Last few days I have been a little ill, I picked up a bit of a bug in Cardiff and simply have been unable to shake it.
Anyway here is a summery of my last two games at Takaan-Reva: Drowned in Flames
Game Four
In game four I was assigned good old Graham Mills, whom I had travelled down with before. Well I had been assigned someone who else, but Graham and his opponent had already played so we swapped. We were playing mission one.
Graham’s list was Iron Warriors using the Armoured Breakthrough Rite of War, with a Fellblade, three Sicarans, a Sicaran Venator, two troop choices of Predators and a couple of Medusas.
In turn one the Venator destroyed one of Medusas, and the Sicaran which was the Master of Armour shoot one of my Rhino up and killed it. My Spartan came under fire from Graham’s Medusas taking off a hull point, and then his other two Sicarans fired at and took two hull points from my Fellblade.
I retaliated by having my Volkite Caliver Tactical Support Squad kill a Rhino, as does my two Rapier Squads. My Mortis Contemptor Dreadnought then fired at one of the squads disembarking from a destroyed Rhino. My Medusas then immobilise the Sicaran Venator, and my Fellblade takes a Sicaran and Predator off the table.
Turn two began with Graham’s Lightning coming on and taking to hull points off a Medusa and a Predator destroying my last Rhino and pinning the squad inside. His Fellblade then destroyed a Medusa and reduced the last one to just a single hull point, his Medusas then destroyed my Spartan leaving the Terminators stuck in no mans land.
Shady I was rolling very badly and all I could do was kill all but two of a tactical squad with my Rapiers, Volkite Squad and Mortis Contemptor , and my Fellblade immobilised a Sicaran.
Graham then called down his Master of Signals Orbital Bombardment at the start of turn three, killing two of my Volkite Squad Ho were then further thinned out by Heavy Bolter shoots from the Fellblade. He then threw everything at my last Medusa, but miraculously it made all of its cover saves. The special mission geysers then actually did something in the game and destroyed a Sicaran and a Venator.
My Rapiers then took out a Tactical Squad, followed by my Mortis Contemptor Dreadnought and Medusa take a few more hull points off his Fellblade.
I’m In turn four, the Lightning finally takes out my last Medusa, and his Sicaran and Medusas kill three of my Terminators, his Fellblade then turns its attention to my Rapiers, but only manage to kill a single member of the crew, thank goodness for toughness 7 eh!
My Mortis Contemptor Dreadnought then takes a couple more hull points from the Fellblade and I then try to take out the Lightning with my Volkite Caliver Support Squad and Rapiers, but sadly for me he makes all his jink saves. I decided to now call down my Orbital Bombardment to try and take out a couple of Predators, but it only takes a hull point off each of them.
Turn five saw Graham concentration on killing troops so he could take my deployment zone, but he failed to kill any squads, however in his deployment zone he killed my Warlord and two more Terminators with his Sicaran
Graham then points out that I could still win the game by taking No Mans Land, by moving my Terminator back and killing his last two marines. So using indirect fire from my Rapier Quad Launcher Support Battery’s, I give it and try, and as expected, fail. I also failed to take out a Predator which was the only thing my Mortis Contemptor Dreadnought could see to shoot at.
And at that point we ran out of time and I lost the game 7-1, but regardless of it being a loss it was still an exciting and enjoyable game.
Game Five
After lunch I had the pleasure of playing Luke Grant and his Alpha Legion with Alpharius and two Leviathan Seige Dreadnoughts in Drop Pods.
I castle up in the corner, but he is able to infiltrate some Rapier Laser Destroyers, and then successfully seized the initiative. So on comes Alpharius and a squad of Veterans in a Dreadclaw Drop Pod landing next to my Spartan and right in my kill box, and a Leviathan drops right next to my Fellblade. His Orbital Bombardment then destroys a Medusa and his Vetrans with Alpharius take off two hull points from my Spartan. The Leviathan throws it’s Grav Fluxx Into my lines, killing a Rapier Quad Launcher and two crew men, before turning its Phosphex Lanucher on my Volkite Support Squad killing a few of them off.
I then turn everything I have on Alpharius and manage to just about kill him and his unit of Veterans, but also taking out three of my own Terminators who had gotten out of the Spartan, I was also able to immobilise a Rhino with my Rapiers.
In turn two, his second Leviathan dropped in, which then used its Grav Fluxx and Phosphex to take out the rest of my Volkite Support Squad. His first Leviathan then leaves it’s Drop Pod and charges my Fellblade taking it down to 1 hull point.
I then turn everything I have at the Leviathan to try and destroy it, before it can finish off my Fellblade, but miserably fail to do even a single hull point of damage, I do however manage to destroy both Drop Pods, forcing out the second Leviathan. My Warlord and last remaining Terminators then charge the Leviathan but fail to do any damage.
Turn three begins with my Fellblade falling to a Rapier Laser Destroyers fire. A Leviathan then changes and kills my Spartan, in the combat between the Leviathan and Terminators, they all just flail around failing to hit each other.
I then get some revenge agains the Rapier Laser Destroyers and kill one of them. And then despite hitting it with a Mortis Contemptor Dreadnought, Medusa and Rapier Quad Launcher, am only able to take a single hull point from the Leviathan. The combat again fails to have anything happen
In turn four, his Rapier Quad Launcher Support Battery destroys my Mortis Contemptor Dreadnought and his Rapier Laser Destroyer take out a Medusa. His free Leviathan then shoots a Tactical Squad with its Grav cannon, killing half of it. The combat finally has something happen, sadly for me that’s my Warlord dying!
I then charged a Tactical Squad into combat with each Leviathan, but one failed to make it, the other manages to hit the Leviathan with a Melta Bomb, but it fails to damage it. My Medusa and Rapier Quad Launcher tried to take out the other Leviathan, but both failed to hit it, but they did manage to take a hull point off the Dreadclaw.
Turn five started with Luke’s Plasma Support Squad coming into play, they jumped out of their Rhino and killed several of a Tactical Squad. In the combat, I lost combat and my Terminator fled, while the Tactical Squad stayed locked I there.
Turn six saw one of my Tactical Squads charged by the Leviathan not locked in combat, but my Sgt did manage to take off a hull point with his Power Fist, my sole fleeing Terminator was gunned down by the Plasma Support Squad.
My turn six was pretty poor, my Rapier Quad Launcher and remaining Medusa attacked the Plasma Support Squad, but we’re only able to kill two of them. My Rapiers killed two men from one of his Veteran Squads. The two combats were resolved pretty quickly when the first Leviathan killed both men in that combat and in the other combat a single one of my men died, but they did manage to stay in the combat instead of fleeing.
When we rolled to see if the game continued, the dice gods were merciful and a 1 came up, ending the game, but saw me lose 4-11.
Thoughts About The Weekend
I had a lot of fun at the weekend, the whole event was very well run and the games were very enjoyable, even the ones I lost. My only real criticism would be how the games were arranged, we had playing cards that were placed on the table for us, but if I have to be honest, it was a real faff-on to find our cards.
I get that the idea was that the team captains would assign us games that made the best use of our individual armies, but I didn’t really know my team captain and I don’t think they knew my army, so it felt like my games were randomly assigned, and in truth they probably were. I personally use a Swiss style system to assign games so that opponents that are at appropriate power level for them. And at the same time allow players to find their tables with minimum of fuss.
But other than that minor issue I think Greg ran an amazing weekend, and I cannot wait until next year.
The list I am building is inspired by the event only Praetor in Cataphractii Terminator Armour from Warhammer Fest whom is armed with a Combi-Volkite and thunderhammer. As soon as I saw him, I figured he would make an excellent Siege Breaker Consul, which is what I intend him to be.
With my Ultramarine nearing completion, I have decided to start a small force of Word Bearers up, based around either the Primarch’s Chosen or Pride of the Legion Rites of War. It all kinda started when I swapped a bunch of Millitarium Tempestus Scions with Aidan for an unbuilt Spartan, so I decided, why not, I had a spare Betrayal at Calth lying around!
I already have my Tyranids which are moving very very very slowly, I have kinda stopped them to finish my Ultramarines army for this weekend, but my first Hive Tyrant is mostly finished, I think I have just the base, and tongue left to do on it.