Ravens/Salamanders Vs. Knights/Guard/Chaos

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Warhammer 40,000 – I hate Bel'ekor, just want to get that out of the way. It's by far the most obnoxious dataslate to come out of the Advent Calendars. My regular group decided to put together a little ongoing campaign with two groups of marines facing off against Chaos teamed with the Tyrant's Legion/Imperial Knights/Astra Militarum.

Ground rules are if it's legal you cna play it. All forces have to be battle-forged. We also had to put the stipulation in that army lists had to be made in advance. (Unfortunately we've had the of your playing that well then this is my list in the past. Not a fan of the bad feelings that causes.)

Our second game was going to be 2,000 points per player facing off in a team battle using the Altar of War Mission book. We wound up getting a late start because ... well we have kids and it's almost Christmas (also rather than playing at my place we drove over to our buddies who always has a further drive)

I ran a Pinnion Strike Force partnered with a typical Salamanders CAD force. No Super Heavies or Lords of War. We faced off against Bel'ekor, a Baneblade, Three Knights, and a horde of barrage templates with cultist filler and guard infantry with demo charges.

Chaos won the roll off to use their altar of war chart. We rolled up Vendetta, which is a kill-point mission with one unit being worth 3 points to the opposition if it dies, 3 points if you keep it alive. We won the roll-off and picked a rhino. (Nothing wrong with easy points)

Turn one was rough, particularly since one of our players hasn't really played 40K since 5th edition. Being bombed to death and losing some key transports was painful. The Raven Guard came in from reserve for the most part and the important Salamanders also dropped in. We were able to destroy a Knight as well as the Vendetta Rhino and the squad it was transporting. A few other units died all in all it was a messy first turn.

Turn two was more of the same, death raining from above and losing more units at this point I believe they have about 13 kill points at the end of this turn. Looking at the time it's after midnight and we need to call the game. Finishing our assaults we get up to 12 kill points.

Most likely if the game continued the (10) Thunderhammer Terminators would have finished off another Knight which was in the middle of a hug mass of cultists and guardsmen. Odds are that would have took us to 15 points. But we didn't have time so this was another loss for the Imperial players.

First Game Ever

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Warhammer 40,000 – So I went up to RIW for Thursday Night 40K, I thought I had a game scheduled but my opponent had to bail for a Holiday party. No worries there's always someone around to pick up a game with. Luckily I met a really nice guy with a Blood Angels force that was looking for a game. He only had 1500 points with him and I had packed a very specific 2000 point pinion force so I have to delete 500 points off the bat. 

As we were setting up the board he mentioned that this would be his first 40K game ever. He had been painting for a some time and watched youtube videos to learn the game, but hadn't actually played. I looked at what I had brought and let him know if might be a trial by fire as I only had the models on hand to run the fairly tough Talon Strike Force.

First turn he takes a few pot shots and moves some models. Not much to target as most of my force is in reserve. I come in and tear up a squad with my Vanguard Vets. The Shadow Strike Kill Team is quickly becoming my favorite. Turn 1 Assaults are amazing.

We go back and forth a bit while he manoeuvres his Death Company and Sanguinary Guard back into the fight. Once they get a charge off things start evening out. The game comes down to objectives which he controls more of and wins his first game. ;)

It was cool to see it dawn on him that he won based on the mission and the amount of models he lost had no bearing on the game. 

After he asked for some advice and anything I thought he couild have done better, which was cool you don't always get a after battle discussion. 

More Angels ... Another army completed

Warhammer 40,000 – The Angels Sanguine job is complete.

In total this one consisted of:

10 Tactical Marines

10 Scouts

100 Assault Marines

7 Space Maine Bikes

2 Razorback/Rhinos

1 Drop Pod

1 Landraider

1 Dreadnaught

1 Dante

1 The Sanguinor, Exemplar of the Host

1 Gabriel Seth

1 Brother Corbulo

1 Astorath 

1 Mephiston

This was a pretty fun project to paint up. The halved scheme was significantly easier to do than i thought it was going to be. Figuring out a way to do a three color with wash job to look good in the colors chosen was the most difficult part. The dark grey with earthshade wash experiment for the black worked out really well and i feel like I might be able to use the same technique in future projects.

I've uploaded photos of most of the units in the gallery.

White Scars Vs Knights and Astra Militarum

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Warhammer 40,000 – I've been wanting to try something new with my Space Marines, usually I run Iron Hands for the Feel No Pain and the fact that they fit with my preference to run Tech Marine HQ's. I've come to realize that I can't really roll 6+ saves. With the new Kauyon supplement I'm feeling the need to run White Scars or Raven Guard. My buddy just bought three Imperial Knights and wanted to try them out. Knowing that I'll be facing three super heavies I crafted what I think is a subtly nasty list.

Twilight Ravens (White Scars Chapter Tactics)

HQ – Chapter Master (Artificer Armor, Bike, Storm Sheild, Thunder Hammer)

Troop – Bike Squad (4x Bikes, 2x Grav Gun, 1x Power Glaive)

Troop – Bike Squad (3x Bikes, 2x Grav Gun, 1x Power Sword)

Troop – Scout Squad (5X Shotguns, Landspeeder Storm)

Fast – Landspeeder Squadron (2x Multimelta, 2x Assault Cannon)

Fast – Drop Pod

Fast – Drop Pod

Heavy – Centurion (3x Grav Cannnon, Hurricane Bolter)

Heavy – Centurion (3x Grav Cannon, Missle Launcher)

Heavy – Fire Raptor (Belly Autocannon) 

I rolled the Warlord Trait for the +1 to my Jink Save and was feeling good about my odds. The mission was Maelstrom #3, where you get a card for every objective you hold at the beginning of your turn. I was feeling pretty good until I failed to Seize the Initiative. A flurry of fire removed one of my bike squads from the table because I couldn't roll a single 3+ jink save. My turn saw the Centurions drop in front of the Baron Knight and remove a few hull points. My Chapter Master charged in and got squished with his squad. Things were looking grim.

Turn Two saw his Vendetta arrive and claim Objective 5, his Knights claimed 1, 3 and 6, which means I'm down on cards from the get go. My reserves show up and are able to eliminate his Baron Knight but I fail to hold any objectives.

The game continued back and forth like this until the bottom of the fourth turn when he had two knights each with 3 hull points left facing off against the Fire Raptor. The mysterious objectives gave them skyfire so the avenger cannons tore my plane out of the sky. Final score 15-1.

I feel like my list was really solid I just played it wrong. Facing three Knights is tough but I think if I deployed smarter I could have lived long enough to so something.