Nik Fury -Rogues Gallery Spotlight.

Here is an oldy! We continue Orkober with another showcase from the Neverness Rogues Gallery.

Way back in 1989, the summer that the first plastic Space Ork boxed set was released, Doc TSG was at my house while I was building some orks. And he got in on the action and built this guy. He made the cigar from a bit of sprue and we dubbed him Nik Fury as a result. 

Nikk Fury. Leada of Da Howl'n Kommandos. 

He cobbled together the craziest kustom kombi-weapon for this model. The Dr has always had a gift for crazy kustom ork weapons, and I regret that I have no pics to show you some more examples of this fact. This particular one is a twin-linked plasma pistol combo mounted onto an axe. Not sure if that was meant to be a power axe or not.

His other arm is the classic power klaw from that set, and I still think that it is probably one of the best bitz GW ever produced. This model was painted while still living in East Anglia in the early '90s, and although most of this scheme is quite dated by my current ork paint scheme standards, I really dig how that klaw still looks. If I recall, I tried to get the metal to look mostly like an old copper penny. And I had a limited selectuon of paints to use at the time. I based it with Terracotta from the Space Marine Paint Set, and likely dry brushed it with Snakebite Leather before giving a wash of Brown ink. I think I used Chainmail to dry brush over this for the final effect. Simple stuff really. I never did anything with bases back then as I just didn't know how to do them. It took me a few years to figure out how, and I just never went back to my old miniatures (like this one) to get them caught up.

A wicked a lethal (for he user) Kustom Kombi Weapon. 

That original boxed set came with a plethora of accessories, many of which remain in my bitz bin to this day.  Some of the more memorable bitz were the stick bombs, pouches, and even a trenching shovel for digging in!

Geared up! 

He was never an army leader or anything too awesome, but he has been instrumental in some games for either tying up the enemy or outright killing someone important. But most remember him for the zany conversion or the cool name.

UPDATE: Here is the long lost pic of the time Nik Fury, a nob, defeated an opposing Ork Warlord, the nefarious Masta Cheef himself! Thank to the Da Masta Cheef for reminding me of this event.

Da Masta Cheef defeated by Nik Fury.

Waaagh all night waaagh all day

Warboss Ror-Ruk, taken by Da Masta Cheef.

Finally, after far too many cancellations, the nefarious Masta Cheef and I had our Ork vs. Ork battle that we haven't had in far too long. We both took a copious amount of photos and he already did a blog entry about this as well (in fact he took that great photo above of my warlord in the trukk). We have had a lot of Ork vs Ork games over the years but this one was very different as I would be fielding a list using the current 7th ed Codex and he would be using the 4th ed Codex.In order to make this encounter work, we both agreed to leave the weirdboyz at home.

Ror-ruk's Ravagers assembled to waaagh. Note the corp. Sponsorship. 

Da Eleet Grot Mountin Duvishun 

Cheef won the roll-off to see who places first. I gulped audibly when I saw how many vehicles he had compared to my one trukk!

Da Eleet Grot Mountin Duvishun take the field and the fort

I pack my troops into the terrain as well as I could, with biggest mob in the middle and pointing straight at the ork fort. The lootas I placed up high in the ruins so as to maximize their potential and cover. The artilery were placed in the back on a ridge.

Turn one and the sneaky git steals the initiative! He surges forward, blasting as he goes. All of my dice rolling were shockingly bad, seriously, I rolled no die higher than a '3' costing  quite a few of my boys their lives or a wound.

My picture of Cheef taking a picture of his army sallying forth from the fort

End of Cheef's 1st turn.

 The end of my first turn changed the picture rather dramatically. Having switched out dice, suddenly my old crappy GW dice wanted to roll hot. I managed to cripple most of Cheef's vehicles and the Shokk Attack Gun dramatically annihilated the Grot Spee. Cheef was really upset over this, he totally hates it when this dies, but hey, after it put a wound on my Big Mek it had to go!

End of my Neverness Turn One

On turn 2, my Trukk carrying my Warlord and my unpainted Burna Boys was immobilized with it's weapon destroyed. So it sat there smoking for the rest of the game with one hull point left,

Eleet Grots bring the fight!!!

Charging Burna Boyz is never a good idea however...

(I ignored the grots)

Never-the-less, a fight was still to happen and Ror-Ruk found himself in a challenge with this scary looking character. Ror-Ruk snipped his appendages off with 'is powerklaw, however the burna boys themselves were all cut down by grots and goons.

Challenge!

 That melee carried over into my my turn 2, Ror Ruk found himself in another challenge this time with Schultz!

Cheef thought he was kunning by sending his wartraks around the flank to assassinate my Big Mek, but a well placed Shokk Attack template but an explosive end to that insurrection.

(Add wartrack bits to this crater).

Eventually my Shoota Boyz (who really were shooting the hell out this place) rush in and assist their Warboss.

They bring the ruckus.

...and, with victory on their side, turn their attention to another fight.

That "other fight" was an 11 ork squad of mine that attacked a Big Mek on a warbike, and they had been locked in combat for a few turns. However before my boyz could get there they were jumped by Cheef's Tankbustas, who were riding around on the top of his Battlewaggon, Da Matilda, for the whole game. It was stuck on some ruins, tearing up my Lootas, while my Shokk Attack Gun and artillery failed to do a thing to it.

The Tankbustas get stuck in, and die. 

At the start of the next turn my idiots fighting the Mek on the Bike, fail combat and break away, somehow not getting run down, while the warbike backs up, and sets up for another charge!

"Right, lets do dis again, all good and propa!"

The game ended at this point, and the following pic is the last one I took, of my Warboss taking selfies outside of his new claimed fort.

"Try to get me good side, the one wid da scarrs!"

 It was a fun game, and a good victory for Ror-Ruk's Reavers.

But more importantly, it was a better insight into this current Ork Codex than my previous go with them. The changes that were made to army from the previous codex seems so stupid!

• I can't believe how the Burnas were nerfed. They still work great as flamers and for Overwatch, but losing the power weapon option felt like a totally unnecessary change. 
• The Artillery pieces look better on paper, but they are very fickle and complicated unit to master in game. My artillery were virtually useless for the whole game. 
• Morale. Why this system? It is just goofy! However, I didn't feel like this was a game changer to me, and despite the additional losses, it did keep me in the fight as opposed to making me my unit run and get run down. But I do like the old 3rd-4th edition rules better. 

I did however like that the Shokk Attack Gun has the potential to produce a Vortex, but it will be a cold day in hell before I ever roll double-6s on that chart! (And I agree with Cheef, I really should paint this model finally, he really earned it this game!).

So, new Codex won vs. the old one. However, our armies were composed quite differently from each other, the diversity of which has been one of my favorite things about ork armies in general. But that diversity makes the outcome of a match like this difficult to blame or credit a Codex or edition on.

The Wolf and Treachery Transmissions

While poking around on my computer a few nights ago I stumbled upon this old file that contains an example of the type of background immersion that some of us like to do locally. What follows is a series of 'fluffy' e-mails sent back and forth between Da Masta Cheef and myself, revolving around getting me and my Space Wolves into battle (Ok, to get me to show up to a game!). This was during the 5th Edition of Warhammer 40K (probably my favorite of the post 2nd ed era) and the Space Wolf codex had just come out and I had yet to get a game in with them. We've gotten a kick out of writing these kind of things, this one in particular, and Cheef still brings up the humbling of poor Sven every chance he gets. We were scheduled to have a battle against Warfrog's Eldar, but circumstances (once AGAIN) prevented me from going.

Cheef started this whole exchange off by rubbing in the fact that I abandoned him, and well, I took the bait and the ball was rolling from there...


From: Da Masta Cheef
Subject: ATTENTION!
To: Neverness
Date: Wednesday, October 7, 2009, 8:10 PM

You, the deluded follower of the so-called 'Corpse-God',

The accursed Eldar have issued challenge to the Mighty Guar Sek (He who's voice drowns out all others), and he has demanded their annihilation! Even now my forces muster @ the 1500 point mark. Our spies have become aware of your approach and I laid plans for a multi-pronged assault. However the vile Xenos have arrogantly declared (as they are want to do) that they can 'easily match' our combined assault! To fight along side followers of the Corpse-God is an abomination! However there is rumor of the recent publication of a tome, in which it is said your Space Dogs fought alongside the blessed forces of demon-kind. So such actions are not without precedent. As an act of 'good faith' (such as it is), I ordered the ritual sacrifice of one of our Preachers (his entrails were feasted upon by our rogue psykers this very day). In his place shall stand the infamous Rogue Inquisitor known as the Khorne Dog. His appearance will be quite familiar to you and the mutants you call Wolfen. Attached to my command squad he will forward my communications to you, saving me the disgrace of having to directly communicate with so-called 'Loyalists' on the glorious field of battle. The Stinking Bishop (also formerly of the Inquisition) has also offered to grace us with his presence should it be required, along with a 250 point contingent of his followers.

May your closed minds be opened to the righteousness of our cause! May you turn from the Corpse-God to follow the TRUE Gods of War! The Gods of CHAOS!

Disrespectfully yours,

Colonel Extra-Hand Straken

728th, Sabbat Irregulars


From: Neverness Date: Friday, October 9, 2009, 11:18 AM

++++
FAO: Master-General Styker of Departento Munitorium
TRANSMITTED: Colcha
RECEIVED: Scintilla
DATE:4911997.M41
TELEPATHIC DUCT: Astropath-terminus: Loki
AUTHOR: Wolfpriest Jorvik
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: The sharpest tooth gnaws the hardest bone.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
First off, let us apologize profusely for our impending tardiness to the war zone we were requested to support. Our navigator, being of stout constitution for one of his kind, thought he'd join the Long Fangs down in the cantina of our Battle-Barge, the Kraken's Maw, for a few rounds of mead. Not fully comprehending the strength of a beverage that can actually cause a buzz in even a Space Wolf, the navigator was still highly inebriated when summoned to duty. This is how our Battle Barge is stuck in the wrong Segmentum, awaiting the passing of a minor warpstorm, which should get us to the battle about a fortnight from now. Still reasonably quick as far as warpstorms are concerned, but we feel this may greatly impede your progress in the campaign so we wanted to alert you to the reason, and fact, of our tardiness so you don't start off on some foolhardy campaign expecting us to make a dramatic entrance on the nth hour; This will not happen! So, hold the lines you have, we are coming, just not on the night you expect.

*A scene from the cited battle with Warfrog's Eldar

I would also like to enlighten you about these xenos, the eldar. We have engaged this particular craftworld before, and unlike the rest of their skippy and dancey brethren, this is a vile and tricky lot. Be particularly aware of their snipers, fore they brought low many a wolf brother in our last engagement*, Also beware of two sets of warriors, the Dire Avengers and Swooping Hawks. On the former, they have the firepower to obliterate any unguarded foe who stands before them. Of the later, be aware of their bombing runs, as they can wipe units of guardsmen with a single pass. Make sure they grasp the concept of `going to ground' or else you will forfeit their asset to you entirely. 

A further note if you will; Wolf Lord Sven is concerned with a communication sent out by your field general, whose sense of humor disturbs us greatly. Signed `Col. `Extra-hands' Straken, this prankster has unwittingly sewn his own demise with a missive laced with heresies, blasphemies, and plain insults. Find with this transmission a copy of said missive and review. We expect that this individual will be removed from the theater of battle prior to our arrival, or by Russ we will be forced to take matters into our hands.

From: Da Masta Cheef Date: Saturday, October 10, 2009 12:28 PM
Awww, you're bailing? BAD Puppy! No biscuit! lol, too funny actually. I knew you'd be 'geek' enough to appreciate my preceding message.


From: Da Masta Cheef Date: Saturday, October 10, 2009, 10:44 PM

."...work damn it! ....is Serg....Mossad, 728.......at Rifles. This is f......he Mighty Sek wh.........ioce drow......others........been aveng.....!! Eldar Comma......dead, enemy inf.........lling back to their li......walkers out ther..3 or 4......issiles..... All our Inf.....ead, all dead. I'm the only o.........rtillery still entren.........op firing to save amm.......no idea wher.....onel Strak......maybe dead or captu.....t our line holds, can'........other enem....ttack. Will fi.........last!

....geant Mos.....acting Com.........r 
728th Sab.........fles......."


From: Neverness Date: Sunday, October 11, 2009, 10:27 AM

FAO: Master-General Styker of Departento Munitorium
TRANSMITTED: Colcha
RECEIVED: Scintilla
DATE:4916997.M41
TELEPATHIC DUCT: Astropath-terminus: Loki
AUTHOR: Wolfpriest Jorvik
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Eateth not the yellow snow.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Good news the warpstorm has passed, and we are now in orbit above the battleworld. We will engage the enemy as soon as Wolf Lord Sven's Thunderwolf gives birth to her pups. We're all gathered in the ship's kennels awaiting their arrival. Should be any day now, hold the line a bit longer and we will descend upon your alien foes and crush them. We've received fractured communications from the planet below, but while adjusting our receiver unit, Iron Priest Woton found a channel that plays nothing but old concerto standards. We believe these sounds will help sooth the Wolf Lord's Thunderwolf during her birthing, so we have it piping through the whole ship.

By the way, we want to know if that heretic Straken has been dealt with yet? If not, we need meat for the wolf pups...

Wolf Lord Sven, ready and willing to assist in puppy birth.

From: Da Masta Cheef Date: Sunday, October 11, 2009, 7:44 PM

FAO: Wolfpriest Jorvik
TRANSMITTED: CLASSIFIED
RECEIVED: Colcha
DATE:4916998.M41
TELEPATHIC DUCT: Astropath-terminus: CLASSIFIED
AUTHOR: Inquisitor Kemp, Ordo Hereticus
CLEARANCE LEVEL: Magenta
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: It is not your right to question, only to obey.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
There is no Colonel by the name of 'Extra hands' Straken, nor a 728th Sabbat Irregulars listed within the ranks of the Emperor's most glorious Imperial Guard. Further inquiries as to the identities of those you have mentioned above has garnered the attention of the Ordo Hereticus. As such I have taken command of this investigation and am aboard my cruiser 'Interrogator' which is en route to rendezvous with your strike cruiser for further investigation. You and your crew will stand down and submit to MY authority upon my arrival, and will cooperate fully with any 'cleansing' operations should they be necessary. The thought of the Astartes being so easily misguided by, if not outright consorting with the ruinous powers is one that shall be quashed with much haste & vigor!

The Emporer Protects.

Inquisitor Kemp

-Ordo Hereticus-


From: Neverness

FAO: Inquisitor Kemp, Ordo Hereticus
TRANSMITTED: Colcha
RECEIVED: Scintilla
DATE:4918997.M41
TELEPATHIC DUCT: Astropath-terminus: Loki
AUTHOR: Wolfpriest Jorvik
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Men can be replaced, data is precious.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lord kemp, we are not surprised to once again bear witness to your witless observations and shortsighted determinations with regards to imminent threats to the Imperium we hold dear. Of course "There is no Colonel by the name of 'Extra hands' Straken, nor a 728th Sabbat Irregulars listed within the ranks of the Emperor's most glorious Imperial Guard." It's what they have come to call themselves! Do you honestly think to believe that a group of traitors would resubmit to the Departmento Munitorium a name change after they turn traitor? No, why, in their current guise they can continue to seek requisitions and supplies thus not only draining the Imperial Guard of resources, but by also acting in a manner counter-productive to the aims and wishes of the Administratum. Besides the obvious act of subterfuge, if such a group were bold/stupid enough to attempt such a request, it would take decades for the change to actually occur! We both know that the Administratum is not known for expediency. For example, we're still waiting to hear back on our Request of Censure against you for that decision you made six years ago to pull back the Imperial Guard that we were sent to support against a combined Tau and Necron assault. You stated on the Voxcast that the regional Governor's botanical gardens were to be protected at all costs, leaving us to pursue the routing Tau (we're still happy to have crushed the Necrons in the campaign). When advised against this decision, you had the Guard fire upon our force. If the Tau were not a bigger threat at the time, your bones would be lining our wolf kennels.

Back on the point, `Extra Hands' Straken, and his 728th Sabbat Irregulars, regardless of whether or not you can produce a record of their existence, will be pacified. We welcome you to join us –from a distance- in monitoring their destruction, but if you intend or dare to assume that the sons of Russ will heel to a paper-pushing simpleton, you better not show up with a pack of women this time.

Chewing up Treachery,

-Jorvik.

From: Da Masta Cheef
Subject: Casualties were heavy.....
To: Neverness
Date: Saturday, October 31, 2009, 11:46 PM

...but the 728th Sabbat Irregulars still managed to hold the accursed Eldar to a draw. The line holds, with the famed Eldrad fleeing before the might of Straken!

It is no wonder that the cowardly Space Puppies, fled before us, refusing to come to battle.

wtf?


From: Neverness
Subject: Incoming transmission
To: Da Masta Cheef
Date: Sunday, November 8, 2009, 12:19 PM

FAO: Master-General Styker of Departento Munitorium
TRANSMITTED: Scintilla
RECEIVED: Aten III
DATE:4919997.M41
TELEPATHIC DUCT: Astropath-terminus: Loki
AUTHOR: Wolfpriest Jorvik
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Negotiation is surrender.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
On this day were able to confirm the treachery of Lord Kemp on the field of battle. He had allied himself with the despicable heretic Col. ‘Extra’ Hands Straken and the 728th ‘Sabbat Irregulars’. Lord Kemp is often referred to by his own troops as the ‘Khorne Dog’, a sobriquet in and of itself that is affirmation of treachery. Although soundly defeated, during the calamity that ensued on the battle field we were unable to confirm the kill as the pack of wolf brothers that brought down their command squad was subsequently violated with a pungent brew of the most heinous of chemicals ever introduced to a theater of war. Even the heightened metabolism of a Space Marine cannot withstand exposure to this dirtiest of tricks. Beware of this most crude of battlefield ingenuity, as this foul noxious chemical is capable of overwhelming the stoutest of men, and hardiest of respirators. So do put out the alert that we believe these traitors to still be at large, although they will most likely lay low for a while to regroup and heal, they are still undeniably dangerous and corrupting.

To add further insult our Wolf Lord Sven Axegrinder was brought down in close combat, but instead of killing him honorably, they took to stripping him of his sacred armor and applying female undergarments and face-paint and tying him to a statue of the Emperor in a nearby square. They then took to broadcasting this image throughout the local planetary network’s entertainment frequencies. This insult has invigorated our chapter, and we won’t rest until these traitors are forever exterminated.

We’re still looking for the so-called Xenos threat that was the original intent of our dispatch to this system. We’re waiting for more intel, but it would seem that this was a ruse to draw us into an ambush.

And as an aside; To assist in rooting out other potential traitor regiments, do be on the look out for requisitions for large quantities of feather boas; we’re alarmed at how many were found on the corpses of these traitors, and alarmed further that they seemed to have been given as standard issue. Surely tithes could be better allocated to improving the basic wargear of the Imperial Guardsman?

-Jorvik.


From: Da Masta Cheef
Subject: Incoming transmission
To: Neverness
Date: Sunday, November 9, 2009, 12:43 PM

FAO: Master-General Styker of Departento Munitorium TRANSMITTED: Carcaradon Cluster RECEIVED: Aten III DATE:4919104.M41 TELEPATHIC DUCT: Astropath-terminus: CLASSIFIED AUTHOR: CLASSIFIED THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Interrogation through torture always nets results. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ General, The attached transcript was recorded by an Obsolescent Temple Assassin that is tracking the Heretic unit known as the 728th Sabbat Irregulars. It is believed to be from a command briefing of the Rogue Colonel 'Extra Hands' Straken. Though he survived the encounter, the Assassin's position was compromised, leaving us with only a scrap of dialogue. I have sent a copy of this to my Master, shall I also forward this to the sons of Russ? -Interrogator Snipes- +++++Recording Begins+++++ Cheef's Obsolescent Temple Assassin? '...that screaming all about? I thought you executed the howitzer crews for their incompetence?' 'Eases the mind doesn't it? I did, although I did leave one to feed to the Psyker. His power grows by the day, he needs to be watched. Our friend the Inquisitor is in the medicae. Apparently the followers of Khorne feel pain, thanks to the Blessings of Grandfather Nurgle, I do not.' 'Indeed Colonel. So are they taking the Dog apart or putting him back together?' 'Not my concern, the medicae's saw bones is a devotee of Khorne as well, so either way their god is being sated. What do the spies report?' 'The Wolves have landed again, don't think its the ones we fought, its the others. The ones that fought the green Astartes. Who were they anyways, Death Guard?' Don't know, don't care, they killed plenty of themselves, and added enough collateral damage to send droves of new refugees to welcome the Glory of Chaos and to refill the ranks. What of our armor?' Only one Bane Wolf is back in service, they're emptying the latrines into it now, and the PDF turned up another Battle tank as well.' 'The Bastion laser?' 'The Dark Mechanicus's adepts have retrofitted some of those recovered Xenos grav engines into its support stabilizers. There's not enough power to fire it on the move, but it will serve as a crew portable weapon.' 'It'll have to do...ok, here's the plan: Sergeant Mossad, you will take the platoon to the...' ++++++++Transmission ends++++++++

Note: While scouring Da Masta Cheef's blog, I was unable to locate any pics of the "Khorne Dog" or "Col. Extra Hands Straken", No doubt a cover-up on the highest levels is occurring.

Note2: Thanks to the Cheef for providing a link to an image of Col. Extra-Hand Straken. (And no, you can't have my 1st born...)

Birthday Bloodbath

Today, what little is left of it, is my 40th birthday.
Thank you, thank you!

 

I have had 3 birthday parties over the past week or so, but the one that was held on Saturday was a complete and total surprise! Redbird orchestrated a daring surprise party to be held at the local Hobbytown in Johnson City during what is typically our game night. She plotted this since July. Da Masta Cheef baked the cake and Rob decorated based on the design on my WHFB Orc banners. I saw all of the usual gamer gang and a few I haven't seen in years (Scott and Roscoe). Krishal gifted me with two models: an Ultramarinc dreadnought and a Marneus Calegar in Terminator Armor (bad ass! And thanks!). I got lots of great gifts (thank you all!), and I'm not discounting those, but the dreadnought in particular will have a bearing on the title of this post...

With what we thought were an odd number of players, it was decided that I would match up 2K points worth of Ultramarines up against 1k each of Cheef's Eldar and his GF's (Wolfwalker)'s  Fem fatau. Now that I think I about it, this army did poorly against both of these forces when they fought one on one, but now that they are teamed up...yeah, I dunno what I was thinking either. Oh, I forgot to mention that this game is my final send off battle for the 5th edition Space Marine codex. Krishal had a copy of the new one and all of use drooled on it before the games began.


A rather bold battleline for Space Elves. Make you wonder if they discovered spinach between editions...

They one the dice offs, and we ended up with the Tau's favorite board layout (the long end deployment zones) and the mission where we both have an objective worth 3 vps each.

The Tau defend the objective.

And a near bird's eye view of the Xenos line

Ultramarine deployment. Objective place in front of the Whirlwind.

 So, I chose to teleport in the terminators and bring the scouts on from reserve. Hopefully I could take the objective as it was easy to see that getting across the board in a conventional sense was far from likely to occur.

So on the 1st turn the xenos filth blast away. With 1st blood being claimed for the killing of my dreadnought! I haven't even owned the thing for an hour and they murder my birthday present!!!

...well, at least it will provide some well need cover saves!

 They also immobilized by venerable dreadnought and killed murdered a few battle-brothers as well. My turn rolls around and I tried to give back as good as I got. I tore off a brightlance from the viper, and killed a few eldar from some of the units running around, but no total unit kills.

The trees that I claimed for cover would become a battleground unto itself: The Battle of Keebler Park

Another battle squad dies to horrible die rolling...

Did I mention that I was using new dice? I switched out all my GW dice to a rather generic set of casino style dice, and well, my luck is my luck regardless of the quality of my dice it seems.

At some point on turn 2, my Landraider is brightlanced to death (hate those things!) and my sternguard are ejected. Wisely, Da Cheef has his wraithguard (i.e. the lizard riders) move into the woods for some cover. The sternguard failed to kill any of them and it took a shot from the devastators (proving all game why they suck with exception to this lucky shot) to fell one. However I did get the two survivors of a battle-squad to assault them.

These woods with flow with space elf blood!

All the marines in this pic just took part in the slaughter of an Eldar unit that got too close to the objective!

 On turn my Terminators led by my Librarian arrived but scattered way off the mark to end up in front of the building containing the other objective. I got to use a rather sweet psychic power that caused the Tau squad holding the objective to pretty much kill each other, while the terminators dealt with the rest. On turn 3 my scouts arrived and tried to claim the objective.

Let's get the thing!!!

The scouts would all die by the time the game ended though, as the Hammerhead sent a brutal blast of death their way that their BMX gear/armor failed to protect them from. So much for me claiming that objective!

No, THIS is my BOOMSTICK!!!
 

In the final round of the game my Librarian slaughtered the remain Taus troops, but they themselves couldn't claim the objective.

You'll never take us alive

 On my side of the table, the Waveserpent had let a squad of Dire Avengers out and final troop unit that was holding the objective was locked in combat with them when the game ended, thus leaving that objective contested as well.

In a final act of futility the last 2 Sternguard attempted to kill the Devilfish....and failed.

So in the end the Xenos filth won 2 VPS to my 1VP (we both had linebreaker and they had First Blood). It was a really tough match, and clearly the new changes to the Eldar have made them bad-asses, even a "fluffy" army as Da Cheef's Exodite Elves. The Tau are just bad-ass, but had her dice been rolling good (some of her rolls were on par with mine) this game would've ended even sooner.

Now with the new Space Marines codex out (and me itching to get it with my b-day money) I am eager to see how this army will do against these xenos now that I will have a sprinkle of "codex-creep" on my side! /)

(Note: Da Cheef wrote a report as well called surprise!)

Tau about that?

Deploying in cover.

Taking a break from painting a sea of green (more on that in a future post) I found myself scrambling an army together and marched over to HobbyTown-USA in Johnson-City where Da Masta Cheef and I decided to give his girlfriend's newly constructed Tau army a workout. It was my 1st game against the new Tau Codex, so I was expected to be gunned to death. We both took pics and are both writing battle reports  (in fact, he has beaten me to it, the-first-engagement-of-my-gfs-tau-army. (kinda of bold using 'engagement' and 'GF' in the same sentence, but that's the Cheef's fearless tendencies for you).

To make this fun for us, I have intentionally not yet read his battle report, just for the sake of perspective and to make it fun to compare and contrast the two against each other.

1500pts of Ultramarines

 So once again I mustered the ultra-flashback.army but with a few unit adjustments. This time I wanted to use both Legion of the Damned and Sternguard, but I was limited to only 5 Legion of the Damned. The whirlwind ought to make a mockery of the Tau's pathetic attempts to stay at arm's length from me. Muhahaha!

The Tau assemble.

The Tau totally camped out in this building. We suspect it is a brothel...

The Tau deploy the big guns. They never tire apparently, which is why they weren't allowed in the brothel...

"Sarge! Xenos scum have taken the brothel?! They're ruining our shore-leave!"

Once again we had diagonal deployment and once again I rolled Master of Cities for my Warlord trait! This is becoming a trend, but one that I like (so long as I am playing on this board). I tried to position the Whirlwind so it could strike deep into the Tau position but not be so easily picked out by his big guns. The Landraider was packed with Sternguard.

"Concentrate fire on the brothel, we MUST retake it!!!"

 We had 4 objective markers scattered about the board, in the pic above there is a building with black and white tiles to the right of the Land Raider. On the opposite side of it is an objective marker. On this side of it there is a squad of Tactical Marines that will quickly take it.

On the 1st turn, we just moved in a bit, taking objectives and getting our shots lined up. Tau has the first turn, where he attempted blast the Land Raider but failed to do any harm to it. He killed these marines:

The first to go to Ultramarine Valhalla!

The two on the bottom are from the squad that was stacked up in the tall building, the in the middle was in the squad under the squad in the tall building and the guy in the rear was sniped by from the squad that too the closest objective to my line.

On my first turn we killed only 3 Tau, one from a bolter shot and two from the scattering whirlwind.

Turn two would set the stage for who was going to have the toughest uphill climb...




The 1st stealthsuit unit enters the Tau's zone, while Da Cheef premeasures his target...



The 2nd Stealthsuit arrive in the Utlramarine DZ.

 These Stealthsuits changed the game for me, taking away my biggest gun by blowing up the Whirlwind! And getting the First Blood VP!!!

The Sternguard React.

On my turn two, after watching most of my other units getting picked apart by Tau firepower, my reserves arrived. More on that in a sec; check out how the Land Raider Turned around and discharged the Sternguard....

The results of the Sternguard reacting!

 ...it was a thorough and deep cleansing as they mowed the Stealthsuits down!

They arrived, with a boom box blasting 'Maiden's Children of the Damned.

The Legion of the Damned arrived, and they blew apart the Devilfish! On turn 3, they would be completely blown away by the Tau big guns! (Da Cheef hates metal and would have none of that racket in his DZ!) I think I stated that a 3+ invulnerable saves looks good on paper, but I can't roll anything higher than a 2, it doesn't matter anyway. Not seeing how they earned back their worth in points, when I might've had the same result with a lame scout squad! LOL!

The Librarian and his Terminator Squad arrives! "Focus on the brothel men, we must save those ladies!"

My Librarian shows up, focusing on dealing with the concentration of xenos filth that infests this particular zone. They dumped everything they had at the Crisis Battlesuit in the ruins, and managing only to knock out his drone...(Arrrgh! Frustrating dice!!!)
 

Imagine LOTS of tracers, lasers, missiles, bullets, women's undergarments, and obscenities blasting the terminators!

The rain of firepower that was dumped into this Terminator squad could've wiped out an Imperial Guard unit! Some how the Librarian lived, albeit with a single wound, and two terminators.

"Take the brothel! You are expendable, it is NOT!!!"

Notice in the pic above that there is only two terminators now? The other was shredded by the utterly INSANE amount of overwatch fire that this unit endured! It is a miracle that any of them survived. To add insult to injury, the Terminators failed to wipe this squad out on the charge and would be stuck in combat until the top of turn 4.

"HA! We did it!" "Sir, what about the other squad?" "...sigh.."

The Tau army warlord would come around the corner and kill the Librarian, earning the Tau a Slay the Warlord VP, while the remaining terminator would kill the Tau commander's partner and then charge the Tau commander, who in turn kills the terminator with overwatch shooting!

The sole survivor of the squad that started on the burnt out rhino.

 This guy would have his unit gunned down by Stealtsuits and Drones, but manage to dive into the door of the Shrine of the Aquila where he could see the objective on the other side of the door and the Tau squad holding it. He threw a frag grenade, which scattered and killed a Pathfinder...

"Liquidate him.:

 ...not taking that crap, that squad would line up, and gun down the trooper, who never lost sight of the goal while never seeing the odds stacking up so badly against him...

Moving up the street...

 This pic shows the crater, where for about 3 turns of the game I had a unit holding this objective. The big guns of the Tau reduced them to ash. just to the left there is another set of ruins where the surviving Sgt from the squad that was holding the tall building was hiding out, waiting for a last minute grab for this objective, however he was spotted by that gun drone and was killed.

"Sir, they just won't give up that brothel; it must really be the best in the sector!"

The Sternguard had deployed from the Landraider and tore apart the Tau that was on the upper level of the ruins, but they did not break, but instead went down stairs to claim the objective! ( !@#$% BASTARDS!!!!) while their Commander wandered over to see what the big deal was about these Sternguard. He even killed one! My Landraider killed that last Crisis suit, and turned it's attention on the Stealtsuits...

 ...while the machine spirit targeted the unit holding the objective at the Shrine of Aquila. The shots on the Stealthsuits failed to kill anything.

"Ignore him and he'll go away!"

The Sternguard ignored the tasty targets of the Tau Commander and the Stealthsuits and instead fired long range at the Tau holding the objective at the Shrine of the Aquila. Although they killed a good chunk of the unit, they just couldn't kill them all and the Tau simply refused to run away!

"We held this useless ruin for 6 rounds and NOW you tell us that the other place was a brothel?! Damn it!"

 This squad above held the objective for the whole game, taking only a single casualty on turn one. They shot down a lot of drones in this game and made a lot of saves! Well done men, you earned us our 3 VPs! While the Tau took two objectives, plus two secondary objectives to earn 8 VPs total!

So, my thoughts on Tau? They finally live up to their hype as the best guns in the galaxy! OMG -the amount of firepower! Staggering! Especially on the overwatch reactions! This would've been a sick game if I had brought the orks (which I almost did). The markerlights have always annoyed me, but in this game they didn't make too much of a difference. The shoot-around-corners missiles were a surprise but not one that felt I could do anything about. The Tau's use of cover saves was impressive as well. I look forward to seeing more of this army, and I wonder if Da Cheef's gal would let me paint a Crisis suit (simply because I have never painted a Tau model before)?

The sternguard, again, I love this unit and SO wish the Space Wolves had something this awesome!

All in all, a good game, although I kept wondering how the Space Marines earn the background they have when their in game performance would suggest otherwise? A rant for another time...

The cruel tutelage of Screech.

Over on the other table Screech has been showing Jim how to maximize the cheese in his army list while showing him that he can do the same with his. I hear it was a total bloodbath!

Honorable mention to Ben who showed up in the beginning to wow us with his High Elves! I hope to be sacrificing Orcs to him in the near future...

Till next time!