Screech's Last-minute 40K Extravaganza!

Silly Lion, the Murder Sword is a Chaos artifact! 

Today was Screech's Last Minute-40K Extravaganza! This event is Screech's last gaming weekend until he returns from Basic Training. Yup, Screech is going to go get his own real-life "Imperial Guardsman Uplifting Primer", standard uniform, a love of mess-hall food, shoe polish kit, and basically live through the fun parts of the old Sgt Benjamin TV show. :)

We started many hours earlier than usual (sorry indoor RC people) at the local Hobbytown, and waged war. I didn't battle Screech but I did get to watch some of his two games, which I'll talk about at the end of this post.

Instead I finally had the privilege to play against Kushial's Lions of Harlech Space Marine Chapter. The last time we hit the table together was as allies with my Space Wolves, but on this day they would be foes of my Ultramarines as they Crusaded against each other over a bunch of Mysterious Objectives!

The Ultramarines army, pre-deployment

The Lions of Harlech, pre-deployment. 

 Kushial uses the Imperial Fist Combat Tactics, as I guess the Lions are an Imperial Fist successor Chapter according to his home-brewed background (which, if this is written somewhere I would like to read it and link up for share with anyone reading this blog).

Ultramarine deployment

TURN ONE
The Ultramarines deploy first, taking advantage of any cover I could just in case the Lions stole the initiative . In particular I claimed the dilapidated bastion in the center of my Deployement Zone by placing a Devestator Squad on top of it.

The Lions of Harlech deployment

The Lions did like-wise, not anticipating stealing the initiative. They were wise to do so, as the Ultramarines would indeed go first!

1st turn maneuvers 

 The 1st turn was largely uneventful, I managed to kill a singe marine with a lucky hit and put a glancing hit on the Harlech Predator. This would begin an annoying series of events where I would hit with every heavy weapon I had but only roll a 1 for both damage and armor penetration! This strange luck will last much of the game! On the Lions first turn he didn't fair much better but he did get a glancing hit on both my Whirlwind and Venerable Dreadnought with his two Attack Bikes!  Also he a Drop Pod descend and unload an angry Iron Clad Dreadnought which made a path straight to the dilapidated bastion!

TURN 2

The Tac Marines attempt to stop the Iron Clad!

 I declared the Tactical Doctrine for this round. Yes, those Combat Doctrines tokens I made sure proved to be a good idea! I managed to go the whole game without forgetting them! This squad was able to take two Hull Points off of the Iron Clad Dreadnought thanks in part to this doctrine. Also in the enemy deployment zone I unloaded the Sternguard who unleashed a fury of Hellfire blasts intothe Lion Tactical squad killing about a quarter of them. My other tactical squad claimed a bunker which would allow them to also secure an objective. My Venerable Dreadnought would jump out to stare-down the enemy Attack Bike, putting a wound on it but failing to charge it!

The field after the end of Ultramarine Turn 2

 Kushials 2nd turn was more fruitful as well, as his dread pulverized the bastion, killing all but one of the devastators on top of it!

"Whoa! Dude, where's my bastion?" 

 You'll also note in the background that the Sternquard are no longer in front of the Ultramarine Land Raider, they took enough losses to force a route test which they failed, causing them to run behind the Land Raider!

One of the Attack Bikes would attempt to gun for the Venerable Dreadnought's rear armor, only to fail to hit it! Meanwhile the Landraider would come storming at the Dread with guns blazing!

"We have you now!....ok. maybe not..."

TURN 3

I started off by declaring the Assault Doctrine.

Next, I decide to do something nuts, mainly because I just wanted to see it happen and shooting the damned thing just wasn't killing it, so I attempted to ram the Predator, full steam ahead a full 12"! And, as is typically the case, even with an effective Strength 8 hit, I rolled a pen roll of 12, missing the front armor by a point! Still, it looked cool and it was fun forcing his warlord (who detached from the unit) and his tac squad to move out of it's way!

"CLANG!" (waiting for the Arbites to show up to take down the accident report was quite awkward)

My Terminators, along with the Librarian, showed up, managing to take another hull point from the Predator!

For the record, they scattered there!

 The Tactical Combat Squad in the woods killed the other attack bike! By the way, in case you hadn't noticed, this would finally be First Blood for this game!

First blood, and the squad that caused it!

I would declare three assaults this round, the first being the V. Dread against the other Attack Bike, which was a very quick kill, as the dread tore apart the Attack bike with ease!  The other charge was against the Iron Clad dread, which proved to be both fruitless and crazy, as I lost the assault, but the Vet. Sgt, and his remaining charge rolled double "1's" on their route test. Insane courage indeed!

"We will kill you!!!"

My Sternguard would themncharge the Lion's Warlord, only to lose two guys, route, and wait for the Warlord to next charge them!

Notice how his sword hads'nurgle-esque' vibe about it? 

 Which of course he did on Kushials next turn, killing two more Sternguard, however they did manage to finally get a shot through that accursed artificer armor on a snapfire! This time the Sternguard would not run.

Wishing that they had ran away, the two tac marines fighting the Iron Clad are pulled apart like a pork sandwich being eaten by a 2 year old! It was sick!

"Where was I, Oh, yeah, I was going to kill YOU!"

Kushial sent forth his Sternguard from his Land Raider and they cut down most of the Tactical Squad in the woods, but I had two survivors left from that onslaught!

TURN 4

Combat was finally committed! And the death toll was starting to rise! I, for the hope of my lonely Devastator, would declare the Devastator Doctrine!

The Land Raider would finally destroy the Predator in a massive explosion!

Death to the Predator

The Machine Spirit would guide the Heavy Bolters to attack the Devastator Squad in the ruins killing two of them, and my Terminator Squad would move up and finish off the Squad! All-in-all, that was in incredibly successful combination, one that I my dice will rarely ever allow me to pull off!

Death to the Devastators! (and the failed armor saves that caused it!

The Venerable Dread would charge the Lion's Sternguard, killing a bunch, but they refused to route!

 On the Lion's turn, the Lions' Tactical Squad that you can see in the cratered woods, had been taking hits from the Whirlwind for most of the game, and were even pinned on turn three! Now the spot the Terminators and decided to attack them, and they manage to kill one!

Now the Iron Clad is just thirsting for my Devastator's blood, and he charges! I snapfire and hit, only to miss the necessary glancing hit result that would've felled this massive murder-machine!

Yeah, this guy died.

 TURN 5

The Terminators shoot up, charge, and wipe-out the  tactical squad in the woods. Apparently that was only event worth documenting in that round for my turn anyway, although my land raider would re position to get a better line of fire on the tactical squad that was watching Lion's Captain dispatch the rest of my Sternguard.

"Look boss, another fight to join!"

 On Kushial's turn, the Iron Clad moved toward the bunker which housed my remaining Tactical Combat Squad who was holding in objective. The Land Raider was barreling down my my Whirlwind, and picking off the remaining Tactical Squad in the woods, in fact, there just one guy left (the missile launcher trooper!),

Finally on his assault Phase, the Lions took down the Venerable Dread!

"Haha! Look, he's fallen and can't get up!" -Last words of the traitorous Lion's of Harlech Sternguard

 Kushial rolled the dice to see if the game ended. It was VERY close at this point, as attrition was wearing us down on both sides. The dice spoke, and the game would go on!

TURN 6

Finally standing still, the Lander Raider annihilates the Warlord and the Tactical Squad! The Objective is now free!

Imagine lots of red vapor all around that objective marker

 The Librarian and the surviving Terminators would kill off the rest of the Sternguard, consolidating toward the Lion's Land Raider...

"What do you say lads, think we can take out that Land Raider?"

On Kushial's turn, the Iron Clad, in a desperate move to deny me the objective at the bunker, charges it and destroys it, killing everyone inside but the Veteran Sgt! (Just a side note: this is a bunker made from the template found in the Warhammer 40,000 4th edition hardcover)

Iron Clad doing what an Iron Clad was made to do! Destroying buildings! And loving it!!!

The Land Raider finally wrecks the Whirlwind, while the sole survivor of the Tac squad dives and ducks within the cover of the trees! 

And the game ends!
Ultramarines 6vps (First Blood, Warlord, Linebreaker, and Objective)
Lions of Harlech 1vp. (Linebreaker)

My MVP unit: First Blood and the Objective, earning 4 points!

 It was a fun game, like most fun games, it wasn't obvious who was going to win until the final round as it was very close. Kushial and I had very few models left, and he only had three vehicles left (Land Raider, a Drop Pod, and the Iron Clad). Another round, and It's not likely that either of my lone Tac Marines would've survived!

Over on the other tables:

Screech vs. Murl

Screech, proving the internet wrong by winning against Murl's hard-to-beat Nurgle army! It was a fun game to watch the end of.

Nurgle vs. Tryanids

 A big battle broke on the table that Kushial and I played our game on! Indeed, they hardly moved the scenery much! Scott, Skylar, The Bob, and Hiveangel were having a two-on-two battle royale! You can read the battle report here.

Deployment of the big battle!

Blood Angels opening shots!

Some of the new players (sorry i don't recall your names!) had a Dark Angel vs. a Dark Eldar/Eldar force. I believe the Eldar won.

The hunters hunted!

And finally, just as I was leaving, the 2nd turn was starting on a game between Screech's 'Nids and the Tau and Inqusition force of Amy and the Da Masta Cheef, which hopefully he'll discuss on his blog this week.

C'mon! Space Truck'n! 

It was good day at Hobbytown, with a good turn out and a lot of games being played! I hope this was a good send off for you Screech, I know we'll await your return!

I'm curious to know the results of all of the other games, so if the other players could leave those results in the comments, for posterity sake, that would be grand!