with its skorcha and close combat attacks.

Steve was able to eventually get my Ork Boyz in a tight group when he assaulted, and I piled in.  He was unable to hurt any but I put a wound on him.  He failed his morale check, withdrew, regrouped, and dropped a psychic attack on my bunched up Ork Boyz, taking them out with that, his Rhino, and his Sargent.  His tactical Marines also put killed my Big Mek that I had moved into base contact with my Deff Dread to try to negate any future Crew Shaken results.

After the 5th round we had to call it because I had to go get my daughter, but in the end we both took out 2 units.  I was still sitting pretty with my Looted Wagon and Deff Dread who were both ready to take aim on his Librarian (I had already hit him with the Looted Wagon that he saved).  So it's hard to say how the rest of the game would have played out, but at least it wasn't a loss.

It also set up our idea to game at lunch this week.  Steve is working from home so we are going to try to get a 1500 point game in over the course of the week.  That one I am taking pictures and really doing my best to record what happens round by round.

Battle Report 6-17-11

I know I published my ignominious defeat first before the larger battle that I started first, but it was a shorter write up, and I really wanted to get that write up done and wash the taste out of my mouth before I got into the meat of my 40K gaming, this 1500 point battle with Steve.

To spice things up we decided to use the Battle Missions book to get a scenario.  We rolled off (1-3 were the Ork, 4-6 were Space Marines) and ended up with the Blitzkrieg Ork scenario, a fast attack favored scenario featuring 3 control points angled across the board.  It started Steve at a severe disadvantage before some surprising twists took the game in a direction we could not have predicted.

Hit the jump for the army lists, and turn by turn action

Battle Report 6-18-11

 In a weekend filled with James Bond movie watching and 40K games, the most frustrating part of the entire venture was a quick 500 point battle my buddy James and I decided to do to fill the time. We really didn’t spend much time on the lists, and I will admit I brought ‘Ard Boyz mostly because I had never used them.

See the lists, and gory details after the jump

Battle Report 4/9/2011

I did a search as I was getting ready to write this battle report up, and the last battle report I published was June of last year.  That means it’s been more than 10 months since I was last able to roll dice in a game of 40K.  That’s a long time.  As much as I love the hobby of 40K, I love the game even more.  Which is why this session of gaming was just what I needed to recharge the batteries and keep me pumped about what I’m doing 40K-wise.

Because it had been so long since I had played a game, and since we were still using proxy units to flesh out our armies, we kept the point total to a reasonably low 500 points.   We were planning to play a 1000 point game as well, but after starting late, and taking a break for supper we decided to play a game of Zombies!!!! instead.  It was cool, but lasted a long time (we finished that game up after a 3 hour marathon session).  Had we known we were going to spend that much time on that game I probably would have voted to play 40K again.

Random rolls teamed myself and Steve up against Steve’s son Connor and James.  We then rolled to get an annihilation game with a spearhead deployment.  Steve and I won initiative, decided to attack first and kept initiative when James and Connor tried to steal it.

A couple caveats.  When it comes to the actual playing of 40K, we are infrequent in our ability to play games, and can be considered relatively new when it comes to actual gameplay.  Second, we had to fudge the list rules because Connor plays the Necrons and it was really hard to have him fit his army into our points limitation and be viable, so we let him take a higher points total with only one troop choice.  We also did not require the Space Marines to take two compulsory troop choices to give them some variety.

Also, to James, Connor, and Steve, if I missed a move forgive me.  I was trying to write down what we were doing and play the game so I was finding myself trying to catch up after the fact.  So if there was a big move I missed then please put it in the comments.

Hit the jump to see the army lists and round by round breakdown.

Battle Report 6-12-10 Orks v Sisters

One of the things we try to do as a group of gamers, being not a hobby or gaming club, but just friends who all enjoy the same game, is to have painting parties. My buddy Steve has probably the most central location, and has the space necessary for painting and gaming. Last month Steve had a painting party, and as with all painting parties, the day ended with gaming. I have no battle reports from that day because I wasn’t able to go. So Steve decided to have an impromptu painting party last weekend. His wife was out of town, and it just seemed to work for him. So with the last minute nature of the party the only people who could attend were our friend Chris and I, the two people who couldn’t make it to the party last month.

 As a painting party it kinda sucked, since we didn’t paint. As a gaming party it was top-notch.

Painting Party and Skirmish reports

Saturday we had another painting party/gaming session.  It was our first time with our new recruit James with us, and while we didn’t do a lot of gaming, we did have a productive time together.

If you haven’t done a painting party, it’s just a great way to really reinvigorate the painting process for everybody.  We can see different statuses of the various works in progress.  We can discuss and talk about all things 40K, and hobby specific topics at leisure while making progress on our minis.  For our group of players it’s something we really have come to look forward to.  We have lots of fun, we pick up different tricks, and we do a lot of smack talking.  Steve says he envisions us as a sort of 40K version of the Marvel Bullpen from the 1970s.  I just think we all have a deep addiction/passion for 40K and combining all that into one room just makes for a dynamic day that is quickly becoming not just a staple, but a key component in our gaming group’s makeup.

A Tryptophan Clouded Trip Through a Trippy Battlereport

Note: This battle report has been sitting in the queue waiting for me to publish it for a week.  I make no apologies for the fact that right now I barely know what day of the week it is, but I do apologize for letting 40K Neophyte sit unattended like I did. 
While most of my Thanksgiving weekend was spent working and trying to avoid death at the hands of my loved ones for working, I fit in a round of 40k.  It was a tight fit considering how long it went, and it was an exhausting fit considering how late it went but it was a fun fit, and that's all that matters.

Pictures and battle report after the jump...

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.