Kill the Courier

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3394819.M41 Inq/045678506/BI Wolf Priest Jorvik Blacktooth Wolf Lord Sven Axegrinder Campaign Update from Segmentum Warzones Segmentum Obscurus Tri-Cinci Sub, Hobbytown Secundus LETUS05.61.CLA Knowledge causes confusion. We must retrieve the artifact, the water bowl of Freki,the foul xenos scum stole it five years ago and have escaped our vengeance since that time. They must be brought to heel and the artifact must be retrieved at all cost. Lord Grimnar has added the following message to assure the importance of this mission:   "Extreme prejudice is sanctioned and encouraged.  YOU ARE EXPENDABLE, THE WATER BOWL IS NOT. -LG"

Finally, the Space Wolves get a (sorta) rematch against these foul xenos! Da Masta Cheef and I arranged this game shortly after the last one when I reminded him of the time his Eldar soundly defeated my Space Wolves back in 5th edition. Since that time he has sold off a lot his Eldar, both the Exodites and Corsairs, leaving only a scattering of each. I agreed to let him use some of mine to fill in the gaps. I lent him Fire Dragons, Swooping Hawks and Dark Reapers.

This game was one of many firsts! Most importantly it was the first time using Da Cheef's new awesome convertible gaming table (a.k.a. The Jasper). It was my first time using Space Wolves in 8th ed, and my first time using a few units with them. Such as the Intercessors, Stormhawk, and a Wolf Priest (it's true, in the decades I have played this game, I have never used a generic Wolf Priest). It was Cheef's first time using many of the Eldar units in this game as well.

Once again we used the Open War cards, pulling the  'long way' deployment and Kill the Courier as a mission. Note that I pulled out form the deck any of the missions that didn't have some sort of specific objective to fight over. The Twist card that we pulled (Double or Nothing) resulted in us not having any twists.

Open War!

After choosing our zones, we set up our forces on The Jasper. Clearly the Xenos scum, having traded the sacred Space Wolf artifact, the Water Bowl of Freki, many times over, were about to pass on the artifact to another group. Now the Space Wolves have cornered a band of Corsairs who have been joined by a detachment of Craftworld Eldar, no doubt sending the artifact to it's final intended, and debauch, destination. The Eldar Courier was identified as the Farseer. The Eldar have selected my Rune Priest as the Courier for the Space Wolves. What twisted vision did that Farseer see to select the Rune Priest as his target is not known at this time, only that the xenos sought his demise.

Eldar set-up. 

Our set ups were fairly straight forward,  with the scenery some what sparse there was still plenty of defensive positions to take advantage of.

Space Wolf Set-Up. 

TURN ONE

The Eldar advance. They fired a lot shots at the Space Wolves, but only one of the Sons of Russ was eliminated.

The Eldar are coming!

Space Wolves Turn One, and they did not take the loss of Brother Banebreath too well! The counter attack was intense, with the Eldar taking considerable losses, but it was the Stormhawk Interceptor that truly brought the thunder. I knew this thing has potential for fire power but damn! We were not expecting it to be this impressive! It destroyed a unit of Corsairs and a Dire Avenger unit! Cheef was livid at this thing and was determined to bring it down.

The wall of bullets is spat out by the Stormhawk.

TURN TWO

The Eldar counter attacked, killing a few Space Wolves with shooting. The Autarch on Jetbike (it only looks like a griffin) charged into the Stormhawk. he didn't knock it out of the sky like he intended too but he did get it down to 6 wounds remaining.

Bonzi!!!

Space Wolves Turn Two

Smoking but still aggressive, the Stromhawk turned it's attention towards the Vyper. After the 1st round, we expected this to be an ugly event, but no, the Vyper not only absorbed everything the Stormhawk threw at it, but managed to survive with 2 Wounds remaining!

The Vyper's escape!

In my 2nd Turn Movement phase my Drop Pod appeared, and out sprang my 2nd Grey Hunters squad who killed off the Dark Reapers.

Drop Pod assault!

The Intercessors charged into a Guardian unit while the Wolf Priest and the remaining Grey Hunters charges the Autarch.

Charge!

The Autarach was unharmed due to his invulnerable saves and would fly off in his his next Movement phase.

TURN 3, and the Autarch charged the Interceptor again, which by this point had been reduced down to 4 Wounds. The Autarch finished it off, and Interceptor bits rained down onto the field.

The last of the Corsairs killed off the entire 2nd Squad of Grey Hunters with shooting. Clearly they were getting too close to the Courier!

The Autrach in his glory. 

The Intercessors gunned down the Autarch on Jet Bike/Griffen, ending his reign of air supremacy.

TURN 4

Meanwhile the 2nd Autarch and a Squad of Dire Avengers was hunting down my Rune Priest, who, along with the Long Fangs, had just all but finished off a FIre Dragon squad (the Exarch still lived!). After failing to Wound him they charged him.

"We have you know Mon'Keigh!"

The Swooping  Hawks charged the Primaris Marines that had just finished off the Guardian, tying them up in melee.

Space Wolves Turn 4,

With the swirling Melee nearby, the two survivors of the 1st Grey Hunter Squad spotted the Farseer, and the Meltagunner took off all but one wound from the Farseer; leaving the Space Wolves only one wound away from victory! Naturally they charged the Farseer who managed to make all of his saves, yet failed to kill his attackers!

The Farseer (Courier) is wounded!

TURN 4, and we are running out of models! The Vindicator had been hunted down by the Vyper and the Fire Dragon Exarch they were  picking wounds off of it, and somehow it survived an assault with Melta Bombs, but it was down to only 2 Wounds!

Space Wolves Turn 4, and the Vindicator pretty much point-blank annihilated the Fire Dragon Exarch, thankfull that templates are no longer a thing! It then Turned it's attention to the Vyper, finishing it off with it's storm bolter.

The Vindicator, sticking it out to vanquish it's oppressors. 

Turn 5

The Farseer used Smite to kill off his Attackers! He then advanced himself to position of cover.

"I Smite thee!"

The Runepriest liked that idea and Smited the Autarch attacking him, kill him out right while the Dire Avengers continued to press the assault.

"I Smite thee!"

The Long Fangs, now out of targets, moved down to assist the Runepriest, who now only had one opponent.

We;re here to help boss!

Having bested the last of the Swooping Hawks in the Eldar Fight Phase, the Wolf Priest and surviving Primaris Marines found the hidden Farseer crouching in the ruins. With a blast from his Plasma Pistol, the Farseer's days as a Courier were no more, and the Water Bowl of Freki was retrieved!.

Victory!

That was a fast summary, and I know I left out a lot of details, but it was getting late and my memory is somewhat fractured and dependent upon these pics. But what a fight! In case it's not obvious, there was only one survivor in the Eldar army, and she was a Dire Avenger desperately trying to take out the Rune Priest, who was now down to just 3 Wounds himself. I like to think that the Runepriest and the Long Fangs took her as a prisoner. Likewise, Cheef likes to think that the Wolf Priest slagged the Water Bowl of Freki with that plasma blast...

It was a good, intense game! My MVP was easily the Stormhawk Interceptor due to it's first round introduction where it blew away two units! This thing has the potential to dish our a lot of death if the dice are hot! A definite honor mention for Wolf Priest Jorvik Blacktooth for staying alive, inspiring his troops (those re-rolls to hit are just divine!) and for the winning shot of the game. He definitely earns his pace in the hall of heroes!

Cheef's MVP was that Vyper, simply for the incredible amount of firepower it absorbed during the game!  it stood up the Stormhawk, survived and went on to pester my forces until it was eventually dealt with. It was very tough to kill! His Autarch on Jetbike (Griffin) was probably the 2nd place contender.

And that's a wrap, the Water Bowl of Freki has been recovered, and the Space Wolves have a prisoner! Will the Eldar attempt a rescue?

Challenge made, challenge accepted!

Challenge made, challenge accepted! Da Masta Cheef and Amy accepted a challenge by my Orks for a rare Friday night 40K brawl.

The Orks aim their Space Hulk at the peaceful Maiden World of Velveeta VII and plunge straight for the heart of the derelict imperial outpost to rip it from the protective embrace of the Eldar Exodites. However the Eldar, with the assistance of their Tau allies, weren't about to let Orks take their sacred ground without a fight, which of course, is music to the ears of the Orks. 

We rolled for the corner deployment zones and the scenario was Big Guns Never Tire. Four Objectives were placed, with one in each Deployment zone and the other two in 'no man's land'.

The battlefield. 

Ork deployment

The Gobsmasha contains Mad Dok Grotsnik and his Burna Boyz. 

Eldar/Tau (Taudar as the 'net says we should call this union) Deployment. 

Two Broadsides overlook the battlefield and the Eldar Exodites. 

 Turn one
(Orks steal the initiative. Yes it is sort of ironic)

The Orks advance. 

 The first round of Ork shooting was largely unimpressive. The warbikes killed a ranger, the shokk attack gun killed a few models, as did the loota boyz, but nothing terribly significant happened. It was Night Fight for the first turn which proved to be highly beneficial to the Eldar.

A ranger dies from Warbike fire!

Taudar Turn 1

The Eldar wipe out the warbikes and the Tau Broadsides get a perfect shot on the Big Mek with the Shokk Attack gun, eliminating him from the game before he can cause any major havoc and giving the Eldar the First Blood Secondary Objective! Drats!

Orks Turn 2

Ouch! Reeling from the loss of my Bigmek, whom, upon reflection, I should've joined to the lootas, I proceeded to try to reverse this loss. Mad Dok Grotsnik leapt from the battlewagon with the burnas and completely annihilated a guardian squad.

There was a squad there...

The shoota boys tear up another guardian squad with shooting and force them to route.

It was a more satisfying round for the Orks, but by no means a game-changer.

Taudar Turn 2

The Shoota boyz are mostly shot to pieces by the Guardian, Harlequins, Tau, etc, that threw everything they had them, even a few insults and expletive phrases the likes of which could make a whole maiden world blush -but they aren't out of the fight yet!

Forces redeploy to deal with the Grotsnik/Burna threat. After weathering a great deal of shooting, thanks to the Cybork bodies and Feel No Pain, they would really be tested by their (and my!) first exposure to D-Sythes! Holy crap are these things NASTY!

Setting up for the kill...

The Wraithguard (appearing as Exodite Knights on Dragons) declared a charge but they lost a guy due to Overwatch, and then botched the charge roll! This left the Harlequin Solitare to charge by himself, which left him in a challenge with Mad Dok Grotsnik. Grotsnik survived the figth, but the Harlequin did not, but in his dying gasp he exploded almost taking taking Grotsnik with him! Thus the Secondary Objective Slay the Warlord was earned by the Orks!

"But before I die...." -BOOM!

Orks Turn 3

Rallied by that victory, Grotsnik and the Burnas chose to finish off the Dire Avengers, while the Deff Dread was working it's way up (it killed a Dire Avenger with a Scorcha). Having given up the other side of the field, I pulled what remained of the Shootas back to my area to try to bolster my force. My Killcannon scattered horribly and missed the broadsides, however the Lootas killed the one with the Railgun, forcing it's companion to flee off of the board! Perhaps the tide was turning?

This side is feeling a bit secure!

Eldar Turn 3
The eldar hold on to their second objective, while the rangers advance through the ruins, closer to the lootas that they hope to kill...

The Eldar advance through the ruins

The Shoota boyz lose even more of their number to the Harlequin and guardians, and Grotsnik and the burnas are finally destroyed by another round of the D-Sythes, making me realize that I should've targeted them rather than the Dire Avengers, but really, at that point it was really a matter of choosing my poison!

Orks Turn 4

The lootas, gobsmasha, and the big shootas from the choppa unit all contribute to the destruction of the Harlequin troupe. Desperate to rid myself of those annoying wraithdragon things, the deff dread declared a charge, only to be utter destroyed by the D3 hits that those 3 template weapons threw down! Seriously, those things are better on Overwatch than they are normally! I shiny crater is all that remained of the Deff Dread!

Ka-Boom!

Eldar Turn 4.

The Eldar would practically shrug off this loss however (although Cheef was bummed by it!) And press on. Now the Lootas were starting to take some hits, and the Shootas were whittled down to just two models. The Gobbsmasha was stunned by the D-Sythes, and the Lootas would be pinned by a plasma missile!

Ork Turn 5. 

My shooting seemed useless as most of the Eldar made cover saves, or what losses they had were negligible. I ran the last two Shoota over to the objective that the Deff Dread was covering. With the gobbsmasha stunned and the Lootas only able to snapfire, my turn was over in a flash. It was looking quite grim...

Eldar Turn 5 

The Gobsmasha was stunned again, and was more or less useless. The lootas take more punishment, but are not pinned again, although their unit would have to be reformed.  One of the two fleeing shootas would be picked off, forcing the sole-survivor to flee for his life!

We rolled, the game ended!

Tallying the scores, the Orks had Warlord (1vp), a Heavy Support kill (1vp) and an objective (3vp) for a total of 5 victory points!

The Eldar/Tau had First Blood (1vp), Warlord (1vp), Line Breaker (1vp) and 2 objectives (6vps) for a whopping total of 9 vps!

Declaring the Eldar the official winner, and feeling that the last turn was bit anti-climatic, we decided to press on...

Unofficial Ork Turn 6

The lone shoota boy, somehow was bolstered by something and rolled a double one -Insane Courage!- thus rallying and getting back into the game, he moved over and took an unclaimed objective!

Insane Courage! Hey, it happens! (he's the red speck by the ruins at the top)

The orks tried to stop the approaching guardians but with the Lootas still pinned, and the Slugga Boyz reluctant to leave the objective, guardians armor was able to absorb any wounding firepower.

End of Ork turn 6.

Unofficial Eldar Turn 6

The Eldar chew into the Slugga Boyz, but only kill off a few of them

Thank Gork for cover saves.

The Wraith Guard Dragons easily get around the stunned Gobbsmasha to deliver the death blow to the ork tank, resulting in an awesome explosion. Due to our mission (Big Guns Never Tire) this would give the Taudar and additional VP, putting out totals up to 8vps Orks and 10vps for the Eldar and Tau.

The Gobbsmasha is smashed!

Unofficial Turn 7

The orc firepower doesn't amount to much, and the slugga boyz and guardians fail to get a charge against each other, so they remain holding onto the objective.

The dragons hunt down and destroy the last Shoota Boy.

The objective is lost as the Wraith Dragons destroy the last Shoota Boy!



But at least the gun platform died!

The dragons were getting fire support from another guardian squad that was holding an objective, but check out this cheesy configuration:

The lost art of Snaking.

Good to see the Exodites utilizing such long-forgotten tactics. (we all had a good chuckle over this).

So the game was stopped here.

The final tally ends up being Orks 5vp and Taudar 10vp.

Looking at it, it was just not possible for the Orcs to win a 'to the death" challenge at this point, but the score was acceptable (as opposed to 0 or 1), and I helped the Eldar out with their whole 'dying race' tagline. As far as tactics go (that I can't exclusively blame on dice) I should've held the Deff Dread back, however I know that if I had managed to connect to the dragons on a charge, it would've been over for them, but those D-Sythes are a game-changer for the unit, and I will have to watch out for them in future match-ups! And failing to have Mad Dok & the Burnas focus exclusively on the Wraithguard/dragons was a horrible mistake!

As I play with and learn more about this 6th edition Eldar Codex, I feel more and more that the Eldar deserve a new banner, one that hasn't been so proudly hailed since 2nd edition:

A maiden on her world. 

It would at least make a pleasant image to behold for my desperate troops as they rush headlong to their deaths!

Book Review: Path of the Incubus

First off, I got to say that I really, really anticipated the release of this book! I was in the book store each week searching for this thing as I was unable at the time to find the actual release date. I wasted no time diving into this and like the 1st novel in this series, Path-of-Renegade, I had a hard time putting it down. It did take me a long time to finally get around to a review.

Path of the Incubus is an absolute direct sequel to the previous book Path of the Renegade and if you simply pick this book up without first reading the previous book, well, you might be able to figure some things out, as Andy Chambers does explain who every one is and what they are about, but still, you would be missing out on a very cool read and everything in this book will make a ton more sense.

The title is a tad misleading, as you find yourself following a lot of paths actually, not just that of the incubus, although you will learn that it is his path that is the most crucial to the survival of the dark city. There are 3 main paths, or rather journeys, taking place here. (Although not one of these main 3 journeys I was particularly amused with the two death machines that are programed to hunt down and assassinate someone, that well, I shalln't spoil it!) So, there are 3 paths we follow. First of all, everyone's journey here is a direct consequence to the end of the last book as the dark city of Commorragh ir reeling from the after-effects of a dysjunction that threatens to tear the dark city and it's pocket dimension apart. We see this in the form of daemonic attacks in the lower level that sets two of the previous book's secondary characters, Xagor and Kharbyr, with two rival archons and their parties on a quest to get up to the higher, and deceptively safer (like there is such a thing in Commorragh!) level. This particular journey was one of my favorites to follow and I really like how it ends and sort of sets up the next book.

The 2nd path involves someone we assumed was left for dead in the last book. Needless to say I won't spoil it, but this also sets up the next book too. A favorite aspect of this part of the story is the description and the battle of the Gorath, one of the captured suns or ilmaea that provides heat to Commorragh. Fascinating stuff, and quite an epic battle. Oh, and a personal appearance by Asdrubel Vect that is quite chilling and villainous.

And the 3rd path, the one that really holds this whole story together, yet not directly, is the path of Morr, the incubis from the previous novel and his tag-a-long companion Motley, a harlequin trouper that is determined to convince Morr that he can, and should, personally undo the dysjunction that he caused. This path is quite epic, as we see Morr beat his way through his fellow Incubi and even fight one of the special characters from the Codex! It is also a very well done view on the interaction and attitudes of craftworld elder and their dark kin, as well as the exodites whom we again are treated to more of their culture and background. You could really pull a well rounded ecology article on the exodites from these two books. Also we learn more about the Harlequin thanks to the loose lips of Motley.

Did I like it? Yes, very much. My only complaint was I felt that we didn't get as good of a taste of Commorragh as we did in the first book, as everything was in a start of recoil and reaction to the dysjunction. But still, the paths of all these characters were all enjoyable to follow and I loved how they ultimately weave together.

Was it hard to put down? Sometimes. I confess that I found some bits dragged in parts, particularly in the Morr story. But "vision quests" never made for good reading to me.

Could I care about the characters? Yes. The whole vile lot of them! In particular I found myself missing two characters that escaped the end of the last book that never popped up in this one, and I am itching to know their fates....

Did the writer truly grasp how the 'world' of the 41st millennium? It's Andy Chambers! He gets it better than most of the hacks that BL allows to write Space Marine stories for Hammer and Bolter, so yeah, there is no better person (save Jess Goodwin) that I would rather have take me on a tour of all things elder.

Was I being talked down too? Andy kept the same vibe that he had in the first book. I would say that this one seemed a bit more desperate and with less cloak and poisoned dagger but that would be untrue as this book has plenty of that double-cross stuff at play that one truly expects to read about when it comes to Commorragh.

How predictable is this story? More so than the last one, but still with a few twists and turns that one couldn't see coming.

Do I recommend this book? Yes. Unless you just hated the first one, then I see no reason to recommend this book or, well, any book to you.

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!)