40K unjustified escalation

Forward for the Emperor

Over the Christmas I manged to get in a few games of 40k in thanks to Franco organizing a mixed doubles event with the DGG and TLC. Mixed doubles means one player from each club is paired with a member from the other and they both bring 1000 point army to the table.  The event was billed as friendly event but with the DGG and TLC involved treachery and deceit is never far away. To circumvent any possible treachery I rocked in with Imperial guard, backed-up by a super heavy in the form of a Stormlord with air support from a Thunderbolt and an Inquistor thrown in for divination on the stormlord (I am still giggilng when I think of the list).

For the event I was teamed up with Eric from rustytankpainting with his slightly better painted Imperial fist force.

Round one saw us face Lloyd and Ross fielding Dark Angels and Orks. In the end the Imperial alliance won through largely by blasting anything with a meltagun within 12" on the Stormlord. Even firing with fully affect and with re-rolls the Stormlord struggled to take down bikers as they weaved through cover and generally tried to avoid the BFG.

Orks getting ready for a rumble

Round two saw the Imperial alliance facing Chaos Marines and Space Wolves under the command of Conor and Brian.  There was a minor moment of panic when we rolled night fight and I released the storm lord did not have a spotlight. Not being able to shoot a 500+ point tank for a turn is not was I wanted to hear. Fortunately Erik had brought rhino with spotlight and was able to lit up a target for the storm lord. The game went like clock work with first the Anti tank assets then transports being taken out followed by the scoring troops and what ever was left after that.  A major help was the bulk of Conor and Brian's anti tank assets deciding not to show up any time soon. Both the Melta gun Space wolf scouts and Thyphus with obliterators did not show until they automatically passed their reserve rolls. Then Thypus and friends had a deepstrike mishap and decided to sit out the rest of the game.

Dark Angels on Patrol

The final game saw the imperial alliance facing Eldar and Blood angels under the command of Johno and Lenny. Bike council and Wraithlord and up be Deepstriking meltagun armed marines is not what I wanted to see to make it worse we end up fighting on a cityfight table limited fire arcs for the Stormlord. In the end the Eldar and Marines were not able to co-ordinate their attack well. The council attacked on Turn one, then a assault squad on turn two then another assualt squad on turn three. It allowed the Imperials to deal with one threat at a time. before moving on to another. When the dust settle the imperials were holding the all the objectives. In hindsight the Stormlord should have been destroyed on turn three when the second assault squad got two explodes results on top of the couple of glances from the Seer council.

2000 points force with only one spotlight !!!

Overall a good day talk smack and rolling dice.

Regarding the Escalation expansion, the Storm lord was a last minute entry on to the list for shits and giggles, I would give the expansion a grudging thumbs up. I like the fact the big toys get to go legal most of the games seemed to revolve around forget the mission, kill/save the tank with every body involved in the game. I am not keen on the fact they dumbed down the rules on the super heavies or that there does not seem to be a one stop shop for getting the 40K rules. My list needed three supplement to use, The codex, the Inquisitor supplement and the escalation supplement in addition to the rule book. It is a lot of text meaning there is a lot of room to miss rules or misinterpret them which can create negative friction in the game. 

Veteran IG secure a relic for extraction

On the plus side I really like the doubles format. It is the second time I played doubles this year and I really enjoy the interaction with the players. I would love it if the ETC adopted the adepticon team format but I do not see it happening any soon if ever.

Inquisitor strikes a pose

Imperial fist move to secure an objective

Space Wolf rhino try to hide from the Stormlord

Stormlord passes an Imperial fist position 

 Dark Angels and Orks Vs Chaos Marines and Spacewolvesa 

Dark Angels and Orks Vs Chaos Marines and Spacewolvesa.

Heroes and Villains from the day

Thanks for stopping by.