See Them Driven Before You

The 4th round of Four Horsemen's campaign played out this evening, and the forces of somewhat good hit back hard. Tonight was the first custom scenario, with the Imperium trying to buy time to ready a major attack.

Campaign Scenario: See Them Driven Before You

The defenders of St. Feorla’s World have been driven ever backwards by the invading onslaught. No more! Despite a string of defeats, the Imperial forces still retain the advantages of overwhelming resources, numbers, and positioning. Now is the time to begin using them.

Behind the front lines, Imperial commanders are gathering massive reserves of troops and material in preparation for a hammer blow against the invaders. All they require of the remaining frontline regiments is the time to organize and redeploy… time the forces of Chaos have no intention of giving them. The coming battle will be the first decisive engagement of the campaign!

You Shipped Our Ammo WHERE!?

No campaign bonuses or advantages may be used in this scenario. The defenders (Chaos) are too busy absorbing their conquests to utilize special resources, and the attackers (the Imperium) have been left isolated as their infrastructure struggles to coordinate the planned counterattack.

Only the Strong Survive

Anyone still alive on the Feorlan front lines has been to hell and back… and ensured that plenty of enemies only got to do the former. Between hard won experience, scavenged equipment, and sheer viciousness, the survivors are even more dangerous than usual. To represent this, each player may designate 2 units as veterans and give them any one of the Universal Special Rules listed on p.75-76 of the BRB.

Deployment: Dawn of War

Objectives: Capture and Control 

All normal special rules are still in play: Seize the Initiative, Night Fight, Infiltrate, Etc.

To claim victory, the Imperium must surpass or tie the number of games the Chaos players win. All they must do is stall the invaders’ advance, and they can be pinned down by overwhelming force. If Chaos wins more games, then they will have broken through the Imperial lines and begun rampaging through undefended sectors, cementing their hold and wrecking plans for a decisive counterattack.

Further campaign bonuses will be included based on the outcome of these games.

The  forces of the Imperium hit back hard, wresting positions back from the invaders and buying precious time for their allies to reinforce them.

Further Imperial forces arrived on St. Feorla's World in the form of a company of Salamanders. Arriving at the edge of the battle zone, they were almost immediately set upon by a swarm of rampaging Tyranids. Cleansing flame and righteous fury sufficed to drive the monsters back, but the Salamanders did not escape unbloodied. Even more worrying, the Tyranid attack halted without warning, the leader beasts and their surviving minions withdrawing at some unseen signal of the Hive Mind. The swarms are only biding their time.

Unable to sustain their present rate of loss and with their means of transportation all but destroyed, the Grey Knights "requisitioned" elements of the local PDF to slaughter the Orks standing between them and the daemonic infestation they had initially set out to destroy The battle ended in a tactical draw. The bulk of the Orkish horde was unharmed, and managed to inflict heavy casualties on the hapless Imperial Guardsmen, but the Knights were able to form a spearhead and break through the xenos lines, freeing themselves to hunt the growing Slaaneshi menace. 

The Red Harvest of the Necrons was halted by a combined strike force of Blood Angels and Tau. Setting aside their differences in the face of a relentless foe, the Tau brought their heretical technology to bear on the undead constructs while the Marines descended from the skies on jump packs. After suffering heavy losses, the Necrons vanished from the battlefield ... leaving behind strangely alluring and still functional wreckage. Eager for new captured technology, the freethinking Tau have worked the long, pulsing, Necron gauss weapons into their battle suit mount points. The Blood Angels, disgusted by the actions of their erstwhile allies, are already forming plans to turn on them and take the weaponry for ... additional study ... of their own.

Meanwhile the Space Wolves continued their advance deeper into the invaders' lines. Although faced with a mobile cadre of mercenary Tau, the Sons of Russ, led by the Great Wolf himself, brought their prey to ground and slew them mercilessly. Xenos weaponry felled many brave warriors, but Logan Grimnar never faltered, striding through the fire while his packs snapped and snarled at the flanks of the opposing Fire Warriors and Battlesuits. With no answer such canny savagery, the Tau survivors could only retreat from what they could not kill.

The Black Templar met with disaster as they sought to retake an area recently purged by Necrons. Treading through volcanic landscape, the Marines' armored column was set upon by the minions of the Lord of Excess. Unfazed by the appearance of such abominations in their midst, the Templar took defensive positions and prepared to unleash the wrath of the Emperor. Their confidence was misplaced; heedless of the killing heat, the daemons came through the flames for their quarry, shredding armor and shattering tank hulls. Unable to fell the Greater Daemon that tore apart their Land Raider, the Marshall and his attendant Crusaders retreated, with the wounded Emperor's Champion remaining behind to buy his brothers time to fight another day.

Overall a decisive victory for the defenders of St. Feorla's World. Next week will be Kill Teams, as the Imperial counterattack looms and the forces of Chaos get sneaky and vicious. Tune in.

Campaign Update

Tonight Team Evil went back on the offensive and continued in their quest to overrun the hapless St. Feorla's World. The forces of Chaos, seeking to capitalize on the Imperium's failure to retake their landing zones, spread out and began assaulting territory wholesale. Unfortunately for the invaders, the Imperium received enough reinforcements to shore up their defenses and slow the advance to a crawl.

Still smarting from their earlier losses, the Grey Knights were forced to deal with a Tyranid scout swarm that landed near their command post. Although the beasts were put to the flame with little difficulty, the Shadow in the Warp has been roused...

The Tau and Deff Skull Orks renewed their rivalry, and the ensuing bloodbath only saw their enmity increase. Although the Orks suffered massive casualties, the Tau were equally battered and forced to withdraw after breaking their opponent's charge. The engagement ended in a tactical draw, with no territory won or lost.

The Blood Angels managed to retake the wreckage of their previous lines from the occupying mercenary Tau. Bereft of heavy armor, the Sons of Sanguinius launched an aerial assault that pierced the Xenos lines and drove the few survivors back in disarray.

An as yet unidentified Space Marine chapter further bolstered the Imperial lines, slowing the advance of the second Orkish warband. Although the Orks were temporarily halted and badly mauled, the Marines sustained unacceptably high casualties and were forced to withdraw. The Orkish advance, led by the surviving Mega-armored Nobs, continued unopposed.

Aid unlooked for arrived in the form of a Space Wolves company, reportedly led by Logan Grimnar himself. Upon entering planetary orbit, the Sons of Fenris immediately launched a full assault on a Necron spearhead about to enter a populated zone. Their ferocity proved no match for Necrontyr ruthlessness, however; the undead constructs pinned down their attackers in the lava fields with minimal force, and proceeded with the Red Harvest even as the Wolves sought to break free. Only Grimnar's leadership saved the situation from complete disaster.

Finally,  a regiment of the local PDF, supposedly in a safe zone, was ambushed and destroyed by a rampaging horde of Daemons. Inspired generalship, the exhortations of a Ministorum priest, and the punishing firepower of Leman Russ battletanks proved no match for the denizens of the Warp. Freshly gorged on souls, the minions of Slaanesh are even now despoiling the suddenly defenseless territory.

Will the Imperium counterattack? Will the Tau and Orks ever sit down and talk out their differences? Can any two 40K players agree on how to pronounce Tzeentch? Tune in next week.

Saint Feorla's World: The Counterattack Fails

Tonight was the second round of Four Horsemen's map campaign. The forces of the Imperium, reeling from the sudden incursion of Xenos and warpspawn, were unable to link up and retake their lost territory. Although the bulk of the planet remains in Imperial hands, its PDF and auxiliary forces are dispersed, and the invaders' landing zones are  now uncontested.

The Grey Knights, seeking to recover the bodies of their fallen, were horrified to discover a Tau reconnaissance force scavenging the armor and weaponry of their slain brethren. Although they fell upon the xenos with righteous fury and slaughtered many, their sacrifice was in vain. The Tau survivors managed to retreat with their stolen relics, nearly crippling the Grey Knights as a force upon the planet.

The Black Templar, hoping to finish the Deff Skullz presence on Feorla, fell victim to their own ferocity, and were nearly surrounded and cut off by greenskins spoiling for a good fight. Faced with overwhelming numbers, the Marines were forced to withdraw or face annihilation for no gain.

The second Tau strike force, seeking to follow up on the Deff Skullz it had defeated in its first engagement, stumbled upon another Ork warband. Outnumbered and with heavy weaponry geared towards destroying an armored formation, only a few Tau survived the furious melee.

Finally, the Blood Angels were ambushed by the forces of Slaanesh as their armored column moved into its siege positions outside the air field. Although more than able to repel a conventional attack, the Sons of Sanguinius were surrounded by the warpspawn and destroyed piecemeal. The Angels slew daemon after daemon, but their frenzied attacks only served to strengthen the remaining monsters. With such souls  as these to feast upon, the Dark Prince's minions are being drawn in ever greater numbers to Feorla.

Tune in next week as the forces of evil begin consolidating their gains...

Arkham Games Tournament - Preliminary List

On October 15 Arkham Games, the store that allowed me to get back into 40k after nearly 2 years will be holding a  1500 pt tournament run by my friend and sole reader, Rarkthor. After putting in a good showing with my Daemons (and running them in a local campaign) I think it's time to let the Tyranids off the leash. Here's what I've got so far.

Hive Tyrant w/ Leech Essence, Paroxysm, Armored Shell, TL BL devourers, Heavy Venom Cannon, Old Adversary

2 Zoanthropes

2 Hive Guard

1 Venomthrope

11 Genestealers

Tervigon w/ Dominion, Cluster Spines, Catalyst, Toxin Sacs, Adrenal Glands

20 Termagants

20 Termagants

Trygon

Trygon

It's the first swarm list I've run in a while, but has just about everything it needs - numbers, close combat muscle, synapse coverage, and durability. It could definitely be optimized, but can at least fight its way out of a wet paper bag, possibly even a reinforced cardboard box.

The Fall of St. Feorla's World Begins...

Our store saw the beginning of the end of St. Feorla's World as it kicked off its first map campaign. Tonight the forces of evil were victorious, securing their initial landing zones and taking the planet's primary air field. Although a Tau task force was able to hold off an advance force of Deff Skullz Orks, Imperial forces were otherwise driven back on all fronts. The Blood Angels' attempt to contain the emerging Necron tomb complex met with disaster, the Imperial Guard were driven back by a tide of Orks, an overzealous force of Black Templars was defeated by a secondary Tau force before it could rendezvous with friendly forces, and a Grey Knights strike force was nearly annihilated by a force of Slaaneshi daemons...

All Is Dust...

All the discussion of 6th edition and its speculated refashioning of Chaos has gotten me itching to break out my Thousand Sons again. All well and good, but I'm not going back to the actual Chaos Marines codex - a few months of that was enough to last a lifetime. Although Blood Angels are tempting as a stand in, for now I'll be using the  Space Marines to represent them on the field. Here's the projected list at 1500:

HQ: 

Librarian w/ Force Dome and The Avenger

Elites:

Ironclad Dreadnought w/ dual heavy flamers, Drop Pod

7 Sternguard w/ combimeltas, Rhino

Troops:

Tactical Squad: Missile launcher, meltagun, combimelta, Rhino

Tactical Squad: Missile launcher, flamer, combiflamer, Rhino

Tactical Squad: Missile launcher, plasmagun, Razorback w/ lascannon & TL plasmagun

Heavy Support:

Predator w/ autocannon and heavy bolters

Predator w/ autocannon and heavy bolters 

Thunderfire Cannon & Techmarine gunner

The basic idea is to win through superior mobility and firepower. The Razorback squad and Thunderfire cannon act as a firebase, preferably in a bolstered ruin, while the other two Tac squads advance to midfield. Missile launcher combat squads can be held back from the Rhino squads as needed. Meanwhile the Predators start opening up transports and forcing saves. The Sternguard act as a hammer unit via shooting, with the Librarian attached for some extra punch. Finally the dreadnought serves as a deterrent for swarms and an irritant for heavy weapon teams.

Thoughts?

Four Horsemen Inaugurual Tournament

Better late than never for this report. Last weekend my FLGS held its first 40k tournament, a 1500 point, three round event that lasted most of the day. Despite nearly two weeks of Tyranid list design, I decided that morning to take the Daemon force I had built up for the Escalation League this summer. I was pleasantly surprised by the results, and ended up placing 4th out of 10, just a few battle points shy of 3rd place, which went to Rarkthor of http://rarkthorshold.blogspot.com/.  I claim a moral victory over him based on the results of Game 2, however.

And now a quick breakdown.My Daemonic host, They Who Walk Upon Many Waters (and whose name might actually make sense when I finish basing them) consisted of a pair of Tzeentch heralds on Jetbikes, kitted to hunt transports, a pair of Tzeentch Daemon Princes equipped the same, a Great Unclean one, 2 groups of 10 Daemonettes, 2 groups of 5 Plaguebearers, 10 Seekers of Slaanesh, and 6 Fiends of Slaanesh.

Game 1:

For this mission I faced off against Tau in a modified KP mission with Pitched Battle deployment. KP were scored as normal, but there were 6 objectives placed across the board, 5 of which were duds and 1 of which was worth 5 KP and could be moved and held by any unit that found it. My opponent won the roll for deployment and elected to go first, stringing out his army between some Pathfinders and Firewarriors on the right flank and some infiltrating Kroot on the other. Sandwiched in between were his skimmers  and Crisis suits. His commander and suit retinue were held in reserve. Going first against Daemons is usually a bad plan, but in this case it was justified - via infiltrating Kroot, Crisis suit moves, and a flat out Piranha, he had uncovered all but one of the markers and recovered the bonus objective before I was even on the table.

Unfortunately for him it was on the left side of the board, held by one of his two Kroot squads. I got my chosen first wave and set about surrounding the Kroot and blocking off that flankfrom the rest of his army. It almost didn't work; my initial shooting whiffed, and he took out the Daemonettes who were supposed to lock the objective in place for a turn while the rest of my units got into range.  This coupled with getting only 1 unit (my second Daemon Prince) in on turn 2, made a real fight of it. Turn 3 saw some him whittle away chunks of my force, but also saw him run out of  space; the Kroot were hunkered down in a forest near the corner of the board, getting ready to hand off the objective to a Devilfish mounted squad of Fire Warriors, who I managed to shoot down and pin with a lucky shot. The subsequent assault saw the Kroot dead to the 2nd Daemon Prince and the remnants of my Fiends. From there it was all downhill. I was able to snipe a few more units in the center to offset my own losses, and the bonus 5 KP put me well out of catch-up range for the Tau. The game ended on Turn 5, with a major victory for the Daemons.

Game 2:

Fresh from devouring Tau souls, I got something a little meatier: Space Wolves. The primary objective was victory points, with bonus points for units above half strength in your opponent's DZ. My opponent spread his Long Fangs on opposite sides of the board, placing one near a rock outcropping and the other two in a forest.  From their vantage points they had most of the board well covered. His 3 Rhinos filled with Grey Hunters stuck to the center, with a pair of Speeders riding shotgun on the transports. He also elected to go first so he could use Njal's ability and force me to take Dangerous terrain tests as I arrived.

This time the Daemons came out swinging. I did little damage on my turn, but got some good positioning, and took little damage on my turn. By turn 3 his Long Fangs on the right were dead courtesy of the Great Unclean One, the squad on the left was tied up by Plaguebearers, the Rhinos of two squads were destroyed or crippled, and one of his two Wolf Scout units had been massacred. The Wolves started hitting back once the Grey Hunters and Njal came out to play, but by then they were taking losses about equal to the ones they were inflicting. The game ended with another major victory for the Daemons.

Game 3:

The final game was against the only other undefeated player, another Tau force. The win condition was objectives, with 5 unequally weighted points set across the board, while the setup was Spearhead. Going in I knew it was going to be bloody and close, and I was right. With only three scoring units, whose movement would limit his firepower, I had an advantage. Unfortunately this was offset by the mass of S5 shooting, which were hitting at BS5 thanks to his Pathfinders. What got into 12" of his army died, and I couldn't concentrate enough on one flank and hold the objectives. I decided to sacrifice my army to pin him in place while throwing my troops onto far flung objectives. It almost worked, but I ran out of units to sacrifice on Turn 5, and hadn't been able to destroy his ability to contest; I had troops on two objectives, but he managed to get an empty transport on one and a few drones near the other. My last two Daemonettes made a desperate charge against the squad of Fire Warriors advancing on the central objective, but weren't up to killing a full squad on their own. That left his last surviving Fire Warriors sitting on his home objective and gave him the victory 1 point to 0.

Overall I had a great day; although I didn't place, I got a better feel for my Daemons in competitive play and a nice tactical workout as well. More importantly I got to face off against some great players, and am looking forward to getting in some rematches.