Dispatches from the Front: The Dresden Campaign one week in

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Monday, February 7, 2011

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.