Shenanigan BS

 

"Shenanigans here, Shenanigans there, Shenanigans everywhere!"

Welcome back! Still being out of work due to Doctor's orders, I have had more opportunities to play Warhammer 40,000 lately. And in this opportunity I was able to arrange a game with Screech who I've not played a game with in a very long time! And with him moving away soon to a promising future, we had to capitalize on this opportunity to play. So we met at The Outpost and mustered our forces. 

Fresh from their tangle with the Tyranids they felt like hunting xenos of a more techno nature. Truth is, I wanted to play the Ultramarines (it was March for Macrage month after all) but I just wasn't able to get them to a playable and transportable state. So these gluttons for punishment volunteered their services. It's the same list I used against the Tyranids, but with a Librarian and a Landraider added on (ignore the Venerable Dreadnought, he was just there to offer his insight and advice). 

1300 points of Deathwatch. 

Screech produced his Necrons, who were optimized for maximum death.

In fact, here's the full roster*:

Ahrancris Patrol (1300 points)

Necrons

Strike Force (2000 points)

Awakened Dynasty

CHARACTERS

Orikan the Diviner (80 points)

  • Warlord

  • 1x Staff of Tomorrow

Plasmancer (75 points)

  • 1x Plasmic lance

  • Enhancement: Veil of Darkness

Technomancer (80 points)

  • 1x Staff of light

  • Enhancement: Nether-realm Casket

BATTLELINE

Immortals (140 points)

  • 10x Immortal

    • 10x Close combat weapon

      10x Tesla carbine

Immortals (140 points)

  • 10x Immortal

    • 10x Close combat weapon

      10x Tesla carbine

Immortals (140 points)

  • 10x Immortal

    • 10x Close combat weapon

      10x Tesla carbine

Immortals (140 points)

  • 10x Immortal

    • 10x Close combat weapon

      10x Tesla carbine

OTHER DATASHEETS

Canoptek Doomstalker (135 points)

  • 1x Doomsday blaster

    1x Doomstalker limbs

    1x Twin gauss flayer

Canoptek Doomstalker (135 points)

  • 1x Doomsday blaster

    1x Doomstalker limbs

    1x Twin gauss flayer

Canoptek Reanimator (75 points)

  • 2x Atomiser beam

    1x Reanimator’s claws

Canoptek Wraiths (110 points)

  • 3x Canoptek Wraith

    • 3x Particle caster

      3x Vicious claws

Lokhust Heavy Destroyers (50 points)

  • 1x Close combat weapon

    1x Enmitic exterminator

A force of three squads of Immortals armed with Tesla Carines (Str 5, Assault with Sustained Hits 2...nasty!) The Plasmancer was attached  to an Immortal Squad. The Technomancer was attached to a squad of Canoptek Wraiths, another squad of Immortals was led by Orikan the Diviner. 

1300 of necron mess. 

Our Primary Mission was Purge the Foe (my third time in a row playing this one), Chosen Battlefield was the Mission Rule and Hammer and Anvil was the Deployment card we pulled. 

I decided to Deep Strike in all my DW Terminators so I placed the rest of the force in a defensive posture in a corner of my Deployment Zone and on an Objective. 

Deathwatch deployment. 

Full field deployed. 

The Deathwatch won the roll-off to go first. The Deathwatch Bikers zipped out and claimed the next Objective. The Landraider opened up on one of the Doomstalkers, the Oath of Moment target for this round, putting 6 Wounds on it. 

Objective secured! 

On the Necrons Turn 1, the combined firepower of the big machines knocked about half of the Wounds off of the Landraider. While the Immortals that could target the Bikers killed half of the squad. 

Deathwatch VPs: 2

Necrons VPs: 5

Objective under fire!

After a fairly soft first turn, it was about to get, as they say, "real".  At the start of Deathwatch Turn 2, the DW Bikers rolled a 12 on their Battleshock test, totally committing to holding that Objective. Furor Tactics in play really helped get the hits but it was the Terminators, all of whom I brought in on this turn via Deep Strike, that helped turn the tide. One squad brought down one of the Doomstalkers the other opened up on a unitl of Immortals and finished them off in the Fight Phase. Over confident they consolidated closer to the Wraiths. 

The Terminators gain a foot hold. 

The third group of Terminators were not so fortunate. Despite supporting fire from the DW Bikers the big unit of Immortals on top of the big rock with an objective on it. 

At the end of my Fight phase the Plasmancer teleported his unit of Immortals away. And at the start of Necrons Turn 2 he rematerialzed on the other side of the table within gun range of the Chaplin and the Deathwatch Vets who were holding, what they thought, was the securest objective. They were promptly erased by the fire power of the Immortals and the Plasmancer. 

Then came the quote of the night: "I'm pulling some shenanigan bullshit!" As he moved his wraiths over the Terminators nearest to them. This triggers a special rules they have that hits the enemy unit moved over with Mortal Wounds. Ouch. But the Terminators weathered that and fought well against the Wraiths who they were now locked in melee with. 

Turn 2 VPs 

Deathwatch: 21

Necrons: 13

If the Deathwatch was winning at this point, it didn't feel like it.  Their assets were spread quite wide and their gains were costly. The secondary objectives achieved in that round (No Prisoners and Bring it Down) were replaced on Turn 3 with ones that would be very challenging to achieve, and I didn't have the CPs to spare to burn a card. 

The fight for the ridge top.

But I wanted that objective in my DZ back so I zipped the Landraider up (which at this point only had one Wound left!) and deployed the Librarian. To help them out I even made the Plasmancer and his Immortals the Oath of Moment target for this round. He was going to Smite the Immortals and Charge them. Maybe? Not sure as the Immortals overwatched him and, even with a 4+ Invulnerable Save, was executed before he set foot off the Landraider's Assault ramp. The Landraider raider tore into the Immortals and despite killing a few of them, was unable to assault the Immortals. 

A heroic suicide 

On the other side all of fights were now locked and engaged. The Terminators and Wraiths continued to dance in melee, while the other squad charged into the other Doomstalker but just couldn't bring it down. 

"This Doomstalker is harder to kill than the first one!"

Necrons Turn three and the only the Landraider and bikers were not locked in close combat. Despite being the sole survivor for a few Fight phases he was laid low when the Reanimator joined the fray. The Terminators and wraiths kept fighting, and with reanimation protocols restoring Wounds and model everywhere, it was quickly apparent that the Deathwatch were now out matched. 

The continues.

Meanwhile the Immortals and the Plasmancer on their turn destroyed the Landraider with ease. And claimed the objective. 

"It is ours."

Outmatched by the end of the turn it looked impossible to turn the tide. The Necrons were claiming so many Objectives now and my units were locked in fights for survival that were near none of them. I considered the Gambit cards, but after seeing the time,  I had to call it regardless. I wanted to keep going to the bitter end, but it just seemed best to stop here. Maybe if the DW Terminators had the Kill Team keyword I could've used the Teleprtarium Stratagem (made sense  to me at the time since that's what got them onto the table!) but, no, that would make sense. So they were essentially stuck.

Final VPs

Deathwatch: 25

Necrons: 33

"Umm... can we get a beam up or something?"

Had we continued the Necrons would be impossible to catch up to from a points perspective, and from an attrition perspective it wasn't looking so hot for the Deathwatch either. 

Good game Screech, thanks for schooling me on Necrons. They are a fun army, but nasty to face in this current meta**. And, the so called Xenos Hunters, prove that they're just not able to handle this foe either, at least not with the assembled units available to me. 

*Exported with App Version: v1.11.0 (39), Data Version: v352

**I accept my punishment for using this accursed word. 

Who Hunts Who?

 

Bug Hunters. 

This is more of a Battle Summary than it is a Battle Report. The reason for this is that this is Warfrog's second game of 10th edition and we were trying to take a deep dive into the rules and try to make a study of some of the aspects that felt to us a bit like grey areas. Where I have played more games of 10th I was able to point out some of the differences from previous editions and he was able to show me some things I was unaware were changes that haven't come up in the games I've played thus far. it was a good learning experience and a fun challenge also. So we whipped up a pair of 1000 point lists and got together to see what mayhem we could cause. 

The Bugs of Doom. 

If you want to play big things that hit like a runaway truck and only have to keep up with a few rules, this is one way to do it. We have a Norn Emisary, a pair of Exocrines, a Biovore, a Maleceptor, a Haruspex and the leader of this gang of critters, the Parasite of Mortrex. 

The Deathwatch of Neverness. 

I brought the Inquistion's favorite, so-called, alien hunters: the Deathwatch. I, stubborn cuss that I am, steadfastly refuse to give up on the Deathwarch. My previous game with them was a humbling situation, but I blame that more on my horrendous dice rolling than I do the rules for this army. They're led by a Chaplain attached to a 5-man Veteran Squad, three DW Terminators squads and 6-mai unit of DW Bikers. And I thought I was being cheesey...

We played Dawn of War set up, with Scramblers and Purge the Unclean as our rules and mission. 

One of the rules I wanted to figure out was Rapid Ingress using the teleport homers to bring in the Deathwatch Terminators. I only brought in a single squad on Turn 1 to try to hurt the Norn Emissary. Luckily it had Advance during it's movement phase and didn't unleash psychic hell on them when they showed up after it moved. I was able to move and dump a lot of fire power on it, well I would have if the 3D3 roll had allowed me more than 3 shots. The ability to now declare Oath Of Moment is a stark contrast to the last time I played the Deathwatch and it really improved my ability to shoot. However having 11 Toughness really makes this thing a challenge to take down, as well as it's FNP saves. Over the two Fight Phases of being stuck in melee with this thing, the Terminators would be defeated with only a few wounds inflicted upon the Norn Emissary. 

Start of Deathwatch Turn 1. 

During Turn One I had the genius idea (add sarcasm) to charge the Haruspex. This was a result of my ignorance regarding the Haruspex as I honestly knew nothing about it. A lesson I failed to learn from the previous game using these bikes is that I really don't need to be charging with them. Sure, the Long Vigil Close Combat Weapons are decent, but these things are just better at zipping around shooting stuff than they are trying to slice and dice their foes. This first Fight phase the Haruspex killed two bikes. I knew it was tough, but bad dice rolls happen. On the 2nd Fight Phase during Warfrog's 2nd Turn, the Haruspex stompled, crush, slammed, bit, torn and devoured all the remaining bikers. it was both glorious and terrorfying at the same time. 

Also during Turn Two, the DW Vets were killed off leaving just the Chaplain who now found himself locked in combat with the Parasite of Mortrex. He took three Wounds during that fight, and came very close to taking out the Parasite. On Turn Three the Chaplain almost did it too but his prayers and litanies failed to produce the results he had hoped to leaving the beastie alive with a single Wound. On Turn 4 the loyal Maleceptor wou;d bound over to his leader's aid and finish of the Chaplain for him. It was a glorious last stand, and a grand achievement for the Tyranids who had Assassinate at a Secondary Objective. 

Going for the glory!

Remembering to bring the rest of the Terminators in on the 3rd Turn, I tried to go for the Behind Enemy Lines Objective. Mainly to stop the biovore from tossing around more Spore Mines. (The bastard was plopping Spore Mines on to objectives and as rules are currently written we could not find anything clarifying or stating that Sporemines can't full-fill secondaries (such as Cleanse in this instance) or hold objectives). Gotta love it! Anyway,  the Terminators arrived and dumped fire power into the Haruspex, seriously hurting it. It Charged into the closest Terminators on it's next turn, killed a few of them before getting killed itself. That squard charged the Biovore on the next turn, killing it. The other Terminator squad got to work on the Exocrines. 

Terminators vs Exocrines. 

Or was it the other way? After the Terminators fired on the Haruspex, on the following Turn the two Exocrines unleashed a hail of shots into the Terminators picking off a few of them. They moved onto the closest Exocrine, pumping shots into it before charging the Exocrine and taking a few Wound off of it. On the next Turn the engaged Exocrine fell back so the other one could fire and charge. That Exocrine got the Terminator down to just the last pair who put even more damage on this one. Finally, on Turn 5 this Exocrine fell back and the Norn Emissary charged up and finished them off. Yeah, they didn't kill anything, but they sure put some hurt on those monsters. Impressive though that may seem, hurt doesn't equate to winning. And the Terminator's bio-mass was now being consumed. 

The final move. 

Finally the last group of Terminator killed off the Spore Mine (why they don't explode when shot is a mystery to us) and took an objective. Our final score ended up being 70 to 30 with the a solid win for the Tyranids. Most of the Deathwatch's points where accrued in the final rounds of the game. So what could I have done better? I had to hold onto the main objective but maybe I should've taken better advantage of the terrain during the set-up phase of the game so the Veterans wouldn't be so easily targeted. And I was bit too bold with the bikers and the first squad of Terminators. With a force as small as this, I really need to be a lot more focused with my assets when it comes to targeting and objective acquisition. Also dice happen, but really, I can only control what I can control. 

Deathwatch are not an easy army to run despite their appearance as a take-on-all-comers list, they really can't in my current opinion. Not currently in this edition. Oath of Moment was a huge help, without it they likely would've been tabled. 

I'm still not ready to give these guys up yet for 10th, even though they are woefully in need of help in this edition; just some pruce reductions at the least  would help them. They lost a lot of fun options between 9th and 10th, and their weapon options where made woefully generic (simplified not simple!). A force this small and niche needs to have a "sticky objectives" option somewhere, that is one way to fix them. I spent the early morning hours seeking advice from a vampire, ("Games-Workshop does not support Deathwatch; I do!") so who knows, maybe I did learn more about them through this experience? It maybe a good while before I try them out again though. 

The Tyranids on the other hand, I think my biggest take away is that I need to bite the damn bullet and somehow obtain a copy of their codex. Playing them without all of the Stratagems available has definitely been a handicap. However, despite the wonderful gift of a few bugs from Warfrog (Thanks again man!) I will not be expanding my hivefleet beyond what I already have done last year. That's mostly a budget thing, at least for the immediate future. Staying on top of the FAQs is something I need to get better at also so that I can be aware of changes  (the ruling that Devastating Wounds no longer cause Mortal Wounds) that dramatically effect things like the Norn Emissary. 

Thanks again to Warfrog for hosting this game and for the extra goodies!

Only Bad Dice

 Da Masta Cheef and I were able to find a moment to get in a game of Warhammer 40,000 10th edition. This is only my second game of this edition and I'm still shakey on some of the rules changes. But the best way to learn a game is to play a game. We chose 1,000 points to play with and mustered our forces at The Outpost.

This time I decided to try out the Deathwatch. Led by a Librarian, two units of Deathwatch Terminators with three plasma cannons and thunderhammers and stormshields on the remaining guy and the Sergeant. Six DW Vet Bikers, a squad of DW Vets with a Razorback and a boxnaught fresh from the ashes of dreadtober.

They seemed like a solid tough nut of an army. 

The Cheef returned with his Black Dragons, still gleaming with the ichor of slaughtered xenos. This force outnumbers mine considerably, but then they're all fairly basic units. The army was led by the Chaplain who was attached to a unit of Assault Intercessors. A Primaris Lieutenant was attached to a 10-man unit of Intercessors. The units were a squad of Hellblasters accompanied by an Apothecary, an Infernus squad,  a smaller unit of Intercessors and finally the mighty Ballistus Dreadnought rounded out the force. 

Deathwatch deployment.

Black Dragons deployment.

We decided to play the Only War scenario from the main rulebook. It's simple and to the point, and that appeals to us currently. After set-up I won the role-off to go first. 

Deathwatch Turn One. 

I  believe this first turn set me up for a brutal uphill climb all thanks to my dice. During my movement phase I had the DW Vets jump out of the Razorback and take an Objective.  The Razorback move up and took some shots at the Black Dragons Dreadnought. Now, my first mistake was forgetting Oath of .Moment. (Oops) which might have made a difference. My dice were so cold that I have doubts that OOM would've made a huge difference, but it's worth noting anyway.  The Razorback fired it's twin-linked Las Cannons and rolled a 1. Ok, so it fired the storm bolter and rolled double-twos. Rolled a two for the Hunter Killer Missile, which actually hits, and rolled another 2 foe the Toughness test. I was laughing at how spectacularly these rolls were...surely this was just a fluke? The DW Vet Bikers fired into the Hellblasters but only killed a single guy. So, at the end of my turn, after the smoke cleared, I only had a single casualty to my credit. 

The dice say no.

Black Dragons Turn one. 

The Apothecary revives the one guy I had killed. We had a food laugh over that. And so far we had been laughing at the hilarity of my poor die rolls. Although my ability to make saves was definitely an improvement over my ability to hit and damage, Cheef's dice were comparatively HOT! The Razorback was blown apart with ease, and 1/3 of the DW Vet Bikers, the Black Dragon Oath Of Moment target for this turn*, were killed by the massive attack sent their way. 

Slicing and dicing. 

The Chaplain and his Assault Intercessors surged forth and engaged the bikers in close quarter combat, leaving just two alive and taking the nearby objective. A strong first turn for the Black Dragons. 

My Turn 2, and I received 2 VPs for holding objectives.  As lI looked over my Deathwatch assets I realized I forgot to execute my plan to bring in the DW Terminators in the Black Dragon movement phase via the teleport homers. In the pic above you can see the homers next to both objectives on the left side of the photo..

Even this early into the game I realized that this just was not going to work.  I could see that the Black Dragons were going to out pace me on objectives and if I just kept the boxnaught and the DW Vets in the back field holding on to them that they would be quickly over ran.  So I moved them up to try to get closer to the ememy.

I really was distracted by the Ballistus Dreadnought and declared it to be the Deathwatch Oath Of Moment target for the round.  The Terminators were brought in, and in my typically ballsy/suicidal way, I placed on close to the enemy fire lines on the hill in their deployment zone and the other close to where the Razorback was destroyed. These guys led the shooting and despite the OOM rerolls they only managed to hurt the Ballistus. 

During my turn Chaplain Swink of the Black Dragons and his Assault Intercessors wiped out the DW Vet Bikers and consolidated onto the objective in the ruins. 

The worst blow against the DW Terminators was the Gernade Stratagem that resulted in a few dea Terminators. That thing is brutal! 

The Black Dragons Turn 2, and every foot soldier within range turned on the Terminators on hill behind them, declared Oath Of Moment on them and threw everything they had at them. Despite my bad dice, I only lost two Terminators. 

New target acquired.

On the other side, the second group of Terminators were tangling with the Reivers who proved to be far more annoying than they ever were to my nids.  By the time the Reivers had engaged them they were down to just two models and Battleshocked.

Damn those scary masks!

Turn three, and finally I was able to get the Deathwatch to kill off a unit. The boxnaught and the DW Vets with the Librarian eliminated the Chaplain and his Assault Intercessors. 

Objective cleared.

This was a short lived triumph however as the Black Dragons defense continued to stymie the Deathwatch, even taking out a Deathwatch Terminator with Overwatch as they charged into the Infernus Marines. 

They seemed less scary without paint...

On the following turn, the Black Dragons maneuvered into tactical position to maximize their fire potential. It's also worth noting that I stopped tracking VPs, it was clear that the Deathwatch were not going to win with VPs as the Black Dragons soured into an unsurmountable lead. It was all about the attrition at this point! 

The Ballistus Dreadnought, from the other side of the board, lanced the boxnaught with his twin-linked Las Cannons, bringing it's stompy existence to a sudden end. 

It's a generational comment ultimately.

With the dice against me, and Infernus Squad having eliminated the Terminators (and my ability to roll an extraordinarily amount of static defying  1's) I had the death or glory approach to final round of the game. My DW Vets moved forward and obliterated the small Intercessors unit. 

The crater is clear!

...only to have the remaining Infernus and Hellblasters units surround them and bathe them in deadly heat! 

Just add a Whoosh! onomatopoeia.

But it was the last DW Terminator who held on, vainly, with the last of the Black Dragons firing at him with everything  they had. It was a total victory for the Black Dragons! 

Total victory.

Wow. Again, my dice were cold, and Cheef's were hot. Particularly when he had to  make saves. With a week to think about this game as I pecked and poked at writing this report, I clearly made some Tactical blunders. A lot of which I feel come from the learning pains of this edition change, but some were just errors on part. I think I should have realized the amount of firepower was going to overwhelm my ability to make saves. Even with bad dice rolling, the math wasn't going to  be on my side, and slapping  my Terminators down with a "bring it" attitude in front of a force that can absolutely bring it, well, you end up with dead Marines. 

Forgetting to take advantage of my teleport homers was also a big blunder on my part, but I am not sure how well the outcome would have changed. 

I think really, my biggest blunder was not keeping my force close and tight focused, instead of spread out and thin. I was using a force that didn't have a lot of long ranged firepower, and  I needed to get them closer to maximize their effectiveness. I think in hindsight I should have  thrown everything at one side of his army and focused on eliminating units as opposed to being distracted by the Ballistus, who ultimately wasn't hampered by the wounds it received. 

Flare for the flare god.

Cheef's strategy was flawless. All he had to do was react to my feeble dice flailing and hold onto objectives.  Well done indeed. 

This was my second game of 40k 10th edition, and my second tabled fight in a row. Interestingly my nids did far more damage to the Black Dragons than the Deathwatch although they too were tabled.  I need to get a few more games in to work out my edition-change kinks. Oh, and I need new dice. 

Deathwatch Dreadnought (Part 3)

 With just a little bit of spare time to focus on this thing, I have finished my 2023 Dreadtober project! 

Finished, yay!

The stripe on his leg was done using Mephiston Red straight from the bottle. Two straight swipes and the effect was achieved. The green light is green simply for a bit of contrast. The base color is Caliban Green with a dash of Moot Green and final dot of white. 

Show me your right side.

Ultimately I decided to put the word BURN on his leg scroll. Seemed simple and direct, you know, like his multi-melta. 

Show me your left side! 

And here he is embracing the Emperor's Light of an October morning sun, with a devoted determination to continue the long vigil and bring the xenos scum, wherever they might lurk, to heel. With melting heat. 

"Shhh, I'm hunt'n xenos scum."

I got to give a shot out to the all of this year's Dreadtober participants for doing some stellar work. Truly inspiring stuff. 

Deathwatch Dreadnought (Part 2)

 Since last week I got a bit more work done on this clunky relic of the past. 

Early basecoats.

Quite a bit actually. My Deathwatch scheme is simple, I use a dark grey topped with a lighter one on the edges with a little white on the corners for the final highlight. 

The mid-coats.

For the gold areas I used my old and trusty Ral Partha Copper Metallic. On the icons I applied a mid-coat of Retributor Gold. These two colors work well together which is amusing considering their age gap. The melta gun is going to go in a slightly different direction but it used that same base color.

Progress continues...

The last thing I managed to do (up to this point) is paint the scroll work on his leg and the purity seal on the main gun. I still haven't chosen what I will write on that leg scroll yet. 

He is mostly completed now, let's see if I can knock it out before month's end. 

Deathwatch Dreadnought (Part 1)

Is it Dreadtober time again? Indeed it is.  I decided this time around to finish up this Deathwatch Dreadnought. With GW discontinuing the model earlier this year I felt that this was the time to honor one of mine with a paint job. This is one of those classic "boxnoughts" that I think came in the 5th edition starter set (Blackreach). I acquired this in a lot along with a group of Space Marine Bikers and another, older, boxnought in metal. That one will require it's paint to be stripped off before I can do anything with it. But this one as you can see...

...is ready to go. I believe it was intended for a Blood Angels army, thus the blood red shoulders. I gritted up the base, leaving the single skull, and proceeded to get this one going.

I painted over the red and basecoated the base and skull. Actually I painted the skull using Corax White with the intention of using Skeleton Horde Contrast Paint over it. I opted not  to add any other debris to the base as the notion of a single, lonely, skull on such a large base is kind of amusing, and oddly striking. 

Ok, that's it for week one, not much progress I know, but this was ment as a 'kick-off' post. Check out part two next week to see how far I get.