40K The battle for space station Condren

Wow where to begin with this one ? this was the type of game that most 40k players dream of playing out & that few exactly get to do, I'm one of the lucky ones.

The plan to battle it out for a space station, with each player using an army of 3k  made up of nothing but infantry & jump infantry marines, so with the sallies down graded a few years back from their former glory & the red scorpions still very much a WIP I was hard pushed to come up with the numbers.

So with a small band of scorpions lead by Captain Ahab joining up with a Vulkan lead Salamanders force it was time to head to the space station where they would face (Ger) Logan lead wolfs, (Alan) Abaddon' Black Legion & (Pearce) Dante lead Blood Angles, what I wouldn't have give for some terminators at a time like this.

Now as is always the way with games like this there was some changes to the rules, with my favourite been that any model hit by a blast weapon on the outside of the station had to take a t test & if they failed they drifted off out in to space, a great way to take out oblits.

Captain Ahab & a small band of Red Scorpions where on board the Salamanders battle barge the Indomitable Drake hitching a ride back from Onos 4 where they had been fighting the orks together, when the massage came in that space station Condren abandoned while under attack from unknown source leaving behind vital information.

As the barge was only a half days journey from the station Vulkan gave the order to make for it at once.
Docking on the North-East side the two forces made their on to the station, with Ahab heading inside to investigate while Vulkan lead onto the outer catwalks.

It was not long before they realised they where not alone on the station with fighting braking out both inside & on top of the space station obviously someone else wanted what ever information had been left behind.

So while the techmarines set about retrieving as much information as they could out of the computers banks battles where been fought all over the station with many of those on the outside been blasted  off the station to drift into space.

After a couple of hours of fighting with the power starting to fail & the station beginning to become unstable from the damage it was taking from all the fighting the order was given for all units to retreat back to the battle barge at all hast as it was now feared the the station would start to lose it orbit & start to pull apart.

Back on board with Vulkan in sickbay recovering from some wounds he'd taken in the battle, the techmarines reported to Captain Ahab that they had only been able to retrieve part of the information but that they were fairly sure that any of the others on board would have only managed to do the same.

As Ahab looked out the viewing port in to the cold dark of space he could only wonder what information had being on the space station that had made so many people want it so badly.

So my thanks to Alan for his hospitality , to Pearce for organising such a great game, My thanks to Alan, Ger & Pearce for helping to make this game one hell of a blast to play in & my thanks to you for dropping in.

Back in the deadzone

I got my second game of deadzone in the other night & again I used the enforcers in fact the very same list that I'd used in my first, I think when your only starting to play a game it helps to stick to as much as you can to the same things while you get a handle on the rules.

So my list was bossman, missile launcher guy (ML here after) heavy machine gunner (HM here after), an assault guy & a normal guy, well you don't get much for 70 points these days lol, plus I wanted to try to work out away of trying to use them as a squad which was something I really didn't do right in my first game.

The mission card I pulled first I didn't fancy so I put it back & picked another which was more or less the same, so what was the plan I hear you ask ? well I wanted to get the HM gunner up onto the highest piece of terrain for good alround fire power, the ML guy & normal guy would hang back in my deployment zone to give cover fire while the bossman & the assault guy pushed forward.

The plague army has some very fast units & if they get in they'll tie you up until the big hitters get in & at that stage your in a world of hurt, but that's not to say they can't shoot you as they have got some models with guns so I needed to be mindful of that as well.

Now like I said this is only our second time playing so still plenty of looking at the rule book but at least we had the basics like moving, shooting & assaulting nailed down so that's a big help, anyway back to the game itself, like I said I had a plan now the think was to see if I could make it work.

Now for a game that only on a 2x2 mat there's a lot or terrain which is good, but even so there still seems to be some good firing lanes to be found which makes for an interesting make as if you fail to get your models into the right areas your going to pay the price.

This is exactly how this game went more or less I found a couple of good firing points, with the highest point on the board offering me good all round firing from my HM guy while my MLguy & normal guy had a nice area of the board they could cover with the other two able to back each other up safe in the knowledge that their backs where covered.

So with a good plan & a lit good fortune from the dice I was in fact able to complete my mission while at the same time stopping Patrick from achieving his, which is something about this game that is really good & that's the fact that your never sure who's win  as you never know what the other player is trying to do.

So my thanks to Patrick for a great game & to you for dropping in as I finish this post I'm heading out to play in a 4 player 3k each 40k game so be sure to keep an eye on the blog for a report.

Deadzone first game

I finally got my first game of deadzone in the other night, with Paddy using the plague & me using the enforcers & I really enjoyed it.

So how does it all work you might ask ? well the idea is very simple & brilliant, the game is played out on a 2ft x 2ft gaming mat that is divided in to 3" squares with the terrain pieces working in the same way to create 3" cubes that works out most of the things in the game like moving & shooting.

The starter set comes with every thing you need to play the game which is great but you can add things to it which is also great, by this I mean you can buy extra models for the factions & extra so as to to the terrain already in the set, all of which will add to the replay ability of the game.

There is also a campaign to play & mantic are given fallow on support to this which will mean there will be even more stuff to add to it, that's not to say that there isn't already things to add as there is other warbands that you can get, with each one playing very differently as my game with Paddy pointed out.

This seen me getting the upper hand at the start of the game with my better shooting, but once he got in amongst me this changed very quickly, but hell in that all pert of the fun ?
Now from a gaming point of view as I've already said the basic of the game seem simple enough to pick up, but like all good games I think the mastering of it tactically will be a different matter.

So I look forward to getting a few more games in & then taking on the campaign which has many features that that I like & think will work very well & if you had about 5 or 6 different players in the campaign with different races it could be a real blast.

So my thanks to Paddy for the game & my thanks to you for dropping in, the next time I get a game in I'll do a battle report kind of thing to try to give you an idea of how the game plays.

Deadzone & a million other things

The funny thing about this hobby is that the more I get done the more things I seem to still have to do, now I'll admit that winter time is a bad time for me from the hobby point of view, as I do about 95% of my stuff out in the dog pen.

So with the days been both short & cold I don't tend to get a lot done, anyway something I have been getting a bit of work done on is my deadzone but even the bit of work I got done on that only means more work for when you get the models & terrain made up it then needs painting.

Even though I didn't get much in the way of new stuff for the nids there is still work to be done for then while I don't have much more then about 30 models to paint up for them, there is a lot of other things I want to do for them as fortifications.at the moment I'm using a GW landing pad, which also by the way is far for done in a building sense never mind painting.

Last year from a model painting point I got a lot done but still there is so much to do, the Red Scorpions need a lot more work before I can call them an army in their own right, the IG's the same & all that is not even thing about the SoB's or thing for chaos.

So I think I'm going to need some kind of a plan to help get me through a lot of this stuff, now I know that the best way to go about all this is to take the projects one at a time & work on it until its finished, I've been in this hobby far to long to know that that won't happen.

What might work is to split things up a bit over a week, eg Monday & Tuesday I work on project X Wednesday & Thursday I work on project Y  Friday I just pick something that I feel like doing.
I done something like this before & found it did help me to get a lot of stuff done.

As the nids are the army that I'm using at the moment I think they'll be a good starting point as I'll get to both paint & make stuff, a long with them I'd like to do my deadzone stuff & will try to bring my necromunda terrain a long with it, so again I'll be painting & making stuff.

Here's to hoping I can stick to the plan as I really do need to get a handle on a lot of stuff, but with winter quickly pasting its time to get cracking & putting some of these project to bed, for as you can see in the picture above not only does the landing pad not match my army, it not even the right colour.

So thanks for dropping in & be sure to keep a eye on the blog to see if I stick to the plan, but if your a betting man keep your money in your pocket.

Opening night bugs

I got my first game of 40k in last night with the new nids codex & was over all very happy how it went, I've a lot of ideas running a round in my head as to what way to use it & what type of play style to use.

That you see is one of the good things about this codex, as while like all codex there are some good units & bad units there is really nothing that is so over the top that its an auto take, although I do think you'll be seen a lot of the carnifex.

Now I don't normally put up list as that sort of thing is not want I want from the blog but as it was Hive Fleet Nagaina first time out with the new codex I'll put it up, now as we all know nids don't get much outside of what in their codex but can take fortifications.

So anyway here's the list.

q Tervigon 195pts

Hq Hive Tyrant 165pts twin-linked devourers 15pts

Tps 15 Termagants 60pts 15 devourers 60pts

Tps 5 Genestealers 70pts Broodlord 60pts

Tps 15 Hormagunts 75pts

Els 3 Zoanthrope 150

Els 2 Venomthrope 90pts

Els 1 Venomthrope 45pts

FA 3 Shrikes 90pts barbed strangler 10pts

FA 10 Gargoyles 60pts

FA 10 Gargoyles 60pts

HS 2 Carnifex 240pts 4 twin-linked devourers 60pts

HS 2 Carnifex 240pts 4 twin-linked devourers 60pts

HS 3 Biovores 120pts

Landing pad 75pts

Total 2000pts

I was up against Ger's chaos space marines & its a hard enough list with a biker lord in a squad of bikers all with MoN A couple of hellbirds a few squads of plague marines some oblits & havoc's, we played at 2k but only used one FOC.

As readers of this blog will know I don't do battle reports unless I turn it in to a story (which I like doing) so I won't be doing one on the game, but I will say that as always with Ger it was a very enjoyable game.

Did I get a few things wrong ? you bet I did, but I do that all the time anyway lol, the couple of high lights of the game was Ger rolling on the chaos table & getting something that meant if he pulled off a successful DTW roll the model that casted the power took a s6 ap2 hit, needless to say Ger put this to good use the second time putting a wound on my tyrant.

The other highlight was when in cc with even through I'd killed him he'd gotten a wound on the tyrant with the black mase which meant I'd to take a T test for which I rolled a 6 & died, have a look again at the name of this blog lol.

So I finish up by thanking Ger for a great game & my thanks to you for dropping in & please call back soon,

Nids out with the old in with the new

Where it hits newyear I do something that my father started me doing a long time ago, where I open the front door & back door to let the newyear in & the old one out.

these flying rippers from FW have been wait a while for some love  wish I could  say it was the same with the sweets

Well a little bit over a week later I fine myself doing something similar with my nids & the old dex goes taking old units like the doom with it & bring in new ones like the crone.

1 of my pods & doom I wonder did he see his own doom coming ?

Now I was really looking forward to this codex until that was I read a review of WD that  reported that there was an interview with Mr Cruddace about the new nid dex & my heart sank, now I know GW are claiming that these days the design team write the rules for a codex not one person.

What do people have against parasites ?

This could very well be true but as far as I'm concerned Cruddace & nid is like pokadots & stripes they should never be anywhere near one another, then the rules started to leak & it was looking more & more a case of oh Magoo you've done it again, for those not as old as myself Mr Magoo was a near blind cartoon man the just made one mess after another for other people to pick up the pieces after him.


So it was I headed into gamersworld yesterday with a gift voucher that my wife had given me for Christmas & the plan was to pick up the dex & some reinforcements for hive fleet Nagaina, the problem was that by now I was unsure what to do as for as I said in my last post I couldn't help but feel that the new models only reason for been the price they where was because they were the new models.

I got to gamersworld about an hour before I was to play what was to be my last game with the now old nid dex so I'd a bit of time to look at the new dex to see if I could work out if it was as bad as the net was saying, now don't get me wrong I'm not a tournament player & so wasn't looking for an over powered dex but when things like rippers where going up by 3pts a base well I was worried.

Hive fleet Nagaina take on old one eye

On display beside the new dex in the shop happened to be deadzone a new game from Mantic & some other stuff that could be added to the game like other factions & terrain, & it was this terrain that took my eye.

While talking (see moaning) to a guy who had come into get the new codex we had a look at it together but to be honest I was only half looking as I'd more or less gotting it into my head thet yes magoo had done it again & maybe deadzone is what I should get instead.