They rise! - 1500 pts Necrons vs Black Scorpions!

Zaitus sat comfortably in the ruined tavern. He'd cleard the rubble and made himself a nice cozy space. He sat there, peering out into the darkness...waiting. This sector was quiet but his instincts were telling him otherwise. HQ had ordered them to dig in and protect the landing sites. In the distant he could hear the continual whoosh and thump of thunderhawks. The civilians that were slowly dying of radiation poisoning were being evacuated. Many had hid in shelters and underground bunkers. They would be safe now, Zaitus thought to himself, but at a cost. Rescue would be granted in return for eternal allegiance. The dark times ahead would require every man and woman to stand a post and fight. Better they die fighting than decaying slowing in a rotten bunker... before he could finish his thoughts Zaitus spotted something in the darkness. Something slithering. He quickly thumbed his comms. 'HQ this is Zaitus, we have company! Request immediate fire mission on the following coordinates'

In the distance great flashes of light revealed the aliens slinking towards his lines. Zaitus saw the thumping artillery rain in amongst them, an earth shattering display of power. They would hold the line!

1500 pts - Necrons vs Black Scorpions - Maelstrom - Contact Lost

Black Scorpions - 2 scout squads in Storms, a fire raptor, 5 assault marines, a Knight Titan, 3 thunderfires, Telion and sniper scouts and finally 3 quad mortars.

Necrons - 20 warriors and a cryptek, 20 immortals, 6 wraiths, 6 destroyers and 2 night scythes.

Rik seized the intiative! He only deployed his wraiths and destroyers. They, due to the dark night only managed to take a hull point off a landspeeder as they surged forward.

My knight and artillery pounded the wraiths killing 2. My blind missiles blinded a squad of destroyers. In the assault phase I took down 3 more wraiths leaving only 1 left.

We scored no victory points.

Artillery!

 Turns 2 and 3

Rik flew in with a night scythe and took a few hull points off the night with his 20 man warrior squad. The scouts were whittled down to 2 men. The wraith was still locked.

My artillery pounded the warriors. I scored 55 hits from 12 blasts! (they were really bunched up!) I killed 8 warriors. My knight then jumped in and stomped the crap out of them rolling a six! Slay the warlord! My fire raptor unleashed everything at the night scythe but its evasive protocols were simply too swift. out of 8 glancing/penetrating hits, ALL were jinked with incredible 4+ rolling!

 The necrons were struggling to make head way as important units were locked in combat and the knight was absorbing a fair amount of fire. It was looking grim for the necron scouting party. In turn 3 another night scythe came in with immortals and again they were POUNDED by accurate artillery. The force of the shots wiping them out.

Turn 4

 The Necrons didn't have much that wasn't locked in combat and suffered. The knight was stripped to 2 hull points. My turn 4 was again a shower of deadly artillery and knighty-ness. Rik graciously conceded the game at this point as the necrons were overwhelmed by the entrenched positions.


End score 5-1 Black Scorpion Victory!

Zaitus reloaded his smoking bolter, It was hot from the constant shooting. The artillery barrells next to him were glowing with heat too. As dawn came the decaying forest was pock-marked with craters and shattered alien remains. This scouting party had probed the lines and paid dearly for their mistake. They were incomprehensible thought Zaitus. Their intentions impossible to discern. Their motivations a mystery. The Lord Baron Vaydus had brutalised them in his titan, Night Reaper. Zaitus was impressed.... the young noble had been eager for battle and proved himself a valuable ally. 'HQ This is Zaitus. The enemy has been neutralised. Request reinforcements on stand-by. They will be back'

Conclusion:

A fun game. Well fought all round. Rik came at me with a well rounded force but again, as most people do, struggled with the sheer range and number of artillery shells. The thunderfires and Telion (zaitus) are a potent combo. The flexibility of high-strength, accuracy and rending is a potent mix. When whole squads of necrons are being pummeled into dust, you know it's a powerful unit.... maybe too powerful. I felt my tactics were on point today, bunker up with artillery while distracted the advancing forces with sacrificial scouts and assault squad.

With necrons, if you can hold up the nasty units like wraiths etc, you have 1-2 turns of free shooting as their range of 24 inches causes problems. Putting the right units in the right place is key. I feel though, that my tactics are getting predictable... a canny commander will come along and find holes and weaknesses.

Great game all round. Thanks to Rik.

Man of the match: Has to be the thunderfires, for just killing tons o stuff. 

Lords of Destruction - Space Marine Centurions

Space marine Centurions! -

When these models first came out I laughed at how ugly they were. They were just hideous, blocky, weird looking mech suits. I found a cool conversion online that slimmed them down a lot and made them just... more in proportion. I asked for some my birthday and the glorious bunch of friends/nemesi presented some to me! w00t!

Original.... bleurgh.

I proceeded to convert them as planned. I wanted to put some effort into the black paint scheme. I've seen so many black paint schemes where the black is so nice and matt. So clean. Mine always turns out a bit crappy. This time would be different. I first bought the two shades of grey highlights that I'd be needing, rather than trying to mix black and white each time. I also tried a new technique of starting with a much lighter basecoast. A dark grey rather than jet black.

The recipe is something like this: Black undercoat, dark grey basecoat, eshin grey highlight, administratum grey highlight followed by washing the whole thing in nuln oil. The oil blends the highlights and darkens the dark grey basecoat making everything look much neater. It's my first attempt and I'm very pleased. It just looks a bit tidier.

 I also hated the idea of the hurricane bolters being mounted on the thorax so I moved them over to wrist mounted guns with ammo belts from zinge industries.

 With Biotitans and Wraithknights entering the local meta, Grav cannons will be essential. I've also figured out that they can, at a push, be quite excellent anti-air. it's 6's to hit and 6's to glance BUT with 15 re-roll to hit and re-roll to glance there's a good chance for damage, and when grav cannons damage vehilces, they're immobilised, meaning planes and flyers can crash & burn.

C&C welcome

A prison for Gods - The Wraithkind cometh!

This will be a brief summary. As this game was a whopping 4000 pts I'll be making this slighter short than normal.

Rottimus - Black Scorpions and Hydrobian 8th + Mystery assassin.

Wimaro - Iybraesil Eldar of all sizes and shapes!


The Mission! - Maelstrom of War, Contact Lost + a special Relic!

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Azeron waited patiently for word from his scouts. They had found the Colonel! The man who had last seen the betrayer, the coward, the fool - Chaplain Siobar. He was last seen at the ruined church, preaching against his own Legion. He claimed we had fallen, abandoned the Emperor. Azeron would find him and slay that foul traitor. The Colonel would be the key. The local PDF had followed the Chaplain offworld and only the Colonel knew where they were going. 
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We'd be playing contact lost, where you generate 1 objective at your first turn, then an amount equal to the objectives you control. In the middle of the table there would lie a lost Colonel! A man with vital information! (we counted him as a relic, 3 points at the end of the game to whoever controlled him)

 The Eldar force arrayed against me were fearsome! 2 wraith knights, wraith guard. A crimson hunter flyer detachment, Dire avengers in Falcons, Harlequins! Jet bike doom!

 I on the otherhand brought some nasty stuff too. 2 fire raptors, a Vulture gunship, some Stalker tanks. I had a whole pile of death company each squad accompanied by Azeron (dante) and Evodius (astorath) They would be bringing the pain!

 An aegis line with a solid 30 man platoon would hold the line!

 William infiltrated his Snipers right into my lines! super sneaky stuff!

The lost colonel would be a tough but rewarding target. 2 scout squads infiltrating in oreder to take him back to safety/interrogation

Turn 1

Wimaro won the roll off. Psychic shenaniganz started. Shrouding and invisibling (is that a word?) his wraithknight. He went first and opened fire! His snipers killed two flamer men. A chimera was blown sky high, killing some veterans. A land speeder storm died too. Fearsome pulse laser and bright lance fire vapourised a stalker tank! Scatter lasers and shuriken fire whizzed through my lines killing a few death company. The wraithknight with the sword stormed headlong into my lines. - Wimaro scores First blood & Behind enemy lines - 2 vp

I responded to that nasty first turn. A Culexus came down in a drop pod with a tactical squad in his back lines. My trap was sprung, the Culexus removes all blessings within 12 inches. No more invisibility. With so many nasty targets present I'd have to try my best to kill the nastiest stuff. My stalkers and quad gun downed a waveserpent, spilling out the wraithscythes. Thunderfire cannon fire saved my ass and killed them all. The flamers killed lots of guardians and the culexus mind-raped the Farseer gaining slay the warlord!

The chimera is destroyed

I took 4 wounds off the nasty wraithknight with the quad cannons. My grav bikers did NOTHING. Wimaro passed his 3 feel no pains. Doing well I thought! In close combat Astorath killed the lone solitaire in close combat, Azeron, with 10 death company sallied forth! 56 attacks did....... ZERO damage to the wraith the knight. In return, the knight stomped the 3 bikers to death, and squished Azeron(dante) and 4 death company marines. What a disaster! SQUISH!

The brave company fight on!

2 stomp attacks....:(

I scored Slay the Warlord and Behind Enemy Lines - 2 vp

Turn 2

Crimson death arrives!

Wimaro had endured the turn. He had loads left to damage me with. Planes came in! Failing to do anything except lose hullpoints. A sad start. William pushed forward, killing more scouts. With vicious fire the other death company squad was decimated, only 2 remained. Wimaro scored Objective 6&4  - 4 VP so far

This game would be tough, my 2 best units had been all but annhiliated. Holding the line would be rough. I drew decent cards. My reserves were a failure, 1 raptor and 1 vulture would be coming to help. My shooting this turn ranged from great to beyond awful. 12 quad cannon shots all failed to wound the second wraith knight. (9 dice, not a single 4+), I took some hull points off the falcons and tried to thin wimaro's left flank (full of wraith beings). I had to kill characters. My fire raptor strafed the hell out of the warlock killing him. The Shadowseer harlequins was killed by the culexus and the tacticals killed the spiritseer. 3 vital leaders killed! I also managed to rout the snipers in my backlines. A squad of veterans and guardmens had been fighting them for 2 turns.

I scored Objective 1, Scour the Skies and Assasinate D3 (2) - 6 VP so far

Turn 3

Wimaro still had a very strong force on the table. This was attrition. His sword wraith knight was still fighting the death company who were fearless. His falcons were still functional and very dangerous. Another stalker fell to the vicious fire. A score of guardsmen were killed by shooting too.

The Wraithlord charged in and killed astorath with ease! The wraithguard targeted the tacticals in the back only managed a single kill. At this point Williams force was showing signs of lessened strength. Still strong, but not able to put pressure in the right places. Wimaro scored  Objective 6 - VP 5

 I move out and tryed to score some objectives whilst minimising the damage being taking. While it seems at this point to be an even game, I was worried. My main nasty units were dead and there were still 2 wraithknights and a wraithlord on the table. Soon enough I'd have nothing left to do damage to toughness 8. An assault squad with 2 meltas, 3 autocannons, a lascannon, 3 quad cannons and the full force of a fire raptor was needed to take the last 2 wounds of that wraithknight. Only just, but it died... finally! I stupidly forgot to shoot my Vulture! 20 punisher shots that would have mauled the wraithguard moving toward my culexus... BAH!   I scored Objective 1 & 4

8-5 was the score so far!

The 2nd wraithknight mired in small bodies!

 Turn 4

Wimaro drew 2 cards, 1 was unachievable. The other was charge 3 units for D3 points. He shot what he could shoot and charged 3 units! He managed all of the them and rolled a 6! 3 victory points! Wrath of Khaine 3vpTying up the game! 8-8 In close combat tho, my techmarines killed the Wraithlord with powerfist attacks! Phew!

My turn 4 was also short, we were running out of stuff on the table. It had been carnage! I managed to clean up well in this turn. I killed off as many small units as I could. Remnants here and there fell to accurate fire. I killed 3 units gaining Overwhelming Firepower & Swift Advance - 3 VP

8-11

Still tied up!

Culexus fails and Dies!

Assault squad kills the last serpent!

 Turn 5

At this point either all of wimaro's units were tied up in close combat or dead. He controlled no objectives at this point and thus drew no cards. His wraithknight stomped the last brave scout and was free from the close combat that had tied him up for 3 turns. He was no open to be firing on me this turn.

My turn 5 I controlled 4 objectives, meaning I drew 4 cards. Miraculously I drew ones I could achieve: Secure objective 2, Big game hunter, Ascendency (control 3 obj) 1 other which I can't remember. We decided to just see what I could do. I pumped eveything I had into the wraithknight. I managed to kill it, just. I had the objectives and scored a whopping 6 VP.

We decided to end it there. The lost colonel ended up not being taken by either force. His location was the sight of a huge battle between the wraithknight and the guardsmen!

CONCLUSION

Exhausting... that's the only word I can come up with that sums it up for me. There were so many random things that happened that aren't covered in this report. 4000pts is A LOT!

The battle itself was brutal. I achieved victory through sheer luck. I had more models on the table, in the right place. The Eldar list Wimaro brought was tough as nails. The carnage on both sides was incredible. At times it was incredibly frustrating. The 1st Wraithknight soaked up SO much firepower. Wimaro just kept making his feel no pain or 5+ invulnerable saves. Stomping 400 points worth of models in one go was a sore one too!

Wimaro asked me at the end where I think he went wrong, and I do not have an answer. I simply had more stuff on the table in the end. Eldar jetbikes do not impress me. They're expensive and die too easily. Wraithguard are tough as nails but like terminators, are hard to get to the right place. His autarch and around 350 points of wraithknights were busy fighting tacticals in his back lines instead of pressuring mine.

My planes are just brutal, the fire raptor is a BEAST and the vulture with punisher cannons is just pure bullet sprayage.

Unit of the match: The Thunderfires. They are just OP. The guns themselves took out a squad of wraithscythes, Wrecked 3 falcons and then took on a wraithlord and 5 dire avengers in closecombat, defeating them! BEASTMODE!

We ended the game on a sort of strange note. Part of me wanted Wimaro to win this game so he can take the OP Throne from me. Alas, twas not to be. It's time for me to take a break from this campaign, lick my wounds and fortify. I've feel like I've overplayed a little and it's time others got more engaged. 

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 Captain harkol surveyed the battlefield. He was cut and wounded in a dozen places. The field of battlefield was littered with corpses. The Eldar lay amongst black armoured space marines and tan fatigued troopes. Blood pooled everywhere. Smoking ruins of gargantuan constructs and burning hulks of tanks were everywhere. Acrid smoke hung thick in the air. It was hell. The screams of the dying and wounded echoed out over the field. Harkol was shaken to his core. The marines had won the day but he'd never seen them die in such numbers. Those few that were alive stood solemnly in the smoke, ever dutiful, patrolling around. The Colonel was dead, sucumbed to his wounds. The information he had would die with him. Harkol fell back onto a rock and sat, head in hands. He'd never been through anything like this. When those two huge creatures were bearing down on them it seemed like the end was coming. Harkol thanked the emperor for the pilots of those attack ships. They had screamd overhead in the nick of time, saving all of them.

 

A Prison for Gods - The Gospel of Fear is Taken!

Librarian Hammerhand stood in the ancient control centre. The computers were now running. The script was human but an old dialect, one from before the age of strife. Techmarines with their fire teams were reporting in constantly. System after system was coming online, slowly... the hulk was stabilising. It would take a few weeks but soon enough the Black Scorpions would be able to steer it and begin the long process of excavation. There were still pockets of resistance, the Krieg force had fought bravely but their will was broken. The agonising screams of the retreating men could be heard through their comms. Fleeing into the darkness was a poor choice thought Hammerhand. He knew the spectral denizens of the deeper levels were fearsom opponents. For now, those strange phasing creatures had slinked back off into the darkness. They would return soon enough. Brother Gorgu had returned from his patrol 
'My lord, the preacher has seemingly escaped. We discovered some of his men dismembered and butchered at the entranced to Eldar section of the hulk. We did not pursue him. The structural integrity of that sector is unstable at best. We found this' 
Gorgu held up a blood spattered rosarius. 'I think it belonged to him'
'Keep it for yourself Gorgu. If you are pure of heart and believe in the Emperor, it will protect you, That preacher was a false prophet, not even worthy of a bolt shell to the face'

With Two Zone mortalis games to play Thomas mustered his men! One of us would be taking the Space Hulk today!

Preacher Hopkings attempts to bless the dice!

Game 1

This game was 750 pts. We played attacker vs defender. The Scorpions defended 3 objectives placed in the space hulk corridors. We started off, as usual, cat and mouse, waiting for the opportune time to strike. At turn two Necrons appear! Out of the darkness a wraith appears and attacks my men! It was promptly killed but distracted me and allowed Thomas' men to get close. Alas their move was foolhardy and psychic flame did it's work. More necrons appeared, this time closer Thomas. 4 warriors killed some men and forced them to run! That made most of Thomas' forced crowd a single section. They were incinerated by righteous flames! Victory for the Black Scorpions.

NOTE: Thomas again managed the great feat of rolling a ridiculous amount of 1's for his plasma weapons! We calculated at this point that out of 7 attempts to rapid fire a plasma gun, Thomas had rolled a 1 on all of them and snake eyes twice!

The stormtrooper plasma gunner kills himself!

Game 2

Game 2 went even quicker. A game with 5 things to sabotage ended up with 3 of them being taken down quickly by the Scorpions. Only wiping me out would seal Victory for the krieg guard. We played on. Turn 6 ended and so did the game. Victory for the Scorpions!

The Gospel of Fear is now 100% in control of the Black Scorpions!


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Strange reports have surfaced of a strange figure amongst the Sentinels of Fire. He walks among them, guiding them, extoling them, leading them. His panoply his a mystery, his origin unknown. A hero? A heretic? A traitor? or something else?