Battle for Rigel XII

After my short break away from 40K I fancied a game against my chum Jon. Originally we were going to be playing 1000 points but after that game was postponed I had the idea of making 1500 points and trying something special - I borrowed my newphew's collection of Sisters of Battle. I knew that I was not going to win against Necrons but I would have fun and perhaps playing a different army than my regular Death Guard would be a nice change of pace.

On the night we rolled up the Relic mission along with the standard Dawn of War deployment. I don't think rocking up with a Sisters army was quite the surprise I was hoping it would be but I think we both knew it would be an interesting fight. What surprised me was Jon's list. It was nearly all destroyers and tomb blade's where I was expecting a lot of necron warriors - a traditional necron army. Okay, I thought, going to be tough but I can do this.

Due to terrain and the position of the Relic I was set up on the left hand side of the table. I won the roll off but Jon stole the intitive, an act of random luck which would seal my fate this game. First turn and his necron forces destroyed both exorcist tanks, one squad of death cult assassins and half a squad of battle sisters. I suppose I should have thought about protecting them better but I really needed those exorcist tanks. Jon was also able to swiftly grab the Relic. In my turn I think I moved up but did nothing in the shooting phase other than knock a wound off of something. This was going to be the way of game went.

As the game progressed I tried to advance forward as for some reason Jon was moving the destroyer unit holding the Relic towards my lines. Again though Jon's necrons, especially the tomb blades, were tearing their way my lines with their shooting. Two rhino's went down along with a couple Sisters from each.

I dropped Celestine behind the necron lines and a unit of seraphim to my right to try and deal with the tomb blades creeping forwards. Celestine and her friends were dropped with one round of shooting from immortals, and she had to pop up out of sight on the other side of terrain. The seraphim were gunned down and did nothing all game. Turn four and all I had left was Celestine. She got one of her friends back, charged into the destroyers holding the Relic and died after dropping three of them.

Game ended with myself being tabled.

I enjoyed the game although I made a couple mistakes but I blame them on my being out of 40K for a while. I think Jon admitted a mistake but it was all fair in a good casual game.

I have been pondering whether to play Adeptas Sorioritas next year when they come out in plastic but they would need a severe boost over the Index. The Index list did nothing for me really but against a full on codex army, I don't think I had much of a chance. Very good fun game though.

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+++ New Roster (Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition) +++

++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Imperium - Adeptus Ministorum) ++

+ HQ +

Canoness: Boltgun, Power sword

Canoness: Blade of Admonition, Boltgun, Power sword

Celestine: 3. Tenacious Survivor, Celestine, 2x Geminae Superia, Warlord

+ Troops +

Battle Sister Squad
. . 9x Battle Sister
. . Battle Sister w/ Special or Heavy Weapon: Heavy bolter
. . Battle Sister w/ Special Weapon: Flamer
. . Sister Superior: Bolt pistol, Boltgun

Battle Sister Squad
. . 9x Battle Sister
. . Battle Sister w/ Special or Heavy Weapon: Heavy bolter
. . Battle Sister w/ Special Weapon: Flamer
. . Sister Superior: Bolt pistol, Boltgun

Battle Sister Squad
. . 9x Battle Sister
. . Battle Sister w/ Special or Heavy Weapon: Heavy bolter
. . Battle Sister w/ Special Weapon: Flamer
. . Sister Superior: Bolt pistol, Boltgun

Battle Sister Squad
. . 9x Battle Sister
. . Battle Sister w/ Special or Heavy Weapon: Heavy bolter
. . Battle Sister w/ Special Weapon: Flamer
. . Sister Superior: Bolt pistol, Boltgun

+ Elites +

Death Cult Assassins: 5x Death Cult Assassins

+ Fast Attack +

Seraphim Squad: 5x Seraphim
. . Seraphim Superior: Bolt pistol, Bolt pistol

+ Heavy Support +

Exorcist: Storm bolter

Exorcist: Storm bolter

+ Dedicated Transport +

Sororitas Rhino: 2x Storm bolter

Sororitas Rhino: 2x Storm bolter

++ Total: [105 PL, 1435pts] ++

Deployment.

A clash of arms in the center of the table. 

The Sisters of Battle march to war!

Where am I right now?

I've been out of the 40K side of things for a couple months now. Partly because a loss in the family which required my attention and partly because I have begun to sense a slip in my enjoyment of the game.

I still feel that the 8th edition rules are by far the best that we've had but lately two things have started to bother me. One is the level of competitiveness that is emerging locally and for me it is sapping a lot of my enjoyment. The other is just the sheer amount of FAQ and rules updates that have appeared in the last year and a bit since this edition has dropped. I'm not even sure what order to apply things anymore. Thank goodness Battlescribe handles that well enough.

When 8th came out, all we had were the rulebooks and the indexes. The game felt balanced and fun. The codexes have lost that in favour of a more powergaming style approach. It almost feels like the old days of codex creep. In the beginning I was having a lot more fun and my win to loss ratio was about 50/50. These days unless I am playing against a fellow casual gamer (and there aren't that many locally) I feel that playing has once again become a serious chore. So I have stepped away from 40K for the most part. Give myself a break, play another game which has quickly become more popular for me, and see where I am in a couple months.

It also has not helped that I have become somewhat disillusioned with my Death Guard. I just feel that they don't have what I want anymore. I keep looking at other armies but nothing grabs me. Either I stick to Death Guard or I go back to my old space marine army, which I would rather not do. I'm also pondering whether I should look at Genestealer Cult or wait until next year for the Adeptus Sororitas release - see if they can be made playable.


I know this feels all negative and ugh but that is where I am with 40K right now. I'm not going to give up on it but I think the number of games I'll be playing will drop off a bit.Something needs to give me that big push again, and maybe a short break will do me good.

Worlds of the Narrative: Svartos.

Planet: Svartos.
Segmentum: Solar.
Sector: Midgard.
System: Svartos.
Surveyed: M39.
Planets:
Svartos  - Ice World.

Summery:
A little known world orbiting a pale white star. Svartos was discovered a few years before the end of the Great Crusade and granted by the Emperor to the Space Wolves legion. The frozen ice fields and great volcanos spewing a constant flow of a lava reminded the legion of their own frozen home world. Under Leman Russ the legion constructed a mighty fortress. From here they could protect the coreward advances towards Terra from any potential threats. The fortress is still in use now and with the forces of Chaos slowly making their way towards the seat of Imperial power, the fortress has been resupplied and the garrison increased.

Size: Equatorial distance - 745 miles.
Gravity: 0.62 G.
Satellites: One moon.
Population: None.
Orbit: 152 million miles from it's star. Leviticus 426 takes 248 days to complete one orbit.
Climate: Mean surface temperature of -63 degrees centigrade.

Svartos lies in the path of Abbadon's advance towards Holy Terra. The Space Wolves fortress must fall to prevent them attacking the flank of the traitor forces. Once more, the Death Guard are nominated for this task, much to the chagrin of the Thousand Sons. His eyes now set upon this prize, the great plague fleet of Typhus descends upon the Space Wolves fortress planet.

Notes: This is the world for battles against the Space Wolves. I felt that with the possibility of Leman Russ returning, that they should have their own battle zone.

Tide of Battle:
Deathwatch. victories: 0.
Death Guard victories: 0.
Draws: 0

Necropolis Street Fight - Cerberus

Planet: Cerberus.
Region: Cerberus sector.

Death Guard vs Neotian Saints (Cadian).
500 points.
Mission: N/A.
Deployment: Dawn of War.

Sometimes the smallest engagements can turn the tides of battle. For three months the Imperium have been attempting to dislodge the Death Guard from their holdings in the city of Necropolis but to no avail. Space marines, grey knights and even a small force of Titans have been unsuccessful. The final deciding engagement occurred when two scouting forces met in the rubble strewn streets shortly after dawn...

My good friend Mister Landon has been looking to join our merry gang of Warhammer players for a while and this week we met up at the club for a basic training game. His army of choice is an Astra Militarum (boo! hiss!) regiment named the Neotian Saints (Cadian doctrine). At 500 points neither of us were going to have a lot so we just played 4x4 board with terrain laid out in a X pattern. My points were pretty much two plague marine units and a lord of contagion. I really hoped Landon wouldn't roll out a tank but that's what he did. But it did make for a very interesting game.

Despite setting my army up first, Landon got the first turn and I elected not to seize the initiative. Before the game started Landon activated a stratagem that triggered a pre-emptive bombardment which killed a single plague marine.

The first couple of turns were fairly simple as my opponent moved up on my left with his guardsmen and leman russ, and his taurox sped forward to my more undefended right flank. I lost a couple plague marines to the imperial tank but it would eventually have bad rolls with it's random shots which helped me out. Once I had started moving up the middle of the table, a squad of scions and his warlord dropped down behind me and another squad jumped out of the taurox.

Over a couple turns my lord of contagion hacked his way through all of these, including the taurox. At best he took one wound which was healed via his tainted regeneration war lord trait. With these down Landon was left with one guardsmen squad and his leman russ. My squad with the meltagun moved closer to it, pinning it in place, stripping a couple wounds and then smashing into assault. While by the game ended, I hadn't destroyed it but I did get it down to it's lowest setting.

The game went to 6 before it ended and I won on 4 victory points to 0. A very good game and one that I thought I was going to lose purely down to the presence of the leman russ on the table. In hindsight, my opponent needed to sit it at the back in a good field of fire rather than slowly grind it forwards. In the end I think my ability in assault compared to his guardsmen that won me the game.

I really look forward to the next match we have. If Landon has expanded his army up to 1000 points we can play a regular mission and give him a better experience. The only thing that was a problem for me was a lack of playing 40K for a couple months which meant I had to look up some silly stuff like Rapid Fire because I had completely forgotten (too much playing a different game). Time to hit the rulebook again!

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++ Patrol Detachment (Chaos - Death Guard) ++

+ HQ +

Lord of Contagion: 3. Tainted Regeneration, Manreaper, The Suppurating Plate, Warlord

+ Troops +

Plague Marines: Icon of Despair
. . Plague Champion
. . . . Codex: Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. . 4x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Meltagun
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun

Plague Marines: Icon of Despair
. . Plague Champion
. . . . Codex: Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. . 4x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plague Spewer
. . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight launcher

++ Total: [27 PL, 484pts] ++

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The Taurox rumbles forward.

The foolish minions of the false emperor!!!

Plague marines holding out in the ruins.

Like manreaping grox in a barrel!