Playable Mini Games

Scenario. Command and Control – Deployment Pitched Battle

Ghazghkull Thraka seized his objective and gave the order to advance, more of a gutsy bellow than a discernable instruction but with a roar of motors and a cloud of smoke and dust the boyz charged forward towards the hovering Dark Eldar lines, as the enemy waited in their slender intricately adorned Raiders and Ravagers on the horizon. The boyz cheered as the sight of the delicate elder craft came into view through the dust and stepped on the gas as they sought to rip into the elegant array and destroy them.

However as the Orks careered across the sand the quietly gliding Eldar vessels unleashed a torrid fire from their Dark Lances, and Splinter cannons immobilising, one Ork truck and destroying another while a third disappeared in a massive explosion scattering Orks across the sand. Amazingly few Orks were lost as the trucks disintegrated. Even Ghazghkull ‘s battlewagon was hit by a Dark Lance and exploded violently leaving the Ork leader unwounded but he explosion took out nearly half of his entourage. As they dusted themselves down however the vengeful elder poured a heavy and effective fire onto the survivors and many Orks were lost.

Ghazghkull gave an angry cry as his mob lumbered forward which basically translated as ‘Waaaaaagghhhh!!!’ The call was taken up along the Ork lines as the Nobs and Meganobs ran hot foot from their destroyed vehicles towards the hovering raiders. With a whoop the Nobs crashed into a Raider utterly destroying it while Snikrot and his boyz emerged from cover and leaped onto Venom smashing it to pieces. The Meganobs appeared not to hear the war cry as they failed to charge in and merely lumbered forward.

The loss of so many vehicles became a severe disadvantage to the Orks as the fast Elder manoeuvred around to counter attack. The Orks audacity brought a heavy response. The sloth-like Meganobs paid for their reticence in a withering hail of fire reducing them to four smouldering piles of debris. Snikrot and his brave boys fell foul of the witches and infantry under a vicious attack. Only the brave Nobs survived as even Ghazghkull soon found himself walking alone as his mob had all fallen to the devastating Eldar firepower.

From that point on the Orks suffered at the hands of the Eldar weapons, the Nobs managing to take out another two Raiders. Even Ghazghkull managed to smash one vessel apart and despite the hail of fire raining down on him almost managed to take on another vehicle before a stray round severed his power cable and with a loud groan he fell face forward a crash of metal announcing that he was out of action.

With their gallant leader down, the Orks lost heart and with a final menacing attack the Eldar took the remaining control point as the sun set.

Result a good win for the Dark Eldar taking over 1500 Ork points and losing only a few hundred themselves.

Thanks to Tony for the reports

Neil H

Space Marines v Grey Knights

League one has seen one battle between Harry and Graham. This was space marines against Grey Knights. Neither Harry nor Graham are the most experienced of players, and Grahams army, lovingly collected and beautifully painted, is definitely not optimised for the current codex. I didn't get to see this battle in detail, but from the result, Harry and Graham settled down to long range fire. Now guys, this is 40K… after the next 38000 years, surely you should realise that what works best is running up to someone and beating them over the head with a rock. Because of this failure to grasp the subleties of the 40k system, the long range firepower was, in the vast majority, negated by power armour, and although some casualties were taken, it didnt translate into killpoints. So it ended up a draw with the grey knights and Graham having a slight lead in victory points.

Dark Eldar v Imperial Guard

League two has seen two games, with Steve L applying himself to get his games played. The first was against Nick and his Imperial Guard. The game was objectives based, and Steve won the dice roll to go first. He deployed, and was so keen to be able to move and open fire that he adopted a formation that, like the Dark Eldar themselves, could best be described as peverse. To fit all the skimmers in, they were (literally) nose to tail and jammed in like a tin full of sardines. Of course, in the first turn they would shake out of this formation and release a barrage of dark lance and splinter death and destruction. Except Nick stole the initiative…. And the Imperial Guard are blessed in the amounts of firepower they have… So Steve lost about half his vehicles, including one immobilised facing away from the guard lines. Need less to say, that one sat there and did nothing all game. To his credit, Steve fought on. Nick was cautious about pushing forward too fast, and gradually Steve built up an offensive line and with the limited resources he had left, took the fight to Nick and cleared him off the objectives to grab a win.

Imperial Guard v Orks

This report was posted earlier!

Dark Eldar V Grey Knights

At the same time, Steve was giving battle to Max, Dark Eldar against Grey Knights. The game was anihaltation. Steve won the dice roll to go first and deployed. After last time, he was slightly more cautious and deployed his forces in a block in themiddle of his baseline, ready to react to Max's deployment and use his superior speed to concentrate on a portion of Max's army. Except, Max stole the initiative. Max's army is well equipped with lots of medium strength firepower. Once again, about half of Steve's army crashed and burnt on the opening salvo. Despite his desperate reaction, he had been disabled too much by the opening barrage. In successive turns, Max was able to mass firepowwer and blow what was left of Steve's army into ever smaller pieces, resulting in a big win for Max. Never mind Steve, I am sure you cant lose the initiative again…

Tau V Orks

The other league that has seen a battle is league 4, where Ed and Mike Y clashed. Both Ed and Mike are very experienced 40K players, with very well sorted armies. (I know, people think you can't make a well sorted army out of Tau, but trust me, Ed's is good) Mike was using his Ork battlewagon list. It was a spearhead deployment, so Mike had his heavy armour facing Ed's army. Ed lit Mike's army up with markerlights, and unleashed a barrage of railgun fire. Unfortunately, Ed couldn't roll well on the damage table and Mike survived the onslaught. He closed in on Ed, and adopted the favourite Ork tactic of ramming with deffrollas. He managed to roll the 1s and 2s necessary to hit Ed's skimmers, and needless to say, the result wasnt pretty for Ed. Once again, 40K showed that when things start going wrong for you, they normally get much, much worse… Ed was wiped out, giving Mike a big win.

You can see the latest league table update by clicking this link!

Well done on playing all the games!

Tony

Firstly a report from Steve about his game with Paul. History is written by the victor… but in this case, Paul has contacted me saying this is what happened

"The game was 5 objectives with the normal set up. Paul won the dice role and chose to go first and deploy of the side with 3 objectives nearest to Deployment. He deployed between his centre and his right flank. I chose to deploy all my force in the opposite corner and not seek to steal the initiative.

In my turn the vehicles moved out of the corner to engage Paul’s forces, and got out some units that were in transports near the base edge, and headed of towards the two objectives furthest from Paul, and one unit in the direction of one of Paul’s objectives, some raiders moved fast to Paul’s side of the table so could not fire. My firing was as usual fairly poor, I got a couple of stunned results (not much good against Grey Knights), and then with nearly my last shot I destroyed one of the dreadnoughts. I cheered very loudly and then apologized to Paul, because I had promised him I would not cheer.

On the second turn, Paul did not move except to hide his vehicles as much as he could, except for one rhino that moved towards my one unit of girls heading towards the objective near him. They had thrown bad dice so were in the open, lucky he could only see two so they got a cover save, and they went to ground but still lost 2. He fired his Dreadnought that got two hits but rolled two one’s to penetrate. My response was to get all my vehicles in position to fire, but avoiding close range except for one vehicle that could not find any space. I hit more and immobilized the land raider, and the remaining dreadnought, but failed to damage any rhino’

On the third turn Paul’s moves were limited but he did turn his immobilized walker and talk out my raider that had got to close, and reduced my girl’s squad by another one also forcing them to go to ground again. It was immobilized and had its weapon destroyed. On my third turn I had everything in range and at last I destroyed his rhino next to Paul’s controlled objective nearest to me, but did not explode it and Paul’s forces got out and used it for cover. Managed to get some of my hoovers to shoot them and killed about 4 of the Grey Knights, I also shot his multi melta of his land raider and one of the auto cannons off the Dreadnought.

On turn 4 Paul finished off my girls on one flank and moved his squad from the destroyed Rhino and the Champion into the cover at the objective. His firing destroyed one of my venom’s that had irritated him with its hoovers. I thought this was my moment for success, I moved as much as I could to shoot the Champion’s unit and sent two units in to finish them off, my shooting was good leaving him with only 3 including the Champion and then charged in expecting to finish him off. Paul used Cleansing flame on the assault which was horrible, and then although losing the rest of the unit leaving the Champion on his own, my units still lost the fight, but survived morale to continue.

Paul rolled for end of game, but it continued to Turn 6. Paul moved his rhino with a 5 man squad inside to support the remaining man at the rear objective, he had a full squad on the other objective, so was holding 2. He also contested the third objective but as his unit were elites and an HQ. I held 2 objectives, and raced my vehicles to contest all three of his objective, one even went into difficult terrain but survived. I rolled for end of game, and it ended on turn 6."

The Dark Eldar won the game 3 to nil. I controlled 2 objectives to Paul’s none, as the other 3 were all contested.

The points were very close as it was a very even game. I scored 880 points, and Paul scored 815 points.

Thanks for the write up.

Neil R sent me a report about his game against Bryan, and some details of John against Mark C. Sorry Bryan, but here are the gory details…

"I played Bryan and his Tyranids, and John played Mark C and his Orks.

Next turn saw the 30 genestealers all arrive from reserve and all appear on the same edge. Both the Zoanthropes fired but were out of range as was the heavy venom cannon of the Hive Tyrant. The marines moved forward with land raider putting a couple of wounds on a Hive Tyrant. The Librarian successfully rolled for Null Zone and with 5 terminators ran towards the Z/thropes Both heavy weapon combat squads fired at them hitting and wounding both Z/thropes. With Null Zone in effect Bryan saved both rolls twice and avoided instant death (S8 v T4). The lascannon squad sacrificed themselves in doing this as they would now be in range of the Genestealers next turn.

Next turn the stealers charged and wiped out the above unit and all 30 would be in assault range next turn of the majority the marine units, with the Trygon just behind. The Tyranid warriors did not arrive from reserve despite their Hive commanders best efforts. One psychic shooting was blocked with psyhic hood of the Librarian, however the other hit a speeding Rhino with a combat squad in despite a cover save and wrecked it. The squad inside failed the pinning test! A rare occurrence in 40K.

A key turn for the marines with multiple threats to deal with 30 Genestealers, Hive Tyrant and possibly a Trygon.
So Land Raider drops off 5 terminators to assault the wounded Hive Tyrant and flatten it with one loss, the Sternguard shoot 10 Genestealers leaving 1 standing, the Land Raider reduces another 10 bug stealer unit to 6, and trusty bolt gun fire reduce the remaining stealer unit to a more manageable size.

Next turn what’s left of the stealers assault the Sternguard and gain revenge although it does take 2 turns to do so with heavy casualties. The Trygon fires at a Rhino and gets weapon destroyed. With terminators running everywhere the Zoanthropes are reduced to firing warp lances only for them to bounce off the trusty terminator storm shields. Tyranid warriors arrive at last, but on the wrong flank, and have a long walk , all the while being fired at by missile launchers and meltaguns all S8 causing instant death to these 3 wound models.

The Tyranid flag had a Hive Tyrant and what’s left of the gaunts to defend it as the Land Raider and 9 terminators advance. The LR wipes out the gaunts, and also deals a Zoanthrope a deadly hit from its meltagun. The Hive Tyrant strangely does not charge the terminators, but waits for the assault. All psychic shooting attacks are either blocked or miss their targets. In the ensuing cc the Hive Tyrant chops of the head of the Librarian with its giant Bonesword only to succumb to a multitude of thunder hammer blows.

The Trygon is all that remains and surveys the battlefield, and then digs a hole and tunnels away from the advancing 15 terminators (Bryan conceded). Well done to Bryan for sticking this one out, not easy."

Result Marines win wiping out all the bugs all 1750pts, with the loss of a Rhino, Sternguard, Librarian, and 1 combat squad.= 575pts 

Orks V Necrons

John won his battle against Mark (clean sweep for the family!).

From what I can gather from John this was a capture & control pitched battle.

Mark scored 435pts

John scored 1004pts

It seems the Orks seemed to forget about the objectives, and just charged into cc. Had they been a little more focussed then the result would have been much different. Needless to say that knowing a few game rules won over ignorance. Just like Orks!"
 

So a bit of an ouch for Bryan! Well done for getting the games played. I attach an up to date copy of the spreadsheets with the scores. Remember, top 2 players from each league go through to the knock out stages.

Tony

“Ghazghkull Thraka gazed out from the open top of his battlewagon. “Da Red Boyz’ had stolen the march on the enemy and seized two objectives in a dawn advance. As the grey tanks of the Imperial Guard lumbered forward he sent out a truck of Meganobz to seize a third objective, before the guns of the Guard could open up.

As night fell with three objectives secure Ghazghkull ordered a feast amid the burning wreckage satisfied that ‘Da Red Boyz’ had won the day.”

Result:
Orks (Neil H) 3 objectives out of 5 and took 903 Imperial Guard points
Imperial Guard (Nick) 2 objectives out of 5 and took 806 Ork points.

Tony R