Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Happy Birthday 40K / Tournament at the LA Bunker!

Before we start, make sure to check out 40kn00b.com Warflake is having a giveaway as he hit the 150 follower milestone. Lets help him get to 300 followers! Check out his post on the giveaway here http://www.40kn00b.com/2012/02/150-followers-giveaway.html

Now lets start this post off by saying "Happy Birthday 40K!" My new friend "Elric" (from Return of The Gamer) and I went down to the LA Battle Bunker on Saturday for the 25th Anniversary of 40K, and they also happened to be having a 1500 point tournament.


Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Our 3rd local tournament & some special Thank-Yous.

Lets start with the Thank-Yous. I recently joined the HoP Blog Network (House of Paincakes) and would like to thank Lauby for the spot in the "New Member Monday" post as well as the "User Content - 40k in a Flash + Campaign" post.
The 2nd thank you to Lantz M. over at Santa Cruz Warhammer for the recognition in the "Honor Roll" post for my Celestial Lions Land Raider Crusader I had been working on for a tournament.

Maybe...

Monday, February 6, 2012

40K in a Flash! BatRep



So as I promised here is a BatRep from the 40k in a Flash game I had last week. It was Space Wolves VS Space Marines. We ended up playing Dawn of War / Annihilation and my opponent went first. His list from memory consisted of...

6x Gray Hunters, Meltagun
7x Gray Hunters, Meltagun
3x Thunderwolf Cav. 1 w/Power Fist, 1 w/Storm Shield, 1 w/nothing extra
1x Lone Wolf w/Power Fist(?)
5x Wolf Scouts w/Meltagun

As he did not need to take an HQ he opted not to. His territories give him a lot of wargear points and I think he spent them well with all the Power Fists and Meltaguns.

My list consisted of
5x Scouts w/Power Fist, Combi-Melta
Land Speeder Storm w/Multi-Melta
Ironclad Dread w/H.Flamer & 2 HKMs
Land Raider Redeemer

I opted to go with only 1 troop as it had a nice fast transport that I can deliver them where needed and had some decent weaponry for a low points cost. And as I had a increased cap on my vehicles I took a Land Raider Redeemer to capitalize on it, with the Ironclad to give some nice hand to hand support as well as some longer ranged fire with the HKMs.

In this campaign you don't have to show your opponent your list, this is something that a "Spy" can do for you if you get one and have a lucky roll at the start of the games. So I don't know what he took and he does not know what I have planned for him. For Deployment my opponent set his Gray Hunters on the center line to push me back as far as possible and he is outflanking with his Scouts. Everything else is coming on turn 1. I inform him that I will have everything come on the table turn 1.

SW Turn 1. He moves his Gray Hunters back 6 and runs them back. His Thunder Wolf Cav come in behind the GH and runs, same with his Lone Wolf.

SM Turn 1. I move the Ironclad in just left of center moving in with a wall and ruined building on his sides to protect his flanks. The Land Raider moves 12" in the center on my board edge. And lastly the Land Speeder Storm with the Scouts move 24" on my far right flank behind some ruins. The Dread runs a few inches closer to the Gray Hunters.

SW Turn 2. The Gray Hunters, Lone Wolf and Thunder Wolf Cav all start shifting towards the center of the table away from the Ironclad and closer to the Land Raider. The Scouts did not come in. The unit of Gray Hunters shoot a Melta at the Land Raider but miss. The Lone Wolf and Cav run closer to my right so they are closer to the center of the table without moving too close to the Land Raider.

SM Turn 2. I move the Ironclad back a bit as I don't want him to eat a Melta from the Gray Hunters too early in the game. I move the Land Raider 6" over a low wall nice and close to one of the Gray Hunter squads. The Land Speeder moves another 24" up and towards the center of the table by a 4 story ruined building. The Ironclad shoots it's HKMs at the T-Wolf Cav and misses both shots. The Land Raider uses a Flame Storm on a squad of the Gray Hunters and kills all of them, and shoots the Assault Cannon at the T-Wolf Cav with no effect.

SW Turn 3. The Wolf Scouts come in on my right flank behind my Land Speeder. The T-Wolf Cav move strait for the Land Speeder, the Lone Wolf heads for the Land Raider and the Gray Hunters head for the Land Raider. The Wolf Scouts Melta the back of the Land Speeder and destroy it. The Scouts pile out the back closer to the Wolf Scouts and away from the T-Wolf Cav. The Gray Hunters Melta the Land Raider and Immobilize it. The Lone Wolf runs toward the Land Raider and the T-Wolf Cav run towards the scouts.

In assault the T-Wolf Cav make it to the scouts after passing a difficult and dangerous test for moving into the wreaked Land Speeder. In the combat 1 scout dies and cav take 0. The Scouts run and get away about 6 inches. The T-Wolf Cav follow them close behind.

SM Turn 3. I move up the Ironclad and Scouts continue to fall back. In the Shooting phase the Ironclad shoots at the Gray Hunters killing 1 with a Melta shot. The Redeemer splits its fire. 1 Flamestorm at the Gray Hunters and 1 at the T-Wolf Cav that are running after the scouts. I put 2 wounds on the T-Wolf Cav and take the Gray Hunters down to 2 men. The Scout Sargent shoots his Combi-Melta at the T-Wolf Cav as it may be the only time he gets to shoot and gets a wound through killing 1 of the Cav.

In the assault the Ironclad charges the 2 remaining Gray Hunters killing 1. They do nothing in return and pass their test.

Yay I got into the action!

SW Turn 4. The Wolf Scouts move towards my board edge and closer to the fleeing Scouts. The Lone Wolf Moves again towards the Land Raider (now within charge distance of the Raider and the Ironclad Dread.) The T-Wolf Cav move in between the fleeing Scouts and the Land Raider. The Wolf Scouts run closer to my table edge and the Scouts. The T-Wolf Cav Charge my Scouts and kill 3, the Power Fist Sargent kills the Storm Shield Wolf. I pass my test and hold fast. The Loan Wolf assaults the Land Raider instead of the Ironclad, destroying a weapon. The Ironclad wiffs and does nothing to the last Gray Hunter.



SM Trun 4. Nothing moves as it's all locked in combat or immobilized. The Land Raider puts all it's fire into the Lone Wolf and kills it. The Ironclad kills the last Gray Hunter and consolidates closer to the Land Raider. The T-Wolf Cav with Power Fist faces off with the Scout Sargent with Power Fist... They both swing, and the T-Wolf Cav takes 1 wound bringing him down to 1 and the Sargent takes 2 wounds from the Cav Fist finally turning him into goo. The T-Wolf Cav. consolidates towards the Land Raider.

SW Turn 5. The Scouts stay in some cover. The T-Wolf Cav. moves and assaults the Land Raider. The result is only that the Land Raider is Stunned.

SM Turn 5. The Ironclad moves and shoots the T-Wolf Cav. The T-Wolf Cav. dies to the Meltagun.

Now it's down to the Ironclad and the Wolf Scouts. The Game continues to turn 6.

SW Turn 6. The Wolf Scouts move and run away from the Ironclad. They are now on my table edge behind a hill.

SM Turn 6. The Ironclad moves and runs towards the Scouts.

If this goes 1 more turn the Scouts will have no where to run as the Ironclad will be in Flamer range and may even be in charge range no matter where they go. But the game Ends. The Celestial Lion Space Marines win 3-2.

The Territory that the Space Wolves put up was worth 10 wargear, the Territory that I put up was worth 10 points to the army size (but increases by d6x10 because I wagered it, and is now worth 20 points), the Territory generated was also worth 10 wargear. As I won I kept my territory and chose to go with the new territory as it was the same as what my opponent wagered.

My MVP had to be my Scout Sargent with Power Fist. He was able to finish off a couple of the T-Wolf Cav. and put a wound on the last one allowing the Ironclad to seal the deal with a Melta shot. I will have to give him a new Purity Seal for his good work.

I will have to remember to take more pictures to help liven up the BatReps a bit. Now only if I had a video camera...

Thursday, February 2, 2012

40K in a Flash!

Because we can't all be The Flash!

So I have been running a "40K in a Flash" (from WD 288 I believe, and it was posted on the GW website for years) Campaign at my FLGS for a while now (about 6 months) and it has been going rather slow, but I got a game in this week so I thought I would share it with everyone. The basic concept of "40K in a Flash" is to be able to get a game over in about 40 min from start to finish. There is another version of the game called "40K in 40 Minutes" that I can't seem to locate in my records, but the rules are pretty similar. The basics to the game are everyone starts with the same limitations.

Army starts at 500 points
You must have at least 1 troop choice
You may take up to 1 HQ
You can spend up to 50 points on wargear
No model can have more than 3 wounds
No 2+ saves
No vehicles with a total points value over 200

Now that everyone has the foundation to their army in mind, every player in the campaign starts with 3 territories that they control. These territories augment the basic limitations I stated a second ago. They range from increasing how many points you can spend in your army, increasing the cap on wounds per model, and you have a chance to get a "Spy" who will attempt to sabotage or poison your enemy. The first 3 Territories you get are generated from a chart  with a roll of 2d6. This can lead to some mismatched armies as some may end up having an army worth 800 points while someone else may only have 500 points but can take a Land Raider.

Once you have your territories and you know all your army limitations, it's time to pick an opponent! Now that you have your opponent you generate a new Territory that you will be fighting over and each player wagers a territory. Then you play a game using the standard missions and deployment types in the Big Rule Book.

The winner of the game retains his wagered territory and gets to pick if he wants the new territory that was generated before the game or if he wants the territory that his opponent wagered. Whatever territory the winner does not choose goes to the loser.

Once the campaign goes for a while some people may end up having a lot more territories then another player. This is where the "Underdog" rule comes in. If your opponent has twice as many territories as you, you are declared the "Underdog". The Underdog has some advantages as they get to raid the other players territories. If you are an Underdog in a fight you get to choose the points limit to the game with a minimum of 500 points, but you are still limited to your own territory points cap. You also get to choose what territory you opponent has to wager in the fight. So if you opponent has 800 point army cap you can say that you will only be playing a 500 point game and his extra 300 points are now useless to him.

I will end this here for now and come back in a later post with a small BatRep of the Celestial Lions VS Space Wolves. If you are interested in how our campaign is going you can find it HERE as I have been keeping track of the games on the Life After the Cover Save forum.