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...