The Dresden Campaign one week in

edit 14-2-11, Now with pics

Jebaz, I'm already a week into the Dresden campaign (aka Darragh's big German adventure) here is a quick run down of the bad, the good and the weird

The bad;

·I'm travelling light. Which means clothes and consumables for a week, a 40K army, the Sisters, (for playing) and a FOW army, Herman Goering company, (for painting).  The net effect is I'm missing large chunks material and equipement I'm use to having.  I feel like Ernest Borgnine in the Simpsons episode were he goes for his trusty knife only to realise it is not there any more. Hopefully a second wave of material will arrive soon otherwise a week's worth of clothes might have to stretch a bit. Mean while I am stuck making blog postings without any photos, since the connector is in the second wave. No eye candy equals not much point in reading blogs in my view.

·I have written off my second portable hard drive in as many months.  The only things the two drives have in common is that they were manufactured by the same company (Seagate) and I bought them. It must be a manufacturing issue.

The good;

·The sisters got their first game in on Sunday (with a battle report below).

·Dresden, the city, is awesome. Renaissance Germany is the source of inspiration for the WHFB empire before GW went to its “Skullator” model. I pondering the merits of doing up another Empire army in Saxon colours, it could be fun.

The weird;

·Trying to get to grips with German culture and language is fun and frustrating. The longest conversation to date lasted two minutes and was about different types of cake. 

·Also bacon tastes better when it was bacon and not pig flesh.

40K Sitrep

The battle for Tolkewitzer vs Thorsten Koch

Location; Thorsten's apartment on Tolkewitzer street (get it?)

Mission; Annihilation spearhead

The enemy; Codex car park (Imperial Guard)

1 Command squad with meltaguns in a chimera

1 Pysker battle squad in a Chimera

3 squads of Vets with meltaguns and plasma guns in chimeras

1 Infantry command squad flamers in chimeras

2 infantry squads with grenade launchers and one with commissar

1 Leman Russ Demolisher

1 Hydra

1 Manticore

1 Vendetta

1 Hell hound

The game;

Thorsten gets the honour of being the Sisters first German victim opponent. 

The game started well with the sisters winning the roll off and opting to deploy first, forcing the manticore into a relatively open table corner. All the sisters deployed into two groups with lady Tabita, most of the exorcists and sisters opting for the right flank while a small pinning force faced off against the guard. Thorsten's deployment was unusual with all the guard, including the Vendetta, starting in play.  Then cheeky SOB went and stole the initiative leaving the Sisters facing a primed Imperial guard gun line.

The resulting fire destroyed two exorcists and pinned the pinning force (ironically) behind an immobilised rhino.  The Sisters first engagement in Dresden was rapidly going up in smoke. The surviving exorcist and hunter killer armed rhino fired back but could not damage the Vendetta. Elsewhere, the Sisters that could went on a general advance, while an immolator from the pinning force destroyed a chimera that had strayed too close. Forcing its veterans below half strength and to flee in the bargain.

Turn two saw the Guards luck running out when all their firepower accounted for a single rhino.  Sensing the tide was turning the Sisters pushed on.  The Exorcist again failed to down the Vendetta.  But a nearby Sisters squad got off a multiple assault on the Vendetta and Hell Hound. A prayer later they were strength five and were able to destroyed the Hell Hound and immobilise the Vendetta to finish it off in the next phase with a melta bomb. Elsewhere, the cannoness made to the imperial lines and ended up in a fight with the mob of infantry led by a commissar. Eventually she was killed but bought enough time for the remaining sisters to reach the guard lines.  The Demolisher tried a tactical withdraw but could not get far enough away from celestians armed with meltaguns, who predictably cooked the tank.

Thorsten tried to recover the flank but it meant exposing his chimeras to flanking fire from the pinning force resulting in a lot of destroyed chimeras.  The game ended with the guard having only a few units left while the Sisters were largely intact apart from some HQ's and heavy support.

The result; Sisters Victorious

Post game; as a bonus Claudia, Thorsten's other half, cooked a great Puttanecsa. All things considered not a bad start to the Dresden campaign. Plus there are rumours of a Forge world friendly event coming up soon.

Top tip; This is the coolest club members list I have seen in a while.  Skibb con'10 was the one event that got a way last year and I think Skibbcon '11 has the potential to be one of the best 40K events in Ireland if these guys are involved. 

 The battlefeild (viewed from the North)

  The battlefeild (viewed from the South)

 WIP terrain

 Sister#s battleline

 View from the Sister's position

 Imperial battleline

 Imperial battleline

 Imperial battleline

 Squad Rose destroys a demolisher

 Lady Tabita storms the main gaurd position

  Lady Tabita storms the main gaurd position

  Lady Tabita storms the main gaurd position

 Imperial gaurd reserve suffers from enfilading fire

  

Squad Thorn hits the flank of the imperial reserves

Survivors of squads Rose and Iona, a sister a peice, opt to go on the offensive

Sitrep (40k); Warpcon crusade

Warp con 2011 crusade 
Canoness The lady Tabita Woe
Celesians mission with squads Rose, Thorn, Sword.
Sisters mission with squads Miriya, Iona, Cassandra
Exorcist squadron with exorcists  Revenge, Heretics Folly, Retribution Inbound
Immolator squadron with immolators Ardent, His Will, Divine Pronouncement
Rhino squadron  with rhinos Blessed, Sanctity, Inviolable

Round one vs Cian O'Mahoney

Location; table one

Mission; multiple objectives spearhead

The enemy; Space marines

1 Space marine captian on a bike

1 Chaplin on a bike

3 rifleman dreadnoughts (two with twin autocannons, one with lascannon)

3 assault dreadnoughts (close combat weapons and assualt/melta weapons)

3 biker squads

The game;

Cian split his force into three groups, the rifle dreadnoughts deploying in the centre his deployment zone, the assault dreads went in a building near the centre and the rest opting to go in reserve. In response the Sisters deployed in two groups Lady Tabita, Sword, Thorn, Cassandra,Miriya with their transports and support from Revenge in one.  With the rest of the force in the second. Round one was uneventful. Retribution Inbound blew off an autocannon off a rifle dread with no damage suffered in return.

Turn two saw the arrival of all the space marine reserves.  Which all deployed on the same side to threaten Sister group two.  Shooting saw Ardent suffer a weapon destroyed and immobilize results with the marines taking no damage in return.  

Under pressure the Sisters went on the offensive.  Lady Tabita, Sword and Thorn engaged and destroyed the assault dreadnought group. Squad Rose debussed from Ardent and assaulted the marine bikers, attempting to delay their advance.  The rifle dreads responded and destroyed His Will and Divine Pronuncement while a biker squad destroyed Heretics Folly with a close range melta shot.

Squad Rose was cut down by the Space marine commander, Chaplin and a biker squad. However, its sacrifice bought time for the rest of the Sisters to redeploy to meet the treat.  Between exorcists, bolters and flamers the bikers were cut down to a single scoring model.

The game end early with the solo biker holding an objective agnaist Squad Miriya which another objective with the rest being contested.

The result; Sisters drawn

Round two vs Taigh       

Location; table twelve

Mission; Annihilation, Dawn of War

The enemy; Space marines

Vulkan

1 squad of assault Terminators

Landraiders

2 Dreads with drop pods

1 tactical squad in a pod

1 tactical squad with a razor back

1 Predator

1 Vindcator

The game;

The Sisters went frist and opted to deploy Sanctity and Inviolable with the rest of the force opting to roll on turn one.  The Marines responded by opting to all roll on turn one with the exception of the tactical squad in a pod. Sanctity immobilised itself trying to get back to the Sister baseline while the rest of the force castled up.  The marines rolled on with two drop pod dreads deep striking close to the Sisters castle. The dreads flamed a few sisters but had little impact before the celestians meltaguns destroyed them and their pods. With night fighting lifted the marines destroyed the newly repaired Sanctity.  Ardent broke formation to dart forward and destroyed Vulkcan's Landraider when it got into close range for a multi melta.  Its success was short lived as Vulkcan and his assault terminators quickly wrecked the immolator. Without their Landraider the terminators were targeted by every sister weapon in range and eliminated.  Squad Rose engaged and destroyed the vindicator.   The second tactical squad finally arrived but could not swing the tide.

The result; Sisters Victorious

Round three vs Sylvan         

Location; table nine

Mission; multiple objectives pitch battle

The enemy; Death Guard

2 Daemon Princes with no lash

3 squads of Plague marines in rhinos

3 squads of Obliterators

The game;

Sylvan's army was very well themed and painted. The three squads of Plague Marines were up aganist the entire Sister army while the rest of his force waited in the warp.  The Plague Marines rashly broke cover to close on the Sisters but only presented the sisters with clear targets which resulted in all the rhinos being destroyed.  A daemon Prince and two squads of obliteraters broke through from the warp but their aim was off and no sisters units suffered any damage.  The Sisters did not suffer the same problem and quickly destroyed the obliterators and Daemon Prince while the plague marines struggled through the rhino wreckage to support their masters.

Another wave with a Daemon prince and obliterators arrived and was again cut down with little impact on the battle. With the heavy support and HQs destroyed the remaining marines were decimated by exorcists

The result; Sister Victorious

Round Four vs Johnny Fischer

Location; table one

Mission; Capture the flag, pitched battle

The enemy; Codex car park (aka Imperial Guard)

Command squad with meltas in a chimera

Psyker battle squad in a chimera

2 squads of vets with melta guns and bombs

2 squadrons of hydras

3 Vendettas

1 manticore

1 platoon command squad with flamers in a chimera

2 infantry squads with autocannons and one comissar

The game;

Johnny's guard army was unusual in that it actually had Imperial guard infantry in it.  Johnny seized the initiative and opted to go first. The infantry mobbed up and went on garrison duty while the rest of the force deployed to capture the Sister flag.  The sisters responded by all going in reserve.  Turn one and two saw the guard creeping towards the sisters objective.  In response two squads of celestians rolled on and destroyed a vendetta and immobilised another. A cheeky Hunter Killer missile destroyed the lurking manticore.

The guard responded by destroying Sanctity, Inviolable, Ardent and immobilising His Will basicily robbing the play sisters of all their transports.  A second wave of Sisters arrived and finished of the vendettas and cleansed the sisters flag of guard.  The guard countered by trying to destroy the Sisters scoring units and succeed in destroying squad Cassandra.

Unperturbed the Sisters pushed on Lady Tabita, Revenge and Heretics Folly broke through the guard line and when after the guard flag while the rest of Sisters secured their flag.

Revenge was destroyed by antitank fire but Lady Tabita engaged the garrison squad pulling them of their objective and Heretics Folly moved in to contest the guard flag

The result;  Sisters Victorious

Round Five vs Merlin        

Location; table one

Mission; multiple objectives pitched battle

The enemy; Daemons

Fate Weaver

1 Blood Thrister

3 Daemon Princes

2 packs of Plague bearers

1 pack of blood letters

2 packs of Blood crushers

1 pack of Nurglings

The game;

The final round saw the sisters fight their way back to table one to face daemons led by Merlin.  Merlin seized the initiative and made the sisters go first.  Objective went down with the sisters objectives going in the open and the daemon ones going in cover. The sisters deployed everything bar squad Cassandra and their transport.  The deployed force was split into two groups targeting four objectives.  The warp spawned the wrong wave of daemons with only the scoring units and a single pack of Blood Crusher appearing. These opted to deepstrike near cover and run into ground. Two plague bearers wear lost due vto bad scatters. The sisters opened fire with little effect making the plague bearers and bloodletters go to ground to survive the barrage.

The daemon second wave arrived consisting of Fate Weaver, the Blood Thrister, a Daemon Prince and the second pack of Blood Crushers. All arrived in a bubble around Fate Weaver.  Ardent and Sanctity tank shocked the formation to force units out of Fate Weaver influence and was rewards when the Blood Thrister was forced out of formation.  The isolated Blood Thrister was targeted by exorcists before being finished of in hand to hand by lady Tabita.  The Rose squad assaulted Fate weaver and the nurglings hoping to banish Fate Weaver by destroying the nurglings in combat but their attack stalled and they were wiped out by an assaulting pack of Blood Crusher.

The Deamon third wave arrived consisting of the rest of the army and quickly destroyed Ardent and Sanctity.  The daemons pushed forward and seized three objectives with scoring units.  The sisters countered by using Inviolable to draw a blood crusher pack out of cover to be destroyed by exorcists.  Lady Tabita assaulted a plague bearer pack to pull it of two objectives. Squad Cassandra arrived and secured an isolated objective. Squad Miriya moved to contest the daemons last objective.  The daemon fought back and destroyed squads Iona, Thorn and Sword. Lady Tabita finished of the plague bearer pack but was assaulted and slain by blood crushers before she could engage the last plague bearer from the last pack.  Fate Weaver opened fire and destroyed Inviolable which was contesting one of the daemons objective allowing the single plague bearer to claim it for Nurgle. Elsewhere the daemons battered the fast moving Sister's transports contesting another objective.

Revenge drew a line of sight on the last plague bearer but could not finish it off while the daemons could not damage the vehicles contesting their objective. The game end with the Sisters and the daemons holding an objective a piece with two other objectives being contested.

The result; Sister Drawn

Summary,Three wins and two draws put the Sisters on 72 points four points behind Joe's winning Dark Angels with their new shiny sheilds ;)  and fifth overall. 
Five good games agnaist five good opponents made for a lot of hilights,
-The shock when a full volley from the sisters had no effect on Cian's biker squads
-The number of Six's Squad Rose rolled when taking out one of Jonny's chimera, (6 to hit, double 6 to penentrate, 6 for damage and 6 for range of the explosion).
- Lady Tabita putting the boot-in to a Blood Thrister.
-The numb horror when Revenge failed to pop the last plague bearer.


Thanks to all the organisers, opponents and players for a great weekend. I will post photos once the Dresden crusade gains a stronger foothold.