Ten Years Ago - May 2016

I was spoiled for choice this month, with a couple of things from ten years ago that I thought worth highlighting. However I'm going to save at least one of them for next month when there are June 206 posts that cover it better.

I thought that for this month I'd cover a game of HOTT, since that's what the blog was originally all about. But it's HOTT with a difference, since it's a game featuring two of my Epic 40K armies rather than 'conventional' fantasy forces. HOTT works pretty well for these armies if you aren't fussed about detail and I've had some great games over the years.

In this battle a chapter of Space Marines fights against a Chaos army.

Epic 40K HOTT - Marines vs Chaos

Hive Fleet Thatcher Is Back!

There's been a little bit of traffic about Tyranids on my work's 'miniature wargaming' Slack channel, and it inspired me to get out my Epic40K HOTT armies again for a quick game - specifically the horrific Hive Fleet Thatcher.

I pitted them against some Squats, who defended.

The Tyranids fielded 1 x Airboat General (Harridan), 3 x Knights (Malefactor, Exocrine and Haruspex), 1 x Behemoth (Trygon), 1 x Beast (Carnifex), 1 x Lurker (Lurking worm things) and 8 x Hordes (Bugs)

The Squats consisted of 1 x Blade general, 3 x Blades (Squat Warriors), 1 x Knight (Land Rider), 1 x Behemoth (Land Train), 1 x Airboat (Airship), 1 x Artillery (Thudd Guns) and 2 x Riders (Guild Bikers)

Here are the Tyranids.

The Carnifex made a rush for the ruins on the Squat right, and the Squats moved out the Land Raider and Land-train to intercept it. The rest of the army was content to sit on a hill, and the Tyranids advanced.

A few turns later. The Carnifex made the ruins and attacked the Land Raider, whilst the Squats brought up their airship to support the Land Train. The Land Train cut through the Tyranid 'tanks'.

The Harridan seemed content to hold back at this stage.

The Squats continued their attack. With the battle now unlikely to reach the hill, the Squats advanced off their position to support their lead elements. The Carnifex has defeated the Squat tank, and was now moving forward to attack the Squat artillery.

The Harridan swooped into action, destroying the Squats' airship.

Meanwhile the Carnifex was repulsed by the artillery.

An overview of the battle.

A moment of crisis! The Carnifex destroyed the Squat artillery, and the Trygon was attacking the Squat warlord with support from a Haruspex. If the Squat general fell, then the battle would be lost.

But he not only fought off the Trygon, but destroyed it.

The Squat warriors and bikers attacked the main force of Tyranid bugs, slowly driving them back and inflicting some casualties. The Tyranids didn't get the PIPs they needed to bring any back.

The Squat warlord turned on the Haruspex, with support from thh Land Train, destroying the monster.

And that broke the Tyranid army, which scuttled off to regroup.

The Tyranids lost 13AP, whilst the Squats lost 10AP, so it was a close game. Had the Tyranids been able to redeploy a few hordes, they could have held on long enough to have maybe inflicted another loss on the Squats, breaking them.

HOTT 52 - Week 38 - Orks vs Space Marines

 As promised on the HOTT Facebook group (or, at least, vaguely mentioned) I got out the classic WH40K pairing for this week's HOTT games, as everybody's favourite green-skinned lunatics took on the armoured space-fascists.

The Orks defended with four hordes, three warband (including the Warboss general), two behemoths, two knights and a rider.

The Marines - three knights, a rider, six blades (including the general) and a hero.

The terrain was fairly close, which favoured a straight head-to-head fight. Both sides advanced. The Marines pushed their right forward to try and get the upslope advantage on the end of the ridge.

The Orks got there first and rumbled forward at speed.

On the Marines' left a Land raider closed in on the hordes of Ork Boyz.

First contact was on the other flank, as the tanks and faster vehicles of both sides met along the ridge.

In the centre a Stompa crushed the Marines facing it.

The lines broke up.

But the second attack went in, as the Ork Warboss and his retinue attacked the Marines themselves.

Supported by the insane Madboyz, a group of Nobz smashed the Marines facing them.

This left the Marine Commander isolated and facing the Warboss. The Warboss swept him away, and that was it for the marines, who broke.

Final positions. The Orks suffered no losses, whilst the Marines lost three blades.

So a quick battle, with little maneuver. Blades vs Warband can often be like that, although the Marines were unlucky with their combats, losing far more than they won, despite the odds being about even. The lost combats saw the overlaps very much working in the Orks' favour.

HOTT 52 - Week 37 - Eldar vs Dark Eldar

This week I thought I'd do another Epic 40K game, and got out the Eldar and one of my Chaos armies, only to discover that I used them for a HOTT 52 game only four weeks ago. So I kept the Eldar and put them up against some Dark Eldar instead. 

Both armies were semi-randomly generated; they start with a fixed core of 12AP and then I randomly determined three 4AP groups for each one.

The Eldar defended with a magician general, a behemoth, three warband, one spear and three riders. The Dark Eldar attackers had six warband (including the general, a behemoth, and four riders.

The Eldar position was mostly open, but an impassable volcanic vent covered one flank.

The Dark Eldar massed their warband in the centre, put some Hellions on their right to screen that flank and then pt the rest of heir mobile troop on the left to attack and turn the Eldar right.

A rapid advance. The Eldar pushed their Avatar behemoth forward to threaten the Dark Eldar centre.

The Hellions moved up to distract the Avatar.

Almost there ...

One lot of Dark Eldar raiders worked around the volcanic vent and made a run for the Eldar stronghold.

Battle is joined!

Both sides saw wins and losses.

The Avatar attacked some Dark Eldar warriors, but was thrown back.

But in the centre Eldar Aspect Warriors eliminated a group of Dark Eldar.

On their right the Dark Eldar scattered to avoid being destroyed en masse by the Avatar. Another group of warriors was lost, leaving the Dark Eldar general threatened.

Some Eldar jet-bikes were surrounded and destroyed.

The Dark Eldar attacked the opposing stronghold, but were repulsed.

And the Avatar continued its advance, supporting some Harlequins in their attack on the Dark Eldar commander, who fell.

A win for the Eldar; they lost 2AP of riders whilst the Dark Eldar lost 8AP of warband, including their general.

The Avatar did a lot of the damage, in terms of both kills and actual threat; as the Dark Eldar I should have screened it better, rather than hoping to win the battle somewhere else before it became a serious threat.

I have to start thinking about some future HOTT 52 games now - in a few weeks I'm going on holiday, and will have to play at least one of my weekly games whilst I'm away. The report(s) will be late, but the games will get played within the correct time-frame.

HOTT 52 - Week 32 - Eldar vs Khorne

 For this week's HOTT game I decided to get out my Epic 40K armies again, and fight a battle between some Eldar and  the Chaos army of Khorne.

The Eldar defended with grav-tanks and bikes (riders) on their left, their infantry (hordes) and some Dreadnaughts (blades) in the centre and their Avatar and some Aspect Warriors (behemoth and warband) on the right. They were commanded by a Warlock (magician).

Khorne's left consisted of Bloodletters and Chaos-Hounds in the woods on their left, cultists sneaking past the volcano on their right and their Demon Prince commander (hero) leading Land-Raiders and a war-engine in the centre (knights and behemoth). Off table a powerful demon waited to be summoned (god).

Khorne advanced, looking to clear the terrain and then halt before their demon arrived. But the Eldar went for an active, aggressive defence, pushing forward their grav tanks and bikes to threaten the right flank. Their warlock stepped forward to concentrate her psychic attacks on the Khorne commander and encourage an advance.

The mighty Tower of Skulls drove off an attack by Falcon grav-tanks.

Khorne drove forward in the centre. The Eldar Warlock destroyed a Land-Raider.

As the Bloodletters and Chaos Hounds emerged from the woods, the Eldar advanced off their hill to attack them.

Meanwhile their Dreadnoughts faced the surviving Land-Raider.

The Dreadnoughts lost. 

Throughout this time the Warlock was attempting psychic attacks on the Chaos commander, but to no avail.

The surviving Dreadnoughts destroyed the second Land-Raider ...

... but were in turn destroyed by the Demon Prince.

On the Eldar right the Aspect Warriors and Avatar attacked the Bloodletters ...

... flanked them, and destroyed them. All three elements of Khorne troops.

This left Khorne only 2AP from breaking, although the Eldar army was close to a morale collapse as well. With the odds slightly in his favour the Demon Prince attacked the Warlock; a win would give Khorne the victory, whilst a loss would only hasten what was increasingly looking like the inevitable.

The inevitable was hastened, as the combat odds were not reflected in the die rolls.

So the Eldar picked upa win in what was a close game; the Eldar were only a couple of elements from breaking themselves, having suffered losses early in the game. Khore were unlucky with the collapse of the troops on their right, and also in not getting their god onto the table. When they did roll a '6' they were already too committed to spend the PIPs on anything other than keeping up the momentum of their attack..