New Apocalypse Battle Game

Wow no updates on this blog for a year+. Still gaming though real life does get in the way of games..

The gaming group decide to get together again and get some GW 40k games in. With the recent release of new 40k Apocalypse it was a good time to take our armies out for some big battles.

Scenario: Apocalyptic Carnage

Crazyrat: Chaos 200+PL

Engie: Blood Angel Strike force 330+PL

Skanwy: Iyanden Warhost 300+PL

                          

                                   

We omitted the warzone portion as all of us are still learning the rules and just want to play a vanilla apocalypse game. 

Anyway we stop the game at end of turn 2 as it was getting late and the Lyanden will triumph eventually as Chaos and BA were withering each other down.

IMO what I like about the new 40k Apoc are:

very streamline game play, much faster and the system allow a player to not be constantly around the table (go for breaks without slowing down the game with opponent waiting for your saving throws or team mates waiting for you to finish up moving, shoot, charge etc...) with alternate activation.  

My favourite: No alpha strike nonsense with damage resolution in the end phase.

Dislikes:

The total revamp of the stats profile make shooting a powerful weapon or charging with a big 20 men assault unit and rolling just a few dice make the feel underwhelming...  

                                  

More pictures of the battle after the link

Gamestart: A Time of Legends Game 3

Scenario 3: Nexus Control

After the pairings were announced (on the app so no more screaming), I was pleasantly suprised that I would play with Lum. 

Lum chose the following secondary missions

Headhunter

Mark for Death

Ground Control

I chose the following

Kingslayer: Castellan

Titan Slayers

Ground Control

His army was a simple and direct one, 2 Imperial Knights supported by one Castellan (with a Company Commander and 2 Psykers. It's the type of list my list was created to counter. 

As deployment was narrow, I chose to deploy the Scouts hidden where possible while stacking one flank heavily. I knew I would struggle taking the Knights down so I needed to concentrate. 

Mounted the DC in the SR prior to deployemtn

LOS blocking is critical as it allowed my smaller infantry models to move up rather untouched.

While Lum managed to win the roll off for Turn 1, I seized and took it. Slamguinus and Lemartes was in Deepstrike Reserves

Those Scouts in the ruins stood little chance

Destroyed the first Imperial Knight before moving on to take out the Castellan

I also managed to take out the Psyker

As the Castellan went down, the heroes all lined up to take down the last Knight

Unfortunately for Lum, this was a massacre. By this point he called the game as he would be tabled by the next turn. This game me a 30 point win. 

Scores just for reference: 

Primary: 20 Ray, 5 Lum

Secondary: 12 Ray, 5 Lum

Total: 32 Ray, 10 Lum

Again another fun game as Lum was quite relaxed. We both had small armies so the game went on really quickly. 

At this point, the organizers tallied the scores and unfortunately I did not qualify. No surprises there to be fair as I needed more practice for sure. I finished 14 out of 28 players on Day 1 which is likely to the the placing by the end of the tournament. 

Day 2 players are in the photo below and I wish them all the best! 

Zim qualified and is the stick man! 

Gamestart - A Time of Legends Game 2

Scenario 2: Cut to the Heart

The second match was called and I was paired up with Mark. He played Chaos and had an Imperial Knight with a ton of infantry to support. 

I went for something a bit different this time, mounting all my Slamcaptains into the Stormraven. Unfortunately, I have obviously not used the SR enough because when Mark downed my flyer, each 1 would mean the character dies. Thankfully, I managed to pass those tests.

Secondary objectives for Ray

Mark for Death: Berserkers,  Obliterators, Noise Marines (he only had 4 units above 7 PL)

Titan Slayers

Kingslayer: Demon Prince

Mark chose

Butchers' Bill

Headhunter

Mark for Death: Death Company, Mephiston, Shield Captain, Storm Raven

I shot the SR deep into his lines

Did this mainly to put pressure on his firebase and also to threaten his objectives since he currently had 2 out of 3, helping him pull in front in the Primaries.

I took first turn and Forlorn Hope my DC into charge range of his Nurglings

Meanwhile the Shield Captains went down the other flank 

Mark surrounded his IK with cultists

Advancing up the centre of table, the IK took position to down Lemartes and the DC

Even the Demon Prince came in with the help of the Chaos Lord to take my DC out

Counter charged by a Stooping Dive

Glad I managed to squeeze in a game with Andrew last week prior to the tourney. He highlighted that I should consider 2 Strategems, one of which would allow me to make a charge at the cost of 3 CP's. This charge proved to be critical as I sent my Shield Captain in to remove 4 of his Berserkers prior to them striking me. This blunt his attack

By the time they were free to support the middle, we ran out of time.

Mark and I managed to only get to Turn 2.

Primary: 4 Ray, 9 Mark
Secondary: 6 Ray, 8 Mark
Total: 10 Ray, 17 Mark

Mark took this game and again, it was a very good game simply because we were very relaxed while we played.

Gamestart - A Time of Legends

Schedule for the day

The guys and me decided to get out and attempt another tournament, this time a 1750 event using ITC Champions ruleset. Zach and the GREX team did a great job of putting us in an awesome location - Suntec City Convention Centre. This was held in conjunction with Gamestart Asia. I love the fact that the ceiling was high, allowing noise to dissipate and made it very easy to communicate with your partner. 

I managed to complete my 1750 list and it looked like this:

Battalion (Blood Angels)

Mephiston

Lemartes

Scouts with shotguns and bolt pistols x4, Sergeant with chainsword

Scouts with shotguns and bolt pistols x4, Sergeant with chainsword

Scouts with shotguns and bolt pistols x4, Sergeant with chainsword

Death Company with boltgun and chainsword x4, with boltgun and power sword, with boltgun and power axe

Stormraven with hurricane bolters

Supreme Command (Adeptus Custodes)

+open the vaults (-1CP)

Shield Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike with Auric Aquilis and Radiant Mantle

Shield Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike with Eagle's Eye

Shield Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike

Supreme Command (Blood Angels)

+Armoury of Baal (-1CP)

Slamguinus: Captain with Death Visions of Sanguinus, jump pack, storm shield, Angel's Wing, thunder hammer

Slamcaptain: Captain with jump pack, storm shield, thunder hammer

Slamcaptain: Captain with jump pack, storm shield, thunder hammer

I may work on another post going through the road to Gamestart. 

Scenario 1: Crucible of Champions

Using the BCP App, my first draw was Nico! He is one of the few people that has always shared similar painting values and we were also keen to do an airbrush session for the guys at T&D before he moved back to France. We both laughed when we were paired up as I have always wanted to play with him. Nico has a really nicely painted army. I think we both laughed when we managed to play to pair up for the first time. 

Side note, I love the BCP app, updating on the fly and real time.It minimizes errors too so please use this app if you're an organizer! 

I chose the following Secondaries:

Mark for Death - Destroyers x2, Immortals, Warriors

Kingslayer - one of his characters

Ground Control 

He chose:

Mark for Death - Death Company, Warlord Shield Captain, Slamguinus, Mephiston

Kingslayer - Lemartes

Headhunter

Both of us laying out our beautifully painted armies!

I loaded the Stormraven with my 6 DC while Slamguinus and Lemartes went into DeepStrike. 

And rammed it straight done the main lines

I sent the Shieldcaptains to the right hoping to wipe out the Necron Warrior unit

Unfortunately I forgot how hard Necrons were to kill.

Under the cover of my Scouts, the SlamCaptains advanced

Necron shooting was nasty, disabling my Stormraven, unleashing the DC into his lines. 

Hugging the terrain piece, I was able to hide them from the bulk of his army. The DC survived and the Slamcaptain managed to destroy a unit of Destroyers (badhumchi).

Turn 3 

By turn 3, I was able to collapse the right flank, folding into his character. Unfortunately for me, he managed to scurry away on 1 wound!

The Shield Captains kept rolling up the right flank

The amazing thing about my list was that it had few models, allowing me to move through each turn very quickly. We managed to get to Turn 5.

Tallying the scores we both managed to tie each other!
Primary: 14 Ray, 11 Nico
Secondary: 6 Ray, 9 Nico
Total: 20-20

Best part of this game was that we both had really nicely painted armies and man, that made such an awesome game. Also, Nico is an amazing and generous player, often helping me when I made mistakes. I hope Nico comes back to Singapore for work!

More to come as I split the day into a few other posts. Stay tuned!

Road to STGCC - Army Prep

One of the best parts when getting ready for a tournament is the prep up to it. I enjoy it mainly because a dateline usually forces me to complete parts of my army that I have been putting away for months, sometimes years. Having played a few games now, I was prepared to commit to the painting table. 

Sanguinary Guard all primed and magnetized. In the back you can spy the 2 Thunderhammer Death Company Marines too

Using Astorath's wings I cobbled together my own Slamguinus from parts I had in my bits box.

I wanted the actual Smash Captain to use a cooler set of wings because he was after all using Angel's Wings, the Chapter Relic. Scouting around for a nice set, I found Astorath lying at the bottom of my box of semi painted models. Like a strange sign, when I picked Astorath up, the backpack slid off!

Based, and primed, here are the Golds that I used to paint the Sanguinary Guard

I use the Vallejo Model Air range because shooting metallic golds through an airbrush meant amazingly smooth colors.

Starting with Gold, Bright Brass and then a final highlight of Polished Gold

I had a few Primaris Marines lying around and some extra white, so I zenithal highlight these models too

Now to let the models dry

Detailing! Some hate it but I love it the most. Brings such a strong pop to the models and them alive.

The wings took me a lot of time to get proper.

Some additional Scouts to help put more of my stuff in Reserves

We are slowly getting there

Based and ready to rock and roll! 

I did not add too much to my existing army but these were a blast to paint. I forgot how much I do love painting. I do have to find a better way to base these fellas. Regan was kind enough to pass me a few metal shells but I did not have enough time to add them. Maybe the next time I polish the models up I will attach them to the bases. 

Road to STGCC - Actual 2v2 Practice

Managed to get organize a game with Wai Liong who runs Here Be Geeks. We originally planned to do a fully painted batrep but because I need some practice for the upcoming tournament, I asked if he was open to teaming up with me to play against Patrick and Keith. Unfortunately since most of us were still firming up our lists majority of our armies were not fully painted up. 

Almost firmed up list

1000 points of Blood Angels in a Battalion.
Slamguinus with Angel's Wing, Thunderhammer, StormShield
Smash Captain with THSS
Death Company x 10 with Thunderhammer and Power Fist
Sanguinary Guard x 5 all with Power Fists
Scouts with Shotguns x 5
Scouts with Shotguns x 5
Scouts with Sniper Rifles x 5
Sicaran Tank with Autocannons and Heavy Bolters

This was basically the list I intended to bring to STGCC with maybe slight modification. The plan again was to send Slamguinus against the biggest threat and take it down.

In this game I was playing to get myself acquainted with my list.

Deployment - it's amazing when all the minis are painted to such high quality

I have to point out that Wai Liong is not only an amazing painter but also great at converting. His favourite seem to be mecha or large robots.

Dark Mechanicus - most of his models are lovingly crafted, some merging parts from Forgeworld making the model expensive!

Deployment

Keith and Pat brought Chaos with Nids. Pat brought the same list he played against me previously so I prewarned Wai Liong of the speed of Pat's Nids. Unfortunately some miscalculation later, Pat's Genestealer made it into combat.

These are some amazing models! Those Genestealer look angry! 

Chaos and Nids sure seem to move very quickly! 

Turn 1

I had little choice but to send in my Death Company to attempt to remove that pesky Dreadclaw only to have it limp away on one wound. On the flip side, I somehow managed to save an ungodly number of 6+ FNP on the Death Company due to some mortal wounds coming my way.

Our gun line was totally overwhelmed

In a bid to protect Keith's Daemon Prince, Pat wrapped his Gants around it

Though I still did manage to charge Slamguinus in

We were almost tabled at this stage so Wail Liong and I both called the game. It was amazing to see the painted armies though! Wai Liong and I will be doing a Blog Challenge after Orktober so stay tuned!

Unfortunately I didn't really learn too much about my army in this game. It was way too skewed but still it was important for me to get used to deep strike timings, model placement, strategems and army wide rules. 

Road to STGCC - Game 2: Team Practice

Jason and I clearly needed some practice so we found some time after discussing how our two armies should work in tandem with each other. The STGCC tournament was 2 players fighting 2 players, basically meaning that our armies had to work as 1.

Discussing this with Jason, my team mate, we were both quite certain that there will be a shift in the meta as more people bring out Imperial Knights, Castellan Knights etc. My Slamguinus was very suitable to take it down. This is how you can create the guy. 

Jason is then responsible for clearing chaff and bringing the Objective Holders. So we broke out our armies and headed out to GREX Queensway for our Team Practice. We played the ITC rulepack. 

Deployment and Turn 1 

I managed to get turn 1 so advanced the Death Company up to attempt the charge but failed!

Charge!!

A very short lived game with me quickly losing to Jason. While we did not manage to actually test our lists, our plan was to get accustomed to our armies. The key take away from this game was that my role in our team was to go for the big heavy hitters such as Imperial Knights and Characters.

The Road to STGCC - Game 1 vs Patrick

So Jason and I decided to team up for the Singapore Comic Convention which took place this September at Marina Bay Sands.

Patrick agreed to get me back into the game so I broke out my old army to try it against him. If you guys still remember, this was what it looked like from the last 3v3 that Zim, Mark and I went to.

The army that helped our team clinch Runner Up in the last 3v3

At this point, I was super rusty with rules and 40k in general. This would be a battle to wake me up. Our game was hosted at Battle Quarters.

Our host decided to decorate the table FULL OF TERRAIN! I had a great laugh mainly because it favoured a close combat army. Guess what Pat brought to the table that day? An army full of Genestealers.

Like a Son of Sanguinus, I soldiered on.

Deployment

 I chose to deploy the Death Company up front, hoping to take Turn 1 and charge him using Forlorn Fury the strategem. Unfortunately I didn't manage to secure the first turn, allowing Pat to move up his Genestealers enmasse.

Hormagaunts as meat shields

Bottom of Turn 2

By the bottom of Turn 2, I had little left. Pat destroyed the Death Co, killing off most of my hard hitters and forced the bulk of my tanks into a corner. We called it at Turn 3 I think.

The list needed work so I went back to tune it.

I really liked Slamguinus, the Smash Captain so I added another into my list. I dropped my Razorbacks in favor of Sanguinary Guard. I also dropped Lemartes to allow me to bring in the SG.

Stay tuned as I bring more bite sized posts for the STGCC journey that Jason and I went through.