Sgt. Major Patrick Harper

I'm still waiting for a friend to download some pics of the Lucky 13's battle we had this weekend. It was pretty bloody, but I'll save the after action report for when the pics are available. (Wife had our camera)

So in the rush to get everything done for this weekends game, I realized that all my Mordians were painted. Yep every single last one. I have been given a Valkyrie for my birthday, and I'm scrapping together an Inquisitor Lord and retinue, but for Mordains I'm done.

My plans now is do up some of the major characters from the "Sharpe" series. I've posted earlier about Major Sharpe. Still have to find a Gaunt figure for him. I think I have finally found Sgt Major Patrick Harper. Sgt Harper in the movies carried around a volley gun. It shot 7 pistol balls at once, and it was claimed by Major Sharpe that Patrick was the only man big enough to shoot the damned thing.



Well, there was a photo recently shown in the Italian White Dwarf of the new Sgt Harker mini.


Harker...Harper...both large men...both carry weapons not useable by other men. Any chance GW got the idea for Sgt. Harker from Sgt. Harper? Nah, I didn't think so either.

Anyway...this one will put my limited Greenstuff skills to the test. Yep that is right, I'll be takin the Harker figure and putting a Mordian uniform on him. Should prove a challenge worthy of the final piece to the Mordian 95th Rifles.

Lucky 13's, Part 3 - Setup

Well, the fates have smiled on me and I will get to roll some dice on Friday. The same group of guys is coming over and we will be running the Lucky 13's - Scenario #3.
www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m220468a_Lucky13sChapter3Scenario.pdf

The above photo is the table without all the terrain on it.
We will be playing 3500 points this time, 2000 in Guard and allied Deamonhunters with 1500 in space marines vs. 3500 in Chaos Marines.

I can't speak to the Space Marines or the Chaos Marines, but here is the Guard force I'll be fielding.



Command Squad: CO, 2 Sniper Rifles, Regimental Standard, Vox
Veteran Squad #1: 3 Sniper Rifles, LasCannon, Vox
Veteran Squad #2: 3 Sniper Rifles, LasCannon, Vox
Veteran Squad #3: 3 Grenade Launchers, Chimera
Veteran Squad #4: 3 Melta Guns, Chimera
Ratling Snipers: 3 of them

Inquisitor Lord: Termie Armor, Lightning Claws, Psycic Hood, Scourging, 2 Mystics, Warrior W/ Flamer, Familiar.

Vindicare Assassin:


Leman Russ Exterminator: 3 HV Bolters.
Leman Russ Battle Tank #2: LasCannon, Hvy Bolters
Leman Russ Battle Tank #3: LasCannon, Hvy Bolters
Baneblade

OK, here is my plan...poke holes in it as you will.

I will use my Strategic Asset for "Bunkers", which lets me place up to 6 bunkers. These bunkers will make a ring around the Landing Pad. However these bunkers will be interconnected both on the roof and internally. Here is how we will tweak the rules. (Cleared this with my oppenents before hand.

1) 6 Bunkers, AV14, 4 firepoints, 1 unit max. Unit may not be split between being in the bunker and on the roof (As the roof is not part of the bunker). These "Bunkers" are 1 sided, and offer no cover from the inside of the fortress. Not every bunker section must be occupied at the start of the game. Template weapons will only hit the section they are shooting at and not the whole fortress. Or we could just play the whole building like a 6 part ruin and give those on the lower lvl a 3+ cover save.

2) Rooftop is open terrain, just like regular tabletop. Standard true line of sight, 4+ cover saves from the sandbags. Models can move about freely between the various rooftops. Models can deep strike onto Rooftop or jump infantry may "jump" up onto during the regular movement phase. Non-jump infantry wishing to reach the roof must use the Roof access ramp in the center of the fortress.

3) Should a bunker section be destroyed, the roof section above the bunker becomes Dangerous & Difficult terrain...but remains at the same height. We can throw some rubble down to represent that section is destroyed. Models in the bunker when destroyed, may either jump out the window, move to the roof checking for Dangerous terrain, or fall back to the roof access ramp area. Models may directly access the roof from a destroyed section of bunker (meaning they don't have to use one of the two doors.)

4) Entry Points (Green arrows), There are 2 Doorways to the Fortress.
We can play these two ways.
* Give them an AV 12..and once down they stay down.
or
* Give them the new "Force Plyon" rules from planetstrike, where any enemy unit must have grenades to pass through.



The Landing platform will be raised high enough to see from the whole table. The landing pad can be reached without destroying any of the bunkers, by taking down the door then reaching the roof access ramp, or by deepstriking or jumping onto the roof.

Here are some shots of the fortress with the completed landing pad...

Imperial Firebase "Emperor's Speedbump" with the new landing platform, stands ready to face all foes.


Sgt. Blackreach says "This here paint is wet! Don't touch it, yah hear?!"

Lucky 13's #2 - 5500 pts Chaos vs. Imperials

Well, we finally got to play the Lucky 13's event that I had been thinking about for so long.

We played 5500 per side.
Imperials were 3000 Guard (Rob), 2500 Marines(Fabby).

Chaos was 5500. (Chris and Jay).

Game ended in a draw with each side holding 2 objectives. Serious firepower and hand to hand happening all over the table.

I went with Obstacles and a Disruptor Beacon for the imperials. the Obstacles were used to set up a 2nd line of cover in the minefield (the boxes) and a row of razor wire to disuade any flank marches. The Disruptor beacon was to limit the popping up of demons / terminators next to the vital objective. Turns out my opponents didn't take any deepstrikers, so I didn't need that one at all. The one I did need would have been my 3rd choice, as his psychers bounced at least 5 units into the super deadly minefield.

Chaos didn't fare much better with the strategems, they took orbital bombardment and a vortex gernade. The Gernade did a number on a verteran guard unit, and they missed with all 4 rounds of the bombardment.

Imperial Performers of the game...

1) Land Raider Crusader: Drove up and unloaded it's payload of Assault Termies, then blew up. How does this make it a performer of the game? The wreckage blocked line of sight between the Chaos Shadowsword and Imperial Baneblade for 2 turns...Keeping the Baneblade alive long enough to do it's damage.

2) Commisar Yarrick: Didn't do a thing the whole game except sit in the the vital command HQ bunker until it blew up. But his adding Fearless to his unit kept them on the board the last turn, keeping the game a draw instead of a loss for the imperials.

3) The Baneblade: HOLY! The 10" pie plate is death. The Baneblade might have taken out double it's points, eating up a good portion of 4 units of Berserkers, 4 units of Plague marines, and a few stray Black legion marines. Might have been even better if I remembered that cover saves are calcualted from the center of the blast...so many of the coversaves the bad guys made would not have been available. No biggy though, the Baneblade eat up enough troops to keep ithem from being scoring units.

Honorable mention to the marine Devastor squad who keep the Shadowswords maine weapon from shooting 2 of the 4 turns we played.

Chaos performers of the game...
1) Chaos Sorcerer with the Lash. As I feared all game long he was moving imperial troops around into the minefield, which was setting off mines at about an 85% rate rather than 50% the dice should have rolled. I think the Imperails lost 300-400 points of stuff to their own minefield.

2) Chaos Conclave...I think this is what it was called. Like 5 major Chaos named characters and their units. This gave the them a disruptor beacon, which any reserves an deep stikers within 48" of any of these character on a 4+ they could chooose the spot they deployed. This worked for both units we placed within 48". The key one being the Stormtroppers, which rather than gunning a swath through the berserkers, landed in the minefield. Not even gonna mention the combat that took out the assault termies and Calagar with his Honor guard. Guess I just did...It was Abbandon with a squad of Assault termies. Chaos player playin Apoc should take the conclave every time.

3) Kharn...of the obsene amount of berserkers on the table I think there were only two left on the table and Kharn was one of them...standing on top of the burning hulk of the Baneblade that he took out all by himself.

Honorable mention to the Shadowsord that blew up the Imperial HQ on the last turn.







That's all for now...

What we have here is Failure to Communicate...

I'm gonna rant for a bit...then get to what I did this weekend. As I have posted here the plan was to play the Lucky 13's second scenario Saturday at the local gamestore. Well, those plans fell through.

Turns out the town the local store is located in has a summer festival once a year. Big to do, shut down the street the store is on to vehicle traffic so that people can walk the downtown, side walk vendors, music...stuff like that. Anyway, that turned out to be last Saturday, when we were planning to play, but I didn't know that. The store owner isn't thrilled with opening on that day because our hobby doesn't attract the general public. Ususally people just come in the store to use the tiolet on these festival days.

So just after I've loaded my army / books / terrain in the car, I call the store owner to see what time he was going to open, hoping he could open a little early. He informs me he hadn't planned on opening until mid afternoon due to the festival. I'm like..."What?". Then he asks if my opponent had called and talked to me this week. I say no then he says he is sorry, he thought I knew about the festival and that my opponent had spoken with me. He says he would open up for me, but I should talk with my opponent first. So I call my opponent who thought the store owner had spoken with me about the festival and that I knew we were not going to play, and he made had other plans. :/

Oh well, things happen, plans fall through. My stuff wasn't finished being painted yet anyway. I'm really disappointed, cause with a Wife, 2 young kids, a 2nd shift job and part time college my slate is pretty full. I get maybe 2 days a year where I get a 4+ hour window on a weekend where the schedules align just right and I can roll dice with my friends. This was one of those times. Hopefully I'll get to get these guys on the table before the end of the summer. I'm trying to drum up interest at the local store for Ard Boyz...but that is like pulling teeth, and I'm not even sure If I can go yet. End Rant.

So rather than sulking about, I redirected my energy into something constructive. I've had a spare set of AoBR Termies that I primed up. A friend just picked up the Assault Terminator set and gave me the extra weapons that he didn't use. Building my guard force I relize that I have a gaping whole for anti-psycher. So I built an Inquisitor Lord. (Ignore the two ThunderHammer Termies - they are getting added to the Assault Termie unit my friend just made.) I used the AoBR termie sarge, cutting the arms just below the shoulderpads and adding the lightning claws. I placed shoulder banner hanging off each pad, to add some size to the mini. The back banner came from the second AoBR commander I had. Figure I'll paint him in a nice shade of Red, with lots of gold highlights. Glowing green lightning claws...maybe blue. I plan on using greenstuff to add the Inquisition badge on the blank shoulder pad.



I'll be pulling the Inquistor Lord from the Deamonhunters book. Giving him Termie Armor, Psychic Hood, Lighting Claws, The 4+ fixed save thingy. Adding a couple of mystics to the unit to give the anti-deepstrike ability. Adding a couple of warriors to the unit to increase his WS. With this addition I take care of enemy psychers, enemy deepstrikers and add a counter assault unit to my guard force.

That's all for now. Thanks for listening.

End of Week update.

Got a little bit done this week. Above is the Baneblade "Indefatigable" that just needs decals. I've had this model for 15+ years, and finally got it painted. It has never hit the table, so I'm curious as to how she will fare the weekend after next.



This is the last batch of Mordians that need to be painted. I'm hoping to have them done by June 20th for the big Apoc game. I needed a 3rd Meltagun armed guardsman for the force, so I spent an hour hacking away one of the lasguns and adding a plastic Marnie Meltagun. Came out ok, it's the one with the black gun in the pic above. I finished modding the sniper rifles. I didn't have any more Space Marine bolter scopes, so I scrounged around in my bits box to see what would pass for a scope. One scope was made from the barrel of the Lasgun I had just hacked off for the Melta. The other 4 are the Plasma Cannons from the very old Epic Space Marine Land Speeders. They are the grey scopes on the pic above.

Have a great weekend everyone.

3000 point force for Lucky 13's - Scenario #2

I've never actually played a game of Apocolypse yet. My first one will be the Lucky 13's - Scenario #2. I know the terrain (seen in the pic) and that one opponent will be bringing Chaos Marines. There might be a couple more that show up , but from the response from the store's forums, it might just be us two.

The scenario seems pretty straight forward as an objective grab. LUCKY 13's - Scenario #2 I have deveolped a force with the 95th Mordians, I'm gonna throw it out there for comments and criticism.

HQs
CCS #1 - Lascannon, Sniper Rifle, Vox, Bolt-Pistol, Master of Ord.
CCS #2 - Lascannon, Regimental Standard, Vox, Bolt-Pistol, Chimera
Commisar Yarrick

Elite
Orgyns (5), Chimera
Ratlings (3)
Stormtroopers (10), 2 Plasma Guns, PW, Airborne Assault

Troops
Veteran Squad #1 - Lascannon, 3 Sniper Rifles, Vox
Veteran Squad #2 - Lascannon, 3 Sniper Rifles, Vox
Veteran Squad #3 - Lascannon, 3 Sniper Rifles, Vox
Veteran Squad #4 - Hvy Bolter, 3 GLs, Vox
Veteran Squad #5 - Hvy Bolter, 3 GLs, Vox
Veteran Squad #6 - Bastonne, 3 Melta, Chimera, Demolitions

Hvy Support
LRBT #1 - Pask, Lascannon, HB sponsons
LRBT #2 - Lascannon, HB sponsons
LRBT #3 - Lascannon, HB sponsons
LR Exterminator - HB, HB sponsons
Baneblade

2999 points.

We have an agreement to limit the force to 1 superheavy each. I have read that having an uneven number can be very unbalancing to a game. The Chaos forces have a Shadowsword, a survivor from their Legion days.

Battle Plan
Here it is, poke some holes in it.

Force A - CCS#1 & Vet Squads 1-3 and Yarrick will be defending the HQ building. Yarrick and one of the Vet Squads will be in the building. The other two and the CCS will be set up either to one side of the minefield, in cover. The CCS will issue orders to the two squads to snipe away at any "Lash" princes out there. I have no desire to be lashed into the minefield, and as you can see from my force, I have no Anti-psycher ability other than firepower.

Force B - CCS #2 & Vet Squads #4-5, LRBT 2 & 3. This force will try to claim the objective I place in no-mans land. The Vet squads are on foot, so the CCS will be gving them the Move order from the chimera to get them into position as quick as possible.

Force C - LR Exterminator, Bastonne Vet squad, Ogryns. This force will be tasked with getting the objective my opponent places in the neutral zone. I almost put Yarrick in with the ogryns, but I think he will do more good in the HQ building to fight off the eventual storming of that building. I am curious as to how a Twinlinked Demo-Charge will work.

Force D - Stormtroopers. These will be kept in reserve, and re-roll their deepstrike when they land. They will either Drop in on the objective in my opponents zone if the game is going very well for me. Most likely they will be a count-attack force to re-take/secure one of the other objectives.

Force E - Baneblade, Pask LRBT, Ratlings - All of these guys are firesupport to be placed and shoot until they can't shoot anymore.

Target priorty will be...
1) Lash Psychers
2) Shadowsword
3) Assault troops

I'm leaning towards taking the Disruptor Beacon as the Strategic Asset. Anything deepstriking into my lines will cause me major pain. This will give me a chance to keep them away from the HQ and the neutral zone objective I place.

My other idea is to take Obstacles. This would let me place Vet squads 1,2 and the CCS #1 in the minefield, just in front of the building in 4+ cover. It would also let me place a line of razor wire along the back edge of the minefield, to prevent any Flank Marchers from walking right in the back door. But all that cover is pretty useless if a squad of termies drops in behind them.

So what do yah think? Any other ideas for strategic assets?

Prepwork for Planetstrike

Had to post some new picks of the Firebase I've gotten ready for Planetstrike. Ok, OK, it was ready before I even knew about Planetstrike...But Darn nice of GW to make some rules for me to use this baby.

Been pretty busy with the summer school semester, fighting off a cold, clearing the scrub brush out of the back yard, having a burn pile. In short here is what is currently on the painting tray.



Three Guard Objective markers, a Chimera crewman, 21 Marines for my Greenhouse Guardian force, and a Wraithlord. The Wraithlord had been on the table for a while...but keeps getting bumped for more Guard figs. Heck once those 30 Mordians are done soaking in the Pine Sol...That Wraithlord will get bumped back again. ;)

June 20th will be the first battle for the 95th Rifles...and an Apoc battle none the less. We will be using the 2nd Lucky 13's scenario that was recently posted over on the GW site. I don't think that is the actual weekend of the event, so it won't count to the national points. But we will have fun none the less. I will be sure to bring the camera and prepare a full battle report for you all.

Things I need to do before June 20th...
1) Finish painting my Baneblade.
2) Workout a 5500 point force of 95th Rifles, and Greenhouse Guardian Marines.
3) If I don't have enough painted finish those marines on the tray, and figure if I will need to finish those Mordians getting stripped.

That's all for now...