Happy New Year from the Battle Barge

WAAAAGH!!!

...A good way to start the New Year, 'ey? With an orky battle-cry! This is two posts in one, so if you're not into battle reports, skip ahead a bit for some more Neverness Hobby stuff...

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 Once again I directed the battle-barge to the the Cinci Subsector, the Battle-ground of  Jake's Terror near the Batavian Hive on the World of Olszewski's Landing. My good friend (who for the sake of professional anonymity we discreetly refer to as: 'The Doctor' on this blog) has his annual birthday bash just before New Years. I usually make it, and this year I did. We skipped our never-ending Necromunda game this time for a three-way bash of 40K. We choose a mere 1000pt each for this scuffle, which proved to be more than enough for us to slay the evening!

1K of Space Wolves led by Sven Axegrinder stand ready in the setting sun...

To make this work, we chose the Hammer & Anvil deployment map and the Crusade scenario using only 3 objectives set out in 'no man's land'.

The muddy battle-field (which looks like a wooden table to the unimaginative)

Ork Deployment. Lots of Boyz led by 2 weirdboyz!

The game would begin with Doc and I rolling off to see who would go 1st: Orks (his) or Space Wolves (me) and after our 1st turn, Brian would start deep striking in his whole Necron army to where he wanted too just like a daemon army. I was thinking something a bit like Caves of Ice where the Necrons 'woke-up' in the middle of a war between the Imperial Guard and Orks. We all agreed that this might work out well, especially if it prevents the 'monkey-in-the-middle' syndrome that most 3-ways have a habit of degrading into.

Space Wolves deploy...

 On the far end of the industrial zone, the orcs swarmed. I don't have his list, but it was 2 killer kans, a grot mob, a big mob of boys, burna boys (on the green platform) and a nob mob with a warphead (his overlord).

I had the venerable dreadnought, long fangs with missile launchers, a rhino with grey hunters, whirlwind and a drop pod with grey hunters being lead by Sven Axegrinder.

Orks had the 1st turn, I failed to steal the initiative (as did the Necrons- and yes, we would've let them! LOL).

Turn One:
In typical ork fashion, they brought the fight right to the wolves and got stuck in immediately. The warphead 'Ere we Go'ed across the table and his Nob buddies trashed my newly painted rhino! "How dare yoo use lemon wax?!" they screamed at the Grey Hunters as they bailed out! Orks get the 1st Blood VP!

"That rhino was an artifact!!!" Screamed Sven in rage as his drop pod landed nearby almost on the objective. I grabbed onto 3VPs, and after my ENTIRE ARMY fired into those Nobs I was not sure if I would hold onto them...

They absorbed A LOT of firepower!!!

Now, these Nobs were accompanied by a Painboy, and had Cybork Bodies and Feel No Pain! A nasty combo that I have been known to use when I play orks. This made for some tasty medicine... so while I was pondering how so many withstood the entire army's attention...

 The Necrons arrived...!

...on both of the Space Wolf flanks!

And in the Ork deployment zone!

After a round of shooting, my Space Wolves lost a few members from the Rhino unit and a single wolf-brother from the Drop Pod. The Necrons made a dent in the orks...

Turn 2 (and beyond)
A lot happened on Turn 2,  so much so that I'm going to go into highlight mode, as I really wanted to show how exciting it was to have a 3rd opponent drop in and tear into both armies that were already joined in a heated battle.

I can't remember how long this fight went on for, but the routed necrons (...why aren't necrons fearless?) missed being destroyed by the orks sweeping advance by a single pip! These guys would run far, turn and blast away at orks on this side of the field for many rounds...

 The Nobs would eliminate my Runepriest, who learned Independent Character rule #1: Join a unit as soon as possible!!! He learned this too late as he stomped into the mud, mangled and mutilated...

Where my Venerable Dreadnought stands in the pic above, there WAS a necron warrior squad...

Also, the Rhino squad would kill the necrons that were on the hill.

 The Doc's new assembles and primer-ed (yeah, that's it!) Killa Kans would come break up a massive fight that had been stirring on my right flank. This melee had last a lot of rounds until the kans showed up...I wanted to say this occurred on turn 3.

Having wiped out the necrons on Orcs and Kans moved onto the objective. My Long Fangs on the kill blew up two of them and damaged the 3rd.




Hungry for the objective the Warphead led his Nobs into Sven and his Grey Hunters. The fight would last many a few rounds, with the 1st round ending in a draw. Sven would slay the warphead in a challenge, but it ultimately took the squad from the rhino to join in and assist with finishing off the nobs!

My Dreadnought would turn his attention to the Kan on the other side fo the bridge and shoot at it, however it would fail to damage it. However it did get the kan's attention...






The Kan would charge the Dreadnought on the following turn, but it prove to not be a match for the Venerable foe, who turned the Killer Kan into a useless wreak. The dreadnought would turn to find another foe, leaving the grot driver to screaming profanities from his trapped position. Meanwhile the orks that the Kan was covering and who were holding the objective where all killed by Whirlwind and Long Fang missiles...

With Nobs killed, the Rhino Squad moved to claim another objective. Meanwhile the burner boyz were skulking about on the top level of the industrial site while the remaining Necron Deathmarks were taking pot-shots at my grey hunters. The long fang eliminated the burner boyz from a distance, effectively tabling the orks. After a few more skirmish-like final rounds, the Deathmarks would be eliminated, tabling the Necrons.

Final accumulated VP: Space Wolves 7, Orks 2, Necrons 0.

It was a long, but intensely fun game, with death everywhere!  I was astonished by the Doc's ability to roll saves for his orks. If I had been playing them I would've been tabled by turn 2... The Necron's were fun to play against too, but I wasted no time eliminating them once I saw how dangerous they were to my power armored marines! My biggest mistake was not attaching my Runepriest to Rhino Squad, but then again, if I had done that they might have been eliminated by the nobs which would've prevented them from taking more objectives...

Brian's thoughts:

Well, despite the utter annihilation once again of my Necrons, I still had a lot of fun. I think our decision to go 1-on-1-on-1 made for a very interesting dynamic, especially in the confined space of the Hive.

Highlights: I know, they were gretchin. But seeing the remains of the unit turn and run, only to be completely cut down by the Flayed Ones was nice! >:-) (that's the attached image) Also nice to see that Flayed Ones *can* be effective in melee, given appropriate numbers for their melee-only role. Future tactics: keep away from flamers.

On the other hand, I definitely still have a ways to go in effectively dealing with vehicles. It could be I just haven't fielded appropriate units yet – I've used pretty much nothing but infantry types so far, and no vehicles or monstrous creatures. It will be nice to get some of the Necron vehicles built and on the board, especially a Doomsday Ark, since that seems to be the Necron's answer to enemy tanks

What I would have done different?
1) Stayed away from the flamers.
2) Should have tried to get the Deathmarks up on the platforms sooner so they could try to take out the flamers. Would've let the Flayed Ones hang around longer
3) Tried one more time for Anrakyr's "Mind in the Machine"; taking over a Killa Kan and using its weapons on the other two Kans might have been able to save the Anrakyr's accompanying Immortals unit

A particular highlight of this game, which greatly enriched our playing experience was the use of Litko Blast-Templates. If you have, or fight against horde armies, you MUST get some of these! Shameless plug I know, but I freaking mean it and will be getting some of my own soon!

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But the holidays weren't all fun and wargames, no, it is also a season for acquisitions! This year was little-lite on 40K prezzies, but I did get a few.

The featured model in this photo is owned by Da Masta Cheef who also got me one for Christmas as well as a dozer blade set for a Land Raider. I look forward to, eventually, painting my version of this chap.

I am humbled and moved by this next gift. The Bink made a gaming table for me! I came home last night to find this monster of a table in my living room!

There is a single Imperial Guard miniature on the center of the table

I can't say just how thankful I am for this, I am really blown away by it, and can't wait to start gaming on it! Now I am in the process of reorganizing my house to accommodate this table...but this is a good thing! :)

There is a single imperial guard model on the drink shelves.

Thanks again Bink, I appreciate the time you have put into this!


That's it for now, more painting updates on the way soon...

(...and let's not talk about New Years resolutions... :D  )