Chaos Hell Talons

Some much needed air support for my FWC Marine Corps aka Emperor's Children has arrived.

The models are 3D printed, and take the look of the Forge World full scale Hell Talon fighters for the Heretic Astartes.

Now, these where ordered at my go to guy long before I had my own printer, but the files are from Thingiverse and I think they are still on there after that website's "soft reboot" with it's update.

The models where then painted in the hefty pink and black colourscheme and ready to take the skies next time I go to the fields of battle in the Azmodov 7 campaign against Nemesis.

Just don`t know if that will be for this year...

AHPC10: Burch's Bluff: The annual pink entry

No Painting Challenge for me without entering something pink, and this year it's more reinforcements for my FWC Marine Corps / Epic 40k Chaos army.

And as such of course, they remain painted in glorious pink as the Emperor's Children keep terrorising the battlefields.

Now, in this year's challenge, there are various locations to go explore on the map, and this entry I linked to Burch's Bluff, where one needed to paint something that fits in the Warhammer 30k, better known as the Horus Heresy, setting.

A lot of these (aka, nearly all) models are 3D prints found on Thingiverse, and give a variety of vehicles and troops to the army.

Spearheading the force is the mighty Sicaran tank, a precursor to the Land Raider.  But the venerable Land Raider is of course present as well...

... as is it's mighty payload of Terminators to gorge into the enemy lines.

But I also painted up these three Knights (aka, a "Lance") of their ne Adeptus Titanicus game,  it's just a pity they upped the scale a bit, though they can now serve as more Titan scaled units in a game of Future War Commander as a result.

For scoring purposes as such, I have 9 models of infantry, and 6 basic vehicles, while for those that walk among them they are the size of a GW Fantasy figure, so I`d estimate 5 points each for those?  All that pink goodness for a nice tally of 31.5 points, adding the 30 of Burch's Bluff granting me the grande totale of 61.5 points.

For the Emperor!

The Campaign for Azmodov 7: Break Out Phase

They had withstood, and even repelled, the initial attack.  But the brave soldiers of the Pax Arcadia knew they couldn't keep withstanding the massed ranks of Marines that kept breaking from orbit.  A true overwhelming mass was gathering on the outskirts of the cities, and soon they would begin their break out of the landing zones.  Officers at Central Command could see the legions of debauchery line up, the storm would come very soon...

The third game in our Future War Commander "Colonisation" campaign, as Nemesis and me faced off again for a battle at the club.  This time, I would command once again 3000 points, while he would have a measly 1500 points at his disposal, but the previous battle showed that is no way a sure defeat.

My forces where build around speed and transport capacity this time, as I would need to either occupy his third of the table, or even better get as many troops as possible from his table edge.  He needed to prevent this.

To that end, the Pax Arcadia force brought along a squadron of tanks, containing a mixture of crusader and medium tanks.  Foot support came in the form of conscripts and regulars, hauling around three smart missile launchers, while battery of heavy artillery loomed off table.

Turn 1

I deployed statically, and immediatly rushed as much as possible forward with my three battlegroups.  No shooting would take place for me in this turn, as his scouts where hidden deep down the field and so I pushed forward as much as I could.

Nemesis had split his force in two, as they would arrive with mobile deployment.  His tank section turned up immediatly, and blasted a Razorback and it's passengers to pieces, supported by an artillery barrage.  First blood to the Pax Arcadia!

Turn 2

However, going into the second turn, I managed to do some damage to his tank forces, but a failure to utter a single command by my HQ resulted in his centre being saved from my large guns....

His infantry section didn't show up yet, but his tanks kept my forces at arm's lenght for now, even though suppression was beginning to dim his firepower.

Turn 3

The Emperor's Children hit hard in his center this round, annihilating his tank force, and running over both his FAO, taking out his artillery as they can't return once to the game, and his HQ (but they would return in his next turn), clearing the way as units left and right started moving off the table, or positioning far out of his gunreach to do so in the following turns from their blocked los positions.
A double order didn't help him in this, and his centre as such collapsed completely, and victory was already in the grasp of the pink horde.

In his turn, Nemesis was struck as well by his commander failing to give orders, so apart from his barrage, the Pax guns remained silent...

Turn 4

As his last stragglers in the center where rounded out, the infantry section finally arrived.  While his smart missiles took out another Land Raider, a command blunder caused his troops to fall back... and the units running of the table caused his force to go over it's break point by one...

Nemesis new it was a foregone battle now, with support walkers, Land Raiders and a massive Coyote class walker bearing on him, and threw the towel.  The break out was succesfull, as the Pax Arcadia retreated, soundly beaten due to the fact his infantry showing up one turn to late to try and mount a decent defence...

The central command saw the red arrows on their screens breaking through the thin green lines all over the planet.  The invasion was in full swing, and the tide wasn't being stemmed by the meagre defences.  The overwhelming numbers just hit them to hard, slaughtering troops and civilians alike in their path... soon the cities would be reached, and Central Command must think of a way to bring the population to safety soon!

More FWC reinforcements

The big benefit of 6mm is that it paints rather smoothly, and this post I boosted some extra models for my Emperor's Children.

After the previous "necessary" batch of Predators and Land Raiders, this batch makes for some nice variation, but not necessary reinforcements per se.

The first models, painted in the "pre heresy scheme" of 30k style, are a Spartan (who will be used as a Land Raider as well, but adds some miniature variation in the force, and go to battle in smaller games where I field only one them) and a Sicaran who will get the AA SPG role of the Marine Corps list.

Two Razorbacks, as above also 3D prints, are added as well, one with the anti infantry turret and the other with the anti tank one, to have some more cheap support tanks (cheap with Marines being relative of course) for the force.

The final addition for this post are three bases of Marines, but this time painted up in the pre Heresy scheme as well, in order to have more variation from the pink and black stands of my regular force.

Now the next thing I'll need for this force is some much needed air support to counter Nemesis's gunships...

The Campaign for Azmodov 7: Assault Phase

Even though the forces of Pax Arcadia had beaten back the Recce attempts from the Emperor's Children, the assault inevitably came.  While perhaps not as pinpointed as it might have been, had the information been fully transmitted back to the fleet in orbit, they descended in their landing craft.  Fireballs lighted up the dawn, as the forces landed on the soil of Azmodov 7.  The tide of extremities had arrived, and the beleaguered Pax force had to hold out against the overwhelming numbers...

So, scenario 2 in our Future War Commander narrative campaign that Nemesis and me are playing out, and this time the Pax only have half the points available of the Marine Corps troops.

The scenario objectives are that within the timespan of 10 turns, you must break the opposing battleforce.  Failing this, causing 25% casualties results in a minor victory instead.

I opted for the bigger models in this force, with two knights, minimal regular marine troops, a heap of commanders and decent armoured support.

The Pax force had various tanks surrounding a very big and heavy one, and supported by various classes of infantry.  A big artillery piece was lurking of the table to try and pin as much as possible every turn.

And so the table was set up, now using some more regular buildings compared to the rural table we used before.

Turn 1

Using orbital deployment, my force landed in the centre of the table.  I opted then to spread out a bit, because the Pax would arrive by Mobile deployment, and with command 10 and 9 I should be able to return to the fray quickly if they arrived away from my forces.

But as my anti infantry predator trundled forward, an ambush sprang and the little tank was duly blasted to pieces.  One of the infantry stands then got shot up from the returning fire as well.

On the other flank, smart missile troops appeared and opened fire on a Land Raider, but failed to take the machine out, though they suppressed it.

As the Pax took their first turn, a mighty barrage rained down on the front battlegroup, causing no casualties but supressing the commander, leaving him unable to order commands in the next turn as a result.

The Pax arrived on the tabletop, concentrating on the southern edge of the table and both groups arriving there without issues.  Opportunity fire didn`t do that much unfortunatly, and the first knight was swiftly decimated by the tank batallion.

At the end of turn one, it looked good for the Emperor`s Children, and now the forces would need to return and take the battle to the Pax...

Turn 2

Well, most of them started to return to the fray at least.  The shooting phase wasn`t to spectacular though, even though the CO`s group managed to do some serious supressing to the Pax.

In the Pax face, the artillery seemingly fired straight upwards, resulting in a blunder but the machine managed to escape it`s own barrage unharmed.

The artillery pieces of the Emperor`s Children where taken out, and for the second time they came to the table these 175 points each machines did nothing.  A career of off-table artillery support awaits them from now on...

The Pax line held without to much problems and started to break through the front most battlegroup as a result even as their officer blundered and fell back to it`s table edge as a result.

Turn 3

And it all starts going very very sour now for the Emperor`s Children, as two commanders botched out on their first order, bringing the force to a standstill.  Only the central Land Raider got a couple orders through, destroying some smaller tanks in the process.

And then the CO failed it`s orders again and the whole force did next to nothing.

The returning concentration of artillery didn`t cause any casualties or suppressions again, but that was about the last thing that went well for the pink Marines.

Some conscripts bravely charged the recce Land Speeder, but where thrown back as a result.  Another commander was overrun though and fell back as a result.

The western flank was now being in the process of being annihilated by the mass of Pax infantry, while the centre stood to a complete stand still, and my 25% point was reached.

Turn 4

Again the Emperor`s Children start failing their orders, and do right about nothing for the whole turn... this is getting terrible, including an officer managing to get -2 command for this and next turn...

The barrage from the Pax again didn`t cause any effects, but the battle would probably reach it`s climax in this turn as all I could do was react.

While I was pushed below my breakpoint in this round, so was the Pax force by my opportunity fire, and that meant my one chance was that Nemesis would botch his roll at the end of his turn.

Which he of course didn`t.

Turn 5

Nearing the clock of midnight, this would be the last turn.  At my end, I would test with a -3 modifier already, but it never came to that.  I failed every single roll (my CO for the third turn in a row) to give orders, but did pass the botch out roll... and duly threw the towel as a result.

So the Pax where victorious against overwhelming odds.  Maybe I should`nt have spread out in the beginning to cover more possible arrival points, but what hurt me the most where the failings of the command rolls.  Spread over the last three turns, with 5 officers on the board, I managed to give a grand total of 6 orders... that`s abysmall with command 10 and 9!!!

Well deserved, the assault has been stopped for now, and next time it will be scenario 3 in which it seems I will have to cover as much ground as possible over the game, and staying alive in the process...

Commander Carlyle couldn`t believe what he was seeing.  Even though his small army was in shambles and on the verge of breaking off the engagement, when the enemy suddenly started to withdraw.  Apparently, seeing them bicker amongst themselves for most of the time, this had cost the invaders deerly, and as they got gunned down by his forces, they seemingly lacked any form of communication...