The Battle of Pluto

Sigismund purges the traitorous Alpha Legion from a bio-hab on Pluto...

From the Tables... Forged in the Ruinstorm

In 007.M31, the Alpha Legion Cell designated 'Gamma Sol' was tasked with purging the world of Persepolis, which had become infested by warp entities led by Corbax Utterblight... 

Played a game against some Ruinstorm Daemons! Played Shatterstrike w/ Clash of the Lines. 2,500 points, he used Age of Darkness FOC, no Formations, etc. He used a house rule that we use for Heresy Daemons, Eldar, and Orks, which is double max squad sizes, so he had a unit of 40 Plague Bearers w/ a Herald w/ the Grimoire, and giving them all Feel No Pain! He also had Corbax and a Daemon Knight (which I guess is a little questionable 30K fluff wise?).

Anyway, poor, poor Corbax Deep Struck into my deployment zone and then immediately got erased by a unit of Sniper Veterans (he scattered into rapid fire range). They put 13 wounds on him out of 20 shots. Bad scenario for a T8, W7 model. He really should have Feel No Pain or a 4+ save.

Inquisitor Victus Martell on the field of battle...

Inquisitor Martell takes the field with his Cyber Mastiffs, Ein and Schein, alongside the Convocation of Voss.

Alamo GT Pictures

 Game 1 v. Will's Decurion

 Game 2 v. Dru's Decurion

 Game 3 v. Chris' Coven

 Game 4 v. Dan's UltraPods

Game 5 v. Josiah's Farsight Tau

From the Tables... The Cleansing of Zedra Prime

Necrons/CSM versus the Skyblight Swarm at 1500 points. I managed to 

knock out the Synapse early and the rest of the army fell apart without it.

"You shall not pass!"

From the Tables: Necrons v. Eldar/Dark Eldar

The Brightfall Encounter

Five Years

Today is the fifth birthday of Zen 40,000. Five years, hundreds of painted models. I love having this living catalog of every model I have painted in that time, almost every tournament I have gone too, and lots of other memories. I can look at a picture of an old model and remember what was happening in my life in that time, and remember all the good memories of tough battles fought. Here is to five more years.

From the Tables... The Threads of Atelkia

So this month the league is back to 2000 points. I've been itching to pull out my Eldar for a couple weeks, and 2000 is the perfect point value. The mission was Capture and Control with Spearhead deployment. I was up against a Raptors Space Marine army featuring Captain Shrike leading ten Assault Terminators. Not a ton of pictures here, but they do follow the fate of those Terminators quite well.

* * * * *

In 947.M41 the Eldar of the Tir'Sahras Craftworld fell upon the agri-world of Atelkia Minor with no warning, and in a genocidal campaign, wiped out the Imperial population. Before every citizen was killed a distress call went out from the planet into the void. Two months later Space Marines of the Raptors Chapter arrived on the planet to investigate. After days of cat and mouse games following planetfall the Raptors eventually came to grips with their foe amid the ruins of the city of Guer. After a swift and brutal battle the Eldar disappeared from Atelkia, their purpose still unclear.

The Terminators about to get their Turn 2 charge. Shrike broke off and charged in turn 1, but failed to damage a tank and got melta'd in the face for his trouble. The Terminators with some let down here with a Fleet roll of '1'; a little higher and they would have had the charge on the disembarked Fire Dragons.

And here we see that charge. They wreck the empty Wave Serpent, but both squads of Dragons fly away unscathed. You can also see the Combat squad that is almost on my objective already.

Turn 4 I manage to pull off the combo-breaker on the Assault Terminators. Eldrad Dooms the Terminators and Guides both Fire Dragon units. 15 Fusion Guns and a Bladestorm later, ten dead Assault Terminators.

By the end of the game we both have a pretty impressive dead pile and we pull off the Draw.

Eldar home objective, held by two Combat Squads, contested by a Wave Serpent.

Raptors home objective, claimed by Dire Avengers in Falcon, contested by a Rhino.

From the Tables...The Gehenna Campaign

I got in a game on Monday against a mostly mechanized Blood Angels army. Played at a game store I hadn't been to before, Red Castle Games. It was a really big space and they were in the middle of expanding. There were only a couple tables this time, but there are suppose to be 8(?) by next week. I played with 2000 pts of Tyranids in a Seize Ground(3), Dawn of War mission. I didn't really get pics covering every part of the battle, but my opponents army was so pretty I wasn't going to miss posting the pics I did have.

* * * * *

Blood Angels get Turn 1 and roll onto the board. The ripper base by the Tervigon in the lower right corner is an objective; there is another in the building with a second Tervigon, the third is just out of shot to the left. On reflection I should have deployed both Tervigons on the building objective. Turn 2 he runs the DC Rhino right on top of the lower objective.

Dante precision strikes right on my board edge, throwing a couple wounds on the Tervigon with Melta shots.

Both my Ygmarl units get double charges off. Turn 2 one units came in and charged two Razorbacks, wrecking one, but in turn being gunned down by a Baal. Turn 3 the other unit came in and charged the de-meched Assault unit and the remaining Razorback. They wiped out the Assault Squad, did no damage to the Razorback, and were wiped out by a Baal in the following turn.

So Dante and his units get shot at and charged by 32 Termagants, but only lose two Marines and Hit and Run.

I charged the Tervigon into the Death Company to hold them in place for the Doom; didn't hurt that they didn't have a Power Fist.

The Doom was an absolute beast this game, killing all the Death Company, putting three wounds on Dante (who was by his lonesome), and killing a few Assault Marines. The Assault Marines pasted two test in a row with no casualties before finally smacking him with a Power Fist on turn 5.

The Tervigon on the far flank was killed pretty quickly, after it sputtered out on spawning turn 1. This meant that I didn't have a scoring presence on the two objectives on the left flank. Thus my opponent smartly pushed all his forces onto the other objective, leaving a decent portion of my army (Tyrant unit and a Trygon) un-used. Savvy play by my opponent.

A single Assault Squad disembarked to clear the last of my Gants off the lower right objective. I have nothing else to contest it, my opponent wins 1-0.

Here are the lists we used:

Hive Tyrant w/ Scythes, Hive Commander
2*Tyrant Guard w/ Whips
Prime w/ Sword, Whip, Adrenal Glands
(8*Ygmarl Genestealers)*2
Doom of Malantai in Pod
(Tervigon w/ Catalyst, Toxin Sacs)*2
(10*Termagants)*2
(Trygon) *3

Dante
Librarian w/ Unleash Rage, Shield of Sanguinius
2*Priests (1*Power Weapon, 1*Jump Pack)
3*(5*Assault Squad w/ Meltagun, Power Weapon, Razorback w/ LasPlas)
10*Assault Marines w/ 2*Meltagun, Power Fist
5*Death Company w/ Power Weapon, Rhino
2*(Baal Predator w/ Assault Cannon, Heavy Bolters)
Predator w/ Autocannon, Lascannons
5*Devastators w/ 4*Missles

From the Tables... The Skorvald Incursion

Got in a 1750 point game on Superbowl Sunday to practice for an upcoming tournament, the Guardian Cup. I played versus Blood Angels with Pitched Battle and 3 objective Seize Ground using my Chaos Daemons army. I don't know if I'll actually use Daemons for the tournament, but it was certainly fun to play with them for a game.

* * * * *

Blood Angel deployment, he also has first turn.

In 732.M48 the Shrine world of Skorvald was enveloped in a large warp storm originating from the Dalmas Rift, a nearby, naturally-occuring phenomena. As Skorvald tossed and skipped on the eddies of the Warp, it drew the attention of the Changer of Ways. Mutation spread throughout the populace. The people began to lose hope, and that was almost the end of it. Some amongst the inhabitants began to worship the Dark Gods, some fully embracing Tzeentch and the mutation, others towards bloody Khorne. Eventually these warring factions broke into civil war.
As this occured in the mortal plane, Tzeentch and Khorne began to observe from on high, and made a wager. They would each send their best followers to the planet, and the winner would attain the whole planet, as well as the loyalty of the losing survivors. Tzeentch sent his representatives, while Khorne sent ten of his most powerful Bloodthirsters and Daemon Princes. Khorne was so certain of their victory he did not worry about losing the loyalty of these most powerful Daemons. For thirty days and nights the Khornate Daemons fought the followers of Tzeentch on every face of the planet, and it was torn asunder.
Khorne proved dominant in most of these battles, so it was that only small cadre of Tzeentch Daemons remained when the Blood Angels arrived. Summoned by astropathic relay, but too late to save the populace, the Sons of Sanguinius struck to the planet with red fury, falling on the Daemons as they cavorted in the corpses of the fallen. Though they suffered heavy losses, the Blood Angels were able to push the Skorvald Incursion from real space, and secure the planet for future re-population.

My initial drop. I land three Bloodletter units (with Skulltaker), Fiends, and Horrors.

I dropped a bit too close and half my Bloodletters get Furious Charged away. Skulltaker kills Mephiston 9 times out of 10, but this time I failed two of four 2+ Invulnerables and die before I can Instant Kill him on a 4+.

This game was characterized by these brutal combat phases.

Here you can see the Fiends engaged with his Devastators. You can also see what is left of his initial charge into my Bloodletters.

Again I drop a bit too close, but it is where my Icon was. My Bloodthirster mishapped and died without doing anything (didn't use the Icon with him).

My beautiful newly arrived unit is wiped out without mercy.

My Daemon Princes land on his flanks and start taking out units with Breath and assault. They were definitely MVPs of my army.

The game went a full seven turns and this is how it ended, his last five scoring models charging in and killing the last unit in my army. He had ten models left. If Skulltaker had killed Mephiston and my Bloodthirster hadn't mishapped I feel like it could have been a very different game.

Here are the army lists we used:

Mephiston
2*Priests w/ Jump Pack, Power Weapon, Melta Bombs

4*(10*Assault Marines w/ 2*Meltaguns, Power Fist)
2*(5*Devastators w/ 3*Missles)
5*Devastators w/ 4*Missles

Bloodthirster w/ Blessing of Khorne
Skulltaker
Herald of Tzeentch w/ Bolt
5*Fiends w/ Unholy Might
5*Horrors w/ Bolt, Changeling (who I forgot about)
5*Bloodletter w/ Icon
2*(12*Bloodletters)
11*Bloodletters
2*(Daemon Prince of Tzeentch w/ Bolt, Breath)

If I do end up using this army for the tournament I will be switching out the Heralds for a second Bloodthirster and switching the small Horrors and Bloodletter units for Plaguebearers, then maybe adding some Flesh Hounds or a third Prince. No way to really slice it, I just don't have the pieces for a fully competitive Daemon army.

From the Tables...The Purging of Kasr Sund

So this week I played a 2000 point , Spearhead, three objective Seize Ground mission against Imperial Guard. I used a balanced mechanized list. The opposition was classic MechVets. We ended up with an objective in each or our deployment zones, with the third roughly in the middle. It would be a tough time to get to the objective in the middle of his parking lot, so my objective had to be hold my own and absolutely smash the middle.
* * * * * *

In 731.M39 the planetary governor of the fortress world of Kasr Sund designated himself Chief Magnate of Sund and immediately ceased all payment of Imperial tithes. The High Lords of Terra censured the rebel planet and dispatched the Lamenters to break the command structure of the planet. A Strike Force under the auspices of the Chapters Chief Librarian landed in the heart of the capitol under suppressing firepower from the Battle Barge 'Heart of Fury'. A swift and bloody battle followed, which saw Kasr Sund justly returned to Imperial rule.

My deployment as the Vendettas Scout forward. That solid tower in
my deployment zone is impassable. This becomes relevant.

His first turn fire was decent, wrecking one 'Baal', immobilizing a Rhino, and stunning the other 'Baal'. You can see above how I was forced to swing out to the left around the stunned tank and the impassible tower. My immobilized Rhino blocked the other way.

The squad from the immobile Rhino disembark and charge into a Veteran squad.

Here you can see that Mephiston hitching a ride in the Devastators Razorback. My Devastators knocked down both Vendettas.

The frag cannon Furioso isn't great against an entirely mechanized foe, but you can see above I got hit on the side armour of two Chimeras and did some damage. The Furiosos real strength in this mission was forcing my opponent to pull units from the center back towards his lines to deal with him.

Mephiston hopped out and ate a Veteran squad in the upper left, while the Assault squad takes one out in the lower right. I blow the cannon off the Demolisher.

Here you can see the havoc the Furioso caused. Both of those disembarked units moved back a full twelve inches to get to him. Both the Furioso and the Drop Pod went on to explode with magnificent explosions, killing over half of the Veteran squad and breaking them.

They knock off the cannon, but it takes the Librarian
charging in with his Sanguine Sword to wreck it.

Mephiston bounds off and wrecks the Company Command Chimera.
My Assault squads start cleaning up the middle.

What remained of this unit after a round of rapid-fire plasma wrecked another Chimera.

Through cover and fortunate positioning, Mephisotn gets gets all the way into the IG deployment zone with three wounds remaining.

These five Cadians were the last Imperial Guardsmen near the middle,
and they didn't last long. Lamenter Objective.

Mephiston tears into the backfield, causing major disruptions. Uncontested Objective.

If you take care of business, you get to go home early. Lamenter Objective.

Here are the army lists we used:

Company Command Squad w/ 3*Meltaguns, Officer of the Fleet, Chimera
6*Sanctioned Psykers, Chimera
2*(Veterans w/ 3*Melta)
Veterans w/ 3*Melta, Chimera)
3*(Veterans w/ 3*Plasmaguns, Chimera)
2*(Vendetta)
2*(Manticore)

Mephiston
Librarian w/ Sword, Shield
Furioso w/ Frag Cannon, Heavy Flamer, Searchlight, Drop Pod
Priest
8*Assault Marines w/ Meltagun, Power Fist, Rhino
2*(10*Assault Marines w/ 2*Meltaguns, Power Fist, Rhino)
2*('Baal' Predator w/ Assault Cannon)
2*Land Speeder Typhoon w/ Heavy Flamer
5*Devastators w/ 4*Missle Launchers
5*Devastators w/ 4*Missle Launchers, Razorback