Apocalypse Battle Report - May 5, 2008

Witch Hunters vs. Orks vs. Kroot
4000 points per side

This battle report is written in a narrative style. Instead of focusing on a turn-by-turn re-enactment of specific movements, game mechanics and dice rolls, this report attempts to capture some of the more cinematic moments of what was an intense and compelling game.

The game also featured the playtest of a new Ork datasheet a player drew up, which allowed the Orks to improve their cover save while in a terrain piece. It proved to extremely effective.

* * *
The hunter adjusted the grip on his weapon and surveyed the battlefield in front of him. Mounted on the back of a great knarloc, he had a commanding view of the dry desert plain.
The Skullhamma before him remained motionless, the enormous barrel of its main gun leveled at his position. Doubtless it could cut his entire brood to pieces if allowed to sit there and pound away. The Kroot grunted. That’s what the Shapers and their eviscerators were for.
Digging in his heels, the hunter spurred on his mount. There was meat to be had, and money to be made.

* * *

“Wot they doin?”
The towering nob wheeled, eyes searching for the insolent Ork who dared to speak out of turn. Deciding he didn’t have time for this, he simply backhanded the nearest one of his boyz.
“Those burnas be gearin’ up to save your sorry skins, so shuddup!” he bellowed. Figuring that it couldn’t hurt to demonstrate the value of a good education, he knocked another ork unconscious.
The nob turned back to study the burnas. He knew the blue paint being loaded into their weapons was going to keep them safe. A deep chuckle emerged from the back of his throat. Luck was on their side. Those crazy Imperial nuns were in for a surprise.

* * *

Even here, on this backwater planet, she could feel the Emperor’s grace. Canoness Miriya of the Order of the Martyred Lady had sensed His guidance as she explained her strategy to her sisters. It was a plan that bordered on recklessness, but she saw no other means of purging this world of the blasphemous forces that had dared to occupy it.
Miriya had chosen to leave her Sisters unsheltered by the heavy guns of the Imperial tanks. They would have to fight on their own and win decisive engagements.
Seated in the command chair of her personal Immolator, Miriya reached for her plasma pistol. It was old and temperamental, but the weapon had served her well for many years. It would have to do so again. She had saved the most dangerous assignment for her own squad. Someone had to make sure that Ork shokk attack battery would not rain death on her sisters.

* * *

Ork guns thundered to sound the start of the battle. Leaping forward, battlewagons and skullhammas rolled toward the Kroot and Imperial lines.
The roar from a pack of knarlocs turned into howls of agony as Ork firepower cut through the Kroot lines. As the Ork vehicles steamrolled their way toward controlling points on the battlefield, a squad of burna-boys took shelter under a canopy of trees.
Spraying the forest with blue paint from their weapons, the Orks looked about, satisfied that their luck would hold, even as an Imperial Baneblade lined up for a shot.
The ground shuddered as the tank fired its demolisher cannon. The Orks in the forest dove for cover, somehow avoiding any deadwood and finding only sturdy ancient trees to shield themselves from the explosive blast.
The Baneblade readied its remaining weapons, intent on killing the Warboss sheltering in the forest. Pre-battle intelligence suggested he was holding a vortex grenade, making him a priority target. Again, he somehow found the right tree to leap behind. The shots blasted the now-blue trees, spraying the Warboss with splinters but leaving him otherwise unharmed.
Wide toothy ork grins broke out. It worked. Time for some payback.
On the other side of the battle, another demolisher cannon thundered, smashing into the advancing Kroot lines. The tech priests at the controls of the Land Raider Ares worked with cool efficiency, reloading the mighty weapon while lining up for another shot. Still, the knarlocs and shapers pinned back their ears and came screaming in to close as quickly as possible.
The Kroot fell up on their targets with blinding speed. In an instant they threatened the Orks that had dared to charge. Unable to tear through the heavy armor, the knarlocs held their ground as the Shapers moved in.
In the midst of the Kroot line, the crew of a captured Maccharius took aim at a squad of Orks on a hill. They could either fight or become a light snack for their captors. As he watched hundreds of rounds from his vulcan megabolter turn the Orks into a fine red mist, the tank commander thanked the Emporer that he hadn’t had to kill any Imperials, yet.
The whine of missiles cut through the air. Salvo after salvo of Exorcist missiles rained down on the alien positions. Knowing victory would depend on keeping up this hail of fire, the Battle Sisters at the helm of these tanks maneuvered to bring their deadly weapons to bear.
In a small corner of the battlefield, Canoness Miriya ordered her Immolator crew to roll out. Racing from behind the protective shelter of small hillside, the Witch Hunter tank fired its heavy flamers into the shokk attack battery. Miriya leaped from the tank, blessed weapon in hand, intent on leading her Celestian retinue into a desperate assault to keep the deadly Ork artillery from engaging the rest of her forces.
The Warboss could hardly contain his laughter as he charged the Baneblade, vortex grenade in hand. The Imperial warmachine lay right in front of him, exposed and defenseless. He cocked his arm back and with a bloodthirsty cry flung the deadly bomb at the tank…
…and roared in frustration as the grenade slipped from his hand. It imploded just in front of the tank, harmlessly opening a rift of nothingness. The destructive singularity shimmered violently and suddenly winked out existence. It would only be instants before it appeared somewhere else, instantly destroying anything it touched. The Warboss turned to look at the Baneblade and locked eyes with the tank driver staring at him from the turret cupola. Both Ork and Human knew one thing: it was time to get out of here.

* * *
Across the battlefield, a knocking sound kept bothering an Ork Skullhamma driver. Annoyed, he turned to his main gunner.
“You hear dat?”
Thunder erupted in the crew compartment as the gunner fired the Skullhamma kannon again.
“Hear wot?”
The driver shook his head. He was about to power into a pack of those crazy bird things when he heard the knocking sound again.
“Dere it is! You got to hear dat?”
The gunner turned, clearly annoyed. Here he was, ready to unload on those pesky kroot and all this guy wanted to do was talk about his hearing problems.
“Hear wot? I don’t hear….”
Then the Ork’s head flew across the cabin, landing in the driver’s lap. He looked up, directly into the face of a Kroot carrying the biggest damn sword he’d ever seen.

* * *
“Say again, Overwatch,” Miriya shouted into her vox caster. “Skullhamma One is down?”
The Canoness snapped off a shot with her plasma pistol and ducked back, making room for her Celestian Sisters to discharge a rapid fire barrage from their bolters.
“Correct. Skullhamma One is down. Looks like those Shapers skinned it like a carcass. Damn big explosion too. Nothing left but a big hole in the ground.”
Good, Miriya thought. Let them kill each other. She opened another vox channel.
“All units,” she said. “Initiate phase two.”

* * *

The Skullhamma erupted into a ball of fire that vaporized nearly everything around it. The tank had once occupied a commanding spot of the battlefield. Now, it lay completely open for anyone to claim.
All across the plain, the rumble of engines started up as all of Miriya’s mechanized infantry units prepared to take the field. One Rhino charged up to the remains of the Skullhamma. Almost directly across the field, a Repressor packed with Battle Sisters drove in behind Kroot lines to strike at their supply base.
The Repressor’s heavy flamer spouted burning promethium. A second gout of holy flame erupted from the top hatch as a Sister unleashed the cleansing fire of Imperial faith. Sisters within the tank took advantage of their firing slits to unleash a barrage of bolter fire into the unsuspecting Kroot warriors.
A roar of engines tore through the sky as the Imperial Navy joined the fray. A lone Thunderbolt burst from the clouds, firing Hellstrike missiles into the Orks massed in the forest. Again, the Orks ducked and rolled, seeming to somehow find the right tree to hide behind and avoid the explosive blast.
The battle raged on. A second Skullhamma commanded the center of the battlefield, stubbornly refusing to yield ground. The Warboss continued to charge the Baneblade, howling in delight as he caused the great warmachine to keep falling back.
Speeding on leathern wings, three Kroot Shapers finally caught the Ares. Too late, the tank crew realized it had made a fatal error by holding their ground to fire. The Land Raider’s vaunted armor shredded like paper under the scything blows from the Kroot eviscerators.
Other Shapers pounced on the invading Repressor, avenging their fallen by tearing the armored personnel carrier apart. Ten Sisters came stumbling out of the shattered vehicle, but only eight managed to stand and keep fighting.
Their faith was rewarded when a squad of Seraphim and a second Rhino arrived. Bolter shots and the cleansing fire of holy promethium cut through the attacking Kroot. Shielded by their Emperor’s divine grace, the Seraphim cut down their opposition in close combat and overran the Kroot supply base.
Miriya had the last shokk attack gun in her sights. She sighted carefully and squeezed the trigger. Instead of firing a deadly bolt of plasma, she felt the gun start to vibrate wildly in her hand. Acting on instinct, she flung it away a split second before it exploded. The blast battered her, the shock wave seeming to rip through her powered armor. But she stood, wounded but not dead.
Her Celestians finished what she started, destroying the last Ork weapon in a barrage of fire.
All across the battlefield, key strategic points were held by squads of Witch Hunter infantry. The aliens had suffered incredible losses and were out of position to challenge the Sisters. Realizing their predicament, the Orks and Kroot began to withdraw.
Imperial scribes would note this as another glorious victory for the Ordo Hereticus. But Miriya knew how close it had been. The Orks might have overrun her own base if the vortex grenade had hit its target. The Kroot might have fought and slashed their way across the battlefield if the Skullhamma explosion had not crippled their lines.
And her Sisters might have been cut down as they fought their own skirmishes across the battlefield. She shook her head as she climbed back into the Immolator’s command chair. It had been a reckless plan. It had been pure chance that it worked.
No, not chance, she chastised herself. It was faith.

Apocalypse Tactica - How to write a 40k Battle Report

Today’s post isn’t strictly about Apocalypse or 40k, it’s about writing about Apocalypse and 40k. Like many 40k players, I love battle reports. It’s fun to pore over them and look for little bits of information that could prove useful in my own games.

The battle reports detailed in official GW products are meticulous and extremly useful. My own battle reports have much less detail, since I’m usually so busy playing the game that I’m not taking notes on every single move.

As a result, I end up writing battle reports that tend to be more narrative.  If you think about large battle scenes in movies or even a sports broadcast, you’ll notice a few common threads.

- There’s a lot of focus on the set up. Before the forces of Mordor charged Gondor, you got just enough of an idea of how the forces were arrayed so suprises made sense when they occurred. What do I mean by this? Well, you knew Gondor had defenses on the walls, so it made sense to those catapults chucking huge rocks at the invading army.

The same goes for writing the introduction to a battle report. I try to give readers an idea of what kinds of units each side has, especially the ones that wound up playing key roles in the battle. However, I don’t think it’s necessary to run down each unit and their points value.  It would take forever, especially if you’re writing an Apocalypse battle report. Besides, the reader wants to get to the good part.

- In movies, there’s also a lot of focus on the intial clash. You see the X-wings come charging down at the Death Star and the exchange of fire. Then a  lot of things get blown up, so much so that upon first viewing it’s hard to keep track of .

I think the same goes for battle reports. You can usually recall with great detail what happened in turn one of a game, but the middle rounds all start to become a blur. As the battle progresses, I try to write about trends that developed in the game. Descriptions of individual unit actions can serve to illustrate and highlight these trends.

- Take care to describe the endgame. We all love the dramatic set up. Bottom of the ninth, two out, two on. Full count and here’s the pitch….

You can do the same thing when it comes to writing battle reports. If there’s a showdown at the end of the game, or a critical move that claims and objective, make sure it’s applauded and given proper notice.

- Don’t tell me about the pain. In the end, it all comes down the dice. You may have the perfect list with the perfect plan, but if the dice are hot in your opponent’s hand you’re dead.

However, because I’m trying to capture the feel of the game, I try to avoid writing about specific dice rolls as much as possible. This is especially true of rolls to hit and wound. I think it’s more interesting to read about a hail of storm bolter fire instead of counting how many times you made a 3+ on your roll.

The exception is dramatic leadership checks. There’s just something about a battered unit standing up and coming back for more that makes for interesting reading.

And that’s about it. These guidelines won’t work for everyone, especially readers who want to count up victory points. I definitely would not recommend this for someone writing for a professional gaming publication. But I’m simply trying to create a narrative record that will let me and my friends go back and re-live some truly great moments at the gaming table.

Apocalypse Tactica - Strategy & Tactics for Big Games Part 1

Keeping Track of Time

This is the first installment in what will hopefully be a pretty regular series of posts on Apocalypse strategies and tactics. Each will handle a small, discrete concept instead of attempting to lay out some kind of grand, sweeping guidance to help you plan your overall strategy.

Today, we’ll focus on the seemingly simple concept of managing your time.  Sounds easy, right? Well, if not handled properly you can short circuit your game and kill any chance of victory.

What do I mean by this? Apocalpyse games can take a loooong time. To resolve movement, shooting and assault phases for both sides can take the better part of an hour, depending on how many points are being used in your game.

If you have a plan that involves making certain moves over several turns, make sure you’re going to have enough time to execute your strategy. In a recent game, my attempt to move a column of tanks and APCs up a flank to attack an objective was cut short when we ran out of time.

To prevent this, it’s a good idea to estimate how many turns there will be in a game. This will depend entirely on how much time you will have. If you’re playing at a friends house and have all night, no problem. If you’re playing at a weekly session at a game shop or club that has to close at 9 pm, then you’ve got issues.

Try to anticipate how much ground you’ll be able to cover in the amount of moves you can make. Aside from flyers, most units in the game can cover a maximum of 12 inches in a turn. If you’ve got an assault army, you may not be able to get into assault range in the number of moves you have available. You may want to deploy these units as far forward as possible, or use strategic assets like Strategic Redeployment, Careful Planning, and Flank March to get them into position.

If you don’t think you’ll have many turns of play, you may also consider taking offensive Strategic Assets like Scheduled Bombardment and Orbital Bombardment to do more damage early in the game.

Deep Strike can really help get your units into position quickly.  Deep Striking units can enter from ANY table edge. I called GW to confirm this one. You can drop a whole ton of assault marines with jump packs or land speeders behind enemy lines using this tactic.

In addition to these tactics, think about the endgame. To win a shortened game, you may have to aggressively go after the objectives in No Man’s Land. If you don’t think you’ll have to hold the objective for more than two or three turns, you may want to commit a large force to securing a single objective. Combining this with the Vital Objective strategic asset can be a winning strategy.

Finally, think about game length when you evaluate enemy threats and potential targets. If you think the game will last four turns but it will take three to kill that Stompa, then don’t bother with it. Go for the available objectives and don’t waste time engaging in meaningless battles.

It’s easy to overlook time management when planning out your battles. I know. I’ve done it and it has cost me.  Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes.

5 Warlord Titans - 10,000 points

A guy in my gaming group made these with his friend. Each one is about the size of a toddler. Look for them on Ebay sometime in the near future. I have no idea how much they will go for, but trust me it will be worth it.

 

 

The Perils of Miniatures Gaming

Our family welcomed our latest edition two weeks ago, so I haven’t done much gaming recently. So unfortunately, no new battle reports at this time.

I did surprisingly have a little bit of free time this past weekend after the kids went to bed to work on a model that’s been sitting on my shelf for some time: a Sisters of Battle Repressor.

This model consists of a standard GW Rhino tank fitted with a Forge World resin kit. Nothing too complicated, right? This was my first experience working with Forge World bits and I’d heard a few bad things. However, the kit I received seemed to be just fine: no unsightly bubbles, no unsightly deformations.

Everything was going quite smoothly until I discovered that the elevated crew compartment didn’t fit quite right on the top of the Rhino. The problem wasn’t with the Forge World resin compartment, it was the Rhino itself. Some of the raised texture details on the rear top of the vehicle were sticking up a bit too much.

I thought, well I can just mangle this thing with my clippers or try to finesse it with the hobby knife. In opted for the finesse. Bad choice.

One slip and the blade drove deep into my right thumb. It didn’t really hurt, but the blood came gushing out. I tried to apply direct pressure to stop the bleeding, to no avail. After several attempts at bandaging the wound failed, I wound up driving myself to the emergency room.

Two hours, three stitches and a tetanus shot later, I was on my way home. While I was cleaning up the mess on the table, I thought to myself “you know, those space marines really are blood red.”

Star Wars Saga Edition, 4th Edition, Battleground Fantasy Warfare

I haven’t posted much lately because things have been developing on the home front, making it impossible to participate in our usual Monday night games.

However, I did want to put down some brief thoughts on some games.

First off, Star Wars Saga Edition. I’ve got it, read it and done some brief playtesting. So far, I can say it’s absolutely brilliant. The smoothest running d20 product that Wizards has released to date. It doesn’t feel like a d20 conversion like previous editions, this one really captures the feel of Star Wars.

I could go on and on, but maybe you’d really be much better of checking out www.d20radio.com. These guys have put together a great podcast and forum focused entirely on Saga Edition. Their podcast is full of great rules discussion and their forum community is growing every day.

One more thought on Saga Edition: this could easily be converted for any other pulp, modern or sci-fi game. Just take out the jedi and suddenly you can run Serentity/Firefly-based games. You could use the same rules to create Indiana Jones-style pulp adventures. Sure as the GM you would have to write up your own adversaries and gear, but based on the material in the core rulebook that shouldn’t be too hard.

On to D&D 4th edition. The latest round of previews have me convinced this is going to be a great game. As I’ve written about before, I think there is entirely too much angst out there in gamer-land over this change in editions. If you don’t like it, don’t play it.

One piece of information has really caught my attention. In a recent episode of the Gamer Radio Zero podcast, WotC’s Andy Collins said 4E has been playtested by 668 people. Think about that number for a minute. Not every game will credit their playtesters. Those that do typically list fewer than 20 names. But WotC has gathered input from nearly 700 people! That’s an insane amount of feedback. It gives me hope that this game will hit the ground running as a smooth-running, fun-to-play system.

Finally, one last game. As someone without a lot of free time, I think Battleground Fantasy Warfare is an absolute godsend. For those who don’t know, it’s basically a miniatures wargame without the miniatures. Instead it is played with pre-printed cards, with each card representing a separate unit. Everything you need to run the unit is printed on the card: stats, special rules, damage tracker, cool 3d art and a little bit of flavor text describing the unit.

And here comes the good part: it’s really inexpensive. All you need is a starter deck for one army, which will set you back about $15. If you want, you can buy a reinforcement deck for about the same price. That’s it. That’s all you need to invest to have every single unit for a given army. Compare that to nearly any other mass-battle game. Quite frankly, there is no comparison.

Oh, did I forget to mention: no painting. No spending hours getting your miniatures ready for the table. Just pick up your cards and play.

But what about the gameplay, you ask? It is surprisingly complex yet smooth. The designers also did a great job of capturing the feel and flavor of the different armies. For examply, the Ravenwood Elves are shifty, hard to hit and thrive as skirmishers. The High Elves hit often, hit hard, but are few in number and can’t take a lot of damage. The Lizardmen are fast, deadly in melee and are tough, tough SOBs.

I can’t recommend this game enough. For more info, check out www.yourmovegames.com.

40k Battle Report - Feb. 4

Witch Hunters vs. Orks

My Monday night group took a break from our Apocalypse battles and played a good old-fashioned 1500 point 40k game recently. The tide of battle swung back and forth and in the end it came down to two units facing off. In short, it was a lot of fun.

The Witch Hunters included only Adeptas Sororitas units: two squads of Battle Sisters in Rhinos, one squad of Dominions armed with flamers in an Immolator, one squad of Seraphim, a Canoness and her Celestian retinue in an Immolator and a Living Saint. This mechanized infantry unit wanted to close quickly into flamer and rapid fire range, using faith points when necessary to withstand the ork firepower.

The Orks took the field with a Big Mek armed with a shok attack gun, a squad of flash gitz with full weapon upgrades, a Deff Dread with four (!) dreadnought close combat weapons, a Warboss and escort squad in a battlewagon, a squad of tankbustas with rockets and bomb squiqs, lootas and a lot of Ork Boyz. This green horde made up for its low ballistic skill with an enormous number of guns. When you’re rolling a ton of dice, you’re bound to get more than a few hits.

Turn One saw the shok attack gun and the Tankbustas taking out the Canoness’ Immolator and nearly half the Seraphim. The Canoness and her Celestians bailed out of the wrecked vehicle, entangled but otherwise unharmed.

Armed with short ranged weapons, the Witch Hunters could not return fire in Turn One. The Dominions’ Immolator raced up the left flank while the two troop-carrier Rhinos advanced up the center of the board. All three vehicles popped smoke, hoping to withstand another round of fire. The Seraphim jumped behind cover, escorted by the Living Saint.

Turn Two saw more effective use of Ork firepower. The Imperial vehicles all blew their obscurement rolls, meaning their smoke launchers turned out to be useless. The shok attack gun immobilized one Rhino and the tankbustas and the flash gitz took out the other, taking out a handful of Sisters and leaving the rest entangled. The Deff Dread advanced to the center of the board, daring the Sisters of Battle to come out and play. The Warboss and his escort leaped from the battlewagon, ready to engage the oncoming Dominions.

The Canoness and Celestians pulled themselves away from the wreckage of their Immolator and behind cover of some trees.  The squad from the immobilized Rhino bailed, somehow managing to put the tank between themselves and the Orks. What was left of the Seraphim jumped forward and unloaded on the flash gitz. Twin hand flamers managed to inflict some wounds, but not enough to take them down. 

It was time for close combat. The Seraphim charged the flash gitz, lead by a Sister Superior wielding a power weapon. She dropped two of the greenskins and turned out to be the last surviving member of her squad once the Orks finished hitting back. Making use of her hit and run ability, she jumped away behind cover.

The Living Saint, on the other hand, made use of her faith points to increase her strength and gain a 2+ invulnerable save. Feeling the might of the Emporer, she charged the Deff Dread. After a mighty exchange of blows, the two figures remained in the center of the board, neither able to hurt the other.

In turn three, things started to turn the Witch Hunters way. The Ork firepower cut into the squads of Sisters now making their way on foot, but not enough.  The Dominions managed to close into range on the left flank Four Sisters armed with flamers jumped out and vaporized an entire squad of ‘Boyz in one barrage of burning promethium.

The next two turns saw frantic and bloody action. The wounded Witch Hunter units all made their leadership checks. Ave Imperator! The lone Seraphim superior jumped back into close combat with the flash gitz, her power sword leaving more Ork bodies on the ground.  The Living Saint, powered by her faith, stuck down the Deff Dread with one mighty swing of her Ardent Blade. Her consolidation move allowed her to close with the shok attack gun that had caused so much damage.

Meanwhile, the flash gitz and other ork units on the right side of the board closed with the remains of one Battle squad and the Canoness and her Celestian, all the while harassed by the last Seraphim. In close combat, the Orks made short work of most of the Sisters, except for the Canoness. Armed with her Blessed Weapon, she cut down ork after ork, almost single-handedly clearing out that side of the table.

In the ork deployment zone, the Living Saint was having similar success. She cleaved through the shok attack gun and its surrounding units, her ardent blade blasting fire and cutting down orks with ease. Soon, nothing stood between her and the battlewagon.

At this point, the orks were down to the battlewagon, the Warboss and his escort. The Witch Hunters had a full squad of sisters, the Canoness, the Living Saint and the Immolator. Both players agreed the Canoness would never reach the other side of the board on foot, so play concentrated on a final confrontation on the left flank.

Rapid fire bolters and flamers left the Warboss standing on his own. In turn, he lashed out and slaughtered the Living Saint, exacting a measure of vengence. The remaining sisters charged, but without any faith points were unable to inflict the final wound needed to kill the Warboss. He had no such problems, swinging back and leaving dead Sisters strewn across the battlefield.

Finally, the Warboss stood, clad in mega-armor, staring down the barrels of a twin-linked multimelta mounted on the Immolator. However, he was too far away to charge and his twin-linked shoota could not penetrate the tank’s front armor. Realizing the Immolator could continue to back away and fire, the Ork player conceded the game.

It was a vicious bloody battle that showed off the best attributes of both armies. The orks had numbers and packed a lot of punch in both ranged and close combat. The Sisters used their faith points and lethal short ranged weaponry to cut down the orks.

In short, it was the kind of game that reminds us why we play this game: it was a lot of fun for everyone involved.  

Apocalypse Campaign - Conclusion

Scenario 3 – The Secret Revealed

The Orks have pulled out, but the true puppet masters have been unmasked. The Tau created the spores and used Spartacus V as a field laboratory for their experiment. Now they are ready to move in and finish off the depleted Imperial forces. However, the Cadians still have a score to settle with the Inquisition, which is looking to end the menace of the spores once and for all.

 Setup

The Tau will take the long deployment zone. The two remaining zones are split between the Inquisition and Imperial Guard.

 

- The Tau will place two objectives in their deployment zone. The objectives must be at least 18” apart.

- The Inquisition will place an objective anywhere in its deployment zone.

- The Imperial Guard will have no objectives in its deployment zone.

 Victory Conditions

- Tau: The Tau must hold both of their objectives to win the game. There is no reason for them to attempt to take the Inquisition objective.

- Inquisition: The Inquisition must hold its objective and take at least one of the Tau objectives to win the game.

- Imperial Guard: The Imperial Guard must take one of the Tau objectives and the Inquisition objective to win the game.

Strategic Assets

Tau –Supreme Headquarters, Scheduled Bombardment

Inquisition – Surgical Raids, Ambush

Imperial Guard – Flank March

Apocalype Battle Report - Jan. 7, 2008

Although my group is planning to play through a full campaign, we weren’t able to get everything ready for our first session of the new year.  Instead we played a straight-up one-on-one Apocalypse mission. It’s taken me awhile to finish writing up this battle report, but here’s how it went down:

Points per side: 4000

Key Units 

Imperials: four drop pods w/Blood Angels veteran assault squads, one death company squad and a dreadnought; three predators, one Baneblade, one land raider, one land raider ares conversion, an exorcist, terminators, land speeders, and a Damocles command rhino and four callidus assassins.

Aliens: One tyrannid hierophant; two hive tyrants, a carnifex, a battery of captured artillery manned by orks, an eldar vampire raider; a couple of ork truks, a couple of battle wagons packed with rocket launching orks.

The Imperial side deployed first and took the initiative. A line of Imeperial tanks spread out with clear lines of fire at the most imposing Alien unit: the hierophant. Making use of a free careful planning asset from the drop pod formation, the Imperial land speeders dropped in and leveled their mulitmeltas at the artillery batter tucked in the back of the board.

Unfortunately for the forces of the Emperor, the first round of shooting was almost a complete waste. The dice were unkind and all of the Imperial tanks managed to inflict only a handful of wounds on the great beast. The land speeders completely whiffed, leaving the artillery unscathed.

The Aliens fared much better. The hierophant’s biocannons and the other tyrannid weapons carved up the line of Imperial armor. Rolls on the glancing hits table came up “vehicle destroyed” over and over again.  The Imperial forces were in trouble, and it would only get worse.

In round two, the drop pods, assassins and terminators made their appearance. The assassins neural shredders quickly neutralized the artillery batteries, but the terminators and drop pod troops had little success. The heavy armor and high toughness scores of the Alien forces allowed them to shrug off the hits with little damage.

Losing the artillery battery did little to slow down the Aliens, who continued to pound away at the Imperial forces. The hive tyrants opened fire, cutting through the Imperial troops.  The hierophant’s biocannon easily took out the land raider ares and damaged the baneblade.

The Death Company and other Imperial troops managed to finish off the Hive Tyrants and carnifex, and the assassins kept stunning the artillery battery to prevent it from taking advantage of its spotting rounds.  But the hierophant continued its rampage, drawing fire from the remaining Imperial armored units, allowing ork reserves to enter almost unchallenged.

It soon became clear the aliens would carry the day, it was only a question of how bad the slaughter would be.  It seemed everything was over when the aliens flank marched in a captured shadowsword tank right behind the Imperial firing line. But the hierophant finished off the baneblade, and the resulting explosion took the shadowsword with it.

The Imperials tried to take advantage of the strategic redeployment asset and claim some objectives. But the vampire raider swooped in and annihilated key scoring units. At one point, a unit of Imperial terminators scored hits on the enemy aircraft, which turned out to be harmless due to its holo-fields.

Time ran out before a full six turns could be played, but the outcome was not in doubt. The aliens’ two MVPs were the hierophant and the vampire raider. The giant hierophant absorbed tremendous amounts of damage but refused to fall. The raider, with its destructor-class main weapon, superior mobility and defensive abilities, simply was overwhelming.

In this case, superheavies won the battle, and it wasn’t even close.

AT-43: Not just “pre-painted 40K”

A lot has been written about AT-43 in the last year. It’s been a huge success for Rackham and Fantasy Flight, so I see no need to review the game here. Instead, I’ll go over a few things my group has discovered during our games which may help you.

1) Play on a small board. We recently experimented with a 3′x3′ board and it really seemed to improve the game. The combat was fast, immediate and deadly. It quickened the pace of the game and made it a lot more fun to play.

2) The rule books need work. There are a lot of rules questions in any game, but the AT-43 books could be organized better. We spend a lot of time flipping through pages figuring things out, looking up threads on message boards and, at times, deciding rules quesitons with a roll of the dice. It’s not bad enough to ruin the game, but hopefully in the future the editing of the books will be better.

3) Battlesuits need to be used carefully. Whether its UNA Steel Arms or Red Blok Kolossus units, low speed and not-so-heavy armor means these guys can get lit up if left out in the open. They pack serious firepower but are pretty fragile when it comes down to it. My suggestion is to leave your suits in reserve and deploy them as reinforcements.  If you can drop them in halfway up the board, you can wreck some serious havoc.

4) Spend that LP. Leadership points are the currency of the game and unless you have some uber-secret plan,  go ahead and spend those points. Most players have more than they need to pull off whatever tricks they have in their bag.

5) Going second is not a bad idea. In the words of one of our local players “you go first, I go second and shoot you. You go again, I go again and shoot you.” As with 40k, going second also allows you to take the last move and secure objectives, critical for winning a game.