Update on Return from Vacay Scars

 I did finish the set of White Scars I wanted to do after vacation this summer... just in time for another short vacation! 

A squad of five Infiltrators for my White Scars. This makes two, and now I have a full Strike Team Solarien painted for games of Combat Patrol. #40K #WhiteScars #PaintingWarhammer #WarhammerCommunity

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— countelmdor.bsky.social (@countelmdor.bsky.social) Aug 16, 2024 at 3:27 PM

This marks the end of this current round of Scars. I've already moved on to some more Alpha Legion in Epic scale, and I'm halfway through a little project there. More on that later. 

Return from Vacay XXIV

White Scars Stormseer in Phobos pattern armor. #40K #WhiteScars #WarhammerCommunity #PaintingWarhammer

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— countelmdor.bsky.social (@countelmdor.bsky.social) Jul 23, 2024 at 9:10 PM

 I wasn't sure what I wanted to work on, hobby-wise, after coming home from a few weeks abroad. I have decided for now to finish off enough models on my shelf so that I'll have the complete roster of one of the two Space Marines' 10th Edition Combat Patrol lists done up. That meant one Librarian in Phobos Armour, and 5 Infiltrators, to bring me up to a total of 10. The other stuff in the list I already had done from some time ago. 

I've finished the Librarian, as you can see above, but I've yet to begin work on the Infiltrators, which are built and primed white at the moment.

Army Building - Chaos in M41, and Heresy Mega Battle Prep

The three Marines Malcontent I mentioned last post turned out well. I had some momentum going on my Chaos stuff, so I kept it up by building some cultists, a couple of Obliterators, and a Venomcrawler from my shelf stock. All are now also primed with Zandri Dust spray and awaiting further attention.

More Leginaries join the Marines Malcontent warband! They’re in a huff about the Imperium’s ways and are going to throw a tantrum on the battlefield! Also pictured: Zone Mortalis terrain for my table. #Warhammer40K #Chaos #HereticAstartes #PaintingWarhammer #WarhammerCommunity

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— countelmdor.bsky.social (@countelmdor.bsky.social) Jun 8, 2024 at 4:04 PM

The box of cultists I had was originally released as a part of Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress, so it only included 7 models of the 10 that are needed for a full unit. I happened to have 3 little weird guys on 25mm bases that would make up the difference. These are technically the retinue of Lord Inquisitor Hector Rex, whom I use in my Grey Knights army as Kaldor Draigo. I like to think they are very confused to be running with 7 random Chaos Cultists. The box also included a Cultist Firebrand, who is these days sold separately. I painted that model in a single day to a pretty decent standard, bringing my total of Chaos Space Marines faction models fully painted and playable up to 13.

quick paintjob today on this Cultist Firebrand #Warhammer40K #Chaos #HereticAstartes #PaintingWarhammer #WarhammerCommunity

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— countelmdor.bsky.social (@countelmdor.bsky.social) Jun 10, 2024 at 5:14 PM

My next step would probably have been to paint those 10 cultists for him to lead, but I kind of decided at the last moment (7 days out) that I would bring White Scars to the Horus Heresy mega-battle a local player is hosting at his house this coming Saturday.

I would really like to bring much of what I have suitable and painted, plus another couple of Drop Pods and a third Predator tank. Of those, I built the pods yesterday, and hope to be able to get them primed today, and potentially get that Predator built as well. Or at least started. With a tank I prefer to base coat the hull prior to gluing the already painted tracks on, which adds a little time to the whole process, but is I think worth it in the end.

Army Building - More Sagyar Mazan, A Tank, and a Palate Cleanser

 As I mentioned in the last post, and in the manner specified, I polished off the first Tactical Squad for the White Scars Sagyar Mazan list. I also painted up the second one, to the same point minus transfers. That gives me two full units nearly done for the list. What's left will be to finish transfers on them, since I'm not sure I am happy with the amount I put on the first squad so far, then do an oil wash for weathering, and finally the bases.

I had for nearly two years had a Leman Russ battle tank mostly assembled and primed, and one day last week when I felt like airbrushing something, I got it out and pretty quickly decided on a color and got it sprayed in a nice hunter green that is only mostly opaque over the model's white primer coat, giving it a nice mottled look consistent with some wintry camo schemes I have either seen or am Mandela-effecting myself into thinking are real. From there I just did the metals and a couple of other small details and glued the tracks on, and the model is now battle-ready. It joins my Icthyos Rho VIII PDF "Tundra Bastion" army of Imperial Guard/Astra Militarum, which now boasts no fewer than five Leman Russ tanks! I should get that out and play it sometime, whether under the new 40K Index rules or as a Militia force in Heresy.

back during Covid I went crazy buying tons of models online for random army ideas I had. I see now I was just bored at home a lot. Anyway here’s a vintage Leman Russ Battle Tank. As it happens my Imperial Guard are mostly old metal infantry, even though I never was into this stuff until about 2016.

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— countelmdor.bsky.social (@countelmdor.bsky.social) May 27, 2024 at 8:44 AM

Speaking of getting out and playing, I suppose I should recount that I did just that with my Grey Knights army this weekend, for a full-size 2000 point game, no less. It worked out that I had a few hours free on Sunday, and my spur-of-the-moment idea to get a pickup game of 40K worked out. Alex also came up to the store with a game in mind, and happened to have his Adeptus Custodes army with him, so we spent the day playing a game which probably should not have taken quite so long, in retrospect. We did go the full 5 rounds, though. He ended up taking it 55-64, mostly due to playing the Primary better than I did, though it didn't help my case that I forgot to do secondaries a couple of times. The way the game was trending I would have tabled his army eventually, but alas that is not what decides who wins! It was fun and reassuring in a sense to get out and play a full Strike Force sized game again. Nice to use the Grey Knights rules again at least one good time before they eventually are replaced by a new Codex, which could happen before too much longer.

After finishing up that Leman Russ and second squad of Tactical Marines, I wasn't sure if I wanted to jump into another batch of White Scars right away. Add to this the fact that Chaos Space Marines have been tickling the back of my mind for a few weeks now, and I took a look at what I have currently painted for my original CSM warband, the Marines Malcontent (they're just not happy!), and found that with the addition of just 3 Legionaries models I could field a whole extra unit of them, by repurposing the 7 older Chosen models I have as one unit of 5 and 2 leftover. Adding 3 more would bring the total to 10, or two 5-man squads, which I would be able to field with the Chaos Lord and Master of Executions (formerly Exalted Champion) I also have painted currently. So, the plan at the moment is to go home today, dig out my CSM, and get started on building 3 of them to paint this week.

I could also stand to get back to hobby-related reading, as well. I've been in the middle of the Mortarion novel from the Primarchs series for entirely too long without continuing it. That's not to mention the backlog of White Dwarf issues and campaign books I have yet to really dig into.

Army Building - The Sagyar Mazan

    Over the last several years as I have gotten into various flavors of Warhammer, I have brought down upon myself a mountain of miniatures. I've gone through many iterations of my approach to painting them all, and one I've found myself taking on at present is the assembly and painting all-at-once of a fairly massive 3000-point White Scars legion force for The Horus Heresy: Age of Darkness.

    I've decided that I wanted a fresh start to White Scars for the Heresy era, specifically. Elsewhere, for the 40K era, I have a large collection of models and units painted as White Scars. Many of these work just fine across rule systems, but the particulars of the marks of armor they wear and insignia and such make them identifiably 40K models, and I want a force that I can look at and say, 'there's a V Legion force from the Horus Heresy.' 

    I had, years ago now, found a good deal on 30 Mk III infantry that I am using for this project. Ironically, in the intervening time, that armor mark has been re-issued in a newer infantry kit upscaled some. A lot of hobbyists get real into replacing models so they're only using the newest ones, but I'm not bothered by having the older ones. I continue to use a lot of Mk IV troops for my Alpha Legion force as well. The slight difference in height and bulkiness next to the newer Mk VI and III bodies out there doesn't matter to me. So, the old Mk III guys that came with the Burning of Prospero game several years ago are currently being made into Tactical marines for the army I'm building.

    It's a force designed to use the Sagyar Mazan Rite of War themed to the White Scars legion split early on in the Heresy. A portion of the legion wanted to follow Horus into rebellion, but this was pretty quickly nipped in the bud for a number of reasons as told in Chris Wraight's excellent novel Scars. After the fact, repentant legionaries were allowed a chance at redemption by being sent out on what amounted to suicide missions. They were known as the Sagyar Mazan. The rules for playing a force of them make them into a primarily infantry-focused group of fearless and uncompromising fighters heedless of their own safety. It makes them broadly above concerns of morale, and able to shrug off wounds that would otherwise kill them to get the job done. Furthermore, since they are all already written off to the legion anyhow, the opposition gain no victory points from killing them for any reason. The Sagyar Mazan are, however, precluded from bringing along any vehicles in the Heavy Support role, or Jaghatai Khan himself (or a fortification for that matter, as they are always attacking and never castled up anywhere).

    Rounding out the list I have planned, in addition to the three squads of 10-man tactical marines I mentioned above, are 5 Ebon Keshig Terminators which will be in black armor, 5 Tartaros Terminators with power fists and guns which I intend to paint mostly red, 10 more Tartaros armed with dual lightning claws, 10 Cataphractii Terminators with a mix of power swords and chainswords and with combi-bolters, 10 Heavy Support marines with lascannons, 10 Reconnaissance marines, a legion Champion consul, and as wardlord, Hibou Khan, with a small command quad retinue for him. Three Rhinos and one Spartan will be dedicated transports for the force.

    The first thing I did was build the 30 marines I had to begin with, and get those primed. I already have two of the three Rhinos I'll need painted. They're Mars-pattern, and not the more emblematic Deimos-pattern ones of the Heresy period, but they'll work. I had to acquire a third one, which I did get in Deimos-pattern, and got that built and primed as well, then base-coated everything I had so far in Ulthuan Grey Air using my airbrush. While doing some brush work on the first 10 Tactical marines and the new Rhino, I also have now built and primed the 5 Tartaros that will be in red (which are on loan from my Burning of Prospero box which I intend to keep as such) so that they can ideally pull double-duty as Thousand Sons here and there. Additionally, over the last week I built and primed the 10 Cataphractii I'll need. 

    Filling out this list meant buying several new things, including the Rhino and Cataphractii I mentioned, the resin Ebon Keshig, 10 additional Tartaros and a Spartan, as well as the heavy weapons kit for the lascannons I'm going to be using. Their bodies and those of the Recon marines are what I have leftover from the Age of Darkness launch box; what I didn't use for my Alpha Legion. For Hibou Khan, his retinue, and the Champion consul, I'll temporarily be using some of the models I painted for 40K, including the old Kor'sarro Khan and a Company Champion from the old Company Command squad. The retinue are in fact Mk IV marines, and painted black in the Ebon Keshig style, only expressly for 40K at the time.

    Hibou Khan has his own model coming in resin at some point, which I may pick up, and at which point I might switch the old Kor'sarro model over to the role of the Champion consul, and potentially rebase him to match the scheme of this new force. It would then make sense to rebase the retinue as well, but we'll see about that when the time comes. I've thought many times before about rebasing my 40K White Scars from what I now consider the ill-conceived gray gravel/earth and snow scheme I used on most of them. But that's another post.

    Another aspect of collecting a Warhammer army that I constantly think about is storage, and to a lesser extent, transportation. I favor boxes meant for fishing tackle, lures especially, because the individual compartments they feature are just about the perfect size for many miniatures. They keep the models safely ensconsed and also save space over something like a display case or magnetized larger plastic box, for general storage. For the appx 85 infantry I have planned for this force, 3 of the Flambeau Zerust 3700 (I think) model boxes will work. The vehicles will have to travel in something else, but I have a hard case with foam interior that is meant for a handgun that will work. It's what I usually bring my vehicles in for other forces.

    So, as of the current date, I have everything I need model-wise to realize this force. It's just a matter of getting everything assembled and painted. I am to the point of being able to weather my first Tactical Squad, which I am planning to do with an oil wash. I'll need to put a gloss varnish on them first, I think. I never varnish anything I paint, though I probably should. The Deimos Rhino needs some red and black on it in various places, as well as transfers. The Terminators I've primed need colors as well, and then there's everything that's yet to be assembled, as well. Most shouldn't be too arduous, but working with super glue (for the resin Ebon Keshig) is always an ordeal. I much prefer plastic so I can use the far superior plastic glue to create the bonds between pieces of a model. For assembly, then, will be 5 Ebon Keshig plus a repair on my resin Land Raider while I'm at it, 10 Tartaros with claws, 10 Recon marines, 10 Lascannon heavy support marines, and the Spartan carrier. As well as final assembly of the 30 Tactical marines I have left their weapons off of, to this point.

    The painting may take quite a long time, as well. I wonder whether I should get everything painted before starting the oil weathering. That may make a certain amount of sense. I could probably even get it all based, at least partially, then use the oils to finish that off at the same time. That actually sounds like the way forward, for now.    

    So then, my next step might be to go ahead and partially base and glue the bolters on to this first Tactical Squad, and them call them done for the time being, then continue from there. More later...

First 10 Tactical Marines are “battle ready” until whenever I come back much later to do oil washes on everything in this force. Or at least that’s the plan. #HorusHeresy #30K #WhiteScars #SagyarMazan #PaintingWarhammer #WarhammerCommunity

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— countelmdor.bsky.social (@countelmdor.bsky.social) May 17, 2024 at 8:20 PM

White Scars vs Tyranids 11/18/22

This was a very casual game that happened accidentally. I brought an Outrider detachment of:

Khan on Bike

Apothecary

Scout Squad

Bike Squad

Bike Squad with Attack Bike (Heavy bolter)

Bike Squad with Attack Bike (Multi-melta)

Scout Bike Squad

Land Speeder Tornado

Devastator Squad

My opponent was running Tyranids with:

Hive Tryant

Tervigon

Termagants

Biovores

Scarab-like things

Zoanthropes

Deployment was wacky because we were originally setting up for a 3-player free for all, but then one player pulled out to give someone else an opponent. We just kept rolling with what we had so far, though. 

The mission was randomly generated from the Open War deck, and put a single objective marker in the center of the board that could be moved each round by whoever won a roll off. The Twist was that all psychic powers had one added to their warp charge roll, and ranges extended 6", which was a nice buff to my opponent's Smite capacity, and did nothing at all for me, since I had not brought a Stormseer for this game.

The way the game played out, I used my mobility to stay on the objective the whole time with my Devastators, and I let my bikes roam wide around the table, keeping near to their max range for bolter fire. My thought was to mow down all of his small stuff and then later focus on the big monsters.

This was broadly a pretty good gambit. I had the most trouble dealing with the mortal wound spam from all his psykers, but my Apothecary was able to revive a bike one time, which was nice. The Devastators were mostly wasted by having to shoot a lot of small single-wound bugs on his side, but at least they won the game by holding the objective. 

My opponent might have been able to make more of a play for the objective if they'd wanted to, but mostly seemed content to inch forward at me. I mostly held off the urge to charge into battle, but notably when I did give in to temptation, it cost me my Khan, who only succeeded in killing one of the three Biovores on the other side. He always seems to disappoint. 5 attacks that hit on a 2+, and he rarely lands more than 3. Anyway, he got Smite blasted off the table after his first charge.

Apart from that mistake I think I handled the battle well enough, though. Realizing the White Scars should lean into the theme of the hunter rather than the headlong charging berserker has really helped my game with them.

White Scars vs Deathwatch 11/04/22

I got a pickup game at the Warhammer store nearby this evening. Open War, which means a randomly generated mission from a card deck, the details of which are in the pic above. 

I play White Scars, of course, whose main benefits on top of being just another Space Marine chapter are generally centered around the things they can do after having Advanced. The Twist in this game obviated all of that, since there would be no Advance moves permitted in this game. Sucks to be me!  

My opponent was running 50 PL of Deathwatch to my own 50 PL. His list was something like:

Primaris Captain

Something or other Kill Team

Two Invader ATVs

Assault Centurions

Gladiator Lancer

Inquisitor

He combat-squaded his Kill Team such that one half had four veterans with missile launchers and one terminator with a Cyclone missile launcher, and the other half had four veterans with fancy shotguns and the sergeant with a power sword and shield of some type. I'm not overly familiar with the Deathwatch kit.

My own list this time was the easiest way I could get to roughly 1000 points, or 50 PL, going with a Primaris theme, for variety. Not an optimized list by any means. No anti-tank capabilities to speak of.

Primaris Captain in Gravis Armour

Primaris Lieutenant in Phobos Armour

Primaris Librarian

Intercessor Squad with Bolt Rifles

Intercessor Squad with Bolt Rifles

Intercessor Squad with Auto Bolt Rifles

Reiver Squad

Aggressor Squad

Suppressor Squad

Eliminator Squad

He put his Centurions in a teleportation chamber to Deep Strike them, and I put both my Aggressors and Reivers into Outflank. Pics of deployment above and below. Most of my stuff began in the large ruins in my deployment zone near to a couple of objectives.

I won the roll off for first turn, but I decided to let him have it to allow him to come to me. I felt like this made sense without the capability to Advance this game, plus it would mean he had to stick his neck out first. 

In a first, he actually decided to use the Orbital Bombardment stratagem on me, as my stuff was all bunched up to begin with. This would mean that I would have to move a lot of it during my turn or face mortal wounds when it got back round to his turn. This suited me, since I had three Intercessor squads I wanted to get out onto objectives anyway, and my Suppressors were more than capable of moving to find a good line of sight. Only my slower moving Captain and the stationary Eliminators would knowingly risk the mortal wounds, though it turned out one Intercessor squad was also close enough to get clipped in the end.

You can see the results of my first movement phase below. The troops all moved out and onto objectives or toward the central one, and the Suppressors moved first onto the top of the crates, then after shooting made a successful charge into his remaining ATV. I believe their shooting and the Libriarian's Smite did for the first one.

Below is the state of the board at the end of my first turn. I had lost one Eliminator and one Intercessor at this point, but gained a VP by controlling more of the objectives for the round. 1-0.

When the Orbital Bombardment went off, my Captain took a fat 3 mortal wounds from it, leaving him with 4 wounds remaining.

During his turn, his ATV fell back from my Suppressors, toward my troops on my left side objective. He used a stratagem so that it'd be able to shoot, as well. 

By the time of this next pic his and my reserves had both arrived, so this had to be during his third turn. When I brought in the Aggressors over in his back corner I had them fire at the half Kill Team near them, but only one guy died. It took the rest of my second turn's shooting to kill only three of them in total.

His ATV had shot at my units close to it, but not done anything. In my next turn I had charged it with my remaining Suppressor, and everything else nearby, killing it with my Captain, who them consolidated over to the right back behind the crates.

This was the body count at that point. As of this point he had lost one full unit (the two ATVs), and I had not lost any, meaning I had a point from the second victory condition of the mission, as well as a second from the objectives, so 3-0 here.

This unit below with all the missiles blew my Aggressors away before they could move after their initial outflank arrival. Rough stuff!

Below, in my third turn, I have moved the Reivers up toward his Inquisitor, looking to charge him in order to get them on that objective. A note about his Inquisitor: he was running a proxy model, and wasn't quite sure what he wanted to do with the unit aside from Deny the Witch, so he elected to play it as nothing more than a backfield point holder and Deny source (no offensive moves). Whatever. My unit made their charge and he just picked up his Inquisitor at that point. Fair enough. He would have been facing something like 21 attacks, in Assault Doctrine.

There are a couple of Veterans in the pic above near to my models. They're gone in the pic below, to Smite and my Captain's shooting. I believe this gave me the "kill more" point for Round 3 as well, so 5-0 here if I'm not mistaken.

Below you can see how my Reivers have grabbed that objective, and also how his missile combat squad is lining up their shot. His Gladiator did a lot of shooting this game but mostly wasted shots at my Eliminators in cover, who he found extremely tough to kill (though they did very minimal work for me other than drawing his fire).

I know well the value of Assault Centurions with melta guns and siege drills from my own. Dealing with his was rough. I was able to Smite one away entirely with a D6 damage cast (4 mortal wounds exactly). I took another out when my Captain charged the remaining two. I should have been able to kill both, with nine power sword attacks on the charge, hitting on 2s and wounding on 3s (WL trait buffing his S stat), especially since Assault Doctrine made each attack -4 AP and 2 damage! Instead I had absolutely awful hit and wound rolls, and only two of the nine attacks made it through to damage. Four made it through to need saving, but he miraculously rolled two 6s to save. Well, two attacks at 2 damage each meant another dead Centurion. That left one, however, that was able to smash my Captain to bits after I failed three invulnerable saves at once.

His missile guys opened up and killed three of my Reivers, as well. I think two survived due to Transhuman Physiology.

In Round 4 I also moved my Lieutenant back into cover but still on the left side objective.

I was controlling 3/5 objectives at the end of Round 4, but he had killed more units, so 6-1.

In Round 5 he was finally able to finish off my Reivers, Eliminators, and kill my Librarian, leaving me with only my Lieutenant, and also him in control of more objectives, so the score was then 6-3 at the end of the game, in my favor, with my Phobos Lieutenant retreating to take the news of the battle to high command.

My list was not really geared to take on his Gladiator, or the combination of the ATVs and Centurions, either. If not for very cold dice I could have done for the Centurions, though, and the ATVs were taken out, too.

His combat squad of missile guys wrecked both my Aggressors and Reivers (over a couple of turns), but the other of shotguns didn't do all that much. Armour of Contempt makes marine on marine battles real slugfests.

This was a very fun game that felt very close all the way through. I was tracking my own VP as we went, but he wasn't, really, so I didn't know how much of a lead I had until I sat down to write the game up and figure it all out. We both kind of came with half-baked casual-ish lists (his was meant for Crusade night), and ended up having a good time. Win/win/win! 

White Scars vs Tyranids 06/10/22

This was a game played in a rush, and with a list specifically selected to minimize unit count, because we only had about an hour and a quarter to closing time at the store when we began. 

I played against a local player whom I have played before, who previously ran Necrons. He's switched over to Tyranids of Hive Fleet Leviathan for the second Phase of the Octarius campaign that we're playing out, among our group of about 10 that have been frequenting the Warhammer store lately.

My list:

Librarian in Terminator Armour

Terminator Squad

Terminator Squad

Terminator Assault Squad

Land Raider

The Tyranids:

Winged Hive Tryant

Screamer-killer

Exocrine (I think)

Neurothrope

Zoanthropes

Tyranid Warriors (I think)

This was my first time ever playing against Tyranids, and I don't know that army very well at all, so I'm a little unsure of what some of his models were. And, we were hurrying through the game, at times forgetting rules or even whole phases (lucky for me). Neither of us even bothered to select Agendas for the game, as far as I know. I only made use of Marked for Greatness this game, for my part. 

We played the Recon Patrol mission from the Crusade set, which stipulates that half or more of your army has to start the game in Strategic Reserves, but might join the battle in the first round if you roll a 4+. I only had one model to deploy before the game, my Land Raider, which had my Terminator Assault Squad embarked within.

He deployed his Winged Hive Tyrant and his Tyranid Warriors, then won the roll-off to get the first turn, as well.

Our units in Strategic Reserves at the beginning of the game:

In his first turn, his Hive Tyrant flew up the board to grab objective 2, and also to shoot at my Land Raider. He knocked 8 wounds off it, but it survived, since he forgot to do his psychic phase this round. The only reason I stood any chance at all, in all likelihood.

In my turn, my Terminators in the Land Raider hopped out and charged the Hive Tyrant. Another squad came in from reserves and also made their charge distance. The final squad of Terminators came in further up the board, and got off some pot shots at the Warriors, but didn't kill anything.

My combined Terminator assault was able to bring down the Hive Tyrant, and the Assaulters with the Lightning claws consolidated toward the Exocrine.

He used the Exocrine to shoot at my squad I'd left on objective 2 in his second turn, so in my second turn I was able to Smite and Lightning Call it, as well as shoot it and assault it to death.

After which the board looked like this. So far so good for the Scars!

But it wasn't going to last, because the Tyranids are phenomenally strong in the psychic phase.

Soon, all my Terminator squads were telekinetically blasted off the table, leaving only my Librarian and Land Raider to take on the Screamer-killer.

They made a go of it, but couldn't quite pull it off, and so my force was tabled in the third battle round.

Again, this was a quick and dirty game, just enough to get a Requisition Point and a little experience on my Terminator Assault Squad and Land Raider. Luckily all of my units passed their out-of-action tests this time around.

My Crusade force is very heavily oriented around elite infantry units. I'm running a lot of Terminators, which is kind of the theme, as well as Centurions. I think combating a list like this might require more bodies to absorb the mortal wound bombs dealt out each psychic phase, at least in a screening capacity so that my elite infantry's heavy armor isn't obviated by the psychic attacks that ignore it altogether.

I should probably play the mission more as well, but I just wanted to scrap, and actually had some fun doing so, so in the end, a good game is a good game.

White Scars vs Chaos Knights 05/25/2022

I was lucky enough to get in a couple of Crusade league games the other day, against the new Chaos Knights codex. I won't do a thorough move by move account of these games this time, but the pics below tell the story well enough. It was more or less a slaughter both times. The War Dog Karnivores in particular were absolutely brutal, capable of wiping a whole squad of either Terminators or Centurions in a single round of combat. It didn't help that I failed a ton of 5+ save rolls, either.

In our first game, I won the roll off to go first, and I really made the most of it, getting both of my Terminator Squads into combat and doing some serious damage with them. Unfortunately the big Knight on his side, the Abominant, had a way of reducing my damage incoming to it by 1 per attack, which meant that it lived longer than it otherwise should have, in either game. 

There's really not much more to say here, other than that Tejek Khan did get his second Titanic kill of the crusade, but that was just about the sole bright spot in either game for my force. My opponent is a good guy, though, and so both games were enjoyable. 

Unfortunately I wasn't able to really do anything with the Centurions in either game. I believe they died to attacks on the charge both times out, and the game where I went first they didn't even make it in range to shoot their meltaguns before being charged. The Vindicator did well enough in the one game where it was able to take some shots, at least.

On the bright side, we both came away with two Requisition Points, which is always good. We've both got orders of battle hungry for more supply.

White Scars vs Orks 05/13/22

This was a game for the local Crusade campaign, against a mixed list of Orks, Goffs and Snakebites. We used the Open War card deck to generate a mission at the Incursion (50PL a side) size.

Below you can see the deployment. The red D6 in the center of the board represents a relic we were after. Any model that moved into contact with it could pick it up and then carry it until they were destroyed and dropped it. The victor would be whoever had control over it at the end of the game.

My army of White Scars:

Terminator Captain

Terminator Librarian

3x 5-man combat squads of tactial marines

5-man Terminator squad

3-man Centurion assault squad

Land Speeder Tornado

The Orks (to the best of my understanding):

Beastboss on Squigosaur

Warboss

Weirdboy

2x Nob on Squighog

2x 10-model Beast Snagga Boyz 

2x Squighog Riders

10 Gretchen

Lootas 

Orks got he first turn, and the Beastboss on Squigosaur right straight across the table toward my Land Speeder. The Weirdboy attempted to cast a buff on him, with an 11 on the psychic test. My Librarian totally shut that down with an amazing Deny the Witch roll of 12, though:

After the Orks' first shooting phase. I had a Terminator take a couple of wounds:

The Orks have now made their charges

In the Fight phase, the Beastboss killed my Speeder, but my Terminators slaughtered the Squighog Boyz after interrupting the fight order via the Counter-Offensive stratagem.

In my Movement phase, I send my Terminators and the Captain up the board a little, and my Centurions move over to address the Beastboss situation. The combat squad in engagement range of the Beastboss tried to fall back, but the Orks used a stratagem to prevent it. The one on the right moved up just a little for melta range, but also stayed in cover. 

In my psychic phase, my Librarian does some decent wounds to the Beastboss, bringing him down to 3 wounds remaining

Here I've made my charges and I believe we have skipped a few phases, but in short the Centurions killed the Beastboss, but were (wrongfully) destroyed in the process. As I would discover after the game, doing some rules research, the Orks were benefitting from rules in this game where they should not have. Mistakes and misunderstandings do happen in a game as complex as 40K.

Here the Orks' backup leader, the Warboss, has killed my Captain, and the remaining Squighog riders have charged into my Librarian and a combat squad.

In my turn, my combat squads have repositioned, and my Librarian has fallen back, so...

He shouldn't actually have been able to attempt casting (see, mistakes do happen), an attempt which caused him to die from Perils of the Warp, doing mortal wounds to each of the other nearby units, as well. This was actually the second Perils of the game, offsetting the amazing Deny from before.

Here, my Terminators have fallen back from combat to pick up the relic.

Here all of my units have made their charges for the turn.

Somehow combat didn't go as planned for the Terminators, and the Warboss got the best of them. I think it had to do with over-strong Ork rules again.

Not to be deterred, a combat squad does its best to kill the Warboss.

Then also makes a run at the Weirdboy.

Unfortunately, in the final round, the Gretchen come out of nowhere to scoop up the relic for the win!

Despite the rules interpretation handicap, I felt like my White Scars did an admirable job at handling these unruly Orks. The strategy, execution, and even the dice rolls were mostly there when needed, so I am actually chalking this up as a win in my book. I have no doubt it could have been and would have been if everything had been played as written and intended.